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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.

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 into: I will buy with you, sell with you, talk with you, walk with you, and so following; but I will not eat with you, drink with you, nor pray with you. What news on the Rialto? Who is he comes here?

Enter ANTONIO.

Bass. This is signior Antonio.

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
The rate of usance1 here with us in Venice.
If I can catch him once upon the hip2,

I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him.
He hates our sacred nation; and he rails,
Even there where merchants most do congregate,
On me, my bargains, and my well-won thrift,
Which he calls interest: Cursed be my tribe,
If I forgive 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?
Tubal, a wealthy Hebrew of my tribe,

Will furnish me: But soft; How many

months

1 It is almost incredible what gain the Venetians receive by the usury of the Jews, both privately and in common. For in every city the Jews keep open shops of usury, taking gages of ordinary for xv in the hundred by the yeare; and if at the year's end the gage be not redeemed, it is forfeit, or at least done away to a great disadvantage; by reason whereof the Jews are out of measure wealthy in those parts.'-Thomas's Historye of Italye, 1561, 4to. f. 77.

2 To catch, or have, on the hip, means to have at an entire advantage. The phrase seems to have originated from hunting, because, when the animal pursued is seized upon the hip, it is finally disabled from flight. Dr. Johnson once thought the phrase was taken from the art of wrestling, but he corrected his opinion at a subsequent period, and in his Dictionary derives it from hunting. It occurs again in Othello:

'I'll have our Michael Cassio on the hip' VOL. III. D

Do you desire?-Rest you fair, good signior;

[TO ANTONIO. Your worship was the last man in our mouths. Ant. Shylock, albeit I neither lend nor borrow, By taking, nor by giving of excess,

3

Yet, to supply the ripe wants of my friend,
I'll break a custom :-Is he yet possess'd *,
How much you would?

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, Upon advantage.

Ant.

I do never use it.

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 5 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 Between these woolly breeders in the act, The skilful shepherd peel'd me certain wands, And in the doing of the deed of kind 6,

3 Wants come to the height, which admit no longer delay. 4 Informed.

5 Young lambs just dropt, or ean'd. This word is usually spelt yean but the Saxon etymology demands ean. It is applied par

ticularly to ewes.

6 i. e. of nature.

He stuck them up before the fulsome ewes ;
Who, then conceiving, did in eaning time

Fall party-colour'd lambs, and those were Jacob's.
This was a way to thrive, and he was blest;
And thrift is blessing, if men steal it not.

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.
Was this inserted to make interest good?

Or is your gold and silver, ewes and rams?
Shy. I cannot tell; I make it breed as fast:-
But note me, signior.

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;
A goodly apple rotten at the heart;

O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!

Shy. Three thousand ducats,—'tis a good round

sum.

Three months from twelve, then let me see the rate.

7 Fulsome,' says Mr. Douce, has, doubtless, the same signification with the preceding epithet rank.' It is true that rank has sometimes the interpretation affixed to it of rammish in old Dictionaries, but there is also another meaning of the word which may be found in Baret's Alvearie, 1573, viz. Fruitefull, ranck, battle, Lat. fertilis. This sense would also, I think, better accord with fulsome, if it could be shown to be a synonyme. It is quite evident that Steevens's interpretation is not supported by his quotations, most of which have one of the old senses of the word foul or foulsome. Mr. Boswell's interpretation, pregnant, is inadmissible; and the quotation from Golding's Ovid is much in favour of my suggestion. The fulsome ewes may therefore only mean the fruitful ewes :

'But what have your poor sheepe misdone, a cattel meeke
and meeld,

Created for to maintaine man, whose fulsome dugs do yeeld
Sweete nectar.'

8 Falsehood here means knavery, treachery, as truth is sometimes used for honesty.

Ant. Well, Shylock, shall we be beholden to you?
Shy. Signior Antonio, many a time and oft,
In the Rialto you have rated me

About my monies, and my usances 9:
Still have I borne it with a patient shrug;
For sufferance is the badge of all our tribe:
You call me-misbeliever, cut-throat dog,
And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine,

And all for use of that which is mine own.

Well then, it now appears, you need my help:
Go to then; you come to me, and you say,
Shylock, we would have monies; You say so;

You, that did void your rheum upon my beard,

And foot me, as you spurn a stranger cur
Over your threshold; monies is your suit.
What shall I say to you? Should I not say,
Hath a dog money; is it possible,

A cur can lend three thousand ducats? or
Shall I bend low, and in a bondman's key,
With 'bated breath, and whispering humbleness,
Say this,-

Fair sir, you spit on me on Wednesday last;
You spurn'd me such a day; another time
You call'd me-dog; and for these courtesies
I'll lend you thus much monies?

Ant. I am as like to call thee so again,
To spit on thee again, to spurn thee too.
If thou wilt lend this money, lend it not
As to thy friends; (for when did friendship take
A breed 10 for barren metal of his friend?)
But lend it rather to thine enemy;

9 Interest.

10 i. e. interest, money bred from the principal. Meres says, Usurie and encrease of gold and silver is unlawful, because against nature; nature hath made them sterill and barren, usurie makes them procreative.' The honour of starting this conceit belongs to Aristotle. See De Republ. l. 1.

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