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(2) Loose the forfeiture.-To loose means to 'remit, let go, and so forgive. The forfeiture means the thing that was to be forfeited, namely, the pound of Antonio's flesh.

(3) Upon your charter.-A charter is an instrument in writing from some sovereign power, conferring rights and privileges. Shylock speaks as if the freedom of the city would be forfeited if strict justice were not awarded.

269. (1) A gaping pig.-A pig's head prepared for the table, with a lemon between its open jaws.

(2) A losing suit.—A suit in which I have nothing to gain. The word suit is here used in its legal sense of an action brought by one party against another.

(3) Think you question, etc.-Reflect that you are arguing,

etc.

(4) Main flood.—The ocean. The open sea is still spoken of as 'The Main.'

(5) Let me have judgment. Let sentence be pronounced against me. Judgment is here used in the sense of adverse

judgment.

270. (1) In slavish parts.—In menial offices and occupations.

(2) Padua.—A town in Northern Italy, about twenty miles from Venice. Its famous University used to be attended by students from all parts of Europe.

271. (1) Within his danger.-Within his power. This use of the word was common in Shakespeare's time, and it still remains in the proverb, 'Out of debt, out of danger.'

(2) Shows.-Represents; is the symbol of.

272. (1) To render the deeds of mercy.

The word render here means to pay, to give what one is in duty bound to give. It sometimes means to requite, to repay, and sometimes merely to give, as in Antonio's speech at the close of this scene.

(2) Which, if thou follow.-If thou pursue, follow up thy suit.

(3) Discharge the money.-Pay the money due, i.e. the debt. Discharge the debt is the more usual expression.

(4) Wrest once the law to your authority.-For once make your authority superior to the law. To wrest means to twist or turn aside with violence, and so to pervert or turn aside from right and truth.

E.g. 'Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of thy poor.'

273. (1) Hath full relation.-Is entirely applicable. The law fully sanctions the penalty laid down in the agreement.

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(2) Are there balance.-Are there scales. Two scales go to a balance, so that the use of the plural verb is not wholly indefensible.

(3) On your charge.-At your expense.

275. (1) Speak me fair in death.-Speak well of me after my death. To speak fair generally means to speak kindly to a person, not of him.

(2) A love.-Lover is used by old writers to signify a bosom friend. Love is here used in the same sense.

(3) If she were by.-Bassanio little guessed that the speaker was his own wife. (See introduction to Scene.)

(4) Behind her back.-Gratiano, too, was ignorant of the presence of Nerissa (his wife), disguised as she was in the dress of a lawyer's clerk.

277. (1) In the substance.-In the bulk, in the gross weight.

(2) I have thee on the hip.-I have thee at a disadvantage. The expression, which occurs two or three times in Shakespeare, is probably a wrestler's phrase.

278. (1) Which humbleness may drive into a fine. -Humility or submission on your part may induce the state to let you off with a simple fine.

(2) To quit the fine.-To absolve the Jew from the fine which was to take the place of the threatened confiscation of half his goods to the state (not to Antonio: see Duke's speech). The half that was to be forfeited to himself, Antonio proposes to keep for the benefit of Jessica the Jew's daughter. 279. Nicholas Machiavel.—See note to p. 143.

282. (1) Mercia.—The middle of England, stretching from the borders of Wales, on the west, to the North Sea and western borders of East Anglia (Norfolk and Suffolk), on the east, and from the river Thames, on the south, to the rivers Ribble, Don, and Humber, on the north.

(2) Northumbria. - The north eastern part of England, stretching from the Humber to the Firth of Forth. By the middle of the seventh century the seven smaller states (the Saxon Heptarchy) had been reduced to three-Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex; and of these three, Northumbria, under Ecgfr th (670-685), was the most powerful.

(3) Ecgfrith's successors. -Ealdfrith the Learned and Ceolwulf. (4) Jarrow.-A town on the south bank of the river Tyne, about three miles from its mouth.

(5) The Synod of Whitby. A great council was held at Whitby in 664, to decide whether Northumbria was to be in

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communion with the Roman Church or with the Irish. The decision was in favour of Rome.

(6) Benedict Biscop.-One of the supporters of the claims of Rome. He built a church and monastery at Wearmouth. 283. (1) Wilfrith (of York).

