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A COMEDY, by SHAKESPEARE,

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LONDON: Printed (by Affignment) for
J. BARKER, at the Dramatic Repofitory,
Ruffell-Court, Drury-Lane.

1794.

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Senators of Venice, Officers, Servants, and other At

tendants

SCENE, partly at Venice, and partly at Belmont, he Seat of Portia, upon the Continent.

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INTRODUCTION.

His faid, that Shakespeare took the hint of this play from an old ballad. It is also faid, that the cruel character was a chriftian: now though we are totally againft giving prejudiced ideas against any fet of people, especially a race fo rejected as the Jews have been, and are yet; fiill as among their tribes, in common with the rest of mankind, feveral Shylocks no doubt have been, our author judicioufly faw, that making his principal an Ifraelite, would place him in a fronger point of view; and fuch fuccefsful pains has the bard taken with this horrid picture of depraved nature, that we fcruple not to pronounce him, as original and high finished a character, as we can conceive, furnished with a meft fuitable peculiarity of Byle. All the other characters are well drawn, notwithstanding Jeveral breaches of time and place, we may venture to pronounce this to be a piece of very fingular merit. It would be want of gratitude, for the great fatisfaction Mr. Macklin has often given in the Jew, not to pronounce his performance remarkably correct, feeling, and forceable.

A C T I.

SCENE, a Street in Venice.

Enter ANTHONIO, SOLARINO, and SALANIO.

N

Auth. In footh, I know not why it am fo fad

wearies me. You fay it wearies you;
But how I caught it, found it, or came by it,
What ftuff 'tis made of, whereof it is born,
I am to learn-

And fuch a want-wit fadnefs makes of me,
That I have much ado to know myself.

Sal. Your mind is toffing on the ocean;
There, where your Argolies, with portly fail,

* Argolia, a name given to any rich merchant ship; taken from Argo, the fhip in which Jason failed for the golden fleece.

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Like figniors and rich burgers on the flood;
Or as it were, the pageants of the fea,
Do over-peer the petty traffickers,

That curtly to them, do them reverence,
As they fly by them with their woven wings.
Sola. Believe me, fir, had I fuch venture forth,
The better part of my affections would

Be with my hopes abroad. I fhould be still
Plucking the grafs to know where fits the wind;
Peering in maps for ports, and piers, and roads;
And every object that might make me fear
Misfortune to my ventures, out of doubt,
Would make me fad.

Sal. My wind, cooling my broth,

Would blow me to an ague, when I thought
What harm a wind too great might do at fea.
I fhould not fee the fandy hour-glafs run,
But I fhould think of shallows and of flats;
And fee my wealthy Andrew dock'd in sand,
Vailing her high top lower than her ribs,
To kifs her burial. Should I go to church,
And fee the holy edifice of stone,

And not bethink me ftraight of dang'rous rocks?
Which, touching but my gentle veffel's fide,
Would scatter all the spices on the stream,
Enrobe the roaring waters with my filks;
And in a word, but even now worth this,

And now worth nothing. Shall I have the thought,
To think on this, and fhall I lack the thought.
That fuch a thing, bechanc'd, would make me fad ?*
But tell not me;-- -I know Anthonio

`Is fad to think upon his merchandize.

Anth. 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 fortuné of this prefent year:
Therefore, my merchandize makes me not fad.
Sola, Why then you are in love? -

*This fpeech is fancifully defcriptive of thofe apprehenfions which might probably affect a man in Anthonio's fituation, and at the fame time, leads to an idea, by his reply, of the magnitude of his concerns in trade.

Antb.

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