Rewrite the following speech in modern English:

"Therefore, prepare thee to cut off the flesh. shed thou no blood, nor cut thou less or more. But just a pound of flesh; if thou tas'st more or less than a just pound - be it but so much. As makes it light or heavy in the substance or the division of the twentieth part of one poor scruple, nay, if the scale do turn. But in the estimation of a hair.

Thou diest, and all they goods are confiscate.

  William Shakespeare's early life

Details of William Shakespeare's early life are scanty.  He was the son of a prosperous merchant of Stratford upon Avon, and tradition has it that he was born on 23^rd April 1564; records show that he was baptized three days later.  It is likely that he attended the local Grammar School, but he had no university education.  Of his early career there is no record, though John Aubrey states that he was a country schoolmaster.  How he became involved with the stage is equally uncertain, but he was sufficiently established as a playwright by 1592 to be critized in print.  He was leading member of the Lord Chamberlain's Company, which became the King's men on the accession of James I in 1603.  Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway in 1582, by whom he had two daughters and a son, Hamnet, who died in 1586.  Towards the end of his life he loosened his ties with London, and retired to New Place, his substantial property in Stratford which he bought in 1597.  He died on 23^rd April 1616 aged 52, and is buried in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

THE DUKE OF VENICE

THE PRINCE OF MOROCCO          )           suitors to Portia

THE PRINCE OF ARRAGON           )

ANTONIO, a merchant of Venice

BASSANIO, his friend, and a suitor to Portia

GRATIANO    )

SALERIO        )           friends of Antonio and Bassanio

SOLANIO       )

LORENZO, in love with Jessica

SHYLOCK, a Jew

TUBAL, a Jew, his friend

LAUNCELOT GOBBO, the clown of the play, Shylock's servant

OLD GOBBO, Launcelot's father

LEONARDO, Bassanio's servant

BALTHAZAR )           Portia's servants

STEPHANO               

PORTIA, an heiress, mistress of Belmont

NERISSA, her maid

JESSICA, Shylock's daughter

RICH MERCHANTS OF VENICE, OFFICERS OF THE COURT OF JUSTICE, A GAOLER, SERVANTS, AND OTHER ATTENDANTS.

The scenes are laid in Venice, and Portia's house at Belmont.

            The Story of The Merchant of Venice

Antonio, a rich merchant of Venice, is sad in mind but cannot tell why.  Three of his friends meet him and make fun of his mood in the hope that it will disappear, but Antonio remains strangely unhappy.  One of his friends, Bassanio, is closer to him than the others, and when these two are left together, Bassanio tells Antonio of his own concerns : he is a gentleman, but he has spent most of his fortune and now wants to go across the sea to woo a rich and beautiful girl called Portia.  She has already given him some encouragement, but princely suitors are known to be on their way to woo her, and Bassanio has therefore to compete with them in display if he is to win Portia's hand in marriage.  Antonio is very willing to lend him money for the journey, but his own fortune is not at the moment available; it is all in trading ships at sea.  But he knows a Jewish money-lender in Venice, and persuades Bassanio to ask him for the money, with Antonio making himself responsible for seeing that the loan is paid back.  The Jew, Shylock, has no liking for Antonio, because Antonio has often insulted him for being a Jew, and because the Christian has on occasion lent money freely whereas the Jew always charges interest, and has consequently lost business.  However, Shylock agrees to lend Bassanio money, but on the condition, which he pretends is nothing but a joke, that if the loan is not paid back with a certain time, he will have the right to cut a pound of flesh from whatever part of Antonio's body he may choose.  Antonio agrees, and Bassanio is able to set sail for Belmont Portia's house.

Portia, meanwhile, is being visited by other men wishing to marry her.  They each have to submit to a kind of lottery, in accordance with the will of her dead father : they are shown three boxes, one made of gold, another of silver, and another of lead.  One box contains Portia's portrait, and the suitor who chooses this one wins her in marriage.  The Princes of Morocco and Arragon try their fortune, but each chooses wrongly.

Shylock has a daughter, Jessica, and a servant Launcelot Gobbo.  Both are planning to leave him; Launcelot wants to serve Bassanio, and Jessica wants to run away with her lover, a gay young man called Lorenzo.  Jessica leaves, disguised as a boy, with a good deal of her father's treasure, and Launcelot is taken into Bassanio's service.

Bassanio chooses the right box and marries Portia.  But his happiness is short-lived, for he hears that Antonio's ships at sea have all been lost and that, since the loan cannot now be repaid, Shylock is claiming the pound of flesh.  Bassanio hurries away to be with Antonio in his misfortunes, and at the same time Portia arranges, through a famous lawyer who is a kinsman of hers, to go to Antonio's trial dressed as a lawyer herself, and acting on the real lawyer's behalf.  She first asks Shylock to show mercy, but he refuses and prepares to cut the flesh from Antonio's body.  At that moment Portia warns him that he must spill no blood, and must take no more nor less than just the one pound.  Shylock sees that these are impossible conditions, and says he will have the money instead.  This, too, is impossible, and in fact the case is turned hopelessly against him because he has committed the crime of plotting to kill a citizen of Venice.  The court takes all his wealth away from him, but much of it will go to his daughter.

Jessica and Lorenzo are looking after Portia's house while she is away.  At Belmont, when Portia returns, the news is made known that Antonio's ships have, after all, not been destroyed, and that Jessica and Lorenzo are now rich.  A little joke which Portia and her maid Nerissa played on their husbands Bassanio and Gratiano (they made them give up their wedding rings, in spite of solemn promises not to do so) is also cleared up, and as morning dawns the play ends happily for all except Shylock.

         The Language and Imagery of the Play

The English of Shakespeare's time was in many ways different from the English we speak today.  A good part of all the notes in this book is devoted to explaining these differences in the use of

            The quality of mercy is not strain'd;

            It droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven

            Upon the place beneath: it is twice bless'd;

            It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes:

            `Tis mightiest in the mightiest; It becomes

            The throned 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 sceptered sway,

It is enthroned in the hearths 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.

            From The Merchant of Venice

              By : William Shakespeare

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