by Luke Dixon
Lorenzo, who is thy new master’s guest;
Give him this letter, do it secretly,
And so farewell. I would not have my father
See me in talk with thee.
Farewell, good Launcelot.
Alack, what heinous sin is it in me
To be asham’d to be my father’s child!
But though I am a daughter to his blood,
I am not to his manners. O Lorenzo,
If thou keep promise, I shall end this strife,
Become a Christian and thy loving wife.”
(Act 2, scene 3, lines 1–21)
The Merchant of Venice
WHO Portia, an heiress.
WHERE A room in Portia’s house on her estate near Venice.
WHO ELSE IS THERE Nerissa (her waiting-gentlewoman), Bassanio, and his friend Graziano, ‘and all their trains’.
WHAT IS HAPPENING Portia is in love with Bassanio. Under the terms of her late father’s will her suitors have to choose between three caskets. If Bassanio chooses the casket that has Portia’s portrait inside he can marry her. Portia urges Bassanio to delay his choosing in case he makes the wrong choice.
WHAT TO THINK ABOUT
• Portia wants to make time go slowly. First she asks Bassanio to wait a day or two and then a month or two.
• She is caught between the promise she made her father and her desire to tell Bassiano which casket to choose.
• There are other people present and she may not wish everyone to hear everything she says. Decide to whom she delivers each line.
• There may be some thoughts she does not want even Bassanio to hear.
• She says that ‘it is not love’ at first, then clearly admits her love as the speech goes on.
• ‘Naughty’ would have been a much stronger word to Portia than it is to us, meaning evil or wicked.
WHERE ELSE TO LOOK Cressida (Troilus and Cressida) admits to her love. Juliet (Romeo and Juliet) wants time not to go more slowly but more quickly.
Portia
“I pray you, tarry, pause a day or two
Before you hazard, for, in choosing wrong, I
lose your company; therefore forbear awhile,
There’s something tells me (but it is not love)
I would not lose you, and you know yourself,
Hate counsels not in such a quality.*
But lest you should not understand me well –
And yet a maiden hath no tongue but thought –
I would detain you here some month or two
Before you venture for me. I could teach you
How to choose right, but I am then forsworn,*
So will I never be, so may you miss me,
But if you do, you’ll make me wish a sin,
That I had been forsworn. Beshrew your eyes,
They have o’erlook’d me and divided me:
One half of me is yours, the other half yours,
Mine own I would say; but if mine then yours,
And so all yours.* O, these naughty times
Put bars between the owners and their rights!
And so though yours, not yours: prove it so,
Let fortune go to hell for it, not I.
I speak too long; but ’tis to peize* the time,
To eke it and to draw it out in length,
To stay you from election.”
(Act 3, scene 2, lines 1–24)
GLOSSARY
in such a quality – in this manner
I am thus forsworn – I have then broken my promise
Beshrew your eyes . . . And so all yours – Portia is babbling (she curses Bassanio’s eyes saying that they have cut her in half. But even the half that they have left to her is Bassanio’s)
peize – weigh down, lessen the speed of
The Merchant of Venice
WHO Portia, an heiress, dressed like a male doctor of law.
WHERE A court of justice, Venice.
WHO ELSE IS THERE Shylock, the Jewish money-lender, Antonio, the merchant (or businessman) of Venice who owes him money, Bassanio, Portia’s fiancé, and many others.
WHAT IS HAPPENING Antonio has borrowed money from the Jewish money-lender Shylock on behalf of his friend Bassanio who wanted it to further his attempts to woo Portia. Antonio is unable to pay back the debt and Shylock is seeking the pound of Antonio’s flesh that he was promised as security for the loan. Now engaged to Bassanio, Portia comes in disguise to the court to offer legal advice.
WHAT TO THINK ABOUT
• Portia is in disguise. Decide how this will affect your (and her) performance.
• The speech is a public one, full of wisdom, which later becomes specific to the case.
• Think of her religious beliefs and her attitude to the Christian God she talks of.
• Think what her attitude might be to Shylock whom she just calls ‘Jew’.
• The speech ends with the prospect of death for Antonio.
WHERE ELSE TO LOOK Other courtroom speeches are those of Hermione and Paulina (The Winter’s Tale).
Portia
“The quality of mercy is not strain’d,*
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
’Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The thronèd monarch better than his crown.
His sceptre shows the force of temporal* power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings.
But mercy is above this sceptred sway.
It is enthronèd in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself.
And earthly power doth then show likest God’s
When mercy seasons* justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this:
That, in the course of justice, none of us
Should see salvation. We do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much
To mitigate the justice of thy plea,
Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice
Must needs give sentence ’gainst the merchant there.”
