1
SHAKESPEARE'S
The Merchant of Venice
in
AUSCHWITZ
A play by Tibor Egervari
To L . and P .
@ 1999 All rights reserved Tibor Egervari / Annick Leger
This is the final version of the reading that took place on
September 26th, 1998, at the University of Ottawa, as part of
"Homecoming 1998" .
@ 1999 All rights reserved Tibor Eaervari / Annick Leaer
This is the third version of the play . None of these, whether
readings or full-scale productions, could have been possible
without the unwavering support of the University of Ottawa and its
Department of Theatre . To them I extend my greatest thanks, as well
as to those of my colleagues who corrected, designed, costumed,
rehearsed and performed one or more of these versions .
Close and occasional friends, whether Jewish or not, the
Montreal's Holocaust Memorial Centre and a few representatives of
Jewish organizations have also put their trust in this project .
They know how essential their support was to me, and I am all the
more grateful because they offered it when I was faced with
adversity .
T. E.
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FOREWORD
This play is a product of my imagination .
There was no
theatrical activities
in Auschwitz such as the orchestral
organizations in Theresienstadt or elsewhere .
In any other situation this
however, Auschwitz is different .
clarification would suffice,
The sole mention of the name "Auschwitz" horrifies any
.reasonable human being, all the more so if one was, as I, born a
Jew in Hungary just before the war . The name is the symbol of pure
evil, and we never pronounced it without lowering our voices . To
adopt such a context for theatrical work could therefore appear
sacrilegious .
I am Jewish and I am a man of the theatre . Shakespeare is the
very essence of all the theatre that I love, including The Merchant
It is a great play whose title, contrary to popular
of Venice .
belief, does not refer to Shylock, the Jew, but to Antonio, the
merchant . However, over the centuries, the former became the focus
of the play, both because of the depth of his character and the
anti-semitism he conveys . Other major themes in the play, such as
women's role in society, or the meaning of money in a changing
civilization, have been discarded in favor of innumerable attempts
to "justify" Shylock .
However, the man of theatre that I am craved to see the play
showing a Shylock as a Richard III : a "truly evil" Shylock . To
accomplish this, I had to adopt the point of view of a true
anti-semite . However, once I had chosen this fictitious character
and his context, the logic of my dramatic construction on the one
hand, and the Jew in me on the other, took over . Consequently,
Shakespeare's work became secondary when I was faced with the Shoah
which, for the first time in my life, I felt I could talk about
openly .
As I worked, not a day went by without my wondering whether my
voice was not sacrilegious . I cannot be sure, but deep within
myself I do not believe it is . May those who never returned from
their voyage into Hell forgive me for speaking about them in the
only language that I know, which is the language of the theatre .
Tibor Egervari
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List of Characters
The "Jews"
Shylock
Tubal
Jessica
The "Venetians"
Antonio
Bassanio
Lorenzo
Gratiano
The "Belmontesians"
Portia
Nerissa
The "Common Law"
Lancelot Gobbo
Shem-Tov is taken from Elie Wiesel's book
Editions du Seuil, 19 . . (?) and is cited
the
editor's
gracious
permission .
with
The
story
of
Baal
Celebrations hassidiques,
The original musical
Creatchman .
score
of
the last
scene
is
by
Gerald
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THE SET
The only
A three-level construction forms a closed set .
single
door
which
must
have
a
lock
and
key .
access is through a
The whole centre of the stage is taken up by an elevated
floor . This is the middle level . On three sides of the stage are
cages, whose doors, facing the riser, can be padlocked . The floor
of the cages is well below the riser, so there are steps leading
down to them .
Each cage has above it a "dressing room" . Shylock's dressing
room, which is on stage-right, contains a sofa, a table, a chair
and a screen behind which he can change . On stage-left is
Jessica's dressing room . Her furniture is similar to Shylock's but
without the sofa . In the middle and up-stage is Tubal's dressing
room, facing the audience . It only contains a coat peg, the stage
manager's table and a chair . On the table there are all kinds of
objects needed by the stage manager, a 78 r .p .m . turn table, etc .
The chair is placed in such a way as to enable a seated Tubal to
survey the middle level while fully facing the audience .
The three dressing rooms are linked by two passageways which
go through Tubal's dressing room . They can be accessed by two
staircases, one from stage-right and the other from stage-left .
It is preferable to use a front-stage curtain for the
beginning and the end of the play .
Scene one
(At the rise of the curtain the stage is dark . We hear a door
open and a bright flashlight shines on a woman being violently
pushed towards centre-stage where she falls . She is wearing the
Auschwitz prisoner's uniform . The flashlight bearer - Tubal, who
is wearing the SS uniform - closes the door and goes to the woman
- Nerissa - and kicks her . She yells and tries to get away from
him . Tubal catches up with her and pins her to the floor with one
hand and a knee . Winded, Nerissa freezes .
Then a pale light washes over the stage and reveals the set .
From stage-right, in the Jews' cage, we see Antonio, Gratiano and
Bassanio watching the scene, while Lorenzo is withdrawn in a
position we could imagine akin to prayer, although he is not
kneeling . In the middle cage, Lancelot Gobbo is watching Tubal's
actions with the discreet admiration of the connoisseur . Portia,
in the cage stage-left, hides her face . All these characters are
in the prisoner's uniform .
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Higher up, centre-stage, where Tubal's stage-managing quarters
are located, stands Shylock .
He is in his thirties, dressed in
sports clothes
black shorts, white vest - a towel around his
neck . He is the one who turned on the light . He signals to Tubal
who lifts Nerissa up and turns her towards him .)
Shylock :
She's the one .
Search her!
(Tubal searches Nerissa whose pockets reveal a bit of bread,
half a carrot, a piece of scrap that could be a file, two spoons
and a somewhat luxurious comb .
Tubal goes on with his work, and
his hands move down to Nerissa's lower belly .
She pushes him away
with a strength he did not expect .
Only a gesture from Shylock
With both hands, she
stops him from knocking her senseless .
Then,
trying
to
hide
from their gaze, she
signals them to wait .
puts her hand under her skirt and retrieves a ring that she gives
to Tubal .
He takes it, whistles, and hands it to Shylock who
examines it and smiles .
Tubal tries to pursue his search, but
Nerissa steps back and with another gesture of her two hands
signals that she has no more . Tubal looks to Shylock who nods his
assent .)
Shylock : (Setting the ring on the stage-manager's table and still
watching her) Well, you're skillful and you don't steal
just anything! I suppose you can also read palms . What
can you predict for our friend, Tubal . (To Tubal) Give
her your hand .
(Tubal reluctantly complies .)
Nerissa : (Examining Tubal's hands) You'll be promoted . You'll
find a treasure and will live long . But I can barely
make out the heart line . . .
Shylock : That's not very original . You could have predicted him
a short trip to the enemy front, with an heroic gesture
and a beautiful decoration . Or a week at home with the
gorgeous Helga and a keg of beer .
(Throwing her a
script) Read this where it says "Nerissa" . That'll be
your part . It's not difficult, but I'm pressed for time
and if you don't catch on quickly enough . . .
Nerissa : (Terrified, but keeping a grip on herself) Yes, sir .
Scene 2
(With a gesture, Tubal motions her to the cage on stage-left .
He then removes the padlocks on the cages, starting with the one in
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the middle . Lancelot Gobbo exits from it . We see he is holding a
cudgel, and he is wearing the distincive sign of the "kapo" . He
goes to centre-stage and waits for the other prisoners .
The Jews exit from the cage on stage-right . Their shoes have
wooden soles, and they run to grab a broom, a shovel and a pail of
water with a floor cloth . Bassanio sweeps, Antonio holds the pail,
Lorenzo washes the floor and Gratiano straightens out the piles of
jute bags that serve as beds . Finally, Tubal opens Portia's cage
who, coming out, finds herself face to face with Nerissa . The
latter, seeing that the triangle on Portia's jacket is similar to
hers, asks her skeptically)
Nerissa :
Romany chal?
Portia :
You must not speak romany here .
Nerissa :
Tout Gaje .
Portia :
No, but if you persist, you can foresee some more blows
coming your way .
Nerissa :
(Scornful)
Rani!
(She spits .)
Lancelot : (Closing in and forcing her with his cudgel to bend over
and wipe up her spittle) You didn't get it? Here, you
don't bark your bitch jargon . Make use of your time to
read your part .
(Nerissa takes her script and turns the pages, pretending to
read . Portia, who understands immediately, leans towards her and
asks her something in a very low voice . Nerissa, extremely
annoyed, shakes her head . Lancelot Gobbo, who seems to have caught
on as well, rushes over to Shylock's dressing room who, meanwhile,
has lain down on the sofa and is getting a massage from Tubal, his
head turned towards the stage .)
Lancelot : (Removing his hat and standing at attention) She can't
read, sir .
Shylock : (Bursts out laughing but still quite angrily)
just great! Idiot whore!
Tubal :
That's
Would you like me to find someone else?
Shylock : No! I chose her for her looks and her hands, not her
brain! I should have known better . But by keeping
company with the degenerate people of the Book, one
forgets about the pride of the primitive shit . (To
Portia) Here, the gypsy baroness! You'll help her . And
start by telling her the story . (To Nerissa) Do you at
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least know what a play is?
Nerissa :
Yes, sir .
Shylock : Bravo! This one is by Shakespeare . You have heard of
Shakespeare, haven't you? I guess you people would place
him next to Schiller on the shelf, right? (He is amused
and proud of his own joke) Go on, baroness, we're
listening .
Portia :
It's the story of a Jewish usurer .
Shylock : (Interrupting her) Stinking Yid . A stinking usurer Yid .
Portia :
. . . a stinking usurer Yid named Shylock, who lends money
to Bassanio so he may go to Belmont to seduce and marry
the fair and rich Portia . . . and mostly her wealth .
Antonio, the merchant, the usurer's worst enemy, offers
to vouch for the loan and accepts by contract that if he
cannot pay it back to Shylock . . .
Shylock : (Interrupting her again)
Shylock!
Portia :
. . . to the stinking usurer Yid Shylock, this latter may
claim from him a pound of his flesh . On the eve of
Bassanio's departure for Belmont, Jessica, the only
daughter of the (slowly) stinking usurer Yid Shylock,
escapes with a Christian named Lorenzo, stealing from her
father a large amount of money and jewelry . Before his
death, Portia's father had decided that his daughter
would marry the suitor who chose the right one among
three caskets - one of gold, one of silver and one of
lead . Bassanio wins, but his joy fades as he hears the
news of Antonio's ruin . Unable to honor his debt, he is
obliged to deal with the stinking usurer Yid Shylock's
vengeance who demands his pound of flesh, meaning the
death of Antonio . Bassanio rushes back to Venice with
Portia's money . The Duke of Venice, wishing to save
Antonio, calls a learned judge to his help . The latter
sends Portia in his stead, accompanied by Nerissa, her
maid, and both are disguised as men of law . Thanks to
Portia's shrewdness, the stinking usurer Yid Shylock is
forced to give up his wealth, to accept his daughter's
wedding and to become a convert . After the trial . . .
Shylock : (Interrupting her)
All together now . . .
All :
To the stinking usurer Yid
Everybody is happy, except for . . .
The stinking usurer Yid Shylock .
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(While this is going on, the Jews finish their chores under
At one point,
the supervision of the "kapo" Lancelot Gobbo .
slips
him
a
small
prayerbook .
Gratiano moves up to Lorenzo and
Lorenzo quickly puts it in his pocket, handling it with particular
care . Shylock and Tubal see this but, when the latter tries to
intervene, Shylock stops him .)
Scene 3
Tubal :
Attention! Formation!
(All the prisoners line up in front of Tubal, their backs to
the public, and stand at attention . Portia helps Nerissa take her
place . Tubal looks at them and then reads the names in the order
in which they appear on the list of characters, omitting the names
of the Jews . Each time, a clear and sharp "present" is heard .
When Nerissa hesitates, Lancelot Gobbo, who was expecting this and
had already placed himself behind her, smacks her . At the end of
this ritual :)
Tubal :
About turn left, left!
(All obey and find themselves facing Shylock, who looks at
them while still lying on his stomach on the sofa, covered with a
large towel .)
Shylock : Bassanio, come here boy, come so I may give you the
thought of the day .
(Bassanio goes up, takes the piece of paper, stops in the
middle of the stairs on stage-right and reads :)
Bassanio :
"No more than Nature desires the mating of
weaker and stronger individuals, far less does she
desire the mixing of a higher with a lower race,
for then her whole work of higher breeding, which
has perhaps taken hundreds of thousands of years,
might be ruined at one blow .
"Historical experience offers innumerable
proofs of this . It shows with horrendous clarity
that with any mixing of Aryan blood with that of
lower races, the result was the end of the cultured
people . North America, whose population consists
for the greatest part of Germanic elements who
mixed but little with the lower coloured races,
shows a different humanity and culture from those
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of Central and South America, where at times the
predominantly Latin immigrants mixed with the
aborigines on a large scale . By this example alone
one can clearly and distinctly recognize the
effects of racial mixture . The Germanic inhabitant
of the North American continent, who has remained
racially pure and less mixed, has risen to be
master of the continent . He will remain so until he
too falls victim to defilement of the blood .
"Therefore, the result of any crossbreeding is
always, in brief, the following :
a) A lowering of the standard of the higher race ;
b)
Physical and mental regression, and
therefore, the onset of a slowly but surely
pogressing sickness .
"To bring about such a development means
nothing less than to sin against the will of
the Eternal Creator ."
(Mein Kampf, chapter XI, "Nation and Race")
Heil Hitler!
All :
Heil Hitler!
(Bassanio gives the piece of paper to Tubal who neatly puts it
away . Bassanio returns to his place . Tubal places a waltz record
on the 78 r .p .m . turntable and says :)
Scene 4
Tubal :
AttentionGo!
(The morning exercises begin . It is a mix of gymnastics and
warm-ups for actors, as practiced in the "good" theatre schools of
the 1930's . It is a ritual . Tubal goes about the stage to correct
certain movements without any animosity, though still somewhat
rudely . With the intent of doing well, Nerissa sprains her ankle
and falls . Tubal, passing by her, grabs her by the hair and brings
her up without even looking at her . She falls back . Upon a signal
from Shylock, Tubal leaves her and climbs up to massage him . This
goes on for the rest of the waltz . Nerissa remains on the floor .
