살 한 파운드

There lived in Venice a merchant named Antonio. He kept several ships trading with distant countries. When the play opens he is sunk in a sadness he cannot account for. His friends put it down to worry about the ships, and he says that is not it either.

Then Bassanio came to him with a request. There was a lady named Portia at Belmont, and he wished to go and court her. That took clothes and a boat and men, and Bassanio had no money. He had already borrowed from Antonio more than once.

Antonio said yes at once. The difficulty was that his whole fortune was at sea inside ships that had not returned. He had nothing in hand. So the two of them went out to borrow.

What Had Happened in the Square

The man who lent money was Shylock.X-ray He was a Jew, and his trade was lending at interest. Christians of that time held it a sin for a believer to take interest, and Jews were shut out of most other work. So the trade fell to Jews, and the people who did it were despised for doing it.

Antonio had despised Shylock for years. In the public square he had called him a dog, spat on his coat, and shoved him with his foot. Shylock had forgotten none of it.

Standing there to borrow, Shylock brought the history up. Now that help is wanted, he asked, can a dog lend money? Antonio’s answer was not an apology. He would call him that again and spit again, he said, so lend it as to an enemy rather than a friend.

A Clause Shaped Like a Joke

After a moment Shylock said something unexpected. This time he would take no interest at all. He wished to forget the past and show friendship, he said.

Instead, as a merry sport, let one thing be written down. If the money were not repaid on the appointed day, a pound of Antonio’s flesh would be forfeit. Which part of the body was to be the lender’s choice.

Bassanio objected immediately. He was not to seal such a bond for his sake. Antonio laughed and reassured his friend.

“Content, i’ faith: I’ll seal to such a bond And say there is much kindness in the Jew.” (Act 1, Scene 3)

His reasoning rested on the ships. The term was three months, and his ships came home a full month before that. Goods worth three times the loan were aboard them. So the clause, he thought, was a sentence that would never be used.

The Man Who Went to Belmont

Bassanio took the money to Belmont. To win Portia a suitor had to choose one of three caskets. They were gold, silver and lead, and only the man who found her portrait inside could marry her. Portia’s father had laid down the test before he died.

Earlier suitors chose gold and silver and went home. Bassanio chose the meanest of them, the lead, and the portrait was in it. The two of them promised themselves to each other on the spot.

At the same hour, other news was going round Venice.

Word From the Sea

It began among the merchants on the bridge. One of Antonio’s ships had been wrecked in the narrow seas. Then came word about another ship, and then another.

When the three months were up, not one of them had come home. The sentence that was never going to be used became a live clause.X-ray Shylock would not hear offers of more money. What he wants, he says, is what is written in the bond.

Today, What Can Be Put Up as Security

Nobody was deceived in this bond. The clause was plainly written, the man who sealed it knew what it meant, and a friend told him not to. Antonio was wrong about exactly one thing. He believed it could not happen to him.X-ray

That is usually how we make dangerous promises. Not in ignorance of the risk, but in the belief that it lands on other people. And the grounds for that belief are almost always good news that has not arrived yet.

A larger question is left standing here. Does a promise bind purely because two people agreed and put it on paper? Venice stood on the belief that bonds are kept. How far that belief goes is settled in a courtroom later.