59-60 key. may perhaps a rhyme.

63 A carrion Death: of course a skull, a "death's head"; but Morocco, in the shock of his disappointment, applies to it the ugliest term which association suggests.

65-75 See Introduction, IV. f.

76-79 See Introduction, IV. g. 77 part: depart.

ACT II. SCENE VIII

3 This line may be satisfactorily read in more ways than one. I am may be slurred. The last syllable of Lorenzo may be regarded as melting into the following vowel sound, in which case not is emphatic and accented. The last syllable of Lorenzo may be fully sounded, and the emphasis placed on is; in which case not is unaccented, and is merely the eleventh syllable so frequently added.

25 look: take care. Compare the modern colloquial "look out." 27 reason'd: talked; as the corresponding verb, raisonner, is used in French.

28 the narrow seas: the English Channel.

30 fraught. What form of the past participle of "freight" is now used literally in common speech? In what phrases would we use the form here found?

33 You were best. The old dative construction, "it were better to me," was corrupted in Elizabethan English into "I were better." It is hard to tell whether you, in this line, is a true dative, or, like "I" in the case just given, a nominative. In reading the line, You were may be slurred. For Antonio, see note on Act I, sc. i, line 69.

39 Slubber: slur over.

40 Explain the metaphor.

42 your mind of love: your loving mind, your mind preoccupied with love.

48 wondrous sensible: wonderfully apparent. The force of the whole phrase seems to be, "moved so deeply that it was wonderful to see."

52 his embraced heaviness: the sadness which he has taken to

himself.

ACT II. SCENE IX

13 marriage is a trisyllable.

14 See Introduction, IV. d.

19 address'd: prepared.

19 Fortune: i.e. good fortune.

25, 26 meant by: meant for; the usual form in Shakespeare's time. For the verse, line 25, see Introduction, IV. e. This is such a line as Dr. Abbott, to sustain his statement that the Alexandrine rarely occurs in Shakespeare, would call a "trimeter couplet," on account of the pause after the third foot. But Dr. Ellis thinks this merely a difference in terms.

26 the fool multitude. See note on Act I, sc. i, line 102. 28 The unemphatic syllables rior are inserted before a pause, after the third foot; they are to be slurred in reading. Read also "th' interior."

30 in the force and road. Professor Allen suggested that this may be equivalent to in vi et viâ, "exposed to the attack of."

32 jump with: metaphorically, agree with.

44

cover: put on the hat, in token of superior rank.

46-49 A difficult passage. It may best be understood by dividing it at honour! line 47. Here the first metaphor ceases. "How much low peasantry (i.e. baseness worthy of peasants; compare vileinye, as used by Chaucer) would then be gleaned from the field originally sown with the true seed of honour!" That is to say, "How much meanness might be found, by a search as careful as that of the gleaner, among the nobly born!" A new metaphor now begins. (The phrase chaff and ruin has no relation to the preceding figure; it is merely a general expression for "rubbish.") “And how much honour might be picked out from that which is at the present time accounted only rubbish, and made to shine with its proper splendour!" Here honour has nothing to do with seed or gleaning, but is conceived of as some varnished or gilded object, now defaced and

51

53

61

hidden in a heap of rubbish. Observe that the paraphrases given, though they clear the thought, wholly fail to reproduce the force of the original expression. Paraphrase is a dangerous remedy, to be used only in desperate cases. It appears to be Arragon's argument that neither birth nor condition implies desert. When he "assumes desert," therefore, he stands solely upon his personal merit. See note on line 25.

It was suggested by Capell that this line should be given as an aside. Why?

distinct. Notice the accent.

63-78 See Introduction, IV. f.

68 I wis. Shakespeare seems to treat this expression as if composed of two words, pronoun and verb, giving it the force of "I know." But it is really derived from the Saxon adverb gewis, later written ywis, and meaning "certainly." 70-71 It has been gravely considered by some editors that this taunting little rhyme is inconsistent with the Prince's oath. We need not trouble ourselves about the matter; the scroll is a reckless bit of mockery, not to be taken at all seriously. "You wish to marry Portia? No matter whom you married, you would always be a fool."

