Merchant of Venice. - Repositories

SCENE 2.] NOTES 167
open secret, might possibly be interpreted as a hint of the feeling
between the two.
1. 214, Lorenzo. Had the run-away couple come directly
from Venice to Belmont ?
1. 215. Salerio. Some editions do not introduce a new
character here, but make this to read Salanio.
1. 219. very friends. Friends in the truest sense of the
word.
1. 228. commends. Whom did Antonio commend to Bassanio
? Why ?
L 232. estate. Condition.
1. 233. cheer. Why does Portia apparently pay so little
attention to Jessica ?
1. 235. royal. Noble, generous, dignified. Johnson says:
" This epithet was, in our poet's time, more striking and better
understood, because Gresham [a famous London merchant]
was then commonly dignified with the title of the royal
merchant.'*^
1. 239. shrewd. " Keen, in the sense of piercing, painful.^*
(E. H. Lewis.)
L 242, constitution.
L 243, constant.
State of mind,
Well-balanced.
1. 244. half. If you have read Julius Ccesar^ do you re«-
call a similar expression used by the Portia of that play to
her husband Brutus ?
1.268, mere enemy. Unqualified, absolute enemy.