prompter's books. Thus, nine in ten at least of those who read the play are not only deprived of the benefit of some of the most excellent passages of the poet, but are shut out from the knowledge that such passages ever had existence. Let the reader judge whether we are correct or otherwise, from the following specimens. Morochius, a prince of Morocco, who is one of Portia's suiters, opens the second act with the following charming speech: Mor. "Mislike me not for my complexion, To prove whose blood is reddest, his or mine. Bars me the right of voluntary choosing, And hedg'd me by his will, to yield myself His wife, who wins me by the means I told you, For my affection. Mor. Even for that I thank you; If Hercules and Lichas play at dice, Which is the better man? The greater throw And so may I, blind fortune leading me, Miss that which one unworthier may attain, And die with grieving. Since we have entered on the subject of those excisions from the play, we will go on with it, and, by quoting the parts cut out, show how much is lost to the admirers of poetry. Morochius being brought to the caskets, ponders upon the choice he shall make in the following speech: Some god direct my judgment!-Let me see, I will survey the inscriptions back again: What says this leaden casket? "Who chooseth me, must give and hazard all he hath." Do it in hope of fair advantages; A golden mind stoops not to shows of dross; -What says the silver with her virgin hue? "Who chooseth me, shall get as much as he deserves." If thou be'st rated by thy estimation, Thou dost deserve enough; and yet enough As much as I deserve!-Why, that's the lady; To stop the foreign spirits; but they come, One of these three contains her heavenly picture. Is't like, that lead contains her?-Twere damnation To think so base a thought; it were too gross Was set in worse than gold. They have in England Lies all within.Deliver me the key; Portia. Here, take it, prince, and if my form lie there, Mor. O hell! what have we here? A carrion Death, within whose empty eye "All that glitters is not gold; In this speech of Morochius there are some delightful effusions of poetic fancy; and the lines found inscrolled in the casket contain some noble moral truths, which ought not to be lost to the audience. But still superior to these, in the loftiness of the flights and truth of characteristic expression, as well as in sterling moral wisdom, are the speeches of the prince of Arragon, another suiter of the fair Portia. Being conducted by her to the caskets, he opens his observations with the pertinent, unceremonious solemnity of a high Spaniard. I am enjoin'd by oath to observe three things: Which of the caskets 'twas I chose; next, if I fail Of the right casket, never in my life To woo a maid in way of marriage; lastly, If I do fail in fortune of my choice, Immediately to leave you, and begone. Portia. To these injunctions every one doth swear, That comes to hazard for my worthless self. 1 Arrag. And so have I addrest me:-fortune, now What says the golden chest?-Ha!-let me see- Not learning more than the fond eye doth teach; To cozen fortune, and be honourable, Without the stamp of merit?-Let none presume O that estates, degrees, and offices -Were not deserv'd corruptly! And that clear honour How many be commanded that command? How much low peasantry would then be gleaned To be new-varnish'd?-Well, but to my choice: And instantly unlock my fortunes here. Portia. Too long a pause for that which you find here. Arrag. What's here? The portrait of a blinking idiot, Presenting me a schedule?—I will read it. How much unlike art thou to Portia! How much unlike my hopes and my deservings! Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves! Did I deserve no more than a fool's head? Is that my prize?-Did I deserve no better? Portia. To offend and judge are distinct offices, and Of opposed natures. Arrag. What is this? "The fire seven times tried this; Seven times tried that judgment is So begone, sir; you are sped." The more the nature and importance of these passages are considered, with a view to the author's intention, as well as to the entirety of the drama, the more cause there will appear to wonder at the motives of those who first set the example of disfiguring it, and to condemn the taking of such an injudicious, unwarrantable liberty. It would not be truth to say they are digressive. The play consists of two actions, founded on two separate, remote original stories-that of the bond for the pound of flesh, and that of the caskets, which stories Shakspeare has so conducted as to make them mutually aid each other, but each of which is so constructed as to unfold itself. The characters of the two suiters, Morochius and Arragon, are as necessary to the full development of the casket plot, as Tubal or Launcelot to the accomplishment of the plot of the bond. This appears not only from the chasm which the excision of them makes in the progressive explanation of the story, but from the care and amount of mind bestowed upon them by the poet: for where has he exhibited more studious art, where displayed more captivating or affecting sentiment? In the scenes with those suiters the fable is cleared up in a gradual order calculated to unfold to the audience, in a natural way, the particular provision, in the will of Portia's father, by which she is bound on the subject of marriage. By the two several disappointments of those two suiters, the mind is better prepared for the successful adventure of the third, and the contents of all the caskets are thereby laid open as they should be to the audience. But how is it, as now acted? The story, of itself sufficiently improbable, is rendered more difficult of belief and unintelligible by being left without explanation till Bassanio comes to the caskets; when scraps, taken from the speeches of Morochius and the prince of Arragon, are, through |