The Merchant of Venice (✓)

Chapter Eight

Antonio, Bassanio, Gratiano, the court officials and the merchants who had come to observe the trial, all went silent as the Duke entered the courtroom. He sat down behind his raised bench. 'Well? Antonio's here, is he?' he said.

'Ready, at your pleasure, Your Grace,' said Antonio, who stood between two guards.

The duke shook his head. 'I'm sorry for you,' he said. 'You have come to answer a stony adversary, an inhuman wretch, incapable of pity and devoid of even a drop of mercy.'

'I've been told Your Grace has taken great pains to dissuade him from his course,' said Antonio. But as he's determined, and as the law can't help me avoid his revenge, I'll encounter his anger with patience. I've resigned myself to submission to his merciless rage.'

'Go, one of you, and call the Jew into the court,' said the duke.

'He's waiting at the door,' said Solanio. 'Here he comes, my lord.'

'Make way for him and let him stand before me.'

The court was crowded and they moved to make way for Shylock, who strode in and bowed curtly to the duke.

'Shylock,' began the duke, addressing him gently. 'Everyone thinks – and I think so too – that you intend to keep up this act until the last minute, and then, it's thought, you'll show your mercy and remorse even more strikingly than you've shown your strange apparent cruelty. And whereas you're now demanding the penalty – a pound of this poor merchant's flesh – you'll not only waive that penalty but, touched with human gentleness and love, waive some of the debt as well, as you cast an eye of pity over the losses that have so burdened him – enough to disable even a royal merchant and touch the brassy and stony hearts of merciless Turks and Tartars who are unaccustomed to showing sympathy.'

Shylock was silent. He stared defiantly at the duke.

'We all expect a gentle answer, Jew.' The duke gestured to him to speak.

Shylock cleared his throat. 'I've told Your Grace what my intentions are. I've sworn by our holy Sabbath to get the full penalty for failure to pay the bond. If you deny it you will be undermining your city's constitution and the rule of law.' He looked around the court at the hostile faces. 'You'll ask me why I'd rather have a measure of dead flesh than receive three thousand ducats. Well I won't answer that! Just say I feel like it. Is that good enough? What if my house were plagued by a rat and it suited me to pay ten thousand ducats to have it poisoned? Well, have you got your answer? There are some men who don't like the sight of a gaping pig's head: some who go mad if they see a cat: and others who can't help wetting themselves when they hear the nasal whine of the bagpipes. That's because our likes and dislikes govern our emotions. Now: your answer. Because no good explanation can be given as to why one man can't stand a gaping pig's head, why another man a harmless, useful cat: why yet another can't hear a woollen bagpipe without bringing inevitable shame on himself and committing an offence because he has been offended, I can't give an answer either. Nor do I want to, apart from a solid hatred and a loathing that I have for Antonio. That makes me pursue this money-losing case against him! Have you got your answer?'

Bassanio, incensed, was unable to stop himself from shouting out. 'This is no excuse for your cruelty, you callous man!'

'I don't have to please you with my answers!' snapped Shylock.

'Do all men kill the things they dislike?' said Bassanio.

'Wouldn't every man just love to kill the things he doesn't like?' said Shylock.

'Not every offence causes hatred in the first instance,' retorted Bassanio.

'What?' said Shylock, 'Would you allow a serpent to sting you twice?'