"I should be still

Plucking the grass, to know where sits the wind."

Act I., Scene 1.

By holding up the grass, or any light body that will bend by a gentle blast, the direction of the wind is found. Ascham says:-"This way I used in shooting. When I was in the midway betwixt the marks, which was an open place, there I took a feather, or a little grass, and so learned how the wind stood."

-"Now, by two-headed Janus,
Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time."

Act I., Scene 1. By "two-headed Janus " is meant those antique bifrontine heads, which generally represent a young and smiling face, together with an old and wrinkled one; being of Pan and Bacchus, of Saturn and Apollo, &c. These are not uncommon in collections of antiques, and in the books of the antiquaries, as Montfaucon, Spanheim, &c.-WARBURTON.

"Some that will evermore peep through their eyes,

And laugh, like parrots, at a bag-piper."—Act I., Scene 1. This gives us a very picturesque image of the countenance in laughing, when the eyes appear half-shut.-WAR

BURTON.

"Let me play the Fool:

With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come." Act I., Scene 1. Alluding to the common comparison of human life to a stage-play. Gratiano desires his may be the fool's or buffoon's part, which was a constant character in the old farces.

"If they should speak, would almost damn those ears Which, hearing them, would call their brothers, fools." Act I., Scene 1. That is, some people are thought wise while they keep silence, who, when they open their mouths, are such stupid praters, that the hearers cannot help calling them fools, and so incur the judgment denounced in the Gospel.

"What think you of the Scottish lord, his neighbour ?" Act I., Scene 2. The word "Scottish," which is in the quarto, was omitted in the first folio, probably from fear of giving offence to King James or some of his courtiers.

"I think the Frenchman became his surety."

Act I., Scene 2.

This is supposed to be an allusion to the constant assistance, or rather promises of assistance, that the French gave the Scots in their quarrels with the English.

-" When did friendship take

A breed for barren metal of his friend?"—Act I., Scene 3. The advocates against usury formerly relied much on the conceit (said to have been started by Aristotle), that money is a barren thing, and cannot, like corn and cattle, multiply itself. In this spirit, Meres says:-"Usurie and

increase by gold and silver is unlawful, because against nature. Nature hath made them steril and barren, and usurie makes them procreative."

"See to my house, left in the fearful guard

Of an unthrifty knave."-Act I., Scene 3.

"Fearful guard," is a guard that is not to be trusted, but gives cause of fear. To fear was anciently to give terrors as well as to feel them. As in "KING HENRY IV.," Part 1:"A mighty and a fearful head they are."

"And let us make incision for your love,

To prove whose blood is reddest, his or mine."
Act II., Scene 1.

Red blood is a traditionary sign of courage. Macbeth calls one of his frighted soldiers a "lily-livered boy:" again, in this play, cowards are said to have livers as white as milk; and an effeminate and timorous man is termed a milksop.

"By God's sonties, 't will be a hard way to hit." Act II., Scene 2. "Sonties" is probably a corruption of the word saints, or saunctes. The terms santé and sanctity have been proposed, but apparently with less probability.

"Well, if any man in Italy have a fairer table, which doth offer to swear upon a book I shall have good fortune." Act II., Scene 2.

The explanation of this puzzling passage given by Mr. Tyrwhitt seems the most plausible :-" Launcelot, applauding himself for his success with Bassanio, and looking into the palm of his hand (which, by fortune tellers, is called the table), breaks out into the following reflection :- Well, if any man in Italy have a fairer table, which doth offer to swear upon a book I shall have good fortune:' that is, 'a table which doth not only promise, but offer to swear upon a book that I shall have good fortune.' He omits the conclusion of the sentence."

"Now, by my hood, a Gentile, and no Jew."

Act II., Scene 6. A jest arising from the ambiguity of the word "Gentile," which signifies both a heathen and one well born.

"That 'many' may be meant

By the fool multitude."—Act II., Scene 9.

