Shakespeare's The merchant of Venice

Front matter

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Preface

This edition of The Merchant of Venice conies into being because of the pleasure I have found in teaching Shakespeare to classes of boys and girls in secondary schools, and because I have felt the need of giving such classes certain questions and suggestions to help them in their study.

The teacher of fiction aims to secure from pupils a thoughtful, accurate interpretation of an author's words, and at the same time to arouse an enthusiastic interest in the characters portrayed. To know life is the great end of all literary study, and nothing else is important except as it finally serves this end. In my own teaching of Shakespeare, I have found that a careful study of the poet's meaning never failed to strengthen interest in his characters. I am convinced, therefore, that classes, especially those just beginning viu PREFACE

to study Shakespeare, need to give more thouglit than they often do to the author's language. It is frequently desirable to require from a student the paraphrase of a difficult passage. The dangers of this practice may be fully counteracted by the memorizing of many quotations, and by the reading of many passages aloud.

The practice of reading aloud from the play is always to be commended. Far more valuable to the pupil often than any explanation and study is the hearing of some passage appreciatively read by a teacher. When the play has been carefully worked over line by line, when its characters have been discussed in all possible relations and from every conceivable point of view, even when long quotations have; been committed to memory, still the class has not come fully into its inheritance until the whole play, or the most of it, has been read aloud, — whole scenes and whole acts at a time, — and that by pupils who have previously rehearsed their parts with spirit and expression.

The notes in tMs edition do not pretend to give facts that may be found in such a book as Webster's Academic Dictionary. They do, however, aim to give much condensed information for which the student might otherwise need to refer to Classical Dictionaries and similar sources. Many of the notes are in the form of questions, not because each teacher may not find much better ones himself for his own students, but because these may serve to direct the class in its study and to show it what to study for.

In preparing this edition my aim has been merely to present existing knowledge in a form adapted to classes in secondary schools. This work would not have been possible without the help of Dr. Furness' Variorum, of Dr. Schmidt's Shakespeare Lexicon, of Abbott's Shakespearian Grammar, of Halliwell- Phillips' OiLtlines of the Life of Shakespeare, of Symonds' Shakespere^s Predecessors in the English Drama, and of Sydney Lee's Life of Shakespeare. Where I have quoted from the Variorum or from Schmidt, I have not usually stated my authority.

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unless I have given long passages verbatim. I am indebted for very helpful suggestions to many other school editions of Shakespeare, especially to the excellent one of this play by Professor Katharine Lee Bates of Wellesley, and to the one of Macbeth by Head Professor Manly of the University of Chicago.

I wish to express my gratitude to several friends for criticism and encouragement: to Mr. C. W. French, Principal of the Hyde Park High School, Chicago, and to my colleagues, Miss Jane F. Koble and Miss Julia F. Dumke. For his kind interest and invaluable assistance I desire especially to thank Dr. E. H. Lewis, Professor of English in Lewis Institute.

c. w. u.

Chicago, July 17, 1899.

Introduction

The Elizabethan Age

The Awakening of England. — England awoke to a new life in the last years of the sixteenth century. It was an era of expansion. In this age, the age of Queen Elizabeth and William Shakespeare, the universities of England were enriched by the newly found treasures of ancient learning; the territory controlled by the British Crown was many times multiplied by the discovery of new continents beyond the sea; her foes were overthrown and vanquished ; and peace and prosperity blessed her people. As the warmth and joy of spring comes after the gloom of a long, cold winter, so came the Elizabethan Age in England.

