Duke. Proceed, proceed: we will begin these rites, As we do trust they'll end in true delights. EPILOGUE. [A dance. Ros. It is not the fashion to see the lady the epilogue; but it is no more unhandsome than to see the lord the prologue. If it be true that good wine needs no bush,28 'tis true that a good play needs no epilogue; yet to good wine they do use good bushes, and good plays prove the better by the help of good epilogues. What a case am I in, then, that am neither a good epilogue, nor cannot insinuate with you in the behalf of a good play! I am not furnish'd like a beggar, therefore to beg will not become me: my way is, to conjure you; and I'll begin with the women. I charge you, O women, for the love you bear to men, to like as much of this play as please you: and I charge you, O men, for the love you bear to women, (as I perceive by your simpering none of you hates them,) that between you and the women the play may please. If I were a woman,24 I would kiss as many of you as had beards that pleas'd me, complexions that lik'd me,25 and breaths that I defied not; and I am sure, as many as have good beards, or good faces, or sweet breaths, will, for my kind offer, when I make curtsy, bid me farewell. [Exeunt. 23 It was formerly the general custom in England to hang a bush of iry at the door of a vintner: there was a classical propriety in this; ivy being sacred to Bacchus. 24 The parts of women were performed by men or boys in Shakespeare's time. 25 The Poet often uses like in the sense of please; a common thing in his time. THI now Ex HIS is among the plays of Shakespeare mentioned by Francis Meres in 1598. How long before that time it was written we have no means of knowing; but, judging by the qualities of the workmanship, we cannot well assign the writing to a much earlier date. In July of the same year (1598), the play was registered in the Stationers' books, but with a special proviso, "that be not printed without license first had from the Right Hon. the Lord Chamberlain " The theatrical company to which Shakespeare belonged were then known as "The Lord Chamberlain's Servants;" and the purpose of the proviso was to keep the play out of print till the company's permission were given through their patron. The play was entered again at the same place in October, 1600; his lordship's license having probably been obtained by that time. Accordingly, two distinct editions of it were published in quarto form in the course of that year. These editions were by different publishers, and were most likely printed from different manuscripts, though the printer was the same in both. The play was never issued again, that we of, till in the folio of 1623, where the repetition of various misyrints shows it to have been reprinted from one of the quarto copies cept in one instance, there is little difficulty about the text, nor has there been much controversy on that score. That exception is in Act iii. scene 2, where all the old copies have "the beauteous scarf veiling an Indian beauty." My own judgment of the passage is given in a note. A few varieties of reading are noted in the margin. In this play, again, the Poet shows the same indifference to mere novelty of incident, which I have remarked in the case of As You Like It. Here, as there, he drew largely from preceding writers. Of invention, in the matter of plot and story, there is almost none. Nevertheless, in conception and development of character, in poetical texture and grain, in sap and flavour of wit and humour, and in all that touches the real life and virtue of the work, it is one of the most original productions that ever came from the human mind. Of the materials here used, some were so much the common stock of European literature before the Poet's time, and had been run into so many variations, that it is not easy to say what sources he was most indebted to for them. The incidents of the bond and the caskets are found separately in the Gesta Romanorum, an ancient and curious collection of tales. There was also an Italian novel, by Giovanni Fiorentino, written as early as 1378, but not printed till 1558, to which the Poet is clearly traceable. As nothing is known of any English translation of the 1ovel, dating so far back as his time, it seems not unlikely that he may have been acquainted with it in the original. The praise of The Merchant of Venice is in the mouth of nearly all the critics. That this praise is well deserved appears in that, from the reopening of the theatres at the Restoration (in 1660) till the present day, the play has kept its place on the boards; while it is also among the first of the Poet's works to be read, and the last to be forgotten; its interest being as durable in the closet as on the stage. Well do I remember it as the very beginning of my acquaintance with Shakespeare. As in case of the preceding play, I probably cannot do better than by quoting the temperate and firm-footed judgment of Hallam : "The Merchant of Venice is generally esteemed the best of Shakespeare's comedies. In the management of the plot, which is sufficiently complex, without the slightest confusion or incoherence, I do not conceive that it has been surpassed in the annals of any theatre. 