close upon the intense dramatic excitement of the trial-scene, is such a transition as we shall hardly meet with but in Shakespeare, and aptly shows his unequalled mastery of the mind's capacities of delight. The affair of the rings, with the harmless perplexities growing out of it, is a well-managed device for letting the mind down from the tragic height whereon it lately stood, to the merry conclusion which the play requires. Critics, indeed, may easily quarrel with this sportive after-piece; but it stands approved by the tribunal to which Criticism itself must bow, the spontaneous feelings of such as are willing to be made cheerful and healthy, without beating their brains about the how and wherefore. It is in vain that critics tell us we ought to "laugh by precept only, and shed tears by rule." I ought not to close without remarking what a wide diversity of materials this play reconciles and combines. One can hardly realize how many things are here brought together, they are ordered in such perfect concert and harmony. The greatness of the work is thus hidden in its fine proportions. In many of the Poet's dramas we are surprised at the great variety of character: here, besides this, we have a remarkable variety of plot. And, admirable as may be the skill displayed in the characters individually considered, the interweaving of so many several plots, without the least confusion or embarrassment, evinces a still higher mastership. For, many and various as are the forms and aspects of life here shown, they all emphatically live together, as if they all had but one vital circulation. Magnificos of Venice, Officers of the Court of Justice, Jailer, Servants, and other Attendants. SCENE, partly at Venice and partly at Belmont. ACT I. SCENE I.-Venice. A Street. Enter ANTONIO, SALARINO, and SOLANIO. Anto. In sooth,1 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,2 1 "In sooth" is truly or in truth. Soothsayer is, properly, truth-speaker; formerly used of men supposed to be wise in forecasting things. 2 To come by a thing is to get possession of it, to acquire it. So the phrase is much used in New England, or was, forty years ago. What stuff 'tis made of, whereof it is born, And such a want-wit3 sadness makes of me, Salar. Your mind is tossing on the ocean; 6 That curtsy to them, do them reverence, As they fly by them with their woven wings. Solan. Believe me, sir, had' I such venture forth,7 The better part of my affections would 3 A want-wit is a dunce, simpleton, or dunderhead. Wit was continually used for mind, judgment, or understanding. 4 Argosies are large ships either for merchandise or for war. The name was probably derived from the classical ship Argo, which carried Jason and the Argonauts in quest of the golden fleece. 5 Signior is used by Shakespeare very much in the sense of lord; signiory, of lordship, meaning dominion. Thus, in The Tempest, i. 2, Prospero says of his dukedom: "Through all the signiories it was the first." Burghers are citizens. So, in As You Like It, ii. 1, the deer in the Forest of Arden, 'poor dappled fools," are spoken of as "being native burghers of this desert city." 6 Pageants were shows of various kinds, theatrical and others; from a word originally meaning, it is said, a high stage or scaffold. Pageants of great splendour, with gay barges and other paraphernalia, used to be held upon the Thames. Leicester had a grand pageant exhibited before Queen Elizabeth, on the water at Kenilworth-Castle, when she visited him there in 1575; described in Scott's Kenilworth. Perhaps our Fourth-of-July fireworks comes as near to it as any thing now in use. 7 Venture is what is risked; exposed to "the peril of waters, winds, and rocks." The Poet very often uses forth for out. So later in the scene: "To find the other forth." And elsewhere we have the phrases, "find his fellow forth," and "inquire you forth," and "hear this matter forth," and "feasting forth to-night," and "bid forth to supper"; that is, invited out. Be with my hopes abroad. I should be still8 Plucking the grass, to know where sits the wind; Misfortune to my ventures, out of doubt, Salar. My wind, cooling my broth, Would blow me to an ague, when I thought 11 And not bethink me straight of dangerous rocks, 8 Here, as often, still has the force of always or continually. 9 Roads are anchorages; places where ships ride at anchor safely. 10 Dock'd in sand is stranded. - Italian ships were apt to be named from Andrea Doria, the great Genoese Admiral. 11 To vail is to lower, to let fall. So we have "vail your stomachs" for "let fall your pride,” and “vail your regard upon a wrong'd maid."— The image is of a ship tilted over on one side, the other side up in the air, and the top-mast down in the sand. 12 The Clarendon Editors aptly point out that Scott must have had these lines in mind in Ivanhoe, chapter x., where Isaac the Jew is made to say, "In the Gulf of Lyons I flung over my merchandise to lighten the ship, robed the seething billows in my choice silks, perfumed their briny foam with myrrh and aloes." 18 Here the actor may be supposed to make a gesture importing bulk or largeness. The Poet often leaves his meaning to be thus interpreted. And now worth nothing? Shall I have the thought Is sad to think upon his merchandise. Anto. Believe me, no: I thank my fortune for it, Therefore my merchandise makes me not sad. Anto. Salar. Not in love neither? Fie, fie! Then let's say, you're sad, 15 Because you are not merry; and 'twere as easy And other 16 of such vinegar aspect, That they'll not show their teeth in way of smile, Solan. Here comes Bassanio, your most noble kinsman, 14 Bottom, here, is a transport-ship or merchant-man. 15 Janus, the old Latin Sun-god, who gave the name to the month of January, is here called two-headed, because he had two faces, one on either side of his head. There is also an allusion to certain antique two-faced images, one face being grave, the other merry, or a gloomy Saturn on one side, and a laughing Apollo on the other. 16 Other for others was a very frequent usage, especially in antithetic connection with some, as in this instance. 17 Nestor was the oldest and gravest of the Greek heroes in the Trojan The severest faces might justly laugh at what he should pronounce war. laughable. |