Act 2, Scene 8

Venice. A street

[Enter SALARINO and SALANIO.]
Salarino
984 Why, man, I saw Bassanio under sail;
985 With him is Gratiano gone along;
986 And in their ship I am sure Lorenzo is not.
Salanio
987 The villain Jew with outcries rais'd the Duke,
988 Who went with him to search Bassanio's ship.
Salarino
989 He came too late, the ship was under sail;
990 But there the duke was given to understand
991 That in a gondola were seen together
992 Lorenzo and his amorous Jessica.
993 Besides, Antonio certified the duke
994 They were not with Bassanio in his ship.
Salanio
995 I never heard a passion so confus'd,
996 So strange, outrageous, and so variable,
997 As the dog Jew did utter in the streets.
998 'My daughter! O my ducats! O my daughter!
999 Fled with a Christian! O my Christian ducats!
1000 Justice! the law! my ducats and my daughter!
1001 A sealed bag, two sealed bags of ducats,
1002 Of double ducats, stol'n from me by my daughter!
1003 And jewels! two stones, two rich and precious stones,
1004 Stol'n by my daughter! Justice! find the girl!
1005 She hath the stones upon her and the ducats.'
Salarino
1006 Why, all the boys in Venice follow him,
1007 Crying, his stones, his daughter, and his ducats.
Salanio
1008 Let good Antonio look he keep his day,
1009 Or he shall pay for this.
Salarino
1010 Marry, well remember'd.
1011 I reason'd with a Frenchman yesterday,
1012 Who told me,—in the narrow seas that part
1013 The French and English,—there miscarried
1014 A vessel of our country richly fraught.
1015 I thought upon Antonio when he told me,
1016 And wish'd in silence that it were not his.
Salanio
1017 You were best to tell Antonio what you hear;
1018 Yet do not suddenly, for it may grieve him.
Salarino
1019 A kinder gentleman treads not the earth.
1020 I saw Bassanio and Antonio part:
1021 Bassanio told him he would make some speed
1022 Of his return. He answer'd 'Do not so;
1023 Slubber not business for my sake, Bassanio,
1024 But stay the very riping of the time;
1025 And for the Jew's bond which he hath of me,
1026 Let it not enter in your mind of love:
1027 Be merry, and employ your chiefest thoughts
1028 To courtship, and such fair ostents of love
1029 As shall conveniently become you there.'
1030 And even there, his eye being big with tears,
1031 Turning his face, he put his hand behind him,
1032 And with affection wondrous sensible
1033 He wrung Bassanio's hand; and so they parted.
Salanio
1034 I think he only loves the world for him.
1035 I pray thee, let us go and find him out,
1036 And quicken his embraced heaviness
1037 With some delight or other.
Salarino
1038 Do we so.
[Exeunt.]

Notes

TLN 987cultural context

“The villain Jew with outcries rais'd the Duke”

Salanio calls Shylock 'the villain Jew,' treating his religion as a sufficient label for villainy. The phrase reflects the Elizabethan stage convention of the predatory Jewish moneylender — a figure drawn from imagination rather than experience, since Jews had been expelled from England in 1290 and were not formally readmitted until 1656.

historical The 'Jew' on the Elizabethan stage

TLN 998cultural context

“My daughter! O my ducats! O my daughter!”

Salanio mimics Shylock in the street, alternating between grief for his daughter Jessica and grief for his stolen money as though the two are interchangeable. The speech is a cruel parody, not a direct quotation from Shylock — it is reported by an enemy who wants to make Shylock ridiculous. Whether Shylock actually spoke these exact words is left uncertain; what is certain is that Salanio intends the conflation of daughter and ducats to mock him.

historical The 'Jew' on the Elizabethan stage

TLN 1012historical topical

“in the narrow seas that part The French and English”

The 'narrow seas' is the standard Elizabethan name for the English Channel, the strait between England and France. A French merchant has told Salarino that a richly loaded ship ('richly fraught' = carrying a valuable cargo) has been wrecked there. This report is the first concrete hint that Antonio's trading ships may be in danger of failing — the precondition for Shylock's bond becoming deadly.

TLN 1023archaic vocab

“Slubber not business for my sake, Bassanio”

To 'slubber' something is to do it hastily and carelessly, to skip over it or smear it through without care. Antonio is telling Bassanio not to rush his courtship of Portia just to hurry home to Venice for Antonio's sake. The word implies hurrying so fast that you do a sloppy job — like someone daubing paint without looking.

TLN 1030cultural context

“his eye being big with tears, Turning his face, he put his hand behind him”

Antonio turns away to hide his tears, reaches his hand back without looking, and wrings Bassanio's. The gesture is the scene's emotional climax: a man too moved to face his friend directly. 'Affection wondrous sensible' means an emotion that was powerfully felt and physically visible. The depth of feeling described here exceeds conventional friendship and sits at the heart of the play's exploration of what Antonio and Bassanio mean to each other.

historical Renaissance friendship and the friend-versus-love ideal