(Appears)

Act IV. sc. 1.

Act II. sc. 9.

Act II. sc. 1; sc. 7.
Act I. sc. 1; sc. 3. Act
sc. 3. Act IV. sc. 1.

II. sc. 6. Act III.
Act V. sc. 1.
Act I. sc. 1; sc. 3. Act II. sc. 2. Act III.
sc. 2. Act IV. sc. 1. Act V. sc. 1.

Act I. sc. 1.
sc. 1; sc. 2.

Act I. sc. 1.
Act III. sc.

Act II. sc. 4; sc. 8. Act III.
Act IV. sc. 1.

Act II. sc. 4; sc. 6; sc. 8. 1; sc. 3. Act IV. sc. 1.

Act I. sc. 1. Act II. sc. 2; sc. 4; sc. 6. Act III. sc. 2. Act IV. sc. 1; sc. 2. Act V: sc. 1.

Act I. sc. 1. Act II. sc. 4; sc. 6. Act III. sc. 2; sc. 4; sc. 5. Act V. sc. 1.

Act 1. sc. 3. Act II. sc. 5. Act III. sc. 1; sc. 3. Act IV. sc. 1.

Act III. sc. 1.

Act II. sc. 2; sc. 3; sc. 4; sc. 5. Act III. sc. 5. Act V. sc. 1.

Old GOBBO, father to Launcelot Act II. sc. 2.
LEONARDO, servant to Bassanio. Act II. sc. 2.

BALTHAZAR, servant to Portia

STEPHANO, servant to Portia.
PORTIA, a rich heiress

Act III. sc. 4.

Act V. sc. 1.

Act I. sc. 2. Act II. sc. 1; sc. 7; sc. 9.
Act III. sc. 2; sc. 4. Act IV. sc. 1.; sc. 2.
Act V. sc. 1.

NERISSA, waiting-maid to Portia Act I. sc. 2. Act II.

Act II. sc. 2.; sc. 4.
Act V. sc. 1.

sc. 1; sc. 7; sc. 9. Act IV. sc. 1; sc. 2.

JESSICA, daughter to Shylock.

Act II. sc. 3;

sc. 4; sc. 5.

sc. 5; sc. 6. Act III. sc. 2; Act V. sc. 1.

Magnificoes of Venice, Officers of the Court of Justice, Gaoler, Servants, and other Attendants.

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

THE

MERCHANT OF VENICE.

ACT I.

SCENE I.. -Venice. A Street.

Enter ANTONIO, SALARINO, and SOLANIO.1

Ant. In sooth 2, I know not why I am so sad; It wearies me 3; you say it wearies you;

But how I caught it, found it, or came by it,4

Salarino and Solanio.] In the original copies there is much confusion in the orthography of the names of these persons, and uncertainty in the assignment of their speeches.

2 In sooth.] In truth. The Anglo-Saxon soth meant truth or true; hence, forsooth, for certain, indeed; hence, also, soothsayer, one who professes power to reveal hidden truth.

3 It wearies me.] I feel weary or dejected; an impersonal verb, as in the expression it repents me. The pronoun it has here no reference to anything definite; Antonio is unable to account for his sadness ; but in the expression it wearies you, the verb is not impersonal, as the word it now denotes Antonio's sadness as a cause of weariness to his friends. You say my melancholy makes you sad: you know, therefore, the cause of sadness in your case; but how I caught it, &c. I have yet to learn. The third and fourth lines of this speech consist of noun clauses objective to learn.

Came by it.] Came in its way, met with it, came to have it. See note 6, p. 17.

What stuff 't is made of, whereof1 it is born,
I am to learn;

And such a want-wit 2 sadness makes of me,
That I have much ado to know myself.3

4

Salar. Your mind is tossing on the ocean;
There, where your argosies 5 with portly sail,
Like signiors and rich burghers of the flood,6
Or, as it were, the pageants of the sea,7
Do overpeer the petty traffickers,8
That curt'sy to them, do them reverence,
As they fly 9 by them with their woven wings.
Solan. Believe me, sir, had I such venture forth,10
The better part of my affections would 11

1 Whereof.] A relative adverb, like the preceding why and how. 2 A want-wit.] A witless being.

To know myself.] In order to maintain my individual consciousness. This infinitive is adverbial to the phrase have much ado. Ocean.] Here used as a trisyllable. See note 3, p. 71.

