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 that 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 the instruction.
The whole of the trial scene, both before and after the entrance of
Portia, is a masterpiece of dramatic skill. The legal acuteness, the
passionate declamations, the sound maxims of jurisprudence, the wit
and irony interspersed in it, the fluctuations of hope and fear in
the different persons, and the completeness and suddenness of the
catastrophe, cannot be surpassed. Shylock, who is his own counsel,
defends himself well, and is triumphant on all the general topics
that are urged against him, and only Tails through a legal flaw.
Take the following as an instance:
Shylock. What judgment shall I dread, doing no wrong? You have among
you many a purchas'd slave, Which, like your asses, and your dogs,
and mules, You use in abject and in slavish part, Because you bought
them:--shall I say to you, Let them be free, marry them to your
heirs? Why sweat they under burdens? let their beds Be made as soft
as yours, and let their palates Be season'd with such viands? you
will answer, The slaves are ours:--so do I answer you: The pound of
flesh, which I demand of him, Is dearly bought, is mine, and I will
have it; If you deny me, fie upon your law! There is no force in the
decrees of Venice: I stand for judgment: answer; shall I have it?
The keenness of his revenge awakes all his faculties; and he beats
back all opposition to his purpose, whether grave or gay, whether of
wit or argument, with an equal degree of eamestness and self-
possession.
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