Question

explain the pageants of sea from scene 1 Merchant of Venice

Answer 1

ANTONIO
In sooth, I know not why I am so sad.

It wearies me; you say it wearies you.

But how I caught it, found it, or came by it,

What stuff ’tis made of, whereof it is born,

5I am to learn.

And such a want-wit sadness makes of me,

That I have much ado to know myself.

SALARINO

Your mind is tossing on the ocean,

There, where your argosies with portly sail,

10Like signors and rich burghers on the flood—

Or, as it were, the pageants of the sea—

Do overpeer the petty traffickers

That curtsy to them, do them reverence

As they fly by them with their woven wings.

SOLANIO

15Believe me, sir, had I such venture forth,

The better part of my affections would

Be with my hopes abroad. I should be still

Plucking the grass to know where sits the wind,

Peering in maps for ports and piers and roads.

20And every object that might make me fear

Misfortune to my ventures out of doubt

Would make me sad.

Answer 2

Answer:pageants refer to either the floats (decorated platform build on a vehicle or towed behind one) used in street processions or decorated barges(long flat bottomed boat for carrying freight on canals and rivers) in water processions which were a feature of Venetian festivals

Explanation:Ships of Antonio have been referred to as pageants in order to highlight their Majesticity