172 Ideals in the Modern World
checks, without the sense that they are really no diff erent from other
men and women.
No one who reads Troilus and Cressida with even half- open eyes
can leave it believing that Shakespeare had no convictions, or at least
no negative convictions. Clearly there are forces in his inherited cul-
ture and in his contemporary world that he despises. For though it
may be diffi cult to see what Shakespeare valued— diffi cult, but per-
haps not impossible—it is palpable what he condemns: chivalry,
honor, nobility, the heroic code. Titus, Hotspur, Othello, Macbeth,
Timon, Coriolanus, Caesar, Lear, Achilles, Hector, Ulysses, and the
entire sorry cast of Troilus and Cressida leave this beyond doubt.
So why is this palpable fact not common knowledge?
One reason is literary. Shakespeare writes in what can only be
called a high, even a noble, style. His diction is almost always ele-
vated. His servants are inclined to speak like counts, his counts like
demigods. The diction is refi ned, yes, but the content is generally
debunking. It is harder to see how the polemical thrust of the plays
goes, since it is so out of keeping with their richly royal verbal
texture.
But another more pertinent reason for this lack of recognition may
be that Shakespeare fi nds his most adept audience among the edu-
cated middle class. His convictions about nobility are not, to them,
convictions. They are not mere beliefs. Rather they have the au-
thority of facts. And Shakespeare’s text is now in the hands of a
certain professional cadre— the professors. Professors are equipped
to understand and sympathize with many sorts of fi gures, but they
are usually worlds away from admiring heroic prowess. How many
En glish professors now in the Anglo- Saxon world have served in
battle? What fraction of lit erature professors can approve of war, any
war, or revere warriors? The strong polemic against martial heroism
in the plays looks to them simply like a set of natu ral facts. Those
who aspire to heroism do tend to be braggarts and bullies. They may