10.2307@23675889

Shylock
Author(s): FRANK W. CADY

Source: The Shakespeare Association Bulletin, Vol. 8, No. 3/4 (JULY-OCTOBER, 1933), pp.
106-113
Published by: Folger Shakespeare Library
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23675889
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Shylock
By FRANK W. CADY
C HYLOCK has been one of the most repellent and one of the most fasci
^ nating of Shakespeare's characters. We are fascinated because in spite of
his villainy he arouses our sympathies, and we are lost in a maze of con
jectures why this is so. How many of us would resent the phrase, "That vil
lainous old Jew, Shylock," as an adequate description of him! There is about
him a deep-seated humanity of which such a phrase takes no account. Of
course, Shakespeare built him upon the conventional Jew pattern of his day,
keeping close to actuality as the men of his day saw it. How he transfused
his old Jew with humanity is the mystery of genius, ever fascinating, ever
alluring.
The phrase, "That villainous old Jew, Shylock," incorporates the three
characteristics which are the tokens of actuality in the character of Shylock,
and which give us the timeless humanity which is so fascinating. He is old;
is a villain; he is a Jew. That Shakespeare never repeats is an old and foolish
adage. Far truer is it to say that he always repeats. Take this matter of the
old man. Through his plays there runs a succession of them: petulant Capu
let, talkative Polonius, tragic Lear, delightful Gonzalo, and many others.
Many of them approach senility. Some, like Lear, are openly accused of it.
The majority have daughters who cause them heart-burning anxiety. Over and
over again, with subtle variations, Shakespeare repeats this basic pattern, until
it is quite conventionalized. This is also true of his villains. He has bad
men who are simply bad; some, like Macbeth, who are heroic. But when
he wants the audience to know he is creating a villain, he draws each one true
to a pattern of his own designing, distinguishing each by an individual treat
ment of detail. Each boasts, to begin with, that he is a villain. Each picks his
victim and pursues him implacably to the end. Each feels himself socially
ostracised. Is it not possible that in creating Shylock Shakespeare planned
him as a combination of these two patterns with a third, the Jew, which be
borrowed in some few details from other dramatists but much more from the
opinion of the time? The third is taken directly from life. Is Shylock human
because of this? Such a possibility definitely challenges the imagination.
Shylock himself confesses that he is old. He tells Launcelot, his man,
who is transferring his services to a new master, that he will see
"The difference between old Shylock and Bassanio."
yet that is hardly evidence enough to prove senility. A man might well feel
THE SHAKESPEARE ASSOCIATION BULLETIN 107
older than he is, if he has upon his heart a young and bloomi
intent upon asserting her personality in love. Indeed, it is the
whom Shakespeare uses to expose the senility of their fathers. Ho
petulant old Capulet is at Juliet's refusal to marry Paris: Juliet
returned from marrying Romeo in secret, only to see him sent in
killing her cousin Tybalt in a brawl.
Wife, we scarce thought us blest
That God had lent us but this only child ;
But now I see this one is one too much
And that we have a curse in having her.

Out on her, hilding!
Brabantio, too, has a daughter, Desdemona, who has secretly married Othello,
the Moor. A more pathetic figure than Capulet, he expresses his sorrow quite
as childishly as the other expresses his impatience.
For your sake, jewel,
I am glad at soul I have no other child,
For thy escape would teach me tyranny,
To hang clogs on them.
Here alo may be mentioned the failure of old Egeus, who because of a Mid
summernight's madness could not succeed in marrying his daughter, Hermia,
to Demetrius; or the abject sorrow of Leonato before he discovered that the
charges brought by Claudio ac the marriage altar against his daughter, Hero,
were verily much ado about nothing. Ophelia did not, in disobedience to her
father, continue to receive Hamlet's attentions. Better had it been for her had
she done so. But Polonius, "that great baby—not yet out of his swaddling
clouts," feared she would and unpacked his soul of words to stop her.
The cue to this reaction, common to all the old men, is doubtless to be
found in the cause assigned by Goneril for the unreasoning anger with which
Lear has banished Cordelia:
"The best and soundest of his time hath been but rash; then must we
look from his age to receive not alone the imperfections of long engraffed
condition, but therewithal the unruly waywardness that infirm and choleric
years bring with them."
In other words, he is in his second childhood; a thing to be feared by those
who grow old. There comes with loss of physical vigor, a loss of emotional
control. The man who loves words becomes over-talkative; the quick-tem
pered man easily gives way to wrath ; parental admonition becomes mere petu
lance. When these men assert themselves before their daughters it is their
ill-controlled emotions which betray their senility either to ridicule or to pity.
In each case it is revealed by the same signs, though its results are as varied
108 THE SHAKESPEARE ASSOCIATION BULLETIN
as their personalities. Among these senile old men Shyl

