The Merchant of Venice (✓)

Chapter Six

Salerio and Solanio arrived at the inn at the same time and lingered in the street.

'Well now,' said Solanio. 'What's the news on the Rialto?'

Salerio shook his head gravely. 'There's a rumour going around that one of Antonio's most richly laden ships was wrecked in the Channel – the Goodwins, I think they call the spot: a very dangerous and fatal sandbank, where the carcasses of many tall ships lie buried, if the stories are true.'

'I hope they aren't, but it's certainly true, without putting too fine a point on it, that the good Antonio, the honest Antonio – oh I wish I could find the words to describe him adequately...'

'Come on,' Salerio urged. 'Finish your sentence.'

Solanio was staring out towards the open sea. 'What? What are you saying?' he said. 'Well, anyway, the end result is that he has lost a ship.'

'I hope that will turn out to be the full extent of his losses,' said Salerio.

'Let me say amen at once,' agreed Solanio, 'in case the devil confounds my prayer, because here he comes in the form of a Jew!'

Shylock was going somewhere in a hurry.

'Hello Shylock,' said Solanio, as he came past them. 'What news among the merchants?' He nudged Salerio.
Shylock's face was gaunt as he stopped and faced them full on. 'You knew!' he snapped, shaking his finger at them, 'none as well as you – of my daughter's flight.'

'Absolutely,' said Salerio. 'For my own part, I knew the tailor who made the wings she flew with.'

Solanio put his arm across Shylock's shoulders. 'And Shylock, for his own part, knew the bird was ready to fly, and in any case it's natural for all of them to leave the nest.'

Shylock pushed his arm away. 'She's damned for it!' he cried.

'That's certain.' Salerio winked at Solanio. 'If the devil's her judge.'

'My own flesh and blood to rebel!' cried Shylock.

'Shame on you, you old scarecrow!' exclaimed Solanio. 'At your age?'

'I mean my daughter, who is my flesh and blood,' said Shylock.

Salerio laughed. 'There's more difference between your flesh and hers than there is between jet and ivory, more difference in your blood than between red wine and Rhine wine. But tell us now, have you heard whether Antonio has had any loss at sea or not?'

'That's another bad deal I have,' said Shylock. 'A bankrupt. A prodigal, who hardly dares show his face on the Rialto: a beggar, who used to come so smugly into the market place. Let him look to his bond! He always calls me a usurer. Just let him look to his bond! He used to lend money as a Christian courtesy. He'd better honour his bond.'

'Well I'm sure that if he fails you won't take his flesh. What could you use it for?' said Salerio.

'To bait fish with!' snapped Shylock. 'If it will feed nothing else it will feed my revenge! He has insulted me and obstructed me half a million times. He has laughed at my losses, mocked my gains, scorned my race, thwarted my deals, alienated my friends, inflamed my enemies. And what's his reason? That I am a Jew! Hasn't a Jew got eyes? Hasn't a Jew got hands, organs, limbs, senses, likes and dislikes, passions? Fed with the same food, injured by the same weapons, vulnerable to the same diseases, healed by the same medicine, 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, won't we seek revenge? If a Jew wrongs a Christian, what is his recourse? Revenge! If a Christian wrongs a Jew, what should the penalty be by Christian example? Revenge, of course. I will carry out the villainy you teach me. And even though it will be hard, I will even outdo that villainy!'