STATE OF THE TEXT, AND CHRONOLOGY, OF THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. THE MERCHANT OF VENICE,' like A Midsummer-Night's Dream,' was first printed in 1600; and it had a further similarity to that play from the circumstance of two editions appearing in the same year-the one bearing the name of a publisher, Thomas Heyes, the other that of a printer, J. Roberts. The edition of Heyes is printed by J. Roberts; and it is probable that he, the printer, obtained the first copy. On the 22nd 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 yt bee not prynted by the said James Robertes or anye other whatsoever, without lycence first had of the right honourable the Lord Chamberlen." The title of Roberts's edition is very circumstantial:- The excellent History of the Merchant of Venice. With the extreme cruelty of Shylocke the Jew towards the said Merchant, in cutting a just pound of his flesh. And the obtaining of Portia by the choyce of three Caskets. Written by W. Shakespeare.' On the 28th of October, 1600, Thomas Haies enters at Stationers' Hall "The book of the Merchant of Venyce." The edition of Heyes is by no means identical with that of Roberts; but the differences are not many. In the title-page of that edition we have added" As it hath beene divers times acted by the Lord Chamberlaine his Servants." The play was not reprinted till it appeared in the folio of 1623. In that edition there are a few variations from the quartos, which we have indicated in our notes. All these editions present the internal evidence of having beeen printed from correct copies. 'The Merchant of Venice' is one of the plays of Shakspere mentioned by Francis Meres in 1598, and it is the last mentioned in his list. From the original entry at Stationers' Hall, in 1598, providing that it be not printed without licence first had of the Lord Chamberlain, it may be assumed that it had not then been acted by the Lord Chamberlain's servants. We know, however, so little about the formalities of licence that we cannot regard this point as certain. Malone considers that a play called The Venesyan Comedy,' which it appears from Henslowe's Manuscripts was acted in 1594, was 'The Merchant of Venice;' and he has therefore assigned it to 1594. He supports this by one solitary conjecture. In Act III. Portia exclaims "He may win; And what is music then? then music is Even as the flourish when true subjects bow To a new-crowned monarch." Malone considers that this alludes to the coronation of Henry IV. of Chalmers would fix it in 1597, because, when France, in 1594. Antonio says "Nor is my whole estate Upon the fortune of this present year,"— he alludes to 1597, which was a year of calamity to merchants. Surely this is laborious trifling. We know absolutely nothing of the date of 'The Merchant of Venice' beyond what is furnished by the entry at Stationers' Hall, and the notice by Meres. SUPPOSED SOURCE OF THE PLOT. STEPHEN GOSSON, who, in 1579, was moved to publish a tract called The School of Abuse, containing a pleasant invective against poets, pipers, players, jesters, and such like caterpillars of the commonwealth,' thus describes a play of his time:" The Jew, shown at the Bull, representing the greedyness of worldly choosers, and the bloody minds of usurers." Mr. Skottowe somewhat leaps to a conclusion that this play contains the same plot as 'The Merchant of Venice :'— "The loss of this performance is justly a subject of regret, for, as it combined within its plot the two incidents of the bond and the caskets, it would, in all probability, have thrown much additional light on Shakspeare's progress in the composition of his highlyfinished comedy."* As all we know of this play is told us by Gosson, it is rather bold to assume that it combined the two incidents of the bond and the caskets. The combination of these incidents is perhaps one of the most remarkable examples of Shakspere's dramatic skill. "In the management of the plot," says Mr. Hallam, "which is sufficiently complex without the slightest confusion or incoherence, I do not conceive that it has been surpassed in the annals of any theatre." The rude dramatists of 1579 were not remarkable for the combination of incidents. It was probably reserved for the skill of Shakspere to bring the caskets and the bond in juxtaposition. He found the incidents far apart, but it was for him to fuse them together. We cannot absolutely deny Mr. Douce's conjecture that the play mentioned by Gosson might have furnished our poet with the whole of the plot; but it is certainly an abuse of language to say that it did furnish him, because the Jew shown at the Bull deals with "worldly choosers," and the "bloody minds of usurers.' We admit that the coincidence is curious. Whatever might have been the plot of The Jew' mentioned by Gosson, the story of the bond was ready to Shakspere's hand, in a ballad to which Warton first drew attention. He considers that the ballad was written before The Merchant of Venice,' for reasons which we shall subsequently point out. In the mean time we reprint this curious production from the copy in Percy's Reliques : *Life of Shakspeare, vol. i. P. 330. 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.' IN Venice towne not long agoe A cruel Jew did dwell, Which lived all on usurie, As Italian writers tell. Gernutus called was the Jew, Which never thought to dye; Nor ever yet did any good To them in streets that lie. His life was like a barrow hogge, That liveth many a day, Yet never once doth any good, Until men will him slay. Or like a filthy heap of dung, That lyeth in a whoard; Which never can do any good, Till it be spread abroad. So fares it with the usurer, He cannot sleep in rest, THE FIRST PART. For feare the thiefe 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 is double worth, And see, likewise, you keepe your day, This was the living of the wife, Within that citie dwelt that time Which, being distressed, in his need Desiring him to stand his friend For twelve month and a day, To lend to him an hundred crownes: And he for it would pay Whatsoever he would demand of him, No, (quoth the Jew, with flearing lookes,) No penny for the loane of it But we will have a merry jeast, And this shall be the forfeyture: And here is a hundred crownes. With right good will! the marchant says; The marchant's ships were all at sea, And to Gernutus strait he comes With cap and bended knee, My day is come, and I have not With all my heart, Gernutus sayd, 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 judgement day was come, For judgement he did call. The marchant's friends came thither fast, With many a weeping eye, For other means they could not find, 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 at the last ten thousand crownes A pound of fleshe is my demand, Then sayd the Judge, Yet, good my friend, To take the fleshe from such a place, Do 80, and lo! an hundred crownes No: no: quoth he; no: judgement here; For I will have my pound of fleshe It grieved all the companie His crueltie to see, For neither friend nor foe could helpe, The bloudie Jew now ready is With whetted blade in hand, And as he was about to strike Sith needs thou wilt thy forfeite have, See that thou shed no drop of bloud, For if thou doe, like murderer, Likewise of flesh see that thou cut For if thou take either more or lesse Gernutus now waxt frantick mad, And so I graunt to let him free. The judge doth answere make: At the last he doth demaund But for to have his owne. No, quoth the judge, doe as you list, Either take your pound of flesh, quoth he, O cruell judge, then quoth the Jew, And so with griping grieved mind Good people, that doe heare this song, That many a wretch as ill as hee That seeketh nothing but the spoyle From whome the Lord deliver me, And send to them like sentence eke Warton's opinion of the priority of this ballad to The Merchant of Venice' is thus expressed :-" It may be objected that this ballad might have been written after, and copied from, Shakespeare's play. But if that had been the case, it is most likely that the author would have preserved Shakespeare's name of Shylock for the Jew; and nothing is more likely than that Shakespeare, in copying from this ballad, should alter the name from Gernutus to one more Jewish . . . . Our ballad has the air of a narrative written before Shakespeare's play; |