Shakspere, Personal Recollections

J >> John A. Joyce >> Shakspere, Personal Recollections

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Puck leading, says:

_"Now the hungry lion roars,
And the wolf beholds the moon.
Whilst the heavy ploughman snores
All with weary task foredone;
And we fairies, that do run
By the triple of Hecate's team,
From the presence of the sun
Following darkness like a dream."_

Oberon orders:

_"Through this house give glimmering light,
By the dead and drowsy fire;
Every elf and fairy sprite
Hop as light as bird from brier;
And his ditty, after me,
Sing and dance it trippingly."_

Titania speaks:

_"First rehearse this song by rote;
To each word a warbling note,
Hand in hand with fairy grace
Will we sing and bless this place."_

Then all the fairies, joining hands at the command of Oberon, dance and
sing:

_"Every fairy take his gait,
And each several chamber bless;
Through this palace with sweet peace,
All shall here in safety rest
And the owner of it blest,
Trip away, make no stay;
Meet me all by break of day!"_

Then mischievous little Puck flies to the front, makes his final bow and
speech, concluding the play of "Midsummer Night's Dream":

_"If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended--
That you have but slumbered here,
While these visions did appear;
And this weak and idle theme
No more yielding but a dream;
Gentles, do not reprehend;
If you pardon we will mend.
And, as I am honest Puck,
If we have unearned luck,
How to escape the serpent's tongue,
We will make amends ere long;
Else the Puck a liar call,
So good night unto you all,
Give me your hands if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends!"_

Unanimous cheers rang through Windsor forest at the conclusion of this
mystic play, and Queen Elizabeth called up Theseus (William), Hippolyta,
Oberon, Titania and Puck, presenting to each a five-carat solitaire
diamond--a slight token of Her Majesty's appreciation of dramatic genius.

It was after two o'clock in the morning when a thousand sky rockets filled
the heavens with variegated colors, indicating for fifty miles around, that
"Midsummer Night's Dream" had been successfully launched on the ocean of
dramatic imagination!

CHAPTER XV.

THE JEW. SHYLOCK. "MERCHANT OF VENICE."

_"O, it is excellent
To have a giant's strength, but it is tyrannous
To use it like a giant."_

_"Had I power, I should
Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell,
Uproar the universal peace, confound
All Unity on earth."_

In my peregrinations and bohemian investigations I have met on several
occasions, and in strange lands, Mr. Ahasuerus, the Jerusalem shoemaker,
who is reported to have jeered and scoffed at Christ as he passed his shop,
bearing the heavy cross up the rugged heights of Calvary.

That was a terrible day for Jesus of Nazareth (dying for the sins of
others), but worse for his foolish brother, the Jew shoemaker; for as
punishment to the scoffing and heartless Ishmaelite, the "Son of God,"
bending under the weight of the cross, exclaimed to the "Son of Saint
Crispin": "Tarry thou 'till I come! Move on!"

And from that hour to this the "Wandering Jew" has been traveling and
seeking for peace and death, but has never found surcease from everlasting
sorrow and misery.

I have often met his business partners, Solomon Isaacs and David Levy; and
while these gentlemen are compelled by nations to "move on," they have the
great gift of loading up their pack with the rarest jewels--silver, gold
and diamonds being their great specialty--with ready made clothing,
pawnshops and banks as convenient adjuncts.

Their three golden balls, worn in front of their establishments, they say,
represent energy, economy and wealth; while their victims insist that they
represent passion, poverty and suicide.

And yet these wandering Jews of all lands and climes, having no home or
country anywhere, have the best of homes, churches, banks and temples
everywhere.

War and peace they often hold in their financial power, and therefore
become the arbitrators and umpires of national fate.

When my friend William was working on the rough sketch of the "Merchant of
Venice," in the years 1598 and 1599, there was a great hate manifested
against the London Jews, Dr. Lopez, the physician of Queen Elizabeth,
having been recently tried and hung for the design of poisoning Her
Majesty.

The Jews were accused of clipping the coins of the realm, demanding one
hundred per cent. usury, bewitching the people, sacrificing Christian boys
on the altar of religious fanaticism and setting fire to the warehouses and
shipping along the Thames.

These outrageous stories were believed by many people, and Shakspere, being
infected by the hate of the multitude (for the first time in his
intellectual career), fashioned the repulsive character of Shylock, who
walks the world as a synonym of greed, hate and vengeance.

