Shylock: “Hath not a Jew eyes?”

What is happening, what every line means, how to perform it, and how to use it in an audition, with the full text.

The Offbook team

Oct 8, 2026

What is happening

This is Act 3, Scene 1 of The Merchant of Venice. Shylock is a Jewish moneylender in Venice. Antonio, a Christian merchant, has for years insulted him in public, called him a dog and spat on him, and lends money without interest, which undercuts Shylock’s business. In Act 1, Antonio borrowed 3,000 ducats from Shylock for three months to help his friend Bassanio. Shylock asked, “in a merry sport,” that if the money was not repaid on time, the penalty would be a pound of Antonio’s flesh.

Since then, Shylock’s daughter Jessica has run away with a Christian, Lorenzo, taking bags of his money and jewels. Now, in the street, two of Antonio’s friends, Salanio and Salarino, mock Shylock about her. They also have news that Antonio has lost a ship at sea. Shylock answers that Antonio should look to his bond.

Salarino does not believe he means it: “if he forfeit, thou wilt not take his flesh: what’s that good for?” This speech is Shylock’s answer, spoken to the two men who have just been laughing at him. Right after it, they are called away to Antonio, and Shylock’s friend Tubal arrives with news of Jessica’s spending and Antonio’s losses. By the end of the scene Shylock is set on taking Antonio’s heart if the bond is forfeited.

Lines: 11
Words: 194
At 150 wpm: 1.3 min
Form: Prose

The speech, beat by beat

The full text in 6 beats. Under each beat: what it means in plain English, and a note for playing it.

Lines 1–1 · Fish bait

1To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge.

In plain English To use as fish bait. If it feeds nothing else, it will feed my revenge.

Acting note A blunt, almost joking answer to Salarino’s question. The joke has a cold end: the word “revenge” is out before the argument starts.

Lines 2–3 · The charges

2He 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.

In plain English He has disgraced me and cost me half a million. He has laughed at my losses, mocked my profits, sneered at my people, blocked my deals, turned my friends cold and stirred up my enemies. And what is his reason? I am a Jew.

Acting note Eight separate wrongs, each one a real memory. Don’t let them blur into a list. “I am a Jew” is three short words after a long sentence; give them space.

Lines 4–4 · Hath not a Jew eyes?

4Hath 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?

In plain English Doesn’t a Jew have eyes? Doesn’t a Jew have hands, organs, a body, senses, feelings, passions? Isn’t he fed by the same food, hurt by the same weapons, sick with the same diseases, cured by the same medicines, warmed and chilled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is?

Acting note He is demanding to be seen as a human being by men who treat him as less than one. The questions are not abstract; he is looking at two Christians as he asks them.

Lines 5–6 · Shall we not revenge?

5If 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.

In plain English If you prick us, don’t we bleed? If you tickle us, don’t we laugh? If you poison us, don’t we die? And if you wrong us, shouldn’t we take revenge? If we are like you in everything else, we will be like you in that too.

Acting note The pattern of three questions sets up a fourth that breaks it. The argument for shared humanity becomes an argument for revenge. That turn, in the middle of line 5, is the hinge of the speech.

Lines 7–10 · The Christian example

7If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility?── 60-second cut ends here ──
Revenge.
If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example?
10Why, revenge.

In plain English If a Jew wrongs a Christian, how does the Christian show his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrongs a Jew, how should the Jew put up with it, following the Christian example? Why, revenge.

Acting note “Humility” and “sufferance” are thrown back in their faces. In Act 1 he told Antonio that “sufferance is the badge of all our tribe”; here he says he is done with it. The answers are one word each, so let the question hang before each one.

Lines 11–11 · Better the instruction

11The villany you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.

In plain English The wickedness you teach me, I will carry out, and it will go hard with me if I don’t improve on what I was taught.

Acting note This is a promise, not a threat shouted in rage. He has his reason now, and it is theirs. It can be said very quietly.

