When Shylock is worsted the traditional business is for him to leave the stage with the air of a martyr going to his execution, and thus produce a tragic climax where none is wanted. We seem to get an indication of what should be Shylock's behaviour in his hour of adversity by reading the Italian version of the story, with which Shakespeare was familiar. "Everyone present was greatly pleased and deriding the Jew said: 'He who laid traps for others, is caught himself.' The Jew seeing he could gain nothing, tore in pieces the bond _in a great rage_." Indeed, Shylock's words, "Why, then the devil give him good of it! I'll stay no longer question," are exactly suited to the action of tearing up the bond. Certain it is that only by Shylock being "in a great rage," as he rushes off the stage, can the audience be greatly pleased, and in a fit humour to be interested in the further doings of Portia. Scene 2 of this act is generally omitted on the stage, though it seems to me necessary in order to show how Nerissa gets possession of Gratiano's ring; it also affords an opportunity for some excellent business on the part of Nerissa, who walks off arm in arm with her husband, unknown to him. The last act is the shortest fifth act in the Globe edition, and if deficient in action Shakespeare gives it another interest by the wealth and music of its poetry, a device more than once made use of by him to strengthen undramatic material. Shakespeare's knowledge of the value of sound, in dramatic effect, is shown by Launcelot interrupting the whispering of the lovers, and profaning the stillness of the night with his halloas, which have a similar effect to the nurse's calls in the balcony scene of Romeo and Juliet; it is also shown by the music, and in the tucket sound; while the picture brought to the imagination, by allusion to the light burning in Portia's hall, gives reality to the scene. ROMEO AND JULIET.[11] The argument that Arthur Brooke affixes to his poem, "Romeus and Iuliet," runs as follows: "Loue hath inflamed twayne by sodayn sight, And both do graunt the thing that both desyre: They wed in shrift, by counsell of a frier. Yong Romeus clymes fayre Iuliets bower by night, Three monthes he doth enjoy his cheefe delight. By Tybalts rage, prouoked unto yre, He payeth death to Tybalt for his hyre. A banisht man, he scapes by secret flight, New mariage is offred to his wyfe. She drinkes a drinke that seemes to reue her breath, They bury her, that sleping yet hath lyfe. Her husband heares the tydinges of her death: He drinkes his bane. And she with Romeus knyfe, When she awakes, her selfe (alas) she sleath." And the title of the same story in William Painter's "Palace of Pleasure," is on the same lines: