Famous quotes | The Merchant of Venice | Royal Shakespeare Company (2024)

FAQs

Famous quotes | The Merchant of Venice | Royal Shakespeare Company? ›

“In sooth, I know not why I am so sad.” “Let me play the fool.” “If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes' palaces.”

I will buy with you, sell with you, talk with you, walk with you, and so following, but I will not eat with you, drink with you, nor pray with you.

"The quality of mercy" is a speech given by Portia in William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice (act 4, scene 1). In the speech, Portia, disguised as a lawyer, begs Shylock to show mercy to Antonio. The speech extols the power of mercy, "an attribute to God Himself".

If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?

"To be, or not to be: that is the question." Perhaps the most famous of Shakespearean lines, the anguished Hamlet ponders the purpose of life and suicide in this profound soliloquy.

Best Shakespeare Quotes. 1. "Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them.”

“To be or not to be: that is the question”

One of the most famous Shakespeare quotes of all time, the sentence “To be or not to be: that is the question” originates from the play, Hamlet.

What did Portia say to Shylock? ›

Stunned, Shylock hastily backpedals, agreeing to accept three times the sum, but Portia is insistent, saying that Shylock must have the pound of flesh or nothing.

She saves Antonio by determining that the bond allows Shylock no more than a pound of Antonio's flesh and not a drop of his blood. She also finds Shylock guilty of plotting the death of a Venetian and subject to the penalty of forfeiting his estate and suffering execution.

Antonio disliked Shylock because he was too ambitious and greedy for money. Antonio would insult Shylock when Shylock would cheat poor people with the high interest rate.

The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils; The motions of his spirit are dull as night, And his affections dark as Erebus. Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music.

1 If you do love me, you will find me out. 2 If not, adieu, And for my love I pray you wrong me not. 3 If your love do not persuade you to come, let not my letter.

Portia's Famous Quotes in The Merchant of Venice

"O, me, the word 'choose'! I may neither choose who I would nor refuse who I dislike, so is the will of a living daughter curbed by the will of a dead father" (I. ii. 20-23).

Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.

For me the world is just the world, Gratiano—a stage where every person has a part to play. I play a sad one. Let me play the fool. With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.

1 If you do love me, you will find me out. 2 If not, adieu, And for my love I pray you wrong me not. 3 If your love do not persuade you to come, let not my letter.

The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils; The motions of his spirit are dull as night, And his affections dark as Erebus. Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music.