All freeze at the end and wait . Taking his time, Tubal finishes
his work and then whistles . Antonio and Bassanio run off into the
wings on stage-left and come back with a huge cooking pot . The
prisoners fetch their bowls and spoons, line up, are given their
"breakfast" and return to their cells to eat . Setting down her
bowl, Portia goes out and returns with a serving tray : breakfast
for the "Jews" which she brings up to the two dressing rooms . As
Nerissa tries to do like the others)
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Shylock :
Wait! Since you prefer to be so close to the floor, well
then, you will eat on the floor . ., without your hands .
(She hesitates then does as told . Breakfast goes on . Shylock
has put on his bathrobe and has covered his head . Tubal has
dressed as well . Shylock gives Tubal a large black book from which
he reads out loud one of the stories of the Baal Shem-Tov .)
Scene 5
Tubal :
"And it came to pass that the great Rebbe Israel Baal
Shem Tov, Master of the Good Name, known for his powers
in heaven as well as on earth, decided to try once more
to force the Creator's hand .
The heavens were in an uproar . The angels were
dancing . Red with anger, outraged, Satan demanded an
audience with God . Brought before Him, he protested,
invoking laws and precedents, history and reason . Look
at man's impudence, he said, how dare he take things in
his own hands? Does the world deserve redemption? And
the conditions to warrant the Messiah's coming, have they
been met?
God listened . And had to recognize the validity of
Satan's arguments :
Lo ikhshar dara, the Rebbe's gesture
was judged premature ; his generation was not yet ready
for a miracle of such magnitude . Moreover, since the
order of creation may not be disturbed with impunity, he
and his faithful scribe Reb Tzvi-Hersch Soifer were
deported to a distant uncharted island . Where they were
promptly taken prisoners by a band of pirates .
Never had the Master been so submissive, so
resigned .
"Master", the scribe pleaded, "do something, say
something!"
"I can't ," said the Baal Shem tov, "my powers are gone ."
"What about your secret knowledge, your divine gifts?
What happened to them?
"Forgotten," said the Master . "Disappeared, vanished .
All my knowledge has been taken away ;
I remember
nothing ."
But when he saw Hersh Soifer's despair, he was moved
to pity . "Don't give up," he said, "we still have one
chance . You are here, and that is good . For you can
save us . There must be one thing I taught you that you
remember . Anything -- a parable, a prayer . Anything
will do ."
Unfortunately, the scribe too had forgotten
everything . Like his Master, he was a man without
memory .
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"You really remember nothing," the Master asked again,
"nothing at all?"
"Nothing Master . Except . . ."
" . . .except what?"
" . . .aleph, beith ."
"Then what are you waiting for?" shouted the Master,
suddenly excited . "Start reciting! Right now!"
Obedient as always, the scribe proceeded to recite
slowly, painfully, the first of the sacred letters which
together contain all the mysteries of the entire
universe :
"Aleph, beith, gimmel, daleth . . ."
And the Master, impatiently, repeated after him :
"Aleph, beith, guimmel, daleth . . ."
Then, they started all over again from the
beginning . And their voices became stronger and clearer :
aleph, beith, gimmel, daleth . . .until the Baal Shem became
so entranced that he forgot who and where he was . When
the Baal-Shem was in such ecstasy, nothing could resist
him, that is well known . Obliviously to the world, he
transcended the laws of time and geography . He broke the
chains, and revoked the curse : Master and scribe found
themselves back home, unharmed, richer, wiser and more
nostalgic than ever before . The Messiah had not come ."
Scene 6
(The prisoners listen . Suddenly, Shylock pretends to realize)
Shylock : It interests you, right? Stinking goys! My people's
to .Lment interests you, you lick your lips and savor your
vile Jews' stories! I want to hear them! Stop eating! I
want you to tell me one of your jokes . Tubal, my good
man, make sure they do not eat before they have told
their jokes .
(Tubal does as told and :)
Gratiano : A Jew is travelling side by side with a German, who is
asleep . Suddenly, the Jew gets sick and pukes all over
the German . Shortly after, the German wakes up and looks
at himself in bewilderment . The Jew turns to him with a
condescending smirk on his face, shakes his head and asks
him gently : "So, feeling better now?"
Shylock : That one's too subtle ; you have worse ones .
Gratiano : An Englishman, a Frenchman and a Jew have a contest .
It's about who will last the longest locked up with a
skunk . After ten minutes the Englishman cannot stand it
any more and comes out . The Frenchman follows him out
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after fifteen minutes . Half an hour later the door opens
and out comes, totally disgusted, the skunk!
Tubal :
Fall in!
(After having quickly put away their bowls in their cages, all
stand in the middle of the stage in a waiting position, as in an
Portia joins them after having taken away
acting workshop .
Shylock's and Tubal's trays, as well as the empty cooking pot .
Nerissa has trouble getting up from the floor . Tubal comes down
and without a word pops her ankle back into place, as a peasant
would with one of his animals, showing no emotions . She screams .
He picks her up and forces her to walk about . She barely manages
it, but the pain diminishes . Obviously, Tubal knows what he's
doing . When she is finally walking reasonably well, Tubal stops
her and :)
Tubal :
What do we say?
Nerissa : Thank you .
(Tubal hits her .)
Nerissa : Thank you, sir .
Scene 7
(All the prisoners remain standing, motionless .
One
understands that this is part of some ritual to which they are
accustomed .
Tubal returns to his place and waits, sitting .
Shylock rehearses his own part . He recites the script from Act
one, scene 3 .)
Shylock :
This was a way to thrive, and he was blest :
And thrift is blessing, if men steal it not .
(He repeats it several times : he is not satisfied with the
inflection .)
Shylock : Here is Israel : theft is not theft . (To Gratiano) You,
the banker, what is theft to you?
Gratiano : I am not . . . (correcting himself) I was not a banker . I
was a bank clerk .
Shylock : A well paid Jewish bank clerk who made a lot of money by
sucking on German blood . Evictions, confiscations and an
army of bailiffs at your service .
Gratiano : I assure you . . .
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Shylock :
Shut up!
Gratiano :
(The ways of his past professional life coming back to
him) If you wish to borrow on the grounds of an adequate
security loan, we could consider . . .
Offer me a loan .
Shylock : Now that's the honest tone! Antonio's loan is the
security, and you present it in an amiable tone . But
what betrays you is the look you cannot hide . Lean over
a bit . Roll your shoulders . Rub your hands together and
drool . Drool, I say! From Jacob to Shylock to the bank
clerk . (To Nerissa) And you? How do you steal? Show
me . (To Tubal) Come here . (Indicating him to Nerissa)
Steal something from him!
Nerissa : Captain, sir, I don't steal . I read palms but I don't
steal . I'm not a thief .
Shylock : You have two minutes to steal something of his .
grabs Tubal's revolver .)
(He
(In a panic, Nerissa runs limping in and out among the
prisoners, who are still standing, as a child at play would do
among trees . Tubal runs after her instinctively, grabs her by the
waist and brings her back downstage .)
Tubal :
Stop fidgeting . (He tries to hit her .)
Nerissa : (As she speaks her lines, she stops and frees herself
from his grip .)
Mister officer, be kind, let go of me . I've nothing to
do with all this . All I got from all this is that it's
a story about Jews . In the barrack the children must be
crying . No-one will be taking care of them . I'm not a
Jew and I can't do a thing . I can't even read . You've
got to send me back to the barrack . Would you like me to
tell you your fortune? At the barrack, I've got a deck
of cards . With it, I can predict everything . I also
have an amulet that protects from . . .
Shylock :
10, 9, 8,7 , 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 . . .
(Nerissa produces from her pocket one of Tubal's decorations
that had been on his chest . Enraged, Tubal grabs it from her .)
Shylock : That wasn't much . It was too easy . (Still aiming at her
with the gun .)
(Nerissa opens her other hand in which she holds three
bullets . Stupor and tension . Everyone freezes . Finally, Shylock
bursts out laughing .)
14
Shylock :
Why three?
Nerissa : I only found three .
Shylock :
Oh, but see!
There were six in his cartridge belt . So,
it could be one of two things : you either took something
at random, and if so, it can't be called a real theft, or
you are a thief and stole three on purpose . (He toys
with the bullets and the revolver .)
(Nerissa stubbornly keeps quiet . Finally, Portia intervenes
over Nerissa's mumble of insults :
"Gadje, Gadje!")
Portia :
It's because of the three nails .
Shylock :
What three nails?
Portia : The Roman soldiers had ordered twelve nails from the
gypsy blacksmith . The latter delivered nine when he
found out that they were meant for the execution of Jesus
and the two thieves . He then gave his son the remaining
three, the ones that were meant to pierce the hearts, and
ordered him to run away . Jesus, crucified, recognized
the father, smiled at him and ever since the gypsies have
the right to steal .
Shylock : Fabulous! And to think that Shakespeare didn't know
this! How fortunate for you to be able to justify your
infamy through the Holy Writ . How does Antonio put it
again? Give me the line!
Antonio : (Reading from the script) Mark you this Bassanio,
The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose .
An evil soul producing holy witness
Is like a villain with a smiling cheek,
A goodly apple rotten at the heart :
0, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!
Shylock : (Going towards Lorenzo) Just like this darling fresh out
of a Yeshiva . It's more demanding than to sway to and
fro all day in your school of parasites, hey? And you
also steal . And you also justify yourself with Jacob,
right? But as I recall, this Jacob, he went through life
deceiving and cheating everyone . The right to seniority
for a bowl of lentils, Laban's sheep, not to mention
Laban's daughter and one of Jacob's wives, Rachel,
another Yid, who, leaving her daddy's home didn't forget
to rob him . . . and what else?
Lorenzo : Jacob was blessed by the Eternal .
Shylock : You've all been blessed to have the right to behave like
15
pigs!
I suppose you too have received personal
permission (retrieving the small prayerbook from
Lorenzo's pocket) to steal this . (He holds the book as
if it were bait .) How do you call the One who gives you
authorization? Yh . . .
Say it! Say it!
(Lorenzo shakes his head ever so slightly . So, upon a signal
from Shylock, Tubal comes down and gives Lorenzo a stiff right to
the stomach that almost causes him to faint . Shylock straightens
him up by the hair and stuffs the book in his mouth .)
Shylock :
You see .
It's He who forbids you to talk!
rehearse the scene between Antonio and Bassanio .
Tubal :
Positions!
We'll
Scene 8
(All retire to their cages except Antonio and Bassanio who
remain centre-stage . They rehearse reading the script, while
performing the blocking that seems to have been settled .)
Antonio :
Well, tell me now what lady is the same
To whom you swore a secret pilgrimage,
That you to-day promised to tell me of?
Bassanio :
'Tis not unknown to you, Antonio,
How much I have disabled mine estate,
By something showing a more swelling port
Than my faint means would grant continuance :
Nor do I now make moan to be abridged
From such a noble rate ; but my chief care
is to come fairly off from the great debts
Wherein my time something too prodigal
Hath left me gaged . To you, Antonio,
I owe the most, in money and in love,
And from your love I have a warranty
To unburden all my plots and purposes
How to get clear of all the debts I owe .
Antonio :
I pray you, good Bassanio, let me know it ;
And if i t stand, as you yourself still do,
Within the eye of honor, be assured,
My purse, my person, me extremest means,
Lie all unlock'd to your occasions .
Bassanio : In my school-days, when I had lost one shaft,
I shot his fellow of the self-same flight
16
The self-same way with more advised watch,
To find the other forth, and by adventuring both
I oft found both : I urge this childhood proof,
Because what follows is pure innocence .
I owe you much, and, like a wilful youth,
That which I owe is lost : but if you please
To shoot another arrow that self way
Which you did shoot the first, I do not doubt,
As I will watch the aim, or to find both
Or bring your latter hazard back again
And thankfully rest debtor for the first .
Antonio :
You know me well, and herein spend but time
To wind about my love with circumstance ;
And out of doubt you do me now more wrong
In making question of my uttermost
Than if you had made waste of all I have :
Then do but say to me what I should do
That in your knowledge may by me be done,
And I am prest unto it : therefore, speak .
Bassanio : In Belmont is a lady richly left ;
And she is fair and, fairer than that word,
Of wondrous virtues : sometimes from her eyes
I did receive fair speechless messages :
Her name is Portia, nothing undervalued
To Cato's daughter, Brutus' Portia :
Nor is the wide world ignorant of her worth,
For the four winds blow in from every coast
Renowned suitors .
O my Antonio, had I but the means
To hold a rival place with one of them,
I have a mind presages me such thrift,
That I should questionless be fortunate!
Antonio :
Thou know'st that all my fortunes are at sea ;
Neither have I money nor commodity
To raise a present sum : therefore go forth ;
Try what my credit can in Venice do :
That shall be rack'd, even to the uttermost,
To furnish thee to Belmont, to fair Portia .
Go, presently inquire, and so will I,
Where money is, and I no question make
To have it of my trust or for my sake .
(Shylock, who came forward, half dressed, at the beginning of
the scene and has been watching attentively, now obviously does not
agree with the acting . He comes running down .)
17
Scene9
Shylock :
(To Antonio) Listen, you idiot!
You love this man, you
hear me? You're jealous of him . And you act as a saint
because you can't help yourself . As Salanio puts it : "I
think he only loves the world for him ." Is that clear?
He will conquer the love of a woman with your money!
Isn't hypocrisy the daily bread of lawyers? A trade that
fits you Jews to a tee . You are worse scoundrels than
the scoundrels you represent! (Changing his tone of
voice :) According to a theory of acting, one must find
his character in his sensory, emotional memory . Recall
one of your worse hypocrisies .
Antonio : (Who seems to be used to this kind of "session") At the
Jewish Council, I used to say that it did not exist .
Shylock : What's that?
Antonio : This, here .
Shylock : And why did you use to say that?
Antonio : Because I never thought that I, that my family, we could
also . . .
Shylock : Ah! You thought the moneybags like you would remain nice
and cozy, like the worm in the fruit, and that you could
continue to corrupt the German people from within, as if
nothing had happened . Hey, is that what you thought?
(Shylock slaps him)
Antonio : I thought we would ride it out .
Sylock :
And not the others, right?
Antonio : Yes . (Pause) But had we not helped with the selection,
it would have been everyone .