(Act 4, scene 1, lines 184–205)
GLOSSARY
strain’d – forced, constrained
temporal – earthly
seasons – modifies, sweetens, alleviates
As You Like It
WHO Phoebe, a country girl.
WHERE The Forest of Arden, named after a forest of the same name in North Warwickshire, near Stratford.
WHO ELSE IS THERE Silvius, a young shepherd.
WHAT IS HAPPENING Silvius is heartbroken that Phoebe does not love him and has told her that a common executioner is more gentle than she is.
WHAT TO THINK ABOUT
• Decide what Phoebe thinks of Silvius and the way in which he dotes on her.
• Phoebe is amazed that Silvius can think that the look in her eyes can kill him. She sarcastically agrees that this is ‘pretty sure and very probable’! She frowns on him and challenges him to fall down if her look is wounding him. Maybe she waits for him to fall.
• Play with the possibilities of physical comedy in the scene as Phoebe tries to hurt Silvius with her looks.
WHERE ELSE TO LOOK Luciana (The Comedy of Errors) is another woman taunting a man because of his love.
Phoebe
“I would not be thy executioner:
I fly thee, for I would not injure thee.
Thou tell’st me there is murder in mine eye:
’Tis pretty sure, and very probable,
That eyes, that are the frail’st and softest things,
Who shut their coward gates on atomies,*
Should be call’d tyrants, butchers, murderers!
Now I do frown on thee with all my heart,
/> And if mine eyes can wound, now let them kill thee.
Now counterfeit to swoon, why, now fall down;
Or if thou canst not, O, for shame, for shame,
Lie not, to say mine eyes are murderers!
Now show the wound mine eye hath made in thee.
Scratch thee but with a pin, and there remains
Some scar of it; lean but upon a rush,*
The cicatrice* and capable impressure*
Thy palm some moment keeps. But now mine eyes,
Which I have darted at thee, hurt thee not,
Nor, I am sure, there is no force in eyes
That can do hurt.”
(Act 3, scene 5, lines 8–27)
GLOSSARY
atomies – specks
rush – reed, single straw
cicatrice – scar
capable impressure – sensitive imprint
As You Like It
WHO Phoebe, a country girl.
WHERE The Forest of Arden, named after a forest of the same name in North Warwickshire, near Stratford.
WHO ELSE IS THERE Silvius, a young shepherd.
WHAT IS HAPPENING Silvius loves Phoebe but Phoebe is falling in love with ‘Ganymede’ (Rosalind in the disguise of a man). Phoebe denies that she is in love, but as she describes Ganymede to Silvius it is clear that she dotes on him.
WHAT TO THINK ABOUT
• Remember that Silvius is in love with Phoebe.
• Decide whether Phoebe denies her love of Ganymede just to Silvius or to herself as well.
• She can get lost in her memories of her conversation with Ganymede and forget at times that Silvius is there.
• Decide what she thinks of herself as she remembers her part in the conversation.
• Decide how the idea of sending a letter to Ganymede comes about and what tone she takes with Silvius to persuade him to take the letter on her behalf.
WHERE ELSE TO LOOK Recalling a recent conversation and so realising she is in love is Olivia (Twelfth Night).
Phoebe
“Think not I love him, though I ask for him.
’Tis but a peevish boy; yet he talks well –
But what care I for words? Yet words do well
When he that speaks them pleases those that hear.
It is a pretty youth – not very pretty;
But sure he’s proud – and yet his pride becomes him.
He’ll make a proper* man; the best thing in him
Is his complexion; and faster than his tongue
Did make offence, his eye did heal it up.
He is not very tall – yet for his years he’s tall.
His leg is but so-so – and yet ’tis well.
There was a pretty redness in his lip,
A little riper and more lusty red
Than that mix’d in his cheek; ’twas just the difference Between the constant red and mingled damask.*
There be some women, Silvius, had they mark’d him
In parcels,* as I did, would have gone near
To fall in love with him. But for my part,
I love him not; nor hate him not; and yet
I have more cause to hate him than to love him:
For what had he to do to chide at me?
He said mine eyes were black, and my hair black,
And, now I am remember’d, scorn’d at me.
I marvel why I answer’d not again,
But that’s all one. Omittance is no quittance.*
I’ll write to him a very taunting letter,
And thou shalt bear it – wilt thou, Silvius?”
(Act 3, scene 5, lines 109–35)
GLOSSARY
proper – handsome, attractive
constant red and mingled damask – the bright red and pink of different types of rose
mark’d him / In parcels – paid attention to each of his component parts
omittance is no quittance – just because I didn’t say it doesn’t mean I won’t do it (a common saying)
As You Like It
WHO Rosalind (or more properly, the actor/actress playing Rosalind).
