shall be satisfied. Then both departed for the city of Hems *. When they presented themselves before the judgment-seat, the Jew said, O my Lord Judge, this man borrowed an hundred dinars of me, and pledged a pound of flesh from his own body. Command that he give the money and the flesh. It happened, that the Cazi was the friend of the father of the Mussulman, and for this respect, he said to the Jew, "Thou sayest true, it is the purport of the bond; and he desired, that they should bring a sharp knife. The Mussulman on hearing this, became speechless. The knife being brought, the Cazi turned his face to the Jew, and said, "Arise, and cut one pound of flesh from the body of him, in such a manner, that there may not be one grain more or less, and if more or less thou shalt cut, I shall order thee to be killed. The Jew said, I cannot. I shall leave this business and depart. The Cazi said, Thou mayest not leave it. He said, O Judge, I have released him. The Judge said, It cannot be; either cut the flesh, or pay the expence of his journey. It was settled at two hundred dinars: the Jew paid another hundred, and departed." MALONE.

To the collection of novels, &c. wherein the plot of the foregoing play occurs, may be added another, viz. from " Roger Bontemps en Belle Humeur." In the story here related of the Jew and the Christian, the Judge is made to be Solyman, Emperor of the Turks. See the edition of 1731, tom. ii. p. 105.

So far Mr. Douce :-Perhaps this Tale (like that of Parnell's Hermit,) may have found its way into every language.

STEEVENS.

of the Sun, under the name of Heliogabalus, from which the Roman emperor took his name.

It was taken from the Mussulmen by the Tartars, in the year of Christ 1098. Saladin retook it in 1187. The Tartars took it it in the year 1258. Afterwards it passed into the hands of the Mamalukes, and from them to the Turks, who are now in possession of it. This city suffered greatly by a most dreadful earthquake in 1157, when the Franks were in possession of Syria.

HERBELOT.

* Here follows the relation of a number of unlucky adventures in which the Mussulman is involved by the way; but as they only tend to show the sagacity of the Cazi in extricating him from them, and have no connection with Shylock, I have omitted them. T. M.

MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM.

PRELIMINARY REMARKS.

THIS play was entered at Stationers' Hall, Oct 8, 1600, by Thomas Fisher. It is probable that the hint for it was received from Chaucer's Knight's Tale.

There is an old black letter pamphlet by W. Bettie, called Titana and Theseus, entered at Stationers' Hall, in 1608; but Shakspeare has taken no hints from it. Titania is also the name of the Queen of the Fairies in Decker's Whore of Babylon, 1607. STEEVENS.

The Midsummer-Night's Dream I suppose to have been written in 1594. See An Attempt to ascertain the Order of Shakspeare's Plays. MALONE.

There are two quarto editions of this play in 1600; one by Thomas Fisher, the other by James Roberts. They are referred to in the margin by the initials quarto F. and quarto R.

BOSWELL.