Shylock : And you would say to the selected that it did not exist .
Antonio : I didn't know really . It was only rumors . There was no
proof .
Shylock : Ah, I forgot, lawyers like proof . And now, do you have
proof? Do you think it exists?
Antonio : (Noticing that Lancelot has crept up on him and is
18
holding his cudgel over his head .) No .
Shylock : Say it really loud : "It does not exist!"
Antonio : It does not exist .
Shylock : Louder!
Antonio : It does not exist!
Shylock : Good .
You see, that's hypocrisy, because it exists,
whereas for you . . . Take it from your last line .
Antonio : (He does as he is told . Suddenly, Antonio seems to be
acting with a certain delight, as if he was freeing
himself of a burden .)
Thou know'st that all my fortunes are at sea ;
Neither have I money nor commodity
To raise a present sum : therefore go forth ;
Try what my credit can in Venice do :
That shall be rack'd, even to the uttermost,
To furnish thee to Belmont, to fair Portia .
Go, presently inquire, and so will I,
Where money is, and I no question make
To have it of my trust or for my sake .
Scene 10
Shylock : That's better . Are you girls ready? Here, Tubal found
you some oriental princess' costumes, put them on and
make it snappy!
(Portia and Nerissa change in their cage while Tubal holds
them in the beam of his flashlight .)
Shylock : (To Nerissa) Just stand to the side and do your lines
from there . The baroness will move for you both .
(Noticing Nerissa's fright) That's right, you can't
read . Illiterate! Lorenzo! Since you like to read so
much, you'll prompt her . But look out for the cuts!
(And so, Nerissa's script is first said by Lorenzo to be
repeated by Nerissa . It must be apparent that Lorenzo and Nerissa,
hesitant at first, manage to master the art of prompting on the one
part and the art of being prompted on the other .)
Portia :
By my troth, Nerissa, my little body is aweary of this
great world .
19
Portia :
You would be, sweet madam, if your miseries were in the
same abundance as your good fortunes are : and yet, for
aught I see, they are as sick that surfeit with too much
as they that starve with nothing .
It is no mean
happiness therefore, to be seated in the mean :
superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but competency
lives longer .
Good sentences and well pronounced.
Nerissa :
They would be better, if well followed .
Portia :
If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do,
chapels had been churches and poor men's cottages
princes' palaces . It is a good divine that follows his
own instructions : I can easier teach twenty what were
good to be done, than be one of the twenty to follow mine
own teaching . The brain may devise laws for the blood,
but a hot temper leaps o'er a cold decree : such a hare
is madness the youth, to skip o'er the meshes of good
counsel the cripple . But this reasoning is not in the
fashion to choose me a husband . 0 me, the word "choose!"
I may neither choose whom I would nor refuse whom I
dislike ; so is the will of a living daughter curbed by
the will of a dead father . Is it not hard, Nerissa, that
I cannot choose one nor refuse none?
Nerissa :
Your father was ever virtuous ; and holy men at their
death have good inspirations : therefore the lottery,
that he hath devised in these three chests of gold,
silver, and lead, whereof who chooses his meaning chooses
you, will, no doubt, never be chosen by any rightly but
one who shall rightly love . But what warmth is there in
your affection towards any of these princely suitors that
are already come?
Portia :
I pray thee, over-name them : and as thou namest them, I
will describe them ; and, according to my description,
level at my affection .
Nerissa :
First, there is the Neapolitan prince .
Portia :
Ay, that's a colt indeed, for he doth nothing but talk of
his horse ; and he makes it a great appropriation to his
own good parts, that he can shoe him himself . I am much
afeard my lady his mother played false with a smith .
Nerissa :
Then there is the County Palatine .
Portia :
He doth nothing but frown, as who should say "If you will
Nerissa :
20
he hears merry tales and smiles
not have me, choose" :
not : I fear he will prove the weeping philosopher when
he grows old, being so full of unmannerly sadness in his
youth . I had rather be married to a death's-head with a
bone in his mouth than to either of these . God defend me
from these two!
Nerissa :
How say you by the French lord, Monsieur Le Bon?
Portia :
God made him, and therefore let him pass for a man . In
truth, I know it is a sin to be a mocker : but, he! why,
he hath a horse better than the Neapolitan's, a better
bad habit of frowning than the Count Palatine ; he is
every man in no man ; if a throstle sing, he falls
straight a capering : he will fence with his own shadow :
if I should marry him, I should marry twenty husbands .
if he would despise me, I would forgive him, for if he
love me to madness, I shall never requite him .
Nerissa :
What say you, then, to Falconbridge, the young baron of
England?
Shylock :
Wait!
(Cutting in at the beginning of Nerissa's line)
her
race!
(To Portia)
She still has some pride in
She'll soon lose it because of what she has between her
legs . But for now, she's still pure . She knows that she
musn't mix her race with the others . So, charge on! (To
Nerissa) Take your line again . (As Nerissa has a hard
A real
time understanding the process, he adds :)
natural!
Nerissa :
What say you, then, to Falconbridge, the young baron of
England?
Portia :
You know I say nothing to him, for he understands not me,
nor I him : he hath neither Latin, French, nor Italian,
and you will come into the court and swear that I have a
poor pennyworth in the English . He is a proper man's
picture, but, alas, who can converse with a dumb-show?
How oddly he is suited! I think he bought his doublet in
Italy, his round hose in France, his bonnet in Germany
and his behavior everywhere .
Nerissa :
What think you of the Scottish lord, his neighbor?
Portia :
That he hath a neighborly charity in him, for he borrowed
a box of the ear of the Englishman and swore he would pay
him again when he was able : I think the Frenchman became
his surety and sealed under for another .
21
Nerissa :
How like you
nephew?
the young German,
the Duke
of Saxony's
(Lorenzo and Nerissa have gotten carried away by the technique
of prompting, and are not aware of the meaning of the words .
Everyone freezes . Tubal pounds on the table and the ensuing
silence is unbearable . Lorenzo desperately searches for the end of
the cut . Finally :)
Lorenzo :
(Very quickly) You need not fear, lady, the having any of
these lords . . .
Nerissa :
You need not fear, lady, the having any of these lords :
they have acquainted me with their determinations : which
is, indeed, to return to their home and to trouble you
with no more suit, unless you may be won by some other
sort than your father's imposition depending on the
caskets .
Portia :
If I live to be as old as Sibylla, I will die as chaste
as Diana, unless I be obtained by the manner of my
father's will . I am glad this parcel of wooers are so
reasonable, for there is not one among them but I dote on
his very absence, and I pray God grant them a fair
departure .
Nerissa :
Do you not remember, lady, in your father's time, a
Venetian, a scholar and a soldier, that came hither in
company of the Marquis of Montferrat?
Portia :
Yes, yes, it was Bassanio ; as I think, he was so called .
Nerissa :
True, madam : he, of all the men that ever my foolish
eyes looked upon, was the best deserving a fair lady .
Portia :
I remember him well, and I remember him worthy of thy
praise .
(A ring is heard and Tubal leaves to answer .)
Shylock : (To Portia) Take the ending again . This is where her
conscience starts to evacuate through her nether parts .
(As they do the end again, Tubal returns and says something to
Shylock who interrupts the rehearsal .)
Shylock : Free the space . Jessica has arrived . We'll start again
later . (To Tubal) Introduce her and give her the gist
of it, I'm going to get dressed .
22
Scene 11
(In a flash, all prisoners return to their cages .
presents Jessica who enters carrying a small suitcase .)
Tubal
Tubal :
This our little home .
We live here, cloistered .
Jessica :
But, where are we?
came in .
Tubal :
That's a question I recommend you no longer ask . You are
here to serve the Reich . The lieutenant - I mean,
Shylock - was given all necessary authorizations . It's
about a project of the outmost importance .
The curtains were drawn in the car I
Jessica : I don't understand . I was told I would perform the role
of Jessica in The Merchant of Venice .
I learned the
part . Where's the theatre?
Tubal :
We're not there yet .
For now, we're rehearsing .
Jessica :
Here? These cages? Those people?
Tubal :
Come, I'll introduce you . The Venetians . Their yellow
star indicates they're Jews . Their parts : Antonio,
Bassanio the intellectual, Gratiano the petty banker, and
Lorenzo your lover . The servant Lancelot Gobbo, who's
your friend . Green triangle : condemned by common law
and kapo . A real tough guy! The princess and her ladyin-waiting . You can't see their black gypsy triangle
since they just changed into their costumes : Portia and
Nerissa . They were all chosen for their talent . Your
father Shylock will come soon . As for me, I am Tubal .
Jessica : (Forcing herself to speak in complete sentences in order
to regain her composure) Are those prisoners? Is this
a jail?
Tubal :
No, this is a work camp . Didn't you see the sign at the
entrance? "Freedom through work"?
(Lorenzo moans quietly .)
Tubal :
Jessica :
(Getting Lorenzo out of his cage .) A grown man such as
you, crying like this in front of his love? You're
working, aren't you? So? Of course, those who are not
apt to serve the Reich . . .
23
Tubal :
Well, what do you do with useless beasts?
(Pushes
Lorenzo back into the cage) There's your dressing room .
You are to remain in it during the day . At night, you'll
stay in a room . Your costume is waiting for you . Go and
get changed .
(As Jessica goes up, Shylock comes down by the other
staircase . He plants himself centre-stage in the position of
someone who awaits the beginning of a rehearsal . He's half-dressed
as a "traditional" Jew . Bassanio realizes it's his scene and comes
out of his cage, but not quickly enough for Tubal's taste who grabs
him by the collar and sends him centre-stage where Shylock
immediately begins his line, even before Bassanio can manage to
place himself . Shylock knows his script, whereas Bassanio holds
his in his hands .)
Scene 12
Shylock :
Three thousand ducats ; well .
Bassanio : Ay, sir, for three months .
Shylock :
For three months, well .
Bassanio : For the which, as I told you, Antonio shall be bound .
Shylock :
Antonio shall become bound ;
well .
Bassanio : May you stead me? Will you pleasure me? Shall I know
your answer?
Shylock
Three thousand ducats for three months and Antonio bound .
Bassanio :
Your answer to that .
Shylock :
Antonio is a good man .
Bassanio : Have you heard any imputation to the contrary?
Shylock :
Oh, no, no, no, no : my meaning in saying he is a good
man is to have you understand me that he is sufficient .
Yet his means are in supposition : he hath an argosy
bound to Tripolis, another to the Indies ; I understand,
moreover, upon the Rialto, he hath a third at Mexico, a
fourth for England, and other ventures he hath,
squandered abroad . But ships are but boards, sailors but
men : there be land-rats and water-rats, land-thieves and
water-thieves, I mean pirates, and then there is the
peril of waters, winds, and rocks .
The man is,
notwithstanding, sufficient . Three thousand ducats ; I
24
think I may take his bond .
Bassanio : Be assured you may .
Shylock :
I will be assured I may ; and, that I may be assured, I
will bethink me . May I speak with Antonio?
Bassanio : If it please you to dine with us .
Shylock :
Yes, to smell pork ; to eat of the habitation which your
prophet the Nazarite conjured the devil into . I will buy
with you, sell with you, talk with you, walk with you,
and so following, but I will not eat with you, drink with
you, nor pray with you . What news on the Rialto? Who is
he comes here?
(Enter Antonio)
Bassanio :
This is Signior Antonio .
Shylock :
(Aside) How like a fawning publican he looks!
I hate him for he is a Christian,
But more for that in low simplicity
He lends out money gratis and brings down
The rate of usance here with us in Venice .
If I can catch him once upon the hip,
I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him .
He hates our sacred nation, and he rails,
Even there where merchants most do congregate,
On me, my bargains, and my well-won thrift,
Which he calls interest . Cursed be my tribe,
If I forgive him!
Bassanio : (Turns)
Shylock :
Shylock, do you hear?
I am debating of my present store,
And, by the near guess of my memory,
I cannot instantly raise up the gross
Of full three thousand ducats . What of that?
Tubal, a wealthy Hebrew of my tribe,
Will furnish me . But soft! how many months
Do you desire?
(To Antonio) Rest you fair, good signior ;
Your worship was the last man in our mouths .
Antonio :
Shylock, although I neither lend nor borrow
By taking nor by giving of excess,
Yet, to supply the ripe wants of my friend,
25
I'll break a custom .
How much ye would?
Shylock :
Is he yet possess'd
Ay, ay, three thousand ducats .
Antonio :
And for three months .
Shylock :
I had forgot ; three months ; you told me so .
Well then, your bond ; and let me see ; but hear you ;
Methought you said you neither lend nor borrow
Upon advantage .
Antonio
I do never use it .
Shylock :
When Jacob grazed his uncle Laban's sheep -This Jacob from our holy Abraham was,
As his wise mother wrought in his behalf,
The third possessor ; ay, he was the third --
Antonio :
And what of him? did he take interest?
Shylock :
No, not take interest, not, as you would say,
Directly interest : mark what Jacob did .
When Laban and himself were compromised
That all the eanlings which were streak'd and pied
Should fall as Jacob's hire, the ewes, being rank,
In the end of autumn turned to the rams,
And, when the work of generation was
Between these woolly breeders in the act,
The skilful shepherd peel 'd me certain wands
And, in the doing of the deed of kind,
He stuck them up before the fulsome ewes,
Who then conceiving did in eaning time
Fall parti-colour'd lambs, and those were Jacob's .
This was a way to thrive, and he was blest :
And thrift is blessing, if men steal it not .
Scene13
(Shylock interrupts himself, furious)
Shylock : Damn!
That's not it at all .
(He runs up to his dressing
room and comes back down with a big book with a bookmark
in it . He screams .) Lorenzo! (Lorenzo comes out of his
cage .) Read me this passage as if you were reading at
the Yeshiva .
26
(Lorenzo is dumbfounded .
mixed with fear .)
He holds the Bible with disbelief
Shylock : (Quite impatiently) All right, it's not yours and it's
not in Hebrew . But it's the same thing! So, read!
