The age-herald., 1901-03-03
THE oslY DAILY NEWSPAPER IN AlAsAmA
ShYIock. a Jew of Venice.


 Evolution is not confined to two footed, or even to four-footed, creat- ures. It extends to plays, and The Merchant of Venice is fine example of this theory of the nineteenth centu- ". As first played, it appealed to groundlings who jeered the makeup and accents of Shylock with all the ig- norance and passions of three hundred years ago, while they applauded An tonic. Shylock wore in those days a red wig and false nose, and these were supported to the expectations of coarse Elizabethian audiences But a change came about, The true reading began to appear. The play began to be con sidered satire upon Intolerance, and finally Edmund Keane and thought ful world saw in Shylock permanent type of patient suffering humanity to which all are kin-the tragedy of race. What was comedy, even low comedy, has become tragedy, and few tragedians indeed can bring out the full meaning of the text.
 Shylock represents lost nation and a dispersed people. When the temple was burned in the year 70 this tragedy was begun, and for nearly two thou sand years it has gone on, and in Rus sia even to this day there Is a pale or enlarged ghetto, and much of the prejudices, hate and persecution of the middle ages. The children of Israel were driven from one land to another, esteemed nowhere, and compelled ev- anywhere to become traders and mon- ey changers, being excluded by the force of public sentiment. sometimes by law, from the professions and oth- CT preferable occupations. They were torn by the Crusaders, tortured by the Inauisition, and harried under false charges by bigotry in all Christian countries. Their crime all along has been their vigor physically and men, tally, and their desire to live apart-to be a separate people, refusing to in- termarry and cherishing the hope, al- though lacking the elements of nation ality or a common language, of re- turn at some time to lost Judea. Shy lock stands for all this. In every line of his face this story of the ages is told.
 Shakespeare, rarely happy in plots of his own devising, weaves Shylock into singuIarly improbable story. Bassanio, the spendthrift, needs three thousand ducats in order that he may woo to advantage fair Portia, who has many lovers. Shylock lends the mon- ey, taking as security the bond of An tonic, whose hate and intolerance are O6SL Q6SCTlD6u OJ OhylOChs
 signior Antonio. many a time and oft, In the Rialto you have rated me About my monies and my usances; Still have borne 1t with patient shrug, For sufr rance Is the badge of all our
 tribe.
 You call me misbelieyer. cut-throat dog, And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine, And all for use of that which Is mine own. We'll, then, it now appears you need my
 help;
 Go to. then: you come to me and you say:
 "Shylook, 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 Dyer your threshold; monies Is your suit What shall I say to you? Should l not
 say,
 ,.Hath a dog money? Is 1t possible. A cur can lend three thousand ducats!' Shall I bend low, and in bondsman's
 key,
 With bated breath and whisp ring num-
 bleness, say this:
 ''Fair sir. you spit on me on Wednes-
 day last,
 You spurned me such a day; another time You calrd me dog; and for these courte-
 sies, A--a4 II leIlo you lhis iiiuSAA
 The forfeit of the bond is pound of flesh cut from nearest the heart. The bond is brought into court, where the disguised Portia sits as judge. How she got there is not less strange than the law she lays down after she reaches that vantage point. She holds that Shylock cannot take a drop of blood, although when the law gives anything 1t gives all that is necessary to it's enjoyment and possession. And in this civil case, with sublime disre- gard of every fundamental maxim of known law, she proceeds to confiscate Shylock's goods, and to sentence him to death--a penalty that the Duke on the spot at one bound commutes on the condition of the enrichment of Jes- sica and the transformation presently of himself into a Christian. A decree of apostasy was certainly novel in civ