into light, than if you had discovered an Otho or a Niger. A SON G. Shewing the crueltie of Gernutus a Jew, who lending to a merchant an hundred crownes, would have a pound of his fleshe because he could not pay him at the time appointed. IN Venice town not long agoe Gernutus called was the Jew, His life was like a barrow hogge, Or like a filthy heap of dung, So fares it with this usurer, For fear the theefe doth him pursue His heart doth think on many a while, How to deceive the poore; His mouth is almost full of mucke, His wife must lend a shilling, For every week a penny, Yet bring a pledge that's double worth, If that you will have any. And see (likewise) you keep your day, Or else you lose it all: This was the living of his wife, Her cow she doth it call. Within that citie dwelt that time Desiring him to stand his friend, Whatsoever he would demand of him No penny for the loan of it For one yeere you shall pay; But we will have a merry jeast You shall make me a bond (quoth he) And this shall be the forfeiture, The second part of the Jew's crueltie; setting forth the mercifulnesse of the Judge towards the Merchant. With right good will the merchant said, When twelve months and a day drew on The merchant's ships were all at sea, Which way to take, or what to doe, And to Gernutus straight he comes My day is come, and I have not With all my heart, Gernutus said, He goes his way; the day once past To get a serjeant presentlie, And layd him into prison strong, For judgment he doth call. The merchant's friends came thither fast, For other means they could not find, Some offered for his 100 crownes Five hundred for to pay; And some a thousand, two or three, Yet still he doth denay. And at the last, 10,000 crownes They offered him to save, A pound of flesh is my demand, Then said the judge, yet my good friend To take the fleshe from such a place Doe so, and loan 100 crownes, No, no, quoth he, no judgment here It grieved all the companie, For neither friend nor foe could help The bloudie Jew now ready is With whetted blade in hand And as he was about to strike Sith needs thy forfeit thou wilt have For if thou doe, like murtherer, For if thou take either more or lesse, Gernutus now waxt frantic mad, 113 And at the last he doth demand, No, quothe the Judge, do as you list, Either take your pound of fleshe, (qd. he) O cruel Judge, then quoth the Jew, And so with griped grieved minde Good people that do hear this song, That seeketh nothing but the spoyle From whom the Lord deliver me, And every Christian too, And send to them like sentence eke, That meaneth so to do. Printed at London by E. P. for J. Wright dwelling in It will be proper to subjoin what the ingenious Mr. Warton has observed upon this subject...." It may be objected, says he, that this Ballad might have been written after, and copied from Shakspeare's play. But if that had been the case, it is most likely, that the author would have preserved Shakspeare's name of Shylock for the Jew; and nothing is more likely, than that Shakspeare, in copying from this Ballad, should alter the name from Gernutus to one more Jewish. Another argument is, that our Ballad has the air of a narrative written before Shakspeare's play; I mean, that, if it had been written after the |