Chaucer, the most genuine and natural of poets, should lend his great powers to the support of the popular belief that Jews ought to be proscribed as→

"Hateful to Crist, and to his compagnie." But we ought to expect better things when we reach the times in which the principles of religious liberty were at least germinated. And yet what a play is Marlowe's 'Jew of Malta,'-undoubtedly one of the most popular plays even of Shakspere's day, judging as we may from the number of performances recorded in Henslowe's papers! That drama, as compared with The Merchant of Venice,' has been described by Charles Lamb, with his usual felicity:-" Marlowe's Jew does not approach so near to Shakspere's as his Edward II. Shylock, in the midst of his savage purpose, is a man. His motives, feelings, resentments, have something human in them. If you wrong us, shall we not revenge?' Barabas is a mere monster, brought in with a large painted nose, to please the rabble. He kills in sport-poisons whole nunneries-invents infernal machines. He is just such an exhibition as, a century or two earlier, might have been played before the Londoners, by the Royal command, when a general pillage and massacre of the Hebrews had been previously resolved on in the cabinet." The Jew of Malta' was written essentially upon an intolerant principle. The Merchant of Venice,' whilst it seized upon the prejudices of the multitude, and dealt with them as a foregone conclusion by which the whole dramatic action was to be governed, had the intention of making those prejudices as hateful as the reaction of cruelty and revenge of which they are the cause.

6

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

DUKE OF VENICE.

Appears, Act IV. sc. 1.

PRINCE OF ARRAGON, suitor to Portia.
Appears, Act II. sc. 9.

PRINCE OF MOROCCO, suitor to Portia.
Appears, Act II. sc. 1; sc. 7.

ANTONIO, the Merchant of Venice.

SOLANIO, friend to Antonio and Bassanio.

Appears, Act I. sc. 1. Act II. sc. 4; sc. 8. Act III. sc. 1; sc. 2.
Act IV. sc. 1.

SALARINO, friend to Antonio and Bassanio.
Appears, Act I. sc. 1. Act II. sc. 4; sc. 6; sc. 8.
Act III. sc. 1; sc. 3. Act IV. sc. 1.

GRATIANO, friend to Antonio and Bassanio. Appears, Act I. sc. 1. Act II. sc. 2; sc. 4; sc. 6. Act III. sc. 2. Act IV. sc. 1; sc. 2. Act V. sc. 1.

LORENZO, in love with Jessica.
Appears, Act I. sc. 1.

Act II. sc. 4; sc. 6. Act III. sc. 2; sc. 4; sc. 5. Act V. sc. 1.
SHYLOCK, a Jew.

Appears, Act I. sc. 3. Act II. sc. 5. Act III. sc. 1; sc. 3.
Act IV. sc. 1.

TUBAL, a Jew, friend to Shylock.
Appears, Act III. sc. 1.

LAUNCELOT GOBBO, a clown, servant to Shylock.
Appears, Act II. sc. 2; sc. 3; sc. 4; sc. 5. Act III. sc. 5.
Act V. sc. 1.

Old GOBBO, father to Launcelot.
Appears, Act II. sc. 2.

LEONARDO, servant to Bassanio.
Appears, Act II. sc. 2.

BALTHAZAR, servant to Portia.

Appears, Act III. sc. 4.

STEPHANO, servant to Portia.
Appears, Act V. sc. 1.

PORTIA, a rich heiress.

Appears, Act I. sc. 2. Act II. sc. 1; sc. 7; sc. 9. Act III. sc. 2; sc. 4. Act IV. sc. 1; sc. 2. Act V. sc. 1.

NERISSA, waiting-maid to Portia.

Appears, Act I. sc. 2. Act II. sc. 1; sc. 7; sc. 9. Act II. sc. 2; sc. 4. Act IV. sc. 1; sc. 2. Act V. sc. 1. JESSICA, daughter to Shylock.

Appears, Act II. sc. 3; sc. 5; sc. 6. Act III. sc. 2; sc. 4; sc. 5. Act V. sc. 1.

Magnificoes of Venice, Officers of the Court of Justice, Gaoler, Servants, and other Attendants.

SCENE,-PARTLY AT VENICE; AND PARTLY AT BELMONT, THE SEAT OF PORTIA, ON THE CONTINENT.

THE

MERCHANT OF VENICE.

ACT I.

SCENE I.-Venice. A Street.

Enter ANTONIO, SALARINO, and SOLANIO. Ant. In sooth, I know not why I am so sad; It wearies me; you say it wearies you; But how I caught it, found it, or came by it, What stuff 't is made of, whereof it I am to learn;

born,

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

Salar. Your mind is tossing on the ocean;
There, where your argosies with portly sail,
Like signiors and rich burghers on the flood,
Or, as it were, the pageants of the sea,
Do overpeer the petty traffickers,

That curt'sy to them, do them reverence,
As they fly by them with their woven wings.

Solan. Believe me, sir, had I such venture forth,

The better part of my affections would

Be with my hopes abroad. I should be still
Plucking the grass, to know where sits 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 sad.

Salar.

My wind, cooling my broth,

Would blow me to an ague when I thought
What harm a wind too great might do at sea.
I should not see the sandy hour-glass run,
But I should think of shallows and of flats;
And see my wealthy Andrew a dock'd in sand,
Vailing her high-top b lower than her ribs,
To kiss her burial. Should I go to church,
And see the holy edifice of stone,

And not bethink me straight of dangerous rocks,
Which, touching but my gentle vessel's side,
Would scatter all her spices on the stream;
Enrobe the roaring waters with my silks;
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 such a thing, bechanc'd, would make me sad?
But tell not me; I know Antonio

Is sad to think upon his merchandize.

Ant. Believe me, no; I thank my fortune for it,
My ventures are not in one bottom trusted,
Nor to one place; nor is my whole estate
Upon the fortune of this present year;

Therefore my merchandize makes me not sad.
Salar. Why, then you are in love.

Ant.

Fie, fie!

Salar. Not in love neither? Then let us say, you

are sad

Because you are not merry: and 't were as easy
For you to laugh, and leap, and say you are merry,

a Wealthy Andrew. Johnson explains this (which is scarcely necessary) as "the name of the ship;" but he does not point out the propriety of the name for a ship, in association with the great naval commander, Andréa Doria, famous through all Italy.

b Vailing her high-top. To vail is to let down: the high-top was shattered-fallen-when the Andrew was on the shallows. My ventures, &c. This was no doubt proverbial-something more elegant than "all the eggs in one basket.'