ABSTRACT
Irving made numerous cuts to The Merchant of Venice, first performed on 1 November 1879. He dispensed with the Prince of Arragon, eliminated deprecatory comments about Shylock by the Christians along with lines by Portia that might offend her audience's sensibilities, and abbreviated lyrically ornate passages in Bassanio's casket scene. At the end of the Act II, however, he added a carefully wrought after-piece that was entirely of his own creation. In this interpolation, Lorenzo steals Jessica away with his comrades over the canal bridge while a gondola carrying serenaders crosses the stage and disappears into the distance. Then a group of revelling masquers run on to the stage, pass Shylock's house and cross over the canal in the direction of the eloping lovers. The curtain falls and then rises after a few moments on the scene later in the evening: Shylock returns alone from dinner with the Christians back across the bridge to his empty house. As he approaches the door the curtain falls.
