The Merchant of Venice: Act 3, Scene 1
[Enter] SOLANIO and SALERIO.
SOLANIO
1 Now, what news on the Rialto?
SALERIO
2. uncheck'd: unhindered; i.e., not denied.
2 Why, yet it lives there uncheck'd that Antonio hath
3 a ship of rich lading wrecked on the narrow seas;
4. Goodwins: Goodwin Sands, off the Kentish coast near the Thames estuary.
4 the Goodwins, I think they call the place; a very
5 dangerous flat and fatal, where the carcasses of many
6‑7. my gossip / Report: i.e., Dame Rumor. Gossip, literally "godparent," was used of a female crony or confidante and thus developed its present sense.
6 a tall ship lie buried, as they say, if my gossip
7 Report be an honest woman of her word.
SOLANIO
8 I would she were as lying a gossip in that as ever
9. knapp'd: chewed.
9 knapp'd ginger or made her neighbors believe she
10 wept for the death of a third husband. But it is
11. slips of prolixity: exaggerations because of long-windedness. 11‑12. crossing the / plain highway of talk: departing from honest plain speech.
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!—
SALERIO
15. Come, the full stop: i.e., come to the point.
15 Come, the full stop.
SOLANIO
16 Ha! what sayest thou? Why, the end is, he hath
17 lost a ship.
SALERIO
18 I would it might prove the end of his losses.
SOLANIO
19. cross: thwart.
19 Let me say "amen" betimes, lest the devil cross my
20 prayer, for here he comes in the likeness of
21 a Jew.
Enter SHYLOCK.
22 How now, Shylock! what news among the
23 merchants?
SHYLOCK
24 You knew, none so well, none so well as you, of my
25 daughter's flight.
SALERIO
26 That's certain: I, for my part, knew the tailor
27. withal: with, by means of.
27 that made the wings she flew withal.
SOLANIO
28 And Shylock, for his own part, knew the bird was
29. fledge: fledged, ready to fly. complexion: natural disposition, tendency. 30. dam: mother.
29 fledge; and then it is the complexion of them all
30 to leave the dam.
SHYLOCK
31 She is damned for it.
SOLANIO
32 That's certain, if the devil may be her
33 judge.
SHYLOCK
34 My own flesh and blood to rebel!
SOLANIO
35‑36. rebels it at these years: Solanio pretends to understand "flesh and blood" as a reference to Shylock's genitals.
35 Out upon it, old carrion! rebels it at these
36 years?
SHYLOCK
37 I say, my daughter is my flesh and
38 blood.
SALERIO
39 There is more difference between thy flesh and hers
40 than between jet and ivory; more between your bloods
41. rhenish: i.e., a German white wine from the Rhine valley.
41 than there is between red wine and rhenish. But
42 tell us, do you hear whether Antonio have had any
43 loss at sea or no?
SHYLOCK
44. match: bargain.
44 There I have another bad match: a bankrupt, a
45 prodigal, who dare scarce show his head on the
46. smug: neat, spruce.
46 Rialto; a beggar, that was used to come so smug upon
47 the mart; let him look to his bond: he was wont to
48 call me usurer; let him look to his bond: he was
49. for a Christian cur'sy: out of Christian courtesy.
49 wont to lend money for a Christian cur'sy; let him
50 look to his bond.
SALERIO
51 Why, I am sure, if he forfeit, thou wilt not take
52 his flesh: what's that good for?
SHYLOCK
53 To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing else,
54 it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and
55 hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses,
56 mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my
57 bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine
58 enemies; and what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath
59 not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs,
60. dimensions: bodily proportions.
60 dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with
61 the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject
62 to the same diseases, healed by the same means,
63 warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as
64 a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed?
65 if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison
66 us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not
67 revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will
68 resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian,
69. what is his humility? Revenge: —Shylock is being bitterly sarcastic. . . . more 70. his: the Jew's. sufferance: patient endurance.
69 what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian
70 wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by
71 Christian example? Why, revenge. The villany you
72 teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I
73 will better the instruction.
Enter a MAN from Antonio.
Servant
74 Gentlemen, my master Antonio is at his house and
75 desires to speak with you both.
SALERIO
76 We have been up and down to seek him.
Enter TUBAL.
SOLANIO
77 Here comes another of the tribe: a third cannot be
78. match'd: found to match them.
78 match'd, unless the devil himself turn Jew.
Exeunt Gentlemen [SOLANIO, SALERIO,
with Servant.]
SHYLOCK
79 How now, Tubal! what news from Genoa? Hast thou
80 found my daughter?
TUBAL
81 I often came where I did hear of her,
82 but cannot find her.
SHYLOCK
83 Why, there, there, there, there! a diamond gone,
84. Frankfort: —Frankfort was famous for its fairs, at which all kinds of merchandise was bought and sold.
84 cost me two thousand ducats in Frankfort! The curse
85 never fell upon our nation till now; I never felt it
86 till now: two thousand ducats in that; and other
87 precious, precious jewels. I would my daughter
88 were dead at my foot, and the jewels in her ear!
89. hears'd: coffined.
89 would she were hears'd at my foot, and the ducats in
90 her coffin! No news of them? Why, so: and I know
91 not what's spent in the search: why, thou loss upon
92 loss! the thief gone with so much, and so much to
93 find the thief; and no satisfaction, no revenge:
94 nor no ill luck stirring but what lights on my
95 shoulders; no sighs but of my breathing; no tears
96 but of my shedding.
TUBAL
97 Yes, other men have ill luck too: Antonio, as I
98 heard in Genoa,—
SHYLOCK
99 What, what, what? ill luck, ill luck?
TUBAL
100 Hath an argosy cast away, coming from
101 Tripolis.
SHYLOCK
102 I thank God, I thank God. Is't true, is't
103 true?
TUBAL
104 I spoke with some of the sailors that escaped
105 the wreck.
SHYLOCK
106 I thank thee, good Tubal: good news, good news!
107 ha, ha! where? in Genoa?
TUBAL
108 Your daughter spent in Genoa, as I heard, in one
109 night fourscore ducats.
SHYLOCK
110 Thou stickest a dagger in me: I shall never see my
111 gold again: fourscore ducats at a sitting!
112 fourscore ducats!
TUBAL
113 There came divers of Antonio's creditors in my
114‑115. cannot choose / but break: cannot avoid defaulting on his debt.
114 company to Venice, that swear he cannot choose
115 but break.
SHYLOCK
116 I am very glad of it: I'll plague him; I'll torture
117 him: I am glad of it.
TUBAL
118 One of them showed me a ring that he had of your
119 daughter for a monkey.
SHYLOCK
120 Out upon her! Thou torturest me, Tubal: it was my
121. Leah: —Most commentators assume that "Leah" was the name of Shylock's wife.
121 turquoise; I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor:
122 I would not have given it for a
123 wilderness of monkeys.
TUBAL
124 But Antonio is certainly undone.
SHYLOCK
125‑126. fee me an officer: i.e., hire a sheriff's officer or baliff for me. 126. bespeak: engage a fortnight before: two weeks in advance.
125 Nay, that's true, that's very true. Go, Tubal, fee
126 me an officer; bespeak him a fortnight before. I
127 will have the heart of him, if he forfeit; for, were
128‑129. make what merchandise I / will: drive whatever bargains I please.
128 he out of Venice, I can make what merchandise I
129 will. Go, go, Tubal, and meet me at our synagogue;
130 go, good Tubal; at our synagogue, Tubal.
Exeunt.