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SALANIO
1 Now, what news on the Rialto?
SALERIO
2 Why, yet it lives there uncheck'd that Antonio hath
3 a ship of rich lading wrecked on the narrow seas;
4 the Goodwins, I think they call the place; a very
5 dangerous flat and fatal, where the carcasses of many
6 a tall ship lie buried, as they say, if my gossip
7 Report be an honest woman of her word.
SALANIO
8 I would she were as lying a gossip in that as ever
9 knapp'd ginger or made her neighbors believe she
10 wept for the death of a third husband. But it is
11 true, without any slips of prolixity or crossing the
12 plain highway of talk, that the good Antonio, the
13 honest Antonio,—O that I had a title good enough
14 to keep his name company!—
SALERIO
15 Come, the full stop.
SALANIO
16 Ha! what sayest thou? Why, the end is, he hath
17 lost a ship.
SALERIO
18 I would it might prove the end of his losses.
SALANIO
19 Let me say "amen" betimes, lest the devil cross my
20 prayer, for here he comes in the likeness of
21 a Jew.
Enter SHYLOCK.
22 How now, Shylock! what news among the
23 merchants?
SHYLOCK
24 You know, none so well, none so well as you, of my
25 daughter's flight.
SALERIO
26 That's certain: I, for my part, knew the tailor
27 that made the wings she flew withal.
SALANIO
28 And Shylock, for his own part, knew the bird was
29 fledge; and then it is the complexion of them all
30 to leave the dam.
SHYLOCK
31 She is damned for it.
SALANIO
32 That's certain, if the devil may be her
33 judge.
SHYLOCK
34 My own flesh and blood to rebel!
SALANIO
35 Out upon it, old carrion! rebels it at these
36 years?
SHYLOCK
37 I say, my daughter is my flesh and
38 blood.
SALERIO
39 There is more difference between thy flesh and hers
40 than between jet and ivory; more between your bloods
41 than there is between red wine and rhenish. But
42 tell us, do you hear whether Antonio have had any
43 loss at sea or no?
SHYLOCK
44 There I have another bad match: a bankrupt, a
45 prodigal, who dare scarce show his head on the
46 Rialto; a beggar, that was used to come so smug upon
47 the mart; let him look to his bond: he was wont to
48 call me usurer; let him look to his bond: he was
49 wont to lend money for a Christian cur'sy; let him
50 look to his bond.
SALERIO
51 Why, I am sure, if he forfeit, thou wilt not take
52 his flesh: what's that good for?
SHYLOCK
53 To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing else,
54 it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and
55 hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses,
56 mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my
57 bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine
58 enemies; and what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath
59 not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs,
60 dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with
61 the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject
62 to the same diseases, healed by the same means,
63 warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as
64 a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed?
65 if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison
66 us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not
67 revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will
68 resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian,
69 what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian
70 wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by
71 Christian example? Why, revenge. The villany you
72 teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I
73 will better the instruction.
Servant
74 Gentlemen, my master Antonio is at his house and
75 desires to speak with you both.
SALERIO
76 We have been up and down to seek him.
SALANIO
77 Here comes another of the tribe: a third cannot be
78 match'd, unless the devil himself turn Jew.
Exeunt Gentlemen [SALANIO, SALERIO,
with Servant.]
SHYLOCK
79 How now, Tubal! what news from Genoa? Hast thou
80 found my daughter?
TUBAL
81 I often came where I did hear of her,
82 but cannot find her.
SHYLOCK
83 Why, there, there, there, there! a diamond gone,
84 cost me two thousand ducats in Frankfort! The curse
85 never fell upon our nation till now; I never felt it
86 till now: two thousand ducats in that; and other
87 precious, precious jewels. I would my daughter
88 were dead at my foot, and the jewels in her ear!
89 would she were hears'd at my foot, and the ducats in
90 her coffin! No news of them? Why, so: and I know
91 not what's spent in the search: why, thou loss upon
92 loss! the thief gone with so much, and so much to
93 find the thief; and no satisfaction, no revenge:
94 nor no ill luck stirring but what lights on my
95 shoulders; no sighs but of my breathing; no tears
96 but of my shedding.
TUBAL
97 Yes, other men have ill luck too: Antonio, as I
98 heard in Genoa,—
SHYLOCK
99 What, what, what? ill luck, ill luck?
TUBAL
100 Hath an argosy cast away, coming from
101 Tripolis.
SHYLOCK
102 I thank God, I thank God. Is't true, is't
103 true?
TUBAL
104 I spoke with some of the sailors that escaped
105 the wreck.
SHYLOCK
106 I thank thee, good Tubal: good news, good news!
107 ha, ha! where? in Genoa?
TUBAL
108 Your daughter spent in Genoa, as I heard, in one
109 night fourscore ducats.
SHYLOCK
110 Thou stickest a dagger in me: I shall never see my
111 gold again: fourscore ducats at a sitting!
112 fourscore ducats!
TUBAL
113 There came divers of Antonio's creditors in my
114 company to Venice, that swear he cannot choose
115 but break.
SHYLOCK
116 I am very glad of it: I'll plague him; I'll torture
117 him: I am glad of it.
TUBAL
118 One of them showed me a ring that he had of your
119 daughter for a monkey.
SHYLOCK
120 Out upon her! Thou torturest me, Tubal: it was my
121 turquoise; I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor:
122 I would not have given it for a
123 wilderness of monkeys.
TUBAL
124 But Antonio is certainly undone.
SHYLOCK
125 Nay, that's true, that's very true. Go, Tubal, fee
126 me an officer; bespeak him a fortnight before. I
127 will have the heart of him, if he forfeit; for, were
128 he out of Venice, I can make what merchandise I
129 will. Go, go, Tubal, and meet me at our synagogue;
130 go, good Tubal; at our synagogue, Tubal.
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