The New Learning. — Eor centuries the legends and lore of G-reece and Eome had been lost to Europe. In 1453, about a hundred years before the birth of Shakespeare, the city of Constantinople was captured xii INTRODUCTION

by the Turks. This city, the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, had long been the rendezvous of Greek scholars. Upon the fall of Constantinople these scholars, carrying with them many precious manuscripts of the Greek and Latin masters, came to the cities of western Europe, especially to Italy. There universities sprang up, and students revelled in the long-lost poetry and philosophy of the classics. Soon learned scholars came from Italy to England to teach in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. In return, English scholars and gentlemen visited Florence, Padua, Venice, and Eome, and coming back to England brought to their countrymen Italian tales- and old romances. Happiest of all happy coincidences, printing had lately been discovered, and the new literature was soon spread broadcast in the libraries and on the bookstalls of London.

Exploration. — This revival of learning, or the Renaissance, as it is called, was accompanied by a most wonderful series of maritime explorations and adventures. Aroused by a new interest in life, men became anxious to satisfy their curiosity and ambition in searching for new lands and fabled treasures. In less than fifty years after the fall of Constantinople Columbus had discovered America. Discovery followed upon discovery, and colonization and commerce rapidly progressed. By the middle of the sixteenth

INTRODUCTION xiil

century England was fully aware of the boundless opportunities for conquest and expansion that lay before her in the new world beyond the seas.

The Defeat of the Armad^. — England was not yet free, however, to enjoy her new possessions unmolested. Spain disputed with her the sovereignty of the seas. About the middle of Elizabeth's reign a crisis came, brought on chiefly because of a difference in religious thought, and Protestant England and Catholic Spain fell to blows. The Spanish fitted out that great fleet, known as the Invincible Armada, and advanced to annihilate their northern foe ; but English battle-ships and ocean storms wrought destruction on them, and England became the Mistress of the

The Effect of the Victory. — The effect of the victory was intoxicating. Every soldier in the English army and navy felt that he had helped to win this glory for his country and his queen. Many a sailor spread his canvas with pride and hopefully sailed away to India in the east, or America in the west, in order that he might bring back riches for himself and for his sovereign. From all over the world came travellers, merchants, scholars, artists, poets, "as o'er a brook," to talk and trade, and often to tarry long in the gay thoroughfares of London. Bright garments and rich quaint costumes filled the streets of that city. Merry-

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making was abroad from morning till night. The queen entered heartily into the happy enthusiasm of her people, and led them in it. " Merrie England " justified its name.

Peace. — After the defeat of the Armada years of peace came to England. Eor a while no foreign foe dared molest this country ; the dangers of civil disorder, both political and religious, were deftly avoided by the firm yet gentle guidance of the queen. When life was so full, when there was so much to think about that was new, so many new thihgs to do, peace was most welcome. Chief blessing of all, the energy and charm of this age was to be forever enshrined in its literature, a literature made immortal by the genius of a Spenser, and that of a Shakespeare.

The Life of Shakespeare

Birthplace and Parents. — In the very heart of old England is a village known and loved to-day all over the world — Stratford-on-Avon. The river that flows by its church has lost none of its beauty since William Shakespeare wandered along its banks, nor has the surrounding country become greatly altered. John Shakespeare, father of the poet, was apparently a humble tradesman, a glover, in this village. In 1557 he married Mary Arden, the heiress of a wealthy

INTRODUCTION xv

farmer in the vicinity, and in conseqnence of the marriage a change seems to have taken place in his fortunes. This union not only brought him prosperity and wealth, but it seems to have advanced his political standing, and we find him in 1568 the High Bailiff, or Mayor, of Stratford.

It is difficult to appreciate the social conditions of those days. The one-roomed farmhouse from which Mary Arden came was such a one as would be considered to-day better suited to animals than to men. There were no pictures, although their place was supplied by a few painted cloths, on which scenes from the Bible were rudely depicted. A book, unless a copy of the catechism or a prayer-book, was never seen within that house. There was no crockery, forks had not yet been introduced into England, and table-knives and spoons were very scarce. The conditions in Stratford were probably a little better ; the house to which John Shakespeare brought his bride was divided into several rooms, was well lighted, and was comparatively comfortable. Yet so poor was the drainage in this town, that here, as in the cities, the plague made frequent and fearful ravages. If in the homes of the nobility and in the queen's palace there was more of wealth and display, it cannot be said that even there the ordinary conveniences of existence were any greater than in the houses of the townspeople.

