76. gracious, pleasing, winning favour. See Twelfth Night, i. 5. 281: And in dimension and the shape of nature A gracious person.'

78. some sober brow, some one of grave aspect.

·

79. approve, prove. So Acts ii. 22: Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved (åπodedelyμévov) of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs.' Elsewhere it means to put to the proof, test. See Rom. ii. 18: approvest the things that are more excellent” (δοκιμάζεις τὰ διαφέροντα).

81. vice. So the second folio. The quartos and first folio have voice. The word 'simple,' which means 'sheer,' 'unmixed,' and also 'low-born,' as opposed to gentle,' suggested to Shakespeare the metaphor which follows, referring to the assumption of heraldic bearings by pretenders to gentility.

86. livers white as milk. So King Lear, iv. 2. 50, 'milk-liver'd man;' and 2 Henry IV. iv. 3. 113: The second property of your excellent sherris is, the warming of the blood; which, before cold and settled, left the liver white and pale, which is the badge of pusillanimity and cowardice.'

87. excrement. This term was applied to the hair. See Winter's Tale, iv. 4. 734:

'Aut. Let me pocket up my pedlar's excrement.

And Hamlet, iii. 4. 121:

[Takes off bis false beard.]'

'Your bedded hair, like life in excrements,

Starts up and stands an end.'

It was also used of the nails, as 'growing out' of the body.

91. Shakespeare plays, as usual, upon the the two senses of light,' i. e. in weight and in conduct. Compare Two Gentlemen of Verona, i. 2. 84:

It is too heavy for so light a tune.'

94. Upon supposed fairness, surmounting fictitious beauty. For this sense of 'supposed,' see Bacon's Advancement of Learning, i. 6. 3: The celestial hierarchy of that supposed Dionysius, the senator of Athens.'

3 Henry VI. iii. 3. 223:

And tell false Edward, thy supposed king.'

And King Lear, v. 3. 112:

Edmund, supposed Earl of Gloucester.' And 2 Henry IV. iv. 5. 196: Wounding supposed peace.'

95. Compare Timon of Athens, iv. 3. 144:

Thatch your poor thin roofs
With burthens of the dead.'

And Sonnet lxviii:

'Before the golden tresses of the dead,
The right of sepulchres, were shorn away
To live a second life on second head;

Ere beauty's dead fleece made another gay.'

See also

Queen Elizabeth at sixty-four wore a mass of false fair hair. (Lingard's History of England, vol. v. p. 617.)

97. guiled, full of guile, deceptive, treacherous. So iv. 1. 181, 'blest,' i. e. endowed with blessing; and I Henry IV. i. 3. 183:

'Revenge the jeering and disdain'd contempt
Of this proud king,'

where disdain'd' means full of disdain. So probably in Measure for Measure, iii. 1. 121, 'the delighted spirit' means the spirit capable of delight.

99. Veiling an Indian beauty. The only possible explanation of the text, viz. that 'beauty' is used ironically, is not tenable, considering that 'beauteous' has just been used in its natural sense. Various guesses have been made as to the word which we should substitute for 'beauty-gipsy,'' idol,' 'visage, feature,' 'beldam; but it is impossible to pronounce positively which is the right, if any. Perhaps 'bosom' may be better than all these, if we consider how a scarf is worn. Theobald proposed to alter the punc

tuation and read thus:

'Veiling an Indian; beauty in a word,' &c. But the poet is speaking, not of beauty, but ornament, and the sense would be spoiled by the intrusion of a new subject.

102. Hard food for Midas. Midas had prayed that everything he touched might turn to gold, and found himself likely to be famished by the literal fulfilment of his prayer. See Ovid's Metamorphoses, xi. 102-145, and Gower, "Confessio Amantis, Bk. v.

106. paleness. As the poet had just before called silver 'pale,' Theobald, on Warburton's suggestion, changed 'paleness' to 'plainness;' and Dr. Farmer, retaining paleness,' would read 'stale' in the former line. He gives several instances of the use of 'pale,' as applied to 'lead.'

113. In measure rain thy joy. The first quarto has 'range,' the second quarto and the two first folios 'raine,' the third and fourth quartos 'reine,' the third and fourth folios 'rain.' Malone quotes 1 Henry IV. v. 1. 47 :

In short space

It rain'd down fortune showering on your head.'

