No Fear Shakespeare
The Merchant of Venice
Get this No Fear to go!
Act 1, Scene 1, Page 5
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LORENZO
Well, we will leave you then till dinnertime.
I must be one of these same dumb wise men,
For Gratiano never lets me speak.
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LORENZO
All right, we’ll see you at dinnertime. I must be one of these silent
so-called wise men Gratiano’s talking about, because he never lets me get a word
in.
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GRATIANO
Well, keep me company but two years more,
Thou shalt not know the sound of thine own tongue.
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GRATIANO
If you hang around me for two more years, you’ll forget the sound of your own
voice. I won’t ever let you speak.
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ANTONIO
Farewell. I’ll grow a talker for this gear.
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ANTONIO
Goodbye. After that lecture of yours, I’ll start talking a lot.
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GRATIANO
Thanks, i' faith, for silence is only commendable
In a neat’s tongue dried and a maid not vendible.
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GRATIANO
Thank you. The only tongues that should be silent are ox-tongues on a dinner plate and
those that belong to old maids.
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Exeunt GRATIANO and LORENZO
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GRATIANO and LORENZO
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ANTONIO
Is that any thing now?
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ANTONIO
Is he right?
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BASSANIO
Gratiano speaks an infinite deal of nothing, more than
any man in all Venice. His reasons are as two grains of
wheat hid in two bushels of chaff—you shall seek all day
ere you find them, and when you have them they are not
worth the search.
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BASSANIO
Gratiano talks more nonsense than any other man in Venice. His point is always like a
needle in a haystack—you look for it all day, and when you find it you realize
it wasn’t worth the trouble.
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ANTONIO
Well, tell me now what lady is the same
To whom you swore a secret pilgrimage,
That you today promised to tell me of?
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ANTONIO
So, who’s this girl, the one you said you were going to take a special trip
for? You promised to tell me.
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BASSANIO
'Tis not unknown to you, Antonio,
How much I have disabled mine estate,
By something showing a more swelling port
Than my faint means would grant continuance.
Nor do I now make moan to be abridged
From such a noble rate. But my chief care
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BASSANIO
Antonio, you know how bad my finances have been lately. I’ve been living way
beyond my means. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining about having to
cut back.
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