Page:Merchant of Venice (1923) Yale.djvu/59

The Merchant of Venice, III. i

Salan. I would she were as lying a gossip in

that as ever knapped ginger, or made her neigh-

bours believe she wept for the death of a third

husband. But it is true,—without any slips of

prolixity or crossing the plain highway of talk,

—that the good Antonio, the honest Antonio,—

O, that I had a title good enough to keep his

name company!—

Salar. Come, the full stop.

Salan. Ha! what sayst thou? Why, the end

is, he hath lost a ship.

Salar. I would it might prove the end of his

losses.

Salan. Let me say 'amen' betimes, lest the

devil cross my prayer, for here he comes in the

likeness of a Jew.

How now, Shylock! what news among the

merchants?

Shy. You knew, none so well, none so well as

you, of my daughter's flight.

Salar. That's certain: I, for my part, knew

the tailor that made the wings she flew withal.

Salan. And Shylock, for his own part, knew

the bird was fledged; and then it is the com-

plexion of them all to leave the dam.

Shy. She is damned for it.

Salar. That's certain, if the devil may be her

judge.

Shy. My own flesh and blood to rebel!

Salan. Out upon it, old carrion! rebels it at

these years?

 10 knapped: munched (pronounce the 'k')

30 withal: with; cf. n.

32 complexion: disposition 