--I do wonder,
Thou
naughty gaoler, that thou are so fond
To
come abroad with him at his request.
Shylock
The Merchant Of Venice Act III,
Scene iii Line 9
We're back, today, to The Merchant Of Venice and this short, somewhat odd little scene. At this point in
the play Antonio’s been jailed (gaoler is jailer) and we’re sort of awaiting
the courtroom scene. But here is Antonio out of jail, albeit accompanied by his
jailer, and come to try to speak with Shylock. The old jew is adamant about
getting his pound of flesh and will hear nothing from Antonio. And that’s that.
And after Shylock leaves, Antonio, who it would seem came to speak with Shylock
(about letting him out of the contract?), is completely resigned to giving up
his pound of flesh, and his life with it.
But if we find the scene a little odd, isn’t it funny that Shylock finds
the scene odd too. That’s what today’s Totally Random line is all about:
Shylock finding it odd that jailed Antonio is wandering about when he's supposed to be jailed. Apparently the
word ‘naughty’ has the meaning of ‘wicked’ or ‘corrupt’ and the word ‘fond’ has
the meaning of ‘foolish’ in this context. To be sure, Shylock spends most of his time in this scene harping about his bond. In sixteen lines he repeats 'I'll have my bond' five times. It's almost comical (in fact, this is a comedy and Will may be going for the comic effect here) the way Shylock pauses from this bond stuff in the middle to take note of the situation, and speak to the jailer- 'By the way jailer, you crooked so and so, why are you being so foolish as to let this bum Antonio roam about wherever he wants to?' And then right back into 'I'll have my bond!' It's just possible that this could be hilarious depending on how you staged it. Or maybe that's just me.
My buddy and I were going for a comic effect here, but, well...
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