and not a drop of blood!
- balthasar, a doctor of law (a.k.a. portia)
- the merchant of venice by william shakespeare
antonio, best buddy of bassanio, portia's husband, signs a bond with jewish merchant shylock. in it, antonio pledges the bond with a pound of his flesh. the bond, however, is NSF (in today's parlance) and shylock demands the pound of flesh.
portia disguises as young doctor of law balthasar and essays shylock, who is intent on revenge instead of payment, on the law. she urges shylock that he can take his one pound of flesh, but there would not be a single drop of blood, for that would be murder of a christian and that is against venetian law. as such, he, shylock, for the crime of murder, would have his estate forfeited, half of which would go to antonio and half to be seized by the state.
you know how it ends, don't you?
moral of the story: never argue with a woman. specially when she's wearing a 'tache!
