The exceptions are _The Tempest_ and
_Hamlet_, to which we shall return in due course.
How does _The Merchant of Venice_ open? With a long conversation
exhibiting the character of Antonio, the friendship between him and
Bassanio, the latter's financial straits, and his purpose of wooing
Portia. The second scene displays the character of Portia, and informs
us of her father's device with regard to her marriage; but this
information is conveyed in three or four lines. Not till the third scene
do we see or hear of Shylock, and not until very near the end of the act
is there any foreshadowing of what is to be the main crisis of the play.
Not a single antecedent event has to be narrated to us; for the mere
fact that Antonio has been uncivil to Shylock, and shown disapproval of
his business methods, can scarcely be regarded as a preliminary outside
the frame of the picture.
In _As You Like It_ there are no preliminaries to be stated beyond the
facts that Orlando is at enmity with his elder brother, and that Duke
Frederick has usurped the coronet and dukedom of Rosalind's father.
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