Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1884-04-23
sh.ysra,re and "shylock.n


To-day, April %, is the anniversary
of the birth of William Shakespeare,
and in many of the centers OF popuia-
ton and culture throughout the world
there will be appropriate honors rem
dered to the genius of the man VINO
was "not for an age, but for all time"
Our sister city of Dallas, we note, has
nrepared TO celebrate the occasion.
and what interests us is the fact that
company of Hebrew young people,
pupils 1--WE should judge, from the
programmed. of the Hebrew school in
Dallas, have the details in hand. And
'sShylock" is to be one of the chsrac-
tiers. The incident, as we view 1t, Is not
without interesting significance. 1t
denotes the progress of mental culture.
The Jew, as Jew, is under no obliga-
tons to honor the memory OF Shaks-
peare. In Shylock the Bard of Avon
gave to the world depletion at once
monstrous and disgusting. Through
centuries 1t has served to bring the
Jewish character into contempt and
obloquy. A man of the genius and
living as late as Sir Walter Scott could
not forego the temptation, induced by
the circumstances of tradition and ed
ucation, to paint, with graphic touch,
an Isaac of York. The gentle Rebecca
was but meager compensation for
her grasping, gold-worshiping father.
But in Shakspeare's case the perpetra-
ton of Shylock is not without pallia-
ton. The bard wrote in the spirit of
his times. He flourished at period
when ignorance and prejudice still in
vested the Jew with attributes of a
certainly very unsavory nature.
Shakespeare, genius as he was, was
not exempt from the influence of his
education and environments. He was
no. the first or last great or good
mau who failed, because OF
sheer human, weakness and preju'
dice, to rise superior to contemporaries.
Gus circumstances. John Calvin was
a great and a good man. He formu
lated great school or system of Chris
tian theology, and millions of peopl,
have gone to their graves reverinf
Calvin and hoping to meet him in par
adise, near the throne. And perhap:
they did, but there remains, as ba
sinister on the name of Calvin, tn
fate of Savonarola. The character O
Shylock is the one dark spot on tn
fame OF Shakespeare, for it was an in
suit and an Injury to a friendless, pei
secuted and helpless race-who wer
what centuries of oppression an
scorn, flowing from ignorant, fanat
cal prejudice, had made them. Shak
peare was hardly to blame. 1t was til
time in which he lived. Does anyor
!, believe that, were he living to-day,
the light and the humanizing inf,
ences of the centuries that have elapse
. since the April day in 1916, he wou
i, leave Shylock among his requests
!, the world? The Jew shows that
!, too has progressed with the worl
. where he has philosophy enough
., view Shylock simply ndpurely as o
q of the works of a great mind, forg
~ ting and forgivlng the depletion, al
10 joining in the admiration viii
= delighted culture, the globe ov'
=, awards to the master who touched
ha soul and heart of humanity as f
~ men have been able to do. The ]
- brew children over at Dallas to-nie
~ may not think of 1t in this light,
,h insensibly, perhaps, they are afford
a. an illustration of the force and va
of ethical culture and progress.