Hard words

Word	Line	Meaning
withal	1	with
hindered me half a million	2	cost me half a million (ducats) in lost business
scorned my nation	2	sneered at my people
cooled my friends, heated mine enemies	2	turned my friends against me and stirred up my enemies
dimensions	4	bodily shape and size
affections	4	feelings
humility	7	meekness, Christian forgiveness (said bitterly)
sufferance	9	patient endurance of wrongs
villany	11	wickedness
it shall go hard but	11	it will take a great deal to stop me; I will surely
better the instruction	11	outdo what I have been taught

How to perform it

Know who you are talking to. Shylock is not addressing the world or the audience; he is answering Salarino and Salanio, two of Antonio’s friends who have just mocked him about his daughter. StageMilk notes how many questions he asks: he is not lecturing them by force but leading them, step by step, with his mind already made up.
Play both halves. The speech starts as a demand to be recognised as human and ends as a vow of revenge, and the turn comes in the middle of line 5. Don’t play the famous lines as a plea for tolerance and forget where they lead, and don’t play the ending as plain villainy. Both are true at once.
Treat the prose as freedom, not as a script with no shape. The sentences are your units. Lines 2 and 4 are long lists; take a full breath before each and give every item its own weight. StageMilk warns that a list tempts actors to repeat the same inflection; eyes and hands are not the same thing, so don’t say them the same way.
Use the short sentences. “I am a Jew.”, “Revenge.” and “Why, revenge.” are the hardest blows in the speech, and they are almost nothing on the page. Let a silence come before each one.
Find the variety. StageMilk suggests he can be calm, quick, angry, excited, even mournful within this one speech. One level of fury from start to finish wastes the turns.
Common mistakes: playing a stereotype, such as an accent or a stoop the text does not ask for; rushing the lists; and playing to the audience for sympathy instead of pressing the two men in front of you.

Using it in an audition

The full speech runs about 1.3 minutes at 150 words a minute, so it fits a 90-second limit. The 60-second cut marked in the text stops at line 7, but that line is a question and its answer, “Revenge.”, is line 8; stop at line 8, or for a cleaner ending stop at line 6, “we will resemble you in that,” just under a minute. Salanio calls Shylock “old carrion” in this scene and he has a grown daughter, so the part suits mature actors. Think about whether you are the right person to bring it: StageMilk argues that the role should be reserved for actors with a personal connection to it, though it notes that others disagree. How it is played has changed over time: Wikipedia records that before Edmund Kean’s sympathetic Shylock in 1814, the part was played as a repulsive clown or as a monster of pure evil. If you want a less familiar Shylock speech, Backstage suggests his trial speech in Act 4, Scene 1, beginning “What judgment shall I dread, doing no wrong?” As a contrast, pair it with a comic verse piece, such as Petruchio’s “Thus have I politicly begun my reign” from The Taming of the Shrew.

Shylock, The Merchant of Venice, Act 3, Scene 1. William Shakespeare. Public domain text.

How long it runs

Pace	Words a minute	Run time
Deliberate	130	1.5 minutes
Conversational	150	1.3 minutes
Brisk	170	1.1 minutes

These are speech times before pauses. To time your own run, paste the text into the monologue timer. The cut marks in the text stop at a full sentence near 60 seconds (line 7).

Practice it: first-letter version

Each word is cut to its first letter. Say the whole line from the letters, then check the text. Make cues from any script with the first-letter memorizer.

T b f w: i i w f n e, i w f m r.

H h d m, a h m h a m; l a m l, m a m g, s m n, t m b, c m f, h m e; a w h r?

I a a J.

H n a J e? h n a J h, o, d, s, a, p? f w t s f, h w t s w, s t t s d, h b t s m, w a c b t s w a s, a a C i?

I y p u, d w n b? i y t u, d w n l? i y p u, d w n d? a i y w u, s w n r?

I w a l y i t r, w w r y i t.

I a J w a C, w i h h?

I a C w a J, w s h s b b C e?

W, r.

T v y t m, I w e, a i s g h b I w b t i.

More from The Merchant of Venice

More lists: Shakespeare monologues, Monologues for men, Comedic monologues.

Sources

Questions actors ask

How long is Shylock’s Hath not a Jew eyes? speech?

11 lines and 194 words. At 150 words a minute it runs about 1.3 minutes; a slower, more deliberate delivery at 130 takes about 1.5 minutes. Pauses add time, so time a full run out loud.

Is it a good audition monologue?

What is the fastest way to memorize it?

Learn it in sense units, not line by line: say each thought out loud until you can do it without looking, then add the next. The first-letter version below keeps the shape of every line in view while you test yourself.