129. Let me give light, etc. See on iii. 2. 91 above.

132. God sort all! God dispose all things! Cf. Rich. III. ii. 3. 36:

"All may be well; but if God sort it so,

'Tis more than we deserve, or I expect."

136. In all sense.

In all reason.

141. Breathing courtesy. Cf. Macb. v. 3. 27: "Mouth-honour, breath." 146. Poesy. The poesy or posy (for the two words are the same), of a ring was a motto or rhyme inscribed upon its inner side. The fashion of putting such "posies" on rings prevailed from the middle of the 16th to the close of the 17th centuries.* In 1624 a little book was published with the quaint title, Love's Garland, or Posies for Rings, Handkerchiefs, and Gloves; and such pretty tokens, that lovers send their loves. Lyly, in his Euphues, Part Second, 1597, hopes that the ladies will be favourable to his work, "writing your judgments as you do the Posies in your rings, which are always next to the finger, not to be seene of him that holdeth you by the hand, and yet knowne by you that weare them on your hands." The Rev. Giles Moore, in his Journal, 1673-4, writes, "I bought for Ann Brett a gold ring, this being the posy: When this you see, remember me.' Cf. Ham. iii. 2. 162: "Is this a prologue, or the poesy of a ring?" In most of the modern editions (not in K. or W.) we find "posy" in this passage, as well as in the M. of V.; but the 1st folio has "Poesie" in both plays. These are the only instances in which S. uses the word in this sense. 148. Leave me not. Do not part with me. Leave is used in the same sense by Portia in 170 below.

154 Respective. Considerate, regardful. Cf. R. and J. iii. 1. 128: “respective lenity;" which Malone well explains by "cool, considerate gentleness." See also K. John, i. 1. 188.

155. But well I know. Both quartos have "No, God 's my judge." The change may have been made on account of the statute of James I. against the use of the name of God on the stage; but see on i. 2. 96 above. 156. On's. See Gr. 182.

160. Scrubbed. Not merely stunted, as usually explained, but rather, as W. gives it, "dwarfish and unkempt." Cotgrave (Fr. and Eng. Dict.) has, "Marpaut. An ill-favoured scrub, a little ouglie or swartie wretch." Coles (Lat. and Eng. Dict.) translates “scrubbed" by squalidus.

175. I were best. Cf. J. C. iii. 3. 13: "truly you were best," etc. Gr. 352. 197. The virtue of the ring. The power it has; the right to me and mine of which it is the pledge. See iii. 2. 171, where Portia gives the ring. 199. Contain. Retain; as in Sonn. 77.9: "what thy memory cannot contain," etc. It often means restrain; as in T. of A. ii. 2. 26: contain thyself," etc.

66

202. Had pleas'd to have defended. For "had pleased to defend." The inaccuracy is sometimes found in good writers of our day, and has even been defended by one or two grammarians. 203. Wanted. As to have wanted.

Inscriptions on the outside of rings have been common from the old Greek and Roman times. Chaucer, in Troilus and Cresseule, describes the heroine as giving her lover a ring with a love-motto upon it, and receiving one in return.

204. Urge. Urge you to give it to him; insist upon it. Ceremony= a sacred thing.

208. Civil doctor.

66

Doctor of civil law.

212. Did uphold. H.'s quarto and the folios have "had held up." 218. For, by these, etc, The folios have "And, by these." Cf. R. and 7. iii. 5.9: Night's candles are burnt out;" Macb. ii. 1. 5: "There 's husbandry in heaven; Their candles are all out ;" and Fairfax's Tasso, ix. 10: "When heaven's small candles next shall shine" (where the original has merely di notte). See also Sonn. 21. 12.

237. Wealth. Weal, welfare. In the Litany "wealth" is opposed to "tribulation."

238. Which. That is, which loan.

239. Miscarried. Perished; as in ii. 8. 29 and iii. 2. 310 above. Cf. T. N. p. 152, or 2 Hen. IV. p. 182.

241. Advisedly. Deliberately. Cf. advised in i. I. 142 and ii. 1. 42 above. 257. Richly. Richly laden. Cf. "richly left," i. 1. 161 above.

260. Living.

262. To road. above.

See on livings, iii. 2. 156 above.

To harbour. Cf. "ports, and piers, and roads," i. 1. 19

270. Satisfied of. Satisfied concerning (Gr. 174); that is, you wish to know more about them. At full=in full, fully.

272. And charge us, etc. "In the Court of Queen's Bench, when a complaint is made against a person for 'contempt,' the practice is that before sentence is finally pronounced he is sent into the Crown Office, and being there 'charged upon interrogatories' he is made to swear that he will answer all things faithfully'" (Lord Campbell's Shakespeare's Legal Acquirements).

Inter gatories. This contracted form was common in S.'s time. We find it even in prose in A. W. iv. 3. 207, as printed in the early editions. The full form occurs in K. John, iii. 1. 147. See also Cymb. p. 223.

THE "

ADDENDA.

"TIME-ANALYSIS OF THE PLAY.-The Rev. N. J. Halpin, in an elaborate paper published in the Transactions of the New Shakspere Society, 1875-76, pp. 388-412, makes the entire time covered by the play only thirty-nine hours, which he divides into two periods, with the interval between them, as follows:

"1. The first period ranges from the opening of the action and the borrowing of Shylock's money, to the embarkation of Bassanio and his suite for Belmont [10 hours].

"2. The second includes the time between Bassanio's arrival at Belmont and his return to it, accompanied by Antonio after the trial [18 hours]. "3. And the interval between these two periods is concurrent with the time of the bond, whatever that may be [11 hours, or from 9 P.M. of one day to 8 A.M. of the next]."

