ness of the married lady, who is disguised as a lawyer. The pretended judge receives, as in the comedy, her marriage ring as a gratuity, and afterwards banters her husband, in the same way, upon the loss of it.

Some of the stories of Il Pecorone, as

with

"But we will have a merry jest,

For to be talked long;

You shall make me a bond, quoth he,
That shall be large and strong."

And, again, compare

"Why dost thou whet thy knife so earnestly?" with

"The bloudie Jew now ready is

With whetted blade in hand."

But the ballad of 'Gernutus' wants that remarkable feature of the play, the inter

vention of Portia to save the life of the

Merchant; and this, to our minds, is the strongest confirmation that the ballad preceded the comedy. Shakspere found that incident in the source from which the balladwriter professed to derive his history:—

"In Venice towne not long agoe,
A cruel Jew did dwell,
Which lived all on usurie,

As Italian writers tell."

It was from an Italian writer, Ser Giovanni, the author of a collection of tales, called 'Il Pecorone,' written in the fourteenth century, and first published at Milan in 1558, that Shakspere unquestionably derived some of the incidents of his story, although he might be familiar with another version of the same tale. An abstract of this chapter of the 'Pecorone' may be found in Mr. Dunlop's "History of Fiction;' and a much fuller epitome of a scarce translation of the tale, printed in 1755, was first given in Johnson's edition of Shakspere, and is reprinted in all the variorum editions. In this story we have a rich lady at Belmont, who is to be won upon certain conditions; and she is finally the prize of a young merchant, whose friend, having become surety for him to a Jew, under the same penalty as in the play,

writers, appear to have been the common property of Europe, derived from some Oriental origin. Mr. Douce has given an extremely curious extract from the English 'Gesta Romanorum,'-"a Manuscript, preserved in the Harleian Collection, No. 7333, written in the reign of Henry the Sixth," in which the daughter of "Selestinus, a wise emperor in Rome," exacts somewhat similar conditions, from a knight who loved her, as the lady in the 'Pecorone.' Being reduced to poverty by a compliance with these conditions, he applies to a merchant to lend him money;

and the loan is granted under the following covenant:-"And the covenaunt shalle be

this, that thou make to me a charter of thine owne blood, in condicion that yf thowe kepe not thi day of payment, hit shalle be lefulle to me for to draw awey alle the flesh of thi body froo the bone with a sharp swerde, and, yf thow wolt assent hereto, I shalle fulfille thi wille." In this ancient story the borrower of the money makes himself subject to the penalty without the intervention of a friend; and, having forgotten the day of payment, is authorised by his wife to give any sum which is demanded. The money is refused by the merchant, and the charter of blood exacted. Judgment is given against the knight; but, "the damysell, his love, whenne she harde telle that the lawe passid agenst him, she kytte of al the longe her of hir hede, and claddie hir in precious clothing like to a man, and yede to the palys." The scene that ensues in the 'Gesta Romanorum' has certainly more resemblance to the conduct of the incident in Shakspere than the similar one in the 'Pecorone.' Having given a specimen of the language of the manuscript of Henry the Sixth's time, which Mr. Douce thinks was of the same period as the writing, we shall continue the story in orthography which will present fewer difficulties to many

romance.

of our readers, and which will allow them to feel the beautiful simplicity of this ancient We have no doubt that Shakspere was familiar with this part of Gesta Romanorum,' as well as with that portion from which he derived the story of the caskets, to which we shall presently advert :-"Now, in all this time, the damsel his love had sent knights for to espy and inquire how the law was pursued against him. And, when she heard tell that the law passed against him, she cut off all the long hair of her head, and clad her in precious clothing like to a man, and went to the palace where her leman was to be judged, and saluted the justice, and all trowed that she had been a knight. And the judge inquired of what country she was, and what she had to do there. She said, I am a knight, and come of far country; and hear tidings that there is a knight among you that should be judged to death, for an obligation that he made to a merchant, and therefore I am come to deliver him. Then the judge said, It is law of the emperor, that whosoever bindeth him with his own proper will and consent without any constraining, he shall be served so again. When the damsel heard this, she turned to the merchant, and said, Dear friend, what profit is it to thee that this knight, that standeth here, ready to the doom, be slain? It were better to thee to have money than to have him slain. Thou speakest all in vain, quoth the merchant; for, without doubt, I will have the law, since he bound himself so freely; and therefore he shall have none other grace than law will, for he came to me, and I not to him. I desire him not thereto against his will. Then, said she, I pray thee how much shall I give to have my petition? I shall give thee thy money double; and, if that be not pleasing to thee, ask of me what thou wilt, and thou shalt have. Then said he, Thou heardest me never say but that I would have my covenant kept. Truly, said she; and I say before you, Sir Judge, and before you all, thou shalt believe me with a right knowledge of that I shall say to you. Ye have heard how much I have proffered this merchant for the life of this knight, and he forsaketh all and asketh for more, and that