Lorenzo : (Resolving to comply, he lowers his eyes and, handling
the book with tremendous care, he begins to read the text a
thousand times rehearsed in another language :)
GENESIS, Chapter 27, verses 30 to 36
After Isaac finished blessing him and Jacob had
scarcely left his father's presence, his brother
Esau came in from hunting . He too prepared some
tasty food and brought it to his father . Then he
said to him, "My father, sit up and eat some of my
game, so that you may give me your blessing ." His
father Isaac asked him, "Who are you?" "I am your
son," he answered, "your firstborn, Esau ." Isaac
trembled violently and said, "Who was it, then,
that hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it
just before you came and I blessed him--and indeed
he will be blessed!" When Esau heard his father's
words, he burst out with a loud and bitter cry and
said to his father, "Bless me--me too, my father!"
But he said, "Your brother came deceitfully and
took yo blessing ." Esau said, "Isn't he rightly
named Jacob? He has deceived me these two times : He
took my birthright, and now he's taken my
blessing!"
(As Lorenzo goes on with the reading, in total neutrality, the
sacred words take on a strange dimension of piety . And when
Shylock understands this, he stops Lorenzo with a gesture .)
Shylock :
I got it .
(He does again the lines from the end of his part with some kind of
illumination that is the exact opposite of the deceitfulness he has
been trying to impress on the script .)
. . . The skilful shepherd peel 'd me certain wands
And, in the doing of the deed of kind . . .
Shylock : No, I need the accent . Say the line to me with the
accent . . . from before .
Antonio : (With the "Jewish accent")
. . . The skilful shepherd peel 'd me certain wands
And, in the doing of the deed of kind,
He stuck them up before the fulsome ewes,
27
Who then conceiving did in eaning time
Fall parti-colour'd lambs, and those were Jacob's .
This was a way to thrive, and he was blest :
And thrift is blessing, if men steal it not .
Scene 14
Shylock :
And Antonio answers . . .
Antonio : (At first he hesitates, not knowing whether he must
continue, but then, bent upon taking Jacob's defense, he goes on
without the "accent" :)
This was a venture, sir, that Jacob served for ;
A thing not in his power to bring to pass,
But sway'd and fashion'd by the hand of heaven .
Was this inserted to make interest good?
Or is your gold and silver ewes and rams?
Shylock : My, my, how you've changed! I wonder when you are most
to be feared . When you have the accent or when you hide
it .
I cannot tell ; I make it breed as fast :
But note me, signior .
Antonio : (Aside, to Bassanio)
Mark you this Bassanio,
The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose .
An evil soul producing holy witness
Is like a villain with a smiling sheek,
A goodly apple rotten at the heart :
0, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!
Shylock :
Three thousand ducats ; 'tis a good round sum .
Three months from twelve ; then, let me see ; the rate --
Antonio :
Well, Shylock, shall we beholding to you?
Shylock :
Signior Antonio, many a time and oft
In the Rialto you have rated me
About my moneys and my usances :
Still have I borne it with a patient shrug,
For sufferance is the badge of all our tribe .
You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog,
And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine,
And all for use of that which is mine own .
Well then, it now appears you need my help :
Go to, then ; you come to me, and you say
"Shylock, we would have moneys" .
What should I say to you? Should I not say
28
"Hath a dog money? is it possible
A cur can lend three thousand ducats?" Or
Shall I bend low and in a bondman's key,
With bated breath and whispering humbleness,
Say this :
"Fair sir, you spit on me on Wednesday last ;
You spurn'd me such a day ; another time
You call 'd me dog ; and for these courtesies
I'll lend you thus much moneys?"
Antonio :
(Hastily) I am as like to call thee so again,
To spit on thee again, to spurn thee too .
If thou wilt lend this money, lend it not
As to thy friends ; for when did friendship take
A breed for barren metal of his friend?
But lend it rather to thine enemy,
Who, if he break, thou mayst with better face
Exact the penalty .
Shylock :
Why, look you, how you storm!
I would be friends with you and have your love,
Forget the shames that you have stain'd me with,
Supply your present wants and take no doit
Of usance for my moneys, and you'll not hear me :
This is a kind offer .
Bassanio : This were kindness .
Shylock :
This kindness will I show .
Go with me to a notary, seal me there
Your single bond ; and, in a merry sport,
If you repay me not on such a day,
In such a place, such sum or sums as are
Express'd in the condition, let the forfeit
Be nominated for an equal pound
Of your fair flesh, to be cut off and taken
In what part of your body pleaseth me .
Antonio :
Content, i' faith : I'll seal to such a bond
And say there is much kindness in the Jew .
Bassanio :
You shall not seal to such a bond for me :
I'll rather dwell in my necessity .
Antonio :
Why, fear not, man ; I will not forfeit it :
Within these two months, that's a month before
This bond expires, I do expect return
Of thrice three times the value of this bond .
Shylock :
0 father Abraham, what these Christians are,
29
Whose own hard dealings teaches them suspect
The thoughts of others! Pray you, tell me this ;
If I should break his day, what should I gain
By the exaction of the forfeiture?
A pound of man's flesh taken from a man
Is not so estimable, profitable neither,
As flesh of muttons, beefs, or goats . I say,
To buy his favor, I extend this friendship :
If he will take it, so ; if not, adieu ;
And, for my love, I pray you wrong me not .
Antonio :
Yes, Shylock, I will seal unto this bond .
Shylock :
Then meet me forthwith at the notary's ;
Give him direction for this merry bond,
And I will go and purse the ducats straight,
See to my house, left in the fearful guard
Of an unthrifty knave, and presently
I will be with you . (Exit Shylock .)
Antonio :
Hie thee, gentle Jew
The Hebrew will turn Christian : he grows kind .
Bassanio : I like not fair terms and a villain's mind .
Antonio :
Come on : in this there can be no dismay ;
My ships come home a month before the day .
Scene15
(At the end of this scene, Antonio goes to his cage and
Bassanio retreats slightly to the side while Launcelot takes
centre-stage and reads his lines trying to be funny .)
Lancelot :
Certainly my conscience will serve me to run from
this Jew my master . The fiend is at mine elbow and
tempts me saying to me "Gobbo, Lancelot Gobbo, good
Lancelot, " or "good Gobbo", or "good Lancelot Gobbo, use
your legs, take the start, run away ." My conscience says
"No ; take heed, honest Lancelot ; take heed, honest
Gobbo", or, as aforesaid, "honest Lancelot Gobbo ; do not
run ; scorn running with thy heels" . Well, the most
courageous fiend bids me pack : "Via!" says the fiend ;
"away!" says the fiend ; "for the heavens, rouse up a
brave mind," says the fiend, "and run" .
Well, my
conscience, hanging about the neck of my heart, says very
wisely to me, "My honest friend Lancelot, being an honest
man's son," or rather an honest woman's son ;
for,
30
indeed, my father did something smack, something grow to,
he had a kind of taste ; well, my conscience says,
"Lancelot, budge not ." "Budge", says the fiend . "Budge
not", says my conscience . "Conscience", say I, "you
counsel well" ; "Fiend", say I, "you counsel well" : to
be ruled by my conscience, I should stay with the Jew my
master, who, God bless the mark, is a kind of devil ;
and, to run away from the Jew, I should be ruled by the
fiend, who, saving your reverence, is the devil himself .
(Shylock comes down during Lancelot's text and positions
himself right next to him . The closer Shylock gets to him, the more
Lancelot overacts . At this point in the script, Lancelot stops and
looks at Shylock who begins to say his lines and forces him to say
them with him . They mark each word and the slowness of this duet
sounds like the drum roll at an execution .)
Lancelot : Certainly the Jew is the very devil incarnation ; and, in
my conscience, my conscience is but a kind of hard
conscience, to offer to counsel me to stay with the Jew .
The fiend gives the more friendly counsel : I will run,
fiend ; my heels are at your command ; I will run .
(Enter Bassanio)
Bassanio : What would you?
Lancelot :
Serve you, sir .
Bassanio : I know thee well ; thou hast obtained thy suit :
Shylock thy master spoke with me this day,
And hath preferr'd thee, if it be preferment
To leave a rich Jew's service, to become
The follower of so poor a gentleman .
(Lancelot and Bassanio return to their respective cages .)
Scene 16
Shylock : Jessica!
(She appears and comes down)
Jessica : Good morning, sir .
Shylock : I am your father!
Jessica : Yes, in the play, but . . .
31
Shylock :
We are in the play! And as Antonio puts it : "I hold the
world but as the world ; A stage where every man must
play a part ." Listen to me very carefully . As my
assistant has told you, this concerns a project of the
highest importance . You have been chosen for your
talent, I've seen you perform ; because you're a pure
Aryan, like me, like Tubal, and you are here on official
assignment . It's our duty to unveil the true face of
this enemy race which the Fihrer has defined as a moral
plague worse than the black plague of early times . Have
you read Mein Kampf?
Jessica : I . . . well, not completely .
Shylock : Well it doesn't make me laugh .
Jessica : Forgive me . . .
Shylock : You will have time to read it . . . all .
Jessica : But since there are Jews here, why not have them do the
Jews' parts? I could learn Portia in no time . My memory
is excellent . Two weeks ago we found out that the
grandmother of one of our actresses was Jewish . To think
she performed all the great parts all those years . When
the police arrested her, I learned her part overnight, it
was . . .
Shylock : I'll let you know when I want your input . Do you
honestly believe those Yids would project the image I
wish to show of them? We're the only ones who can unveil
their true identity . You're the professional actress,
you should know that performing on stage means being
someone other than yourself .
Jessica : Yes, of course . . .
Shylock : Do you know your part?
Jessica : Yes .
Shylock : Good . We will start by setting up your scenes .
Jessica : Yes, the first one's with Lancelot Gobbo, Act II,
scene 3 .
Shylock : No . We will first start with Act V, scene one . It is
the key to your character . Lorenzo, Tubal, get the small
bench . (Lorenzo and Tubal do so .) Thank you . You are
both seated side by side .
32
Scene17
(Lorenzo has the text in hand, Jessica knows it by heart . In
contrast to Lorenzo's intimidated tone, Jessica answers with the
marked emphasis of the "turn of the century" tone .)
Lorenzo :
The moon shines bright : in such a night as this,
When the sweet wind did gently kiss the trees
And they did make no noise, in such a night
Troilus methinks mounted the Troyan walls
And sigh'd his soul toward the Grecian tents,
Where Cressid lay that night .
Jessica :
in such a night
Did Thisbe fearfully o'ertrip the dew
And saw the lion's shadow ere himself
And ran dismay'd away .
Lorenzo :
In such a night
Stood Dido with a wilow in her hand
Upon the wild sea banks, and waft her love
To come again to Carthage .
Jessica :
In such a night
Medea gather'd the enchanted herbs
That did renew old Aeson .
Lorenzo :
In such a night
Did Jessica steal from the wealthy Jew,
And with an unthrift love did run from Venice
As far as Belmont .
Jessica :
In such a night
Did young Lorenzo swear he loved her well,
Stealing her soul with many vows of faith
And ne'er a true one .
Lorenzo :
In such a night
Did pretty Jessica, like a little shrew,
Slander her love, and he forgave it her .
Jessica :
I would out-night you, did no body come ;
But, hark, I hear the footing of a man .
Shylock : You didn't understand a thing . You're doing this scene
as if it were a love scene .
Jessica : But it is a love scene, one of the most beautiful ones .
33
Shylock :
And I thought you were a professional actress! Haven't
you asked yourself some very elementary questions?
1
Since she was only given a Jewish education, how
come she knows anything about mythology?
2
What was her relationship with Lorenzo?
3
Why does she only quote stories with sad and bloody
endings?
Jessica : How should I know . . . . (Believing she has found the right
argument .) I didn't judge it useful to get involved with
the details of Jewish studies . . .
Shylock : Has no-one ever told you that it is the soldier's main
duty to study the enemy? You definitely need to read
Mein Kampf . She has always longed to leave her father
whom she despises, just like she despises her Jewish
condition . She secretly read books which her father
forbade her to read . We have hidden a cross, some books
on mythology and the Gospels in your dressing room . You
are to read them in secret, and if I, Shylock, catch you
in the act, you will be beaten for it .
Jessica : Beaten . . .
for real? . . . But you have no right . I'm
German, an Aryan, a Christian .
Shylock : Not quite any more, and not yet .
Jessica : I don't understand and anyway, under these conditions,
I'm afraid I will have to refuse the part . . .
Shylock : I would like you to fully understand our situation : This
has nothing to do with your little theatre in the
provinces, and you were not hired, you were conscripted!
Furthermore, we are at the front . Our enemies are in
front of you, and you will not be able to leave this
place before we get to the final solution .
Jessica : This means that . . .
Shylock : Precisely .
Jessica : Sweet Jesus!
Shylock : (He hits her .) You should be careful not to betray
yourself in front of your father, Jews dislike to hear
their daughters speak of the false Messiah . (Indicating
Lorenzo) This man of another race is your means of
escaping your father . You do not love him and he does
not love you . You made a deal . Proceed .
(Repeat of the scene . Lorenzo maintains the same tone of
34
voice, but Jessica betrays her disarray : she no longer "acts", she
simply speaks the lines .)
Scene 18
Shylock : That's better .
Now we'll do Jessica's eloping in
sequence, so scenes 3 and 5 of Act II, and the second
part of scene 6 . We've cut scene 4 as well as Salanio's
and Salarino's characters . The blocking is simple, Tubal
will indicate it to you, but be sharp!
(Jessica does her best not to panic . She speaks the lines
automatically while keeping an eye on Tubal who indicates to her
some of her blocking .)
Jessica :
I am sorry thou wilt leave my father so : Our house
is hell, and thou, a merry devil,
Didst rob it of some taste of tediousness .
But fare thee well, there is a ducat for thee :
And, Launcelot, soon at super shalt thou see
Lorenzo, who is thy new master's guest :
Give hime this letter ; do it secretely ;
And so farewell : I would not have my father
See me in talk with thee .
Lancelot :
(Teary-eyed) Adieu! tears exhibit my tongue . Most
beautiful pagan, most sweet Jew! if a Christian did not
play the knave and get thee, I am much deceived . But,
adieu : these foolish drops do something drown my manly
spirit : adieu .
Jessica :
Farewell, good Launcelot . (He leaves)
Alack, what heinous sin is it in me
To be ashamed to be my father's child!
But though I am a daughter to his blood,
I am not to his manners .
0 Lorenzo,
If thou keep promise, I shall end this strife,
Become a Christian and thy loving wife .
(She leaves . Lancelot Gobbo has given Lorenzo a letter and
joins Shylock who enters immediately after Jessica's exit .)
