all of their offspring – all of the baby lambs – were mixed colors.
Antonio asks Shylock if he is telling this story to justify his practice of loaning money at high interest. Shylock asserts that the story illustrates the “way to thrive” (85). Shylock is claiming that God blessed Jacob and helped him to be successful. Shylock is implying that God blesses all men (including himself) who wish to thrive or be successful.
Antonio, however, disagrees with Shylock. He explains that Jacob was successful only because God intervened and helped Jacob in this one particular instance: “swayed and fashionedbythe hand of heaven” (89). Antonio implies that the lambs became parti-colored because God willed it to be so. God had special plans for Jacob, and so God helped Jacob on this one particular occasion so that Jacob could later fulfill the will ofGod.
Antonio then turns to Bassanio and makes the following comment:
(94)
This is an extremely famous and often quoted line from the play. The line indicates that the devil can take the good and holy words from the Bible or other sacred texts and quote them out of context to justify sins, to justify acts of evil. In fact, thedevileven does this in theNew Testamentof the Bible: in the book ofMatthew(chapter 4, verse 5), the