The Prince of Arragon intends to say :-" By that 'many' may be meant the foolish multitude." The fourth folio first introduced a phraseology more agreeable to our ears at present:"Of the fool multitude." But change, merely for the sake of elegance, is always dangerous. Many modes of speech were familiar in Shakspere's age that are now no longer used. I have met with many examples of this kind of phraseology. So in Plutarch's Life of Cæsar, as translated by North (1575):-" He answered that these fair long-haired men made him not afraid, but the lean and whitely-faced fellows: meaning that by Brutus and Cassius." -MALONE.

"It was my turquoise; I had it of Leah, when I was a bachelor."-Act III., Scene 1.

The precious stone here alluded to is found in the veins of the mountains on the confines of Persia, to the east. In ancient times its pecuniary value was much enhanced by the magic properties attributed to it, one of which was that it faded or brightened its hue as the health of the wearer increased or grew less. Other virtues were also imputed to it, all of which were either monitory or preservative to the

wearer.

"O! these naughty times

Put bars between the owners and their rights;
And so, though yours, not yours.-Prove it so,

Let fortune go to hell for it, not I."-Act III., Scene 2. The meaning is :-"If the worst I fear should happen, and it should prove in the event that I, who am justly yours by the free donation I have made you of myself, should yet not be yours in consequence of an unlucky choice, let fortune go to hell for robbing you of your just due, not I for violating my oath."-HEATH.

"So may the outward shows be least themselves."

Act III., Scene 2.

Bassanio here begins abruptly; the first part of the argument has passed in his mind. The old stage direction has been retained, as regards this particular :-" Music, whilst Bassanio comments on the caskets to himself."

"Thus ornament is but the guiléd shore

To a most dangerous sea."-Act. III., Scene 2. By the "guiléd shore" is meant the treacherous or beguiling shore. The passive for the active participle.

"But her eyes,

How could he see to do them? having made one,
Methinks it should have power to steal both his,
And leave itself unfurnished."—Act III., Scene 2.
That is, "unfurnished" with a companion or fellow. In
Fletcher's "LoVER'S PROGRESS," Alcidon says to Clarangé :
"You are a noble gentleman;

Will't please you bring a friend? We are two of us,
And pity either of us should be unfurnished."

"Lorenzo, and Solanio, welcome hither."-Act III., Scene 2.

The friend who brings Bassanio the evil tidings of Antonio's danger, is in. most modern editions designated

SALERIO, in compliance with the example of Steevens. But we are clearly of opinion, with Capell and a contemporary Editor, that this is no new character, but merely another term for one of our old acquaintances Salarino and Solanio, whose names are given by the original folio in the most perplexing variety, both at length and in abridgment.

"The Duke cannot deny the course of law;

For the commodity that strangers have
With us in Venice, if it be denied,

Will much impeach the justice of the state."
Act III., Scene 3.

As this passage is a little perplexed in its construction, it may not be improper to explain it :-" If (says Antonio) the Duke stop the course of law, the denial of those rights to strangers, which render their abode at Venice so commodious and agreeable to them, will much impeach the justice of the state," &c. In the "HISTORYE OF ITALYE," by W. Thomas (1567), there is a section "On the libertie of Straungers at Venice."

Capell, with great plausibility, proposes to read the passage thus:

"The Duke cannot deny the course of law,

For [because of] the commodity that strangers have

With us in Venice: if it be denied,

'T will much impeach the justice of the state."

"Which makes me think that this Antonio,
Being the bosom lover of my lord,

Must needs be like my lord.”—Act III., Scene 4. The term lover, in Shakspere's time, was often applied to those of the same sex who had an esteem for each other. Ben Jonson concludes one of his letters to Dr. Donne, by telling him he is his true lover. In "CORIOLANUS," Menenius says, "I tell thee, fellow, thy general is my lover." Many similar instances might be adduced.

"O dear discretion, how his words are suited

Act III., Scene 5. Lorenzo expresses his surprise that a fool should apply his words so properly. As Jaques says to the Duke, in "As YOU LIKE IT:"

-"I met a fool;

Who laid him down and basked him in the sun, And railed on lady Fortune in good terms,

In good set terms,—and yet a motley fool.

"Glancing an eye of pity on his losses,
That have of late so huddled on his back;
Enough to press a royal merchant down."
Act IV., Scene 1.

