The Merchant Of Venice - Frank Burbeck (1912) from bend mixedgla Watch Video

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✓ Published: 24-Apr-2024

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Shylock's rebuke from The Merchant Of Venice by Shakespeare<br/><br/>Recited by Frank Burbeck <br/><br/>Victor 17163<br/><br/>1912<br/><br/>Spoken by Shylock<br/><br/>Act 1, Scene 3<br/><br/>Signior Antonio, many a time and oft<br/>In the Rialto you have rated me<br/>About my moneys and my usances:<br/>Still have I borne it with a patient shrug,<br/>For sufferance is the badge of all our tribe.<br/>You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog,<br/>And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine,<br/>And all for use of that which is mine own.<br/>Well then, it now appears you need my help:<br/>Go to, then; you come to me, and you say<br/>‘Shylock, we would have moneys:’ you say so;<br/>You, that did void your rheum upon my beard<br/>And foot me as you spurn a stranger cur<br/>Over your threshold: moneys is your suit<br/>What should I say to you? Should I not say<br/>‘Hath a dog money? is it possible<br/>A cur can lend three thousand ducats?’ Or<br/>Shall I bend low and in a bondman’s key,<br/>With bated breath and whispering humbleness, Say this;<br/>‘Fair sir, you spit on me on Wednesday last;<br/>You spurn’d me such a day; another time<br/>You call’d me dog; and for these courtesies<br/>I’ll lend you thus much moneys’?<br/><br/>Bassanio has no money but he needs money so he can woo Portia, so Bassanio turns to his friend Antonio for a loan.<br/><br/>Antonio has invested his own money in ships and cannot furnish his friend with money, so he hopes to help Bassanio by going to Shylock for a loan.<br/><br/>Shylock is Jewish. The others are Christian.<br/><br/>Shylock is bitter that he is asked for money after being badly treated by Antonio in the past.<br/><br/>That bitter feeling is the basis for this famous monologue.