some adventures, (which are nothing to the present purpose,) she is brought before the emperor; who says to her, "Puella, propter amorem filii mei multa adversa Prop sustinuisti. Tamen si digna fueris ut uxor ejus sis cito probabo. Et fecit fieri tria vasa. PRIMUM fuit de auro purissimo & lapidibus pretiosis interius ex omni parte, & plenum ossibus mortuorum: & exterius erat subscriptio, Qui me elegerit, in me inveniet quod meruit. SECUNDUM vas erat de argento puro & gemmis pretiosis, plenum terra; & exterius erat subscriptio; Qui me elegerit, in me inveniet quod natura appetit. TERTIUM vas de plumbo plenum lapidibus pretiosis interius & gemmis nobilissimis; & exterius erat subscriptio talis: Qui me elegerit, in me inveniet quod deus disposuit. Ista tria ostendit puellæ, & ✓ dixit, si unum ex istis elegeris in quo commodum, & proficuum est, filium meum habebis. Si vero elegeris quod nec tibi nec aliis est commodum, ipsum non habebis." The young lady, after mature consideration of the vessels and their inscriptions, chuses the leaden, which being opened, and found to be full of gold and precious stones, the emperor says: "Bona puella, bene elegisti-ideo filium meum habebis." From this abstract of these two stories, I think it appears sufficiently plain that they are the remote originals of the two incidents in this play. That of the caskets, Shakespeare might take from the English Gesta Romanorum, as Dr. Farmer has observed; and that of the bond might come to him from the Pecorone; but upon the whole I am rather inclined to suspect, that he has followed some hitherto unknown novelist, who had saved him the trouble of working up the two stories into one. TYRWHITT. This comedy, I believe, was written in the beginning of the year 1598. Meres's book was not published till the end of that year. See An Attempt to ascertain the Order of Shakespeare's Plays, Vol. II. MALONE. of Venice, Officers of the Court of Justice, r, Servants, and other Attendants. tly at Venice, and partly at Belmont, the at of Portia, on the continent. IN sooth, I know not why I am so sad It wearies me; you say, it wearies yo But how I caught it, found it, or came What stuff 'tis made of, whereof it is k I am to learn ; And such a want-wit sadness makes of That I have much ado to know myself Salar. Your mind is tossing on the o There, where your argosies' with por Like signiors and rich burghers of the Or, as it were the pageants of the sea, Do overpeer the petty traffickers, That curt'sy to them, do them reverer As they fly by them with their woven Salan. Believe me, sir, had I such v The better part of my affections would Be with my hopes abroad. I should b Plucking the grass, to know where sit Peering in maps, for ports, and piers, And every object that might make me Misfortune to my ventures, out of doub Would make me sad. Salar. My wind, cooling my broth, Would blow me to an ague, when I the What harm a wind too great might do [1] Argosies-A name given in our author's time to s bably galleons, such as the Spaniards use in their West L [2] By holding up the grass, or any light body that will direction of the wind is found." This way I used in she was an open place, there I take a fethere, or a lyttbe ligh the wind stood." Ascham. JOHNSON. |