Page 469 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2

I pray you think you question with the Jew. [70]
You may as well go stand upon the beach
And bid the main flood bate his usual height;
You may as well use question with the wolf

Why he hath made the ewe bleat for the lamb;
You may as well forbid the mountain pines [75]
To wag their high-tops and to make no noise
When they are fretten with the gusts of heaven;

You may as well do anything most hard
As seek to soften that − than which what’s harder? −
His Jewish heart. Therefore I do beseech you [80]
Make no more offers, use no farther means,

But with all brief and plain conveniency
Let me have judgement, and the Jew his will.

BASSANIO
For thy three thousand ducats here is six.

SHYLOCK
If every ducat in six thousand ducats [85]
Were in six parts, and every part a ducat,

I would not draw them. I would have my bond.

DUKE
How shall thou hope for mercy, rendering none?

SHYLOCK
What judgement shall I dread, doing no wrong?
You have among you many a purchased slave, [90]
Which like your asses and your dogs and mules

You use in abject and in slavish parts,
Because you bought them. Shall I say to you,
Let them be free, marry them to your heirs!
Why sweat they under burdens? Let their beds [95]

Be made as soft as yours, and let their palates
Be seasoned with such viands? You will answer,
The slaves are ours. So do I answer you:
The pound of flesh which I demand of him