So may the outward shows be least themselves; Bassanio begins abruptly; the first part of the argument having passed in his mind while the music was proceeding.
—gracious voice,; Pleasing—winning favour.
—approve it; Id est, justify it.
—guiled; Treacherous—deceitful.
Fair Portia's counterfeit?; Counterfeit, which is at present used only in a bad sense, anciently signified a likeness, a resemblance, without comprehending any idea of fraud.
—intermission; Intermission is pause—intervening time—delay.
—any constant man.; Constant, in the present instance signifies grace.
SCENE IV.—VENICE. THE COLUMNS OF ST. MARK. (c).
Enter SHYLOCK, SALARINO, ANTONIO, and GAOLER.
Ant. Hear me yet, good Shylock.
FOOTNOTES:
—fond; Id est, foolish.
SCENE V.—SALOON OF THE CASKETS IN PORTIA'S HOUSE AT BELMONT.
Enter PORTIA, NERISSA, LORENZO, JESSICA, and BALTHAZAR.
END OF ACT THIRD.
HISTORICAL NOTES TO ACT THIRD.
(A) The present stone structure superseded an older one of wood. This celebrated edifice was commenced in 1588.
(B) That the swan uttered musical sounds at the approach of death was credited by Plato, Chrysippus, Aristotle, Euripides, Philostratus, Cicero, Seneca, and Martial. Pliny, Ælian, and Athenæus, among the ancients, and Sir Thomas More among the moderns, treat this opinion as a vulgar error. Luther believed in it. See his Colloquia, par. 2, p. 125, edit. 1571, 8vo. Our countryman, Bartholomew Glanville, thus mentions the singing of the swan: "And whan she shal dye and that a fether is pyght in the brayn, then she syngeth, as Ambrose sayth," De propr. rer. 1. xii., c. 11. Monsieur Morin has written a dissertation on this subject in vol. v. of the Mem. de l'acad. des inscript. There are likewise some curious remarks on it in Weston's Specimens of the conformity of the European languages with the Oriental, p. 135; in Seelen Miscellanea, tom. 1. 298; and in Pinkerton's Recollections of Paris, ii. 336.—Douce's illustrations.
(C) These two magnificent granite columns, which adorn the Piazzetta of St. Mark, on the Molo or Quay, near the Doge's Palace, were among the trophies brought by Dominico Michieli on his victorious return from Palestine in 1125; and it is believed that they were plundered from some island in the Archipelago. A third pillar, which accompanied them, was sunk while landing. It was long before any engineer could be found sufficiently enterprising to attempt to rear them, and they were left neglected on the quay for more than fifty years. In 1180, however, Nicolo Barattiero[A], a Lombard, undertook the task, and succeeded. Of the process which he employed, we are uninformed; for Sabellico records no more than that he took especial pains to keep the ropes continually wetted, while they were strained by the weight of the huge marbles. The Government, more in the lavish spirit of Oriental bounty, than in accordance with the calculating sobriety of European patronage, had promised to reward the architect by granting whatever boon, consistent with its honour, he might ask.
It may be doubted whether he quite strictly adhered to the requisite condition, when he demanded that games of chance, hitherto forbidden throughout the capital, might be played in the space between the columns: perhaps with a reservation to himself of any profits accruing from them. His request was granted, and the disgraceful monopoly became established; but afterward, in order to render the spot infamous, and to deter the population from frequenting it, it was made the scene of capital executions; and the bodies of countless malefactors were thus gibbeted under the very windows of the palace of the chief magistrate. A winged lion in bronze, the emblem of St. Mark, was raised on the summit of one of these columns; and the other was crowned with a statue of St. Theodore, a yet earlier patron of the city, armed with a lance and shield, and trampling on a serpent. A blunder, made by the statuary in this group, has given occasion for a sarcastic comment from Amelot de la Houssaye. The saint is sculptured with the shield in his right hand, the lance in his left; a clear proof, says the French writer, of the unacquaintance of the Venetians with the use of arms; and symbolical that their great council never undertakes a war of its own accord, nor for any other object than to obtain a good and secure peace. The satirist has unintentionally given the republic the highest praise which could flow from his pen. Happy, indeed, would it have been for mankind, if Governments had never been actuated by any other policy. De la Houssaye informs us also that the Venetians exchanged the patronage of St. Theodore for that of St. Mark, from like pacific motives; because the first was a soldier and resembled St. George, the tutelary idol of Genoa.—Sketches of Venetian History.
FOOTNOTES:
The Duke cannot deny, &c.; As the reason here given seems a little perplex'd, it may be proper to explain it. If, says he, the duke stop the course of law, it will be attended with this inconvenience, that stranger merchants, by whom the wealth and power of this city is supported, will cry out of injustice. For the known stated law being their guide and security, they will never bear to have the current of it stopped on any pretence of equity whatsoever.—WARBURTON.
For the commodity that strangers have With us in Venice, if it be denied, &c.; Id est, for the denial of those rights to strangers, which render their abode at Venice so commodious and agreeable to them, would much impeach the justice of the state. The consequence would be, that strangers would not reside or carry on traffick here; and the wealth and strength of the state would be diminished. In the Historye of Italye, by W. Thomas, quarto, 1567, there is a section On the libertee of straungers, at Venice—MALONE.
—hear other things.; Id est, she'll say no more in self-praise, but will refer to a new subject.
—with imagin'd speed; Id est, with celerity, like that of imagination.
Unto the tranect,; Probably this word means the tow-boat of the ferry.
Doglioni fixes the erection of these columns in 1172, Sabellico in 1174, the common Venetian Guide-books, a few years later. The Abbate Garaccioli, writes the name of the engineer Starrattoni.
ACT IV.
SCENE I.—VENICE. A COURT OF JUSTICE.(A)
The DUKE, (B) the MAGNIFICOES[95] ANTONIO, BASSANIO, GRATIANO, SALARINO, SALANIO, and others.