INTRODUCTION.

The two plots of “The Merchant of Venice” are found as distinct novels in various ancient foreign authorities, but no English original of either of them of the age of Shakespeare has been discovered. That there were such originals is highly probable, but if so they have perished with many other relics of our popular literature. Whether the separate incidents, relating to the bond and to the caskets, were ever combined in the same novel, at all as Shakespeare combined them in his drama, cannot of course be determined. Steevens asserts broadly, that “a play comprehending the distinct plots of Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice had been exhibited long before he commenced a writer;” and the evidence he adduces is a passage from Gosson's “School of Abuse,” 1579, where he especially praises two plays “showne at the Bull,” one called “The Jew,” and the other “Ptolome:” of the former Gosson states, that it “represented the greedinesse of worldly chusers, and bloody minds of usurers.” (Shakespeare Society's Reprint, p. 30.) The terms, “worldly chusers,” may certainly have reference to the choice of the caskets; and the conduct of Shylock may very well be intended by the words, “bloody minds of usurers.” It is possible, therefore, that a theatrical performance should have existed, anterior to the time of Shakespeare, in which the separate plots were united; and it is not unlikely that some novel had been published which gave the same incidents in a narrative form. “On the whole,” says the learned and judicious Tyrwhitt, “I am inclined to suspect that Shakespeare followed some hitherto unknown novelist, who had saved him the trouble of working up the two stories into one.”

Both stories are found separately in the Latin Gesta Romanorum, with considerable variations: that of the bond is chap. xlviii. of MS. Harl. 2270, as referred as referred to by Tyrwhitt; and that of the caskets is chap. xcix. of the same collection. The Pecorone of Ser Giovanni Fiorentino also contains a novel very similar to that of “The Merchant of Venice,” with respect to the bond, the disguise and agency of Portia, and the gift of the ring. This narrative (Giorn. iv. nov. 1) was written as early as the year 1378, but not printed in Italy until

1554; and it is remarkable that the scene of certain romantic adventures, in which the hero was engaged, is there laid in the dwelling of a lady at Belmont. These adventures seem afterwards to have been changed, in some English version, for the incidents of the caskets. In Boccaccio's Decameron (Giorn. x., nov. 1) a choice of caskets is introduced, but it does not in other respects resemble the choice as we find it in Shakespeare; while the latter, even to the inscriptions, is extremely like the history in the Gesta Romanorum.

The earliest notice in English, with a date, of any circumstances connected with the bond and its forfeiture, is contained in “The Orator: handling a Hundred several Discourses,” a translation from the French of Alexander Silvayn, by Anthony Munday, who published it under the name of Lazarus Piot, in 1596, 4to. There, with the head of “Declamation 95,” we find one “Of a Jew, who would for his debt have a pound of flesh of a Christian;” and it is followed by “The Christian's Answer,” but nothing is said of the incidents, out of which these “declamations” arose. Of the old ballad of “The Crueltie of Gernutus, a Jewe,” in “Percy's Reliques,” I. 228 (edit. 1812) no dated edition is known; but most readers will be inclined to agree with Warton (“Observations on the Faerie Queene,” I. 128,) that it was not founded upon Shakespeare's play, and was anterior to it: it might owe its origin to the ancient drama of “The Jew,” mentioned by Gosson. “Henslowe's Diary,” under date of 25th Aug. 1594, contains an entry relating to the performance of “The Venetian Comedy,” which Malone conjectured might mean “The Merchant of Venice;” and it is a circumstance not to be passed over, that in 1594 the company of actors to which Shakespeare was attached was playing at the theatre in Newington Butts, in conjunction, as far as we can now learn, with the company of which Henslowe was chief manager.

