1. Mislike, dislike.

7. reddest, the superlative was often used as a comparative. Compare 1 Henry VI, ii. 4. 14: “Between two horses which doth bear him best.” Red blood was considered a proof of courage.

8. aspect. Stress on the last syllable, like many other Elizabethan words, now pronounced with the accent on the first.

9. fear’d, frightened.

12. thoughts, affections.

13. In terms of choice, in the matter of choosing [a husband].

14. nice, fanciful.

17. scanted, limited.

18. wit, ingenuity.

19. His wife who wins. The possessive formerly, having the greater powers of a genitive case, could be used as the antecedent of a relative, as here.

20, 21. as fair As any. This absolutely truthful statement of Portia (who means that the Prince, were she free to choose, stands as fair a chance of winning her as any of the suitors whom she has already refused) conveys a very different meaning to his majesty of Morocco; who, taking it to himself – as it was intended that he should – thanks Portia for her civility. Notice the play on the word fair, which means on equal terms with the rest, but also refers to the Prince’s color, which Portia assures him is not to bar him from an equal chance with other fairer suitors.

25. Sophy, commonly used to denote the ruler of Persia, though originally meaning only a wise man.

26. Solyman was the greatest Sultan of Shakespeare’s century. A romantic drama like this does not demand historical accuracy in its references. But this allusion is doubtless to Solyman’s disastrous campaign against the Persians in 1535.

31. alas the while! literally, “Alas for the present condition of things!” Here equal to alas!

32. Hercules and Lichas. Lichas was the servant and hence the page (line 35 below) of Hercules, who, unknowing, brought that hero the garment poisoned with the blood of the Centaur, Nessus, by the wearing of which Hercules lost his life.

35. Alcides. Hercules was so called from his stepfather’s father, Alcaeus.

42. be advised, be deliberate.

43. Nor will not. A double negative in a negative sense, meaning, Nor will I speak to lady afterward, etc. See above, i. 2. 28: “Nor refuse none.”

44. to the temple, the place in which the Prince’s choice of the caskets was to be made; perhaps no more than a temple-like structure in which the caskets were placed.

46. blest or cursed’st, most blessed or most cursed. It is no uncommon idiom of Elizabethan writers thus “to attach terminations to one adjective which affect others.” Compare Measure for Measure, iv. 6. 13: “The generous and gravest citizens.”

9. scorn running with thy heels. To scorn a thing with the heels, to kick at it, was a proverbial saying. Compare Much Ado About Nothing, iii. 4. 51: “I scorn that with my heels.”

11. Via! Italian for away; and very commonly employed.

12. for the heavens, for heaven’s sake.

17. did something smack [of the knave] … grow to, has been explained as “a household phrase applied to milk when burnt to the bottom of the saucepan, and thence acquiring an unpleasant taste.”

25. God bless [or save] the mark, is used as a parenthetical excuse for the use of a profane or disrespectful word. Launcelot is here waggishly apologizing for using the word devil. Compare the clause, “Saving your reverence,” below, line 27, used in precisely the same manner.

29. incarnal, Launcelot means incarnate. The “nice derangement of epitaphs,” as Mrs. Malaprop afterwards called this use of a word of similar sound but of different sense for ludicrous effect, is very common in the old drama.

37. sand-blind, purblind, half-blind. Compare stone-blind, wholly blind; high-gravel-blind is of course Launcelot’s jest.

39. confusions, Launcelot’s word for conclusions; but Launcelot’s conclusions are confusions, as the rest of this interview discloses.

44. marry, originally Mary, a remnant like by’r Lady (by our Lady), God’s sonties below, and dear me (Deus meus) of a ruder age in which everyday conversation was interlarded with oaths. These terms had by Shakespeare’s day ceased to have more force than mere exclamatory phrases or expletives.

47. sonties. Variously derived from sanctities or from saints, saunties, little saints. Compare by’r Lakin, “by our Ladikin.”

55. well to live, with every prospect of living long.

58. Your worship’s friend and Launcelot, sir. Launcelot whimsically endeavors to get his father to speak of him as Master Launcelot, which his father is unwilling to do out of respect for his “worship,” whom he thinks he is addressing.

