In Act One, scene three, of Shakespeare's The
Merchant of Venice, anger runs deep in Shylock's heart as he plots his
revenge against Antonio.
Earlier on in the scene, Shylock
airs his disgust with Christians. He insists:
“I will not eat with you, drink with you, nor
pray with you.”
Then Shylock
says that if he can just get the best of Antonio once,
he:
...will
feed fat the ancient grudge I bear
him.
When Shylock finally
deigns to notice Antonio, pretending not to have previously seen him as the money lender
speaks to Bassiano, he says:
Your worship was the last man in our
mouths.
There
seems to be a play on words here, between "feed" and "mouths," but what I see as ironic
is that while Shylock refuses to eat or drink with Antonio, a Christian, he refers to
his revenge in terms of "feeding fat," and then speaks to this Christian as being
worshipped (complimented) "in his mouth." Even as a figure of speech, this comment
completely contradicts Shylock's feelings towards Antonio, the
Christian.
It is also ironic (or hypocritical?) that
Shylock has just been thinking about how to avenge himself for Antonio's past insults,
and then turns around speaking to Antonio of how he was just praising
him.
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