The Actors Names. The Duke of Venice. Morochus, a Prince, and a Sutor to Portia. The Prince of Aragon, Sutor alfo to Portia. Bassanio, an Italian Lord, Sutor likewise to Portia. Salarino, Salanio, Gratiano, Lorenfo, Gentlemen of Venice, and Compa- Shylock, the rich Iew, and Father of Ieffica. 1. First given in Q,. 3. Morochius, a Moorish Prince, Rowe. 7. Salarino] Solarino. Rowe. 5 ΙΟ 11. Shylock] STEEVENS: Our author, as Dr Farmer informs me, took this name from an old pamphlet, entitled 'Caleb Shillocke his prophecie, or the Jewes Prediction.' London, printed for T. P. (Thomas Pavier), no date. MALONE: If Shakespeare took the name of Shylock from the pamphlet mentioned by Dr Farmer, it certainly was not printed by Thomas Pavier, to whom Steevens has ascribed it, for that prototype of Curl had not commenced a bookseller before 1598. The pamphlet in question, which was not in Dr Farmer's collection (nor do I know where it is to be found), may have been printed by Thomas Purfoot. BosWELL: Mr Bindley had a copy of this pamphlet, the date of which was 1607. Therefore,' says Knight, who quotes this note of Boswell, 'Farmer's theory is worthless.' HUNTER (New Illust. i, 307): We collect that Shylock was a Levantine Jew from the name: Scialac, which is doubtless the same name in a different orthography, being the name of a Maronite of Mount Libanus, who was living in 1614. See Account of the MSS. in the Library of France, 1782, p. 23. For this very valuable reference I am indebted to some pencil notes on this play by the late Mr F. G. Waldron. HALLIWELL (N. & Qu. 1st Ser. vol. i, p. 221): Upton, in 1748, remarked that Scialac was the generic name, and Shylock merely a corruption. It by no means follows that 1607 is the date of the first edition of Caleb Shillocke, merely because Boswell saw a copy bearing that date. M. A. LOWER (N. & Qu. 1st Ser. vol. i, p. 184): Was not Shylock, a proper name among the Jews, derived from the designation employed by the patriarch Jacob in predicting the advent of the Messiah,'until Shiloh come'—(Gen. xlix, 10)? The difference between Shiloach and Shylock is very trivial indeed. But, after all, Shylock may have been a family name familiar to the great dramatist. In all my researches on the subject of English Surnames, however, I have but once met with it as a generic distinction. In the Battel Abbey Deeds occurs a power of attorney to Richard Shylok of Hoo, co. Sussex. The date ix Tuball, a Iew, Shilocks Friend. Portia, the rich Italian Lady. 12 13. the...Lady] an Heiress of great Quality and Fortune. Rowe. an heiress. Johns. a rich Heiress. Cap. of this document is 4 July, 1435. STAUNTON: This may have been an Italian name, Scialocca, the change of which into Shylock was natural. At all events, it was a name current among the Jews, for, at the end of an extremely rare tract, called 'A Jewes Prophesy, or Newes from Rome of two mightie Armies, as well footemen as horsmen,' 1607, is a piece entitled: 'Caleb Shilock his prophesie for the yeere 1607,' which begins as follows:- Be it knowne unto all men, that in the yeare 1607, when as the moone is in the watrye signe, the world is like to bee in great danger; for a learned Jew named Caleb Shilock doth write that, in the foresaid yeere, the sun shall be covered with the dragon in the morning, from five of the clocke untill nine and will appeare like fire,' &c. Although pretending to be a prophecy for the year 1607, this edition was a reprint of a much older copy, the date of the predicted event being altered to give interest to the publication. CLARENDON: In Pepys's Collection of Ballads, vol. i, p. 38, is one with the title Calebbe Shillocke, his Prophesie: or the lewes Prediction. To the tune of Bragandarie.' The second verse begins, And first, within this present yeere, Beeing sixteene hundreth seau'n. The existence of the name in the title of this ballad is sufficient to show that it was known in Shakespeare's time. CASSEL (Literatur u. Symbolik, 1884, p. 384): Ock is a termination found in many old languages, notably in the Irish, and, as it were, represents the Latin us. Shyl is the Hebrew name Schaul; therefore, Saulus. 12. Tuball] Karl Elze (Essays, p. 383): Tubal and Chus are taken from Genesis, x, 2 and 6, without change. 13. Portia] I have seen it somewhere stated, though I cannot now remember where or by whom, that Julius Cæsar and the characters which were grouped around him seem to have made a deep impression on the mind of Shakespeare, and that there is scarcely one of his plays wherein an allusion to them may not be found. The choice of this present name may be cited in illustration of the truth of this, together with Bassanio's direct allusion to Brutus's Portia, in I, i, 176.—ED. TH. ELZE (Sh. Jahrbuch, xiii, 145): We shall hardly be contradicted when we say that every man of the North, especially a German, believes the ideal of Southern female beauty to be a slender lovely figure, an oval face, a Grecian nose, glowing dark eyes, and hair of glossy jet, flowing down over a haughty, Junonian neck. It would never occur to any poet north of the Alps in choosing an Italian heroine to represent her otherwise than with jet black hair, nor could any reader otherwise imagine a Fiormona or a Bianca Capello. In the most striking opposition to this almost universal idea, Shakespeare describes the Venetian Portia as a blonde: 'her sunny locks Hang on her temples like a golden fleece.' Is not this 'die blonde Engländerin,' or at least a blonde maiden of the North? But before we charge Shakespeare's poetic fancy with this carelessness, we must first look around somewhat more closely in Venice. The great masters of the Venetian school in the 16th Century: Titian, Giorgione, Palma Vecchio, Paris Bordone, and others gave to their Ideal of female beauty redgolden hair. Like these great Venetian painters, the great English Dramatist arrays the ideal creature of his fancy, not only with all the wealth of intellectual and worldly gifts and graces, but also with an enchanting ornament rarely seen in Venice, sunny |