How like a fawning publican he looks, I hate him for he is a Christian, and more than that, in low simplicity, he lends out money gratis, and so brings down the rate of usurance here in Venice.

We had to learn this as a class. We were taken to see the play. Regretably it was a cheap production, with Bassanio last seen playing a schoolboy (in 'To serve them all my days) and Portia played by a former soap (Crossroads!) actress, who was a good 15-20 years older than her alleged boyfriend! The actor playing Shylock looked too much like a teacher at another local school, and he was having difficulty. To have 60+ schoolgirls all aged between 14-15 acting as prompt when he corpsed at 'How like a fawning..... a fawning.....' was not the best night of his career....

Mind you, having said that, I've been teaching the bratling to recite Omar Khyyam (awake, for morning in the bowl of night has flung the stone that put the stars to flight) and Wordsworth (he bloody does eat daffodils), just for a laugh, but also because I think it encourages retention, and I certainly put my ability to learn lines down to it. Pity it doesn't work with songs - I can remember the words, or the tune, can't do both.

LTS