Act III, Scene i:
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.]