reflection on Jewish usury, avarice, and cruelty, I felt poignantly. No
power of imagination could make me pity Shylock, but I felt the force of
some of his appeals to justice; and some passages struck me in quite a new
light on the Jewish side of the question.

"Many a time, and oft,
In the Rialto, you have rated me,
About 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 gabardine;
And all, for use of that which is my 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.

* * * * *

Shall I bend low, and in a bondsman key, With bated breath, and whisp'ring
humbleness, Say this--Fair sir, you spit on me last Wednesday; You
spurned me such a day; another time You called me dog; and for these
courtesies I'll lend you thus much moneys?"

As far as Shylock was concerned, I was well content he should be used in
such a sort; but if it had been any other human creature, any other Jew
even--if it had been poor Jacob, for instance, whose image crossed my
recollection--I believe I should have taken part with him. Again, I was
well satisfied that Antonio should have hindered Shylock of half a million,
should have laughed at his losses, thwarted his bargains, cooled his