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use of the personal for the neuter, at least obscures the passage. A ship, however, is commonly spoken of in the feminine gender.

398. With over weather'd ribs,second folio read,

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STEEVENS.

-] The first and

MALONE.

A jest arising

from the ambiguity of Gentile, which signifies both a Heathen, and one well-born.

JOHNSON.

So at the conclusion of the first part of Hieronimo,

&c. 1605:

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-So, good night kind gentles,

"For I hope there's never a Jew among you all." Again, in Swetnam Arraign'd, 1620:

66

Joseph the Jew was a better Gentile far."

STEEVENS.

A Gentile, and no Jew.] Dr. Johnson rightly explains this. There is an old book by one Ellis, entitled, "The Gentile Sinner, or England's brave Gentleman. FARMER.

457. -as blunt;] That is, as gross as the dull

metal.

506.

JOHNSON.

-insculp'd upon;] To insculp is to en

grave. So, in Woman never Vex'd, 1632:

—in golden text

Shall be insculp'd."

STEEVENS.

The meaning is, that the figure of the angel is raised or embossed on the coin, not engraved on it.

M. C. T.

529. -chuse me so.] The old quarto edition of 1600 has no distribution of acts, but proceeds from the beginning to the end in an unbroken tenour. This play therefore having been probably divided without authority by the publishers of the first folio, lies open to a new regulation, if any more commodious division can be proposed. The story is itself so wildly incredible, and the changes of the scene so frequent and capricious, that the probability of action does not deserve much care; yet it may be proper to observe, that, by concluding the second act here, time is given for Bassanio's passage to Belmont.

JOHNSON. 557. I reason'd with a Frenchman yesterday ;] i, e. I conversed. So, in King John:

"Our griefs, and not our manners reason now." Again, in Chapman's translation of the fourth book of the Odyssey:

"The morning shall yield time to you and me, "To do what fits, and reason mutually."

STEEVENS!

569. Slubber not- -] To slubber is to do any thing carelesly, imperfectly. So, in Nash's Lenten Stuff, &c. 1599:

66 -they slubber'd thee over so negligently." STEEVENS. 572. -your mind of love:] So all the copies, but I suspect some corruption. JOHNSON.

This imaginary corruption is removed by only put

ting a comma after mind.

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Of love, is an adjuration sometimes used by Shakspere. So, Merry Wives, act ii. sc. 2.

« Quick.

desires you to send her your little

page, of all loves :” i. e. she desires you to send him by all means.

Your mind of love may, however, in this instance, So, in the Tragedie of

mean your loving mind. Crasus, 1604: "A mind mind.

of treason is a treasonable

"Those that speak freely, have no mind of STEEVENS.

treason."

582. embraced heaviness] We say of a man now, that he hugs his sorrows; and why might not Anthonio embrace heaviness?

So, in Much Ado about Nothing, sc. 1.

JOHNSON.

"You embrace your charge too willingly."

Again, in this play of the Merchant of Venice, act iii.

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to prepare. The meaning is, I have prepared myself

by the same ceremonies.

I believe we should read,

STEEVENS.

"And so have I. Address me, Fortune, now, "To my heart's hope!”

So, in the Merry Wives of Windsor, act iii. scene the last, Falstaff says,

“———I will then address me to my appointment."

TYRWHITT.

613.

—in the force-] i. e. the power.

629.

STEEVENS. How much low pleasantry would then be gleaned From the true seed of honour ?- -] The meaning is, How much meanness would be found among the great, and how much greatness among the mean.

JOHNSON. 652. -Iwis,] I know. Wissen, German. So, in Shakspere's Henry VI.

"I wis your grandame had no worser match.” Again, in the comedy of king Cambyses:

"Yea I wis shall you, and that with all speed." Ascham and Waller both use the word. STEEVENS.

654. Take what wife you will to bed,] Perhaps the poet had forgotten that he who missed Portia was never to marry any woman.

JOHNSON. The old editions

662. to bear my wroth.] read" to bear my wroath." Wroath is used in some of the old books for misfortune; and is often spelt like ruth, which at present signifies only pity, or sorrow for the miseries of another. The modern editors readmy wrath. STEEVENS.

674.

regreets ;] i. e. salutations. So, in King

John, act iii. sc. 1.

66
"Unyoke this seizure, and this kind regreet."

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ACT III.

Line 9. -KNAPT ginger,] To knap is to break

41.

short. The word occurs in the Psalms. STEEVENS. a bankrupt, a prodigal,] There could be, in Shylock's opinion, no prodigality more culpable than such liberality as that by which a man exposes himself to ruin for his friend. JOHNSON.

117. it was my turquoise, I had it of Leah, when I was a bachelor :] A turquoise is a precious stone found in the veins of the mountains on the confines of Persia to the east, subject to the Tartars. As Shylock had been married long enough to have a daughter grown up, it is plain he did not value this turquoise on account of the money for which he might hope to sell it, but merely in respect of the imaginary virtues formerly ascribed to the stone. It was said of the Turkey-stone, that it faded or brightened in its colour, as the health of the wearer increased or abated.

To this Ben Jonson refers, in his Sejanus:

"And true as Turkise, in my dear lord's ring,
"Look well or ill with him."

Again, in the Muses Elysium, by Drayton :

"The turkesse, which who haps to wear,
"Is often kept from peril.”

Again, Edward Fenton in Secrete Wonders of Nature, bl. let. 4to. 1569: "The Turkeys doth move when

there

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