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The Merchant of Venice: Act 3 Scene 1

Scene I Venice. A street.

[Enter SALANIO and SALARINO]

SALANIO

Now, what news on the Rialto?

SALARINO

Why, yet it lives there uncheck'd that Antonio hath

a ship of rich lading wrecked 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 know, 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.

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

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 was 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 disgraced me, and

hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses,

mocked 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 villany 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

matched, 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 in 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'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!

ha, ha! where? in Genoa?

TUBAL

Your daughter spent in Genoa, as I heard, in one

night fourscore ducats.

SHYLOCK

Thou stickest 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, go, Tubal, and meet me at our synagogue;

go, good Tubal; at our synagogue, Tubal.

[Exeunt]

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