Sin,—Your correspondent " Leguleius Quidam" (Spectat&r, December 3rd) might, I
think, have picked another hole in Shakespeare's law. Towards the close of the trial-scene in The Merchant of Venice, Portia, after insisting that Shylock
in cutting off the pound of flesh should spill no blood, goes on to say :—
"Nor cut thou less, nor more, But just a pound of flesh : if thou cut'st more, Or less, than a just pound,—be it but so much As makes it light, or heavy, in the substance, Or the division of the twentieth part Of one poor scruple ; nay, if the scale do turn But in the estimation of a hair,— Thou diest, and all thy goods are confiscate."
My criticism on this passage is confined to the word "less," which I have italicised. Of course, Shylock's conduct had been appallingly wicked; and he learned, too late, that it had brought him within the grip of the law. But I fail to see that either its wickedness or its criminality would have been increased if, not daring to run the risk of taking more than the stipulated pound of flesh, he had resolved to be on the safe side, and to take somewhat less than that pound. I remember talking over this question with Canon Ainger. When I had stated my case, he laughingly replied that if he could bring himself to believe anything so prepos- terous as that Antonio would have signed the bond, he could believe all the rest. His meaning doubtless was that this part of the plot was not intended to be taken seriously. Possibly not; but does not the fact remain that Shakespeare lays down as good law what could not possibly be good law ? Indeed, as we are often told in a different connection, "two blacks do not make a white "; and therefore Ainger, by pointing out the second blemish, has only strengthened the case against the verisimilitude of this otherwise delightful play.—I am,
Sir. &c., LIONEL A. TOLLEMACHE.
Hotel d'Angleterre, _Biarritz.
[Might it not be argued that penal bonds must be construed strictly like penal statutes, and that if the penalty is a pound, it is exactly a pound and nothing else,—i.e., not half-a-pound or three-quarters ? Surely there are plenty of instances in which the law has made unjust conditions, or conditions CADET CORPS.
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