bliss of him who was in love with his own shadow. The Second Act ends with the landing of Bassanio at Belmont, and again a glancing forward at the hope inspired by him. The Third Act opens with the loss of all Antonio's wealth on the waves, whereby the passion of Shylock is suddenly supplied with power of revenge. Let Antonio look to his bond. What kindness can he ask? 66 He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation; thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated my enemies; and what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions, fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not be revenged? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be, by Christian example?" Shylock is ready to stand upon the letter of the law, and the story is now ripe for a full expression of the innermost thought of the play, which, deepening as it goes, continues present to the end. Bassanio's choice of the leaden casket is preluded with a song, ringing the knell of trust in the delight of the eyes only. "Who chooseth me, must give and hazard all he hath." That is the legend of the casket of lead, threatening more than it promises, by which alone life may be lifted. The human lesson of life summed up in it, is that of the parable of the talents. A man must exert all his powers; be the best and do the best that it is in him to be or do; give all that he hath, and hazard all: not making conditions of reward according to desert, not asking whether he shall be rich, or praised, or happy, for the simple, hearty doing of his duty, but doing it and taking what may come. So is Portia won, and plighted to Bassanio, as Nerissa to Gratiano, with a ring, never to be lost or given away. The severe outline of the higher lesson of life is here softened again by the pervading atmosphere of genial intercourse; but from the human truth so far expressed, Shakespeare passes on at once to the divine truth which is its crown. Antonio's letter to Bassanio arrives at Belmont. In Antonio, man -subject to ortune changeful as the waves-is about to stand between the two principles of justice and mercy, of the Old Testament and of the New, as Shakespeare read them. Out of the lips of Portia-who has represented, in some sense, the natural life-will come most fitly a recognition of the spirit which makes earthly power likest God's. In the Fourth Act Shylock holds by the law and by his bond. When asked, "How shalt thou hope for mercy, rendering none?" Shylock answers, still placing the letter above the spirit, "What judgment shall I dread, doing no wrong?" He stands for law; must he be merciful? "On what compulsion must I, tell me that?" Through Portia's amous answer, Shakespeare sets forth the divine side of his lesson, and 66 Therefore, Jew, Though justice be thy plea, consider this, That, in the course of justice, none of us Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy; And that same prayer doth teach us all to render But Shylock says— "My deeds upon my head! I crave the law." Saint Paul had said, what Shakespeare is here teaching, "By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified;" and, "Now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of Spirit, and not in the oldness of the Letter." Shylock is made to feel that even by the strict letter of his bond he cannot stand: his pound of flesh must be an exact pound, not a hair's weight more nor less; and there must be no blood shed, because the letter of the bond does not give him one drop of blood. Shylock is foiled, and sentenced-not harshly, except in the requirement that he undergo the form of being made a Christian-and the genial atmosphere again softens the sharp didactic outline. The manner of this-the success of the disguised ladies in getting from their lovers, as gifts to the learned counsel and his clerk, the rings they had vowed never to part with-prepares the way for a kindly close to the whole play. It will supply means for a pleasant, quick, and sure identification; while the incident of the giving of the rings is still, in its own lighter form, in unity with the grand scene on which it follows. For its meaning is, that in little things as in great-even in little promises-we owe allegiance rather to the spirit than to the letter. Bassanio and Gratiano, true as they were pledged to be, had yielded, in spite of the letter of their pledge, all that was due elsewhere to courtesy and friendship. The great lesson of life is taught, and the last act of the play opens with the Jew and Gentile-representing any two forms of bitter antagonism-in embrace of love under the calm expanse of heaven. The act opens genially, with playful words of love, and rises soon to a sublime earnestness, as Lorenzo looks from earth up to God's universe, of which it is a part. "Look, how the floor of heaven Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold: There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins ; - But whilst this muddy vesture of decay Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it." Then the musicians, who had been sent for, enter, and with soft strain represent to the ear, as Shakespeare often in his plays has made it represent, immortal harmony. Lorenzo's answer to Jessica's "I am never merry when I hear sweet music," "The reason is your spirits are attentive," &c., still uses music as type of that higher harmony which is within our souls. To want that is to be "the man that hath no music in himself, nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds." Because of that want, he "Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils; And his affections dark as Erebus : Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music." The music, thus associated with the harmony of human souls and of the great visible universe under which the lovers sit, still plays. Then enters Portia, with Nerissa, and the train of thought is continued in their first natural words by an image that brings the deeper sense of the play to its fit close. Its meaning is, that man's endeavour to establish the kingdom of heaven within him shines royally, till it has blended with, and is lost in, the supreme glories of eternal love. "Portia. That light we see is burning in my hall. How far that little candle throws his beams! Portia. Nerissa. When the moon shone, we did not see the candle. Into the main of waters. Music! Hark!" And then we pass to the playful end, in unaffected chatting of goodfellowship; again the kindly air of life encircling all. CHAPTER X. 66 SHAKESPEARE'S TRILOGY, WITH KING RICHARD II. AND 66 THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR." "King Richard II." SHAKESPEARE'S "King Richard II." and "King Henry IV." are both in the list of his plays given by Meres in 1598. "King Richard II." was entered to Andrew Wise in the Stationers' Register on the twenty-ninth of August, 1597, and published by him as a quarto in that year. There were three other quartos, but they were not published until after the death of Queen Elizabeth. Two were of the year 1608, and both of these contained the Deposition Scene in the Fourth Act which had been in Elizabeth's reign suppressed for reasons that will presently be seen. One of these quartos, of which only one copy has been found, was published by Andrew Wise, and simply repeats the original title-page, without mentioning, as the other does, the "new additions of the Parliament Scene and the deposing of King Richard," although it gives them. The other 1608 quarto was printed for Matthew Law, at the sign of the "Fox,” in St. Paul's Churchyard. Andrew Wise lived in St. Paul's Churchyard at the sign of the "Angel." The fourth of the quartos was Matthew Law's second issue of the play in 1615, and this seems to have been the copy used for the play of "King Richard II." in printing the first folio of Shakespeare. "King Richard II." may be regarded as a Prologue to |