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Boyhood. — William Shakespeare, born in 1564, was the oldest of a family of six children. We can easily imagine what his early years must have been in that simple country village. Probably he went to the free grammar school when he was about seven years old. Here he studied, in addition to the three R's, a little Latin, perhaps a little Greek. His father suffered a reverse of fortune when William was thirteen, and it appears that the boy was soon taken out of school and apprenticed to learn some trade. School and business, nevertheless, did not fill the lad's mind to the exclusion of nature and boyish sports. It is only necessary to know the poet himself, in order to be sure of this fact. There was, it is likely, one form of amusement that he never failed to appreciate. This was seeing the plays that strolling bands of actors performed in Stratford and in the neighboring towns. These companies either brought their rude stage along with them on wheels, of acted in the yard of the tavern or in the town hall. Their plays were mostly of the kind known as Moralities, in which the actors, like the personages of an allegory, represented the different virtues and vices. Such plays, perhaps, did not seem so dull to Shakespeare as they would to us, but even if they did, there was better acting in the town of Coventry, only twenty miles from Stratford. This town was famous for its Miracle plays. The Miracles,

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or Mysteries, were plays based • oa Bible narratives. E;ude and grotesque as were the costumes and the acting, the scenes were very real to the spectators. The people who witnessed the representation of the sacrifice of Isaac, the carrying off of sinners into the horrible flames of Hell-Mouth, or the sufferings and crucifixion of Christ, felt no lack of tragedy and passion in the dramas presented to them. Neither was the comic element wanting ; the devil and his demons furnished all needed fun, and that of the most boisterous kind. Finally, there was Kenilvvorth castle, fifteen miles north of Stratford, and it was here, when Shakespeare was only a boy of eleven, that the great Queen Elizabeth came for a visit, with display of processions and gorgeous pageantry. Think you that any wideawake youngster of Stratford would have failed to see something of such attractions as these ?

Marriage and Departure for London. — When he was only eighteen, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, a young woman seven or eight years older than himself. The couple seem to have made their home in Stratford. In the year after the marriage a daughter was born, and two years later, twins, a boy and a girl. Whether he found it difficult to support this little family by means of such employment as his native town afforded, or whether, as tradition tells, Shakespeare got into difficulties with a certain Sir xviil INTRODUCTION

Thomas Lucy for stealing deer from that gentleman's park, certain it is that the young man left his family in Stratford about the year 1585, and departed to try his fortune in London.

London and London Theatres. — We have already taken a glance at London in the Elizabethan age ; it is not difficult to appreciate what a school its very streets must have been to one whose wits were sharp and whose nature was social. No college training, no study of any kind could have been so powerful in the development of the poet, as was intercourse with the men with whom he was to become acquainted in London. When he entered the city, however, Shakespeare had no prestige, probably no friends, and worse than all no money to speak of. There is an ill-founded tradition that he secured employment at first in caring for the horses on which the gallants of the city rode from their homes to the theatres. Another tradition says that he was a prompter's assistant on the stage. However this may have been, it is apparent that soon after his arrival in London Shakespeare became associated with some of the theatres. The only play-houses then belonging to London were two small unroofed wooden structures in the fields outside the city gates. The plays were acted by daylight on stages devoid of scenery, where little but a placard announced the change of place from act to act. On the

INTRODUCTION xix

stage itself sat the gay gallants of the town, smoking and laughing, and joking the boy actors who appeared in the character of women. Those not favored with seats of such prominence found places in the galleries, or stood with the jostling crowd on the ground below. Yet rude as was the play-house, scholars and poets were turning their attention to the plays, and the theatres did not fail to attract crowds of citizens. The drama had already won favor with the queen, who soon gained the reputation of loving plays as much as she loved the ostentation of her court and of her own apparel.