Several Jew plays had been put on the London boards, like the "Venetian
Comedy" and the "Jew of Malta," but none had the lofty pitch of
Shakspere's, who derived his main idea of the play from the Italian story
of "Pecorone," by Florentina, and Silvayn's "Orator."

Yet, with William's imagination, a hint was sufficient, the rose and acorn
giving him scope enough to create flower gardens and forest ranges.

The Jew has always been a great subject for the world's contention and
condemnation, particularly since the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth. If
Christ, the Jew, suffered for others, his own race for nearly two thousand
years have been "scapegoats" for private and public villains.

From the days of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, Louis the Fourteenth of
France, Henry the Eighth and Elizabeth of England, Emperor William of
Germany and the Czars Nicholas and Alexander of Russia, the Jews have been
robbed, exiled and murdered by Christian rulers, presumptively for their
rebellion against the State, but really as an excuse to rob them of their
jewels and gold. The Caucasian Christian has never hesitated to rob and
murder anybody anywhere for cash and country!

Look over the world to-day, and you behold nothing but diplomatic cheating,
domestic and foreign robbery and international murder for individual
ambition and national territorial expansion! The official hypocrite is the
greatest liar of the century!

England, Germany, France, Russia and the United States are this very day
competing with each other in the race for universal empire! Considering
that "Uncle Sam" has had only one hundred and twenty-six years of national
life, he has forged to the front amazingly, and has become the grandest
"General" on the globe! He does things!

The "gentle reader" (confidentially speaking) may think this a slight
digression from the "Merchant of Venice," which was enacted at the Globe
Theatre, London, on the first Saturday in December, 1599. The "gentle
reader" may also have found out by this time that the "subscriber" pays
little attention to the "unities of time and place," as a thousand years
are but short milestones in the life of the "Strulbug" family!

What the "gentle reader" needs more than anything else is _knowledge and
truth_; and he observes, if he observes at all, that I give bits of the
most eloquent and philosophic speeches in all the plays of Shakspere,
besides the true personal transactions and escapades of the Bard of Avon!

The enactment of the various scenes of the "Merchant of Venice" takes place
in the great water city--Venice, "Queen of the Adriatic," that ruled the
commercial world two thousand years ago.

Antonio, the Christian merchant, and Shylock, the usurious Jew, are the
principal characters of the play, while Portia, the wealthy heiress, and
Jessica, the daughter of Shylock, with Bassanio and Lorenzo carry the
thread of Shakspere's argument trying to prove that it is Christian justice
to steal an old man's money and daughter, and punish him for demanding his
legal rights!

In speaking privately to William I tried to have him change the logic and
morals of the play, but his curt answer was:

"Jack, the dramatic demand and tyrant public must be satisfied."

Burbage took the part of Antonio, Jo Taylor played Shylock, William played
Portia, Condell acted Bassanio, Heming represented Lorenzo and Field played
Jessica, Poole played Gratiano, Slye played the Duke.

The Globe Theatre was packed from pit to loft by the greatest variety
audience I had ever seen; lords, ladies, lawyers, doctors, merchants,
mechanics, soldiers, sailors, and street riff-raff--all assembled to see
and hear how the Jew, Shylock, was to be roasted by the greatest dramatist
of the ages.

Antonio in a street scene in Venice opens up the play thus:

_"In sooth, I know not why I am so sad;
That I am much ado to know myself."_

Salarino replies to the ship merchant:

_"Your mind is tossing on the ocean;
There, where your argosies, with portly sail--
Like signiors and rich burghers of the flood,
Or, as it were, the pageants of the sea
As they fly to traffickers with their woven wings."_

Antonio says to his friend Gratiano:

_"I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano;
A stage where every man must play a part,
And mine a sad one."_

But the light and airy Gratiano utters this philosophic speech, which the
"gentle reader" should cut out and paste in his hat:

_"Let me play the Fool;
With mirth and laughter, let old wrinkles come;
And let my liver rather heat with wine,
Than my heart cool with mortifying groans.
Why should a man whose blood is warm within,
Sit like his grandsire cut in alabaster?
Sleep when he wakes? and creep into the jaundice,
By being peevish? I tell thee what, Antonio,--
I love thee, and it is my love that speaks;
There are a sort of men, whose visages
Do cream and mantle, like a standing pond;
And do a wilful stillness entertain,
With purpose to be dressed in an opinion
Of wisdom, gravity, profound conceit;
As who should say, I am Sir Oracle,
And, when I ope my lips, let no dog bark!
O, my Antonio, I do know of these,
That therefore only are reputed wise,
For saying nothing; who I am very sure,
If they should speak, would almost damn those ears
Which, hearing them, would call their brothers fools!"_

Bassanio, in love with the rich heiress, Portia, tries to borrow three
thousand ducats from Shylock, and Antonio, his friend, is willing to give
bond for the loan.

