The Merchant of Venice

by William Shakespeare

“Mislike me not for my complexion,
The shadowed livery of the burnished sun,
To whom I am a neighbor and near bred.
Bring me the fairest creature northward born,
Where Phoebus' fire scarce thaws the icicles,
And let us make incision for your love
To prove whose blood is reddest, his or mine.”

--William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

The first first two lines of this famous quote were included in the frontispiece of James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans.

Dramatis Personae

ACT I - Scene I

ACT I - Scene II

ACT I - Scene III

ACT II - Scene I

ACT II - Scene II

ACT II - Scene III

ACT II - Scene IV

ACT II - Scene V

ACT II - Scene VI

ACT II - Scene VII

ACT II - Scene VIII

ACT II - Scene IX

ACT III - Scene I

ACT III - Scene II

ACT III - Scene III

ACT III - Scene IV

ACT III - Scene V

ACT IV - Scene I

ACT IV - Scene II

ACT V - Scene I