72 you are sped: "your turn is served; your business is done." The direct sense may be found in Lycidas: “What need they? They are sped." But the Elizabethans generally gave the expression an ironic turn, as in Romeo and Juliet, Act III, sc. i, line 94, where the dying Mercutio exclaims, "I am sped," i.e. "I'm done for," in the vulgar speech of to-day.

78

wroth wrath, that is, grievance; the effect is put for the

cause.

85 what would my lord? Portia sportively replies to the messenger in words that match his own.

88 What lord is here meant?

89

sensible regreets: tangible greetings, "to wit . . . gifts.”

89 sensible: evident to the senses. See sc. viii, line 48.

92 likely: "promising" (ROLFE); "good-looking" (FURNESS).

95

Who do you think this fore-spurrer must be?

97 anon: at once, presently.

98 high-day wit: holiday wit. Compare 1 Henry IV., Act I, sc. iii, line 46: "With many holiday and lady terms." Of course the sense is "wit too fine for working-days.”

100 post: swift messenger.

101 Make Nerissa's wish quite clear by supplying the ellipsis.

ACT III. SCENE I

4 the Goodwins: the Goodwin Sands, quicksands off the eastern coast of Kent. Is anything gained by I think they call the place?

6 gossip. Look up the derivation of this word. Salarino personifies Report as a tattling old woman.

9 knapped: nibbled, gnawed. Old women were supposed to like ginger; in Measure for Measure, Act IV, sc. iii, line 8, we find, “Marry, then ginger was not much in request, for the old women were all dead."

14

"Finish your sentence." Salanio has been so carried away in his praise of Antonio that he has to be reminded of his unfinished sentence.

18 betimes: in time, quickly.

24 withal: an emphatic form of with, placed after its object. 26 complexion: disposition; just the opposite of its meaning in Act I, sc. ii, line 115.

27 dam: Shakespeare applies to birds this word for "mother." See Macbeth, Act IV, sc. iii, line 218: "What, all my pretty chickens and their dam!" Note that although Shylock would not be likely to pun at this moment, the habit of playing upon words has probably influenced Shakespeare in the next speech.

31 Salanio pretends to misunderstand Shylock. See note on Act I, sc. ii, line 16.

38 dare scarce. This is an Elizabethan subjunctive, equivalent

66

to scarce would dare," and considered by Abbott to be stronger than "dares."

46 disgraced me: lowered me in general estimation.

51 affections, passions? Affection implies that something without is affecting a man; passion implies that he feels something

intensely within. The question amounts to: "Is he not affected as other men are? does he not feel as they do?" 53, 54 warmed and cooled . . . winter and summer. "An instance of the construction called by the old grammarians a chiasm. (If under 'warmed' and 'cooled' were written 'winter' and 'summer,' and the words which refer to each other joined by a line, the Greek letter chi would be formed.)" — FURNESS. See also Act I, sc. iii, lines 19, 20. 59 humility. Schmidt points out that Shakespeare's use of this word sometimes approaches our modern sense of the word humanity, humaneness; while "humanity" in Shakespeare always means "the nature of man.”

81 then. This is one of the very few points in which the text of the present edition differs from that of the Globe, which, with the First Folio, reads "thou." The other Folios, followed by Rowe, Pope, Hanmer, Halliwell, and others, read then; with which Dr. Furness agrees.

105 my turquoise. It was believed that the turquoise had peculiar virtues; that it varied in color, for instance, with the health of the wearer. But does it appear that this was Shylock's reason for valuing the ring?

6

14

ACT III. SCENE II

in such a quality: thus; to such a purpose.

Beshrew your eyes. See note on Act II, sc. vi, line 52.

15 o'erlook'd: bewitched by looking upon.

16

Read th' other half.

18, 20 See Introduction, IV. h. 2. Prove is in the subjunctive

mood, as its position indicates.

21 not I. The pronoun is here so far away from let, which should govern it, as to be " quasi-independent.”. Аввотт.

22 peize: poise, i.e. weigh down; hence, in the present case, to

retard.

25 upon the rack. Bassanio's hyperbolical metaphor is playfully

continued by Portia. It is strange to hear these graceful Italian lovers half-jesting in terms derived from a reality so ugly as this form of torture. A possible reason why the rack was in Shakespeare's mind, ready to furnish an