I have taken the foregoing passages from a work by Mrs. Jamieson, entitled, "Moral, Poetical, and Historical Characters of Women."
In this work only the women of Shakespeare are discussed, and what is here cited indicate the spirit of the writer, who is probably a Scotch lady. What she says of Portia, as opposed to Shylock, is not only beautiful but true. Should we take the latter, according to the usual conception, as the representative of the stern, earnest, art-detesting representative of Judea, Portia, on the contrary, appears to us as setting forth that after-blossoming of Greek spirit which spread forth its delicious perfume in the sixteenth century from Italy all over the world, and which we love and esteem to-day as the Renaissance. Portia is also the type of gay prosperity in anti-thesis to the gloomy adversity which Shylock presents. How blooming, rose-like, pure ringing, is her every thought and saying, how glowing with joy her every word, how beautiful all the figures of her phrases, which are mostly from the mythology. And how dismal, sharp, pinching, and ugly are, on the contrary, the thoughts and utterances of Shylock, who employs only similes from the Old Testament. His wit is cramped and corroding, he seeks his metaphors amid the most repulsive subjects, and even his words are discords squeezed together, shrill, hissing, and whirring.