whenever he breaks into peevish protest against his d
of him.
It is quite evident that the Christians in Venice were satisfied from the
start that Shylock was a villain. At the end of their first conversation with
him Bassanio says to Antonio,
"I like not fair terms and a villain's mind."
It is further evident that Shylock himself acknowledges his villainy. To the

Christians he says:
"The villainy you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I
will better the instruction."
But, after all, the method Shakespeare takes to present his villainy is the best
sign that he intends this man to be a villain. Shakespeare's villains have one
most evident characteristic: they proclaim themselves villains early and some
times often. As villains they all have two predominant qualities. One is a
sense of social ostracism; the other a cold will backed by the keenest intel
lectual power. Ostracism makes them cynical materialists and their material
ism dominates their wills and intellects. The result is a callous impervious
ness to mercy whenever their victims are in their power. Such a villain is
Richard III. Bodily deformity cuts him off from all the pleasures of society.
It is no detriment in war; but wars are over and the court is now devoting
itself to lighter things. These are not for him. No pleasure is left him but
that of villainy.
And, therefore, since I cannot prove a lover
To entertain these fair, well-spoken days,
I am determined to prove a villain
And hate the idle pleasures of these days.
Villains, too, are Don John and Edmund, cut off from society because they are
illegitimate; and chief of them all is lago, cut off. from his expected place by
the arbitrary advancement of a favorite. They stand aloof and watch the
world go by until each picks his victim toward whose destruction each one
moves with a deliberate and overwhelming malice. Unmerciful they are, be
cause they feel the world has shown them no mercy; but more because there
is no mercy in their souls. Richard chooses as his victims all who stand be
tween him and the crown. Don John, in Much Ado, uses the gullible Claudio
and Hero, the innocent, to attack his half-brother, Don Pedro, whom he hates ;
Edmund, in Lear, turns his malice upon his legitimate brother, Edgar, that he
may acquire Edgar's patrimony; lago preys with inveterate malice upon the
"free and open nature" of Othello. Thus it is also with Shylock, whose vil
lany picks Antonio as its victim, and would have hound

because he was a Christian, and because) he "lent out mo
down the rate of interest in Venice.
In constructing Shylock's complex personality, Shake
been following his own patterns of the old man and th
been conventional old men in drama before, but none
else hit upon that apt device, a disobedient daughter, fo
old men their encroaching second childhood. There hav
drama before, but no one else built his villains out of
social ostracism leads them, with perfect callousness, t
human being revenge for man's injustice. The third e
plexity is the Jew. That he is a Jew Shylock himself
know. But Shakespeare drew no other Jews, so he had
of his own to follow. Except for possible hints from M
pattern follow the current conceptions of the Jewish char
general, well-defined. Fundamentally the Jew was a
ligious and economic grounds. This attitude the dram
But the other side of the picture is equally significant and
purging and energizing power of Shakespeare's imagin
fact that the Jew matched the ostracism inflicted by t
equal pride in his race, his religion, and his business a
looked upon the Christians with profound contempt. H
the purity of his blood made him scorn men who, compar
mixture of all known races, and the inheritors, as he b
religious superstition. Out of this there sprang an into
often as terrible in its effects as the cynical materialism of
stage villains. These are the basic qualities, derived fr
and his own illuminating imagination, which Shakespea
to have. To these there was added another as a corolla
for the much-loved habit of Jew-baiting. To the Christian
acumen was motivated by avarice. This avarice he dou
would not? The Christians denied the Jews the right of p
envied them the wealth in money and in jewels which
stead. Because they clung to these things as their onl
well-being, the Christians called them avaricious, and
weakness in their character which could be played upon w
ous humor. It was fiendish delight they took in Jew-baiti
Out of these patterns Shakespeare set himself to m
design. The basic pattern was probably the Jew, already si
in the detail of social ostracism; though the ostracism of