Scene 19
35
Shylock :
Well, thou shalt see, thy eyes shall be thy judge,
The difference of old Shylock and Bassanio : -What, Jessica! -- thou shalt not gormandise,
As thou hast done with me : -- What Jessica! -And sleep and snore, and rend apparel out ; -Why, Jessica, I say!
Lancelot :
(Yelling)
Shylock :
Who bids thee call? I do not bid thee call .
Why, Jessica!
Lancelot : Your worship was wont to tell me that I could do nothing
without bidding .
(Enter Jessica)
Jessica :
(To Shylock)
Call you? what is your will?
Shylock :
I am bid forth to supper, Jessica :
There are my keys . But wherefore should I go?
I am not bid for love ; they flatter me :
But yet I'll go in hate, to feed upon
The prodigal Christian . Jessica, my girl,
Look to my house . I am right loath to go :
There is some ill a-brewing towards my rest,
For I did dream of money-bags to-night .
Lancelot :
I beseech you, sir, go : my young master doth expect your
reproach .
Shylock :
So do I his .
Lancelot :
And they have conspired together, I will not say you
shall see a masque ; but if you do, then it was not for
nothing that my nose fell a-bleeding on Black-Monday last
at six o'clock i' the morning, falling out that year on
Ash-Wednesday was four year, in the afternoon .
Shylock :
What, are there masques? Hear you me, Jessica :
Lock up my doors ; and when you hear the drum
And the vile squealing of the wry-neck'd fife,
Clamber not you up to the casements then,
Nor thrust your head into the public street
To gaze on Christian fools with varnish'd faces,
But stop my house's ears, I mean my casements :
Let not the sound of shallow foppery enteer
My sober house . By Jacob's staff, I swear,
I have no mind of feasting forth to-night :
36
But I will go .
Go you before me, sirrah ;
Say I will come .
Launcelot :
I will go before, sir .
(In a lower voice,
Jessica) Mistress, look out at window, for all this,
(To Jessica)
There will come a Christian by,
Will be worth a Jewess'eye .
(He leaves .)
Shylock :
What says that fool of Hagar's offspring, ha?
Jessica :
His words were "Farewell mistress" ; nothing else .
Shylock :
The patch is kind enough, but a huge feeder ;
Snail-slow in profit, and he sleeps by day
More than the wild-cat : drones hive not with me ;
Therefore I part with him, and part with him
To one that I would have him help to waste
His borrow'd purse . Well, Jessica, go in :
Perhaps I will return immediately :
Do as I bid you ; shut doors after you :
Fast bind, fast find ;
A proverb never stale in thrifty mind . (He exits)
Jessica :
(As he leaves)
Farewell ; and if my fortune be not crost,
I have a father, you a daughter, lost .
to
Scene20
(Immediately enter Lorenzo and Gratiano .)
Lorenzo :
Approach ;
Here dwells my father Jew . Ho !
who's within?
(Jessica appears at the entrance of her dressing room, in the
middle of her costume change, for now she is disguised as a youth
in black breeches .)
Jessica :
Who are you? Tell me, for more certainty,
Albeit I'll swear that I do know your tongue .
Lorenzo :
Lorenzo, and thy love .
Jessica :
Lorenzo, certain, and my love indeed,
For who love I so much? And now who knows
But you, Lorenzo, whether I am yours?
Lorenzo :
Heaven and thy thoughts are witness that thou art .
37
Jessica :
(Throwing a casket .)
Here, catch this casket ; it is worth the pains .
I am glad 'tis night, you do not look on me,
For I am much ashamed of my exchange :
But love is blind and lovers cannot see
The pretty follies that themselves commit ;
For i f they could, Cupid himself would blush
To see me thus transformed to a boy .
Lorenzo :
Descend, for you must be my torch-bearer .
Jessica :
What, must I hold a candle to my shames?
They in themselves, good sooth, are too too light .
Why, 'tis an office of discovery, love ;
And I should be obscured .
Lorenzo :
So are you, sweet,
Even in the lovely garnish of a boy .
But come at once ;
For the close night doth play the runway,
And we are stay'd for at Bassanio's feast .
Jessica :
I will make fast the doors, and gild myself
With some more ducats, and be with you straight . (She
leaves .)
Gratiano : Now, by my hood, a Gentile and no Jew .
Lorenzo :
Beshrew me but I love her heartily ;
For she is wise, if I can judge of her,
And fair she is, if that mine eyes be true,
And true she is, as she hath proved herself,
And therefore, like herself, wise, fair, and true,
Shall she be placed in my constant soul .
(Enter Jessica .)
What, art thou come? On, gentlemen ; away!
Our masquing mates by this time for us stay .
Scene21,
(After scene 20, Jessica and Lorenzo run to hide in the
Venetians' cage on stage-left .
Gratiano remains on stage, leaning
38
on the cage . It must be apparent that this is part of the
run-through, as is Shylock's action who enters to find his house
ransacked, then runs up to Jessica's dressing room where he finds
her hidden objects . He screams, tears the books apart and runs
back down the stairs .)
Shylock :
My daughter! 0 my ducats! 0 my daughter!
Fled with a Christian! 0 my Christian ducats!
Justice! the law! my ducats, and my daughter!
A sealed bag, two sealed bags of ducats,
Of double ducats, stolen from me by my daughter!
And jewels, two stones, two rich and precious stones,
Stolen by my daughter! Justice! find the girl ;
She hath the stones upon her, and the ducats .
(He returns to his dressing room while the Venetians laugh .)
Gratiano : (In front of his cage) Once upon a time in Venice, there
was a war between rats . The rats of Europe, comfortably
settled at the food level, were denying the rats of Asia
access to it . The rats of Asia, who came by boat, grew
in number quite rapidly, so well that they were soon in
the majority . Hungry and hardened, they declared war on
their enemies and vanquished them . They then took over
the food level and have remained there since .
Shylock : Never, you hear me, never will you return to the surface!
You will rot in there, you filthy goys! The Jew will
remain where he is . "Once we have created a general
economic crisis thanks to our hidden means, such as gold,
which is all in our hands, we will let loose crowds of
workers, pouring simultaneously into the streets, in all
the countries of Europe .
These crowds will start
spilling, with relish, the blood of all the ones they
envied since their childhood, in the simplicity of their
ignorance, and will then be able to steal their wealth ."
All that is in my bedside reading, the sainted Protocol
of the Sages of Zion .
Antonio : It's a fake!
(Silence . We understand that this was not part of the
run-through . Tubal comes down from his table, grabs and drags
Antonio into the wings on stage-right . Shylock follows them from
the highest rise . We soon hear :)
Antonio :
One, . . . two, . . . three, . . .
(He counts up to ten with more and more pain . It is clear
he's being beaten . The other prisoners, except for Launcelot,
lower their heads and count silently . Jessica listens and, for the
39
first time, understands on her own .
Hysterical :)
Jessica :
What's going on here?
out!
I want to get out, I want to get
Gratiano :
(Grabbing her by the arm)
You really want to know what
is going on? You're in an extermination camp . Every day,
cattle trains arrive filled with representatives of the
inferior races, mostly Jews . They have travelled for days
and nights without food nor water, and when they get here
they are dead or half-rotted in their excrement . Then„
it's selection time . Aside from a few chosen ones like
us, they are sent, naked, to the showers . Hygiene first!
The doors shut behind them, then a few boxes of gas
crystals and all is done . The record is set at 15 .00
corpses in 15 minutes . As for the bodies, their heads
are shaven in order to use their hair, their gold teeth
are pulled and all is stored with the clothes in a
barrack named "Canada" . The clothes you're wearing, our
props, everything here . . . Sometimes you'll smell a
particular odour, well, you'll know it's from the bodies
they are burning day and night without a pause . Burning
bodies is not that easy, some take a long time . But
their technique is already perfected . They're now up to
several thousand bodies a day!
(Shylock, who has returned, stares at him without a word .
Gratiano is overcome by his emotions ; finally he notices Shylock .)
Scene 22
Shylock
You're well informed .
I'll keep that in mind .
(Grabbing him by the collar .) Come now, let's go on .
Gratiano : How now, Shylock!
what news among the merchants?
Shylock :
You knew, none so well, none so well as you, of my
daughter's flight .
Gratiano :
That's certain : I, for my part, knew the tailor that
made the wings she flew withal .
Shylock :
She is damned for it .
Gratiano :
That's certain, if the devil may be her judge .
Shylock :
My own flesh and blood to rebel!
40
Gratiano : Out upon it, old carrion!
rebels it at these years?
Shyklock :
I say, my daughter is my flesh and blood .
Gratiano :
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 used 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 .
Gratiano : 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 bath disgraced me, and hindered
me half a million ; laughed at my losses, mocked 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 you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us,
do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and
i f 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 .
Gratiano : Here comes another of the tribe : a third cannot be
matched, unless the devil himself turn Jew .
Shylock :
How now, Tubal! what news from Genoa? hast thou found
my daughter?
Tubal :
I often came where I did hear of her, but cannot find
her .
Shylock :
Why, there, there, there, there! a diamond gone, cost me
41
The curse never fell
two thousand ducats in Frankfort!
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 she were hearsed at my
foot, and the ducats in her coffin! No news of them?
Why, so : and I know not what's spent in the search :
why, thou loss upon loss! the thief gone with so much,
and so much to find the thief ; and no satisfaction, no
revenge : nor no ill luck stirring but what lights on my
shoulders ; no sighs but of my breathing ; no tears but of
my shedding .
Tubal :
Yes, other man have ill luck too : Antonio, as I heard in
Genoa --
Shylock :
What, what, what? ill luck, ill luck?
Tubal :
Hath an argosy cast away, coming from Tripolis .
Shylock :
I thank God, I thank God . Is't true, is't true?
Tubal :
I spoke with some of the sailors that escaped the wreck .
Shylock :
I thank thee, good Tubal : good news, good news! ha, ha!
where? in Genoa?
Tubal :
Your daughter spent in Genoa, as I heard, in one night
fourscore ducats .
Shylock :
Thou stickest a dagger in me : I shall never see my gold
again : fourscore ducats at a sitting! fourscore ducats!
Tubal :
There came divers of Antonio's creditors in my company to
Venice, that swear he cannot choose but break .
Shylock :
I am very glad of it : I'll plague him ; I'll torture
him : I am glad of it .
Tubal :
One of them showed me a ring that he had of your daughter
for a monkey.
Shylock :
Out upon her! Thou torturest me, Tubal : it was my
turquoise ; I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor : I
would not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys .
42
Tubal :
But Antonio is certainly undone .
Shylock :
Nay, that's true, that's very true . Go, Tubal, fee me an
officer ; bespeak him a fortnight before . I will have
the heart of him, if he forfeit ; for, were he out of
Venice, I can make what merchandise I will . Go, go,
Tubal, and meet me at our synagogue ; go, good Tubal ; at
our synagogue, Tubal .
(Out of character .) We'll pick it
up in 15 minutes .
(The prisoners walk down to their cages .
Hasidic song as he glues on his beard .)
I N T E R M I S S I O N
Shylock practices an
43
PART TWO
Scene23
(At the end of intermission, Tubal blows his whistle .)
Tubal :
Formation .
(The prisoners line up in the same position as in the
beginning [see Jacob, scene 7] and they wait . Tubal positions
Jessica slightly to the side, but in the same line-up . Shylock,
whose costume and make-up are almost complete, comes down and holds
out his open hand to Tubal .)
Shylock : The ring . (To Portia) See, it's a real diamond . (To
Nerissa, carelessly) If we had caught you with this
outside, you'd been strung up . (To Portia) Put it on
and take very good care of it .
(Portia slips it on with simple and natural elegance . Shylock
whistles lightly .)
Shylock : It must be nice to be used to carrying such wealth on
oneself! Do that again!
(Portia does as told but this time with some embarrassment .)
Shylock : My poor mother never had more than her wedding band . Her
poor ring was quite thin, barely 10 carats, and would not
have been worth much with the stinking Yid usurer of our
neighbourhood . But she never parted with it . She slept
with it . (To Jessica) Try it on .
(It's obvious she has never held such a thing in her hands .
Dazzled, she exclaims :)
Jessica : My God, it's so beautiful! (She slips it on with great
theatrical affectation .)
Shylock : Did you listen to the scene between Shylock and Tubal?
"A diamond gone, cost me two thousand ducats in
Frankfort! The curse 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!" The only daughter of the richest Jew of Venice .
She wears diamonds all the time! At least try to imitate
our gypsy baroness .
(Jessica, at the height of her humiliation and almost crying
with rage, slips it back on with great awkwardness .)
44
Shylock :
(Fed up) That's enough . (Jessica returns to her place .)
Scene 24
Shylock : (To Portia) Don't forget ; just as Jessica, she is in a
devil of a hurry and she wants to "elevate" herself
thanks to her riches . By cheating, she betrays her
father and abandons her people (indicating Bassanio) for
this dandy . (To Nerissa) Would you marry a gadje?
Nerissa : No .
Shylock : (Indicating Portia) She would . She married into "high
society" in order not to have to smell the stench of her
own kind . That's what you must portray . Proceed .
(Portia begins, while the others, with the exception of
Bassanio, leave the stage . The latter takes up his position
hastily . Tubal directs Nerissa to a corner and arranges three
small objects which represent the caskets .)
Portia :
Bassanio :
I pray you, tarry : pause a day or two
Before you hazard : for, in choosing wrong,
I lose your company : therefore forbear awhile .
There's something tells me, but it is not love,
I would not lose you ; and you know yourself,
Hate counsels not in such a quality .
But lest you should not understand me well -And yet a maiden hath no tongue but thought -I would detain you here some month or two
Before you venture for me . I could teach you
How to choose right, but I am then forsworn :
So will I never be : so may you miss me ;
But if you do, you'll make me wish a sin,
That I had been forsworn . Beshrew your eyes,
They have o'erlook'd me and divided me ;
One half of me is yours, the other half yours,
Mine own, I would say ; but if mine, then yours,
And so all yours . 0, these naughty times
Put bars between the owners and their rights!
And so, though yours, not yours . Prove it so,
Let fortune go to hell for it, not I .
I speak too long ; but 'tis to peize the time,
To eke it, and to draw it out in length,
To stay you from election .
Let me choose ;
45
For as I am, I live upon the rack .