Most editors after him print 'rain,' but 'rein' rests on higher authority and makes good sense.

115. counterfeit, portrait. See Timon of Athens, v. 1. 83:

Thou draw'st a counterfeit

Best in all Athens.'

120. hairs. So in King John, iii. 4. 68: Bind up your hairs.'

124, 125. having made one, Methinks it... The nominative is changed, leaving the words 'having made one' without a verb to follow. Such negligent constructions are of frequent occurrence.

126. unfurnish'd, not equipped with its fellow eye. Rowe read 'unfinish'd;' but the text is supported by a passage quoted by M. Mason from Fletcher's Lover's Progress, act ii. sc. I:

'Will 't please you bring a friend? We are two of us,

And pity either, sir, should be unfurnish'd,'

i. e. unmatched with an antagonist.

130. continent, that which contains. Used of the bank of a river in Midsummer Night's Dream, ii. 1. 92:

Contagious fogs, which falling in the land

Have every pelting river made so proud

That they have overborne their continents.'

140. I come by note..., I come according to written warrant [the scroll just read] to give a kiss and receive the lady.

Note' is used for a written memorandum in Winter's Tale, iv. 3. 49: That's out of my note.'

141. prize, i. e. a contest for a prize. The Greeks used ã0λov in the same way for the prize and for the contest.

157. livings, estates. Compare Bacon's Colours of Good and Evil (p. 254, ed. Wright): and therefore men whose living lieth together in one shire, are commonly counted greater landed than those whose livings are dispersed.'

159. sum of something. The quartos read something,' the folios 'nothing,' which has been adopted by many editors. We have retained the quarto reading, introducing a dash after 'of.' We understand Portia to hesitate for a word which shall describe herself appropriately. The folio reading, nothing, which to term in gross,' &c., would be a singular anticlimax if it were not a direct self-contradiction.

Ib. to term in gross, to define generally.

162. The line is defective both in metre and sense. Capell supplied both by reading happier than this in that She &c.'

164. Happiest is neuter here: The happiest thing of all is,' &c.

173. The giving of rings as tokens of fidelity in love is frequently mentioned by our author. See Twelfth Night, v. I. 159-163:

'A contract of eternal bond of love

Strengthen'd by interchangement of your rings.'

So also Romeo and Juliet, iii. 2. 142, and many passages in The Two Gentlemen of Verona and All's Well that Ends Well. Here the giving of Portia's ring, with the injunction never to part with it, is a happy device for prolonging the interest of the play after the trial-scene, and ending it in the lighter vein suited to comedy.

175. be my vantage to exclaim on you, give me such strong ground for complaining of your conduct that you will be unable to defend it. Vantage' is the position of one who is 'master of the situation.' It is so used in Hamlet, v. 2. 402:

I have some rights of memory in this kingdom,
Which now to claim my vantage doth invite me.'

For exclaim on,' see I Henry VI. v. 3. 134:

'I am a soldier and unapt to weep

Or to exclaim on fortune's fickleness.'

180. There may be an allusion here to some recent speech of Queen Elizabeth, spoken 'fairly,' i. e. clearly and well. 'Prince' was used in

Shakespeare's time to denote any personage of royal rank, whether male or female. Bacon (Advancement of Learning, i. 7.9) speaks of Queen Elizabeth as a prince that, if Plutarch were now alive to write lives by parallels, would trouble him, I think, to find for her a parallel amongst women.'

182. blent, blended. Twelfth Night, i. 5. 257: 'Tis beauty truly blent.' 184. Express'd and not express'd, expressed in inarticulate sounds. 192. You can wish none from me. Being all-sufficient to each other, you cannot wish to deprive me of any joy to add to your own. 196. so, provided that.

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199. I loved: for intermission, &c. This is Theobald's punctuation. Intermission' is to be taken in its usual sense of 'pause,'' delay.' If a full stop be put at intermission,' and not at 'loved' (so the third quarto), the sense must be 'I loved to fill up the time.' The master being absorbed in his

love, the attendant had nothing else to do but follow his example. The older copies have no stop after 'loved,' and a comma after 'intermission.' 200. No more pertains No more pertains to me than to you, our circumstances are the same. Mr. Staunton however interprets: 'I owe my wife as much to you as to my own efforts.'

213. In modern English we should say our feast will be much honoured.' 219. my very friends, my true friends. See Romeo and Juliet, iii. 1. 115:

'My very friend hath got his mortal hurt
In my behalf.'

