1    Now, what news on the Rialto?

2    Why, yet it lives there uncheck'd that Antonio hath
3    a ship of rich lading wrecked on the narrow seas;
4    the Goodwins, I think they call the place; a very
5    dangerous flat and fatal, where the carcasses of many
6    a tall ship lie buried, as they say, if my gossip
7    Report be an honest woman of her word.

8    I would she were as lying a gossip in that as ever
9    knapped ginger or made her neighbours believe she
10   wept for the death of a third husband. But it is
11   true, without any slips of prolixity or crossing the
12   plain highway of talk, that the good Antonio, the
13   honest Antonio,--O that I had a title good enough
14   to keep his name company!--

15   Come, the full stop.

16   Ha! what sayest thou? Why, the end is, he hath
17   lost a ship.

18   I would it might prove the end of his losses.

19   Let me say 'amen' betimes, lest the devil cross my
20   prayer, for here he comes in the likeness of a Jew.
Enter SHYLOCK
21   How now, Shylock! what news among the merchants?

22   You know, none so well, none so well as you, of my
23   daughter's flight.

24   That's certain: I, for my part, knew the tailor
25   that made the wings she flew withal.

26   And Shylock, for his own part, knew the bird was
27   fledged; and then it is the complexion of them all
28   to leave the dam.

29   She is damned for it.

30   That's certain, if the devil may be her judge.

31   My own flesh and blood to rebel!

32   Out upon it, old carrion! rebels it at these years?

33   I say, my daughter is my flesh and blood.

34   There is more difference between thy flesh and hers
35   than between jet and ivory; more between your bloods
36   than there is between red wine and rhenish. But
37   tell us, do you hear whether Antonio have had any
38   loss at sea or no?

39   There I have another bad match: a bankrupt, a
40   prodigal, who dare scarce show his head on the
41   Rialto; a beggar, that was used to come so smug upon
42   the mart; let him look to his bond: he was wont to
43   call me usurer; let him look to his bond: he was
44   wont to lend money for a Christian courtesy; let him
45   look to his bond.

46   Why, I am sure, if he forfeit, thou wilt not take
47   his flesh: what's that good for?

48   To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing else,
49   it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and
50   hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses,
51   mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my
52   bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine
53   enemies; and what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath
54   not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs,
55   dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with
56   the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject
57   to the same diseases, healed by the same means,
58   warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as
59   a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed?
60   if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison
61   us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not
62   revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will
63   resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian,
64   what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian
65   wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by
66   Christian example? Why, revenge. The villany you
67   teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I
68   will better the instruction.

69   Gentlemen, my master Antonio is at his house and
70   desires to speak with you both.

71   We have been up and down to seek him.

72   Here comes another of the tribe: a third cannot be
73   matched, unless the devil himself turn Jew.

74   How now, Tubal! what news from Genoa? hast thou
75   found my daughter?

76   I often came where I did hear of her, but cannot find her.

77   Why, there, there, there, there! a diamond gone,
78   cost me two thousand ducats in Frankfort! The curse
79   never fell upon our nation till now; I never felt it
80   till now: two thousand ducats in that; and other
81   precious, precious jewels. I would my daughter
82   were dead at my foot, and the jewels in her ear!
83   would she were hearsed at my foot, and the ducats in
84   her coffin! No news of them? Why, so: and I know
85   not what's spent in the search: why, thou loss upon
86   loss! the thief gone with so much, and so much to
87   find the thief; and no satisfaction, no revenge:
88   nor no in luck stirring but what lights on my
89   shoulders; no sighs but of my breathing; no tears
90   but of my shedding.

91   Yes, other men have ill luck too: Antonio, as I
92   heard in Genoa,--

93   What, what, what? ill luck, ill luck?

94   Hath an argosy cast away, coming from Tripolis.

95   I thank God, I thank God. Is't true, is't true?

96   I spoke with some of the sailors that escaped the wreck.

97   I thank thee, good Tubal: good news, good news!
98   ha, ha! where? in Genoa?

99   Your daughter spent in Genoa, as I heard, in one
100  night fourscore ducats.

101  Thou stickest a dagger in me: I shall never see my
102  gold again: fourscore ducats at a sitting!
103  fourscore ducats!

104  There came divers of Antonio's creditors in my
105  company to Venice, that swear he cannot choose but break.

106  I am very glad of it: I'll plague him; I'll torture
107  him: I am glad of it.

108  One of them showed me a ring that he had of your
109  daughter for a monkey.

110  Out upon her! Thou torturest me, Tubal: it was my
111  turquoise; I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor:
112  I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys.

113  But Antonio is certainly undone.

114  Nay, that's true, that's very true. Go, Tubal, fee
115  me an officer; bespeak him a fortnight before. I
116  will have the heart of him, if he forfeit; for, were
117  he out of Venice, I can make what merchandise I
118  will. Go, go, Tubal, and meet me at our synagogue;
119  go, good Tubal; at our synagogue, Tubal.