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Ivanhoe Chapter 22 Summary

  • This chapter starts with a famous quote from Act II of Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice (the play that provides epigraphs for Chapters 5 and 6). In this passage Shylock, the Jew, cries out because his daughter Jessica has eloped with a Christian and stolen his money. These lines are from a Jewish character who has lost both his daughter and his cash – which implies that Isaac and Rebecca are going to feature in this chapter.
  • We switch focus to Isaac of York, who has been stuck in the castle dungeons.
  • Reginald Front-de-Boeuf and Bois-Guilbert's two Muslim servants enter Isaac's cell.
  • Front-de-Boeuf demands a thousand pounds of silver from Isaac.
  • Isaac has no hope of coming up with that much money; all the Jews of the city of York put together don't have that much.
  • Front-de-Boeuf is willing to accept gold instead of silver if necessary.
  • Front-de-Boeuf threatens Isaac with horrible torture if he doesn't pay up. He promises that he's capable of torture, which he's done plenty of during the Crusades in the Holy Land.
  • Under the threat of torture, Isaac agrees to pay the thousand pounds of silver.
  • Front-de-Boeuf won't let Isaac go free until the silver is paid.
  • Isaac asks if he can ransom his fellow prisoners with that same thousand pounds.
  • Front-de-Boeuf tells Isaac not to worry about the Saxons; they are here for different reasons.
  • Isaac asks if his daughter, Rebecca, can go to York to gather the treasure.
  • Front-de-Boeuf sneers that he's already sent Rebecca to Bois-Guilbert.
  • Isaac is heartbroken. He refuses to pay a penny to Front-de-Boeuf, no matter what tortures he has to suffer. Isaac won't help the man who took his daughter away.
  • Front-de-Boeuf starts preparing to torture Isaac, but he is interrupted by the horn blasts from the castle gate.