Mr. Halpin assumes that the bond is a fraudulent one, payable at sight

or on demand, which Shylock has substituted for the three-months bond agreed upon.

In a note read before the New Shaks. Soc. Oct. 12th, 1877 (printed in the Transactions, 1877-79, pp. 41-57), and also in his paper "On the Times or Durations of the Action of Shakspere's Plays" (same vol. of Transactions, p. 148 fol.), Mr. P. A. Daniel shows the inaccuracy of Halpin's scheme, and sums up his own "time-analysis" thus:

"Time: eight days represented on the stage; with intervals. Total time: a period of rather more than three months.

Day 1. Act I.

Interval-say a week. *

2. Act II. sc. i.-vii.

Interval-one day. †

3. Act II. sc. viii. and ix.

Interval-bringing the time to within a fortnight of the maturity of the bond.

4. Act III. sc. i.

Interval-rather more than a fortnight.

5. Act III. sc. ii.-iv.

6. Act III. sc. v., Act IV.

BASSANIO'S ARROWS (i. 1. 140 fol.).—In the Trans. of New Shaks. Soc. 1877-79, p. 460, Mr. Furnivall quotes the following illustrative passage from Quips vpon Questions, 1600:

"How shall I finde it?

Ile tell thee how to finde that eare againe.
Children, in shooting, when they loose an Arrow
In high growne or deepe grasse, omit no paine,
But with their Bowes end, rake and search it narrow,
And when they bootlesse seeke, and finde it not,
After some sorrow, this amendes is got:

* In ii. 2, we find Launcelot lamenting his hard life in Shylock's service; he knows that Bassanio gives "rare new liveries," and we may suppose that in going of errands between Shylock and Bassanio he has gained his knowledge of the superior comforts to be obtained in the service of the latter. He accordingly petitions to be admitted his servant, and he obtains his end; for Bassanio "knows him well," and tells him that this very day Shylock himself has preferred him. This fact alone shows that Shylockhowever inwardly he has cherished his hate-has been at least for some little time in familiar intercourse with Bassanio and his friends since the signing of the bond. Meanwhile Bassanio has engaged his ship, and is waiting for a fair wind; and Lorenzo has been courting Jessica. Note also what Jessica says in iii. 2. 279 fol. All this supposes a lapse of time-say a week-since the signing of the bond.

+ For Bassanio's journey to Belmont, etc.

In iii. 1, Shylock says to Tubal: “Go, Tubal, fee me an officer; bespeak him a fortnight before." However doubtful we may feel as to its flight, this distinct note of time leaves us no choice but to believe in an interval, between this and the preceding scenes, of sufficient length to bring the three-months bond to within a fortnight of its maturity. § After the trial Bassanio and Antonio propose to fly towards Belmont early next morning. Portia and Nerissa start for home that night, and arrive on the next night (Day 7) before their husbands. Act V. begins at a late hour that night, and ends two hours before day (Day 8).

Quip.

An other shaft they shoote that direct way
As whilome they the first shot; and be plaine
Twentie to one, as I haue heard some say,
The former Arrow may be found againe.

So, as you lost the first eare, gentle brother,
Venture the second eare, to find the tother.

Nay, soft and faire, to do that I am loth;
So I may happen for to lose them both.

Better lost than found: who will beweepe them?
Fools hauing eares, yet do want wit to keepe them."

A breed of barren metal (p. 136). Mr. Furnivall cites Middleton, The Blacke Booke: "coming to repay both the money and the breed of it-for interest may well be called the usurer's bastard,” etc.

Sand-blind (p. 138). Mr. Furnivall quotes Baret, Alvearie, 1580: “Sandblind. Vide Bleare eied, & Poreblind" (that is, purblind); and "Pooreblind, or that seeth dimlie ... Qui ha courte veue."

No master, sir, but a poor man's son (ii. 2. 43). Mr. Furnivall quotes Sir Thomas Smith's Commonwealth of England (ed. 1612): "as for gentleme, they be made good cheap in England. For whosoeuer studieth the laws of the Realm, who studieth in the Uniuersities, who professeth liberall Sciences: and to be short, who can liue idely, and without manuall labour, and will beare the port, charge and countenance of a Gentleman, hee shall bee called master, for that is the tytle which men giue to Esquires, and other Gentlemen, and shall bee taken for a Gentleman." Cater-cousins (p. 139). W. G. S. (Trans. New Shaks. Soc. 1877-79, p. 463) finds an instance of this word in Mabbe's Guzman de Alfarache, 1623: "I was not halfe Cater-cousins with him, because by his meanes, I had lost my Cloake, and sup❜t vpon a Mule."

Reply, reply (iii. 2. 66). The early eds. print "How begot, how nourished. Replie, replie." H. ("Harvard" ed.) follows Hanmer and Johnson in reading "Reply" as a stage-direction, though no other instance of such use has been pointed out. As the Camb. editors remark, the words " seem to be required as part of the song by the rhythm, and (if we read eye with the quartos) by the rhyme also." All recent editors except H. retain them in the text.

Salerio (iii. 3. 214).-It is not strange that the similarity in the names Salarino, Salanio, and Salerio caused some confusion in the prefixes to the speeches in the early eds. and also here and there in the text; but the modern editors have made deliberate alterations that are less excusable than these slips of the old printers. Several of them have changed Salanio to "Solanio," though the former is the prevailing form in both quartos and folios; and K. (followed by D., H., and others) assumes that Salerio is a misprint for "Solanio." It happens, however, that this name is given with singular uniformity in the early eds.; and, as W. remarks, "the style of Salerio's speech shows that he is a person of inferior rank to Salarino and Salanio." No doubt some critic would be making these latter two gentlemen one, if they did not several times appear on the stage together.