Shy. To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing elfe, it will feed my revenge. He hath disgrac'd me, and hinder'd me of half a million; laugh'd at my loffes, mock'd at my gains, fcorn'd my nation, thwarted my bargains, cool'd my friends, heated mine enemies; and what's his reafon! I am a Jew: Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands; organs, dimenfions, fenfes, affections, paffions? fed with the fame food, hurt with the fame weapons, fubject to the fame difeafes, heal'd by the fame means, warm'd and cool'd by the fame winter and fummer, as a Christian is? if you prick us do we not bleed? you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poifon us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, fhall we not revenge; if we are like you in the reft, we will refemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? revenge: If a Chriftian wrong a Jew, what fhould his fufferance be by Christian example? why, revenge. The villainy, you teach me, I will execute; and it fhall go hard, but I will if better the inftruction. Enter a fervant. Serv. Gentlemen, my mafter Anthonio is at his house, and defires to speak with you both. Sal. We have been up and down to feek him. Enter Tubal. Sala. Here comes another of the tribe; a third cannot be match'd, unless the devil himself turn Jew. [Exeunt Sal. and Salan. Shy. How now, Tubal, what news from Genoa? Haft thou found my daughter? 2 If you prick us do we not bleed?] Are not Jews made of the fame materials as Chriftians, fays Shylock; thus in Plutarch's life of Cæfar, p. 140. 4to. v. iv. "Cefar does not confider that his fubjects are mortal, and bleed when they are pricked," εε εδὶ ἀπὸ τῶν τραυμαίων λογίσεται Καίσαρ ει θνητῶν μὲν ἄρχει. S. W. Tub. I often came where I did hear of her, but cannot find her. Shy. Why there, there, there, there! a diamondgone, coft me two thousand ducats in Frankfort! the curfe 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 fhe were hears'd at my foot, and the ducats in her coffin! No news of them? Why, fo:-and I know not what's fpent in the fearch: Why, thou lofs upon lofs! the thief gone with fo much, and fo much to find the thief; and no fatisfaction, no revenge: nor no ill luck ftirring, but what lights o' my fhoulders; no fighs but o' my breathing; no tear, but o' my fhedding. Tub. Yes, other men have ill luck too; Anthonio, as I heard in Genoa, Shy. What, what, what? ill luck, ill luck? Tub. Hath an argofy caft away, coming from Tripolis. Shy. I thank God, I thank God :-Is it true? is it true? Tub. I fpoke with some of the failors that escaped the wreck. Shy. I thank thee, good Tubal ;-Good news good news: ha! ha!-Where? in Genoa ? Tub. Your daughter spent in Genoa, as I heard, one night, fourfcore ducats. Shy. Thou stick'ft a dagger in me :-I shall never fee my gold again: Fourfcore ducats at a fitting! fourfcore ducats! Tub. There came divers of Anthonio's creditors in my company to Venice, that fwear he cannot chufe but break. Shy. I am glad of it: I'll plague him; I'll torture him; I am glad of it. Tub. 1 Tub. One of them fhew'd me a ring, that he had of your daughter for a monkey. Shy. Out upon her! Thou tortureft me, Tubal : it was my turquoife; I had it of Leah, when I was a batchelor: I would not have given it for a wildernefs of monkies. Tub. But Anthonio is certainly undone. Shy. Nay, that's true, that's very true: Go, Tubal, fee me an officer, befpeak him a fortnight be 6 it was my turquoife, -1 had it of Leah, when I was a batchelor:] A turquoife is a precious ftone found in the veins of the mountains on the confines of Perfia to the east, fubject to the Tartars. As Shylock had been married long enough to have a daughter grown up, it is plain he did not value this turquoise on account of the money for which he might hope to fell it, but merely in respect of the imaginary virtues formerly afcribed to the ftone. It was faid of the Turkey-stone, that it faded or brightened in its colour, as the health of the wearer increased or grew lefs. To this B. Jonfon refers, in his Sejanus: "And true as Turkife in my dear lord's ring, Again, in the Mufes Elyfium, by Drayton : "The turkee, which who haps to wear, Again, Edward Fenton in Secrete Wonders of Nature, b. 1. 