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Is Shakespeare's Antonio the "Weeping Philosopher" Heraclitus?Author(s): George Coffin TaylorSource: Modern Philology, Vol. 26, No. 2 (Nov., 1928), pp. 161-167Published by: The University of Chicago PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/433874 .

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IS

SHAKESPEARE'S

ANTONIO

THE

"WEEPING

PHILOSOPHER"

HERACLITUS?

HE apparently auselessor motivelessmelancholy f Antonio

in

Shakespeare's

he

Merchant

f

Venice

as

given

ise

o

much

speculation

mong

the

critics.

Three

of the

most

expert

mod-

ern Shakespeareans ake it up: one, baffled,eaves it a mystery;

another

falls back

on

pathology

o

explain

t;

and

still

another, y

way

of

explanation,

uggests

"cut"

in

the

play.

E. K.

Chambers

begins

his

essay

on

The Merchant

f

Venice:

"The

melancholy

f Antonio s a

perpetual

undertone

n

the

gaiety

and

the

tribulation

f The Merchant

f

Venice. t claims

your

ponder-

ing

n the first

ignificant

ords

f

the

play:

nor

s its

meaning,

here

or

elsewhere,

learly

r

explicitly

et forth."'

Bradley2

lludes

to the

"deepbutquiet"melancholyfAntonio,forwhich either hevictim

nor

his friends

an

assign

any cause,"

adding

n

a

footnote,

The

critics

ave abored

o

find

cause but t seems

o me

....

to

portray

pathological

ondition."

The

lastest

word

n

the

subject

s to be found

in

The

New

Cambridge hakespeare

dition

fTheMerchant

f

Venice.

The

editors,

over

Wilson nd

Quiller

Couch,

n order o

explain

he

absence of

the motive of

Antonio's

melancholy,3

hink

that

"the

explanation

may

have been ost

n

Shakespeare's

econd

rehandling

f

the text." No satisfactoryxplanation,ndeed,has ever been gen-

erally

ccepted

forAntonio's

melancholy.

A

re-reading

f

the

initial

scene

of

The Merchant

f

Venicewill

make it

plain

that over

against

Antonio,

he

melancholy,

re

placed

the characters

f

Salarino,

alanio,

and

more

specially

Gratiano,

who

uphold

the

side of mirth

n

the

game

of

ife

as

against

deep-seated,

settled

melancholy.

ime

and

again

in the

plays,

even the

general

readerof

Shakespeare

s aware of

now

one,

now

another,

f

the

char-

actersmaintainingncidentallyhat"a merry eart ives ong ," but

nowhere

lse

is

a

whole

cene

given

over to

what

almost

mounts o

1

Shakespeare:

A

Survey

London:

Sidgwick

&

Jackson,

Ltd.,

1925).

2

Shakespearean

Tragedy,

p.

110.

I

P.

122.

[MODERN

PHILOLOGT, November, 1928]

161







162

GEORGE

OFFIN

TAYLOR

a balanced

artificial

ebate in

regard

o thismatter f the

weeping

and the

laughing

ttitudes

oward ife. It seems

verypossible

that

this

first cene

in The Merchant

f

Venice

or

in the old

play

which

Shakespeare

may

have used as a basis

for The Merchant

f

Venice)

was affected

y

some

dialogue

treatment f

this theme f

melancholy

versus

oy.

That

Shakespeare

was familiar with

the "estrif"

or

"debat"

formof

poetry

s certain.

The last few lines of

Love's

Labour's

Lost without

going

furthernto the matter demonstrate

that.

They

consist

f a medieval "estrif"

motif,

he Debate

between

Spring

nd Winter.

Now

it

so

happens

that

one

finds

n

the

1611,

1613, 1620,

1633,

and 1641 editions

f

Sylvester's

ranslation

f Du

Bartas' a

dialogue

between

Heraclitus

the

weeping philosopher

nd

Democritus the

laughing

philosopher.

n

carefully

alanced

fashion

these two

in

twenty

tanzas of four

ines

each debate the matter

f sadnessversus

laughter.2

f,

as this

paper

will

attempt

o

establish,

t

is

true that

some earlier

dition

of

this

very dialogue

makes

clear

the

otherwise

inexplicablemelancholy

f Antonio

n The

Merchant

fVenice,

brief

history

f

the

literary

reatment

f the

Heraclitianmelancholy

nd

Democritian

mirth

willbe

warranted

ere,

particularly

n

view of the

fact

that

by way

ofthis

digression

t

will

ppear

thatthe treatment

f

the

Heraclitus-Democritus

heme

has its

culmination

n

English

poetry

n

Milton's

L'Allegro

nd

II

Penseroso nd

in

Englishprose

n

The

LaughingPhilosopher,

ecently

scribed o

Charles

Lamb.

