ΖΟ as apid succession Jessica's preparation secretly to forsake her er, Shylock, in order to marry Lorenzo; Shylock leaving his use to sup with Bassanio; and the masque prepared by LorenGratiano, and Salanio, under cover of which Jessica, disguised a boy, shall be able to make her escape." In the seventh scene we are back at Belmont, where the Prince of Morocco, after reading and commenting on the inscriptions, chooses the golden casket, and, finding within it a death's-head, takes leave of Portia with a heavy heart. At Venice, in the eighth scene, we learn from Salarino and Salanio that the wrecking of one of Antonio's richly laden ships is reported; and it is feared that it will go hard with him if the bond is forfeited to Shylock, who, we are told, is distracted by the elopement of his daughter, and the loss of the ducats and jewels she has taken with her. In the ninth scene, at Belmont, the Prince of Arragon makes choice of the silver casket, and is disappointed. As he goes out, a messenger announces the approach of Bassanio. The third act opens on a street in Venice. Salanio and Salarino have news confirming rumors of the loss of Antonio's vessel; and while deploring his misfortune, Shylock enters, still harping on his daughter and his ducats, and his bad match with Antonio, of whose ill luck he has heard. His friend Tubal, coming in, details to him, in a tantalizing way, reports of the extravagance of his daughter on the one hand, and the certain bankruptcy of Antonio on the other. In the second scene we meet Bassanio, Gratiano, and Portia in her house, where, after she intimates to Bassanio that she would gladly tell him how to choose were she not then forsworn, he finally opens the leaden casket, takes out her picture, and, turning, claims her with a loving kiss. In the mean time Gratiano has been pressing his suit with the maid Nerissa, and is so far successful, that she has consented to become his wife in case Bassanio is fortunate in his choice of caskets. Their mutual congratulations are interrupted by the entrance of Lorenzo and Jessica, together with Salanio, who brings a letter to Bassanio from Antonio, communicating the loss of his ships, the cruelty of his creditors, and the forfeiture of his bond; stating that all debts were cleared between them, but expressing a wish that before he died he might see his friend. Portia, learning the amount and nature of the bond, and that Antonio was bound on Bassanio's account, urges him but "first to go with her to church and call her wife," then speed at once to Venice, taking with him gold to pay the petty debt twenty times over, and, when paid, to bring his friend with him to Belmont. Again at Venice, in the third scene, we find Shylock, Salarino, and, in custody of a jailer, Antonio, who, having been arrested by Shylock, is petitioning for an abatement of his creditor's rigorous course. But the Jew will not listen, and upbraids the officer for bringing his prisoner abroad. In the fourth scene, at Belmont, Portia tells Lorenzo, that, in the absence of their husbands (Gratiano has accompanied Bassanio to Venice), Nerissa and herself will abide in seclusion at a monastery in the neighborhood, and that she would leave the care and management of her household in his charge till her return. Portia then dispatches a messenger to her cousin, Dr. Bellario, a famous lawyer of Padua, with instructions to the servant to bring any notes and garments he should receive from the doctor to a named station on the road from Belmont to Venice; and, having disclosed to Nerissa somewhat of her design to take part in Antonio's trial, they enter a coach and "haste away." The fourth act brings us to the culmination of the play, -the trial scene at Venice, Shylock suing for the enforcement of the penalty of Antonio's forfeited bond. The Jew, the merchant, Bassanio, Gratiano, and others are in the court. The Duke, presiding, calls Shylock before him, and hopes he will have commiseration on the state of the royal merchant, and not only loose the forfeiture of the bond, but forgive a portion of the principal of the debt. But Shylock is unyielding. Bassanio offers him twice the amount of the bond, which he refuses, demanding the penalty. Nerissa, habited as a clerk, comes in, bearing a message from Bellario, who has been sent for to determine the case, ds she nich he states his inability to attend, but strongly recoma young lawyer with whom he has been in consultation, is thoroughly informed of the matter in controversy, and ho would appear in his stead. Portia now enters in the guise of a doctor of laws, and replying to a question of the Duke, that is well advised of the cause before the court, the trial proceeds. Plaintiff and defendant are pointed out to her. She asks Antonio if he confesses the bond, which he does. She then says the Jew must be merciful, and makes an urgent appeal in that behalf, admitting that in strict justice, sentence must be given against the merchant. Shylock, deaf to all prayers, is inexorable in his demand for justice and his bond. Judgment is about to be pronounced in his favor, when Portia, reëxamining the deed, announces