Pawn'd with the other; for the poor rude world Lor. Even fuch a husband Haft thou of me, as she is for a wife. Jef. Nay, but afk my opinion too of that. Lor. No, pray thee, let it serve for table-talk; Then, howfoe'er thou speak'ft, 'mong other things, I fhall digeft it. Jef. Well, I'll fet you forth. ACT IV. [Exeunt. SCENE I. The Senate-boufe in Venice. Enter the Duke, the Senators; Anthonio, Baffanio, Gra W tiano, and others. DUKE. HAT, is Anthonio here? Anth. Ready, fo please your grace. Duke. I'm forry for thee; thou art come to answer A ftony adverfary, an inhuman wretch Uncapable of pity, void and empty From any dram of mercy. Anth. I have heard, Your Grace hath ta'en great pains to qualify N 4 Duke. Duke. Go one, and call the Jew into the court. Duke. Make room, and let him stand before our Shylock, the world thinks, and I think fo too, And, where thou now exact'ft the penalty, But, touch'd with human gentleness and love, 6 apparent That is, Seeming; not real. JOHNSON. 7 where for whereas. JOHNSON, And 8 Enough to press a royal merchant down,] We are not to imagine the word royal to be only a ranting founding epithet. It is ufed with great propriety, and fhews the poet well acquainted with the hiftory of the people whom he here brings upon the ftage. For when the French and the Venetians, in the beginning of the thirteenth century, had won Conftantinople, the French, under the emperor Henry, endeavoured to extend their conquests into the provinces of the Grecian empire on the terra firma; while the Venetians, who were mafters of the fea, gave liberty to any fubject of the republic, who would fit out veffels, to make themfelves mafters of the ifles of the Archipelago, and other maritime places; and to enjoy their conquefts in fovereignty; only doing homage to the republick for their feveral principalities. By virtue of this licence, the Sanudo's. the Juftiniani, the Grimaldi, the Summaripo's, and others, all Venetian merchants, erected principalities in feveral places of the Archipelago, (which their defcendants enjoyed for many generations) and thereby became truly and properly royal merchants. Which indeed was the title generally given them all over Europe. Hence, the most eminent of And pluck commiferation of his state From brafly bofoms, and rough hearts of flint From ftubborn Turks, and Tartars, never train'd To offices of tender courtesy. We all expect a gentle answer, Jew. Shy. I have poffefs'd your Grace of what I purpofe; And by our holy Sabbath have I fworn, To have the due and forfeit of my bond. If you deny it, let the danger light Upon your charter, and your city's freedom. You'll ask me, why I rather chufe to have A weight of carrion flesh, than to receive Three thoufand ducats: I'll not anfwer that ; But, fay, it is my humour; Is it answer'd? What if my house be troubled with a rat, And I be pleas'd to give ten thousand ducats To have it baned? What, are you answer'd yet? of our own merchants (while public fpirit refided amongst them, and before it was aped by faction) were called royal merchants. WARBURTON. This epithet was in our poet's time more ftriking and better underftood, because Gresham was then commonly dignified with the title of the royal merchant. JOHNSON. 'I'll NOT answer that. But fay, it is my bumour. -] This Jew is the strangeft fellow. He is afked a queftion; fays he will not answer it; in the very next line fays, he has answered it, and then spends the ten following lines to juftify and explain his answer. Who can doubt then, but we fhould read, -I'll Now answer that, WARBURTON. Dr. Warburton has mistaken the fenfe. The Jew being asked a question which the law does not require him to answer, ftands upon his right, and refufes; but afterwards gratifies his own malignity by fuch anfwers as he knows will aggravate the pain of the enquirer. I will not anfwer, fays he, as to a legal or serious queftion, but fince you want an answer, will this serve you? JOHNSON. Some Some men there are, love not a gaping pig; ' 2 1623; a gaping pig;] So in Webster's Dutchefs of Malfy, 3 Cannot contain their urine, &c.] Mr. Rowe reads, Masterless paffion fways it to the mood Masterless paffion Mr. Pope has fince copied. I don't know what word there is to which this relative it is to be referred. Dr, Thirlby would thus adjust the paffage, Cannot contain their urine; for affection, And then it is govern'd of paffion: and the two old quarto's and folio's read- -Mafters of paffion, &c. It may be objected, that affection and passion mean the fame thing. But I obferve, the writers of our author's age made a diftinction; as Jonfon in Sejanus: He bath ftudied Affection's paffions, knows their fprings and ends. And then, in this place, affection will ftand for that fympathy or antipathy of foul, by which we are provok'd to fhew a liking or dijguft in the working of our paffions. THEOBALD. Materiefs paffion fways it to the mood.] The two old quarto's and folio read, MASTERS OF passion. And this is certainly right. He is fpeaking of the power of found over the human affections, and concludes, very naturally, that the mafters of paffion (for fo he finely calls the muficians) fway the paffions or affections as they pleafe. Alluding to what the ancients tell us of the feats that Timotheus and other musicians worked by the power of mufic. Can any thing be more natural! WARBURTON. Of Of what it likes, or loaths. Now, for your answer. As there is no firm reason to be render'd, Why he cannot abide a gaping pig; Why he, a harmless neceffary cat; Why he, a woollen bag-pipe; but of force 4 Why be, a woollen bag-pipe.] This incident Shakespeare feems to have taken from J. C. Scaliger's Exot. Exercit. against Cardan. A book that our author was well read in, and much indebted to for a great deal of his phyfics: it being then much in vogue, and indeed is excellent, though now long fince forgot. In his 344 Exercit. fect. 6. he has these words, Narrabo nunc tibi jocojam Sympathiam Reguli Vafconis equitis. Is dum viveret audito phormingis fono, urinam illico facere cogebatur. And to make this jocular story ftill more ridiculous, Shakespeare, I suppose, tranflated phorminx by bag-pipes. But what I would chiefly obferve from hence is this, that as Scaliger ufes the word Sympathiam which fignifies, and fo he interprets it, communem AFFECTIONEM duabus rebus, fo Shakespeare tranflates it by AFFECTION; Cannot contain their urine for AFFECTION. Which fhews the truth of the preceding emendation of the text according to the old copies; which have a full ftop at affion, and read Masters of paffion. WARBURTON. As for affection, thofe that know how to operate upon the paffions of men, rule it by making it operate in obedience to the notes which pleafe or difguft it. JOHNSON. In an old tranflation from the French of Peter de Loier, intitled, A Treatise of Spectres, or ftraunge Sights, Vifions, &c. we have this identical itory from Scaliger; and what is ftill more, a marginal note gives us in all probability the very fact alluded to, as well as the word of Shakespeare. "Another gentleman of "this quality lived of late in Devon, neere Excefter, who could "not endure the playing on a bag-pipe." We may just add, as fome obfervation has been made upon it, that affection in the fenfe of ympathy, was formerly technical; and fo ufed by Lord Bacon, fir K. Digby, and many other writers. FARMER. Woollen bag pipe.] As all the editors agree with complete uniformity in this reading, I can hardly forbear to imagine that they underflood it. But I never faw a woollen bag-pipe, nor can well conceive it. I fuppofe the authour wrote ooden bag-pipe, meaning that the bag was of leather, and the pipe of wood. JOHNSON. This paffage is clear from all difficulty, if we read fvelling bagpipe, which, that we should, I have not the leaft doubt. HAWKINS. Muft |