racial, then individual, that of the villain was only indiv
difference from the villain pattern lay in the fact that th
marily a cynical individualist, but a man of intense religious
to the details of an exacting ritualism. His cynicism was
treatment Christians had accorded him. It arose out of a prol
persecution and contempt. It did not affect his whole rang
did the materialistic cynicism of the villain. It was directe
Christians whom the Jew doubtless thought grossly mater
which really motivated his life was pride in his race, his relig
in merchandizing. The Christians professed hatred of hi
motive in attacking him; but directed their attacks against hi
hypocrisy invites cynicism in its victims; and the Jew found
property was also a defense of his religion. Each must be
utmost. Were he an ordinary man this defense would doubtle
in sullen rage and vain scolding. But if he were endowed w
of will and keenness of intellect which Shakespeare impa
villains, the result would be the same as though intellect
tivated by the most cynical materialism. He would be mer
merciless. He would discover the weakness of his victim and f
pleasure in torturing him through them, both in mind
played upon the "free and open nature" of Othello, so Shy
Antonio's friendship for Bassanio the avenue of his attac
would become the villain. Both would be drawn as social outcasts. In the
villain that would engender a grossly materialistic attitude toward the world.
He was alone among millions. The Jew would find growing in him an arden
loyalty to race and religion. He would have his race behind him. For that
more than for himself he would desire to do his act of vengeful villainy. But
the results upon the victim of their vengeance would in both cases be the same
The individual would find poured out upon himself their pent-up hatred o
his class.
It was thus Shakespeare made his Jew a villain. The Venetians feel that
there is something malignant about Shylock. He must be purged like a di
ease. He has two things against Antonio: he is a Christian and he "lends out
money gratis." If he can so play upon Antonio's friendship for Bassanio a
to get this Christian to sign his "merry bond" he can "feed fat the ancien
grudge" he bears him. This is worth more than gold to Shylock. Towards i
he directs every energy of his scheming intellect, buoyed by the hope tha
Antonio's adventures abroad may be disastrous. He has made the bond foo
proof, as he thinks. The penalty will be Antonio's death. U

can be no possible reaction. So, with stern and undeviatin
he moves to his revenge. Assured and confident, he may be o
weak as he approaches the supreme moment of his career, wh
up memories of contempt and hatred will be released in one
ing torture upon his victim.
In this figure, thus far drawn, there is no hint either
avarice, except as Shylock complains that Antonio's attitude "
rate of usance here in Venice." Nothing, not even the of
amount of the bond can deter him from his vengeance. H
cannot be undermined by such a frontal attack as that.
daughter whose disloyalty takes him unawares. At a mome
his guard, dining with the Christians in furtherance of his v
another Christian steals away his daughter, and with his d
of ducats and priceless jewels which she has taken. He had tol
I am right loath to go,
Hiere is some ill a-brewing towards my rest
For I did dream of money-bags to-night!
But his enemy is of his own household. It is here, caught
unwarranted assault upon his family and his wealth, that h
ing second childhood. Here his will is caught off guard,
overwhelm him. His cry,
My daughter! O my ducats! O my daughter!
reverberates throughout Venice. He is virtually beside h
authority, love of money, both have been shockingly abused
has been concentrated upon weightier things. Nor is his e
he sees the Christians standing by and making fun of him. In
it will go hard with Antonio. But it gives the audience its
to bait the Jew, or see him baited.
There may seem to be inconsistencies in Shylock's cha
senile old man hold so inflexible a purpose as he did with r
Or would a man of so inflexible a purpose allow himself to be
in old age, by a daughter's disobedience? But this inconsi
bother us very much—it is more apparent than real. At t
umphs over the inflexible will and the keen intellect. Shy
victimizer of others; he is himself a victim. It is an old an
leaves the trial scene; thwarted in every move by triumphant
over his terrible overthrow. A young and beautiful Dani
ment against him. Youth triumphs over age, an inevitable vic
defeat old age triumphs over intellect and will. This

