The Man Shakespeare and His Tragic Life Story Part 21

First of all, Antonio has that submission to misfortune, that resignation in face of defeat and suffering which we have already seen as characteristics of Richard II. The resignation might almost be called saintly, were it not that it seems to spring rather from the natural melancholy and sadness of Shakespeare's disposition; "the world is a hard, all-hating world," he seems to say, "and misery is the natural lot of man; defeat comes to all; why should I hope for any better fortune?"

At the very beginning of the trial he recognizes that he is certain to lose; Ba.s.sanio and Gratiano appeal to the Duke for him; but he never speaks in his own defence; he says of his opponent at the outset:

"I do oppose My patience to his fury, and am arm'd To suffer, with a quietness of spirit, The very tyranny and rage of his."

and again he will not contend, but begs the Court,

".... with all brief and plain conveniency Let me have judgement and the Jew his will."

Even when Ba.s.sanio tries to cheer him,

"What, man, courage yet!

The Jew shall have my flesh, blood, bones and all, Ere thou shalt lose for me one drop of blood."

Antonio answers:

"I am a tainted wether of the flock, Meetest for death: the weakest kind of fruit Drops earliest to the ground: and so let me: You cannot better be employed, Ba.s.sanio, Than to live still and write mine epitaph."

He will not be saved: he gives himself at once to that "sweet way of despair" which we have found to be the second Richard's way and Shakespeare's way.

Just as we noticed, when speaking of Posthumus in "Cymbeline," that Shakespeare's hero and _alter ego_ is always praised by the other personages of the drama, so this Antonio is praised preposterously by the chief personages of the play, and in the terms of praise we may see how Shakespeare, even in early manhood, liked to be considered. He had no ambition to be counted stalwart, or bold, or resolute like most young males of his race, much less "a good hater," as Dr. Johnson confessed himself: he wanted his gentle qualities recognized, and his intellectual gifts; Hamlet wished to be thought a courtier, scholar, gentleman; and here Salarino says of Antonio:

"A kinder gentleman treads not the earth,"

and he goes on to tell how Antonio, when parting from Ba.s.sanio, had "eyes big with tears":

"Turning his face, he put his hand behind him, And with affection wondrous sensible He wrung Ba.s.sanio's hand; and so they parted."

This Antonio is as tender-hearted and loving as young Arthur. And Lorenzo speaks of Antonio to Portia just as Salarino spoke of him:

"_Lor_. But if you knew to whom you show this honour.

How true a gentleman you send relief, How dear a lover of my lord your husband, I know you would be prouder of the work Than customary bounty can enforce you."

and finally Ba.s.sanio sums Antonio up in enthusiastic superlatives:

"The dearest friend to me, the kindest man, The best-condition'd and unwearied spirit In doing courtesies, and one in whom The ancient Roman honour more appears Than any that draws breath in Italy."

It is as a prince of friends and most courteous gentleman that Antonio acts his part from the beginning to the end of the play with one notable exception to which I shall return in a moment. It is astonishing to find this sadness, this courtesy, this lavish generosity and contempt of money, this love of love and friendship and affection in any man in early manhood; but these qualities were Shakespeare's from youth to old age.

I say that Antonio was most courteous to all with one notable exception, and that exception was Shylock.

It has become the custom on the English stage for the actor to try to turn Shylock into a hero; but that was a.s.suredly not Shakespeare's intention. True, he makes Shylock appeal to the common humanity of both Jew and Christian.

"I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, pa.s.sions?

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 winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you p.r.i.c.k 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?"

But if Shakespeare was far in advance of his age in this intellectual appreciation of the brotherhood of man; yet as an artist and thinker and poet he is particularly contemptuous of the usurer and trader in other men's necessities, and therefore, when Antonio meets Shylock, though he wants a favour from him, he cannot be even decently polite to him. He begins by saying in the third scene of the first act:

"Although I neither lend nor borrow By taking nor by giving of excess, Yet to supply the ripe wants of my friend, I'll break a custom."

