SCENE I. Venice. A street. The Merchant of Venice  Shakespeare homepage  |  Merchant of Venice  | Act 3, Scene 1 

 Previous scene  |  Next scene  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 

 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. 

 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. 

 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 

 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 

 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 

 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, 

 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 

 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 

 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. 

 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. 

 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. 

 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 

 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  Shakespeare homepage  |  Merchant of Venice  | Act 3, Scene 1 

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