Page 96 - William_Shakespeare_-_The_Merchant_of_Venice_191

—Tubal
Yes, other men have ill luck too. Antonio, as I heard in Genoa—

—Shylock
54 55
What? What? Tell me—what kind of ill luck?

—Tubal
He hath an argosy, cast away, coming from Tripolis.

—Shylock
I have heard the same.° Is it true, is it true? {I thank God, I thank God.}

—Tubal
I spoke with some of the sailors who escaped the wreck.

—Shylock
I thank thee, good Tubal. Good news. What else did you hear in Genoa? 56

54.{What, what, what, ill luck, ill luck.} / What? What? Ill luck for Antonio?
This line is anomalous and probably a result of some ‘typesetting correction.’ This odd repeating of words
(which is also found in line 96 and line 99) may have resulted from a portion of original line being unreadable (due
to a smudge) and the typesetter, in an attempt to fix it, simply repeated some of the words that were readable. In one
possibility, the original manuscript may have appeared as such:
~~~~~what ~~~~~~ ill luck.
a) typesetter’s rectification: ‘What, what, what, ill luck, ill luck.’
b) present rectification: ‘Tell me what kind of ill luck?’ / What, what kind of ill luck?
All three lines (94, 96, and 99) are suspect, both in content and in their odd repeating of words. One might
argue that since the same kind of repetition appeared three times that it must have been part of the original; or, it
could be, that the original page was smudged in several places and the typesetter rectified all the lines in the same
way (not by omitting words that were smudged but by repeating words from the same line).
55. In this line Shylock seems to hear about Antonio’s ill-luck with surprise, suggesting that he is hearing the news
(and delighting in it) for the first time. Yet earlier in the scene Shylock mentions Antonio’s loses and how he is a
bankrupt and a prodigal. So, there is some obvious repetition. Some commentators believe that this part of the scene
(between Shylock and Tubal) formed the whole of the scene; in a later draft—intending to show Shylock’s
vengefully human side, and also explain some of his reasons for wanting to kill Antonio—the author added
Shylock’s famous speech, ‘Hath not a Jew eyes?’
56. Both the quartos and the folios have ‘hear in Genoa’ {heere in Genowa} which most editors emend as ‘heard in
Genoa?’ They defend this emendation by stating that d and e were easily confused in Elizabethan handwriting,
though they have no answer as to how ea, in heard, would have been mis-typeset as ee, in heere. In addition, the
term heard is used both before [93] and after [101] this line, without error, which makes such a midstream typo even
more unlikely. The line, as it stands in Q1, or as summarily emended, is defective, and we can assume some type
error—most likely an error of omission rather than one of typesetting.
With the emended phrase, ‘Ha, ha, heard in Genoa?’ Shylock is made to repeat what Tubal had previously
said (‘Antonio, as I heard in Genoa’). Thus, the line would mean: ‘Ha, ha, so that is what you heard (about Antonio)
in Genoa?’ However, Tubal’s response is about Jessica—not Antonio—suggesting that Shylock is not oddly
repeating Tubal’s phrase but inquiring about his daughter. Thus, Shylock’s phrase ‘Hear in Genoa?’ could be
emended as, ‘What else did you hear in Genoa?’ or ‘What did you hear about my daughter in Genoa?’ With this
emendation (preserving the word hear and not changing it to heard) Shylock is asking for news about his daughter
and not repeating Tubal’s words about Antonio’s ventures (which is something he already knows).
With respect to the anomalous repetitions of lines 94, 96, and 99 (see note 53) portions of the line may have
been smudged and the typesetter (trying to rectify the line) took to repeating words from the same line (that were
already readable) as opposed to a) omitting the smudged words altogether, or b) trying to fill in the unreadable words
with new ones of his own creation. (We thank thee good typesetter for not trying to do this!)
In trying to rectify the line, one could, a) leave it as it appears in Q1, b) include the typesetter’s rectification
along with an additional one, or c) rectify the line (without relying upon the typesetter’s rectification). Thus:
a) I thank thee good Tubal. Good news, good news! Ha, ha. Hear in Genoa. (or ‘Heard in Genoa’)