The Merchant of Venice

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ACT III 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	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	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.	21
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.	30
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	41
	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	50
	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	60
	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,	70
	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	80
	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	90
	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.	101
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.	110
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.	120
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	130
	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]

Next: The Merchant of Venice, Act 3, Scene 2
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Explanatory Notes for Act 3, Scene 1
From The Merchant of Venice. Ed. Felix E. Schelling. New York: American Book Co.

The rumors of Antonio's losses grow more frequent and circumstantial. Shylock is torn apart with rage at Jessica's reported extravagance with his long-hoarded wealth, and with malignant joy as he hears of Antonio's misfortunes and impatiently awaits the forfeit of his bond.

2. it lives there unchecked, the rumor is current there uncontradicted.

4. the narrow seas [or sea], a usual term for the English Channel. The Goodwins, I think they call the place. Goodwin Sands, off the coast of Kent. Notice how Salarino's doubt as to the precise name of the place in which Antonio's ships have come to grief upholds the illusion that we are in Venice, a place remote from England.

10. knapped, broke into small pieces.

30. the wings she flew withal, the boy's clothing in which she eloped with Lorenzo.

46. match, bargain.

49. smug, trim, neat.

56. disgraced me, lowered me in public estimation.

57. hindered me [from gaining] half a million [of ducats].

62. affections, emotions caused by external objects, as contrasted with passions, feelings due to emotions within.

63. [Is he not] fed with, etc. Observe how the pathos of the Jew's despised life strengthens Shylock's hold on our sympathies at the very moment when the sense of Antonio's disaster is growing upon us.

72. humility, humanity.

81. cannot be matched, cannot be found to match them.

83. what news from Genoa? This question suggests the lapse of some time since the elopement of Jessica, precisely as the vehemence of Shylock's words to Salanio and Salarino at the beginning of the scene produces the opposite effect of an apparently brief period since that event.

88. cost, that cost.

89. Frankfort on the Main, famous throughout the Middle Ages for its commercial fairs.

105. from Tripolis. This argosy is mentioned above, i. 3. 18.

112. here? in Genoa? i.e. known here [in Italy]? in Genoa? The emendation where for here seems unnecessary.

126. my turquoise. The turquoise was often given as a pledge of love, because it was supposed to maintain or change its brilliancy of color in accordance with the faithfulness or infidelity of the wearer, besides possessing other miraculous qualities. This touch of human affection in Shylock at the moment when he is raving over the extravagance and ingratitude of Jessica can never be overpraised.

131. fee me an officer, engage an officer for me [to arrest Antonio the moment his bond is forfeited].

135. "Shakespeare," says one critic, "probably intended to add another shade of darkness to the character of Shylock, by making him still formally devout while meditating his horrible vengeance." Another remarks on this passage: "The Jew invokes the Ancient of Days, who spoke unto Moses aforetime: 'If a man cause a blemish in his neighbor; as he hath done, so shall it be done to him; breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; as he hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him again.' In entering his synagogue Shylock intrusts his hatred to the safeguard of his faith. Henceforward his vengeance assumes a consecrated character." It is one of the marvels of Shakespeare's power of characterization that we differ about the characters of his personages as we differ about the characters of real people whom we personally know.

How to cite the explanatory notes:
Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice. Ed. Felix E. Schelling. New York: American Book Co., 1903. Shakespeare Online. 20 Feb. 2011. (date when you accessed the information) < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/merchant_3_1.html >.

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