Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
Act 3 - Scene 1
Venice. A street.
Salanio : Now, what news on the Rialto?
Salarino : Why, yet it lives there uncheck'd that Antonio hath
[p]a ship of rich
lading wrecked on the narrow seas;
[p]the Goodwins, I think they call
the place; a very
[p]dangerous flat and fatal, where the carcasses of
many
[p]a tall ship lie buried, as they say, if my gossip
[p]Report be
an honest woman of her word.
Salanio : I would she were as lying a gossip in that as ever
[p]knapped ginger
or made her neighbours believe she
[p]wept for the death of a third
husband. But it is
[p]true, without any slips of prolixity or crossing
the
[p]plain highway of talk, that the good Antonio, the
[p]honest
Antonio,--O that I had a title good enough
[p]to keep his name
company!--
Salarino : Come, the full stop.
Salanio : Ha! what sayest thou? Why, the end is, he hath
[p]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
[p]prayer, for here
he comes in the likeness of a Jew.
[p][Enter SHYLOCK]
[p]How now,
Shylock! what news among the merchants?
Shylock : You know, none so well, none so well as you, of my
[p]daughter's
flight.
Salarino : That's certain: I, for my part, knew the tailor
[p]that made the wings
she flew withal.
Salanio : And Shylock, for his own part, knew the bird was
[p]fledged; and then
it is the complexion of them all
[p]to leave the dam.
Shylock : She is damned for it.
Salanio : 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 blood.
Salarino : There is more difference between thy flesh and hers
[p]than between
jet and ivory; more between your bloods
[p]than there is between red
wine and rhenish. But
[p]tell us, do you hear whether Antonio have had
any
[p]loss at sea or no?
Shylock : There I have another bad match: a bankrupt, a
[p]prodigal, who dare
scarce show his head on the
[p]Rialto; a beggar, that was used to come
so smug upon
[p]the mart; let him look to his bond: he was wont
to
[p]call me usurer; let him look to his bond: he was
[p]wont to lend
money for a Christian courtesy; let him
[p]look to his bond.
Salarino : Why, I am sure, if he forfeit, thou wilt not take
[p]his flesh: what's
that good for?
Shylock : To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing else,
[p]it will feed my
revenge. He hath disgraced me, and
[p]hindered me half a million;
laughed at my losses,
[p]mocked at my gains, scorned my nation,
thwarted my
[p]bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine
[p]enemies;
and what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath
[p]not a Jew eyes? hath not a
Jew hands, organs,
[p]dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed
with
[p]the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject
[p]to the
same diseases, healed by the same means,
[p]warmed and cooled by the
same winter and summer, as
[p]a Christian is? If you prick us, do we
not bleed?
[p]if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison
[p]us,
do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not
[p]revenge? If we are
like you in the rest, we will
[p]resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong
a Christian,
[p]what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian
[p]wrong
a Jew, what should his sufferance be by
[p]Christian example? Why,
revenge. The villany you
[p]teach me, I will execute, and it shall go
hard but I
[p]will better the instruction.
Servant : Gentlemen, my master Antonio is at his house and
[p]desires to speak
with you both.
Salarino : We have been up and down to seek him.
Salanio : Here comes another of the tribe: a third cannot be
[p]matched, unless
the devil himself turn Jew.
Shylock : How now, Tubal! what news from Genoa? hast thou
[p]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,
[p]cost me two
thousand ducats in Frankfort! The curse
[p]never fell upon our nation
till now; I never felt it
[p]till now: two thousand ducats in that;
and other
[p]precious, precious jewels. I would my daughter
[p]were
dead at my foot, and the jewels in her ear!
[p]would she were hearsed
at my foot, and the ducats in
[p]her coffin! No news of them? Why, so:
and I know
[p]not what's spent in the search: why, thou loss
upon
[p]loss! the thief gone with so much, and so much to
[p]find the
thief; and no satisfaction, no revenge:
[p]nor no in luck stirring but
what lights on my
[p]shoulders; no sighs but of my breathing; no
tears
[p]but of my shedding.
Tubal : Yes, other men have ill luck too: Antonio, as I
[p]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't true, is't true?
Tubal : I spoke with some of the sailors that escaped the wreck.
Shylock : I thank thee, good Tubal: good news, good news!
[p]ha, ha! where? in
Genoa?
Tubal : Your daughter spent in Genoa, as I heard, in one
[p]night fourscore
ducats.
Shylock : Thou stickest a dagger in me: I shall never see my
[p]gold again:
fourscore ducats at a sitting!
[p]fourscore ducats!
Tubal : There came divers of Antonio's creditors in my
[p]company to Venice,
that swear he cannot choose but break.
Shylock : I am very glad of it: I'll plague him; I'll torture
[p]him: I am glad
of it.
Tubal : One of them showed me a ring that he had of your
[p]daughter for a
monkey.
Shylock : Out upon her! Thou torturest me, Tubal: it was my
[p]turquoise; I had
it of Leah when I was a bachelor:
[p]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
[p]me an officer;
bespeak him a fortnight before. I
[p]will have the heart of him, if he
forfeit; for, were
[p]he out of Venice, I can make what merchandise
I
[p]will. Go, go, Tubal, and meet me at our synagogue;
[p]go, good
Tubal; at our synagogue, Tubal.
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Next: Act 3 - Scene 2