Life as an Actor and Playwright. — Two years after Shakespeare came to London he had formed some connection with the theatres, but not until five years later is there any record of what he was doing. Then (1592) we find that he had already become known as an actor, and that his popularity as a writer of plays was exciting the jealousy of other London dramatists, one of whom referred to him as " an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers . . . and being, ... in his owne conceit, the only Shakes-scene in a countrie." From now on until a few years before his death (1616) Shakespeare was continually acting with some of the theatrical companies, playing before the queen in her palace on holidays, — especially in the Christmas time, — wandering from one town to another with the players when their services were not required in the capital, and all the

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time revising old plays and turning old stories into new plays of his own. Below is given a list ^ of the plays in the approximate order of their composition.

1. Pre-Shakespearian Group.

% Early Comedies.

Love's Labour's Lost (1590).

Comedy of Errors (1591).

Two Gentlemen of Verona (1592-93).

Midsummer Night's Dream (1593-94).

3. Marlowe-Shakespeare Group : Early History.

4. Early Tragedy.

5. Middle History.

Richard II. (1594).

King John (1595).

6. Middle Comedy.

Merchant of Venice (1596).

1 From Dowden's Shakespeare Primer.

2 Sidney Lee {Life of Shakespeare) says that Titus Andronicus was composed soon after 1592,

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7. Later History.

History and Comedy united. 1 and 2 Henry IV. (1597-98).

Henry Y. (1599).

8. Later Comedy.

(a) Bough and boisterous Comedy.

Taming of the Shrew (? 1597).

Merry Wives (? 1598).

Much Ado about Nothing (1598).

As You Like It (1599).

Twelfth Night (1600-01).

(c) Serious, dark, ironical.

Measure for Measure (1603).

Troilus and Cressida (? 1603 ; revised 1607 ?)

9. Middle Tragedy.

Julius Caesar (1601).

Hamlet (1602).

10. Later Tragedy.

Othello (1604).

Macbeth (1606).

Antony and Cleopatra (1607).

Coriolanus (1608).

1 Sidney Lee assigns this play to 1595.

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11. Romances.

Pericles (1608).

Cymbeline (1609).

Tempest (1610).

Winter's Tale (1610-11).

12. Fragments.

Two Noble Kinsmen (1612).

Retirement to Stratford, and Death. — When John Shakespeare chose his son William as the boy of all his family best adapted to a business life, and took him from school to apprentice him to a trade, he proved that his own judgment was sound. The man who had entered London in 1585 not only rose to fame as an author in less than fifteen years, but in that same time acquired for himself a respectable fortune, and purchased a handsome estate in Stratford, i^fter 1598 the poet is known in the village records as "William Shakespere of Stratford-on-Avon, in the county of Warwick, gentleman." One bitter sorrow had come to him amidst all the success of these years, for in 1596 he lost his little boy, Hamnet. This loss must have been a heavy blow to him, but he kept on working in London, and it is very doubtful if he spent much of his time away from the city during the next fifteen years. In 1601 his father died. In 1607

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and 1608 he was obliged to part with his youngest brother and with his mother. Early in the latter year, however, the birth of a granddaughter sent a ray of sunshine into the darkness. Thus he lived and worked, amid joy and sorrow, hoping for the time when he might forever leave the noisy city for the quiet Stratford home. At last in 1611 his expectations were realized, but only five years after the happy home life had actually begun, he was called upon to leave all on earth that was dear to him and to lay down his hopes and his labors forever. He died in April, 1616.

Pictures of Shakespeare. — Shakespeare was buried in the village church of Stratford. On the stone slab that covers his grave are some lines, once thought to have been written by himself.

" Good frend, for Jesus sake forbears To digg the dust encloased heare : Bleste be the man that spares thes stones, And curst be he that moves my bones."