4to, 1569. "The Turkeys doth move when there is any perill piepared to him that weareth it." P. 51. b. But Leab (if we may believe Thomas Nicols, fometimes of Jefus College in Cambridge, in his Lapidary, &c.) might have prefented Shylock with his Turquoife for a better reafon; as this ftone is likewife faid to take away all enmity, and to reconcile man and wife." Other fuperftitious qualities are imputed to it, all of which were either monitory or prefervative to the wearer. The fame quality was fuppofed to be refident in coral. So, in the Three Ladies of London, 1584: "You may fay jet will take up a ftraw, amber will make one fat, "Coral will look pale when you be fick, and chrystal will stanch blood." Thus Holinfhed, fpeaking of the death of K. John, " And when the king fufpected them (the pears) to be poifoned indeed, by reason that fuch pretious fiones as he had about him caft forth a certain fweat as it were bewracing the poifon," &c. STEEVENS. fore: 04 fore I will have the heart of him, if he forfeit; for were he out of Venice, I can make what merchandize I will: Go, go, Tubal, and meet me at our fynagogue; go, good Tubal; at our fynagogue, Tubal. [Exeunt. SCENE II. Belmont. Enter Bafanio, Portia, Gratiano, and attendants. Por. I pray you, tarry; pause a day or two, But left you should not understand me well, They have o'er-look'd me, and divided me; Prove it fo", I And fo though yours, not yours-Prove it fo,] It may be more grammatically read: And jo though yours I'm not yours. JOHNSON. 8 Let fortune go to bell for it,-not 1.] This line is very obfcure, The form of the expreffion alludes to what she had faid of being forfworn. I speak too long; but 'tis to peize the time'; Baff. Let me chuse; For, as I am, I live upon the rack. Por. Upon the rack, Baffanio? then confefs What treason there is mingled with your love. Baff. None, but that ugly treason of mistrust, Which makes me fear the enjoying of my love: There may as well be amity and life "Tween fnow and fire, as treason and my love, Por. Ay, but, I fear, you speak upon the rack, Where men enforced do fpeak any thing. Bal. Promife me life, and I'll confefs the truth. forfworn. After fome ftruggle, fhe refolves to keep her oath : and then fays, Let fortune go to hell for it. For what! not for telling or favouring Baifanio, which was the temptation fhe then lay under; for fortune had taken no oath. And, furely, for the more favouring a man of merit, fortune did not deferve (confidering how rarely fhe tranfgreffes this way) fo fevere a sentence. Much lefs could the fpeaker, who favour'd Baffanio, think fo. The meaning then must be, et fortune rather go to hell for not favouring Ballanio, than I for favouring him. So loosely does our author fometimes ufe his pronouns-not I, does not fignify Let not I to hell; for then it should be Let not me. go But it is a distinct fentence of itself: and is a very common proverbial speech, fignifying, I will have nothing to do with it. Which if the Oxford editor had confidered, he might have fpared his pains in changing I into me. WARBURTON. The meaning is, "If the worst fear fhould happen, and it fhould prove in the event, that I, who am justly yours by the free donation I have made you of myself, fhould yet not be in confequence of an unlucky choice, let fortune go to hell for robbing you of your juft due, not I for violating my oath. yours REVISAL. 9 —to peize the time;] Thus the old copies. To peize is from pefer, Fr. So, in K. Richard III: "Left leaden flumber peize me down to-morrow." To peize the time, therefore, is to retard it by hanging weights upon it. All the modern editors read, without authority,-piece. STEEVENS. To peize, is to weigh, or ballance; and figuratively, to keep in fufpence, to delay. HENLEY. Por. |