no preferment here, but that cafket which fortune denied you fhall be yours in despite of her: carry it with you into your own country, fhew it to your friends, and neighbours, as my gift to you; and you have my permiffion to boat, that it is a reward of your virtues,

Of The MERCHANT of VENICE the file is even and eafy, with few peculiarities of diction,

or anomalies of construction. The comick part raises laughter, and the ferious fixes expectation. The probability of either one or the other story cannot be maintained. The union of two actions in one event is in this drama eminently happy. Dryden was much pleafed with his own addrefs in connecting the two plots of his Spanish Friar, which yet, I believe, the critick will find excelled by this play.