that it gives him " no jot of blood;" tells him to take his pound of flesh, but if in the cutting it he sheds one drop of Christian blood, or if it weighs more or less than a just pound, he dies, and his lands and goods are confiscate to the state. Confounded by this decision, the Jew is now willing to receive the amount of his overdue debt, but this, having been already tendered and refused in open court, it is held, he cannot claim, and can have only the forfeiture with its risks. Foiled in the cruel purpose of his suit, and half crazed by the loss of his money, Shylock is leaving the room in disgust, when he is stayed by Portia, by whom he is told, that under Venetian law, if it is proved that an alien attempts the life of any citizen, "The party 'gainst the which he doth contrive that he stands in this predicament before the court; and that he has no other hope than the clemency of the Duke, who pardons him his life, decrees one half his wealth to Antonio, the other half to come to the state. Antonio intercedes with the court to quit the fine for one half the goods, so Shylock will let him (Antonio) have "The other half in use, to render it, Upon his death, unto the gentleman That lately stole his daughter; Two things provided more,- - that for this favor He presently become a Christian; The other, that he do record a gift, Here in the court, of all he dies possess'd, Unto his son Lorenzo and his daughter." More dead than alive, Shylock says he is content, has permission to leave the court, and asks that the deed be sent to him for signature. Bassanio now tenders Portia the three thousand ducats due to the Jew, which she does not accept, but, being pressed to receive something as a remembrance, would have a ring from his finger, which Bassanio, greatly embarrassed, refuses, protesting that it was placed there by his wife under a vow to neither sell nor give nor lose it: " but overcome by a sense of shame, after Portia leaves the court, he sends it to her by Gratiano, from whom Nerissa begs the ring he had from her. 66 The fifth act is a delightful evening scene in the garden at Belmont, where the music, and the honeymoon talk of Lorenzo and Jessica, are broken off by the return of Portia and Nerissa, followed immediately by the arrival of Bassanio, Antonio, and Gratiano. Nerissa soon makes it convenient to discover that Gratiano's ring is missing, and is sure that some woman had it; he insisting that he gave it the judge's clerk, "a little scrubbed boy no higher than herself." The quarrel is noticed by Portia, who sides with Nerissa, and is certain her lord would not part with the ring she had given him for all the wealth of the world. Bassanio, confused, confesses; and after much protestation and entreaty on his part, and assumed indignation on hers, Portia produces the ring, explains everything, delivers Lorenzo the deed of gift from Shylock, tells Antonio she has true news that three of his ships were safely in, and the play closes with all happy at Belmont. for YLOCK, Thomas Campbell remarks (as quoted in FurVariorem Shakespeare), “In the picture of the Jew there is he tragic grandeur of Richard III., but there is a similar ce of mind, and the same subtlety of intellect, though it is less elfish. In point of courage, I would give the palm to Shylock, he was an ill-used man and the champion of an oppressed race : nor is he a hypocrite, like Richard. In fact, Shakespeare, whilst he lends himself to the prejudices of Christians against Jews, draws so philosophical a picture of the energetic Jewish character, that he traces the blame of its faults to the iniquity of the Christian world. Shylock's arguments are more logical than those of his opponents, and the latter overcome him only by a legal quibble. But he is a usurer, and lives on the interest of lent moneys; and what but Christian persecution forced him to live by these means? But he is also inhuman and revengeful. Why? Because they called him dog, and spat upon his Jewish· gaberdine. They voided their rheum upon him, and he in return wished to void his revenge upon them. All this is natural, and Shylock has nothing unnatural about him." of Shakespeare's Plays) says, "Shylock is a no less 'sinned against than sinning.' If he carries his revenge too far, yet he has strong grounds for the 'lodged hate' he bears Antonio, which he explains with equal force of eloquence and reason. . . There is a strong, deep, and quick sense of justice mixed up with the gall and bitterness of his resentment. The constant apprehension of being burnt alive, plundered, banished, reviled, and trampled on, might be supposed to sour the most forbearing nature, and to take something from that 'milk of human kindness' with which his persecutors contemplated his indignities. . . . In all his answers and retorts upon his adversaries, he has the best, not only of the argument, but of the question, reasoning on their own principles and practice. They are so far from allowing of any measure of equal dealing, of common justice or humanity between themselves and the Jew, that even when they come to ask a favor of him, Hazlitt (Characters good hater, a man |