liketh me much. And, therefore, lordings that be here, hear me what I shall say. Ye know well that the knight bound him by letter that the merchant should have power to cut his flesh from the bones, but there was no covenant made of shedding of blood. Thereof was nothing spoken; and, therefore, let him set hand on him anon; and if he shed any blood with his shaving of the flesh, forsooth, then shall the king have good law upon him. And when the merchant heard this, he said, Give me my money, and I forgive my action. Forsooth, quoth she, thou shalt not have one penny, for before all this company I proffered to thee all that I might, and thou forsook it, and saidst loudly, I shall have my covenant; and therefore do thy best with him, but look that thou shed no blood, I charge thee, for it is not thine, and no covenant was thereof. Then the merchant, seeing this, went away confounded; and so was the knight's life saved, and no penny paid."

In 'The Orator,' translated from the French of Alexander Silvayn, printed in 1596, the arguments urged by a Jew and a Christian under similar circumstances are set forth at great length. It has been generally asserted that Shakspere borrowed from this source; but the similarity appears to us exceedingly small. The arguments, or declamations, as they are called, are given at length in the variorum editions.

"It is well known," says Mrs. Jameson, "that "The Merchant of Venice' is founded on two different tales; and, in weaving together his double plot in so masterly a manner, Shakspere has rejected altogether the character of the astutious lady of Belmont, with her magic potions, who figures in the Italian novel. With yet more refinement, he has thrown out all the licentious part of the story, which some of his contemporary dramatists would have seized on with avidity, and made the best or the worst of it possible; and he has substituted the trial of the caskets from another source."* That source is the 'Gesta Romanorum.' In Mr. Douce's elaborate treatise upon this most singular collection of ancient stories, we have the following analysis * Characteristics of Women,' vol. i. p. 72.

The 'Prioress's Tale' of Chaucer belonged to the period when the Jews were robbed, maimed, banished, and most foully vilified, with the universal consent of the powerful and the lowly, the learned and the ignorant :

"There was in Asie, in a gret citee,
Amonges Cristen folk a Jewerie,
Sustened by a lord of that contree,
For foul usure, and lucre of vilanie,

Hateful to Crist, and to his compagnie."

It was scarcely to be avoided in those times that even Chaucer, the most genuine and natural of poets, should lend his great powers to the support of the popular belief that Jews ought to be proscribed as—

"Hateful to Crist, and to his compagnie."

But we ought to expect better things when we reach the times in which the principles of religious liberty were at least germinated. And yet what a play is Marlowe's 'Jew of Malta,'-undoubtedly one of the most popular plays even of Shakspere's day, judging as we may from the number of performances recorded in Henslowe's papers! That drama, as compared with 'The Merchant of Venice,' has been described by Charles Lamb, with his usual felicity :-" Marlowe's Jew does not approach so near to Shakspere's as his Edward II. Shylock, in the midst of his savage purpose, is a man. His motives, feelings, resentments, have something human in them. If you wrong us, shall we not revenge?' Barabas is a mere monster, brought in with a large painted nose, to please the rabble. He kills in sport-poisons whole nunneries-invents infernal machines. He is just such an exhibition as a century or two earlier might have been played before the Londoners, by the Royal command, when a general pillage and massacre of the Hebrews had been previously resolved on in the cabinet." The Jew of Malta' was written essentially upon an intolerant principle. "The Merchant of Venice,' whilst it seized upon the prejudices of the multitude, and dealt with them as a foregone conclusion by which the whole dramatic action was to be governed, had the intention of making those

prejudices as hateful as the reaction of cruelty and revenge of which they are the cause.

Mrs. Inchbald, in her edition of the 'Acted Drama,' thus describes Lord Lansdown's arrangement, with variations, of 'The Merchant of Venice :-"The Jew of Venice, by Lord Lansdown, is an alteration of this play, and was acted in 1701. The noble author made some emendations in the work; but, having made the Jew a comic character, as such he caused more laughter than detestation, which wholly destroyed the moral designed by the original author." A comic Shylock is certainly the masterpiece of the improvements upon Shakspere. We have reached a period when it is scarcely necessary to discuss whether this emendation of Shakspere were right or wrong; nor, indeed, whether Mrs. Inchbald herself be perfectly correct in assuming that, if the trial scene were now brought upon the stage for the first time, " the company in the side-boxes would faint or withdraw." The Merchant of Venice' of the stage is, in many respects, the play of Shakspere. Macklin put down Lord Lansdown. But, up to a very recent period, it has been, with greenroom propriety, accommodated to the taste of "the company in the side-boxes" by the omission of a great deal of what is highest in its poetry, and by the substitution, in some cases, of the actor's verses for Shakspere's. It is one of the best proofs that Shakspere is now appreciated (because he is understood), that what were considered as authority, "the prompt-books" of the theatres, such as they existed some ten years ago, have passed into utter contempt.