E
Portia :
Upon the rack, Bassanio! then confess
What treason there is mingled with your love .
Bassanio : 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 snow and fire, as treason and my love .
Portia :
Ay, but I fear you speak upon the rack,
Where men enforced do speak anything .
E
Bassanio : Promise me life, and I'll confess the truth .
Portia :
Well then, confess and live .
Bassanio :
"Confess" and "love"
Had been the very sum of my confession :
O happy torment, when my torturer
Doth teach me answers for deliverance!
But let me to my fortune and the caskets .
Portia :
Away, then! I am lock'd in one of them :
If you do love me, you will find me out .
Nerissa and the rest, stand all aloof .
Let music sound while he doth make his choice ;
Then, if he lose, he makes a swan-like end,
Fading in music : that the comparison
May stand more proper, my eye shall be the stream
And watery death-bed for him . He may win ;
And what is music then? Then music is
Even as the flourish when true subjects bow
To anew-crowned monarch : such it is
As are those dulcet sounds in break of day
That creep into the dreaming bridegroom's ear
And summon him to marriage . Now he goes,
With no less presence, but with much more love,
Than young Alcides, when he did redeem
The virgin tribute paid by howling Troy
To the sea-monster : I stand for sacrifice ;
The rest aloof are the Dardanian wives,
With bleared visages, come forth to view
The issue of the exploit . Go Hercules!
Live thou, I live : with much, much more dismay
I view the fight than thou that makest the fray .
C
E
E
46
Shylock : (To Tubal who has been trying to start the gramophone .)
All right .
Never mind the song .
(To Bassanio .)
The
words of the song are an indication but he no longer
needs it . She has already briefed him ; he merely needs
to fake it to cheat the others . An upstart like you, or
like Bassanio, only gambles when he's sure of winning .
He plays only when he's sure of winning . And so you'll
play me this part as the dirty cheat that you are .
Scene 25
(Bassanio seems unwilling to begin . Worrisome silence .)
Shylock : Well, go on .
Bassanio : I don't quite get it .
(Everyone is shocked .)
Shylock : (Who can't believe his ears) What do you not get? You,
the one who is so brilliant . You, whose style was
admired in all the literary cafes . Brilliance
personified . . . whose witticisms were repeated all over
town . You dare tell me that you don't get it when I say
you're a dirty cheat?!
Bassanio : That much I get . And you're probably right . But him,
Bassanio, he's not a Jew . And so, how can it be that
he's a cheat, like me?
(Upon a sign from Tubal, Lancelot rushes over to Bassanio, his
cudgel up in the air, but he stops dead in his tracks as he sees
Shylock go up to Bassanio and tap his cheek .)
Shylock : You are indeed no fool . And given you're so witty, you
surely know the answer . People of your kind don't ask
these types of questions unless they know the answer .
It's like gambling with no risk involved . You have until
the end of the scene to come up with the answer .
Otherwise, I'll be forced to part with you . Proceed!
Oh, wait . Cut the part about Nerissa's wedding . She'll
never manage it .
(Nerissa obviously doesn't understand whether
something that was said earlier or if it refers
Either way, she's too busy reviewing the lines she
during intermission and which she usually says upon
Tubal the stage-manager .)
this is about
to her part .
has memorized
a signal from
47
Bassanio :
(He seems to have fully understood Shylock's directions)
So may the outward shows be least themselves :
The world is still deceived with ornament .
In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt
But, being season'd with a gracious voice,
Obscures the show of evil? In religion,
What damned error, but some sober brow
Will bless it and approve it with a text,
Hiding the grossness with fair ornament?
There is no vice so simple but assumes
Some mark of virtue on his outward parts .
How many cowards, whose hearts are all as false
As stairs of sand, wear yet upon their chins
The beards of Hercules and frowning Mars ;
Who, inward search'd, have livers white as milk ;
And these assume but valor's excrement
To render them redoubted! Look on beauty,
And you shall see 'tis purchased by the weight ;
Which therein works a miracle in nature,
Making them lightest that wear most of it :
So are those crisped snaky golden locks
Which make such wanton gambols with the wind,
Upon supposed fairness, often known
To be the dowry of a second head,
The skull that bred them in the sepulchre .
Thus ornament is but the guiled shore
To a most dangerous sea ; the beauteous scarf
Veiling an Indian beauty ; in a word,
The seeming truth which cunning times put on
To entrap the wisest . Therefore, thou gaudy gold,
Hard food for Midas, I will none of thee ;
(Indicating the silver casket .)
Nor none of thee, thou pale and common drudge
'Tween man and man : but thou, thou meagre lead .
Which rather threatenest than dost promise aught,
Thy paleness moves me more than eloquence ;
And here choose I : joy be the consequence!
Portia :
(Aside)
How all the other passions fleet to air,
As doubtful thoughts, and rash-embrassed despair,
And shuddering fear, and green-eyed jealousy!
O love,
Be moderate ; allay thy ectasy ;
In measure rein thy joy ; scant this excess .
I feel too much thy blessing; make it less,
48
For fear I surfeit .
Bassanio :
What find I here?
(Opening the leaden casket)
Fair Portia's counterfeit! What demi-god
Hath come so near creation? Move these eyes?
Or whether, riding on the balls of mine,
Seem they in motion? Here are sever'd lips,
Parted with sugar breath : so sweet a bar
Should sunder such sweet friends . Here in her hairs
The painter plays the spider and hath woven
A golden mesh to entrap the hearts of men,
Faster than gnats in cobwebs ; but her eyes, -How could he see to do them? having made one,
Methinks it should have power to steal both his
And leave itself unfurnish'd . Yet look, how far
The substance of my praise doth wrong this shadow
In underprizing it, so far this shadow
Doth limp behind the substance . Here's the scroll,
The continent and summary of my fortune .
(He reads)
"You that choose not by the view,
Chance as fair and choose as true!
Since this fortune falls to you,
Be content and seek no new .
If you be well pleased with this
And hold your fortune for your bliss,
Turn you where your lady is
And claim her with a loving kiss ."
A gentle scroll . Fair lady, by your leave ;
I come by note, to give and to receive .
Like one of two contending in a prize,
That thinks ha hath done well in people's eyes,
Hearing applause and universal shout,
Giddy in spirit, still gazing in a doubt
Whether those pearls of praise be his or no ;
So, thrice-fair lady, stand I, even so ;
As doubtful whether what I see be true,
Until confirm'd, sign'd, ratified by you .
Portia :
You see me, Lord Bassanio, where I stand,
Such as I am : though for myself alone
I would not be ambitious in my wish,
To wish myself much better ; yet, for you
I would be trebled twenty times myself ;
A thousand times more fair, ten thousand times more rich ;
That only to stand high in your account,
I might in virtue, beauties, livings, friends,
Exceed account ; but the full sum of me
Is sum of something, which, to term in gross,
49
Is an unlesson'd girl, unschool'd, unpractised;
Happy in this, she is not yet so old
But she may learn ; happier than this,
She is not bred so dull but she can learn ;
Happiest of all is that her gentle spirit
Commits itself to yours to be directed,
As from her lord, her governor, her king .
Myself and what is mine to you and yours
Is now converted : but now I was the lord
Of this fair mansion, master of my servants,
Queen o'er myself; and even now, but now,
This house, these servants, and this same myself
Are yours, my lord : I give them with this ring ;
Which when you part from, lose, or give away,
Let it presage the ruin of your love
And be my vantage to exclaim on you .
Bassanio : (Putting on the ring offered him by Portia)
Madam, you have bereft me of all words,
Only my blood speaks in my veins ;
But when this ring
Parts from this finger, then parts life from hence :
0, then be told to say Bassanio's dead!
Scene26
Bassanio : But who comes here? Lorenzo and his infidel?
Lorenzo :
My purpose was not to have seen you here ;
Signior Antonio
Commands him to you . (Gives Bassanio a letter .)
Portia :
There are some shrewd contents in yon some paper,
That seals the colour from Bassanio's cheek :
Some dear friend dead ; else nothing in the world
Could turn so much the constitution
Of any constant man . What, worse and worse!
With leave, Bassanio ; I am half of yourself,
And I must freely have the half of anything
That this same paper brings you .
Bassanio :
0 sweet Portia,
Here are a few of the unpleasant'st words
That ever blotted paper! Gentle lady,
When I did first impart my love to you,
I freely told you, all the wealth I had
Ran in my veins, I was a gentleman ;
50
And then I told you true : and yet, dear lady,
Rating myself at nothing, you shall see
How much I was a braggart . When I told you
My state was nothing, I should then have told you
That I was worse than nothing ; for, indeed,
I have engaged myself to a dear friend,
Engaged my friend to his mere enemy,
To feed my means . Here is a letter, lady ;
The paper as the body of my friend,
And every word in it a gaping wound,
Issuing life-blood . But it is true, Lorenzo?
Have all his ventures fail'd? What, not one hit?
From Tripolis, from Mexico, and England,
From Lisbon, Barbary, and India?
And not one vessel 'scape the dreadful touch
Of merchant-marring rocks?
Lorenzo :
Not one, my lord .
Besides, it should appear, that if he had
The present money to discharge the Jew,
He would not take it . Never did I know
A creature that did bear the shape of a man
So keen and greedy to confound a man :
He plies the Duke at morning and at night,
And doth impeach the freedom of the state,
If they deny him justice : twenty merchants,
The Duke himself, and the magnificoes
Of greatest port, have all persuaded with him ;
But none can drive him from the envious plea
Of forfeiture, of justice, and his bond .
Jessica :
When I was with him I have heard him swear
To Tubal and to Chus, his countrymen,
That he would rather have Antonio's flesh
Than twenty times the value of the sum
That he did owe him : and I know, my lord,
If law, authority and power deny not,
It will go hard with poor Antonio .
Portia :
(To Bassanio) Is it your dear friend that is thus in
rouble?
Bassanio : The dearest friend to me, the kindest man,
The best-condition'd and unwearied spirit
In doing courtesies, and one in whom
The ancient Roman honor more appears
51
Than any that draws breath in Italy .
Portia :
What sum owes he the Jew?
Bassanio : For me three thousand ducats .
Portia :
What, no more?
Pay him six thousand, and deface the bond ;
Double six thousand, and then treble that,
Before a friend of this description
Shall lose a hair through Bassanio's fault .
First go with me to church and call me wife,
And then away to Venice to your friend ;
For never shall you lie by Portia's side
With an unquiet soul . You shall have gold
To pay the petty debt twenty times over :
When it is paid, bring your true friend along .
My maid Nerissa and myself meantime
Will live as maids and widows . Come, away!
For you shall hence upon your wedding-day :
Bid your friends welcome, show a merry cheer :
Since you are dear bought, I will love you dear .
But let me hear the letter of your friend .
Bassanio : (Reads) "Sweet Bassanio, my ships have all miscarried, my
creditors grow cruel, my estate is very low, my bond to
the Jew is forfeit ; and since in paying it, it is
impossible I should live, all debts are cleared between
you and I, if I might but see you at my death .
Notwithstanding, use your pleasure : if your love do not
persuade you to come, let not my letter ."
Portia :
0 love, dispatch all business, and be gone!
Bassanio : Since I have your good leave to go away,
I will make haste : but, till I come again,
No bed shall e'er be guilty of my stay,
No rest be interposer 'twixt us twain .
(All leave .)
Scene27
(At the end of the scene, Shylock positions himself in front
of Bassanio, blocking his way . The latter starts to pull at the
ring, but before he can take it off, Shylock grabs his hand and
pushes the diamond against Bassanio's cheek, cutting it as if he
were cutting glass . Bassanio touches his cheek and feels the blood
52
running down .)
Shylock : Keep it ; you'll need it later when you'll have to give
it up with good grace . Not everyone gets to wear his
solitaire to the gallows and take it with him to the
grave, like the Jew Suss . (You do know the story of
Joseph Suss Oppenheimer, don't you, the great financier
for prince Charles-Alexander of Wurttemberg?) A great
success story, with a truly sad ending! (Changing the
tone of his voice .) So, do you know the answer to your
question?
Bassanio : Yes, sir .
Shylock : We're all ears .
Bassanio : Jewish blood flows in Venice .
Shylock : Go on!
Bassanio : Jewish blood flows in Venice and it has infected the
Aryans . In all the places where Jewish blood has come
into contact with the superior race, it has corrupted it,
in Venice more so than anywhere else . It is the mud of
mixed bloods and of the downfall, the cesspool of the
universe . A mountain of garbage where death lurks at
every corner . The canals of Venice are merely gutters
where the perverts of cosmopolitism wallow and rot . It
is the mark of the uprooted and the stateless, of which
the mere presence defiles the most noble spirit . The
death in Venice . . .
(Shylock, who was listening with some amusement, catches
himself and waits for the mention of Thomas Mann, which would mean
the end for Bassanio)
. . . of Richard Wagner, in 1883, was an irreparable loss
for music and the Aryan race .
(The ensuing silence is tense and palpable . Without a word or
gesture, Shylock begins the scene of the gaoler with a rage that
borders on madness . Tubal and Antonio, taken aback, rush on-stage
in order to be on cue for their lines .)
Scene 28
Shylock :
Gaoler, look to him :
tell not me of mercy;
This is the fool that lent out money gratis :
53
Gaoler, look to him .
Antonio :
Hear me yet, good Shylock .
Shylock :
I'll have my bond; speak not against my bond :
I have sworn an oath that I will have my bond .
Thou call'dst me dog before thou hadst a cause ;
But, since I am a dog, beware my fangs :
The Duke shall grant me justice . I do wonder,
Thou naughty gaoler, that thou art so fond
To come abroad with him at his request .
Antonio :
I pray thee, hear me speak .
Shylock :
I'll have my bond ; I will not hear thee speak :
I'll have my bond ; and therefore speak no more .
I'll not be made a soft and dull-eyed fool,
To shake the head, relent, and sigh, and yield
To Christian intercessors . Follow not ;
I'll have no speaking : I will have my bond .
Gratiano :
It is most impenetrable cur
That ever kept with men .
Antonio :
Let him alone :
I'll follow him no more with bootless prayers .
He seeks my life ; his reason well I know :
I oft deliver'd from his forfeitures
Many that have at times made moan to me ;
Therefore he hates me .
Gratiano :
I am sure the Duke
Will never grant him this forfeiture to hold .
