Dr. Farmer has stated that Shakspere took the name which he has
given to one of the leading characters in the _Merchant of Venice_
from a pamphlet entitled _Caleb Shilloche, or the Jew's Prediction_.
The date of the pamphlet, however, being some years posterior to
that of the play, renders this origin impossible. Mr. C. Knight, who
points out this error, adds--"_Scialac_ was the name of a Marionite
of Mount Libanus."
But "query," Was not _Shylock_ a proper name among the Jews, derived
from the designation employed by the patriarch Jacob in predicting
the advent of the Messiah--"until _Shiloh_ come"? (Gen. xlix. 10.)
The objection, which might be urged, that so sacred a name would not
have been applied by an ancient Jew to his child, has not much
weight, when we recollect that some Christians have not shrunk from
the blasphemous imposition of the name _Emanuel_ ("God with us")
upon their offspring. St. Jerome manifestly reads SHILOACH, for he
translates it by _Qui mittendus est. (Lond. Encyc_. in voc.
"Shiloh.") Now the difference between _Shiloach_ and _Shylock_ is
very trivial indeed. I shall be very glad to have the opinion of
some of your numerous and able contributors on this point.
But, after all, Shylock may have been a _family name_ familiar to
the great dramatist. In all my researches on the subject of _English
surnames,_ however, I have but once met with it as a generic
distinction. In the _Battel Abbey Deeds_ (penes Sir T. Phillipps,
Bart.) occurs a power of attorney from John Pesemershe, Esq., to
_Richard Shylok_, of Hoo, co. Sussex, and others, to deliver seizin
of all his lands in Sussex to certain persons therein named. The
date of this document is July 4, 1435.