In this same church, not long after his death, a bust of Shakespeare was erected by his daughter and her husband. This bust is supposed to have been once a good likeness of the poet ; some think that the artist had as his model a mask taken from Shakespeare's face. Time, however, has sadly marred the bust in

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the Stratford church. There is one other likeness, a portrait, regarded as fairly authentic, which in 1623 was prefixed to the first collective edition of Shakespeare's works. A copy of this portrait forms the frontispiece of the present edition of The Merchant of Venice.

The Fate of his Works. — Of the house that Shakespeare meant to be the home of his last years, hardly one stone remains upon another. His line of descent became extinct with the death of his granddaughter in 1670. His works, however, remain, although many have been the dangers through which they have passed. At the time in which Shakespeare was writing his plays in London, the theatrical managers and agents for whom he wrote were not usually willing to let the manuscripts of plays fall into the hands of printers. The deputies of leading publishers, nevertheless, frequently visited the play-houses, and sought by a system of shorthand notes to steal the words from the actors' lips. Many a spurious and garbled edition was thus thrown upon the market. Sometimes also in self-defence the author was obliged to deliver his manuscript to the printer. Even when the manuscript could be obtained, it was doubtless often hard to decipher it because of the many changes and notes that had been inserted during rehearsals. These earlier editions were called " quartos " from the

INTRODUCTION XXV

size of the pages. They were pamphlets measuring on the average 8^ by 5-|- inches. It was not until 1623, seven years after Shakespeare's death, that any effort was made to print an edition of all his works. In this year two of his most intimate friends, themselves formerly actors with him, attempted such an edition, which is known as the " first folio." The folio measured about 12 by 8 inches. Some of the plays in this book had doubtless never been published before, and were taken directly from Shakespeare's manuscript, or from stage copies of the manuscripts. Others are known to have been reprints of quartos. Among this latter number was The Merchant of Venice. This was twice issued as a quarto by different printers in the year 1600, and the text of the second quarto the editors of the folio virtually copied in their edition.

The Language of the Plays. — Although in some passages we have not exactly the words written by Shakespeare, we are not often justified in thinking that the text as we possess it has mistakes in it. Furthermore, we must not esteem Shakespeare incorrect when we find him using words and constructions contrary to the canons of modern dictionaries and grammars. The difference that exists between his language and ours is caused chiefly by the changes that the English language as a whole has undergone. Let one glance at a page of Chaucer, written nearly

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five hundred years ago, and English though it be, he will find that he almost needs a translation. Here are the first lines of Chaucer's most famous poem : —

" Whan that Aprille with his showres sote The droghte of Marche hath perced to the rote, And bathed every veyne in swich licour, Of which vertu engendred is the flour ; "

Or, let the student read a page of Poor Richard^ s Almanack, written by Franklin about a hundred years ago. Even in Franklin there is unfamiliar spelling, and many a strange, old-fashioned phrase. All this goes to prove that language is constantly changing, constantly adding new Avords and dropping old ones. Some words, moreover, although they are not entirely dropped from the language, lose certain meanings which they once possessed, and are not now easily understood when used with their obsolete signification. Shakespeare wrote his plays not only three hundred years ago, but at a time when the English language was subject to many influences that were rapidly changing it from the ancient to the modern form. Many peculiarities are therefore to be expected.

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE

[The text used is that of the Cambridge edition]

DRAMATIS PERSONS

The Duke op Venice.

The Prince of Morocco, | .^ ^ r, ^. _, _ . \ siuiors to Portia.

The Prince of Arragon, )

Antonio, a merchant of Vetiice.

Bassanio, Ms friend, suitor likewise to Portia.

Salanio, "I

Salarino,

Gratiano

Salerio, J

Lorenzo, in love with Jessica.

Shylock, a rich Jetc.

Tubal, a Jexo, his friend.

