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Ifabella's indignation against her brother on this occafion, though it has no relation to the fubjects we are upon, yet as it may have an effect in raifing the fame refentment against vice and meannefs, in the minds of my readers, I think it worthy to be inferted here:

Ifabella. Oh, you beaft!

Oh, faithlefs coward! Oh, difhoneft wretch!

Wilt thou be made a man, out of my vice?

Is't not a kind of inceft, to take life

From thine own filter's fhame? What fhould I think?
Heaven grant my mother played my father fair!
For fuch a warped flip of wilderness

Ne'er iffued from his blood-Take my defiance-
Die, perish! might my only bending down,
Reprieve thee from thy fate, it fhould proceed.
Oh, fie, fie, fie!

Thy fin's not accidental, but a trade;
Mercy to thee would prove itself a bawd;
"Twere beft that thou dieft quickly.

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In the laft fpeech of this fcene, our Author gives us a fhocking, but too juft defcription of Slander: Duke. No might nor greatnefs, in Mortality,

Can cenfure scape-back-wounding Calumny
The whiteft virtue ftrikes. What king fo ftrong,
Can tie the gall up in the flandering tongue ?

A CT IV. SCENE III.

In the laft paffage of this Scene, the Duke repeats the fame reflection, in ftill ftronger terms:

O place and greatnefs! Millions of falfe eyes
Are ftuck upon thee. Volumes of report
Run with thefe falfe and moft contrarious quests
Upon thy doings-thousand 'fcapes of wit
Make thee the father of their idle dreams,
And rack thee in their fancies!

Such has been the complaint of all ages, even when the fcandal was merely oral; but how much more intolerable has the offence become, of late years, when obloquy is not only privately fpoken, but publicly printed, and openly circulated throughout thefe kingdoms? The Freedom of the Prefs fhould be ever

held

held facred among us. "Tis our Palladium. But furely, to restrain its Licentioufnefs, can no more hurt the Liberty of it, than the chastisement of felony can be faid to injure the liberty of the subject.

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When Isabella, upon a supposition of her brother's death, curfes Angelo for his perfidy, the Duke reproves her in the following words:

This nor hurts him, nor profits you, a jot ;
For bear it, therefore; give your caufe to Heaven.

Shakespeare seems to have wound up the feveral morals of his characters and dialogue, in this place, with an excellent Chriftian document, against the rage of malediction, and the paffion of revenge; for we find little more in the remainder of it, fufficiently worthy of continuing any further remarks on the Piece.

POST SCRIPT.

In Number 491 of the SPECTATOR, there is a parallel ftory with this of Angelo related, though not in every circumftance the fame, of Rhynfault, Governor of Zealand, under Charles the Bald, Duke of Burgundy; which may amuse the reader to recur to, after reading this Play.

THE

THI

MERCHANT

O F

VENICE.

E

Dramatis Perfonæ.

MEN.

MOROCHIUS, a Moorish Prince.

PRINCE of Arragon.

ANTHONIO, the Merchant of Venice,

BASSANIO, his Friend.

SALANIO,

SOLARINO,

GRATIANO,

Friends to Anthonio and Baffanio.

LORENZO, in love with Jeffica.

SHYLOCK, a Jew.

LAUNCELOT, Servant to the Jew.

WOMEN.

PORTIA, an Heirefs.

NERISSA, her Maid.

JESSICA, the Jew's Daughter,

THE

MERCHANT of VENICE.

I

Shall take no further notice of the want of a moral fable, in the rest of these Plays; but shall ́ proceed to obferve upon the characters and dialogue, without interruption, for the future.

ACT I. SCENE I.

The forebodings or prefentiments of evil, natural to the human mind, are strongly pointed at here. It were in vain to attempt the investigation of this matter from philofophy, any more than that of prophetic dreams; fo that all we have to do, is fimply to acquiefce in the fact itself, which repeated experience has fufficiently vouched in too many remarkable inftances, to be imputed to common cafualty.

Anthonio, Solarino, and Salanio.

Anthonio. In footh, I know not why I am so fad ;
It wearies me; you fay it wearies you ;

But how I caught it, found it, or came by it,
What fluff 'tis made of, whereof it is born,

I am to learn.

Upon which his two friends attempt to account for this impreffion on his mind, in a very natural manner-as, "Where a man's treafure is, there will "his heart be alfo."

Salanio. Your mind is toffing on the ocean;
There where your Argofies with portly fail,
Like Signiors and rich Burghers on the flood,
Or, as it were, the pageants of the fea,
Do over-peer the petty traffickers,

That curtfie to them, do them reverence,

As they fly by them with their woven wings.

Solarino. Believe me, Sir, had I fuch venture forth,

The better part of my affections would

Be with my hopes abroad. I should be still

E 2

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