The first phrase here reminds me of Polonius: "neither a borrower nor a lender be." When Shylock attempts to defend himself by citing the way Jacob cheated Laban, Antonio answers contemptuously "The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose." Shylock then goes on:

"Signor Antonio, many a time and oft, In the Rialto you have rated me About my moneys and my usances: Still, I have borne it with a patient shrug, For sufferance is the badge of all our tribe.

You call me mis-believer, 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 moneys:' you say so You that did void your rheum upon my beard And foot me as you spurn a stranger cur Over your threshold: moneys 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?'"

Antonio answers this in words which it would be almost impossible to take for Shakespeare's because of their brutal rudeness, were it not, as we shall see later, that Shakespeare loathed the Jew usurer more than any character in all his plays. Here are the words:

"_Ant_. I am as like to call thee so again, To spit on thee again, to spurn thee too.

If thou will lend this money, lend it not As to thy friends; for when did friendship take A breed for barren metal of his friend?

But lend it rather to thine enemy Who, if he break, thou mayst with better face Exact the penalty."

Then Shylock makes peace, and proposes his modest penalty. Ba.s.sanio says:

"You shall not seal to such a bond for me: I'll rather dwell in my necessity."

Antonio is perfectly careless and content: he says:

"Content, i' faith: I'll seal to such a bond, And say there is much kindness in the Jew."

Antonio's heedless trust of other men and impatience are qualities most foreign to the merchant; but are shown again and again by Shakespeare's impersonations.

Perhaps it will be well here to prove once for all that Shakespeare did really hate the Jew. In the first place he excites our sympathy again and again for him on the broad grounds of common humanity; but the moment it comes to a particular occasion he represents him as hateful, even where a little thought would have taught him that the Jew must be at his best. It is a peculiarity of humanity which Shakespeare should not have overlooked, that all pariahs and outcasts display intense family affection; those whom the world scouts and hates are generally at their n.o.blest in their own homes. The pressure from the outside, Herbert Spencer would say, tends to bring about cohesion among the members of the despised caste. The family affection of the Jew, his kindness to his kindred, have become proverbial. But Shakespeare admits no such kindness in Shylock: when his daughter leaves Shylock one would think that Shakespeare would picture the father's desolation and misery, his sorrow at losing his only child; but here there is no touch of sympathy in gentle Shakespeare:

".... I would my daughter were dead at my foot, and the jewels in her ear! would she were hea.r.s.ed at my foot, and the ducats in her coffin!"

But there is even better proof than this: when Shylock is defeated in his case and leaves the Court penniless and broken, Shakespeare allows him to be insulted by a gentleman. Shylock becomes pathetic in his defeat, for Shakespeare always sympathized with failure, even before he came to grief himself:

"_Shy_. Nay, take my life and all; pardon not that: You take my house when you do take the prop That doth sustain my house; you take my life When you do take the means whereby I live."

"_Por_. What mercy can you render him, Antonio?

_Gra_. A halter gratis; nothing else for G.o.d's sake."

And then Antonio offers to "quit the fine for one-half his goods."

Utterly broken now, Shylock says:

"I pray you, give me leave to go from hence; I am not well: send the deed after me, And I will sign it.

_Duke_. Get thee gone, but do it.

_Gra. In christening shalt thou have two G.o.dfathers: Had I been judge, thou should'st have had ten more, To bring thee to the gallows, not the font."

A brutal insult from a gallant gentleman to the broken Jew: it is the only time in all Shakespeare when a beaten and ruined man is so insulted.

Antonio, it must be confessed, is a very charming sketch of Shakespeare when he was about thirty years of age, and it is amusing to reflect that it is just the rich merchant with all his wealth at hazard whom he picks out to embody his utter contempt of riches. The "royal merchant," as he calls him, trained from youth to barter, is the very last man in the world to back such a venture as Ba.s.sanio's--much less would such a man treat money with disdain. But Shakespeare from the beginning of the play put himself quite naively in Antonio's place, and so the astounding antinomy came to expression.