LONDON: Printed (by Affignment) for
J. BARKER, at the Dramatic Repofitory,
Ruffell-Court, Drury-Lane.

1794.

Senators of Venice, Officers, Servants, and other At

tendants.

SCENE, partly at Venice, and partly at Belmont, ahe Seat of Portia, upon the Continent,

INTRODUCTION.

It is faid, that Shakespeare took the hint of this play from an old ballad. It is also faid, that the cruel character was a chriftian: now though we are totally againft giv ing prejudiced ideas against any fet of people, especially a race fo rejected as the Jews have been, and are yet; fill as among their tribes, in common with the rest of mankind, feveral Shylocks no doubt have been, our author judicioufly faw, that making his principal an Ifraelite, would place him in a stronger point of view; and fuch fuccefsful pains has the bard taken with this horrid picture of depraved nature, that we fcruple not to pronounce him, as original and high-finished a character, as we can conceive, furnished with a moft fuitable peculiarity of flyle. All the other characters are well drawn, notwithstanding Several breaches of time and place, we may venture to Pronounce this to be a piece of very fingular merit. It would be want of gratitude, for the great fatisfaction Mr. Macklin has often given in the Jew, not to pronounce his performance remarkably correct, feeling, and forceable,

1

A C T I.

SCENE, a Street in Venice.

Enter ANTHONIO, SOLARINO, and SALANIO.

'N footh, I know not why I am so sad :

Anth. I

It wearies me. You say it wearies you ;
But how I caught it, found it, or came by it,
What stuff 'tis made of, whereof it is born,
I am to learn-

And fuch a want-wit fadnefs makes of me,
That I have much ado to know myself.

Sal. Your mind is toffing on the ocean;
There, where your Argofies,* with portly fail,

* Argofia, a name given to any rich merchant ship; taken from Argo, the ship in which Jason failed for the golden fleece.

Like figniors and rich burgers on the flood;
Or as it were, the pageants of the sea,
Do over-peer the petty traffickers,

That curify to them, do them reverence,
As they fly by them with their woven wings.
Sola. Believe me, fir, had I such venture forth,
The better part of my affections would

Be with my hopes abroad. I fhould be ftill
Plucking the grafs to know where fits the wind;
Peering in maps for ports, and piers, and roads;
And every object that might make me fear
Misfortune to my ventures, out of doubt,
Would make me fad.

Sal. My wind, cooling my broth,

Would blow me to an ague, when I thought
What harm a wind too great might do at fea.
I fhould not fee the fandy hour-glafs run,
But I fhould think of fhallows and of flats;
And fee my wealthy Andrew dock'd in fand,
Vailing her high top lower than her ribs,
To kifs her burial. Should I go to church,
And fee the holy edifice of stone,

And not bethink me straight of dang'rous rocks?
Which, touching but my gentle veffel's fide,
Would scatter all the fpices on the stream,
Enrobe the roaring waters with my filks;
And in a word, but even now worth this,
And now worth nothing. Shall I have the thought,
To think on this, and shall I lack the thought.
That fuch a thing, becha c'd, would make me fad ?*
But tell not me;—
-I know Anthonio

Is fad to think upon his merchandize.

Anth. Believe me, no: I thank my fortune for it, My ventures are not in one bottom trufled,

Nor to one place; nor is my whole eftate

Upon the fortune of this prefent year:

Therefore, my merchandize makes me not fad.
Sola. Why then you are in love?

This fpeech is fancifully descriptive of thofe apprehenfions which might probably affect a man in Anthonio's fituation, and at the fame time, leads to an idea, by his reply, of the magnitude of his concerns in trade.