LORENZO, in love with JESSICA. SHYLOCK, a Jew. TUBAL, a Jew, his Friend. LAUNCELOT GOBBO, a Clown, Servant to SHYLOCK. OLD GOBBO, Father to LAUNCELOT. SALERIO, a Messenger from Venice. LEONARDO, Servant to BASSANIO. BALTHAZAR, Servants to PORTIA. PORTIA, a rich Heiress. NERISSA, her Waiting-maid. JESSICA, Daughter to SHYLOCK. 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. INTRODUCTION. STATE OF THE TEXT AND CHRONOLOGY. THIS play was first printed in 1600. Two quarto editions were published in that year,—one bearing the name of the publisher, Thomas Heyes, the other that of the printer, J. Roberts. The title-page of the latter edition is as follows:-'The excellent History of the Merchant of Venice, with the extreme cruelty of Shylocke the Jew towards the saide Merchant, in cutting a just pound of his flesh. And the obtaining of Portia by the choyse of three caskets. Written by W. Shakespeare.' The Cambridge Shakespeare distinguishes these two editions by calling that of Roberts the first quarto, and that of Heyes the second. The difference between these is but slight. The play was not reprinted till 1623, when it appeared with thirty-five other plays in the first folio edition. Of the precise time of the production of this play, nothing certain is known. On the 22d of July 1598, the following entry was made in the books of the Stationers' Company :'James Robertes. A booke of the Marchaunt of Venyce, or otherwise called the Jewe of Venyce. Provided that it be not prynted by the said James Robertes or anye other whatsoever, without lycence first had of the right honourable the Lord Chamberlen.' Francis Meres, in his Palladis Tamia, published in 1598, gives a list of Shakespeare's known plays; and amongst the Comedies we find, last on the list, The Merchant of Venice. According to the diary of Henslowe, actor and manager, a play called The Venysian Comedy was added in 1594; and this, the commentator Malone thinks, was The Merchant of Venice. All we know for certain is that the play was entered at Stationers' Hall in 1598, and first printed in 1600. PROBABLE SOURCES OF THE PLOT. In 1579, Stephen Gosson published a tract called the School of Abuse, in which he describes a play of his time as The few, the subject of which exhibited 'the greediness of worldly chusers, and bloody mindes of usurers.' This play, however, has been lost; but from Gosson's description, it is supposed to have contained the two incidents of the bond and the caskets, and thus have furnished the groundwork of Shakespeare's comedy. Whether this be true or not, the respective stories of the bond and caskets were in circulation long before the sixteenth century. The incident of the pound of flesh appears in a collection of tales called Il Pecorone, written in the fourteenth century by an Italian, Ser. Giovanni, and first published at Milan in 1558. In this story we have a rich lady at Belmont, who was to be won on certain conditions; and she is said to have been gained by the friend of a merchant, who had become surety for him to a Jew. The narrative of the forfeiture, and of the deliverance of the merchant, corresponds with that in the play. No translation of these tales is known to have been extant in Shakespeare's day. A similar incident is told in a collection of tales, compiled in Latin, under the name of Gesta Romanorum, a translation of which, written in the reign of Henry VI., is preserved in the Harleian Collection. In this we have all the incidents of the bond, the forfeiture, the pound of flesh, and the artifice by which the penalty was avoided. In this story, however, the borrower was a knight, who fell in love with a princess, and the lender a merchant. The story of the bond was also ready to Shakespeare's hand in an old English ballad, printed in Percy's Reliques, from which the following extracts are taken :— A NEW SONG, Shewing the crueltie of Gernutus, a Jewe, who, lending to a merchant an Hundred Crowns, would have a pound of his Fleshe, because he could not pay him at the time appointed. To the tune of 'Blacke and Yellow.' THE FIRST PART. In Venice towne not long agoe A cruel Jew did dwell, Gernutus called was the Jew, His life was like a Barrow-hog, Or like a filthy heape of dung, So fares it with the usurer, He cannot sleepe in rest; For feare the theefe will him pursue, His heart doth thinke on many a wile, His mouth is almost ful of mucke, His wife must lend a shilling, Yet bring a pledge that's double worth, And see likewise you keepe your day, Or else you loose it all: This was the living of the wife; Within that citie dwelt that time Desiring him to stand his friend For twelve month and a day, Whatsoever he would demand of him, No (quoth the Jew, with flearing lookes), No penny for the loane of it For one year you shall pay: You may do me as good a turne But we will have a merry jeast, You shall make me a bond, quoth he, That shall be large and strong; And this shall be the forfeyture, With right good will! the marchant says; When twelve month and a day drew on The marchant's ships were all at sea, And to Gernutus straight he comes, My day is come, and I have not With all my heart, Gernutus sayd, In thinges of bigger waight than this, He goes his way; the day once past, To get a sergiant presently, And clapt him on the backe, And layd him into prison strong, And when the judgment day was come, The marchant's friendes came thither fast, For other meanes they could not find, But he that day must die. THE SECOND PART. Of the Jew's crueltie; setting forth the mercifulnesse of the Judge towards the Marchant. Some offered for his hundred crownes Five hundred for to pay, And some a thousand, two, or three, |