98 Yet there are those who still affect to speak of Shakespeare as a barbarian; and others who, giving what they think due credit to his A comparison of genius, deny him all judgment and dramatic taste. his works with those of his contemporaries and it is surely to them will prove that his judgment is by no means that we should look the least of his rare qualities. This is not so remarkable in the mere - though the present comedy is absolutely construction of his fable perfect in that point of view, and several others are excellently managed as in the general keeping of the characters, and the choice of incidents. The variety of the characters in The Merchant of Venice, and the powerful delineation of those upon whom the interest chiefly depends, the effectiveness of many scenes in representation, the copiousness of the wit, and the beauty of the language, it would be superfluous to extol; nor is it our office to repeat a tale so often told as the praise of Shakespeare." The remarks, also, of Schlegel on this drama are in so high a strain, and of a spirit so genial, that I cannot well forbear quoting a portion of them. "The Merchant of Venice," says this admirable critic, "is one of Shakespeare's perfectest works; popular to an extraordinary degree, and calculated to produce the most powerful effect on the stage, and at the same time a wonder of ingenuity and art for the reflecting critic. Shylock, the Jew, is one of the inimitable masterpieces of characterization which are to be found only in Shakespeare. It is easy for both poet and player to exhibit a caricature of national sentiments, modes of speaking, and gestures. Shylock, however, is any thing but a common Jew: he has a strongly marked and original individuality, and yet we perceive a light touch of Judaism in every thing he says or does. The desire to avenge the wrongs and indigni ties heaped upon his nation is, after avarice, his strongest spring of action. His hate is naturally directed chiefly against those Christians who are actuated by truly Christian sentiments: a disinterested love of our neighbour seems to him the most unrelenting persecution of the Jews. The letter of the law is his idol: he refuses his ear to the voice of mercy which speaks to him with heavenly eloquence from Portia's lips; insisting on rigid and inflexible justice, which at last recoils on his own head. Thus he becomes a symbol of the general history of his unfortunate nation. The melancholy and self-sacrificing Like a princely mer magnanimity of Antonio is affectingly sublime. chant, he is surrounded with a whole train of noble friends. The contrast which this forms to the selfish cruelty of the usurer Shylock The danger was necessary to redeem the honour of human nature. which, almost to the close of the Fourth Act, hangs over Antonio, would fill the mind with too painful anxiety, if the Poet did not also provide for its recreation and diversion. This is effected in a special manner by the scenes at Portia's country-seat, which transport the spectator into quite another world. The judgment-scene, with which the Fourth Act is occupied, is in itself a perfect drama, concentrating in itself the interest of the whole. The knot is now untied, and, according to the common ideas of theatrical satisfaction, the curtain ought to drop. But the Poet was unwilling to dismiss his audience with the gloomy impressions which Antonio's acquittal - effected with so much difficulty and the condemnation of Shylock were calculated to leave behind them: he therefore added the Fifth Act by way of a The episode of Jessica, the musical afterlude to the piece itself. fugitive daughter of the Jew, in whom Shakespeare has contrived to throw a veil of sweetness over the national features, and the artifice by which Portia and her companion are enabled to rally their newly married husbands, supply him with the necessary materials." Magnificoes of Venice, Officers of the Court of Justice, Jailer, Servants, and othe Attendants. SCENE, partly at Venice, and partly at Belmont. ACT I. SCENE I. Venice. A Street. Enter ANTONIO, SALARINO, and SOLANIO.1 But how I caught it, found it, or came by it, And such a want-wit sadness makes of me, 3 Sal. Your mind is tossing on the ocean; There, where your argosies with portly sail, Like signiors and rich burghers of the flood, 1 In the old copies there is much confusion in the printing of these names, especially in the first scene. After the first scene the prefixes to the speeches uniformly are Sal. and Sol. So that we have authority for reading Solanio instead of Salanio, as it is in most modern editions. 2 Sooth is truth; old English. 8 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 go'den fleece. 4 Signior is used by Shakespeare very much in the sense of lord; signiory, of lordship, meaning dominion. Thus, in The Tempest, Act i scene 2, Prospero says of his dukedom: "Through all the signiories it was the first " Burghers are citizens. So, in As You Like It, Act ii. scene 1, the deer in the Forest of Arden, " poor dappled fools," are sp ken of as being nativa burghers of this desert city." 5 Or, as it were, the pageants of the sea, - That curtsy to them, do them reverence, Sal. My wind, cooling my broth, Would blow me to an ague, when I thought ew. 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 dock'd in sand,8 Vailing her high-top lower than her ribs, To kiss her burial. Should I go to church, And see the holy edifice of stone, 9 And not bethink me straight of dangerous rocks, And now worth nothing? Shall I have the though Is sad to think upon his merchandise. Ant. Believe me, no: I thank my fortune for it, Therefore my merchandise makes me not sad. 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 firewo.ks come as near to it as any thing now in use. 6 Venture is what is risked; exposed to "the peril of waters, winds and rocks." Still, second line below, has the sense of continually. 7 Roads are anchorages; places where ships ride at anchor safely. 8 Dock'd in sand is stranded. - Italian ships were apt to be named from Andrea Doria, the great Genoese Adiniral. 9 To vail is to lower, to let fall. 10 A bottom is a transport-ship, or merchant-man. |