5

Argosies.] Large ships for merchandise or for war; probably so called from the Argo, a famous vessel, in which Jason sailed to Colchis for the recovery of the golden fleece. See note 3, p. 16. The preposition phrase with portly sail is adjective to argosies.

6

Signiors.] Great lords and wealthy commercial freemen of the sea. Another reading is 'on the flood.'

7

Pageants.] Deities of the sea: an allusion to the custom, at some grand processions, of representing gods and goddesses in triumphal cars.

8 Overpeer.] Look with lofty dignity over the heads, as it were, of the petty traders.-In the word traffickers, the retention of the letter k (not now in the word traffic), is because of c before e having commonly the sound of s, as in officers.

9 As they fly.] As these petty traffickers fly.

10 Had I such venture forth.] Had I such costly merchandise risked abroad on the ocean.-The adverb forth modifies had.

11 The better part.] The chief part of my affections would be abroad along with the objects of my hope.

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; 2
And every object that might make me fear
Misfortune to my ventures, out of doubt 3
Would make me sad.

4

1

Salar.
My wind cooling my broth,
Would blow me to an ague, when I thought 5
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 docked in sand,7
Vailing her high-top lower than her ribs,8

6

1 Still plucking the grass.] Ever plucking the light blades of grass, and holding them up, to know where the wind sits when it is as yet scarcely felt.-The word still has frequently in Shakspeare the sense of always.

2 Peering in maps.] Prying into charts, to ascertain where there are ports, and harbourage, and roadsteads.

Out of doubt.] Undoubtedly would be to me a cause of sadness. Solanio uses the expressions 'believe me, sir,' and 'out of doubt,' to intimate that he considers it perfectly natural that Antonio should feel the anxiety which is now imputed to him.

♦ Would blow me to an ague.] In blowing my broth to cool it, I should be chilled into an ague.

5 When I thought.] The form of the past indicative used in a potential sense; a frequent usage.

• Of shallows and of flats.] The sand of the hour-glass would suggest shoals and sand-banks.

My wealthy Andrew.] My richly-freighted ship.-A large ship is here supposed to be called by the name of the famous Genoese naval commander, Andrea Doria.—Docked means lying as in a dock, stuck on a sand-bank, run aground.

• Vailing her high-top.] Vailing, from the French avaler, means letting, down, lowering; the vessel being laid on its side, with the highest top of its masts lower than the other side.

To kiss her burial.1

Should I go to church,

And see the holy edifice of stone,

And not bethink me straight of dangerous rocks,2
Which, touching but my gentle vessel's side,
Would scatter all her spices on the stream,3
Enrobe the roaring waters with my silks,
And, in a word 4, but even now worth this,
And now worth nothing? Shall I have the thought 5
To think on this; and shall I lack the thought
That such a thing bechanced, would make me sad?
But tell not me: 6 I know Antonio

Is sad to think upon his merchandise.

Ant. Believe me, no: I thank my fortune for it,8

1 To kiss her burial.] To kiss the ground where the ship is, as it were, interred.—The analogous phrase 'to lick the dust,' means 'to fall dead in battle.'

2 Dangerous rocks.] This notion, perhaps, has reference to the church being founded on a rock of security; otherwise, the association seems a very distant one, between the holy edifice of stone' and the 'dangerous rocks' of the ocean.

3 The stream.] The flowing tide. Milton, P. L. i. 202, speaks of the ocean stream.'

And in a word.] And, in short, the idea that but this moment the vessel was worth so much, and in the same moment is worth nothing. See note 10, p. 90.-The noun nothing is an objective to of understood, worth meaning worthy.

5 Shall I have the thought.] Shall I have the thought which imagines this possibility, and not have the thought which anticipates how sad such a thing, falling to my lot, would make me?

• Tell not me.] I have no need to be informed of the cause of Antonio's sadness.

To think upon.] Through thinking upon.

8 I thank my fortune for it.] Antonio had been incautious in risking all his merchandise at one time, though not all in one vessel, nor all to one port; he therefore thanks his fortune rather than his prudence. We think the dramatist means to convey to us the im