Part 7 (1/2)

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE.[10]

The story of this play is as follows. In the opening scene, the words of Antonio to Ba.s.sanio--

”Well, tell me now, what lady is the same To whom you swore a secret pilgrimage, That you _to-day_ promised to tell me of?”

And Lorenzo's apology for withdrawing--

”My lord Ba.s.sanio, since you have _found_ Antonio We two will leave you:”

and that of Salarino--

”We'll make our leisures to attend on _yours_”--

lead us to suppose that Ba.s.sanio has come by appointment to meet Antonio, and that Antonio should be represented on his entrance as somewhat anxiously expecting his friend, and we may further presume from Solanio's words to Salarino in Act II., Scene 8--

”I think he only loves the world for _him_”--

that there is a special cause for Antonio's sadness, beyond what he chooses to admit to his companions, and that is the knowledge that he is about to lose Ba.s.sanio's society.

With regard to Ba.s.sanio, we learn, in this first scene, that he is already indebted to Antonio, that he desires to borrow more money from his friend, to free himself from debt, before seeking the hand of Portia, a rich heiress, and that Portia has herself encouraged him to woo her. In fact, we are at once deterred from a.s.sociating purely sordid motives with Ba.s.sanio's courts.h.i.+p by his glowing description of her virtues and beauty, as also by Antonio's high opinion of Ba.s.sanio's character.

Antonio, however, has not the money at hand, and it is arranged that Ba.s.sanio is to borrow the required sum on Antonio's security. The entrance of Gratiano is skilfully timed to dispel the feeling of depression that Antonio's sadness would otherwise leave upon the audience, and to give the proper comedy tone to the opening scene of a play of comedy.

In Scene 2 we are introduced to the heroine and her attendant, and learn, what probably Ba.s.sanio did not know, that Portia by her father's will is powerless to bestow her hand on the man of her choice, the stratagem, as Nerissa supposes, being devised to insure Portia's obtaining ”one that shall rightly love.” This we may call the first or casket-complication.

Portia's strong sense of humour is revealed to us in her description of the suitors ”that are already come,” and her moral beauty in her determination to respect her father's wishes. ”If I live to be as old as Sibylla, I will die as chaste as Diana, unless I be obtained by the manner of my father's will.” The action of the play is not, however, continued till Nerissa questions Portia about Ba.s.sanio, in a pa.s.sage that links this scene to the last, and confirms, in the minds of the audience, the truth of the lover's statement--

”Sometimes from her eyes I did receive fair speechless messages.”

A servant enters to announce the leave-taking of four of the suitors, who care not to submit to the conditions of the will, and to herald the arrival of a fifth, the Prince of Morocco.

We now come to the third scene of the play. Ba.s.sanio enters conversing with one, of whom no previous mention has been made but whose first utterance tells us he is the man of whom the required loan is demanded, and before the scene has ended, we discover further that he is to be the chief agent in bringing about the second, or pound-of-flesh-complication.

There are no indications given us of Shylock's personal appearance, except that he has been dubbed ”old Shylock,” which is, perhaps, more an expression of contempt than of age, for he is never spoken of as old man, or old Jew, and is chiefly addressed simply as Shylock or Jew; but the epithet is one recognized widely enough for Shylock himself to quote--

”Well, thou shalt see, thy eyes shall be thy judge, The difference of _old Shylock_ and Ba.s.sanio:”

as also does the Duke--

”Antonio and _old Shylock_ both stand forth.”

So was it with Silas Marner. George Eliot writes: ”He was so withered and yellow that though he was not yet forty the children always called him 'old master Marner.'” However, the language that Shakespeare has put into the mouth of Shylock does not impress us as being that of a man whose physical and mental faculties are in the least impaired by age; so vigorous is it at times that Shylock might be pictured as being an Edmund Kean-like figure, with piercing black eyes and an elastic step. From Shylock's expression, ”the _ancient_ grudge I bear him,” and Antonio's abrupt manner towards Shylock, we may conclude that the two men are avowed enemies, and have been so for some time previous to the opening of the play. This fact should, from the very first, be made evident to the audience by the emphasis Shylock gives to Antonio's name, an emphasis that is repeated every time the name occurs till he has made sure there is no doubt about who the man is that shall become bound.

The dramatic purpose of this scene is to show us Shylock directly plotting to take the life of Antonio, and the means he employs to this end are contrived with much skill. Shylock, in his opening soliloquy, discloses his intention to the audience, and at once deprives himself of its sympathy by admitting that his motives are guided more by personal considerations than by religious convictions--

”I hate him for he is a Christian, But _more_ for that in low simplicity He lends out money gratis and brings down The rate of usance here with us in Venice.”

The three first scenes should be so acted on the stage as to accentuate in the minds of the audience (1) that Ba.s.sanio is the very dear friend of Antonio; (2) that Portia and Ba.s.sanio are in love with each other; (3) that Antonio and Shylock are avowed enemies; (4) that Shylock conspires against Antonio's life with full intent to take it should the bond become forfeit.

We are again at Belmont and witness the entrance of the Prince of Morocco, and the whole scene has a poetic dignity and repose which form a striking contrast to the preceding one. We get in the character of the Prince of Morocco a preliminary sketch of Shakespeare's Oth.e.l.lo, and certainly the actor, to do justice to the part, should have the voice and presence of a Salvini. The second scene shows us the Jew's man about to leave his rich master to become the follower of Ba.s.sanio, and the latter, now possessed of Shylock's money, preparing his outfit for the journey to Belmont, whither Gratiano also is bent on going. There is, besides, some talk of merrymaking at night-time, which fitly leads up to our introduction to Jessica in the next scene, and prepares us to hear of her intrigue with Lorenzo. Jessica is the third female character in the play, and the dramatist intends her to appear, in contrast to Portia and Nerissa, as a tragic figure, dark, pale, melancholy, demure, yet chaste in thought and in action, and with a heart susceptible of tender and devoted love. She plans her elopement with the same fixedness of purpose as the father pursues his revenge. In Scene 4 the elopement incident is advanced a step by Lorenzo receiving Jessica's directions ”how to take her from her father's house,” and a little further in the next scene, by Shylock being got out of the way, when we hear Jessica's final adieu. It is worth noting in this scene that, at a moment when we are ready to sympathize with Shylock, who is about to lose his daughter, the dramatist denies us that privilege by further ill.u.s.trating the malignancy of the man's character.

He has had an unlucky dream; he antic.i.p.ates trouble falling upon his house; he is warned by Launcelot that there are to be masques at night; he admits that he is not invited to Ba.s.sanio's feast out of love, but out of flattery, and still he can say--

”But yet I'll go _in hate_, to feed upon The prodigal Christian.”