The Jew and the Christian hate each other; and Shylock vents his opinion:

_"How like a fawning publican he looks!
I hate him, for he is a Christian;
Antonio lends out money gratis and brings down--
The rate of usury here with us in Venice.
If I can catch him once upon the hip,
I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him.
He hates our sacred nation; and he rails,
Even there where merchants most do congregate,
On me, my bargains, and my well worn thrift,
Which he calls interest; cursed be my tribe
If I forgive him!"_

Antonio finally asks for the three thousand ducats, and says:

_"Well, Shylock, shall we be beholden to you?"_

Then in a speech of brave defiance, Shylock humiliates the Gentile merchant
in this manner:

_"Signior Antonio, many a time and oft
In the Rialto you have rated me
About my monies, and my usury;
Still have I borne it with a patient shrug;
For sufferance is the badge of all our tribe;
You call me misbeliever, cut-throat, dog,
And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine,
And all for use of that which is mine own.
Well, then, it now appears you need my help;
Go to, then; you come to me and you say:
Shylock, we would have monies; you say so;
You, that did void your rheum upon my beard,
And foot me as you spurn a stranger cur--
Over your threshold; monies is your suit.
What should I say to you? Should I not say;
Hath a dog money? Is it possible
A cur can lend three thousand ducats? Or
Shall I bend low, and in a bondsman's key,
With bated breath and whispering humbleness say this--
Fair sir, you spit on me on Wednesday last;
You spurned me such a day; another time
You called me--dog, and for these courtesies
I'll lend you thus much monies!"_

Antonio, not any way abashed at the scolding of the money lender, says:

_"I am as like to call thee dog again,
And spit on thee again, to spurn thee, too!"_

Shylock then agrees to lend the three thousand ducats if Antonio will give
bond and penalty to pay the money back with interest in three months.

Shylock says:

_"Let the forfeit of the bond
Be nominated for an equal pound
Of your fair flesh, to be cut off, and taken
In what part of your body pleaseth me!"_

The second act opens with Portia in her grand home at "Belmont," awaiting
suitors for her wealth, beauty and brains.

Her father dying, left three locked chests, gold, silver, and lead, one of
them containing the picture of Portia; and the fortunate suitor who picked
out that rich casket, was to be the husband of the brilliant Portia.

The Prince of Morocco and Prince of Arragon, with Bassanio, were the
suitors.

Portia says to Morocco:

_"In terms of choice I am not solely led
By nice direction of a maiden's eyes;
Besides, the lottery of my destiny
Bars me the right of voluntary choosing."_

Launcelot, the foolish serving man for Shylock, says to old Gobbo, his
blind father:

_"Do you not know me, father?"_

Gobbo replies:

_"Alack, sir. I am sand-blind. I know you not."_

Launcelot makes this wise statement:

_"Nay, indeed, if you had your eyes,
You might fail of the knowing of me:
It is a wise father that knows his own child!"_

Shylock discharges Launcelot, and Jessica, the beautiful daughter of the
money lender, parts with him regretfully--she gives him a secret letter to
deliver to her Christian lover, Lorenzo, and then says:

_"Farewell, good Launcelot--
Alack, what heinous sin it is in me
To be ashamed to be my father's child!
But though I am a daughter to his blood,
I am not to his manners; O Lorenzo,
If thou keep promise, I shall end this strife;
Become a Christian, and thy loving wife!"_

This beautiful Jewess forswears her birth and religion for infatuated love,
and throws to the winds all duty and honor as a daughter; a renegade of
matchless quality, stealing her father's money and jewels to elope with the
fascinating Christian Lorenzo.

The Hebrew race has not produced many Jessicas; and the morality taught by
Shakspere of a daughter "fooling her father" is base and rotten in
principle.

