Page:Merchant of Venice (1923) Yale.djvu/29

The Merchant of Venice, I. iii

Ant. Shylock, albeit I neither lend nor borrow

By taking nor by giving of excess,

Yet, to supply the ripe wants of my friend,

I'll break a custom. [To Bassanio.] Is he yet possess'd

How much ye would?

Shy.Ay, ay, three thousand ducats.

Ant. And for three months.

Shy. 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.

Ant.I do never use it.

Shy. When Jacob graz'd his uncle Laban's sheep,—

This Jacob from our holy Abram was,

As his wise mother wrought in his behalf,

The third possessor: ay, he was the third,—

Ant. And what of him? did he take interest?

Shy. No; not take interest; not, as you would say,

Directly interest: mark what Jacob did.

When Laban and himself were compromis'd,

That all the eanlings which were streak'd and pied

Should fall as Jacob's hire, the ewes, being rank,

In 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.

 63 excess: interest

64 ripe: immediate

65 possess'd: informed

72 Jacob: ''see Gen. 30. 37.''

79 compromis'd: agreed

80 eanlings: new lambs

85 peel'd me; cf. n.

86 kind: nature

87 fulsome: lustful

89 Fall: give birth to 