should shrive me than wive me. Come, Nerissa. Sirrah, go before.-Whiles we shut the gate upon one wooer, another knocks at the door. [Exeunt. SCENE III. Venice. A publick Place. Enter BASSANIO and SHYLOCK. Shy. Three thousand ducats,-well. Shy. For three months,--well. Bass. For the which, as I told you, Antonio shall be bound. Shy. Antonio shall become bound,-well. Bass. May you stead me? Will you pleasure me? Shall I know your answer? Shy. Three thousand ducats, for three months, and Antonio bound. Bass. Your answer to that. Shy. Antonio is a good man. Bass. Have you heard any imputation to the contrary? Shy. Ho, no, no, no, no ;-my meaning, in saying he is a good man, is to have you understand me, that he is sufficient: yet his means are in supposition: he hath an argosy bound to Tripolis, another to the Indies; I understand moreover upon the Rialto, he hath a third at Mexico, a fourth for England,—and other ventures he hath, squander'd abroad; But ships are but boards, sailors but men: there be land-rats, and water-rats, water-thieves, and land-thieves; I mean pirates; and then, there is the peril of waters, winds, and rocks: The man is, notwithstanding, sufficient ;-three thousand ducats ;-I think, I may take his bond. Bass. Be assured you may. VOL. III. с Shy. I will be assured, I may; and, that I may be assured, I will bethink me: May I speak with Antonio? Bass. If it please you to dine with us. Shy. Yes, to smell pork; to eat of the habitation which your prophet, the Nazarite, conjured the devil into2: I will buy with you, sell with you, talk with talk with you, walk with you, and so following; but I will not eat with you, drink with you, nor pray with you. Rialto ?-Who is he comes here? Enter ANTONIO. Bass. This is signior Antonio. What news on the Shy. [aside.] How like a fawning publican he looks! I hate him for he is a Christian: But more, for that, in low simplicity, He lends out money gratis, and brings down If I can catch him once upon the hip, I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him. Bass. Shylock, do you hear? Shy. I am debating of my present store: And, by the near guess of my memory, I cannot instantly raise up the gross Of full three thousand ducats: What of that? Will furnish me: But soft; How many months 2 the habitation which your prophet, the Nazarite, conjured the devil into:] Perhaps there is no character through all Shakspeare, drawn with more spirit, and just discrimination, than Shylock's. His language, allusions, and ideas, are every where so appropriate to a Jew, that Shylock might be exhibited for an exemplar of that peculiar people. HENLEY. Do you desire?-Rest you fair, good signior: [TO ANTONIO. Your worship was the last man in our mouths. Yet, to supply the ripe wants of my friend', Shy. Ay, ay, three thousand ducats. Ant. And for three months. Shy. I had forgot,-three months, you told me so. Well then, your bond; and, let me see,But hear you; Methought, you said, you neither lend, nor borrow, Shy. When Jacob graz'd his uncle Laban's sheep, This Jacob from our holy Abraham was (As his wise mother wrought in his behalf,) The third possessor; ay, he was the third. Ant. And what of him? did he take interest? Shy. No, not take interest; not, as you would say, Directly interest: mark what Jacob did. When Laban and himself were compromis'd, That all the eanlings' which were streak'd, and pied, Should fall as Jacob's hire; the ewes, being rank, In the end of autumn turned to the rams: And when the work of generation was 3 the ripe wants of my friend,] Ripe wants are wants come to the height, wants that can have no longer delay. 4 5 6 · possess'd,] i. e. acquainted, informed. the eanlings] Lambs just dropt: from ean, eniti. Who, then conceiving, did in eaning time Fall party-colour'd lambs, and those were Jacob's. Ant. This was a venture, sir, that Jacob serv'd for; A thing not in his power to bring to pass, But sway'd, and fashion'd, by the hand of heaven. Or is your gold and silver, ewes and rams? Ant. Mark you this, Bassanio, The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. An evil soul, producing holy witness, Is like a villain with a smiling cheek; sum. 'tis a good round Three months from twelve, then let me see the rate. About my monies, and my usances": "This thrift." MALONE. 7 my usances:] Use and usance are both words anciently employ'd for usury, both in its favourable and unfavourable sense. But Mr. Ritson says, that Use and usance mean nothing more than interest; and the former word is still used by country people in the same sense. Shylock, we would have monies; You say so; A cur can lend three thousand ducats? or Fair sir, you spit on me on Wednesday last: Ant. I am as like to call thee so again, As to thy friends; (for when did friendship take But lend it rather to thine enemy; Who if he break, thou may'st with better face Shy. Of usance for my monies, and you'll not hear me: 8 Shylock,] Our author, as Dr. Farmer informs me, took the name of his Jew from an old pamphlet entitled, Caleb Shillocke, his Prophesie: or the Jewes Prediction. London, printed for T. P. (Thomas Pavyer.) No date. STEEVENS. 9 A breed for barren metal of his friend?] A breed, that is, interest money bred from the principal. By the epithet barren, the author would instruct us in the argument on which the advocates against usury went, which is this; that money is a barren thing, and cannot, like corn and cattle, multiply itself. And to set off the absurdity of this kind of usury, he put breed and barren in opposition. WARBURTON. |