SOLANIO. Now, what news on the Rialto?
SALERIO. Why, yet it lives there uncheck'd that Antonio hath a
ship
of rich lading wreck'd on the narrow seas; the Goodwins I
think
they call the place, a very dangerous flat and fatal, where
the
carcases of many a tall ship lie buried, as they say, if my
gossip Report be an honest woman of her word.
SOLANIO. I would she were as lying a gossip in that as ever
knapp'd
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!-
SALERIO. Come, the full stop.
SOLANIO. Ha! What sayest thou? Why, the end is, he hath lost a
ship.
SALERIO. I would it might prove the end of his losses.
SOLANIO. 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 knew, none so well, none so well as you, of my
daughter's flight.
SALERIO. That's certain; I, for my part, knew the tailor that
made
the wings she flew withal.
SOLANIO. And Shylock, for his own part, knew the bird was
flidge;
and then it is the complexion of them all to leave the dam.
SHYLOCK. She is damn'd for it.
SALERIO. That's certain, if the devil may be her judge.
SHYLOCK. My own flesh and blood to rebel!
SOLANIO. Out upon it, old carrion! Rebels it at these years?
SHYLOCK. I say my daughter is my flesh and my blood.
SALERIO. 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
us'd 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.
SALERIO. 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 disgrac'd me and hind'red me half a
million; laugh'd at my losses, mock'd 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
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