Before Bassanio or anyone else can say a word about Gratiano, Gratiano's first speech speaks for itself. Gratiano has been on stage in the first scene of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice for barely two minutes before he launches into a long-winded, albeit witty speech to his friend, Antonio. Ironically, Gratiano's speech is about people who don't talk very much.
GRATIANO. ...O, my Antonio, I do know of these,
That therefore only are reputed wise,
For saying nothing; who, I am very sure,
If they should speak, would almost damn those ears
Which, hearing them, would call their brothers, fools. (1.1.99-103)
Gratiano's friend, Lorenzo, is the first character who remarks good-naturedly about Gratiano's loquaciousness.
LORENZO. Well, we will leave you
then till dinner-time.
I must be one of these same dumb wise men,
For Gratiano never lets me speak. (1.1.109-112)
Gratiano, well aware of his own propensity for long...
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speeches, makes a humorous, self-deprecating response to Lorenzo.
GRATIANO. Well, keep me company but two years more,
Thou shalt not know the sound of thine own tongue.
Gratiano and Lorenzo are about to exit the scene, and Antonio bids them farewell and thanks Gratiano for his advice. Before he goes, Gratiano can't resist saying just a few more words about people who don't say much.
ANTONIO. Farewell: I'll grow a talker for this gear.
GRATIANO. Thanks, i' faith; for silence is only commendable
In a neat's tongue dried, and a maid not vendible [not married]. (1.1.115-117)
Lorenzo and Gratiano exit the scene, leaving Antonio with his best friend, Bassanio, who has a few words to say about Gratiano as soon as he's gone.
BASSANIO. Gratiano speaks an infinite deal of nothing, more
than any man in all Venice: his reasons are as two grains
of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff; you shall seek all
day ere you find them; and when you have them they are
not worth the search. (1.1.119-123)
Gratiano talks more nonsense than any man in Venice, Bassanio says; but trying to find the point of what he's talking about is like looking for a needle in a haystack. You could look all day to find it, and when you find, if you find it, it's not worth all the time you spent looking for it.