Antonio :
The Duke cannot deny the course of law :
For the commodity that strangers have
With us in Venice, if it be denied,
Will much impeach the justice of his state ;
Since that the trade and profit of the city
Consisteth of all nations . Therefore, go :
These griefs and losses have so bated me,
That I shall hardly spare a pound of flesh
To-morrow to my bloody creditor .
Well, gaoler, on . Pray God, Bassanio come
To see me pay his debt, and then I care not!
(They leave .)
54
Scene 29
(At the end of this scene, Shylock remains motionless in his
dressing room . No one knows whether to continue or not . The
tension from the previous scene has intensified . Finally, Tubal
goes to Shylock and stands at attention, snapping his heels . The
sound pulls Shylock from his prostration . He is quite agitated .)
Shylock : Portia's and Nerissa's departure scene, for God's sake!
(Turning to Portia who rushes to the stage, pulling
Nerissa with her) You like to flaunt jewels and to
disguise yourself . This is the perfect opportunity for
you ; don't mess it up! We'll run through to the trial
scene inclusively and this time, for your own good, be
convincing! No two ways about it . Got it?
Portia :
Yes, sir .
Shylock : What do you need in order to beat the stinking Yid at his
own game?
Portia : To be a man - or a woman disguised as a man - who is
superior and who knows how to manipulate the laws to the
advantage of the superior race .
Shylock : Elegant and eloquent . Where did you learn all that?
Portia :
Gypsies travel a lot .
Shylock : And are nowhere at home! Except, perhaps, here . (Portia
does not respond .) Is that not correct? You are fine
here . You are where you belong . What! Did the cat get
your eloquent tongue? You will need to be even more
eloquent shortly .
Portia :
I'll do my best, sir .
Shylock : I'll hold you to that . Proceed!
(Portia starts the scene with an assurance and a grandeur that
borders on insolence .)
Portia :
My people do already know my mind,
And will acknowledge you and Jessica
55
in place of Lord Bassanio and myself .
And so farewell, till we shall meet again .
Lorenzo :
Fair thoughts and happy hours attend on you!
Jessica :
I wish your ladyship all heart's content .
Portia :
I thank you for your wish, and am well pleased
To wish it back on you : fare you well, Jessica .
(Lorenzo and Jessica leave .)
Come on, Nerissa ; I have work in hand
That you yet know not of : we'll see our husbands
Before they think of us .
Nerissa :
Portia :
Shall they see us?
They shall Nerissa ; but in such a habit,
That they shall think we are accomplished
With that we lack . I'll hold thee any wager,
When we are both accoutred like young men,
I'll prove the prettier fellow of the two,
And wear my dagger with the braver grace,
And speak between the change of man and boy
With a reed voice, and turn two mincing steps
Into a manly stride, and speak of frays
Like a fine bragging youth, and tell quaint lies,
How honorable ladies sought my love,
Which I denying, they fell sick and died ;
I could not do withal ; then I'll repent,
And wish, for all that, that I had not kill 'd them ;
And twenty of these puny lies I'll tell,
That men shall swear I have discontinued school
Above a twelvemonth . I have within my mind
A thousand raw tricks of these bragging Jacks,
Which I will practice .
Nerissa :
Portia :
Why, shall we turn to men?
Fie, what a question's that,
If thou wert near a lewd interpreter!
But come, I'll tell thee all my whole device
When I am in my coach, which stays for us
At the park gate ; and therefore haste away,
For we must measure twenty miles to-day .
(They both leave .)
Scene30
Shylock :
(To Lancelot)
Come here,
you jackass .
You see her ;
56
she's a Jewess now .
This morning, she was still an
Aryan, but now, she's a darling stinking Yid .
The magic
of theatre .
I know you want her . But you're merely a
servant .
I mean that yesterday you were a servant . And
you served the Jews, you pig . So you didn't dare look at
the darling little Jewish girls . The world has changed,
jackass . The Jewesses are at the bottom and they're
open cities ; goes in whoever wishes . But be careful,
you've heard what happens to those who get infected by
dealing with them . It's up to you . Unless you're half
rotten already . (He throws Launcelot almost on top of
Jessica who is completely terrified .)
(This scene is performed in total confusion . Lancelot Gobbo,
hampered by the script and, for the first time, having to play
opposite a female character, understands but one thing : he's
licensed to corner the woman .)
Lancelot : Yes, truly ; for, look you, the sins of the father are to
be laid upon the children : therefore, I promise ye, I
fear you . I was always plain with you, and so now I
speak my agitation of the matter : therefore be of good
cheer, for truly I think you are damned . There is but
one hope in it can do you any good ; and that is but a
kind of bastard hope neither .
Jessica :
And what hope is that . I pray thee?
Lancelot : Marry, you may partly hope that your father got you not,
that you are not the Jew's daughter .
Jessica :
That were a kind of bastard hope, indeed : so the sins of
my mother should be visited upon me .
Lancelot : Truly then I fear you are damned both by father and
mother : thus when I shun Scylla, your father, I fall
into Charybdis, your mother : well, you are gone both
ways .
Jessica :
I shall be saved by my husband ; he hath made me a
Christian .
(During all this, Shylock has gone to fetch Lorenzo, whom he
grabs by the shoulders when Jessica speaks this last line, while the
others perform :)
Shylock : Go on, Siegfried, your Brunhild awaits you .
Lancelot : Truly, the more to blame he : we were Christians enow
before ; e'en as many as could well live, one by another .
This making of Christians will raise the price of hogs :
i f we grow all to be pork-eaters, we shall not shortly
have a rasher on the coals for money .
57
Jessica :
(Enter Lorenzo) I'll tell my husband, Lancelot, what you
say : here he comes .
Lorenzo :
I shall grow jealous of you shortly, Lancelot, if you
thus get my wife into corners .
Jessica :
Nay, you need not fear us, Lorenzo : Launcelot and I are
out . He tells me flatly there is no mercy for me in
heaven, because I am a Jew's daughter : and he says, you
are no good member of the commonwealth, for in converting
Jews to Christians, you raise the price of pork .
Lorenzo :
I shall answer that better to the commonwealth than you
can the getting up of the negro's belly : the Moor is
with child by you, Launcelot .
Lancelot : It is much that the Moor should be more than reason : but
if she be less than an honest woman, she is indeed more
than I took her for .
Lorenzo :
How every fool can play upon the word! I think the best
grace of wit will shortly turn into silence, and
discourse grow commendable in none only but parrots . Go
in, sirrah ; bid them prepare dinner .
Lancelot :
That is done, sir ; they have all stomachs .
Lorenzo :
Goodly Lord, what a wit-snapper are you! then bid them
prepare dinner .
Lancelot :
That is done too, sir : only "cover" is the word .
Lorenzo :
Will you cover then, sir?
Lancelot :
(Bowing, hat in hand) Not so, sir, neither ; I know my
duty .
Yet more quarreling with occasion! Wilt thou show the
whole wealth of thy wit in an instant? I pray thee,
understand a plain man in his plain meaning : go to thy
fellows ; bid them cover the table, serve in the meat, and
we will come in to dinner .
Lorenzo :
Lancelot : For the table, sir, it shall be served in ; for the meat,
sir, it shall be covered ; for your coming in to dinner,
sir, why, let it be as humors and conceits shall govern .
(He leaves)
58
Lorenzo :
0 dear discretion, how his words are suited!
The fool hath planted in his memory
An army of good words ; and I do know
A many fools, that stand in better place,
Garnish'd like him, that for a tricksy word
Defy the matter . How cheer'st thou, Jessica?
And now, good sweet, say thy opinion,
How dost thou like the lord Bassanio's wife?
Jessica :
Past all expressing . It is very meet
The Lord Bassanio live an upright life ;
For, having such a blessing in his lady,
He finds the joys of heaven here on earth ;
And if on earth he do not meant it, then
In reason he should never come to heaven .
Why, if two gods should play some heavenly match
And on the wager lay two earthly women,
And Portia one, there must be something else
Pawn'd with the other, for the poor rude world
Hath not her fellow .
Lorenzo :
Even such a husband
Hast thou of me as she is for a wife .
Jessica :
Nay, but ask my opinion too of that .
Lorenzo :
I will anon : first, let us go to dinner .
Jessica :
Nay, let me praise you while I have a stomach .
Lorenzo :
No, pray thee, let it serve for table-talk ;
Then, howsoe'er thou speak'st, 'mong other things
I shall digest it .
Jessica :
Well, I'll set you forth .
(The atmosphere of hatred that settled between Jessica and
Lancelot at the beginning of the scene has spread to Lorenzo as soon
as he came in . For anyone who does not know the language, it should
appear to be a quarreling scene amongst irreconcilable enemies .
Shylock is particularly pleased with the result .)
Scene31
Shylock : (Applauding) Bravo, really good .
through with the trial scene . We've
because I want it to be improvised
simple . Tubal will be the Duke and
We'll now follow
never rehearsed it
. The blocking is
will remain at his
59
post .
Antonio is here . I'm there, Portia and Nerissa
over there and the audience is here .
I do not want to
stop for any reason . Whoever interrupts the play will be
severely punished : understood? To your places!
(At the beginning of this scene, Shylock is in his dressing
room and Antonio is facing him in Jessica's dressing room . Tubal
is wearing an SS peaked cap .)
Duke :
Antonio!
Antonio :
Ready, so please your Grace .
Duke :
I am sorry for thee : thou art come to answer
A stony adversary, an inhuman wretch
Uncapable of pity, void and empty
From any dram of mercy .
Antonio :
I have heard
Your Grace hath ta'en great pains to qualify
His rigorous course ; but since he stands obdurate
And that no lawful means can carry me
Out of his envy's reach, I do oppose
My patience to his fury, and am arm'd
To suffer, with a quietness of spirit,
The very tyranny and rage of his .
(Enters Shylock, who now appears as a Hasidic Jew .)
Duke :
Shylock, the world thinks, and I think so too,
That thou but lead'st this fashion of thy malice
To the last hour of act ; and then 'tis thought
Thou'lt show thy mercy and remorse more strange
Than is thy strange apparent cruelty ;
And where thou now exact'st the penalty,
Which is a pound of this poor merchant's flesh,
Thou will not only loose the forfeiture,
But, touch'd with human gentleness and love,
Forgive a moiety of the principal ;
Glancing an eye of pity on his losses,
That have of late so huddled on his back,
Enow to press a royal merchant down
And pluck commiseration of his state
From brassy bosoms and rough hearts of flint,
From stubborn Turks and Tartars, never train'd
To offices of tender courtesy .
We all expect a gentle answer, Jew .
Shylock :
I have possess'd your Grace of what I purpose ;
60
And by our holy Sabbath have I sworn
To have the due and forfeit of my bond :
If you deny it, let the danger light
Upon your charter and your city's freedom .
You'll ask me, why I rather choose to have
A weight of carrion flesh than to receive
Three thousand ducats : I'll not answer that :
But say it is my humor : is it answer'd?
What if my house be troubled with a rat
And I be pleased to give ten thousand ducats
To have it baned? What, are you answer'd yet?
Some men there are love not a gaping pig ;
Some, that are mad if they behold a cat ;
And others, when the bagpipe sings i' the nose,
Cannot contain their urine : for affection,
Mistress of passion, sways it to the mood
Of what it likes or loathes . Now, for your answer :
As there is no firm reason to be render'd,
Why he cannot abide a gaping pig ;
Why he, a harmless necessary cat ;
Why he, a woolen bag-pipe ; but of force
Must yield to such inevitable shame
As to offend, himself being offended ;
So can I give reason, nor I will not,
More than a lodged hate and a certain loathing
I bear Antonio, that I follow thus
A losing suit against him . Are you answer'd?
Bassanio :
This is no answer, thou unfeeling man,
To excuse the current of thy cruelty .
Shylock :
I am not bound to please thee with my answers .
Bassanio : Do all men kill the things they do not love?
Shylock :
Hates any man the thing he would not kill?
Bassanio : Every offense is not a hate at first .
Shylock :
What, woudlst thou have a serpent sting thee twice?
Antonio :
I pray you, think you question with the Jew :
You may as well go stand upon the beach
And bid the main flood bate his usual height ;
You may as well use question with the wolf
Why he hath made the ewe bleat for the lamb ;
You may as well forbid the mountain pines
To wag their high tops and to make no noise,
When they are fretten with the gusts of heaven ;
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You may as well do nay thing most hard,
As seek to soften that -- than which what's harder?-His Jewish heart : therefore, I do beseech you,
Make no more offers, use no farther means,
But with all brief and plain conveniency
Let me have judgment 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 them ; I would have my bond.
Duke :
How shalt thou hope for mercy, rendering none?
Shylock :
What judgment shall I dread, doing no wrong?
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,
Because you bought them : shall I say to you,
Let them be free, marry them to your heirs?
Why sweat they under burthens? let their beds
Be made so 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 ; '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 judgment : answer ; shall I have it?
Duke :
Upon my power I may dismiss this court,
Unless Bellario, a learned doctor,
Whom I have sent for to determine this,
Come here to-day .
Bassanio :
My lord, here stays without
A messenger with letters from the doctor,
New come from Padua .
Duke :
Bring us the letter ; 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 whether of the flock,
Meetest for death : the weakest kind of fruit
Drops earlier to the ground ; and so let me :
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You cannot better be employ'd, Bassanio,
Than to live still and write mine epitaph .
Scene32
(Enter Nerissa, who is wearing a lawyer's gown and an SS peaked
cap .)
Duke :
Came you from Padua, from Bellario?
Nerissa :
From both, my lord . Bellario greets your Grace .
She presents him a letter .
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 makest thy knife keen ; but no metal can,
No, not the hangman's 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 : 0, be thou damn'd, inexecrable dog!
And for thy life let justice be accused .
Thou almost makest me waver in my faith
To hold opinion with Pythagoras,
That souls of animals infuse themselves
Into the trunks of men : thy currish spirit
Govern'd a wolf, who, hang'd for human slaughter,
Even from the gallows did hid fell soul fleet,
And, whilst thou lay'st in thy unhallow's dam,
Infused itself in thee ; for thy desires
Are wolvish, bloody, starved, and ravenous .
Shylock :
Till thou cants rail the seal from off my bond,
Thou but offend'st thy lungs to speak so loud :
Repair thy wit, good youth, or it will fall
To cureless ruin . I stand here for law.
