V.i.294 (213,5) [_Lor_. Fair ladies, you drop manna in the way Of starved people] [Shakespeare is not more exact in any thing, than in adapting his images with propriety to his speakers; of which he has here given an instance in making the young Jewess call good fortune, _manna_. Warburton.] The commentator should have remarked, that this speech is not, even in his own edition, the speech of the Jewess. V.i.307 (214,6) [_Exeunt omnes_] It has been lately discovered, that this fable is taken from a story in the Pecorope of Ser Giovauni Fiorentino, a novellist, who wrote in 1378. The story has been published in English, and I have epitomised the translation. The translator is of opinion, that the choice of the caskets is borrowed from a tale of Boccace, which I have likewise abridged, though I believe that Shakespeare must have had some other novel in view. (223) General Observation. Of The MERCHANT of VENICE the stile is even and easy, with few peculiarities of diction, or anomalies of construction. The comick part raises laughter, and the serious fixes expectation. The probability of either one or the other story cannot be maintained. The union of two actions in one event is in this drama eminently happy. Dryden was much pleased with his own address in connecting the two plots of his Spanish Friar, which yet, I believe, the critick will find excelled by this play. AS YOU LIKE IT I.i.3 (229,2) [As I remember, Adam, it was upon this fashion bequeathed me. By will, but a poor thousand crowns] There is, in my opinion, nothing but a point misplaced, and an omission of a word which every hearer can supply, and which therefore an abrupt and eager dialogue naturally excludes. I read thus: _As I remember, Adam, it was on this fashion bequeathed me. By will but a poor thousand crowns; and, as thou sayest, charged my brother on his blessing to breed me well._ What is there in this difficult or obscure? The nominative _my father_ is certainly left out, but so left out that the auditor inserts it, in spite of himself. I.i.9 (230,3) [stays me here at home, unkept] [W: Stys] _Sties_ is better than _stays_, and more likely to be Shakespeare's. I.i.19 (230,4) [his countenance seems to take from me] [W: discountenance] There is no need of change, a countenance is either good or bad. I.i.33 (231,5) [be better employ'd, and be nought a while] Warburton explained ["be nought a while" as "a mischief on you"] If _be nought a while_ has the signification here given it, the reading may certainly stand; but till I learned its meaning from this note, I read, _Be better employed, and be_ naught a while. In the same sense as we say, _it is better to do mischief, than to do nothing_. I.i.59 (233,7) [I am no villain] The word _villain_ is used by the elder brother, in its present meaning, for a _worthless, wicked_, or _bloody man_; by Orlando in its original signification, for a _fellow of base extraction_.