59. But I pray you, ergo, old man. Launcelot is not without some sense of the meaning of the learned word which he uses. I pray you, ergo [for that reason, because he is my worship’s friend, call him] Master Launcelot. But enough: Launcelot is trying his “confusions” on us as well as on his father.

61. an’t, if it.

64. father, a general term used in addressing old men. Gobbo does not as yet recognize his mischievous son.

71. hovel-post, post supporting a shed.

82. give me your blessing. Here, according to an old stage tradition, Launcelot kneels with his back to his father, who, groping about, touches his son’s long hair, and mistaking it for a beard, of which Launcelot has no sign, says, “Pray you, sir, stand up: I am sure you are not Launcelot, my boy.” See below lines 86-91.

100. fill-horse, shaft-horse.

110. set up my rest, a phrase taken from the fashionable game of primero, signifying, to stand by the cards one has in one’s hand; and hence to determine, make up one’s mind.

114. tell, count.

115. give me [i.e. for my benefit] your present. The old dative of the personal pronoun is often used where we should use for me or to me; sometimes where the word would seem unnecessary to the modern reader. Compare the phrase, “Do me a favor.”

115. your present. Old Gobbo is the bearer of a gift from the country to Shylock, Launcelot’s master. This gift Launcelot diverts to Bassanio, with whom he desires to take service.

119. I am a Jew. An asseveration used elsewhere. Compare Much Ado About Nothing, ii. 3. 272: “If I do not love her, I am a Jew.”

121. The old editions read, “Enter Bassanio with a follower or two.”

121. hasted, hastened.

123. put the liveries to making, have the liveries made. The old termination en was often confused with ing in Elizabethan English.

125. anon, at once.

128. Gramercy! French grand merci, much thanks.

133. infection, for affection, desire.

139. cater-cousins, a word of doubtful derivation and original meaning, applied to persons on intimate terms with each other, and used occasionally as if synonymous with cousins-germain. It has been thought that the word is connected with cate or cake, and caterer; and means mess-fellows.

142. fruitify, for certify.

146. impertinent, for pertinent.

152. defect, for effect.

155. preferr’d, recommended for promotion.

158. The old proverb. Launcelot alludes to the saying, “The grace of God is gear [wealth] enough.”

162. inquire…out, seek by asking.

164. guarded, trimmed with braid.

166. Well, if any man, etc. Table is the palm of the hand in chiromancy or palmistry. Take the relative which as referring to table and in the causal relation equivalent to for it doth. The meaning of the passage then is: There is no hand in Italy offering fairer signs of palmistry than mine, for it doth offer to swear upon a book that I shall have good fortune.

169. Go to, equivalent to our Come, come. To is here an adverb. Compare its use to “to and fro,” and the nautical expressions, “heave to, come to.”

169. a simple line of life, literally a mean, poor line of life. But Launcelot is speaking ironically in reference to his good fortune. The line of life is the circular line surrounding the thumb. The table line or line of fortune runs from the forefinger, below the other three fingers, to the side of the hand. Launcelot pretends to be reading his own fortune by palmistry, and discovers that he is to be married fifteen times, and other like matters.

176. gear, matter.

178. Notice how the play falls again into blank verse with the departure of the low comedy of Launcelot from the scene.

194. liberal, licentious.

196. skipping spirit. We should say vivacious or frivolous temper. Compare 1 Henry IV, iii. 2. 60: “The skipping king, he ambled up and down.” Spirit is pronounced as one syllable. See below, v. 1. 86.

202, 203. hood mine eyes Thus with my hat. Hats were commonly worn by all persons of station at dinner. To take off the hat, except for courtesy in company, was an acknowledgment of inferiority.

205. ostent, appearance. Compare below, ii. 8. 44: “Fair ostents of love.”

2. Our house is hell. Jessica is distraught between her love for Lorenzo and her religion and duty to her father, hence the extravagance of her words.

5. soon at supper. Compare Richard III, iv. 3. 31.

10. tears exhibit my tongue, tears show what my tongue would express but for them.

16. what heinous sin, i.e. sinfulness.

19. Lorenzo. The story of Jessica’s elopement is apparently of Shakespeare’s own invention. Its purpose is plainly to offer strong additional reasons, – the stealing of his daughter and his ducats by another Christian, – for Shylock’s implacability as to Antonio and his bond.

