48 L. A. Sherman 



Stephana. None but a holy hermit, and her maid. . . . 

 Nothing loose in literature — in play or in poem — ever caught Dr. John- 

 son napping. ' I do not perceive,' says Johnson, in his unfaltering accent, 

 ' the use of this hermit, of whom nothing is seen or heard afterwards. 

 The Poet had first planned his fable some other way, and inadvertently, 

 when he had changed his scheme, retained something of the original design.' 



By the way, why does our author make Lorenzo and Jessica 

 furnish the 'duet^ they idealize? The FoHo directs (1. 68) Play 

 musicke; and Nerissa recognizes (1. 98) the performers, — 

 It is your music madam, of the house, — 



as players (or singers?) belonging to the menage. They stop (1. 

 109) at Portia's order. And Lorenzo, we remember (1. 53), has 

 bidden Stephano 



bring your music out into the air. 



Possibly Shakespeare, who never blotted a line, discarded at 

 times whole first drafts of acts and scenes. But the evidence 

 here hardly helps to prove it. And Johnson after all is nothing 

 if not one of the expounders with whom (p. 46) Quiller-Couch 

 has grown impatient. 



Well, let us see. The question (1. 32), 



Who comes with her, — 



is clearly used, after the stage manner, to bring oiit that Portia 

 and Nerissa are attended. And if, finally, the attendant were not 

 needed, could such a specific, intimation have been ' inadvertently' 

 allowed to stand? When Portia committed to Lorenzo (IV. iv. 

 24, 25) the 'husbandry and manage' of her home, it was done, 

 she said, that she might take up her abode at a near-by monastery 

 till Bassanio's return. Presumably, then, she and Nerissa resort 

 there as the first stage on their way to the ' tranect, the common 

 ferry which trades to Venice.' It is some distance to this ferry, 

 since Portia shall reach it only a little before Balthasar's arrival, 

 with notes and garments, from Bellario. It is not likely that 

 Portia and Nerissa set out from the monastery unattended. A 

 hermit may well have been the escort and protector forth to the 

 tranect, back from it to the monastery, and then for much or most 

 (III. iv. 31) of the remaining two miles hither. What could 



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