This chapter's epigraph comes from a famous line from Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice. It's a quote from the play's title, "The Deadly Sins," in which Shylock asks Shylock, "Who is this guy?" Shylock replies that he's seen the "magic" of the gods before, and that he doesn't want to be defeated by them. He's different, he says, because he takes down the gods with whatever he has. Shylock is amazed that a mere human can have so much power over the gods. He compares the gods to the "four archan gels" , and says that the gods have freed the grace from the human, but that the human is the "sun" . He says that this is a predestined encounter between the gods and demons, and he wants to know why a human like Shylock has to risk his life for the sake of his friend. He tells the audience that he is doing this for the same reason that a man like him has to "risk his life" in order to save the life of a woman like Eve . In other words, he wants the audience to know that in Shylock's presence, "mere blinking" can cost him his life.