225. past all saying nay, beyond all possibility of refusal.

232. estate, state, condition. The word is frequently so used in the Authorized Version, though in many instances it has been altered to 'state' in recent editions.

235. that royal merchant. The expression occurs again iv. 1. 29:

'Enow to press a royal merchant down.'

Sir Thomas Gresham, says Johnson, was called 'the royal merchant,' being frequently employed as agent to the English sovereigns Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth. (See Burgon's Life and Times of Sir Thomas Gresham, c. 2.) The term was also applied to the great Italian merchants who held mortgages on kingdoms and sometimes acquired principalities for themselves. The Medici, and their rivals the Pazzi, were merchants. Here it is used as a complimentary term to indicate the wealth and power of Antonio. 239. shrewd, evil. See King John, v. 5. 14: Foul shrewd news.' And Henry VIII. v. 3. 178:

'Do my Lord of Canterbury

A shrewd turn, and he is your friend for ever.'

240. steals, altered by Pope to steal. But even if contents be the antecedent to that,' such an inaccuracy is frequent in Shakespeare, and in this case paper' may be the antecedent.

242. the constitution, the whole temper of mind.

243. constant, steady, even-minded, self-possessed. See Henry V. ii. 2. 133:

'Free from gross passion, or of mirth or anger,
Constant in spirit, not swerving with the blood.'

And Tempest, i. 2. 207:

'Who was so firm, so constant, that this coil

Would not affect his reason.'

245. Pope omitted freely' to reduce the line to the ordinary length Shakespeare, intentionally or otherwise, introduces many Alexandrines, 258. mere entire, thorough, absolute. See Love's Labour's Lost, i. 2. 35: The mere contrary;' and Othello, ii. 2. 3: The mere perdition of the Turkish fleet."

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262. Issuing, emitting. The verb is generally neuter, except in the phrases to issue an edict,' 'issue a proclamation.'

263. not one bit, not one succeeded.

266. touch, in reference to the common use of the verb 'to touch upon a rock.'

272. confound, ruin, destroy. See Macbeth, iv. 1. 53: Though the yesty waves

Confound and swallow navigation up.'

'A clod

And module of confounded royalty.'

And King John, v. 7.58:

See also Jeremiah i. 17.
Isaiah xxiv. 10.

So the substantive confusion' is used, as in

274. And doth impeach the freedom of the state, denies that strangers have equal rights in Venice.

276. the magnificoes. Florio has Magnifico, nobly-minded, magnificent. Also a Magnifico of Venice.' See Othello, i. 2. 12:

'Be assured of this,

That the magnifico is much beloved.'

·

Giustinian's colleague is called in his report the Magnifico Messer Piero Pasqualigo.' (Rawdon Brown's Four Years at the Court of Henry VIII. vol. ii. p. 310.) The title usually given to the higher nobility was clarissimo. 277. port is here used, not in its ordinary sense of external bearing, but rather in the sense of weight and importance.

Το

Ib. persuaded with him, advised him. Cotgrave has 'Conseiller. counsell, aduise, direct; persuade, admonish, warne.' See Two Gentlemen of Verona, i. I. I:

'Cease to persuade, my loving Proteus.'

278. envious, inspired by hatred, malicious. See Romeo and Juliet, iii. 1. 173:

'An envious thrust from Tybalt.'

So 'envy' is used, iv. I. 10, for 'malice.'

285. deny not, forbid not.

289. unwearied, i.e. most unwearied, the sense of the neighbouring superlative being communicated as it were by attraction.

Compare

295. deface, cancel; apparently used in a technical sense, though no such term is now employed. It is derived from the Fr. défaire, the origin of defeasance or defeisance, which is still in use, and is defined by Cowel (Law Dict. s. v.) as a condition relating to a deed, as to a recognisance or statute, which being performed by the recognizor, the deed is disabled and made void, as if it had never been done.'

298. through is here pronounced, as it is frequently written, as a dissyllable, thorough.' The editor of the second folio inserted 'my,'' through my Bassanio's fault."

299. church, not 'temple' here, as in ii. 1. 44.

308. cheer, countenance. See Midsummer Night's Dream, iii. 2. 96:

All fancy-sick she is and pale of cheer."

The word comes from the French chère, Italian ciera or cera.