INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

ON

SHAKSPEARE'S MERCHANT OF VENICE.

Or the Merchant of Venice two editions in small quarto were published in 1600; but as it is the last play mentioned in the list of Francis Meres*, 1598, its first production was probably not later than 1597.

-

It is composed of two stories, that of the forfeited bond, and that of the three caskets; and we cannot doubt that to Shakspeare's skill chiefly, if not entirely, is owing the admirable manner in which these stories are interwoven. In a tract, however, by Stephen Gosson, published in 1579, called 'The School of Abuse,' mention is made of a certain play in the following terms: The Jew, shown at the Bull, representing the greediness of Worldly Choosers, and the bloody minds of Usurers:' this seems to contain reference both to the lottery

In a collection of similitudes under the title of Palladis Tamia: Wit's Treasury,' p. 282.-We have there the two following similitudes :

'As the soul of Euphorbus was thought to live in Pythagoras, so the sweet witty soul of Ovid lives in mellifluous and honey-tongued Shakspeare ;-witness his Venus and Adonis, his Lucrece, his sugared sonnets among his private friends.

As Plautus and Seneca are accounted the best for Comedy and Tragedy among the Latins, so Shakespeare among the English is the most excellent in both kinds for the stage: for Comedy, witness his Gentlemen of Verona, his Errors, his Love Labor's lost, his Love labour's wonne, his Midsummer's night dream, and his Merchant of Venice: for Tragedy, his Richard the 2, Richard the 3, Henry the 4, King John, Titus Andronicus, and his Romeo and Juliet.'

of the caskets, and the forfeit of the pound of flesh; so that Shakspeare possibly borrowed his double plot from a previous play; but, if he did so, we are sure his genius blended the two stories with an art far more exquisite than had ever been exhibited by any of his dramatic predecessors.

The poet may have seen two stories of a somewhat similar nature in some English translation of an old collection of allegorical fables compiled in Latin under the title of 'Gesta Romanorum,' (Deeds of the Romans), the Romans referred to being the people of western and southern Europe who spoke the various dialects of the Romance language, a kind of bastard Latin, which came into use after the fall of the Roman Empire. Medleys of fictions under the above title appear to have been compiled in various forms, and some of these fictions had become current in England before the close of the thirteenth century. In one of the chapters of the English Gesta is a story containing the following particulars:- A marriage was proposed between the son of a Roman emperor and a princess of Apulia. The young lady was shipwrecked on her voyage, and swallowed by a whale. In this situation, she contrived with a knife to wound the animal, which then rushed towards the shore, and was there slain by a knight, who delivered the princess, and took her under his protection. On relating her story, she was conveyed to the emperor, who, in order to prove whether she was worthy to receive the hand of his son, placed before her three vessels, of gold, silver, and lead. On the golden vessel, which was filled with dead men's bones, was this inscription, Who chooses me shall find what he deserves; on the silver one, containing earth, the inscription was, Who chooses me shall find what nature covets; the leaden vessel, filled with precious stones, had the inscription, Who chooses me shall find what God hath placed. The emperor then ordered her to choose one of the vessels, and said that if she made choice of that which should profit herself and others, she would obtain his son. The lady chose the lucky vessel, which was that of lead, and she was forthwith married to the young prince.

But the incidents connected with the bond were in all pro

bability derived chiefly from a collection of tales, called 'Il Pecorone,' by Ser. Giovanni Fiorentino, first published in 1550, though written nearly two centuries before. In that collection is a story called the Adventures of Giannetto, of which, omitting some licentious parts, we give the following summary.- Giannetto, the adopted son of a Venetian merchant, Ansaldo, obtains permission to visit Alexandria, but on his voyage enters the port of Belmont, where there dwells a young lady of great wealth and beauty, whom he becomes eagerly desirous to marry. Returning to Venice, he solicits Ansaldo for a supply of money to enable him to prosecute his love-suit, and Ansaldo, to accommodate him, borrows of a Jew 10,000 ducats, the condition of the loan being, that if Ansaldo shall fail to repay the amount within a certain time, he shall forfeit a pound of his flesh, to be cut off by the creditor. Giannetto obtains the lady in marriage, but forgetful of the pecuniary engagement, prolongs his stay at Belmont till the day fixed for repayment has gone by. He then suddenly recollects the obligation, and returning in haste to Venice, finds the Jew resolved on the exaction of the penalty, and not to be turned aside from his purpose even by the offer of ten times the amount of the loan. Giannetto's bride, hearing of the merchant's perilous position, disguises herself in the dress of a doctor of law, repairs to Venice, and finds means of being introduced as a judge in the court where the case of Ansaldo and the Jew is to be tried; for in Italy, in those days, very nice or difficult points of law were determined, not by the ordinary judges, but by doctors of law called from Padua, Bologna, and other towns famous for their legal colleges. disguised lady, unrecognised by her husband, is informed of the merits of the case, and having read the bond, desires the Jew to take the pound of flesh, but neither more nor less than the just weight, and at the same time to beware of shedding the merchant's blood, as the bond made no mention of blood. An executioner is then sent for to be in readiness to behead the Jew, in the event of any blood being drawn with the forfeit. The Jew being thus confounded, says he will accept the offer of 100,000 ducats in liquidation of the claim; but as he had dis

The

tinctly and repeatedly declared he would have nothing but the pound of flesh, the judge refuses to allow any repayment of money whatever, and the Jew in a rage tears up the bond and quits the court. Hereupon Giannetto, overjoyed at the happy issue, offers to the judge, in token of his gratitude, a ring which his wife had given him on their marriage-day: and the judge, on returning home and putting off the disguise, rails at her husband in fine terms about his parting with the ring, which she says she is sure he must have given to some

woman.

In addition to the preceding story, we may refer to the old ballad entitled 'The cruelty of Gernutus, a Jew, who, lending to a merchant a hundred crowns, would have a pound of his flesh, because he could not pay him at the time appointed.' It is difficult, indeed, to decide whether this production, a copy of which will be found in Dr. Percy's 'Reliques of Ancient English Poetry,' is of earlier or later origin than Shakspeare's Merchant of Venice; but there are one or two curious points of resemblance between the ballad and the play, as may be seen in the following extracts :

On the few facts supplied by the legendary sources of the present play, Shakspeare has most skilfully based the development of those characters in which he has made the chief elements of the dramatic action to manifest themselves.

In the kindness with which Antonio consents to sign the bond for the accommodation of his friend Bassanio, the poet found a reason for representing the rich merchant as a man of generous disposition,-one who delighted in doing good; but in the general aversion with which the Jews, throughout the period of their modern history, had been regarded by Christians, there appeared sufficient authority for making Antonio a Jewhater. In Shakspeare's time, notwithstanding the progress which had been made in tolerant habits of thinking with respect to differences of religious profession, the Jews were greatly detested. Even men of piety, actuated by hereditary prejudice, seemed to suppose that Scripture, instead of simply predicting the reproach of Israel, made the infliction of that reproach the righteous duty of Christians. Let us not be surprised, then, to find the good Antonio treating Shylock with indignity, however unjust and lamentable we may think Antonio's prejudice to be. But Shakspeare introduces other reasons for the enmity between Shylock and Antonio: the merchant dislikes Shylock not merely because the latter is a Jew, but further, because he is an avaricious usurer, and an oppressive exactor of forfeitures: