[1] No commentator has succeeded in making intelligible the line
i. iii. 42.
How like a fawning publican he looks!
as it stands in the text at the opening of Shylock's soliloquy. The expression 'fawning publican' is so totally the opposite of all the qualities of Antonio that it could have no force even in the mouth of a satirist. It is impossible not to be attracted by the simple change in the text that would not only get over this difficulty, but add a new effect to the scene: the change of assigning this single line to Antonio, reserving, of course, the rest of the speech for Shylock. The passage would then read thus [the stage direction is my own]:
Enter Antonio.
Bass. This is Signior Antonio.
Ant. [Aside]. How like a fawning publican he looks—
[Bassanio whispers Antonio and brings him to Shylock.
Shy. [Aside]. I hate him, for he is a Christian, But more, &c.
Both the terms 'fawning' and 'publican' are literally applicable to Shylock, and are just what Antonio would be likely to say of him. It is again a natural effect for the two foes on meeting for the first time in the play to exchange scowling defiance. Antonio's defiance is cut short at the first line by Bassanio's running up to him, explaining what he has done, and bringing Antonio up to where Shylock is standing; the time occupied in doing this gives Shylock scope for his longer soliloquy.
[III.]
How Shakespeare makes his plot more Complex in order to make it more Simple.
A Study in Underplot.