Another supporter of the claims of Rome. Both he and Benedict Biscop made many journeys to and from Rome.

(2) The Greek Archbishop Theodore.-Theodore of Tarsus, a Greek monk, was sent from Rome four years after the Synod of Whitby to secure England to the Romish sway, as Archbishop of Canterbury.

(3) Plato (429-347 B.C.). One of the greatest of the Greek philosophers.

(4) Aristotle (384-322 B.c.).—Another Greek philosopher. In some respects he was even greater than his master, Plato.

(5) Seneca.-A famous Latin moralist. Born a few years B.C Died 65 A.D.

(6) Cicero (106-43 B.C.).-An active politician, an able administrator, an eloquent moralist, and one of the greatest orators that the world has ever known,

(7) Lucretius (about 100-50 B.C.). A famous Latin poet. Author of the De Rerum Natura ('On the Nature of Things'), a philosophical poem in six books.

(8) Ovid (43 B.C.-18 A.D.).-One of the chief poets of the Augustan era.

(9) Virgil (70-19 B.C.).-The greatest of the Roman poets. His Eneid, or story of the adventures of Æneas-the legendary ancestor of the Roman people-is one of the greatest epics that have ever been produced.

(10) Dante (1265–1321).—A native of Florence. The greatest of the Italian poets. Author of the Divina Commedia, in which he narrates his visits to Purgatory, Hell, and Heaven.

295. The Smith in the novel.-Henry the Smith in Sir Walter Scott's novel The Fair Maid of Perth.

296. (1) 'Lips of fuller sound.' — This is a free translation of os magna sonaturum (literally, a mouth which is ready to utter— or sound forth-great things).

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(2) The noble mind in the noble body.'-The Latin is, 'Mens magna in corporo magno' (literally, a great mind in a great body).

297. (1) Michael Angelo (Buonarotti) (1474-1563).-A famous Italian painter, sculptor, and architect.

(2) Raffaelle (or Raphael) (1483-1520).

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painter. His countrymen called him the 'Divine,' and many connoisseurs regard him as the greatest of painters.

(3) The Apollo Belvedere.-A celebrated statue, the work of some ancient sculptor, which is generally regarded as embodying the highest ideal of manly beauty. It was discovered in

1503.

298. (1) Demosthenes (385-322 BC.).-A famous Athenian statesman and patriot, and the greatest orator of antiquity.

(2) Thucydides.-See Biographical Notes, p. 384.
(3) Herodotus.-See Explanatory Note (1) to p. 66.

(4) Addison, Joseph (1672-1719). — An illustrious poet and essayist. His poems have long since lost the popularity which they once enjoyed, but his prose will never cease to charm.

299. Gibbon.-See Biographical Notes, p. 379.

302. Pope, Alexander (1688-1744). — The greatest poet of his age. Author of the Essay on Criticism, the Rape of the Lock, the Dunciad (a satire), and many other poems, and translator of the Iliad and Odyssey. As a literary artist, Pope has never been surpassed.

305. Dryden, John 1631-1700).-Next to Milton, the greatest poet of the seventeenth century. Author of Absalom and Achitophel (perhaps the greatest satire in our language), The Hind and the Panther, the magnificent Ode on Alexander's Feast, a volume of Fables, many minor poems, and a large number of comparatively worthless plays, and translator of Virgil.

306. Dodsley, Robert (1703–1764).—Author and publisher. His Select Collection of Old Plays (12 vols.) is the work by which he is best known to fame.

311. M. Taine (born 1828).-A French critic and historian. One of the ablest and most brilliant of contemporary authors.

312. (1) Greene, Robert.-An English poet and dramatist who lived in the latter part of the sixteenth century.

(2) Nash, Thomas (1564-1600).-A satirist and dramatist. (3) Marlowe, Christopher (1563-1593). The greatest of Shakespeare's precursors. Author of Tamburlaine the Great, The Life and Death of Dr. Faustus, The Jew of Malta, Edward II., and other dramas. Greene, Nash, and Marlowe all led wild and reckless lives, and the last-named met with a miserable death, being stabbed in a brawl in a tavern at Deptford.

315. Victor Hugo (born 1802).—The greatest of French contemporary poets.

GLOSSARY.

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