Shakespeare's play of the Merchant of Venice Part 13

_Ant_. The duke cannot deny the course of law,[90]

For the commodity that strangers have With us in Venice, if it be denied, 'Twill much impeach the justice of the state;[91]

Since that the trade and profit of the city Consisteth of all nations.

Well, gaoler, on:--Pray heaven, Ba.s.sanio come To see me pay his debt, and then I care not.

[_Exeunt_.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 89: _--fond_; _Id est_, foolish.]

SCENE V.--SALOON OF THE CASKETS IN PORTIA'S HOUSE AT BELMONT.

_Enter_ PORTIA, NERISSA, LORENZO, JESSICA, _and_ BALTHAZAR.

_Lor_. Madam, although I speak it in your presence, You have a n.o.ble and a true conceit Of G.o.d-like amity; which appears most strongly In bearing thus the absence of your lord.

But, if you knew to whom you show this honour, How true a gentleman you send relief, How dear a lover of my lord your husband, I know you would be prouder of the work, Than customary bounty can enforce you.

_Por_. I never did repent for doing good, Nor shall not now.

This comes too near the praising of myself; Therefore, no more of it: hear other things.[92]

Lorenzo, I commit into your hands The husbandry and manage of my house, Until my lord's return: for mine own part, I have toward heaven breath'd a secret vow, To live in prayer and contemplation, Only attended by Nerissa here; There is a monastery two miles off, And there we will abide. I do desire you Not to deny this imposition; To which my love, and some necessity, Now lays upon you.

_Lor_. Madam, with all my heart, I shall obey you in all fair commands.

_Por_. My people do already know my mind, And will acknowledge you and Jessica In place of lord Ba.s.sanio and myself.

So fare you well, till we shall meet again.

_Lor_. Fair thoughts and happy hours attend on you!

_Jes_. I wish your ladys.h.i.+p all heart's content.

_Por_. I thank you for your wish, and am well pleas'd To wish it back on you: fare you well, Jessica!

_Exeunt_ JESSICA _and_ LORENZO.

Now, Balthazar, As I have ever found thee honest, true, So let me find thee still: Take this same letter; See thou render this Into my cousin's hand, doctor Bellario; And, look, what notes and garments he doth give thee Bring them, I pray thee, with imagin'd speed[93]

Unto the tranect,[94] to the common ferry Which trades to Venice:--waste no time in words, But get thee gone; I shall be there before thee.

_Bal_. Madam, I go with all convenient speed.

[_Exit_.

_Por_. Come on, Nerissa; I have work in hand, That you yet know not of: we'll see our husbands, Before they think of us.

_Ner_. Shall they see us?

_Por_. They shall, Nerissa: But come, I'll tell thee all my whole device When I am in my coach, which stays for us At the park gate; and therefore haste away, For we must measure twenty miles to-day.

[_Exeunt_.

END OF ACT THIRD.

HISTORICAL NOTES TO ACT THIRD.

(A) The present stone structure superseded an older one of wood. This celebrated edifice was commenced in 1588.

(B) That the swan uttered musical sounds at the approach of death was credited by Plato, Chrysippus, Aristotle, Euripides, Philostratus, Cicero, Seneca, and Martial. Pliny, Aelian, and Athenaeus, among the ancients, and Sir Thomas More among the moderns, treat this opinion as a vulgar error. Luther believed in it. See his _Colloquia_, par. 2, p.

125, edit. 1571, 8vo. Our countryman, Bartholomew Glanville, thus mentions the singing of the swan: "And whan she shal dye and that a fether is pyght in the brayn, then she syngeth, as Ambrose sayth," _De propr. rer_. 1. xii., c. 11. Monsieur Morin has written a dissertation on this subject in vol. v. of the _Mem. de l'acad. des inscript_. There are likewise some curious remarks on it in Weston's _Specimens of the conformity of the European languages with the Oriental_, p. 135; in Seelen _Miscellanea_, tom. 1. 298; and in Pinkerton's _Recollections of Paris_, ii. 336.--_Douce's ill.u.s.trations_.

