Red Wing sentinel., 1860-12-05
A LAWYERS CRITICISM OF SHAKES

LAW ELS SCitlI1C1SM Or AAAhLS-
PEARE.
We have met with few articles so
supremely worldly and practical, as
the following dissertation upon certain
Of Shakespear's characters. They are
diseased, as the reader will perceive,
in a truly lawer-like and business mode
of view: the poetry of the personages
is entirely abandoned; and nothing is
left but the everyday outline of that
which the genius of the bard has made
immortal a--
Town that I never perused my chief
favorite, the Merchant of Venice, with
out mixture of melancholy to think
that it has so many faults, and in par
ticular that the distress turns chiefly
upon embarrassments with which no
lawyer can seriously sympathize.
There are several striking flaws in this
drama. In the first place Antonio's
difficulties arise entirely from his gross
oversight in not efecting an Insurance
upon his various argosies. He should
have opened set Of policies at once
upon the Rialto, where marine insu-
surance was perfectly well understood,
and where the brokers would have got
him fifty names in q forenoon to any
extent upon ship, fieight, or cargo,l lost
, or not lost. This prudential step would
have given totally different turn to
the whole affair. When he wanted to
help Bassinio with three thousand du.
cats for three months, he could have
easily have raised the money at four
per cent. on the security Of an assign
ment of the policy. Shylock says to
him, "Antonio is a good man; yet his
means arc in superstition: he hath an
argosy bound to Tripolis, another to
the Indies; l understand moreover,
upon the Rialto, he hath a third at
Mexico, fourth for England, and
other ventures he has squandered
abroad. But ships are but boards,
sailors are but men; there be land rats
and water rats, water thieves and land
thieves; mean pirates; and then there
is the peril of waters, winds, and
rocks" Now, these are the very risks
which the contract Of insurance is in.
ended to cover, as clearly explained
Ill Marsha! and other writer's, and as
expressed in the following clause in.
serted i'll all policies. t'Touching the
adventures and perlls which the said
assurers are contentcd to bear, and to
take upon them in this voyage, they
are OF the seas, men-of- war, fire, enc.
mics, pirates, rovers, thieves, jettisons,
&C., barratry of the master to marin.
; ers, and Of all other perils, losses and
misfortune that have or shall come to
the hurt, detriment or damage of the
said goods or merchandises, and ship
or vessel" With this prccaution. An.
tonio's means would have been no Ion.
ger in supposition, but in certainty and
as good as hard cash, under deduction,
merely, of the premium Of insurance,
Finally, when intelligence was re.
ceived of Antonio's argosies being
wrecked, it is plain that he might, in
these circumstances, have at once
abandoned to the underwriters, and
claimed for total loss. 1t is painful
to see so many amiable characters in.
, volved in griefs and in difficulties,
which this simple and natural expedi:
ent would have obviated. My feelings
at this reflection are::something akin to
those of a very susceptible medical
) friend, who declares that he can never
sit out Romeo and Juliet, from the
thought that judicious use of the
stomach pump,in the last scere, would
remove all the distresses, and make
two lovers happy,
! The old saw has it that aBustlc ia