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Elizabeth InchbaldREMARKS [on The Merchant of Venice]. 1
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Novels, plays, and songs, are named by the well-known commentators on Shakspeare, as the origin of the fable and incidents of this play. But the "Biographia Dramatica" furnishes the following extract: The story is built on a real fact, which happened in some part of Italy,—with this difference indeed, that the intended cruelty was really on the side of the christian, the jew being the unhappy delinquent, who fell beneath his rigid and barbarous resentment. Popular prejudice, however, vindicates our author in the alteration he has made; and the delightful manner in which he has availed himself of the general character of the jews, the very quintessence of which he has enriched his Shylock with, makes more than amends for his deviating from a matter of fact, which he was by no means obliged to adhere to.2

From whatever ground Shakspeare took his materials for this drama, he has most dexterously sorted and cemented them to form one excellent whole.

Probability is, indeed, continually violated in "The Merchant of Venice;" but so it should ever be in plays, or not at all—one improbable incident only, among a train of natural occurrences, revolts an audience; but where all is alike extravagant, comparison is prevented, and extravagance becomes familiar.b 2

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Boldness of design, strength of character, excellence of dialogue, with prepossession in favour of the renowned author of this work, shield every fault from observation, or from producing an ill effect by its intrusion.

Refinement is honourable to our nation; and the delicacy of the English stage at present is the best characteristic of that elegant propriety, with which the public shrink from all savage indecorum of principles or manners, however excited by passions, or by debased sentiments. Yet, with due respect for refined notions, they would indisputably, in Shakspeare's days, have limited and impaired his mighty genius.

The knife to cut—the scales to weigh—and what? part of an enemy's body!3

It is worthy a moment's time to figure, in imagination, how a London audience would receive such a scene, as the most admired one in this comedy, were it now brought on the stage for the first time. It is to be feared that the company in the side boxes would faint, or withdraw; the galleries be in a tumult of hissing; while the pit would soberly declare—"that though there was great merit in the author's writing, such things could not be tolerated in action."4

Macklin was the soul, which, infused into Shylock, first animated this favourite drama—no fiend-like malice, no outrageous cruelty, no diabolical joy in human misery, seemed too excessive for the nature of mankind, when he depicted those extraordinary crimes. In the art of representing this character, his person, features, deportment, and tones of voice, appeared so inar-[Page 5]tificial, they were so much like those of unaffected man, that his mind seemed human too; and all uninteresting prodigy was done away.

Dramatic authors of former times have generally encouraged the disobedience and treachery of children to their parents. Shakspeare, in his "Lear," has most honourably supported a father's cause, and therefore ought not to receive indiscriminate reproach along with his contemporary poets, or immediate successors; yet of his gentle Jessica5 may be said—she proved in her disposition a strong resemblance to the wicked Shylock, or, though she had deserted, she never would have robbed him.

The "Jew of Venice," by Lord Landsdown, is an alteration of this play, and was acted in 1701.6 The noble author made some emendations in the work, but having made the Jew a comic character, as such he caused more laughter than detestation, which wholly destroyed the moral designed by the original author.

One of the pleasantries in the "Jew of Venice" is, where, at a feast, Shylock being placed at a separate table, in consequence of his separate faith, drinks to his money, as his only friend.

Dr. Johnson has said, of Shakspeare's "Merchant of Venice:"—

The style is even and easy, with few peculiarities of diction, or anomalies of construction. The comic part raises laughter, and the serious fixes expectation. The probability of either the one or the other story cannot be maintained. The union of two b 3[Page 6]actions in one event, is in this drama eminently happy.

Dryden was much pleased with his own address in connecting the two plots in his "Spanish Friar;"7 which yet, I believe, the critic will find excelled by this play.8

Notes

1.  "Remarks." The Merchant of Venice; A Comedy, In Five Acts; By William Shakspeare. As Performed at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden. Printed Under the Authority of the Managers From the Prompt Book. With Remarks by Mrs. Inchbald, London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, Paternoster Row, pp. 3-6. The British Theatre; or, A Collection of Plays, Which Are Acted At the Theatres Royal, Drury Lane, Covent Garden, and Haymarket. Printed Under the Authority of the Managers from the Prompt Books. With Biographical and Critical Remarks, by Mrs. Inchbald. In Twenty-Five Volumes. Vol. II. King Henry IV. First Part. King Henry IV. Second Part. Merchant of Venice. King Henry V. Much Ado About Nothing. London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, Paternoster Row. 1808. The first performance of this play was staged in 1596 or 1597. Laura DeWitt and Mary A. Waters edited this essay for The Criticism Archive. Back

2.  From David Erskine Baker's Biographia Dramatica, or, A Companion to the Playhouse (1782), vol. 2, pp. 228-229. Back

3.  Inchbald alludes to Act IV, scene i, in which Shylock demands a pound of flesh as payment for the defaulted loan of Antonio, the play's protagonist. Back

4.  Inchbald echoes a comment of Samuel Johnson in the Preface of his The Plays of William Shakespeare, in Eight Volumes, with the Corrections and Illustrations of Various Commentators (1765), vol. 1. Back

5.  Daughter of Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. Jessica elopes with a poor Christian man, converting to Christianity and taking a chest of her father's money with her. Back

6.  George Granville's The Jew of Venice: A Comedy, first published and produced in 1701, was widely met with critical acclaim and held performances for forty years. Back

7.  John Dryden's The Spanish Friar, first published and produced in 1681, connects its tragic plot with its comedic subplot in the play's conclusion. Back

8.  From Johnson's The Plays of William Shakespeare, in Eight Volumes, with the Corrections and Illustrations of Various Commentators (1765), vol. 1, p. 488. Back