8th, 1601; and thenceforward we find him written down in legal documents as "William Shakespeare, Gentleman.” King James the First came to the throne of England in March, 1603. On the 17th of May follo ing, he ordered a patent to be issued under the Great Seal, authorizing "our servants, Laurence Fletcher, William Shakespeare, Richard Burbage," and six others, to exercise their art in all parts of the kingdoms," as well for the recreation of our loving subjects as for our solace and pleasure, when we shall think good to see them." By this instrument, the company who had hitherto been known as the Lord Chamberlain's Servants were taken directly under the royal patronage; accordingly they were thenceforth designated as "the King's Players." Whatever may have been his rank as an actor, Shakespeare evidently had a strong dislike to the vocation, and was impatient of his connection with the stage as a player. We have an affecting proof of this in one of his Sonnets, where he unmistakeably discovers his personal feelings on that point: O, for my sake do you with Fortune chide, Than public means, which public manners breeds. To what it works in, like the dyer's hand. Moreover, as Dyce remarks, "it is evident that Shakespeare never ceased to turn his thoughts towards his birth-place, as the spot where he hoped to spend the evening of his days in honourable retirement." It is uncertain at what time he withdrew from the stage. The latest notice we have of his acting was in 1603, when Ben Jonson's Sejanus was performed at the Blackfriars, and one of the parts was sustained by him. The probability is that he ceased to be an actor in the course of the next year; though it is tolerably certain that he kept up his interest in the affairs of the company some years longer, and that he continued to write more or less for the stage down to as late a period as 1613. The Poet's eldest daughter, Susanna, was married, June 5th, 1607, to John Hall, a gentleman, and a medical practitioner at Stratford, and well-reputed as such throughout the county. His first grandchild, Elizabeth Hall, was baptized, February 21st, 1608. On the 9th of September following, his mother died. His other daughter, Judith, was married to Thomas Quiney, February 10th, 1616. Quiney was four years younger than his wife, and was a vintner and winemerchant at Stratford. Perhaps I ought to add that Meres, in the work already quoted, speaks of the Poet's "sugared Sonnets among his private friends." At length, in 1609, these, and such others as the Poet may have written after 1598, were collected, to the number of a hundred and fifty-four, and published. By this time, also, as many as sixteen of his plays, including the three already named, had been issued, some of them repeatedly, in quarto form. On the 25th of March, 1616, Shakespeare executed his will. The testator is there said to be "in perfect health and memory"; nevertheless he died at New Place on the 23d of April following; and, two days later, was buried beside the chancel of Stratford church. It is said that "his wife and daughters did earnestly desire to be laid in the same grave with him"; and accordingly two of them at least, the wife and the eldest daughter, were in due time gathered to his side. Shakespeare was by no means so little appreciated in his Besides time as later generations have mainly supposed. the passages already cited, we have many other notes of respect and esteem from his contemporaries. No man indeed of that age was held in higher regard for his intellectual gifts; none drew forth more or stronger tributes of applause. Kings, princes, lords, gentlemen, and, what is perhaps still better, common people, all united in paying homage to his transcendent genius. And from the scattered notices of his contemporaries, we get, also, a pretty complete and very exalted idea of his personal character. How dearly he was held by those who knew him best is well shown by a passage of Ben Jonson's, written long after the Poet's death, and not published till 1640: "I loved the man and do honour his memory, on this side idolatry, as much as any. He was indeed honest, and of an open and free nature; had an excellent fantasy, brave notions, and gentle expressions." And we have similar testimony from John Heminge and Henry Condell, the Poet's friends and fellow-actors, and the Editors of the first folio, in the dedication of which they profess to have collected and published the plays, "without ambition of selfprofit or fame; only to keep the memory of so worthy a friend and fellow alive, as was our Shakespeare." Thus much, or rather thus little, is about all that we are permitted to know touching the personal history of, probably, the greatest intellect that ever appeared in our world. Yet, little, very little though it be, there is enough, I think, to show that in all the common dealings of life he was eminently gentle, candid, upright, and judicious; open-hearted, genial, and sweet in his social intercourses; while, in the smooth and happy marriage which he seems to have realized, of the highest poetry and art with systematic and successful prudence in business affairs, we have an example of well rounded, practical manhood, such as may justly engage our admiration and respect. Shakespeare was still in the meridian of life. There was no special cause, that we know of, why he might not live many years longer. It were vain to conjecture what he would have done, had more years been given him; possibly, instead of augmenting his legacy to us, he would have recalled and suppressed more or less of what he had written as our inheritance. For the last two or three years, at least, he seems to have left his pen unused; as if, his own ends once achieved, he set no value on that mighty sceptre with which he since sways so large a portion of mankind. That the motives and ambitions of authorship had little to do in the generation of his works, is evident from the serene carelessness with which he left them to shift for themselves; tossing those wonderful treasures from him as if he thought them good for nothing but to serve the hour. It was in and for the theatre that his multitudinous genius was developed, and his works produced; there fortune, or rather Providence, had cast his lot. Doubtless it was his nature, in whatever he undertook, to do his best. As an honest and true man, he would, if possible, make the temple of the Drama a noble, a beautiful, and glorious place; and it was while working quietly and unobtrusively in furtherance of this end-building better than he knew—that he made his immortal preparations of wisdom and sweetness for the world. INTRODUCTION. History of the Play. HE MERCHANT OF VENICE was registered at the Stationers in July, 1598, but with a special proviso, "that it be not printed without license first had from the Right-Honourable the Lord Chamberlain." The theatrical company to which Shakespeare belonged were then known as "The Lord Chamberlain's Servants"; and the purpose of the proviso was to keep the play out of print till the company's permission were given through their patron. The play was entered again at the same place in October, 1600, his lordship's license having probably been obtained by that time. Accordingly two editions of it were published in the course of that year, one by James Roberts, the other by Thomas Heyes. These were evidently printed from two distinct manuscripts, both of which had probably been transcribed from the author's original copy. The play was never issued again, that we know of, till in the folio of 1623, where it stands the ninth in the division of Comedies. The repetition of certain peculiarities shows it to have been there printed, with some alterations, from the quarto of Heyes. In 1598, Francis Meres published his Palladis Tamia: Wit's Treasury, in which we have the following: "As Plautus and Seneca are accounted the best for Comedy and Tragedy among the Latins; so Shakespeare among the |