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Turning from such matters, we come to an opinion in which Mrs. Inchbald is by no means singular-that detestation of the Jew is "the moral designed by the original author." It is probable that, even in Shakspere's time, this was the popular notion. In an anonymous MS. 'Elegy on Burbage,' one of the characters he is represented to have filled is that of Shylock, who is called 'the red-hair'd Jew.' This establishes that the part was dressed in an artificial red beard and wig, in order to render it more odious and objectionable to the audience."* This circumstance

*Collier's New Particulars,' &c.

however, is by no means a proof to us that Shakspere intended the Jew to move the audience to unmitigated odium. The players might have thought, indeed, that he was not odious enough for the popular appetite, and in consequence made him " more odious and objectionable." The question may be better understood as we proceed in an analysis of the characters and incidents of this drama. A contemporary German critic, Dr. Ulrici*, has presented to us the entire plot of The Merchant of Venice' under a very original aspect. His object has been to discover, what he maintains had not been previously discovered, the fundamental idea of the drama the link which holds together all its apparently heterogeneous parts. The critic first passes the several characters in review. Antonio is the noble and great-hearted, yielding to a passive melancholy, produced by the weight of a too agitating life of action; Bassanio, somewhat inconsiderate, but generous and sensible, is the genuine Italian gentleman, in the best sense of the word; Portia is most amiable, and intellectually rich (geistreich); Jessica is a child of nature, lost in an oriental love enthusiasm. The critic presents these characteristics in a very few words; but his portrait of Shylock is more elaborate. He is the well-struck image of the Jewish character in general of the fallen member of a race dispersed over the whole earth, and enduring long centuries of persecution. Their firmness had become obstinacy; their quickness of intellect, craft; their love of possessions, a revolting avarice. "Nothing," says Dr. Ulrici, "had kept its rank in their universal decay, but the unconquerable constancy, the dry mummy-like tenacity of the Jewish nature. So appears Shylock—a pitiable ruin of a great and significant by-past time-the glimmering ash-spark of a faded splendour which can no longer warm or preserve, but can yet burn or destroy. We are as little able to deny him our compassion, as we can withhold our disgust against his modes of thinking and acting."

Dr. Ulrici next proceeds to notice Shak

*Ueber Shakspeare's dramatische Kunst, und sein Verhältniss zu Calderon und Göthe.'

- one

SO

spere's mastership in the composition, uniting, and unfolding of the intricate plot. "We have three curious, and in themselves very complicated, knots wound into each other :— first, the process between Antonio and Shylock; next, the marriages of Bassanio and Portia, of Gratiano and Nerissa; and, lastly, the elopement of Jessica, and her love's history with Lorenzo. These various interests, actions, and adventures are disposed with such a clearness and fixedness developes itself out of and with the others,that we never lose the thread that everywhere reveals an animated and harmoniously framed principle." The critic then proceeds to say, that, although an external union of the chief elements is clearly enough supported, the whole seems in truth to be inevitably falling asunder; and that “ we have now to inquire where lies the internal spiritual unity which will justify the combination of such heterogeneous elements in one drama."

Throughout many of Shakspere's plays, according to Dr. Ulrici, the leading fundamental idea, concentrated in itself, is so intentionally hidden-the single makes itself so decidedly important, and comes before us so free, and self-sustained, and complete,that the entire work is occasionally exposed to the ungrounded reproach of looseness of plan and want of coherency. On the other hand, there are sufficient intimations of the meaning of the whole scattered throughout; so that whoever has in some degree penetrated into the depths of the Shaksperean art cannot well go wrong. The sense and significancy of the process between Antonio and the Jew rest clearly upon the old juridical precept, Summum jus, summa injuria. Shylock has, clearly, all that is material, except justice, on his side; but, while he seizes and follows his right to the letter, he falls through it into the deepest and most criminal injustice; and the same injustice, through the internal necessity which belongs to the nature of sin, falls back destructively on his own head. The same aspect in which this principle is presented to us in its extremest harshness, in the case of Shylock, shows itself in various outbursts of light and shadow throughout