The Merchant of Venice (AQA GCSE English Literature): Exam Questions

PORTIA 

They shall, Nerissa, but in such a habit 

That they shall think we are accomplishèd 

With that we lack. I’ll hold thee any wager, 

When we are both accoutred like young men

I’ll prove the prettier fellow of the two, 

And wear my dagger with the braver grace, 

And speak between the change of man and boy 

With a reed voice, and turn two mincing steps

Into a manly stride; and speak of ’frays

Like a fine bragging youth; and tell quaint lies 

How honourable ladies sought my love, 

Which I denying, they fell sick and died – 

I could not do withal. Then I’ll repent, 

And wish for all that, that I had not killed them;

And twenty of these puny lies I’ll tell, 

That men shall swear I have discontinued school 

Above a twelvemonth. I have within my mind 

A thousand raw tricks of these bragging jacks, 

Which I will practise. 

PORTIA 

A pound of that same merchant’s flesh is thine, 

The court awards it, and the law doth give it. 

SHYLOCK 

Most rightful judge!

PORTIA 

And you must cut this flesh from off his breast; 

The law allows it, and the court awards it. 

SHYLOCK 

Most learned judge! A sentence: come, prepare. 

PORTIA 

Tarry a little, there is something else. 

This bond doth give thee here no jot of blood. 

The words expressly are ‘a pound of flesh’. 

Take then thy bond, take thou thy pound of flesh, 

But in the cutting it, if thou dost shed 

One drop of Christian blood, thy lands and goods 

Are by the laws of Venice confiscate 

Unto the state of Venice.

GRATIANO

O upright judge! 

Mark, Jew – O learned judge! 

SHYLOCK 

Is that the law? 

PORTIA 

Thyself shall see the Act. 

For as thou urgest justice, be assured 

Thou shalt have justice more than thou desirest. 

GRATIANO 

O learned judge! Mark, Jew: a learned judge.  

BASSANIO 

In Belmont is a lady richly left, 

And she is fair, and – fairer than that word – 

Of wondrous virtues. Sometimes from her eyes 

I did receive fair speechless messages. 

Her name is Portia, nothing undervalued 

To Cato’s daughter, Brutus’ Portia. 

Nor is the wide world ignorant of her worth; 

For the four winds blow in from every coast 

Renownèd suitors, and her sunny locks 

Hang on her temples like a golden fleece, 

Which makes her seat of Belmont Colchos’ strand, 

And many Jasons come in quest of her. 

O my Antonio, had I but the means 

To hold a rival place with one of them, 

I have a mind presages me such thrift 

That I should questionless be fortunate.

PORTIA 

The quality of mercy is not strained, 

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.

PORTIA 

I could teach you 

How to choose right, but then I am 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’erlooked 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 eche it, and to draw it out in length, 

To stay you from election. 

BASSANIO 

Let me choose, 

For as I am, I live upon the rack. 

PORTIA 

Upon the rack, Bassanio? Then confess 

What treason there is mingled with your love. 

BASSANIO 

None but that ugly treason of mistrust 

Which makes me fear th’enjoying of my love. 

There may as well be amity and life 

’Tween snow and fire, as treason and my love. 

PORTIA 

Ay, but I fear you speak upon the rack 

Where men enforcèd do speak anything. 

BASSANIO 

Promise me life and I’ll confess the truth. 

PORTIA 

Well then, confess and live.

SHYLOCK 

Jailer, look to him. Tell not me of mercy. 

This is the fool that lent out money gratis. 

Jailer, look to him. 

ANTONIO 

Hear me yet, good Shylock – 

SHYLOCK 

I’ll have my bond, speak not against my bond; 

I have sworn an oath that I will have my bond. 

Thou call’dst me dog before thou hadst a cause, 

But since I am a dog, beware my fangs. 

The Duke shall grant me justice. I do wonder, 

Thou naughty jailer, that thou art so fond 

To come abroad with him at his request. 

ANTONIO 

I pray thee hear me speak – 

SHYLOCK 

I’ll have my bond; I will not hear thee speak; 

I’ll have my bond, and therefore speak no more. 

I’ll not be made a soft and dull-eyed fool, 

To shake the head, relent, and sigh, and yield 

To Christian intercessors. Follow not! 

I’ll have no speaking, I will have my bond. 

Exit 

SOLANIO 

It is the most impenetrable cur 

That ever kept with men. 

ANTONIO 

Let him alone. 

I’ll follow him no more with bootless prayers. 

He seeks my life, his reason well I know: 

I oft delivered from his forfeitures 

Many that have at times made moan to me;

Therefore he hates me.

BASSANIO 

To you, Antonio, I owe the most in money and in love, 

And from your love I have a warranty 

To unburden all my plots and purposes 

How to get clear of all the debts I owe. 

ANTONIO 

I pray you, good Bassanio, let me know it,

And if it stand as you yourself still do 

Within the eye of honour, be assured 

My purse, my person, my extremest means 

Lie all unlocked to your occasions. 

BASSANIO 

In my schooldays, when I had lost one shaft, 

I shot his fellow of the selfsame flight 

The selfsame way, with more advisèd watch 

To find the other forth; and by adventuring both 

I oft found both. I urge this childhood proof 

Because what follows is pure innocence.

I owe you much, and like a wilful youth 

That which I owe is lost; but if you please 

To shoot another arrow that self way 

Which you did shoot the first, I do not doubt, 

As I will watch the aim, or to find both 

Or bring your latter hazard back again 

And thankfully rest debtor for the first. 

ANTONIO 

You know me well, and herein spend but time 

To wind about my love with circumstance; 

And out of doubt you do me now more wrong 

In making question of my uttermost 

Than if you had made waste of all I have. 

Then do but say to me what I should do 

That in your knowledge may by me be done, 

And I am prest unto it: therefore, speak