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To show how costly summer was at hand,
As this fore-spurrer comes before his lord.
Por. No more, I pray thee; I am half
afeard,

Thou wilt say anon, he is some kin to thee,
Thou spend'st such high-day wit in praising

him.

Come, come, Nerissa; for I long to see Quick Cupid's post, that comes so mannerly. Ner. Bassanio, lord love, if thy will it be!!

9

[Exeunt.

ACT

-high-day wit, &c.] So, in The Merry Wives of Windsor: "he speaks holiday."

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STEEVENS.

"Hey-day, an interjection, (forHigh-day.) An expression of frolic and exultation, and, sometimes, "of wonder." Johnson's Dictionary; this passage being quoted as an example: In this place, however, it seems to be taken adjectively, and to have a sense pretty similar to the word high-flown i. e. lofty, extravagant, &c. E.

I Bassanio, lord love, if thy will, &c.] Lord must be coupled to Love; as if she had said, "Imperial Love, if it be thy will, let it be Bassanio "whom this messenger foreruns." THEOBALD.

In the interval between this Act and the next, I am inclined to place a considerable portion of the three months which must necessarily be understood to pass between the commencement of the action of this play and its final completion. E.

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Venice. A Street.

Enter Salanio and Salarino.

Salan. Now, what new on the Rialto ? Salar. Why, yet it lives there uncheck'd, that Anthonio hath a ship of rich lading wreck'd on the narrow seas; the Goodwins, I think they call the place; a very dangerous flat, and fatal, where the carcasses of many a tall ship lie buried, as they say, if my gossip report be an honest woman of her word.

Salan. I would she were as lying a gossip in that, as ever knapt ginger, or made her neighbours

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* SCENE I.-Shylock in this Scene, upon receiving from his friend Tubal a confirmation of the news of Anthonio's misfortunes and losses at sea, desires him to "fee him an officer," and " bespeak him a fortnight before;" from whence we may reasonably conclude that this should, in fancy, be fixed at the period of, at least, so much time before the ensuing, since in that, intelligence is brought to Belmont, not only of the failure of Anthonio's credit, but the absolute forfeiture of the bond, and the Jew's resolution to exact the penalty. This consideration, however, affords no certain ground for a conclusion respecting the precise distance of time between the last and present Scenes. E.

I

-knapt ginger,] To knap is to break short. The word occurs in the Psalms. STEEVENS

neighbours believe 2 she wept for the death of a third husband: But it is true,—without any slips of prolixity, or crossing the plain highway of talk,-that the good Anthonio, the honest Anthonio,———-O that I had a title good enough to keep his name company!— Salar. Come, the full stop.

Salan. Ha,what say'st thou?-Why the end is, he hath lost a ship.

Salar. I would it might prove the end of his losses!

Salan. Let me say amen betimes, lest the devil cross my prayer;3 for here he comes in the likeness of a Jew.

2

Enter

She wept for the death of a third husband:] We may suppose him to draw a conclusion as to the sincerity of her grief for the last, from the circumstance of her having had three husbands. E.

3

-cross my prayer ;] Meaning-the prayer of his companion, which he would make his own by saying" amen" to it; for this, in all congregational prayers, is the force of that formula: Those who changed my to thy, viz. Mr. Theobald and Dr. Warburton, seem to have thought amen a conjuring formula, that sanctified the prayer, and prevented the devil's crossing it. CAPELL.

It is needless to add, that the devil (in the shape of a Jew) could not cross Salarino's prayer, which, as far as it was singly his, was already ended.

HEATH.

The sense, as deducible from the foregoing remarks, seem to be "Let me say amen, betimes, that

"the

Enter Shylock.

How now, Shylock? what news among the merchants?

Shy. You knew, none so well, none so well as you, of my daughter's flight.

Salar. That's certain; I, for my part, knew the taylor that made the wings she flew withal.

Sulan. And Shylock, for his own part, knew the bird was fledg'd; and then it is the complexion of them all to leave the dam. Shy. She is damn'd for it.

Salar. That's certain, if the devil may be her judge.

Shy. My own flesh and blood to rebel! Salan. Out upon it, old carrion! rebels it at these years?

Shy. I say, my daughter is my flesh and blood.

Salar. There is more difference between thy flesh and hers, than between jet and ivory; more between your bloods, than there is between red wine and rhenish :-But tell us, do you hear, whether Anthonio have had any loss

at sea or no?

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Shy.

"the devil may not, if it be delayed, have an op"portunity of defeating, by his evil influence, the success of the wish or prayer, which, by a re"ference to what Salarino had just uttered, is implied in the pronouncing of the word-amen." E.

Shy. There I have another bad ma bankrupt, a prodigal,4 who dare scarc his head on the Rialto ;-a beggar that come so smug upon the mart ;-let him his bond: he was wont to call me usu let him look to his bond: he was wont money for a Christian courtesy ;-let hi to his bond.

Salar. Why, I am sure, if he forfei wilt not take his flesh; What's that good

Shy. To bait fish withal: if it wi nothing else, it will feed my revenge hath disgrac'd me, and hinder'd me of million; laugh'd at my losses, mock'd gains, scorn'd my nation, thwarted n gains, cool'd my friends, heated mine er and what's his reason! I am a Jew: not a Jew eyes 25 hath not a Jew

-a bankrupt, a prodigal, &c.] His money without interest, was reason enough Jew to call him prodigal; and this Shyl braids him with immediately after: "he

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(not only he did in this instance, but it custom) to lend money for a Christian courte

E

There could be, in Shylock's opinion, n gality more culpable than such liberality as which a man exposes himself to ruin for his

J

5 Hath not a Jew eyes? &c.] The great p of universal charity, which soars above the

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