Anshu Reads Stuff

I'm planning on following this list, alternating tragedies and comedies where possible to break it up a little. I get tired of comedies after a while. Merchant of Venice,  Antony and Cleopatra,  As You Like It,  Timon of Athens,  All's Well that Ends Well,  Titus Andronicus,  The Comedy of Errors,  Pericles, the Prince of Tyre,  Cymbeline,  Love's Labor Lost,  The Winter's Tale,  Merry Wives of Windsor,  Taming of the Shrew,  The Two Gentlemen of Verona,  Henry VI, parts I/II/III,  Henry VIII,  King John,  Richard III

Early in Merchant of Venice , an exchange between Shylock and Antonio struck me as profoundly puzzling. Check it out: Shylock: Signior Antonio, 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 gaberdine, And all for use of that which is mine 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; You, that did void your rheum upon my beard And foot me as you spurn a stranger cur Over your threshold: moneys is your suit What should I say to you? Should I not say 'Hath a dog money? is it possible A cur can lend three thousand ducats?' Or Shall I bend low and in a bondman's key, With bated breath and whispering humbleness, Say this; 'Fair sir, you spit on me on Wednesday last;...