The Merchant of Venice Read Online Free PDF

   I pray you think 71 you question with the Jew:
     You may as well go stand upon the beach
     And bid the main flood 73 bate his usual height,
     Or even as well use question 74 with the wolf
     Why he hath made the ewe bleat for the lamb.
     You may as well forbid the mountain pines
     To wag 77 their high tops and to make no noise
     When they are fretted 78 with the gusts of heaven.
     You may as well do anything most hard 79
     As seek to soften that— than 80 which what harder?—
     His Jewish heart: therefore, I do beseech you
     Make no more offers, use no further means,
     But with all brief and plain conveniency 83
     Let me have judgement and the Jew his will.
    BASSANIO    For thy three thousand ducats here is six.
    SHYLOCK    If every ducat in six thousand ducats
     Were in six parts and every part a ducat,
     I would not draw 88 them. I would have my bond!
    DUKE    How shalt thou hope for mercy, rend’ring 89 none?
    SHYLOCK    What judgement shall I dread, doing no wrong 90 ?
     You have among you many a purchased slave,
     Which, like your asses and your dogs and mules,
     You use in abject and in slavish parts 93 ,
     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 seasoned with such viands 98 ? You will answer
     ‘The slaves are ours.’ So do I answer you:
     The pound of flesh which I demand of him
     Is dearly bought, ’tis 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 104 judgement. Answer: shall I have it?
    DUKE    Upon my power I may dismiss this court,
     Unless Bellario, a learnèd doctor,
     Whom I have sent for to determine this,
     Come here today.
    SALERIO    My lord, here stays without 109
     A messenger with letters from the doctor,
     New come from Padua.
    DUKE    Bring us the letters. Call the messenger.
    BASSANIO    Good cheer, Antonio! What, man, courage yet!
     The Jew shall have my flesh, blood, bones and all,
     Ere thou shalt lose for me one drop of blood.
    ANTONIO    I am a tainted 116 wether of the flock,
      Meetest 117 for death. The weakest kind of fruit
     Drops earliest to the ground, and so let me;
     You cannot better be employed, Bassanio,
     Than to live still and write mine epitaph.
    Enter Nerissa
[
dressed like a law clerk
]
    DUKE    Came you from Padua, from Bellario?
    NERISSA    From both. My lord Bellario greets your
         grace.
    She gives the Duke a letter while
Shylock whets his knife on his shoe
    BASSANIO    Why dost thou whet thy knife so earnestly?
    SHYLOCK    To cut the forfeiture from that bankrupt
         there.
    GRATIANO    Not on thy sole, but on thy soul, harsh Jew,
     Thou mak’st thy knife keen 126 . But no metal can,
     No, not the hangman’s 127 axe, bear half the keenness
     Of thy sharp envy. Can no prayers pierce thee?
    SHYLOCK    No, none that thou hast wit enough to make.
    GRATIANO    O, be thou damned, inexecrable 130 dog!
     And for thy life 131 let justice be accused.
     Thou almost mak’st me waver in my faith
     To hold opinion with Pythagoras 133 ,
     That souls of animals infuse themselves
     Into the trunks of men. Thy currish 135 spirit
     Governed a wolf who, hanged for human slaughter,
     Even from the gallows did his fell 137 soul fleet,
     And, whilst thou lay’st in thy unhallowed 138 dam,
     Infused itself in thee, for thy desires
     Are wolvish, bloody, starved and