478 SCHELLING— THE COMMON FOLK OF SHAKESPEARE. 



was at an end. The hempen homespuns with the illustrious weaver, 

 Bottom, at their head, repeat in their absurd drama of " Pyramus 

 and Thisbe," a situation already sketched in " Love's Labour's Lost," 

 one in which the banter and cruel interruption of ungentle gentles 

 evidently reproduces a situation by no means unknown to better 

 actors than Bottom, Flute and Starveling. A kindly spirit speaks in 

 the words of Theseus : 



For never anything can be amiss 

 When simpleness and duty tender it ; 



for truly is he tolerant who can find words of praise for the good 

 intentions of the amateur actor, a being little loved of god or man. 

 To the professional player, whom he knew better than any other 

 man of art, Shakespeare is courteous and appreciative in the person 

 of Hamlet, and we know from an often quoted sonnet, how deeply 

 he could feel the degradation which popular contemporary opinion 

 attached to the player's art. 



The merchant, in Shakespeare's day, was a far more dignified 

 person than the mere man of trade. A merchant, it is true, waits 

 with a jeweller, but also with a painter and a poet, in the anteroom of 

 silly, sumptuous Timon. But ordinarily, the merchant is a more 

 dignified person, extending courtesy to strangers, as in " The Comedy 

 of Errors," taking risks for his merchandise and for himself, as in 

 the case of old ^geon, in the same play, who has ventured on 

 markets forbidden and is imprisoned for his daring. The most 

 notable Shakespearean merchant is, of course, Antonio, the mer- 

 chant prince of Venice, an adventurer in the Elizabethan sense into 

 strange markets and a gambler for high commercial stakes. His 

 gravity — or presaging melancholy — befits his dignity, and his gener- 

 osity to Bassanio, a fellow adventurer (but in more than the Eliza- 

 bethan sense), is only equalled by his authority among his fellow 

 merchants and his scorn of the unrighteous Jew. Shylock, too, is 

 of the merchant class, but a pariah alike for his race and his practice 

 of usury. But Shylock will take us into precincts irrelevant ; for 

 the Jew, whatever your thought of him or mine, is not of the 

 common folk even of Shakespeare. 



