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SHAKESPEARE'S MAIDENS AND WOMEN.

hatred of the lower and higher class, and which did not always return this hate with love. 1 But what do I say ? The genius of Shakespeare rises still higher over the petty strife of two re- ligious sects, and his drama shows us neither Jews nor Christians, but oppressors and oppressed, and the madly agonised cries of exultation of the latter when they can repay their arrears of injuries with interest. There is not in this play the least trace of difference in religion, and Shakespeare sets forth in Shylock a man whom nature bade hate his enemies, just as he in Antonio and his friends by no means expresses the disciples of that divine doctrine which commands us to love our enemies. When Shylock says to the man who would borrow money of him : " Signer Antonio, many a time and oft, In the Biulto, you have rated me About my monies and my usances : Still have I borne it with a patient shrug ; 1 This assertion that Shakespeare meant to make a wild beast of Shylock, but was compelled nolens rolcns by his better nature to depict him as "the only decent man in the play," recalls the fact that when the German army entered Paris there was a small part of the city to which the invaders did not penetrate. On which the local press declared that the barbarian foe, struck by the moral grandeur of the French, had not dared to advance further. It is probable, if not certain, that Shakespeare knew what he meant to write quite as well as any critic of the present day, or even Heine.