Section 126. SHYLOCK[1] MEDITATING REVENGE.
Reading edition
Section 126. SHYLOCK[1] MEDITATING REVENGE.
If it will feed[2] nothing else (S. 27, N. 8), it will[3] feed my revenge. He has disgraced[4] me, and hindered[5] me of half a million! laughed[6] at my losses, mocked[7] at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted[8] my bargains, cooled[9] my friends, heated[10] my enemies! And[11] what’s his reason? I am a Jew! Has[12] not a Jew eyes? Has not a Jew hands, organs, senses, affections,[13] passions? Is (S. 2, N. 1) he not fed with[14] the same food, hurt with the same weapon, subject[15] to the same diseases, healed[16] by the same means, warmed[17] and cooled by the same summer and winter, as a Christian is? If[18] you stab us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? and[19] if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like[20] you in the rest (S. 27, N. 8), we will resemble you in that[21]! If a Jew wrong a Christian, what[22] is his humility? Revenge[23]. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what[24] should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why[25], revenge! The villany you teach (S. 42, N. 4) me I[26] will execute; and[27] it shall go hard but[28] I will better the instruction.—William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice.”