Shylock says to his daughter:

_"Well, Jessica, go in to the house,
Perhaps I will return immediately;
Do as I bid you;
Shut doors after you; fast bind, fast find,
A proverb never stale in thrifty mind."_

Then at the turn of his back the beautiful fraud Jessica says:

_"Farewell, and if my fortune be not crost,
I have a father, you a daughter, lost!"_

Lorenzo with his friends appear under the window of Shylock's house to
steal away Jessica, and she appears above in boy's clothes, and asks:

_"Who are you? Tell me for more certainty,
Albeit, I'll swear that I do know your tongue."_

He responds:

_"Lorenzo and thy love."_

Jessica before leaving her home spouts the following stuff to her lover:

_"Here, catch this casket, it is worth the pains;
I am glad 'tis night, you do not look on me;
For I am much ashamed of my exchange;
But love is blind, and lovers cannot see
The pretty follies that themselves commit;
For if they could, Cupid himself would blush
To see me thus transformed to a boy.
I will make fast the doors, and gild myself
With some more ducats, and be with you straight!"_

Nice specimen of a dutiful daughter.

Contrast the conduct of the Christian Portia with the Hebrew Jessica, and
the latter's action is thoroughly reprehensible.

Portia obeys the injunction and will of a dead father, while Jessica
violates criminally the duty she owes a live father, who is in the toils of
personal and official swindlers.

Portia in her palace awaits foreign and domestic suitors for her hand,
heart and wealth.

The Prince of Morocco and his train first appear.

Portia in her splendid drawing room receives the Prince, and says to her
waiting maid:

_"Go draw aside the curtains, and discover
The several caskets to this noble prince;--
Now make your choice!"_

The Prince reads the inscriptions on the three caskets, gold, silver and
lead:

"Who chooseth me, shall gain what many men desire."

"Who chooseth me, shall get as much as he deserves."

"Who chooseth me, must give and hazard all he hath."

The Prince asks:

_"How shall I know if I do choose the right?"_

Portia replies:

_"The one of them contains my picture, Prince;
If you choose that then I am yours withal."_

The Prince of Morocco makes a long speech on the beauty and glory of
Portia, and then decides to open the golden casket. Portia hands him the
key, and when the contents come to view he exclaims:

_"O hell! what have we here!"_

_"A carrion death, within whose empty eye
There is a written scroll? I'll read the writing._

_'All that glitters is not gold,
Often have you heard that told;
Many a man his life hath sold,
But my outside to behold;
Gilded tombs do worms infold.
Had you been as wise as bold,
Young in limbs, in judgment old
Your answer had not been enscrolled,
Fare you well, your suit is cold.'"_

The disappointed black prince says:

_"Portia, adieu! I have too grieved a heart
To take a tedious leave; thus lovers part."_

Portia exclaims after his exit:

_"A gentle riddance; draw the curtains, go
Let all of his complexion choose me so!"_

When Shylock returned home, found his house deserted and robbed, he rushed
into the street, and cried:

_"My daughter! O my ducats! O my daughter!
Fled with a Christian? O my Christian ducats!
Justice! the law! my ducats and my daughter!
A sealed bag, two sealed bags of ducats,
Of double ducats, stolen from me by my daughter!
And jewels, two stones, two rich and precious stones
Stolen by my daughter! Justice! Find the girl!
She hath the stones upon her and the ducats!"_

The frantic raging of the old broken down, soul lacerated Jew, only brought
from that Christian audience, laughter, yells, and howling jeers. The mob
spirit was there, and the appeal for justice by Shylock fell upon deaf ears
and stony hearts.

Portia still holds court for her hand and heart at beautiful "Belmont,"
setting like an Egyptian Queen in the circling, blooming hills of the blue
Adriatic.

The Prince of Arragon comes to the choice of caskets, and with lofty words
in praise of virtue, says:

_"Let none presume to wear an undeserved dignity.
O, that estates, degrees, and offices,
Were not obtained corruptly! and that clear honor
Were purchased by the merit of the wearer!
How many then should cover, that stand bare!
How many be commanded that command!
How much low corruption would then be gleaned
From the true seed of honor! and how much honor
Picked from the chaff and ruin of the times!"_

The Globe Theatre shook with applause at this fine political speech of the
Prince, and may be well contemplated in the State transactions of to-day.

The Prince unlocks the silver casket, and finds a portrait of a blinking
idiot; and departing exclaims:

_"Some there be that shadows kiss,
Such have but a shadow's bliss;
There be fools alive I wis--
Silvered o'er, and so was this!"_

Portia soliloquizes:

_"Thus hath the candle singed the moth
Of these deliberate fools, when they do choose,
They bare their wisdom by their wit to lose."_

And Nerissa, the bright waiting maid, says:

_"The ancient saying is no heresy;--
Hanging and wiving go by destiny!"_

The third act opens with a street in Venice, and friends of Antonio bemoan
the reported loss of several of his ships at sea, which will cause his
default and ruin, by the demands of Shylock.

