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ACT III. SCENE I.

THE third scene of Shylock seems to have been considered by the actors as the most difficult of any in the play, merely because it is thought to require the exercise of a superior degree of physical force; as if violence were the test of strength, and noise bespoke intensity of passion. An attentive reader would at once declare it to be the most easy of any, although probably the most productive of applause to the actor.

The

The general bearing of Shylock throughout this scene could not be mistaken, as the author himself has described how it should be acted. more delicate and masterly allusions which it contains have, however, been overlooked in the representation. Jessica, the daughter of Shylock, has eloped with a Christian, robbing her father of gold and jewels. Salanio and Salarino say

The villain Jew with outcries raised the Duke,
And went with him to search Bassanio's ship;
I never heard a passion so confus'd,

So strange, outrageous, and so variable,
As the dog Jew did utter in the streets,-
My daughter! O my ducats! O my daughter!

E

Fled with a Christian! O my Christian ducats!
Justice! the law! my ducats! and my daughter!

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Salarino. Why, yet it lives there, uncheck'd, that An

tonio

Hath a ship of rich lading wrecked on the narrow seas.-
I would it might prove the end of his losses.

Enter SHYLOCK.

Shylock. You knew, 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.

This brutal speech of Salarino's (the boon companion of Bassanio and Antonio) provokes no retort from the suffering Jew, who in great grief, and with a humiliated spirit, says:—

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 in the Rialto: a beggar that 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'm 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 has disgraced me and hindered me of half a million, laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation! thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated my enemies; and what is 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 your instructions.

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 on 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 hears'd at my foot and the ducats in her coffin. No news of them? Why, -so:—and I know not what spent in the search.-Why thou loss upon loss! the thief goge with so much,—and so much to find the thief;-and no satisfaction, no revenge: nor no ill luck stirring but what lights o' my shoulders; no sighs but of my heaving, no tears but of my shedding.

This is certainly a touching speech,-exhibiting the feelings of an old man tossed about between the loss of wealth, and the loss of the Being who ought to have been the prop of his age,―the injuries being rendered doubly acute from the fact of the daughter being the thief. A protracted display of his misery would have been tedious to the audience, Shakespeare therefore, with admirable skill, diverts Shylock's thoughts; and henceforth, during the scene, revenge and tenderness alternate in his mind.

Tubal.-Yes, other men have ill luck too; Antonio, as I heard at 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 it true? is it

true?

Tubal.-I spoke with some sailors that escaped the wreck. Shylock. I thank thee, good Tubal: Good news, Good news, ha ha! ha!-Where? in Genoa?

Tubal. Your Daughter spent in Genoa as I heard, one night four-score ducats.

Shylock. Thou stick'st a.. dagger in me:-I shall never see my gold again: Four-score ducats at a sitting! fourscore ducats!

How admirably the train of thought is again diverted to the ducats!

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

Again the thoughts of the distracted man fly off as directed by the last words addressed to him.

Shylock. I am very glad of it: I'll plague: I'll TORTURE him, I am glad of it.

How exquisitely is the passion of rage here, not only depicted, but, as it were, dissected!-Shylock who would not put a brute to unnecessary pain in killing him, here, in the overboiling of his rage, and stung to madness by his wrongs,-talks of TORTURING his victim:-This is weak human nature, when it has lost the mastery of passion, and cannot "sway it to the mood of what it likes or loathes."-The next speech of Tubal again diverts the unhappy father's thoughts to a more tender subject, and calls forth one of the most touching bursts in the play.

Tubal. One of them show'd 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 of LEAH-when I was a Bachelor— I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys.

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