The Merchant of Venice

by: William Shakespeare

Act 3 Scene 1

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Original Text	Modern Text
Enter SOLANIO and SALARINO	SOLANIO and SALARINO enter
SOLANIO Now, what news on the Rialto?	SOLANIO So, what’s the news on the Rialto?
SALARINO Why, yet it lives there unchecked that Antonio hath a ship of rich lading wracked on the narrow seas. The Goodwins I think they call the place—a very dangerous flat, and fatal, where the carcasses of many a tall ship lie buried, as they say, if my gossip report be an honest woman of her word.	SALARINO Well, there’s a rumor that Antonio had a ship carrying expensive cargo that shipwrecked in the English Channel on the Goodwin Sands, a very dangerous sandbar. Many ships have sunk there, according to rumors.
SOLANIO I would she were as lying a gossip in that as ever knapped ginger or made her neighbors believe she wept for the death of a third husband. But it is true, without any slips of prolixity or crossing the plain highway of talk, that the good Antonio, the honest Antonio—oh, that I had a title good enough to keep his name company!—	SOLANIO I hope this new rumor is a lie, like the gossiping widow’s claim that she was sorry her third husband died! But it’s true—I don’t want to get all mushy and go on and on, but the good Antonio, the honest Antonio—oh, if I only had a title good enough to match his!—
SALARINO Come, the full stop.	SALARINO Come on, get to the point.
SOLANIO 15Ha, what sayest thou? Why, the end is he hath lost a ship.	SOLANIO What are you saying? Well, the point is, he’s lost a ship.
SALARINO I would it might prove the end of his losses.	SALARINO I hope that’s all he loses.
SOLANIO Let me say “Amen” betimes, lest the devil cross my prayer, for here he comes in the likeness of a Jew.	SOLANIO Let me say “amen” quickly, before the devil comes in and stops my prayer—because here comes the devil, disguised as a Jew.
Enter SHYLOCK	SHYLOCK enters.

Read the Summary of Act III, scenes i–ii

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