READ STUDY GUIDE: Act III, scenes i–ii |
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Act III, Scene i:
Venice. A street
Venice. A street
| [Enter SALANIO and SALARINO.] |
| SALANIO: |
| Now, what news on the Rialto? |
| SALARINO: |
| Why, yet it lives there unchecked that Antonio hath a ship |
| of rich lading wrack'd on the narrow seas; the Goodwins, I think |
| they call the place, a very dangerous flat and fatal, where the |
| carcasses of many a tall ship lie buried, as they say, if my |
| gossip Report be an honest woman of her word. |
| SALANIO: |
| I would she were as lying a gossip in that as ever knapped |
| ginger or made her neighbours believe she wept for the death of a |
| third husband. But it is true,—without any slips of prolixity or |
| crossing the plain highway of talk,—that the good Antonio, the |
| honest Antonio,—O that I had a title good enough to keep his |
| name |
| company!— |
| SALARINO: |
| Come, the full stop. |
| SALANIO: |
| Ha! What sayest thou? Why, the end is, he hath lost a |
| ship. |
| SALARINO: |
| I would it might prove the end of his losses. |
| SALANIO: |
| Let me say 'amen' betimes, lest the devil cross my prayer, |
| for here he comes in the likeness of a Jew. |
| [Enter SHYLOCK.] |
| How now, Shylock! What news among the merchants? |
| SHYLOCK: |
| You knew, none so well, none so well as you, of my |
| daughter's flight. |
| SALARINO: |
| That's certain; I, for my part, knew the tailor that made |
| the wings she flew withal. |
| SALANIO: |
| And Shylock, for his own part, knew the bird was fledged; |
| and then it is the complexion of them all to leave the dam. |
| SHYLOCK: |
| She is damned for it. |
| SALARINO: |
| That's certain, if the devil may be her judge. |
| SHYLOCK: |
| My own flesh and blood to rebel! |
| SALANIO: |
| Out upon it, old carrion! Rebels it at these years? |
| SHYLOCK: |
| I say my daughter is my flesh and my blood. |
| SALARINO: |
| There is more difference between thy flesh and hers than |
| between jet and ivory; more between your bloods than there is |
| between red wine and Rhenish. But tell us, do you hear whether |
| Antonio have had any loss at sea or no? |
| SHYLOCK: |
| There I have another bad match: a bankrupt, a prodigal, |
| who dare scarce show his head on the Rialto; a beggar, that used |
| to come so smug upon the mart; let him look to his bond: he |
| was wont to call me usurer; let him look to his bond: he was wont |
| to lend money for a Christian courtesy; let him look to his bond. |
| SALARINO: |
| Why, I am sure, if he forfeit, thou wilt not take his |
| flesh: what's that good for? |
| SHYLOCK: |
| To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing else, it will |
| feed my revenge. He hath disgrac'd me and hind'red me half a |
| million; laugh'd at my losses, mock'd at my gains, scorned my |
| nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine |
| enemies. And what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? |
| Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, |
| passions, fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, |
| subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed |
| and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If |
| you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? |
| If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we |
| not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you |
| in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? |
| Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance |
| be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villaiy you teach me |
| I will execute; and it shall go hard but I will better the |
| instruction. |
| [Enter a Servant.] |
| SERVANT: |
| Gentlemen, my master Antonio is at his house, and desires to |
| speak with you both. |
| SALARINO: |
| We have been up and down to seek him. |
| [Enter TUBAL.] |
| SALANIO: |
| Here comes another of the tribe: a third cannot be |
| match'd, unless the devil himself turn Jew. |
| [Exeunt SALANIO, SALARINO, and Servant.] |
| SHYLOCK: |
| How now, Tubal! what news from Genoa? Hast thou found my |
| daughter? |
| TUBAL: |
| I often came where I did hear of her, but cannot find her. |
| SHYLOCK: |
| Why there, there, there, there! A diamond gone, cost me |
| two thousand ducats in Frankfort! The curse never fell upon our |
| nation till now; I never felt it till now. Two thousand ducats in |
| that, and other precious, precious jewels. I would my daughter |
| were dead at my foot, and the jewels in her ear; would she were |
| hearsed at my foot, and the ducats in her coffin! No news of |
| them? Why, so: and I know not what's spent in the search. Why, |
| thou—loss upon loss! The thief gone with so much, and so much to |
| find the thief; and no satisfaction, no revenge; nor no ill luck |
| stirring but what lights on my shoulders; no sighs but of my |
| breathing; no tears but of my shedding. |
| TUBAL: |
| Yes, other men have ill luck too. Antonio, as I heard in |
| Genoa,— |
| SHYLOCK: |
| What, what, what? Ill luck, ill luck? |
| TUBAL: |
| —hath an argosy cast away, coming from Tripolis. |
| SHYLOCK: |
| I thank God! I thank God! Is it true, is it true? |
| TUBAL: |
| I spoke with some of the sailors that escaped the wrack. |
| SHYLOCK: |
| I thank thee, good Tubal. Good news, good news! ha, ha! |
| Where? in Genoa? |
| TUBAL: |
| Your daughter spent in Genoa, as I heard, one night, |
| fourscore ducats. |
| SHYLOCK: |
| Thou stick'st a dagger in me: I shall never see my gold |
| again: fourscore ducats at a sitting! Fourscore ducats! |
| TUBAL: |
| There came divers of Antonio's creditors in my company to |
| Venice that swear he cannot choose but break. |
| SHYLOCK: |
| I am very glad of it; I'll plague him, I'll torture him; I |
| am glad of it. |
| TUBAL: |
| One of them showed me a ring that he had of your daughter |
| for a monkey. |
| SHYLOCK: |
| Out upon her! Thou torturest me, Tubal: It was my |
| turquoise; I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor; I would not |
| have given it for a wilderness of monkeys. |
| TUBAL: |
| But Antonio is certainly undone. |
| SHYLOCK: |
| Nay, that's true; that's very true. Go, Tubal, fee me an |
| officer; bespeak him a fortnight before. I will have the heart of |
| him, if he forfeit; for, were he out of Venice, I can make what |
| merchandise I will. Go, Tubal, and meet me at our synagogue; go, |
| good Tubal; at our synagogue, Tubal. |
| [Exeunt.] |
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