and the lowly, the learned and the ignorant:

"There was in Asie, in a gret citee, Amonges Cristen folk a Jewerie, Sustened by a lord of that contree, For foul usure, and lucre of vilanie, Hateful to Crist, and to his compagnie.” It was scarcely to be avoided in those times that even Chaucer, the most genuine and natural of poets, should lend his great powers to the support of the popular belief that Jews ought to be proscribed as

In dealing with the truly dramatic subject of the forfeiture of the bond, Shakspere had to choose between one of two courses that lay open before him. The Gesta Romanorum' did not surround the debtor and the creditor with any prejudices. We hear nothing "Hateful to Crist, and to his compagnie." of one being a Jew, the other a Christian. But we ought to expect better things when There is a remarkable story told by Gregorio we reach the times in which the principles Leti, in his 'Life of Pope Sixtus the Fifth,' of religious liberty were at least germinated. in which the debtor and creditor of 'The And yet what a play is Marlowe's 'Jew of Merchant of Venice' change places. The Malta,'-undoubtedly one of the most popudebtor is the Jew, the revengeful creditorlar plays even of Shakspere's day, judging the Christian; and this incident is said to have happened at Rome in the time of Sir Francis Drake. This, no doubt, was a pure fiction of Leti, whose narratives are by no means to be received as authorities; but it shows that he felt the intolerance of the old story, and endeavoured to correct it, though in a very inartificial manner. Shakspere took the story as he found it in those narratives which represented the popular prejudice. If he had not before him the ballad of 'Gernutus' (upon which point it is difficult to decide), he had certainly access to the tale of the 'Pecorone.' If he had made the contest connected with the story of the bond between two of the same faith, he would have lost the most powerful hold which the subject possessed upon the feelings of an audience two centuries and a half ago. If he had gone directly counter to those feelings (supposing that the story which Leti tells had been known to him, as some have supposed), his comedy would have been hooted from the stage.

"The Prioress's Tale' of Chaucer belonged to the period when the Jews were robbed, maimed, banished, and most foully vilified, with the universal consent of the powerful

■ Characteristics of Women,' vol. i., p. 72.

as we may from the number of performances
recorded in Henslowe's papers! That drama,
as compared with the 'Merchant of Venice,'
has been described by Charles Lamb, with
his usual felicity :-
:-"Marlowe's Jew does not
approach so near to Shakspere's as his
Edward II. Shylock, in the midst of his
savage purpose, is a man. His motives,
feelings, resentments, have something human
in them. 'If you wrong us, shall we not
revenge?' Barabas is a mere monster,
brought in with a large painted nose, to
please the rabble. He kills in sport-poisons
whole nunneries-invents infernal machines.
He is just such an exhibition as, a century
or two earlier, might have been played before
the Londoners, by the Royal command, when
a general pillage and massacre of the He-
brews had been previously resolved on in
the cabinet." "The Jew of Malta' was
written essentially upon an intolerant prin-
ciple. The Merchant of Venice,' whilst it
seized upon the prejudices of the multitude,
and dealt with them as a foregone conclusion
by which the whole dramatic action was to
be governed, had the intention of making
those prejudices as hateful as the reaction of
cruelty and revenge of which they are the

cause.

SCENE,-PARTLY AT VENICE; AND PARTLY AT BELMONT, THE SEAT OF PORTIA, ON THE CONTINENT.

Salarino. Nothing can be more confused than the manner in which the names of Salarino and Solanio are indicated in the folio of 1623. Neither in that edition, nor in the quartos, is there any enumeration of characters. In the text of the folio we find Salarino and Slarino; Salanio, Solanio, and Salino. Further, in the third act we have a Salerio, who has been raised to the dignity of a distinct character by Steevens. Gratiano calls this Salerio "my old Venetian friend;" and there is no reason whatever for not receiving the name as a misprint of Solanio, or Salanio. But if there be confusion even in these names when given at length in the text, the abbreviations prefixed to the speeches are "confusion worse confounded." Salanio begins with being Sal., but he immediately turns into Sola., and afterwards to Sol.; Salarino is at first Salar., then Sala., and finally Sal. We have adopted the distinction which Capell recommended to prevent the mistake of one abbreviation for another-Solan. and Salar.; and we have in some instances deviated from the usual assignment of the speeches to each of these characters, following for the most part the quarto, which in this particular is much less perplexed than the folio copy. The modern editors appear to have exercised only their caprice in this matter; and thus they have given Salarino and Solanio alternate speeches, after the fashion of Tityrus and Melibus; whereas Salarino is decidedly meant for the liveliest and the greatest talker.

What stuff 't is made of, whereof it is born,
I am to learn ;

And such a want-wit sadness makes of me,
That I have much ado to know myself.
SALAR. Your mind is tossing on the ocean;

There, where your argosies with portly sail',
Like signiors and rich burghers on the flood,
Or, as it were, the pageants of the sea,
Do overpeer the petty traffickers,

That curt'sy to them, do them reverence,

As they fly by them with their woven wings.
SOLAN. Believe me, sir, had I such venture forth,
The better part of my affections would

Be with my hopes abroad. I should be still
Plucking the grass, to know where sits the wind';
Peering in maps, for ports, and piers, and roads;
And every object that might make me fear
Misfortune to my ventures, out of doubt,
Would make me sad.

SALAR.
My wind, cooling my broth,
Would blow me to an ague, when I thought
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,
Vailing her high-top lower than her ribs,
To kiss her burial. Should I go to church,
And see the holy edifice of stone,

And not bethink me straight of dangerous rocks,
Which, touching but my gentle vessel's side,
Would scatter all her spices on the stream;
Eurobe the roaring waters with my silks;
And, in a word, but even now worth this,

And now worth nothing? Shall I have the thought
To think on this; and shall I lack the thought
That such a thing, bechanc'd, would make me sad?
But tell not me; I know Antonio

Is sad to think upon his merchandise.

ANT. Believe me, no; I thank my fortune for it,

• Wealthy Andrew. Johnson explains this (which is scarcely necessary) as "the name of the ship;" but he does not point out the propriety of the name for a ship, in association with the great naval commander, Andréa Doria, famous through all Italy.

Vailing her high-top. To vail is to let down: the high-top was shattered-fallen-when the Andrew was on the shallows.