(C) These two magnificent granite columns, which adorn the Piazzetta of St. Mark, on the Molo or Quay, near the Doge's Palace, were among the trophies brought by Dominico Michieli on his victorious return from Palestine in 1125; and it is believed that they were plundered from some island in the Archipelago. A third pillar, which accompanied them, was sunk while landing. It was long before any engineer could be found sufficiently enterprising to attempt to rear them, and they were left neglected on the quay for more than fifty years. In 1180, however, Nicolo Barattiero[A], a Lombard, undertook the task, and succeeded. Of the process which he employed, we are uninformed; for Sabellico records no more than that he took especial pains to keep the ropes continually wetted, while they were strained by the weight of the huge marbles. The Government, more in the lavish spirit of Oriental bounty, than in accordance with the calculating sobriety of European patronage, had promised to reward the architect by granting whatever boon, consistent with its honour, he might ask.

It may be doubted whether he quite strictly adhered to the requisite condition, when he demanded that games of chance, hitherto forbidden throughout the capital, might be played in the s.p.a.ce between the columns: perhaps with a reservation to himself of any profits accruing from them. His request was granted, and the disgraceful monopoly became established; but afterward, in order to render the spot infamous, and to deter the population from frequenting it, it was made the scene of capital executions; and the bodies of countless malefactors were thus gibbeted under the very windows of the palace of the chief magistrate. A winged lion in bronze, the emblem of St. Mark, was raised on the summit of one of these columns; and the other was crowned with a statue of St.

Theodore, a yet earlier patron of the city, armed with a lance and s.h.i.+eld, and trampling on a serpent. A blunder, made by the statuary in this group, has given occasion for a sarcastic comment from Amelot de la Houssaye. The saint is sculptured with the s.h.i.+eld in his right hand, the lance in his left; a clear proof, says the French writer, of the unacquaintance of the Venetians with the use of arms; and symbolical that their great council never undertakes a war of its own accord, nor for any other object than to obtain a good and secure peace. The satirist has unintentionally given the republic the highest praise which could flow from his pen. Happy, indeed, would it have been for mankind, if Governments had never been actuated by any other policy. De la Houssaye informs us also that the Venetians exchanged the patronage of St. Theodore for that of St. Mark, from like pacific motives; because the first was a soldier and resembled St. George, the tutelary idol of Genoa.--_Sketches of Venetian History_.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 90: _The Duke cannot deny_, &c.; As the reason here given seems a little perplex'd, it may be proper to explain it. If, says he, the duke stop the course of law, it will be attended with this inconvenience, that stranger merchants, by whom the wealth and power of this city is supported, will cry out of injustice. For the known stated law being their guide and security, they will never bear to have the current of it stopped on any pretence of equity whatsoever.--WARBURTON.]

[Footnote 91: _For the commodity that strangers have With us in Venice, if it be denied_, &c.; _Id est_, for the denial of those rights to strangers, which render their abode at Venice so commodious and agreeable to them, would much impeach the justice of the state. The consequence would be, that strangers would not reside or carry on traffick here; and the wealth and strength of the state would be diminished. In the _Historye of Italye,_ by W. Thomas, quarto, 1567, there is a section _On the libertee of straungers_, at Venice--MALONE.]

[Footnote 92: _--hear other things_.; _Id est_, she'll say no more in self-praise, but will refer to a new subject.]

[Footnote 93: _--with imagin'd speed_; _Id est_, with celerity, like that of imagination.]

[Footnote 94: _Unto the tranect_,; Probably this word means the tow-boat of the ferry.]

[Footnote A: Doglioni fixes the erection of these columns in 1172, Sabellico in 1174, the common Venetian Guide-books, a few years later.

The Abbate Garaccioli, writes the name of the engineer Starrattoni.]

ACT IV.

SCENE I.--VENICE. A COURT OF JUSTICE.(A)