SYNOPSIS

By J. ELLIS BURDICK

ACT I

Bassanio, a young gentleman of Venice, is in love with Portia, a lady of Belmont; but she is wealthy, while he is poor. He feels that he must have three thousand ducats before he can press his suit. For this sum he goes to his dearest friend, Antonio, a merchant of Venice. The latter's wealth at that time is entirely invested in ships at sea, but he remembers a rich Jew, Shylock by name. From him he borrows the money for his friend, giving in return a bond agreeing to forfeit a pound of his flesh should not the money be paid on the day it falls due. Antonio signs this agreement without fear, for his ships are scheduled to arrive home a month before the day.

ACT II

Jessica, daughter of Shylock the Jew, elopes with Lorenzo, a Christian and a friend of Antonio and of Bassanio. Her father is very angry at this and the ill-will he bears Antonio is increased. Portia's father provided in his will that his daughter's hand should go to that suitor who should choose the one of three caskets that contained her portrait. Several try and fail.

ACT III

When Bassanio's turn came, he, to his own and Portia's delight, chooses the right casket. They exchange vows and rings. Bassanio's friend, Gratiano, and Portia's maid,

Nerissa, also engage themselves to marry. But their joy is clouded by a letter from Antonio to Bassanio telling of the failure of all the Merchant's ventures and that Shylock claims the forfeiture according to the bond. Bassanio and Gratiano hasten to Venice to aid their friend. Portia and Nerissa plan to be at the trial also.

ACT IV

Portia and Nerissa arrive at the court as the trial is going on; Portia is disguised as a lawyer and Nerissa as her clerk, and so well do they act their parts that no one, not even their husbands, recognizes them. Portia pleads Antonio's cause with such power and logic that the Jew loses his case, and in addition his estates and property are declared forfeited for plotting against the life of a citizen of Venice. The Duke mitigates his sentence sufficiently to permit him to make a will in favor of his daughter Jessica. Bassanio wishes the lawyer to accept as his fee the three thousand ducats which had been due the Jew. This Portia declines, but asks for the ring she had given him when they plighted their troth. He unwillingly gives it to her. Nerissa in like manner gets her ring from Gratiano.

ACT V

Portia and Nerissa reach Belmont before the arrival of Bassanio and Gratiano. When the gentlemen get there, Nerissa quarrels with Gratiano for giving away her ring. Portia and Bassanio overhear their friends and Bassanio confesses that he, too, has parted with his wife's ring. The lady feigns anger, but finally agrees to forgive her lord and in token gives him a ring. Great is his surprise to find the ring is the same which he had given to the doctor. Explanations follow and everyone is happy. Antonio, who has come home with Bassanio, hears that three of his ships have come safely to port.

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE

ACT FIRST

SCENE I

Venice. A street.

Enter Antonio, Salarino, and Salanio.

Ant. In sooth, I know not why I am so sad:
It wearies me; you say it wearies you;

But how I caught it, found it, or came by it,
What stuff 'tis made of, whereof it is born,

"Enter Antonio," etc.; in the old copies there is much confusion in the printing of these names, especially in this first scene; and as no list of the Persons is there given, we are not a little puzzled how to put them. In the folio the first stage-direction is,-Enter Antonio, Salarino, and Salanio. In the dialogue, however, the abbreviation for Salanio presently becomes Sola., which is soon changed to Sol., and then comes the stage-direction,-Exeunt Salarino, and Solanio. And the names are spelled the same way in several other stage-directions; and after the first scene the abbreviated prefixes to the speeches uniformly are Sal. and Sol. So that we have abundant authority for reading Solanio instead of Salanio, as it is in most modern editions. As to the distribution of the first few speeches, we have to go partly by conjecture, the names being so perplexed as to afford no sure guidance. The last two speeches before the entrance of Bassanio, which are usually assigned to Salanio, we agree with Knight and Verplanck in transferring to Salarino, not only because he is the more lively and talkative person, but as according best with the general course of the dialogue and with his avowed wish to make Antonio merry, and especially because the quartos favor that arrangement.-H. N. H.

I am to learn;

And such a want-wit sadness makes of me, That I have much ado to know myself. Salar. Your mind is tossing on the ocean; There, where your argosies with portly sail, Like signiors and rich burghers on the flood, 10 Or, as it were, the pageants of the sea, Do overpeer the petty traffickers,

That curt'sy to them, do them reverence,
As they fly by them with their woven wings.
Salan. Believe me, sir, had I such venture forth,
The better part of my affections would

Be with my hopes aboard. I should be still
Plucking the grass, to know where sits the wind;
Peering in maps for ports, and piers, and roads;
And every object, that might make me fear 20
Misfortune to my ventures, out of doubt
Would make me sad.

Salar.

My wind, cooling my broth, Would blow me to an ague, when I thought What harm a wind too great at sea might do. I should not see the sandy hour-glass run, But I should think of shallows and of flats, And see my wealthy Andrew dock'd in sand

9. "Argosies" are large ships either for merchandise or for war. The name was probably derived from the classical ship Argo, which carried Jason and the Argonauts in quest of the golden fleece. Readers of Milton will of course remember the passage describing Satan's voyage through chaos:

"Harder besct

And more endanger'd than when Argo pass'd

Through Bosphorus betwixt the justling rocks."-H. N. H.

27. "Andrew"; so called, perhaps, after the famous Italian naval commander, Andrea Doria.-C. H. H.

Vailing her high top lower than her ribs
To kiss her burial. Should I go to church
And see the holy edifice of stone,

30

And not bethink me straight of dangerous
rocks,

Which touching but my gentle vessel's side
Would scatter all her spices on the stream,
Enrobe the roaring waters with my silks;
And, in a word, but even now worth this,
And now worth nothing? Shall I have the
thought

To think on this; and shall I lack the thought,
That such a thing bechanced would make me
sad?

But tell not me; I know, Antonio

Is sad to think upon his merchandise.
Ant. Believe me, no: I thank my fortune for it,
My ventures are not in one bottom trusted,
Nor to one place; nor is my whole estate
Upon the fortune of this present year:

40

Therefore my merchandise makes me not sad. Salar. Why, then you are in love.

Ant.

Fie, fie!

Salar. Not in love neither? Then let us say you

are sad,

Because you are not merry: and 'twere as easy For you to laugh, and leap, and say you are merry,

27. "dock'd"; Rowe's emendation for "docks," the reading of the Quartos and Folios.-I. G.

28. "vailing"; to vail is to lower, to let fall: from the French avaler.-H. N. H.

35. "but even now"; a moment ago.-C. H. H.