wicked as he may have been, turns pitiful in his
Shakespeare's most human villain. We cannot turn fr
as did the members of the Venetian court, and let him
sick and forgotten, seeking forlorn shelter in his de
lingered with us and roused our imaginations for thr
years.
Thus, as he makes his end, Shylock appeals to our hearts. Why, it is
difficult to determine. Sometimes we take refuge from the difficulty by won
dering whether Shakespeare himself could have told just how it came about.
It may be he was himself surprised at the pity Shylock seemed to arouse.
Perhaps he would even confess that he builded better than he knew. This
three-fold pattern contains two elements which had been tested by frequent
use upon the stage until they had become conventional stage figures. The
third was directly out of the life of the street. In it the common man spoke
his opinion of a race. Is it possible that the Jewish element has humanized
Shylock? Does he come to life because he is a Jew?
There is something diabolical about most of Shakespeare's villains. They
move so unerringly to the accomplishment of their inhuman purposes that they
seem devils, not men. It is also characteristic of them that their motives are
private motives. Their ostracism is a deeply personal affair. Their revenge
also is personal; but it is so terrible that no personal motive seems adequate
to explain it. Thus they appear to us as abnormal men. How true this is of
lago, whose torture of Othello's soul so far transcends any actual or fanciful
injury he may have received! A villain may have motives, but once they be
come operative there is called into activity something back of them in the
villain's nature, a quality of spirit born in him, unreasoning and unreasonable,
which finds a devilish delight in torture of his victim for the torture's sake.
Such a villain Shylock would be were his ostracism only personal. But his is a
racial ostracism; he is one of thousands. There is something in it greater
than the individual, something which excuses an overwhelming vengeance,
even palliates delight in seeing its victims tortured. His race speaks through
Shylock:
"I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs,
dimensions, senses, affections, passions ; fed with the same food, hurt with the
same weapons, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a
Christian is?"
What is more, humanity speaks through Shylock. Hatred of his race is treason
toward our common humanity. The motive which directs Shylock is vastly
more than a personal whim. It is pride of race, ap

manity, a challenge to the fundamentals of all religion
dox! The outcast Jew has come to stand for the common
all mankind. As a villain he is merciless, as an avaric
ridiculous, as a Jew he is a man.
Humanity is always striving blindly, vainly, often
tolerance. It knows not where to strike wisely, and so
deeds in its despair. It is this common experience wh
Shylock's impotent and villainous outbreak. Wheth
sciously or not, it is this with which we sympathize
though his attack was evil. This is the paradox of hi
lainous old Jew, Shylock," is only partly true. Would
true to say, 'That villainous old Jewish champion of o
Shylock' ?

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Shylock

Author(s): FRANK W. CADY

And that we have a curse in having her.

as their personalities. Among these senile old men Shyl

It is further evident that Shylock himself acknowledges his villainy. To the

lany picks Antonio as its victim, and would have hound

in the detail of social ostracism; though the ostracism of

proof, as he thinks. The penalty will be Antonio's death. U

defeat old age triumphs over intellect and will. This

more than a personal whim. It is pride of race, ap

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