Footnotes+a3s1

//Line One://
 * Rialto**: The marketplace. Where the Venetians would gather to talk and trade. Solanio wants to know what they've been saying about Shylock and Antonio. MW


 * It lives there unchecked**: Everyone's been saying that Antonio's ship, loaded with goods, sunk in the Goodwins. Despite the fact that Antonio's "ventures are not in one bottom trusted" (a1s1), it's getting less and less likely that he will be able to pay Shylock back in time (Antonio's other ships are still still sailing, but will not arrive in the three months before his money is due). Of course, it's Shakespeare, so was the ending ever really in doubt? Saying that a rumor "lives", by the way, is personification. MW


 * I would she ere as lying a gossip:** He wishes Report was known to be a constant liar, so that he could doubt that Antonio's ship really sunk. MW


 * Come, the full stop:** Get to the point. MW


 * Knew the tailor/ knew the bird was flidge**: Salarino puns off of Shylock mentioning his daughter's "flight" a line or two above. They say they know who helped her escape: "the tailor", Lorenzo, and that Shylock should have known she was planning to leave, because he knew she was "flidge" (grown up) and that grown birds always leave their nests. MW


 * If the devil may be her judge**: The "devil" Salarino is talking about in this sentence is Shylock. He's referencing what Solanio said a few line's earlier: "Lest the devil cross my prayer/ for he he comes in the likeness of a Jew". MW


 * Rebels it at these years?: '**You're rebelling? But you're old!' Solanio pretends to think that when Shylock says "My own flesh and blood to rebel" he is talking about himself, not his daughter, because, as he says a few lines later, Shylock and Jessica are so different from one another. MW


 * Hath not a Jew eyes?...:** Shylock's little rant here is one of the most famous in the play. While it's fairly easy to get what he's saying, I didn't want it to go footnoteless. Essentially, he means that despite the difference in religions, he's really exactly the same as Antonio and co. are. He bleeds if he's pricked, he laughs if he's tickled, just like a Christian. So if he's wronged, he'll get back at his enemy- once again, just like a Christian. Shylock also says that he will "better the instruction", which means he'll become even better at revenge than his Christian teachers. While Shylock is certainly the villian of this play, here he goes a long way towards justifying his actions. Despite him planning to go fishing with a pound of the hero's flesh for bait, it's hard to hate him, isn't it? And hard to love the hero who spits in the villain's beard because he's a Jew, //isn't it?// MW


 * We have been up and down to seek him:** 'We've been looking all over for him.' How did they manage to forget to check his house, anyway? MW


 * The thief gone with so much:** So now he thinks of her as more of a thief than a daughter? Well, still... I suppose she did run off with his hard-earned money. Of course, that's no reason to wish his daughter dead. I suppose everyone gets a little freaked out someimes? But he's the "bad guy" (by popular opinion) of this piece for a reason- he obviously has a very short fuse. But //still//, the //Merchant of Venice// isn't as onesided as some other books or plays I could name. While Shylock's the antoagonist of this play, he's not pure evil. But there aren't many of Shakespeare's villains who are. MW


 * He cannot choose but break**: He's going bankrupt. Which still sort of bothers me. How did //that// happen? Even with a certain allowance for the fact that it's, you know, a fictional story, Antonio was bragging just a few acts ago about how there's no way he could not be able to pay Shylock back. Now, not even three months later, there's no way he can get the money in time? MW


 * For a monkey:** Wait. What? Why would she trade a ring she knew to be so important to her father for something so useless and frivolous? And why waste so much money so quickly? Seriously, is she //trying// to tell her father where she is? Maybe she's just idiotic and naive. MW


 * Had it from Leah**: Shylock was //married//? //Shylock// was married? Wow. So what happened to his wife, Leah? Did she die? I'm assuming so (hey, it's Shakespeare). So //how// did she die? And if she hadn't, would he still be... you know, the way he is? MW


 * I will have the heart of him, if he forfeit**: If Anotonio can't pay, he's dead. And it's not just revenge, according to Shylock- with Antonio gone, Shylock could start earning back the money Jessica ran off with- without someone standing around telling potential costumers how horrible he is. MW