NOTES
Dramatis Personæ. These were first given, under the heading of 'The Actors Names,' in the third Quarto (1637). Words in brackets have been added by later editors.
I. i. 98. damn those ears, etc. If they did speak, the people hearing them would immediately call them fools, and thus be in danger of damnation. An allusion to Matthew 5. 22: 'whosoever shall say to his brother . . . Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.'
I. i. 112. In a neat's tongue dried, etc. A neat is a bovine animal. The meaning of the whole passage is that everybody ought to talk except prudes. Possibly it is a fragment of some popular saying or song.
I. i. 122. That. The word may refer to either the lady or the pilgrimage; it is impossible to say which, but both are probably implied.
I. i. 146. innocence. Furness is probably right in thinking innocence here to mean foolishness. Compare the words in the preceding line, 'childhood proof.' Bassanio knew that he had no good reason for asking for more money, when he had not paid what he already owed.
I. i. 167. Cato's daughter, Brutus' Portia. The Portia of Brutus appears in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, a play which seems not to have been written till half a dozen years after The Merchant of Venice.
I. i. 172. Colchos' strond. Colchis was a legendary country in Asia, on the eastern shore (strond) of the Black Sea. Jason went thither in search of the golden fleece, and with the aid of Medea (whom he later deserted) found and brought away the prize.
I. ii. 50. choose. This much discussed passage seems to me to mean simply, 'if you don't like me, choose somebody else; choose for yourself.'
