of the fourth act fell a-weeping passionately, several times exclaiming, 'The poor man is wronged!'

Although "The Merchant of Venice," then, for the reasons given above, does not as a whole rank among Shakespeare's great dramas, it is made by Shylock as important as any one of the greatest in aiding us to gauge the range of the dramatist's sympathetic vision. Not more surely does Hamlet show us the unique intelligence of Shakespeare trying in vain to solve the insoluble problem of the universe-not more surely does Othello show the same intelligence confronting the direst of all the soul's conflicts, when

"To be wroth with one we love

Doth work like madness in the brain,"

than "The Merchant of Venice" shows that same intelligence confronting another spectacle as wonderful as these the spectacle of the human race immeshed strangled in the web of racial and social sophisms which it has been weaving for itself ever since civilisation began. Had this play never been written were there no Shylock in the varied roll of Shakespearean characters, the sweep of the "oceanic mind" could not have been revealed to us as fully as now it stands revealed.

THEODORE WATTS-DUNTON.

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ1

The DUKE Of Venice.

The PRINCE OF MOROCCO,)

suitors to Portia.

The PRINCE OF ARRAGON,

ANTONIO, a merchant of Venice.

BASSANIO, his friend, suitor likewise to Portia.

SALANIO,

SALARINO,

friends to Antonio and Bassanio.

GRATIANO,

SALERIO,2

LORENZO, in love with Jessica.

SHYLOCK, a rich Jew.

TUBAL, a Jew, his friend.

LAUNCELOT GOBBо, the clown, servant to Shylock.

OLD GOBBO, father to Launcelot.

LEONARDO, servant to Bassanio.

BALTHASAR, servants to Portia.
STEPHANO,

PORTIA, a rich heiress.

NERISSA, her waiting-maid.

JESSICA, daughter to Shylock.

Magnificoes of Venice, Officers of the Court of Justice, Gaoler, Servants to Portia, and other Attendants.

Partly at Venice, and partly at Belmont, the seat of Portia, on the Continent

1 DRAMATIS PERSONE] This play was originally printed separately in quarto in 1600, when two editions appeared. The second edition was reprinted in the collective First Folio of 1623. A third issue, in quarto, of 1637, introduced a list of "dramatis personæ," omissions in which have been supplied by later editors. The quartos do not divide the play into either acts or scenes. The First Folio indicates the acts only. Nicholas Rowe in 1709 first indicated the scenes.

2 Salerio] See note on III, ii, 221, infra.

N SOOTH, I KNOW NOT why I am so sad :

It wearies me; you say it wearies you;

But how I caught it, found it, or came by it,

What stuff 't is made of, whereof it is born,

I am to learn ;

And such a want-wit sadness makes of me,

That I have much ado to know myself.

SALAR. Your mind is tossing on the ocean; There, where your argosies with portly sail, Like signiors and rich burghers on the flood, Or, as it were, the pageants of the sea,

11 pageants] An allusion to the huge, towering machines in the shape of castles, dragons, giants, and the like, which formed part of ancient shows, and were drawn on ceremonial occasions through the streets.

10

Do overpeer the petty traffickers,

That curt'sy to them, do them reverence,

As they fly by them with their woven wings.
SALAN. Believe me, sir, had I such venture forth,
The better part of my affections would

Be with my hopes abroad. I should be still
Plucking the grass, to know where sits the wind;
Peering in maps for ports, and piers, and roads ;
And every object, that might make me fear
Misfortune to my ventures, out of doubt
Would make me sad.

SALAR.
My wind, cooling my broth,
Would blow me to an ague, when I thought
What harm a wind too great at sea might do.
I should not see the sandy hour-glass run,
But I should think of shallows and of flats,
And see my wealthy Andrew dock'd in sand
Vailing her high top lower than her ribs
To kiss her burial. Should I
Should I go to church
And see the holy edifice of stone,

And not bethink me straight of dangerous rocks,
Which touching but my gentle vessel's side
Would scatter all her spices on the stream,
Enrobe the roaring waters with my silks;
And, in a word, but even now worth this,

And now worth nothing? Shall I have the thought
To think on this; and shall I lack the thought,
That such a thing bechanced would make me sad?

29 kiss her burial] touch her burial place, sink.

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