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 highly finished 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.

Warton first drew attention to a ballad which he considers was written before The Merchant of Venice,' 'A new Song, shewing the cruelty of Gernutus, a Jew, who, lending to a merchant an hundred crowns, would have a pound of his flesh because he could not pay him at the time appointed.'

* Life of Shakspeare,' vol. i. p. 330.

This curious production is printed in Percy's 'Reliques.'

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; I mean, that, if it had been written after the play, it would have been much more full and circumstantial. At present, it has too much the nakedness of an original."* The reasoning of Warton is scarcely borne out by a new fact, for which we are indebted to the researches of Mr. Collier. Thomas Jordan, in 1664, printed a ballad, or romance, called 'The Forfeiture;' and Mr. Collier says "So much does Shakespeare's production seem to have been forgotten in 1664, that Thomas Jordan made a ballad of it, and printed it as an original story (at least without any acknowledgment), in his Royal Arbor of Loyal Poesie,' in that year. In the same scarce little volume he also uses the plot of the serious part of 'Much Ado about Nothing,' and of 'The Winter's Tale,' both of which had been similarly laid by for a series of years, partly, perhaps, on account of the silencing of the theatres from and after 1642. The circumstance has hitherto escaped observation; and Jordan felt authorized to take such liberties with the story of 'The Merchant of Venice,' that he has represented the Jew's daughter, instead of Portia, as assuming the office of assessor to the Duke of Venice in the trial-scene, for the sake of saving the life of the Merchant, with whom she was in love."+ Now, it is remarkable that this ballad by Jordan, which was unquestionably written after the play, is much less full and circumstantial than the old ballad of 'Gernutus;' so that Warton's

argument, as a general principle, will not hold. It appears to us that 'Gernutus' is, in reality, very full and circumstantial; and that some of the circumstances are identical with those of the play. Compare, for example,

"Go with me to a notary, seal me there

Your single bond; and in a merry sport,” &c. 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 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,

is rescued from the forfeiture by the adroitness 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 indeed of Boccaccio, and other early Italian 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

is

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 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.