Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/384

 ']^ Shakespearian Story in Serbian Folklore.

with the story of Shylock, but, in one episode at least it agrees with our cycle. In the main it resembles the Ragusan tale. A young Christian merchant — thus runs the tale — ^was once in debt for the sum of one hundred grossi/ but was unable to pay, and his creditor threatened to have him cast in gaol. He besought all the Christians in the town to lend him the money, but all refused, and finally a Jew agreed to help him, but only on condition that if the young Christian should fail to repay the money ere night-fall, the Jew should be entitled to cut a pound of flesh from his leg. In this tale the tongue motif has disappeared. When the Christian, who found means to repay the borrowed money in time, went to seek the Jew in the evening, he found that the Jew had closed his shop on purpose, before night-fall that day, in order to avoid having to receive the money, and the Christian, unable to see his creditor, put off the matter till the morrow. But on the morrow the Jew refused to receive the money and demanded the execution of his bond. In Court, the sentence is the same as in the other tales. The Cadi says to the Jew, " Take thy knife and cut a pound of flesh, but take heed to cut just one pound, otherwise thou art con- demned to death." Finally the Jew is sentenced to pay a fine of five thousand grossi.

How did the Shylock plot come to be the subject of Serbian, Croatian and Slovene folk-tales } I will not be so bold as to offer a complete solution of this difficult problem, but at the same time I will try to give a few indications.

It is well-known that the plot of the Merchant of Venice is not confined to Shakespeare's play, but is found in several other works as well. Shakespeare took his plot from the Pecorone, a collection of tales written by Ser Giovanni Fiorentino in 1378. The tale also occurs in the Gesta Romanorum, before 1342, under the title of De milite con- ^ A coin of varying value, equal to about 6d.