THE

MERCHANT

Ó F

VENICE.

Launcelot, a Clown, Servant to the Jew.

Gobbo, Father to Launcelot.

Leonardo, Servant to Baffanio.

Portia, an heiress.

Neriffa, waiting-maid to Portia.

Jeffica, Daughter to Shylock.

Senators of Venice, Officers, Jailer, Servants, and other Attendants.

SCENE, partly at Venice, and partly at Belmont, the Seat of Portia.

In the old editions in quarto, for J. Roberts, 1600, and in the old folio, 1623, there is no enumeration of the perfons.

JOHNSON.

THE

MERCHANT of VENICE.

ACT I. SCENE I.

A Street in Venice.

Enter Anthonio, Solarino, and Salanio.

ANTHONI O.

N footh, I know not why I am so fad :

IN

It wearies me; you fay, it wearies you;

But how I caught it, found it, or came by it, What ftuff 'tis made of, whereof it is born,

The reader will find a diftin&t epitome of the novels, from which the ftory of this play is fuppofed to be taken, at the conclufion of the notes. It should however be remembered, that f our poet was at all indebted to the Italian novellists, it must have been through the medium of fome old tranflation, which has hitherto escaped the refearches of his most induftrious editors. It appears from a paffage in Stephen Goffon's School of Abufe, &c. 1579, that a play, comprehending the distinct plots of this, had been exhibited before Shakefpeare's, viz. "The Jew fhewn "at the Bull, reprefenting the greedineffe of worldly Choofers, "and the bloody Mindes of Ufurers." Thefe plays, fays Goffon, (for he mentions others with it) are goode and sweete playes, &c.

The Jew of Malta by Marlow neither was performed nor printed till fome time after the author's death, which happened in 1593, nor do I know of any other play with the fame title. It is therefore not improbable that Shakespeare new-wrote his piece, on the model already mentioned, and that the elder performance being inferior, was permitted to drop filently into oblivion.

STEEVENS.

I am

I am to learn:

2

And fuch a want-wit fadness makes of me,
That I have much ado to know myself.
Sal. Your mind is toffing on the ocean;
There, where your Argofies with portly fail,
Like figniors and rich burghers on the flood,
Or as it were the pageants of the sea,
Do over-peer the petty traffickers,

That curtly to them, do them reverence,
As they fly by them with their woven wings.
Sola. Believe me, fir, had I such venture forth,
The better part of my affections would

Be with my hopes abroad. I should be still
Plucking the grafs, 3 to know where fits the wind;
Prying 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 fad.

Sal. My wind, cooling my broth,

Would blow me to an ague, when I thought
What harm a wind too great might do at sea.

2

Argofie,] a fhip from Argo. POPE.

Whether it be derived from Argo I am in doubt. It was a name given in our author's time to fhips of great burthen, probably galIcons, fuch as the Spaniards now use in their Weft India trade. JOHNSON.

An Argofie meant originally a fhip from Ragufa, a city and territory on the gulph of Venice, tributary to the Porte.

STEEVENS.

3 Plucking the grafs, &c.] By holding up the grafs, or any light body that will bend by a gentle blast, the direction of the wind is found.

This way I used in shooting. Betwixt the markes was an open place, there I take a fehere, or a lytle graffe, and so learned how the wind flood. Afcham. JOHNSON.

+ Prying. One of the quartos reads-peering. I have chosen the former, becaufe it prevents the jingle which, otherwife, occurs in the line STERVENS.

I

I should