Meres has “The Merchant of Venice” in his list, which was published in 1598, and we have no means of knowing how long prior to that date it was written. If it were “The Venetian Comedy” of Henslowe, it was in a course of performance in August, 1594. The earliest entry regarding “The Merchant of Venice” in the Stationers' Register is curious, from its particularity:—

“22 July, 1598, James Robertes.] A booke of the Merchaunt of Venyce, or otherwise called the Jewe of Venyse. Provided that yt bee not prynted by the said James Robertes, or anye other whatsoever, without lycence first had from the right honourable the Lord Chamberlen.”

Shakespeare was one of the players of the Lord Chamberlain, and the object seems to have been to prevent the publication of the play without the consent of the company, to be signified through the nobleman

under whose patronage they acted. This caution was given two years before “The Merchant of Venice” actually came from the press: we find it published in 1600, both by J. Roberts and by Thomas Heyes, in favour of the last of whom we meet with another entry in the Stationers' books, without any proviso, dated,—

“28 Oct., 1600, Tho. Haies.] The booke of the Merchant of Venyce.”

By this time the “licence” of the Lord Chamberlain for printing the play had probably been obtained. At the bottom of the title-page of Roberts's edition of 1600, no place is stated where it was to be purchased: it is merely, “Printed by J. Roberts, 1600;” while the imprint to the edition of Heyes informs us that it was “printed by I. R.,” and that it was “to be sold in Pauls Church-yard,” &c. I. R., the printer of the edition of Heyes, was, most likely, J. Roberts; but it is entirely a distinct impression to that which appeared in the same year with the name of Roberts. The edition of Roberts is, on the whole, to be preferred to that of Heyes; but the editors of the folio of 1623 indisputably employed that of Heyes, adopting various misprints, but inserting also several improvements of the text. These are pointed out in our notes in the course of the play. The similarity between the names of Salanio, Salarino, and Salerio, in the Dramatis Personæ, has led to some confusion of the speakers in all the copies, quarto and folio, which it has not always been found easy to set right.

“The Merchant of Venice” was performed before James I., on Shrove-Sunday, and again on Shrove-Tuesday, 1605: hence we have a right to infer that it gave great satisfaction at court. The fact is thus recorded in the original account of expenses, made out by the Master of the Revels, and still preserved in the Audit Office:—
“By his Ma^tis Plaiers. On Shrovsunday a play of the Marchant of Venis.”
“By his Ma^tis Players. On Shrovtusday a play cauled the Martchant of Venis againe, commanded by the Kings Ma^tie.”

The name of Shaxberd, for Shakespeare, as “the poet which made the play,” is added in the margin opposite both these entries. Notwithstanding the popularity of this drama before the closing of the theatres in 1642, it seems to have been so much forgotten soon after the Restoration, that in 1664, Thomas Jordan made a ballad out of the story of it in his “Royal Arbor of Loyal Poesie,” and thought himself at liberty to pervert the original, by making the Jew's daughter the principal instrument of punishing her own father: at the trial, she takes the office which Shakespeare assigns to Portia.

1 ^note.

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ Duke of Venice. Prince of Morocco, Suitor to Portia. Prince of Arragon, Suitor to Portia. ANTONIO, the Merchant of Venice: BASSANIO, his Friend. GRATIANO, Friend to Antonio and Bassanio. SALANIO [Solanio], Friend to Antonio and Bassanio. SALARINO, Friend to Antonio and Bassanio. LORENZO, in love with Jessica. SHYLOCK, a Jew: TUBAL, a Jew, his Friend. LAUNCELOT GOBBO, a Clown. OLD GOBBO [Gobbo], Father to Launcelot. SALERIO, a Messenger. LEONARDO, Servant to Bassanio. BALTHAZAR [Balthasar], Servant to Portia. STEPHANO, Servant to Portia. PORTIA, a rich Heiress. NERISSA, her Waiting-woman. JESSICA, Daughter to Shylock. Magnificoes of Venice, Officers of the Court of Justice, Clerk, Jailors, Servants, and other Attendants. SCENE, partly at Venice, and partly at Belmont.

MERCHANT OF VENICE.

Next section