N a r r a t i v e8 9itself. Ben Jonson cannot intervene to tell us what to make of
Volpone, as Thackeray speaks up in Vanity Fair to point out that
one of the book’s most lovable characters is a halfwit.
This can make it hard to know what viewpoints a play
itself endorses, and which it rejects. Take as an example Portia’s
celebrated speech about mercy in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of
Venice:
The quality of mercy is not strain’d;
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blessed:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
’Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown...It is hard not to be persuaded by such eloquence. Yet Portia’s
speech is considerably more self- interested than it may seem. She
is intent on rescuing one of her own kind, the Venetian Christian
Antonio, from the clutches of Shylock, an odious Jew. The
Christians of the city have not been notable for showing mercy to
this contemptible outsider, and will penalise him harshly when he
loses his lawsuit against them. Now, however, they are begging
Shylock through Portia, their self- appointed spokeswoman, to let
the viscerally anti- Semitic Antonio off the hook. If they want
Shylock to show mercy, it is because they are not prepared to grant
him justice. Shylock has a legal document in his hand which states
that he may carve a pound of flesh from Antonio’s body; and
though this may be a barbarous bargain, the pound of flesh is his
due under law. Antonio, moreover, agreed to the deal. He even
reckoned it a reasonable one in the circumstances.