... I would my daughter were dead at my foot, and the jewels in her
ear! would she were hearsed at my foot, and the ducats in her coffin!"
But there is even better proof than this: when Shylock is defeated in
his case and leaves the Court penniless and broken, Shakespeare allows
him to be insulted by a gentleman. Shylock becomes pathetic in his
defeat, for Shakespeare always sympathized with failure, even before he
came to grief himself:
"
Shy. Nay, take my life and all; pardon not that:
You take my house when you do take the prop
That doth sustain my house; you take my life
When you do take the means whereby I live."
"
Por. What mercy can you render him, Antonio?
Gra. A halter gratis; nothing else for God's sake."
And then Antonio offers to "quit the fine for one-half his goods."
Utterly broken now, Shylock says:
"I pray you, give me leave to go from hence;
I am not well: send the deed after me,
And I will sign it.
Duke. Get thee gone, but do it.
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