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+‘Tis more esteemed° that° you take a man’s life / preferred / fitting
Than cast him into hellish poverty.
You take° my wealth, the labor of my life, / have
The comfort of mine age, my children’s hope—
Nay, rather show° your Christian charity, / Rather show me
186
And kill me now. ° , 187 188 / Nay, show your Christian mercy—kill me now!

—Portia
What mercy can you render him, Antonio? 189

—Gratziano
A noose, for free°—and nothing else, for God’s sake! 190 {A halter, gratis.}

—Antonio
So please my lord, the Duke, to hear the state° {and all the court}
Forgive° the fine for one half of his goods. {To quit} / to drop
191
I am content with that, so long as he
Will let me use the other half in trust

When you do take the means whereby I live.
house: in the first instance, it is used in the biblical sense of one’s ancestral lineage or the ‘the house of
Abraham’; in the second instance it refers to Shylock’s house (or symbolically, his life) and the wealth (prop) which
sustains or supports it.
186. / And kill me now, right where I stand.
187. The emended passage was derived from Marlow’s, The Jew of Malta, and echos the sentiment found in
Shakespeare’s original. It is possible that Shakespeare fashioned Shylock’s lines after those of Marlow’s Barabas,
who uttered these lines after losing all his money:

Bar: Why I esteem the injury far less,
To take the lives of miserable men,
Than be the causers of their misery;
You have my wealth, the labor of my life,
The comfort of mine age, my children’s hope;
And there ne’er distinguish of the wrong.
188. This plea is somewhat imprecise since all of Shylock’s wealth had not been taken—only half. (In Marlow’s
play, Barabas makes such a plea after all his wealth is taken). Shylock is still a rich man and able to sustain his
house. What kind of mercy is Antonio being asked to show? Shylock has already managed to retain half his wealth
(less a small fine). Is Antonio being asked to forgive his deserved half or a portion thereof? If so, will Shylock pay
nothing for his crime of attempted murder? In all fairness, he needs to suffer some loss, to pay in some way for his
crime—and perhaps the loss he suffers (as in all previous versions of the story) is the loss of his principle, which in
this case is the large sum of 3000 ducats. In the end, Antonio’s ‘show of mercy,’ called upon by the Duke, delivers
Shylock to a much worse position than he was in before Antonio was called on to show his mercy. Before, Shylock
lost his principle and half his wealth; after, Shylock lost his principle, half his money was put into a trust, and he was
forced to convert to Christianity—which deprived him of his faith, his lifestyle, his livelihood, (usury), and the
support of his fellow Jews.
189. Shylock’s plea may have softened Portia, who a few moments before was quick to make certain that the Duke’s
forgiveness only extended so far as the state, and not Antonio. Here, her very questioning of Antonio for mercy,
prompts a merciful response; she just as easily could have held to her previous position, assigned half the wealth to
Antonio (without asking him for mercy—as the Duke’s forgiveness of half the penalty was merciful enough), and
dismiss the court. As it turns out, this request of Antonio to show mercy—wherein his brand of mercy was Shylock’s
forced conversion to Christianity (as found in the original play)—was a grave punishment for Shylock. Thus, it
would have been better for Shylock had no such request of Antonio been made—and had he not made such a
heartened plea to the court. (As mentioned, only half his wealth had been taken, but he was his plea seemed as
though all his wealth had been taken).
190. For additional lines, see Additional Notes, 4.1.379
191. Antonio is ‘content’ and agrees with the Duke’s show of mercy, that the state forgives the fine for one half of
Shylock’s wealth—under the condition that Antonio gets the other have to use in trust.