Shall witness I set forth as soon as you You shall not know by what strange accident BASS. Were you the doctor, and I knew you not? GRA. Were you the clerk, and yet I knew you not? ANT. Sweet lady, you have given me life and living; For here I read for certain that my ships Are safely come to road. POR. How now, Lorenzo? My clerk hath some good comforts too for you. From the rich Jew, a special deed of gift, POR. It is almost morning, And yet I am sure you are not satisfied Of these events at full. Let us go in ; And charge us there upon inter'gatories, And we will answer all things faithfully. 270 280 [Exeunt. F NOTES The letters H. R. indicate the readings of the Heyes and Roberts quartos, and F. the first folio. Аст I. SCENE I. I Various theories of Antonio's melancholy have been propounded by critics. Prof. Dowden thinks he is sad at the prospect of losing Bassanio. They have been friends together, and now one of them is meditating matrimony. But there is no hint of this in the dialogue, and Shakespeare would not have left such a main motive of the play to the imagination of his audience. It is best to regard it simply as a foreshadowing of calamity (cf. Hamlet, v. 2. 222); it lends Antonio dignity, and at the same time arouses our interest. That it is not a constant characteristic, but a passing mood, is implied by Gratiano (1. 76), and by Antonio himself in the opening lines. With this mood his talkative friends are a little discordant; by this device our attention is directed beyond them to the entry of Bassanio, when the main business of the play is introduced. 6 want-wit. Only here in Shakespeare. 9 portly. Cf. Pericles, i. 4. 61, “Â portly sail of ships make hitherward." See i. 1. 124 and Glossary. 10 So in Midsummer Night's Dream (ii. 1. 127) ships are called "the embarked traders on the flood." II pageants. The pageants here referred to are not the miracle-plays which were commonly so called, from the scaffolds on which they were acted (see Glossary), but set pieces drawn along in processions, the figures in which sometimes delivered speeches. They were frequently presented before our kings from the time of Henry III., especially on their progress through the city, and were a great feature of the Lord Mayor's show. There remain many such pageants, of one of which, by Peele, Descensus Astræa, the following is the description: "The Device of a Pageant borne before M. William Web, Lord Maior of the Citie of London, on the day he took his oath; 70 being the 29th of October 1591. Whereunto is a speech, delivered by one, clad like a sea-nymph; who presentes a Pinesse on the Water, bravely rig'd and man'd, to the Lord Maior at the time he tooke Barge to go to Westminster. Done by G. Peele, Maister of Arts in Oxford." 26 shallows. Cf. Julius Cæsar, iv. 3. 221. Flats are sandbanks. See iii. 1. 5. 27 Andrew. Knight's suggestion, that ships were popularly so called in compliment to the Genoese admiral Andrea Doria (died 1560), is good, but no other instance has been discovered. Salarino's ship is entirely hypothetical, so that Andrew can hardly be taken as its proper name, and no Elizabethan ship so called is known. dock'd. Rowe for H.R.F. 'docks.' 35 Lettsom thinks a line has been lost after 'silks.' The construction is awkward, but the sense is clear. 'Should I not bethink me that in one moment I might be worth all this, spices, silks, and so on, and the next worth nothing.' 43 Unless Antonio means to deceive his friends, there is an inconsistency between this statement and the sequel. Cf. 1. 177. 46 Fie, fie! The exclamation indicates Antonio's age. ii. 6. 55. See 50 Cf. Othello, i. 2. 33, "By Janus, I think no." The oath is here more appropriate. aspect. i. 4. 28. 56 Nestor. Cf. Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 3. 169, "And Nestor play at pushpin with the boys." Nestor's age is thus described in Homer (Iliad, i. 250): "Two generations of mortal men already had he seen perish, that had been of old time born and nurtured with him in goodly Pylos, and he was king among the third." (LANG and LEAF's translation.) Cf. Antony and Cleopatra, i. 5. 33; Twelfth Night, 62 your is the emphatic word. Antonio says, 'Of course my kinsman is dearer to me, but your worth is also dear. You make an excuse to leave my company which is quite unnecessary; I understand you may have other calls.' 66 Salarino and Salanio are plainly noted merry-makers. Beyond this their character is not very clearly marked. But it is a mistake to regard them either as "parasites of Antonio" with one critic, or with another as "frivolous visitors, to whom his friendship with the young nobleman exposes him." They are friends of both kinsmen. Antonio sends for them to his house. (iii. 1. 63.) 70 at dinner time. Nothing comes of this engagement. It is a natural way of leaving the stage, so as to bring together Antonio and Bassanio, who are the centres of the two plots. The delay caused by Gratiano's homily, itself useful in calling attention to Antonio's sadness as not a constant humour, heightens expectation as to what the kinsmen will have to say to each other. Stee 78 Cf. As You Like It, ii. 7. 139. Churchyard's Farewell to the World (1593)— "This is but a May-game mixt with A borrowde roume where we our pagea 79 sad. See Glossary. Probably Antonio means no more than 'serious. To play the fool' has become a phrase for acting foolishly, but Gratiano means 'act the part of fool,' the part Launcelot plays in the present comedy. Cf. the epigram of Palladas• Σκηνὴ πᾶς ὁ βίος καὶ παίγνιον ἢ μάθε παίζειν 66 τὴν σπουδὴν μεταθεὶς, ἢ φέρε τὰς ὀδύνας.” "Life is a comedy, let grave things be, 81 liver. Cf. Antony and Cleopatra, i. 2. 23, "I had rather heat my liver with drinking." 82 heart. Cf. Midsummer Night's Dream, iii. 2. 97— "Pale of cheer, With sighs of love, that costs the fresh blood dear." mortifying groans. Each groan, as was thought, diminishing the blood. Cf. the following epithets of 'sighs,' 'heart-sore,' 'thriftless,' 'blood-consuming, blood-sucking,' 'spendthrift.' Richard II. ii. 2. 3, "Life-harming heaviness." In the old medicine the three principal parts of the body were liver, heart, and brain, in which were begotten respectively the natural, vital, and animal (or rational) spirits, by which the soul performed all its actions. Burton calls the heart king, the brain privy counsellour and chancellour, and the liver legate a latere. Another name for them was 'the tripod of life.' Cf. Twelfth Night, i. I. 37- "When liver, brain, and heart, These sovereign thrones, are all supplied." And Cymbeline, v. 5. 14, where the king calls Belarius and the two boys "the liver, heart, and brain of Britain." 84 Cf. Othello, v. 2. 5, "Smooth as monumental alablaster." Duchess of Malfi, i. 1— "This is flesh and blood, sir; 'Tis not the figure cut in alabaster The Said to be derived from Alabastron, a town in Egypt. forms alabaster and alablaster were used indifferently, and are still in some country places. 6 85 Black jaundice,' according to Burton, is the disease produced by the 'humour' called 'melancholy,' 'if it be not putrified.' Cf. Troilus, i. 3. 2, "Princes, what grief hath set the jaundice on your cheeks?" |