The epithet "royal" was in Shakspere's time more striking and better understood, because Sir Thomas Gresham was then commonly dignified with the title of the royal merchant.

"Some men there are love not a gaping pig."

Act IV., Scene 1.

By a gaping pig, Shakspere, I believe, meant a pig prepared for the table; for in that state is the epithet gaping most applicable to this animal. So in Fletcher's "ELDER BROTHER:"-" And they stood gaping like a roasted pig." A passage in one of Nashe's pamphlets (which perhaps furnished our author with his instance), may serve to confirm the observation:-"The causes conducting unto wrath are as diverse as the actions of a man's life. Some will take on like a madman, if they see a pig come to the table. Sotericus, the surgeon, was cholerick at the sight of sturgeon," &c. -MALONE.

"You have among you many a purchased slave." Act IV., Scene 1. Johnson observes:-"This argument, considered as used to the particular persons, seems conclusive. I see not how Venetians or Englishmen, while they practise the purchase and sale of slaves, can much enforce or demand the law of doing to others as we would that they should do to us." The rugged philanthropist, we may venture to add, would have been proud to commemorate, had he lived in these days, the long and strenuous efforts by which the stigma of sanctioning slavery has been totally and finally removed from his countrymen.

"O, be thou damned, inexorable dog!"-Act IV., Scene 1. The old copies read "inexecrable." Corrected by the editor of the third folio; perhaps, however, unnecessarily. In was sometimes used, in composition, as an augmentative or intensive particle..

"If this will not suffice, it must appear

That malice bears down truth "-Act IV., Scene 1. That is, malice oppresses honesty. A true man, in old language, is an honest man. We now call the jury good men and true.

"In christening thou shalt have two godfathers; Had I been judge, thou shouldst have had ten more.". Act IV., Scene 1. Meaning, a jury of twelve men, to condemn thee to be hanged. In an old "DIALOGUE" by Dr. Bulleyne (1564), one of the speakers, to shew his mean opinion of an ostler at an inn, says: "I did see him ask blessing to twelve godfathers at once."

"I humbly do desire your grace of pardon."

Act. IV., Scene 1.

This was an old form of expression. It occurs in "OTHELLO:"-" I humbly do beseech you of your pardon."

"She doth stray about

By holy crosses, where she kneels and prays
For happy wedlock hours."—Act V., Scene 1.
Allusion to the "crosses," then so common in the country,
is made in the "MERRIE DEVIL OF EDMONTON" (1608):-

"But there are crosses, wife: here's one in Waltham,
Another at the abbey, and the third
At Ceston; and 't is ominous to pass
Any of these without a paternoster."

"Sit, Jessica. Look how the floor of heaven
Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold!"
Act V., Scene 1.

A "patine," from the Latin patina, is the small flat dish or plate used with the chalice, in the administration of the eucharist. In the papal times, and probably in the following age, it was commonly made of gold, or silver-gilt.

"Such harmony is in immortal souls;
But, whilst this muddy vesture of decay
Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it."

Act V., Scene 1. The last of these lines is, perhaps, slightly corrupt. For "it in," Mr. Singer proposes to read "us in ;" and this we think is the true reading. It is supported by Milton's imitation of the passage, in his "ARCADES:"

"Such sweet compulsion doth in music lie,
To lull the daughters of Necessity,
And keep unsteady Nature in her law,
And the low world in measured motion draw
After the heavenly tune, which none can hear,
Of human mould, with gross unpurgéd ear."

"With sweetest touches pierce your mistress' ear,

And draw her home with music."-Act V., Scene 1. Shakspere, I believe, was here thinking of the custom of accompanying the last wagon-load, at the end of harvest, with rustic music. He again alludes to this yet common practice in "AS YOU LIKE IT."-MALONE.

"Do but note a wild and wanton herd, Or race of youthful and unhandled colts." Act V., Scene 1. A similar thought to this occurs in "THE TEMPEST:""Then I beat my tabor,

At which, like unbacked colts, they pricked their cars,
Advanced their eyelids, lifted up their noses,
As they smelt music."

"The nightingale, if she should sing by day,
When every goose is cackling, would be thought
No better a musician than the wren."

