How we cite our quotes: (Act.Scene.Line). Line numbers correspond to the Norton Shakespeare edition.
Quote #4
LANCELOT
"Budge," says the fiend. "Budge not," says my conscience.
"Conscience," say I, you counsel well." "Fiend," say I, "you
counsel well." To be rul'd by my conscience, I should stay with
the Jew my master, who—God bless the mark!—is a kind of devil;
and, to run away from the Jew, I should be ruled by the fiend,
who—saving your reverence!—is the devil himself. Certainly the Jew is the very devil incarnation; and, in my conscience, my
conscience is but a kind of hard conscience to offer to counsel
me to stay with the Jew. The fiend gives the more friendly
counsel. I will run, fiend; my heels are at your commandment; I
will run. (2.2.1)
There's no evidence that Shylock is particularly awful to Lancelot—it seems that religious attitudes are at work in painting Shylock as the devil incarnate. He's caught between a rock and a hard place, as often happens in the play. Lancelot gives no reason for his choice; he just dismisses his conscience as a hard one, giving worse advice than the fiend.
This is particularly interesting when we think of the other person who must choose between Shylock and something else: Jessica. Though we never really see her reasoning, maybe Shakespeare is suggesting it was something similar to this?
Quote #5
JESSICA
Alack, what heinous sin is it in me
To be asham'd to be my father's child!
But though I am a daughter to his blood,
I am not to his manners. O Lorenzo,
If thou keep promise, I shall end this strife,
Become a Christian and thy loving wife. (2.3.2)
Jessica chooses Lorenzo, and a Christian life, over her father and her Jewish background. She recognizes that it's a sin to be ashamed of her father, but she makes a choice that she thinks is truer to her nature. As her Jewish father's nature is so dissimilar to hers, it looks like her only choice is to become a Christian, walking away from being her father's child.
Quote #6
PRINCE OF MOROCCO
One of these three contains her heavenly picture.
Is't like that lead contains her? 'Twere damnation
To think so base a thought; it were too gross
To rib her cerecloth in the obscure grave.
Or shall I think in silver she's immur'd,
Being ten times undervalued to tried gold?
O sinful thought! Never so rich a gem
Was set in worse than gold. They have in England
A coin that bears the figure of an angel
Stamp'd in gold; but that's insculp'd upon.
But here an angel in a golden bed
Lies all within. Deliver me the key;
Here do I choose, and thrive I as I may! (2.7.2)
Morocco's reasoning isn't actually bad here: he compliments Portia by assuming no casket could hold her that did not reflect her worth. Still, he chooses wrong, if only because his values and expectations about love are different.