CHAPTER XIV.

THE GHETTO AND THE JEWS OF VENICE.


As I think it extremely questionable whether I could get through a chapter
on this subject without some feeble pleasantry about Shylock, and whether,
if I did, the reader would be at all satisfied that I had treated the
matter fully and fairly, I say at the beginning that Shylock is dead; that
if he lived, Antonio would hardly spit upon his gorgeous pantaloons or his
Parisian coat, as he met him on the Rialto; that he would far rather call
out to him, "_Cio Shylock! Bon di! Go piaser vederla;_" [Footnote:
"Shylock, old fellow, good-day. Glad to see you."] that if Shylock by any
chance entrapped Antonio into a foolish promise to pay him a pound of his
flesh on certain conditions, the honest commissary of police before whom
they brought their affair would dismiss them both to the madhouse at San
Servolo. In a word, the present social relations of Jew and Christian in
this city render the "Merchant of Venice" quite impossible; and the
reader, though he will find the Ghetto sufficiently noisome and dirty,
will not find an oppressed people there, nor be edified by any of those
insults or beatings which it was once a large share of Christian duty to
inflict upon the enemies of our faith. The Catholic Venetian certainly
understands that his Jewish fellow-citizen is destined to some very
unpleasant experiences in the next world, but _Corpo di Bacco_! that
is no reason why he should not be friends with him in this. He meets him
daily on exchange and at the Casino, and he partakes of the hospitality of
his conversazioni. If he still despises him--and I think he does, a