1. in, during, at. Compare below, v. 1. 1: “In such a night as this.”

5. spoke us yet of torch-bearers, bespoken, or made arrangements for torch-bearers.

10. break up, break open, of a sealed letter. Compare The Winter’s Tale, iii. 2. 132: “Break up the seals and read.”

24. provided of a torch-bearer, with a torch-bearer. Of is used in Elizabethan English not only of the agent, but of the instrument. Compare below, v. I. 296: “You are not satisfied Of these events.”

3. What, Jessica! What, like why and when, was used as an exclamation of impatience. Compare below, v. 1. 151: “What talk you of the posy.”

3. gormandize, the thrifty Shylock and the indolent, careless Launcelot would have very different ideas on this subject. See above, ii. 2. 113, Launcelot’s complaint that he was famished.

5. rend apparel out, tear out, burst.

11. bid forth, invited out.

14. to feed upon The prodigal Christian. This change in Shylock’s earlier determination not to eat with a Christian is due to his purpose of revenge.

18. money-bags. Dreams go by contraries.

18. to-night, here last night, although sometimes used in the modern sense, as below, line 37 of this scene.

21. So do I his [reproach], Shylock takes Launcelot’s word reproach, intended for approach, in its actual sense.

22. An, if.

25. a-bleeding. Bleeding at the nose was formerly regarded as an indication of coming misfortune.

25. Black-Monday. Easter Monday, so called because of a violent winter storm, April 14, 1360, in which many of the soldiers of King Edward III, then besieging Paris, perished of cold.

30. wry-neck’d fife, variously explained as a fife with a wry or crooked neck, or as applying to the fife player, “awry-necked musician, for he always looks away from his instrument.”

33. varnish’d faces. In allusion to the varnished and painted masques worn by masqueraders.

36. Jacob’s staff. Though popularly used of a pilgrim’s staff in general, the word here has reference to Genesis, xxxii. 10 and Hebrews, xi. 21.

37. forth, from home.

37. no mind of feasting forth, no inclination to feast from home. See below, iv. I. 402: “I humbly do desire your grace of pardon.” Observe the use of forth as an adverb; and compare The Merry Wives of Windsor, ii. 2. 276: “Her husband will he forth.”

44. Hagar’s offspring, i.e. son of a bondswoman. Genesis, xvi.

46. patch, used as a nickname for a jester, is probably derived from the motley or patched coat of the professional fool. Notice the touch of kindliness in Shylock’s allusion to Launcelot, and that at the very moment when Jessica is deceiving him with a deliberate lie.

48. the wild-cat, which prowls by night and sleeps all day.

52. Perhaps I will, in modern English shall. Shylock did not feel perfect confidence in Jessica.

56. Note the rhyming couplet which marks the conclusion of a scene, although here the stage setting remains the same, and the action proceeds at once to Jessica’s elopement.

1. pent-house, a shed hanging out aslope of the main building.

2. This line, like many others, especially in the earlier work of Shakespeare, is too long, according to the metrical scheme of English blank verse. As a matter of fact, Shakespeare frequently employs, in the midst of the usual lines of five accents, lines which contain six, and which are known as Alexandrines. This is more often to be met where the dialogue is broken (that is, where the line is divided between two speakers) than elsewhere. In such cases we had better follow the advice of Dr. Furness, and “forego the pleasure of adjusting the rhythm of fragments of lines. As long as each fragment is in itself rhythmical, I doubt,” continues the editor of the Variorum Shakespeare, “if Shakespeare troubled himself to piece them together.”

3. out-dwells, outstays.

5. Venus’ pigeons, doves were sacred to Venus, the goddess of beauty. See Tempest, iv. 1. 92:

“I met her deity
Cutting the clouds towards Paphos, and her son
Dove-drawn with her.”

7. obliged, pronounced as three syllables. The termination ed was commonly pronounced in Shakespeare’s day, although sometimes contracted. See below, in this scene, chased, line 13 ; scarfed, line 15; and placed, line 57.

9. sits down [with].

10. untread again, retrace, repeat in reverse order; said to allude to a horse trained to perform tricks, as in a circus.

14. younker, stripling.

15. scarfed bark, ship decked with flags.