Duke :
This letter from Bellario doth commend
A young and learned doctor to our court .
Where is he?
Nerissa :
He attendeth here hard by .
To know your answer, whether you'll admit him .
Duke :
With all my heart . Some three or four of you
Go give hime courteous conduct to this place .
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Meantime I shall read Bellario's letter .
(Reading)
"Your Grace shall understand that at the receipt of
your letter I am very sick : but in the instant that
your messenger came in, in loving visitation was
with me a young doctor of Rome ; his name is
Balthasar . I acquainted him with the cause in
controversy between the Jew and Antonio the
merchant : we turned o'er many books together : he
is furnished with my opinion ; which, bettered with
his own learning, the greatness whereof I cannot
enough commend, comes with him, at my importunity,
to fill up your Grace's request in my stead . I
beseech you, let his lack of years be no impediment
to let him lack a reverend estimation ; for I never
knew so young a body with so old a head . I leave
him to your gracious acceptance, whose trial shall
better publish his commendation ."
You hear the learn'd Bellario, what he writes :
And here, I take it is the doctor come .
(Enters Portia, dressed like a doctor of law, also wearing an
SS hat and a mustache, similar to Hitler's, drawn with charcoal .
General stupefaction . However, on a gesture of impatience on
Shylock's part, Tubal goes on with his lines, without much feeling .)
Duke :
Give me your hand . Come you from old Bellario?
Portia :
I did, my lord .
Duke
You are welcome : take your place .
Are you acquainted with the difference
That holds this present question in the court?
Portia :
I am informed thoroughly of the cause .
Which is the merchant here, and which the Jew?
Duke :
Antonio and old Shylock, both stand forth .
Portia :
Is your name Shylock?
Shylock :
Shylock is my name .
Portia :
Of a strange nature is the suit you follow ;
Yet in such rule that the Venetian law
Cannot impugn you as you do proceed .
(To Antonio .) You stand within his danger, do you not?
Antonio :
Ay, so he says .
64
Portia :
Do you confess the bond?
Antonio :
I do .
Portia :
Then must the Jew be merciful .
Shylock :
On what compulsion must I? tell me that .
Portia :
and all .)
(The following speech is said in Hitler's manner, gestures
The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath : it is twice blest ;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes :
'Tip mightiest in the mightiest : it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown ;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings ;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway ;
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself ;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice . Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That, in the course of justice, none of us
Should see salvation : we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy . I have spoke thus much
To mitigate the justice of thy plea ;
Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice
Must needs give sentence 'gainst the merchant there .
Shylock :
My deeds upon my head! I crave the law,
The penalty and forfeit of my bond .
Portia :
Is he not able to discharge the money?
Bassanio : Yes, here I tender it for him in the court ;
Yea, twice the sum : if that will not suffice,
I will be bound to pay it ten times o'er,
On forfeit of my hands, my head, my heart
If this will not suffice, it must appear
That malice bears down truth . And I beseech you,
Wrest once the law to your authority :
To do a great right, do a little wrong,
And curb this cruel devil of his will .
Portia :
It must not be ; there is no power in Venice
65
Can alter a decree established :
'Twill be recorded for a precedent,
And many an error by the same example
Will rush into the state : it cannot be .
Shylock :
A Daniel come to judgment! yea, a Daniel!
0 wise young judge, how I do honor thee!
Portia :
I pray you, let me look upon the bond .
Shylock :
Here 'tis, most reverend doctor, here it is .
Portia :
Shylock, there's thrice thy money offer'd thee .
Shylock :
An oath, an oath, I have an oath in heaven :
Shall I lay perjury upon my soul ?
No, not for Venice .
Portia :
Why, this bond is forfeit ;
And lawfully by this the Jew may claim
A pound of flesh, to be by him cut off
Nearest the merchant's heart . Be merciful :
Take thrice thy money ; bid me tear the bond .
Shylock :
When it is paid according to the tenor .
It doth appear you are a worthy judge ;
You know the law, your exposition
Hath been most sound : I charge you by the law,
Whereof you are a well-deserving pillar,
Proceed to judgment : by my soul I swear
There is no power in the tongue of man
To alter me : I stay here on my bond .
Antonio :
Most heartily I do beseech the court
To give the judgment .
Portia :
Why then, thus it is :
You must prepare your bosom for his knife .
Shylock :
0 noble judge! 0 excellent young man!
Portia :
For the intent and purpose of the law
Hath full relation to the penalty,
Which here appeareth due upon the bond .
Shylock :
'Tis very true : 0 wise and upright judge!
How much more elder art thou than thy looks!
Portia :
Therefore lay bare your bosom .
Shylock :
Ay, his breast :
66
So says the bond : doth it not, noble judge?
"Nearest his heart" : those are the very words .
Portia :
It is so . Are there balance here to weigh
The flesh?
Shylock :
I have them already .
Portia :
Have by some surgeon, Shylock, on your charge,
To stop his wounds, lest he do bleed to death .
Shylock :
Is it so nominated in the bond?
Portia :
It is not so express'd : but what of that?
'Twere good you do so much for charity .
Shylock :
I cannot find it ; 'tis not in the bond .
Portia :
You, merchant, have you any thing to say?
Antonio :
But little : I am arm'd and well prepared .
Give me your hand, Bassanio : fare you well!
Grieve not that I am fallen to this for you ;
For herein Fortune shows herself more kind
Than is her custom : it is still her use
To let the wretched man outlive his wealth,
To view with hollow eye and wrinkled brow
An age of poverty ; from which lingering penance
Of such misery doth she cut me off .
Commend me to your honorable wife :
Tell her the process of Antonio's end ;
Say how I loved you, speak me fair in death ;
And, when the tale is told, bid her be judge
Whether Bassanio had not once a love .
Repent but you that you shall lose your friend,
And he repents not that he pays your debt ;
For if the Jew do cut but deep enough,
I'll pay it presently with all my heart .
Bassanio : Antonio, I am married to a wife
Which is as dear to me as life itself ;
But life itself, my wife, and all the world,
Are not with me esteem'd above thy life :
I would lose all, ay, sacrifice them all
Here to this devil, to deliver you .
Portia :
Your wife would give you little thanks for that,
If she were by, to hear you make the offer .
Gratiano : I have a wife, whom, I protest, I love :
I would she were in heaven, so she could
67
Entreat some power to change this currish Jew .
Nerissa :
'Tip well you offer it behind her back ;
The wish would make else an unquiet house .
Shylock : (Aside .)
These be the Christian husbands . I have a
daughter ;
Would any of the stock of Barrabas
Had been her husband rather than a Christian!
To Portia . We trifle time : I pray thee, pursue sentence .
Portia :
A pound of that same merchant's flesh is thine :
The court awards it, and the law doth give it .
Shylock :
Most rightful judge!
Portia :
And must cut this flesh from off his breast :
The law allows it, and the court awards it .
Shylock :
Most learned judge! A sentence! Come, prepare!
Portia :
Tarry a little ; there is something else .
This bond doth give thee here no jot of blood;
The words expressly are "a pound of :
flesh"
Take then thy bond, take thou thy pound of flesh ;
But, in the cutting it, if thou dost shed
One drop of Christian blood, thy lands and goods
Are, by the laws of Venice, confiscate
Unto the state of Venice .
Gratiano : 0 upright judge! Mark, Jew : 0 learned judge!
Shylock :
Is that the law?
Portia :
Thyself shalt see the act :
For, as thou urgest justice, be assured
Thou shalt have justice, more than thou desirest .
Gratiano : 0 learned judge! Mark, Jew : a learned judge!
Shylock :
Bassanio :
Portia :
I take this offer, then ; pay the bond thrice
And let the Christian go .
Here is the money .
Soft!
The Jew shall have all justice ; soft! no haste :
He shall have nothing but the penalty .
Gratiano : 0 Jew! an upright judge, a learned judge!
68
Portia :
Therefore prepare thee to cut off the flesh .
Shed thou no blood, nor cut thou less nor more
But just a pound of flesh : if thou cut'st more
Or less than a just pound, be it but so much
As makes it light or heavy in the substance,
Or the division of the twentieth part
Of one poor scruple, nay, if the scale do turn
But in the estimation of a hair,
Thou diest and all thy goods are confiscate .
Gratiano : A second Daniel, a Daniel, Jew!
Now, infidel, I have you on the hip .
Portia :
Why doth the Jew pause? take thy forfeiture .
Shylock :
Give me my principal, and let me go .
Bassanio : I have it ready for thee ;
Portia :
here it is .
He hath refused it in the open court :
He shall have merely justice and his bond .
Gratiano : A Daniel, still say I, a second Daniel!
I thank thee, Jew, for teaching me that word .
Shylock :
Shall I not have barely my principal?
Portia :
Thou shalt have nothing but the forfeiture,
To be so taken at thy peril, Jew .
Shylock :
Why, then the devil give him food of it!
I'll stay no longer question .
Portia :
Tarry, Jew :
The law bath yet another hold on you .
it is enacted in the laws of Venice,
If it be proved against an alien
That by direct or indirect attempts
He seek the life of any citizen,
The party 'gainst the which he doth contrive
Shall seize one half his goods ; the other half
Comes to the privy coffer of the state ;
And the offender's life lies in the mercy
Of the Duke only, 'gainst all other voice .
In which predicament, I say, thou stand'st :
For it appears, by manifest proceeding,
That indirectly and directly too
Thou hast contrived against the very life
Of the defendant ; and thou bast incurr'd
The danger formerly by me rehearsed .
Down therefore and beg mercy of the Duke .
69
Gratiano : Beg that thou mayst have leave to hang thyself :
And yet, thy wealth being forfeit to the state,
Thou bast not left the value of a cord ;
Therefore thou must be hang'd at the state's charge .
Duke :
That thou shalt see the difference of our spirits,
I pardon thee thy life before thou ask it :
For half thy wealth, it is Antonio's ;
The other half comes to the general state,
Which humbleness may drive unto a fine .
Portia :
Ay, for the state, not for Antonio .
Shylock :
Nay, take my life and all ; pardon not that :
You take my house when you do take the prop
That doth sustain my house ; you take my life
When you do take the means whereby I live .
Portia :
What mercy can you render him, Antonio?
Gratiano : A halter gratis ; nothing else, for God's sake .
Antonio :
So please my lord the Duke and all the court
To quit the fine for one half of his goods,
I am content ; so he will let me have
The other half in use, to render it,
Upon his death, unto the gentleman
That lately stole his daughter :
Two things provided more, that, for this favor,
He presently become a Christian ;
The other, that he do record a gift,
Here in the court, of all he dies possess'd,
Unto his son Lorenzo and his daughter .
Duke :
He shall do this, or else I do recant
The pardon that I late pronounced here .
Portia :
Art thou contented, Jew? what dost thou say?
Shylock :
I am content .
I pray you, give me leave to go from hence ;
I am not well .
Duke :
Get thee gone, but do it .
Gratiano :
In christening shalt thou have two god-fathers :
Had I been judge, thou shouldst have had ten more,
To bring thee to the gallows, not the font .
70
Scene 33
(Everything seems to be going well as we get towards the end
of the previous scene . Shylock is on his knees and the others
surround him . As he is reciting his lines, Gratiano grabs him by
the throat and shakes him . Surprised, Shylock drops his knife which
Antonio picks up . They all stop for a moment, and then they all
jump on top Shylock . He is killed on the spot before Tubal has time
to get to his weapon . Those from Belmont (in the stage-right cage)
are stunned and stare at the scene . Suddenly we hear a gunshot and
Antonio falls, wounded in the leg .)
Tubal :
Hands up everyone!
(All obey and remain in their positions . Antonio raises his
hands while remaining on the floor .)
Tubal :
One by one to your cages! Bassanio! Gratiano! Lorenzo!
Antonio! (Gratiano and Bassanio try to help Antonio, but
Tubal screams :) Crawl! (And so, Antonio crawls to his
cage .) Nerissa! (Left alone, Portia, starts towards her
cage .) You, stay! Jessica! (Jessica appears . She is
shaken, but we feel she is willing to do anything to get
out of this .) Shut the cages . (She does as told .) Take
this and tie her hands behind her back . (She does as
ordered .)
Good . Both of you, get in there . (He
indicates the middle cage . As Jessica goes by him, he
hands her his whip . She hesitates, then takes it) . (To
Portia .) I want to hear you count . (Jessica begins
whipping Portia, working herself into more and more of a
frenzy . Tubal closes their cage .)
Portia :
One, two, three . . .
(Coming from the Venetians' cage, we hear, imperceptibly at
first, then louder as they go on :
Aleph, beith, etc . Tubal does
not react . He wants to hear Portia so, from time to time, he yells
at her :)
Tubal :
Louder! (All speak louder) Enough!
(Jessica stops . Silence . Tubal exits and returns with a pail .
He sets it down and gets Portia out of her cage, pushing Jessica
aside . He places Portia on her knees behind the pail . Tubal turns
down the light and we can see the pail is full of glowing embers .)
Tubal :
You are well disguised . You deserve a reward . Do you
know the true Portia, Brutus' wife?
(He forces her head into the pail . We hear an animal-like
scream answered by a "Shmai Ysrael" in Hebrew*, which is repeated
with incredible force . The "Venetians" dance . Tubal grabs his
71
flashlight and holds them in the beam of its light as he kills them
one by one .
After each gunshot, the song decreases in volume, but increases
in intensity . He kills the last one before the end of the song .
We then hear from stage-right, Nerissa, reciting the Ave Maria in
Latin . He trains the flashlight on her and then kills her . The
next one is Lancelot Gobbo, still in Belmont, who stares into the
beam of light with an ironic smile on his lips . He is also killed .
Jessica is the only one left .)
Jessica : Don't kill me, I will do anything you want .
(She begins to undress . Before she can finish, Tubal lights
up her smiling face and fires . He then lights up the Venetian's
cage and notices Bassanio's clenched hand around a bar . He
approaches, retrieves the solitaire and goes up to his dressing
room . He then puts on the waltz from the beginning of the play,
lights a cigarette, sits down and examines the ring with his
flashlight . The flashlight is turned off as the waltz comes to an
end .)
THE END
* See the original composition by Gerald Creatchman .
? 1999 All rights reserved Tibor Egervari / Annick Leger