even Gratiano, who is excused by his absence, in one and the same class, when he dismisses summarily the previous lack of deeds and present fulness of words with the remark : —
" Till thou canst rail the seal from off my bond,
Thou but oflend'st thy lungs to speak so loud :
Repair thy wit, good youth, or it will fall
To cureless ruin. I stand here for law."[1]
Or is, perhaps, Launcelot Gobbo here the representative of Christianity ? Singularly enough, Shakespeare has nowhere expressed himself so clearly as to this, as in the dialogue which this rogue holds with his mistress. To Jessica's assertion —
"I shall be saved by my husband ; he hath made me a Christian."
Launcelot Gobbo replies —
"Truly, the more to blame he : we were Christians enow before ; e'en as many as could well live, one by another. This making of Christians will raise the price of hogs : if we grow all to be pork-eaters, we shall not shortly have a rasher on the coals for money."[2]
In fact, with the exception of Portia, Shylock is the most respectable person in the whole piece. He loves money, he does not conceal it—he cries it aloud in the public market-place. But there is one thing which he esteems above money, it
