Page:Stories from Old English Poetry-1899.djvu/229

Rh principal seat was given her near the Duke, who sat upon his throne in great state in the midst of the assembly. On one hand stood Antonio, calm and unmoved at the near approach of death, and endeavoring to comfort, by his gentle persuasions. his afflicted friend Bassanio, who was much more deeply plunged in grief than the noble victim of the Jew’s hate. On the other side was Shylock, his cloak of civility and blandness thrown boldly aside, his eager eyes thirsting for the sight of his victim’s blood, and in his hand the sharp, glittering knife with which to exact the penalty.

Portia looked at him for one moment as she rose to examine the case, and then in a voice of tenderest compassion she urged on him the Christian law of mercy. But the Jew was deaf to her appeal. His religion had taught him that to exact eye for eye and tooth for tooth was the proper rule of dealing with his fellow-man, and he would have no better teaching than that of his own synagogues. When Portia found his heart thus obdurate, she made no further appeal, but asked if he had been offered more than the sum which Antonio had owed him. Upon this Bassanio again offered the Jew several times the amount of the debt, which Shylock scornfully refused, declaring that for countless ducats he would not exchange his right to the pound of his enemy’s flesh.