Act V., Scene 1. In Shakspere's 102nd Sonnet, there is a beautiful passage of like import :

"Our love was new, and then but in the spring,
When I was wont to greet it with my lays;

As Philomel in Summer's front doth sing,
And stops his pipe in growth of riper days.
Not that the summer is less pleasant now,
Than when her mournful hymns did hush the night;
But that wild music burdens every bough,
And sweets grown common lose their dear delight."

"We should hold day with the Antipodes,
If you would walk in absence of the sun."

Act V., Scene 1 That is, if you would walk in the night, it would be day with us, as it now is on the other side of the globe.

In 1579, Stephen Gosson published a tract entitled "THE SCHOOL OF ABUSE, containing a pleasant invective against poets, pipers, players, jesters, and such like caterpillars of the commonwealth." From the general censure passed by the wrathful author on stage-plays, he excepts several, one of which he thus designates:-"The Jew, shewn at the Bull, representing the greediness of worldly choosers, and the bloody minds of usurers." It has been supposed that this old play was the immediate original of "THE MERCHANT OF VENICE;" but we should not be warranted in coming to any conclusion on the point, from the slight evidence afforded by the mere title of the more ancient drama.

The incident of the bond is probably of Eastern origin'; it first appeared in Europe in a collection of tales, called "IL PECORONE," by Giovanni, a Florentine, whose works were published at Milan in 1550.

According to the novelist, Gianneto obtains permission from his godfather, Ansaldo, to travel to Alexandria; but changes his mind, in the hope of gaining a lady of great wealth and beauty at Belmont, whose hand is proffered to him who can obtain a premature enjoyment of the connubial rites. Overpowered with sleep, occasioned by a narcotic given him in his wine, he fails in his enterprise, and his vessel and cargo are forfeited. Another ship is equipped, which he loses in a second attempt; and a third is made at the expense of his godfather, who borrows ten thousand ducats from a Jew, on condition that if they are not returned by a stipulated day, the lender may cut a pound of flesh from any part of the debtor's body.

Gianneto obtains the lady; but lost in delight with his bride, forgets Ansaldo's bond till the very day it becomes due. He hastens to Venice, but the time is past, and the usurer refuses ten times the value of the bond. Gianneto's

lady arrives at this crisis, and causes it to be announced that she can resolve difficult questions of law. Consulted in the case of Ansaldo, she decides that the Jew must have his pound of flesh, but that he shall lose his head if he cut more or less, or draws one drop of blood. The Jew relinquishes his demand, and Ansaldo is released. The bride will not receive money as a recompense, but desires Gianneto's wedding ring, which he gives her. The lady arrives at home before her husband, and immediately asks for her ring, which he being unable to produce, she upbraids him with having given it to some mistress. At length Gianneto's sorrow affects his wife, and she explains the particulars of her journey and disguise.—This story may have been translated into English in Shakspere's time, but if so, the version has not hitherto been discovered.

The incident of the caskets appears to be founded on a story in the English version of the "GESTA ROMANORUM,' a collection formerly in high repute. Mr. Douce has written an able treatise on this work, and gives an analysis of the 99th chapter, which he thinks is obviously the story which supplied the caskets of the "MERCHANT OF VENICE."

A marriage was proposed between the son of Anselmus, Emperor of Rome, and the daughter of the King of Apulia. The young lady in her voyage was shipwrecked and swallowed by a whale. In this situation, she contrived to make a fire and to wound the animal with a knife, so that he was driven towards the shore, and slain by an earl named Pirius, who delivered the princess and took her under his protection. On relating her story, she was conveyed to the emperor. In order to prove whether she was worthy the hand of his son, he placed before her three vessels. The first was of gold, and filled with dead-men's bones: on it was this inscription: Who chooses me shall find what he deserves." The second was of silver, filled with earth, and thus inscribed:-"Who chooses me shall find what nature covets." The third vessel was of lead, but filled with precious stones, it had this inscription:-" Who chooses me shall find what God has placed." The emperor then commanded her to choose one of the vessels, informing her that if she made choice of that which should profit herself and others, she would obtain his son: if of what should profit neither herself nor others, she would lose him. The princess, after praying for assistance, preferred the leaden vessel. The emperor informed her that she had chosen as he wished, and immediately united her with his son.