WHERE The stage at the end of the play.
WHO ELSE IS THERE S/he is speaking to the audience.
WHAT IS HAPPENING Through most of the play Rosalind has been disguised as a man, causing sexual and romantic confusion. She comes forward at the end of the play and, as both man and woman, talks to the audience.
WHAT TO THINK ABOUT
• This is an opportunity to be the actor (of either gender) and the male and female roles they have adopted.
• There is a great deal of flirting with the audience and much sexual innuendo.
• Rosalind conjures the audience and almost puts them under a spell. Conjure was a strong word in Shakespeare’s time with connotations of witchcraft.
WHERE ELSE TO LOOK Viola (Twelfth Night) also talks to the audience about the complexities and dangers of gender disguise. Joan la Pucelle (Henry VI, Part One) virtually changes gender during her speech.
Rosalind
“It is not the fashion to see the lady the Epilogue; but it is no more unhandsome than to see the lord the Prologue. If it be true that good wine needs no bush,* ’tis true that a good play needs no epilogue. Yet to good wine they do use good bushes, and good plays prove the better by the help of good epilogues. What a case am I in, then, that am neither a good epilogue nor cannot insinuate with you in the behalf of a good play? I am not furnished* like a beggar, therefore to beg will not become me. My way is to conjure you, and I’ll begin with the women. I charge you, O women, for the love you bear to men, to like as much of this play as please you. And I charge you, O men, for the love you bear to women – as I perceive by your simpering, none of you hates them – that between you and the women, the play may please. If I were a woman, I would kiss as many of you as had beards that pleased me, complexions that liked me, and breaths that I defied not. And, I am sure, as many as have good beards, or good faces, or sweet breaths, will for my kind offer, when I make curtsy, bid me farewell.”
(Epilogue)
GLOSSARY
bush – advertisement (the ivy-bush of an inn-sign)
furnished – dressed
The Taming of the Shrew
WHO Katharina.
WHERE A room in Lucentio’s house in Padua.
WHO ELSE IS THERE Katharina’s sister Bianca is getting married. Amongst the wedding party are the sisters’ father Baptista and their respective husbands Petruchio and Lucentio.
WHAT IS HAPPENING Katharina had a reputation as being wilful and ungovernable (the ‘shrew’ of the play’s title). Petruchio married her in the hope of ‘taming’ her. At her sister’s wedding she surprises everyone by advising the other wives there to be submissive to their husbands.
WHAT TO THINK ABOUT
• Katharina has a big audience of family and friends. Her husband is also there. Work out the geography of the scene and where the characters she is speaking to are situated.
• Plot which lines are directed at which people – her father, sister, husband.
• Decide whether what Katharina is saying is as much a revelation to her as it is to those around her.
• Decide how much of the speech is a declaration of love to her husband.
• Much of the speech may be a description of her own previous behaviour and therefore be spoken with remorse.
WHERE ELSE TO LOOK Emilia (Othello) has a different view of male–female relations.
Katharina
“Fie, fie! Unknit that threatening unkind brow,
And dart not scornful glances from those eyes
To wound thy lord, thy king, thy governor:
It blots thy beauty as frosts do bite the meads,*
Confounds thy fame as whirlwinds shake fair buds,
And in no sense is meet or amiable.
Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper,
Thy head, thy sovereign; one that cares for thee,
&nb
sp; And for thy maintenance commits his body
To painful labour both by sea and land,
To watch the night in storms, the day in cold,
Whilst thou liest warm at home, secure and safe;
And craves no other tribute at thy hands
But love, fair looks, and true obedience;
Too little payment for so great a debt.
Such duty as the subject owes the prince
Even such a woman oweth to her husband;
And when she is froward,* peevish, sullen, sour,
And not obedient to his honest will,
What is she but a foul contending rebel
And graceless traitor to her loving lord?
Why are our bodies soft and weak and smooth,
Unapt to toil and trouble in the world,
But that our soft conditions and our hearts
Should well agree with our external parts?
Come, come, you froward and unable worms!
My mind hath been as big as one of yours,
My heart as great, my reason haply more,
To bandy word for word and frown for frown;
But now I see our lances are but straws,
Our strength as weak, our weakness past compare,
That seeming to be most which we indeed least are.
Then vail your stomachs,* for it is no boot,*
And place your hands below your husband’s foot:
In token of which duty, if he please,
My hand is ready; may it do him ease.”
(Act 5, scene 2, lines 136–79, with some cuts)
GLOSSARY
meads – meadows
froward – wilful, difficult
vail your stomachs – abandon your obstinacy, swallow your pride
it is no boot – there’s nothing else for it