Launcelot Gobbo, the clown, servant to Shylock.

Old Gobbo, father to Latoncelot.

Leonardo, servant to Bassanio.

BALTHASAR, I u . n w

\ servants to Port%a.

Stephano, )

Portia, a rich heiress.

Nerissa, her waiting-viaid.

Jessica, daughter to Shylock.

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

Scene: Partly at Venice, and partly at Belmont, the seat of Portia, on the Continents

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE

ACT FIEST. — Scene I

Venice ° A street.

Enter Antonio,° Salakino, and Salanio.

Aiit. In 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 'tis 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.

Solar. 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, • Do overpeer the petty traffickers

That curt'sy° to them, do them reverence, As they fly by them with their woven wings. °

Solan. Believe me, sir, had I such venture forth, The better part of my affections would Be with my hopes abroad.^ I should be stilF 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 20

Misfortune to my ventures, out of doubt Would make me sad.

Solar. 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 Yailing° her high top lower than her ribs To kiss her burial. ° Should I go to church And see the holy edifice of stone, 30

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''

Scene 1.] THE MERCHANT OF VENICE 5

To think on this ; and shall I lack the thought," That such a thing° bechanced would make me sad ? But tell not me ; I know, Antonio ° Is sad to think° upon his merchandise. 40

Ant. Believe me, no : I thank my fortune for it, My ventures are not in one bottom" trusted. Nor to one place ; nor is my whole estate Upon the fortune of this present year : Therefore my merchandise makes me not sad.

Solar. Why, then you are in love.

Ant. Fie, fie !

Salar. Not" in love neither" ? Then let us say you are sad, Because you are not merry : and 'twere as easy For you to laugh, and leap, and say you are merry, Because you are not sad. Now, by two-headed Janus," 50

Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time : Some that will evermore peep through their eyes, And laugh like parrots at a bag-piper ; And other of such vinegar aspect,"

That they'll not show their teeth in way of" smile, Though Nestor" swear the jest be laughable.

Enter Bassanio, Lorenzo, and Gtratiano.

Salan. Here comes Bassanio, your most noble kinsman,° Gratiano, and Lorenzo. Eare ye well : We leave you now with better company.

Solar. I would have stay'd till I had made you merry, 60

If worthier friends had not prevented" me.

Ant. Your worth is very dear in my regard. I take it, your own business calls on you, And you embrace the occasion to depart. Salar. Good morrow, my good lords.

Bass. Good signiors both, when shall we laugh°? say, when?

You grow exceeding" strange" : must it be so ?

Salar. We'll make our leisures to attend on yours. \^.Exeunt Salarino ayid Salanio.

Lor. My Lord Bassanio, since you have found Antonio, We two will leave you : but, at dinner-time, 70

I pray you, have in mind where we must meet. Bass. I will not fail you.

Gra. You look not well, Siguier Antonio ; You have too much respect" upon the world :

Scene 1.] THE MERCHANT OF VENICE 7

They lose° it that do buy it with much care : Believe me, you are marvellously changed.

Ayit. I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano° ; A stage, where every man must play a part,° And mine a sad one.

Gra. Let me play the f ool° :

With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come ; 8c And let my liver rather heat with wine Than my heart cool with mortifying" groans. Why should a man, whose blood is warm within. Sit like his grandsire cut in alabaster ? Sleep when he wakes, and creep into the jaundice By being peevish ? I tell thee what, Antonio — I love thee, and it is my love that speaks, — There are a sort of men, whose visages Do cream° and mantle° like a standing pond ; And do a wilful stillness entertain," 9c

With purpose" to be dress'd in an opinion" Of wisdom, gravity, profound conceit" ; As who" should say, " I am Sir Oracle, And, when I ope my lips, let no dog bark ! " O my Antonio, I do know of these.

That therefore only" are reputed wise For saying nothing ; when, I am very sure. If they should speak, would" almost damn those ears,