Humanities Literature Top 3 Shylock Quotes and Speeches Share Flipboard Email Print Robbie Jack - Corbis / Contributor / Getty Images Literature Shakespeare Comedies Shakespeare's Life Studying & Teaching Tragedies Sonnets Best Sellers Classic Literature Contemporary Literature Plays & Drama Poetry Quotations Short Stories Children's & Young Adult Books View More by Lee Jamieson Lee Jamieson has a M.A. in theater studies and is the author of numerous books. He lectured for six years on theater studies at Stratford-upon-Avon College in the U.K. Updated May 05, 2017 Shylock is one of the most memorable characters from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice – arguably, one of Shakespeare’s most memorable characters ever! We bring you the top 3 Shylock quotes and speeches that gave him an enduring presence throughout literary history. 1. “It Will Feed my Revenge!” To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villany you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.(Act 3, Scene 1) 2. “Many a Time and Oft in The Rialto You Have Rated Me!” Signior Antonio, many a time and oftIn the Rialto you have rated meAbout my moneys and my usances:Still have I borne it with a patient shrug,For sufferance is the badge of all our tribe.You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog,And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine,And all for use of that which is mine own.Well then, it now appears you need my help:Go to, then; you come to me, and you say'Shylock, we would have moneys:' you say so;You, that did void your rheum upon my beardAnd foot me as you spurn a stranger curOver your threshold: moneys is your suitWhat should I say to you? Should I not say'Hath a dog money? is it possibleA cur can lend three thousand ducats?' OrShall I bend low and in a bondman's key,With bated breath and whispering humbleness, Say this;'Fair sir, you spit on me on Wednesday last;You spurn'd me such a day; another timeYou call'd me dog; and for these courtesiesI'll lend you thus much moneys'?(Act 1, Scene 3) 3. “I Have Possess'd Your Grace of What I Purpose!” I have possess'd your grace of what I purpose;And by our holy Sabbath have I swornTo have the due and forfeit of my bond:If you deny it, let the danger lightUpon your charter and your city's freedom.You'll ask me, why I rather choose to haveA weight of carrion flesh than to receiveThree thousand ducats: I'll not answer that:But, say, it is my humour: is it answer'd?What if my house be troubled with a ratAnd I be pleased to give ten thousand ducatsTo have it baned? What, are you answer'd yet?Some men there are love not a gaping pig;Some, that are mad if they behold a cat;And others, when the bagpipe sings i' the nose,Cannot contain their urine: for affection,Mistress of passion, sways it to the moodOf what it likes or loathes. Now, for your answer:As there is no firm reason to be render'd,Why he cannot abide a gaping pig;Why he, a harmless necessary cat;Why he, a woollen bagpipe; but of forceMust yield to such inevitable shameAs to offend, himself being offended;So can I give no reason, nor I will not,More than a lodged hate and a certain loathingI bear Antonio, that I follow thusA losing suit against him. Are you answer'd?(Act 4, Scene 1) Continue Reading