Should fee falvation-we do pray for mercy Merchant of Venice. And that fame prayer doth teach us all However we may admire the expreffion and benevolent tendency of this fpeech, yet an obvious ob. jection lies against the paffage marked by italics; which, as it evidently refers to the Lords's Prayer, ought not to be even hinted at, where a Jew was in question, as it would rather work an irritative than lenitive effect. Shylock's fervile and rapturous adoration of the supposed lawyer, for sustaining the folidity of the bond, is inimitably expreffed by exclamations; and the cause works up against Antonio to a very pathetic crifis; when a very natural and most agreeable turn of Portia's, defeats the Jew's blood-thirsty hopes, frees the merchant, and gives general joy: there is not any incident in any drama, which strikes fo fudden and so powerful an effect; the retorts of Gratiano are admirably pleafant, and the wretched state to which Shylock is in his turn reduced, is fo agreeable a facrifice to justice, that it conveys inexpreffible fatiffaction to every feeling mind; the lenity of Antonio is judiciously opposed to the malevolence of his inexorable perfecutor. Upon the Jew's leaving court, Gratiano speaks thus to him: " In chriftening thou shalt have two godfathers, had I been judge thou shouldst have had ten more, to bring thee to the gallows, not the font," in this fpeech our author has made a very cenfurable flip, by furnishing Gratiano, who is a Venetian, Merchant of Venice. Venetian, with an observation that refers to the English mode of trial by jury, which the words quoted certainly imply. What follows to the end of this act, is only a ftratagem of the ladies to get thofe rings from their hufbands, which they had made them fwear not to part with; hence arifes fome matter to eke forward a piece which should undoubtedly have ended with the trial, as no event of equal force could follow the merchant's acquittal. At the beginning of the fifth act, Lorenzo and Jeffica, in a ftrain of tender dalliance, play upon the idea of a ferene moon-light night very agreeably, till they are interrupted by a meffenger, fignifying Portia's return, and Launcelot roaring out in fimple ecftacy his mafter's approach; Lorenzo, however, willing to enjoy the beauty of the night, indulges fanciful fpeculation in the following elegant strain : How fweet the moonlight fleeps upon this bank, Still choiring to the young ey'd cherubims : Such harmony is in immortal fouls; But whilst this muddy vefture of decay Doth close us in; we cannot hear it. What follows upon Jeffica's remark, that mufic does not make her chearful, we venture alfo to give our Merchant of Venice. our readers as the fubject of general approbation, among the tafteful admirers of poetical excurfions. The reason is your spirits are attentive, For do but note a wild and wanton herd, You shall perceive them make a mutual stand; By the sweet power of mufic: thus the poet Though the lines in Italics have been often quoted, and received, as conveying an irrefragable maxim, we must contend that there is confiderably more fancy than truth in them, as experience fufficiently proves, from a multitude of inftances of bad ear's being annexed to good hearts; let it fuffice to say, that one of the greateft writers one of the deepest scholars, one of the most moral and peaceable men of the prefent age, has fo little relifh for mufic, that being carried to hear Alexander's Feaft, as fet by HANDEL, he fhook his head, and faid, the performance only convinced him, that infipid, jingling founds, VOL. I. PP might Merchant of Venice. might spoil the best written piece in the world from hence we may deem Shakespeare's compliment to harmony rather partially enthusiastic; were it really the cafe, we have no reason to fear any thing from our political commotions, while mufic is fo much admired as to join proceffions, attend dinners, &c. nor can a libel, if fung, have any treasonable effect; never was Britain more mufically inclined than at prefent, therefore consequently free from all apprehenfions of ftratagems and spoils. Upon Portia's entrance, fhe fees a light burning in her own hall, which by a stretch of propriety, fhe affimilates to a good deed in a bad world; had the candle's beams been enveloped with a deep nightly gloom, the allufion might have been allowable; but when the moon has fuch power as description gives it in this fcene, the taper's light muft have been very dim and imperfect, Keeping the characters fo long out of doors, when they might as well have been houfed, is a wanton breach of probability; however, there they are, and we must enjoy the moon-fhine with them after fome very short congratulations, a quarrel starts up between Gratiano and Neriffa, concerning the ring which fhe obtained from him as the lawyer's clerkthere is an abominable expreffion in the third line of Gratiano's first speech on this matter. This dispute catching Portia's ear, she justifies Neriffa's refentment, which occafions Gratiano to rap off that Baffanio gave his ring away; here fresh and very entertaining perplexity arifes from well Merchant of Venice. well affumed jealoufy, on the part of the women; and the arch cause they give for real jealousy to their hufbands, the difcovery of who really got the rings, and the characters the ladies affumed, brings the piece to a very natural, pleasant and fatisfactory conclufion. This play breaks in upon the unities of time and place materially, however, the plot is not very irregular, and the scenes fall into a tolerable arrangement; we must confider the fifth act but as a kind of after-game, though agreeably supported; and repeat our wifh, that Shylock's defeat, with a difcovery of the ladies in court, had formed the cataftrophe. Though we cannot trace a general moral, yet from many paffages, useful, inftructive inferences may be drawn, particularly the choice of the caskets, which fhews that humility and judgment obtain meritoriously, what oftentation and, vanity lofe; from the Jew's fate may be learned, that persevering cruelty is very capable of drawing ruin on itself-in those scenes where fentiments and expreffions of dignity are requifite, we find them amply provided, in lefs material paffages, both are trifling. Shylock, whofe peculiarity of character and language we have hinted, is a moft difgraceful picture of human nature; he is drawn, what we think man never was, all shade, not a gleam of light; fubtle, selfish, fawning, irrascible and tyrannic; as he is like no dramatic perfonage but himself, the mode of reprefentation fhould be particular; as to Pp2 figure |