• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

ANTONIO.

I pray you, think you question with the Jew.

You may as well go stand upon the beach

And bid the main flood bate his usual height;

You may as well use question with the wolf,

Why he hath made the ewe bleat for the lamb;

You may as well forbid the mountain pines

To wag their high tops and to make no noise

When they are fretten with the gusts of heaven;

You may as well do anything most hard

As seek to soften that- than which what's harder?-

His jewish heart. Therefore, I do beseech you,

Make no moe offers, use no farther means,

But with all brief and plain conveniency

Let me have judgment, and the Jew his will.

BASSANIO.

For thy three thousand ducats here is six.

SHYLOCK.

If every ducat in six thousand ducats

Were in six parts, and every part a ducat,

I would not draw them; I would have my bond.

DUKE OF VENICE.

How shalt thou hope for mercy, rend'ring none?

SHYLOCK.

What judgment shall I dread, doing no wrong?

You have among you many a purchas'd slave,

Which, fike your asses and your dogs and mules,

You use in abject and in slavish parts,

Because you bought them; shall I say to you

'Let them be free, marry them to your heirs-

Why sweat they under burdens?- let their beds

Be made as soft as yours, and let their palates

Be season'd with such viands'? You will answer

'The slaves are ours.' So do I answer you:

The pound of flesh which I demand of him

Is dearly bought, 'tis mine, and I will have it.

If you deny me, fie upon your law!

There is no force in the decrees of Venice.

I stand for judgment; answer; shall I have it?

DUKE OF VENICE.

Upon my power I may dismiss this court,

Unless Bellario, a learned doctor,

Whom I have sent for to determine this,

Come here to-day.

SALERIO.

My lord, here stays without

A messenger with letters from the doctor,

New come from Padua.

DUKE OF VENICE.

Bring us the letters; call the messenger.

BASSANIO.

Good cheer, Antonio! What, man, courage yet!

The Jew shall have my flesh, blood, bones, and all,

Ere thou shalt lose for me one drop of blood.

ANTONIO.

I am a tainted wether of the flock,

Meetest for death; the weakest kind of fruit

Drops earliest to the ground, and so let me.

You cannot better be employ'd, Bassanio,

Than to live still, and write mine epitaph.

Enter NERISSA dressed like a lawyer's clerk

DUKE OF VENICE.

Came you from Padua, from Bellario?

NERISSA.

From both, my lord. Bellario greets your Grace.

[Presents a letter]

BASSANIO.

Why dost thou whet thy knife so earnestly?

SHYLOCK.

To cut the forfeiture from that bankrupt there.

GRATIANO.

Not on thy sole, but on thy soul, harsh Jew,

Thou mak'st thy knife keen; but no metal can,

No, not the hangman's axe, bear half the keenness

Of thy sharp envy. Can no prayers pierce thee?

SHYLOCK.

No, none that thou hast wit enough to make.

GRATIANO.

O, be thou damn'd, inexecrable dog!

And for thy life let justice be accus'd.

Thou almost mak'st me waver in my faith,

To hold opinion with Pythagoras

That souls of animals infuse themselves

Into the trunks of men. Thy currish spirit

Govern'd a wolf who, hang'd for human slaughter,

Even from the gallows did his fell soul fleet,

And, whilst thou layest in thy unhallowed dam,

Infus'd itself in thee; for thy desires

Are wolfish, bloody, starv'd and ravenous.

SHYLOCK.

Till thou canst rail the seal from off my bond,

Thou but offend'st thy lungs to speak so loud;

Repair thy wit, good youth, or it will fall

To cureless ruin. I stand here for law.

DUKE OF VENICE.

This letter from Bellario doth commend

A young and learned doctor to our court.

Where is he?

NERISSA.

He attendeth here hard by

To know your answer, whether you'll admit him.

DUKE OF VENICE.

With all my heart. Some three or four of you

Go give him courteous conduct to this place.

Meantime, the court shall hear Bellario's letter.

CLERK.

[Reads] 'Your Grace shall understand that at the receipt

of your letter I am very sick; but in the instant that your

messenger came, in loving visitation was with