17. See Luke, xv. 1 1-32.

18. over-weather’d, weather-beaten.

21. abode, tarrying, stay.

24. I’ll watch as long, etc. This line contains but nine syllables. But the pause after then takes up one of them, and the line becomes perfectly metrical.

This is no uncommon device where there is a change in the thought, as here. Shakespeare, be it repeated, wrote for the ear and not for the eye, nor yet for the fingers. Compare Measure for Measure, ii. 2. 115-117:

30. who love I. Who for whom, as frequently in Shakespeare. This license extended to all the personal pronouns. Compare below, iii. 2. 321: “All debts are cleared between you and I.”

35. exchange, change of costume to that of a boy.

41-50. What, must I, etc. Shames, in modern English shame. They in themselves [i.e. my shames] are only too manifest. Why, [a torch-bearer’s] office [is one] of discovery, for he bears a light; I should be thrown into the dark. There is a play in this passage on both the words light and obscure. Jessica is far more concerned about her appearance in boy’s clothes than about leaving her father and robbing him.

42. too too, the duplication of the adverb for emphasis is very common. Compare Hamlet, i. 2. 1 29: “O, that this too too solid flesh would melt.”

45. garnish, costume.

47. play the runaway, is hurrying away.

47. close, secret.

48. stay’d, awaited.

51. by my hood. Gratiano swears appropriately by the masquerader’s hood with which he is disguised.

51. Gentile, a heathen, with a play on the word gentle, one well born.

52. Beshrew me, dear me, verily.

4. who is occasionally used referring to an inanimate object as its antecedent, as here. Compare Pericles, i. I. 45: “A mirror Who tells us life’s but breath.”

8. blunt, dull.

14. back again, in inverse order.

20. shows, appearances.

30. disabling, depreciation.

40. mortal-breathing, endowed with human life. Compare mortal-living in Richard III, iv. 4. 26.

41. vasty, desolate.

41. Hyrcanian deserts. Hyrcania was a desert region lying south of the Caspian sea.

43. come [to] view. A common idiom. See Hamlet, ii. 1. 101: “I will go seek the king.”

50. it were too gross, etc. It would be too gross a thing to wrap the burial cloths of such a saint in an obscure grave, i.e. in a casket made of so common a substance as lead.

51. rib, cover, wrap.

51. cerecloth, waxed cloth used in burial.

53. undervalued, inferior in value to. Compare above, i. I. 165. At the date of this play the proportionate value of gold to silver was as about ten to one.

56. an angel, was a gold coin worth at most ten shillings; it was so called from the figure of St. Michael slaying the dragon, on one side.

57. insculp’d upon, engraven on the outside of the coin. Here, on the contrary, an angel [the picture of Portia] lies all within the golden bed, [its casket].

59, 60. key … may, a rhyme in Shakespeare’s day.

63. A carrion Death, a skull or death’s head from which the flesh had rotted away.

63. Death, Death’s head.

65. glisters, glitters.

73. your suit is cold. A proverbial expression. Compare The Two Gentlemen of Verona, iv. 4. 186: “I hope my master’s suit will be but cold.”

10. certified, assured.

12. passion, commotion, passionate outcry. Compare Troilus and Cressida, v. 2. 1 81: “Your passion draws ears hither.”

25. keep his day, be punctual to his day of payment. Note how the unfilial conduct of Jessica, with the loss of his money, is mentioned here as hardening the Jew’s heart against Antonio. Notice also the rumor of misfortune to Antonio’s ships in the next speech.

27. reason’d, conversed with. See above, i. 2. 23.

30. fraught, freighted.

33. You were best to tell. No uncommon idiom for You had better or best tell. Compare 1 Henry VI. v. 3. 82: “I were best to leave him.” This line is readily scanned by regarding You were best as the first foot, either contracted to You’re best; or, better, speedily uttered as in ordinary speech:

39. Slubber, slur over.

40. riping, ripening.

42. mind of love, your loving mind; also explained, “Let me entreat you, of love [i.e. by our mutual love], that you take not the least thought of it.”

44. ostents, shows.

45. conveniently, suitably.

48. affection wondrous sensible, emotion wonderfully sensitive.

52. embraced heaviness, the sadness which has taken hold of him.