Today’s Totally Random
Line(s)
Three
thousand ducats for three months, and Antonio bound.
Shylock
The Merchant of Venice Act I, Scene iii, Line 56
A ducat, of
course, is some form of old Italian money. Antonio bound means that
Antonio will sign for it.
Three thousand ducats. Shylock opens the scene with those words as he and
Bassanio are discussing the loan. Three thousand ducats. This three
thousand ducats might be considered the piece around which this whole play
revolves. It’s the three thousand ducats that Bassanio needs to buy his way
into the Portia lottery, and it’s the unpaid three thousand ducats that leads
to the trial scene and the pound of flesh.
Three thousand ducats. As is so often the case, in this story it’s all about the Benjamins.
2 comments:
I wonder if there's a website that will translate 3,000 ducats into real world currency for me, like those websites that translate 1920 $100 into today money.
there's a website for everything.
just ask the google!
Post a Comment