Merchant of Venice. - Repositories

ScKNB 1.] NOTES 125
1. 61. prevented. Come before. The word is used in its
original Latin meaning.
1. 66. laugh. Have a good time together. To whom is Bassanio
talking ?
1. 67. exceeding. What form of this word would we require
here to-day ?
1. 67. strange. Like a stranger.
1.74. respect. Thought.
1. 75. lose. In what sense may Antonio, even at the time
that Gratiano is speaking, be said to be " losing the world " ?
I. 77. What word should be emphasized in reading this line ?
II. 78, 79. play a part. Cf. the familiar lines in As You
Like It: —
^' All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players.''
1. 79. fool. This is not used at all in the modern sense of
the word, but in reference to a professional jester, known as
the "court-fool," a personage who was kept in the palace to
amuse the king and his nobles.
1. 82. mortifying. Deadly, used in the strict Latin sense.
What other instance have we had in the play of a word used
with its original Latin meaning ? In regard to the statement
made in this line Rolfe says, "There may be an allusion here
to the old belief that every sigh or groan robbed the heart of a
drop of blood." Judging from the first seven lines of Gratiano's