TPTT The Merchant of Venice: ACT III
Introduction
ACT I
ACT II
ACT III
SCENE I. Venice. A street.
SCENE II. Belmont. A room in PORTIA'S house.
SCENE III. Venice. A street.
SCENE IV. Belmont. A room in PORTIA'S house.
SCENE V. The same. A garden.
ACT IV
ACT V
About the Play
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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
5     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
10    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
15    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
20    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
25    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
30    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
35    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
40    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
45    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
50    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,
55    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?
60    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
65    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
70    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
75    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
80    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
85    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
90    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
95    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
100   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
105   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
110   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
115   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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