Ant. and Cleop. iii. 10.
"One of these two must be necessities."
Wint. Tale, iv. 3.
See also Hen. VIII. iii. 1.
"Every day some sailor's wife,
The master's of some merchant—and the merchant
Have just our theme of woe."
The word 'merchant' occurs here in two different senses; and when this play was written Shakespeare had long since abstained from such practices. One of them, therefore, must belong to the printer; if the first, then we might, and I think should, read vessel, if the second, owner. 'Merchant' certainly occurs in the sense of merchantman. See B. and F. Coxcomb, i. 3.