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Excerpt from The Reader's Shakespeare, Vol. 3 of 3: His Dramatic Works Condensed, Connected, and Emphasized, for School, College, Parlour, and Platform; Comedies
A rich and beautiful heiress residing at Belmont, named Portia, is compelled by the will of her deceased father to subject every suitor to the choice of a golden, silver, or leaden casket: in the latter is enclosed a portrait of the lady, who is to become the wife of its fortunate possessor. Bassanio, a young Venetian gentleman, at length obtains the prize, and is scarcely united to his bride, when be re ceives intelligence from Venice that his dear friend Antonio from whose liberality he has procured the means of prose cuting his suit, is completely ruineu; and that a bond, which he has executed with a Jew for the payment of a sum of money within a certain period, on forfeiture oi a. Pound of flesh nearest his heart, is now demanded by his inexorable creditor. After receiving a ring from his bride with professions of constancy, Bassmzio ¿ies to the relief of his patron: the lady, in the mean time, procures letters of recommendation from an eminent civilian, and, in the dis guise of a doctor of laws, is introduced to the Duke, as a person well qualified to decide the cause pending between the merchant and the Jew and at length, by her ingenuity, the unfortunate debtor is delivered from his savage per secutor. The disguised lawyer persists in refusing all pecuniary recompense, and entreats from Bassanio the ring which she had presented to him at his departure, which he reluctantly yields the same expedient is successfully tried by the waiting-maid, disguised as a lawyer's clerk. The lady and her attendant now hasten home; and, on the ar rival of their husbands, amuse themselves wnth witnessing their confusion at the loss of their love tokens, till the stratagem is at length fully explained. The remainder of this play is occupied with the elopement of Jessica, the daughter of the Jew, with a young man, named Lorenzo, who procures from his father-in-law the reversion of hm whole property.
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