(C) "Even if we exclude the scene of his excited violence towards her, and forget the dumb-show mummery that she relates, there still remains a frigidness in all his allusions to her, and in the rarity of these allusions also, that impeaches the sincerity of the passion that he once professed for her, and even the ordinary considerations and delicacy that were due to her misfortunes, tho' they had not originated with himself."W. W. Lloyd, Essay on Hamlet.

(D) "Here we have no villain punished on some self-conceived and rigidly accomplished scheme of vengeance: a horrid deed occurs; it rolls itself along with all its consequences, dragging guiltless persons also in its course; the perpetrator seems as if he would evade the abyss which is made ready for him; yet he plunges in, at the very point by which he thinks he shall escape and happily complete his

course.

"For it is the property of crime to extend its mischief over innocence, as it is of virtue to extend its blessings over many that deserve them not; while frequently the author of the one or of the other is not punished or rewarded at all. Here in this play of ours, how strange! The pit of darkness sends its spirit and demands revenge; in vain! Neither earthly_nor infernal thing may bring about what is reserved for Fate alone. The hour of judgement comes: the wicked fall with the good; one race is moved away that another may spring up."-Goethe's Wilheim Meister, vol. I., p. 206.

THE

MERCHANT OF VENICE.

THIS Comedy was probably produced in 1594, for there is an allusion in Henslowe's Diary which serves to support this view. It records the performance of

The

"The Venesyon Comedy," on the 26th of August, 1594, at which date the company to which Shakspere belonged, was playing conjointly with Henslowe's, at Newington Butts. It is mentioned by Francis Meres, in his Wit's Commonwealth, published in 1598. earliest printed edition was in 1600, the title of which ran as follows: "The most excellent Historie of the Merchant of Venice, with the extreame crueltie of Shylocke the lewe towards the sayd Merchant, in cutting a just pound of his flesh: and the obtayning of Portia by the choyse of the three chests. As it hath beene diuers times acted by the Lord Chamberlaine his Seruants. Written by William Shakspere. At London, printed by J. R., for Thomas Heyes, and are to be sold in Paules Churchyard, at the signe of the Greene Dragon." Another edition was published in the same year, printed by J. Roberts. The Merchant of Venice is among the plays contained in the folio of 1623. In 1637 an edition in 4to. was published, and another in 1652.

It has been thought by some that Shakspere derived his plot from a ballad called Gernutus, the Jew, printed by Percy, in his Reliques of Antient English Poetry, but the earliest date assigned to the publication of the ballad is 1598, and the comedy being produced about 1594, four years prior to the ballad, the plot or idea could not possibly have been borrowed from it. The allusion in Gosson's School of Abuse, is of too vague a nature to conclude that an elder play existed prior to Shakspere's, upon which he grafted his own conception. A collection of tales under the title of Gesta Romanorum, was probably the source from whence the incidents of the comedy were drawn, the incidents being founded upon two separate narratives of the action of the pound of flesh and of the three caskets contained in that work, but the characters, the language, and the poetry and sentiment, alone belong to William Shakspere, who has produced a play full of the deepest worldly wisdom, fraught with lessons to the human race, for it is a reflection of the realities of ordinary life, in which the qualities and passions of human nature are investigated.

Shakspere in this comedy as well as in his tragedy of Othello, seems thoroughly to understand the nature and state of Venice and the Venetians. "It is impossible not to feel the truth of atmosphere in the whole movement and tone of the plays themselves. The moment we look behind Shylock or Othello we see Venice, the glare of its torches, the noise of its revels, the endless warfare of lazzi and badinage, its easy morals, its cynical proverbs, its quick, secret rivalries and passions, the silence and order of its streets, the proud gravity of its nobles, the wise whispers of its

council chamber, the hum of its Rialto, the strange medley of East and West on its piazza." It was the only state in which the confusion of tongues could be heard, and in which the turban of the Turk and the gaberdine of the Jew could be seen in contact with each other. On its lagunes and canals, within its palaces and squares, beneath its piazzas, the representatives of many nations were gathered together, and Venice was the only city in Europe at that time, in which a dream of our common humanity could be indulged in with any degree of dramatic truth. Shakspere has seized upon this advantage and here reproduces with wonderful fulness and completeness, the Venice of the 16th century.

In this comedy Shakspere depicts the wrongs which the Jews suffered because of their religious opinions; and points out the intense hatred in which the Jews were held by the Christian inhabitants of the European continent, at the period of the play, which may be put down as the early part of the author's life. All the characters are tainted with this vice. They all indulge in sneering remarks upon the Jewish people, and under every and all circumstances treat them with contempt. This intense hatred of the Jews is first shown when Shylock describes the wrongs he has undergone at Antonio's hands. It is shown again in the conduct of the clown Gobbo, who will not let his father make a present to his master Shylock, because he is a Jew. "Give him a halter," he exclaims; inferring that anything but hanging is too good for a Jew.

The speeches which Shakspere hath put in the mouth of Shylock show that he lived before his age. The intense dislike which was felt and held by the

F

majority of mankind relative to the Jewish people had not died out. Everywhere they were held up to scorn and execration. But Shakspere's great love of humanity, that golden link which binds and connects him with all ages,-prevented him from indulging in the common feeling against the Jews, and was the one great cause of the fairness of his view and portraiture of Shylock. Though probably not wholly exempt from the taint of dislike to the Jewish people, yet with what infinite wisdom has he in this comedy inculcated that great law of humanity, which owns the wickedness, as well as shows the folly of revenge. To both Christian and Jew he deals out the same vigorous blows; to both he points out with unerring hand, the evil results which flow from indulgence in "unbridled revenge," and that under no circumstances can such a course of action be right, for its basis is wrong, and all the results which flow, must be wrong also.

The tragic interest turns upon the contumely with which the Jews are treated. From this cause, in conjunction with Antonio's lending "out money gratis," arises the intense hatred which Shylock bears him. The railing of Antonio against Shylock's "sacred nation," his mocking "at his gains," his thwarting of his bargains, and his laughing at his losses, because he is a Jew, awakens that fierce hate which leads to the desire of Shylock to accomplish Antonio's death, by demanding the fulfilment of his bond, and thus "the ancient grudge" which Shylock holds, will be fatly fed.

The character of Shylock is a compound of moneyloving and hatred of Christians. This can in no way be wondered at; it is the natural result of what he and his nation have suffered at the hands of the so-called