Salarino says to the Jew:

_"Why, I am sure if he forfeit, thou wilt not
Take his flesh; what's that good for?"_

Shylock now begins to gloat over his prospect of a dire vengeance upon the
Christian Antonio, and replies to Salarino:

_"To bait fish withal; if it will feed nothing else,
It will feed my revenge!
Antonio hates me because I'm a Jew;
Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands;
Organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?
Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons,
Subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means,
Warmed and cooled by the same summer and winter,
As a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed?
If you tickle us do we not laugh? if you poison us
Do we not die? and if you wrong us shall we not revenge?
The villainy you teach me, I will execute!"_

Tubal, the Hebrew friend of Shylock, says:

_"But Antonio is certainly undone."_

Shylock delighted says:

_"That's true, that's very true.
Tubal, fee me an officer; bespeak him a fortnight before.
I will have the heart of Antonio if he forfeit the bond.
Go, Tubal, meet me at our synagogue."_

Portia again appears for the third time to undergo matrimonial choice.

Bassanio, the particular friend of Antonio, is the real love suitor for the
hand and heart of the beautiful Portia, and appears at her palace, attended
by his faithful Venetian friends. He is a high-toned, but impecunious
Italian gentleman, whose heart and soul are ninety per cent. larger than
his pockets.

Portia seems to be fascinated with Bassanio, and wishes him to remain at
her home and take time in choosing the right casket, but he wants to act
instanter, confessing his love.

Portia says:

_"Let music sound while he doth make his choice;
Now he goes,
With no less dignity, but with much more love
Than young Alcides, when he did redeem
The virgin tribute paid by howling Troy
To the sea monster!"_

Bassanio, standing before the leaden casket, utters this high sounding,
moral, truthful speech:

_"The world is still deceived with ornament.
In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt,
But, being seasoned with a gracious voice
Obscures the show of evil? In religion,
What damned error, but some sober brow
Will bless it, and approve it with a text,
Hiding the grossness with fair ornament?
There is no vice so simple, but assumes
Some mark of virtue on his outward parts!
How many cowards whose hearts are all as false
As stairs of sand, wear yet upon their chins
The beard of Hercules, and frowning Mars;
Who, inward searched, have livers white as milk?
And these assume but valor's excrement,
To render them redoubted. Look on beauty
And you shall see 'tis purchased by the weight;
Which therein works a miracle in nature,
Making them lightest that wear most of it;
So are those curled, snaky golden locks,
Which make such wanton gambols with the wind
Upon supposed fairness, often known
To be the dowers of a second head;
The scull that bred them in the sepulchre.
Thus ornament is but the treacherous shore
To a most dangerous sea!
Thou meagre lead casket,
Which rather rebuffs than dost promise aught,
Thy plainness moves me more than eloquence,
And here choose I; joy the consequence!"_

Opening the leaden casket, Bassanio exclaims:

_"What find I here?
Fair Portia's counterfeit. What demigod
Hath come so near creation;
Here's the scroll,
The continent and summary of my fortune--
If you be well pleased with this,
And hold your fortune for your bliss,
Turn you where your lady is
And claim her with a loving kiss!"_

Bassanio kisses Portia, and she makes this womanly speech:

_"You see me, Lord Bassanio, where I stand
Such as I am; though for myself alone
I would not be ambitious in my wish
To wish myself much better; yet, for you
I would be trebled twenty times myself;
A thousand times more fair, ten thousand times more rich.
Happiest of all is that my fond spirit
Commits itself to yours to be directed,
As from her Lord, her Governor, her King!
Myself and what is mine, to you and yours
Is now converted; but now I was the Lord
Of this fair mansion, master of my servants,
Queen o'er myself; and even now, but now,
This house, these servants, and this same myself,
Are yours, my Lord, I give them with this ring;
Which when you part from, lose, or give away,
Let it presage the ruin of your love,
And be my vantage to exclaim to you!"_

Bassanio tells Portia that he is not a freeman, that Antonio borrowed three
thousand ducats for him from Shylock, and that now he is miserable because
Antonio may lose his life by the Jew claiming a pound of flesh in forfeit
of the bonded debt.

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