The "MERCHANT OF VENICE" is one of Shakspere's most perfect works: popular to an extraordinary degree, and calculated to produce the most powerful effect on the stage; and at the same time, a wonder of ingenuity and art for the reflecting critic. Shylock, the Jew, is one of the inconceivable masterpieces of characterisation of which Shakspere alone furnishes us with examples. It is easy for the poet and the player to exhibit a caricature of national sentiments, modes of speaking, and gestures. Shylock, however, is everything but a common Jew: he possesses a very determinate and original individuality, and yet we perceive a slight touch of Judaism in everything which he says and does. We imagine we hear a sprinkling of the Jewish pronunciation in the mere written words, as we still sometimes find it in the higher classes of that people, notwithstanding their social refinement. In tranquil situations, what is foreign to the European blood and Christian sentiments is less perceivable; but in passion the national stamp appears more strongly marked. All these inimitable niceties the finished art of a great actor can alone properly express.

Shylock is a man of information, even a thinker in his own way; he has only not discovered the region where human feelings dwell: his morality is founded on the disbelief in goodness and magnanimity. The desire of revenging the oppressions and humiliations suffered by his nation, is, after avarice, his principal spring of action. His hate is

naturally directed chiefly against those Christians who possess truly Christian sentiments: the example of disinterested love of our neighbour, seems to him the most unrelenting persecution of the Jews. The letter of the law is his idol; he refuses to lend an ear to the voice of mercy, which speaks to him from the mouth of Portia with heavenly eloquence: he insists on severe and inflexible justice, and it at last recoils on his own head. Here he becomes a symbol of the general history of his unfortunate nation.

The melancholy and self-neglectful magnanimity of Antonio is affectingly sublime. Like a royal merchant, he is surrounded with a whole train of noble friends. The contrast which this forms to the selfish cruelty of the usurer Shylock, was necessary to redeem the honour of human

nature.

The judgment scene, with which the fourth act is occupied, is alone a perfect drama, concentrating in itself the interest of the whole. The knot is now untied, and, according to the common idea, the curtain might drop. But the poet was unwilling to dismiss his audience with the gloomy impressions which the delivery of Antonio, accomplished with so much difficulty, contrary to all expectation, and the punishment of Shylock, were calculated to leave behind: he has, therefore, added the fifth act, by way of a musical afterpiece in the play itself. The episode of Jessica, the fugitive daughter of the Jew, in whom Shakspere has contrived to throw a disguise of sweetness over the national features, and the artifice by which Portia and her companion are enabled to rally their newly-married husbands, supply him with materials.

The scene opens with the playful prattling of two lovers in a summer moonlight :

"When the sweet wind did gently kiss the trees." It is followed by soft music, and a rapturous eulogy on this powerful disposer of the human mind and the world. The principal characters then make their appearance; and, after an assumed dissension, which is elegantly carried on, the whole ends with the most exhilarating mirth.-SCHLEGEL.

In Percy's "RELIQUES OF ANCIENT POETRY," there is a Ballad called "A new Song, shewing the cruelty of Gernutus, a Jew; who, lending to a Merchant an hundred Crowns, would have a pound of his flesh, because he could not pay him at the time appointed." This production is supposed by Warton and other competent judges to have been written before Shakspere's play; and it seems not unlikely that the poet derived various hints from it, more particularly from those parts which speak of the "merry jest" and the "whetted blade." Three of the more relevant stanzas are subjoined by way of specimen :

"No penny for the loan of it

For one year you shall pay : You may do me as good a turn Before my dying day.

But we will have a merry jest

For to be talked long : You shall make me a bond (quoth he) That shall be large and strong.

The bloody Jew now ready is,
With whetted blade in hand,
To spoil the blood of innocent,
By forfeit of his bond," &c.

It were useless further to pursue the search for Shakspere's authorities. The story of the cruel creditor and of his defeat seems to have been told in as many regions, East and West, as that of Parnell's "HERMIT," and in as great variety of forms. In the "MERCHANT OF VENICE" we have it finally embalmed, in its most striking and instructive aspect.