This rather

fanciful

and

apparently

debased

conception

of

Heraclitus,

whom

we

are

accustomed,

s did

Bacon,

to

associatewith

the

"dry ight

of reason"

unaffected

y

the

emotions,

s

certainly

s

early

s

Juvenal.3

Villey4

as considered

he

antiquity

nd

prevalence

of

this

theme

n

connection

with

Montaigne's Of

Democritus nd

Heraclitus, ssay

L.

He calls

attention

o its

occurrence

n

Juvenal,

Seneca, Diogones

Laertius,

among

the

ancients;

n

Phileremo,

he

Italian,

at the

beginning

f

the

sixteenth

entury;

n

Messie;

in

Bouaystuau,

Marcouville,

Bud6,

La

Primaudaye,

Droit

de

Gaillard,

Henri

Estienne;

nd

finally

n

Jacques

Tahureau.

To

Villey's

ist

may

I

Du

Bartas,

His

Devine

Weekes

and Workes

London,

1641),

p.

281.

2

A

Dialogue

upon

the

Troubles Past:

betweenHeraclitus and

Democritus,

The

weeping

and

laughing

philosophers.

'Sat.

x.

34.

'

Lea

Sources

et

'Evolution

deas

ssais

do

Montaigne (Paris,

1908),

II,

35.







Is

SHAKESPEARE'S ANTONIO

HERACLITUS?

163

be added the

following: long

Latin

monologue,

eraclite

d Demo-

critum

e

pace,Elegea: parisus

hud Annetumn

riere,

ia

Oletoria,

sub

insigne

Dine

Sebastiane,

1559

(copy

in

Harvard

Library).

Guazzo,'

in

his

Civil

Conversation,

s aware

of

the conventiona

notion:

"Many

ignorant

men

.

.

. will handle

a

pleasant

matter o

finely

hat

they

will make

Heraclitus

himself

augh."

The

Dictionary

of Anonymous

Authors ists

Democritus: r

Doctor

Merryman

is

medicines

gainstmelancholyumours,

ritten

y

S.

R.

(Samuel

Row-

lands),

London,

1607.

Peter

Woodhouse,

t least

as

early

s

1605,

n

his

Democritus,

is Dreame or

the

Contention

etween

n

Elephant

and

a

Flea,2

n

the first

orty

ines nd

at variousother

oints

hrough-

out the

poem

falls nto

a

dialogue

treatment

f

this

theme

almost

identically

imilar o

the

treatment f t

in

the

dialogue

ncluded

n

almost ll

the

editions

f

Joshua

ylvester's

ranslations

f

Du

Bartas,

which

more

than

any

other

dialogue

will

presently

e

foundto

be

closely

related

to

the treatment

f

the theme

n The Merchant

f

Venice.

The most elaborate

survival

of this

iterary

onvention

s

to

be

found

f

course

n

Burton's

Anatomy f

Melancholy,

n

which

Demo-

critus

nd

Heraclitus

are

referredo

in

their

aughing

nd

weeping

capacities

times nnumerable.

harles

Lamb continues he

conven-

tion

in his Curious

Fragments

xtracted

rom

he

Commonplace

ook

of

Robert

urton.And to him nd

to Thomas

Hood

has

been

recently

ascribed

The

LaughingPhilosopher,

eing

he ntire

works

f

Momus,

Jester

f

Olympus:

Democritus,

he

Merry

hilosopher f

Greece ...

translated

ntoour vernacular

ongue y

John

Bull

(Sherwood

Jones

&

Co.,

1825).1

There

s

a

Democritus

n

London,

with

hemad

pranks

nd

comical conceites

f Motley

and

Robin

Goodfellow,

tc.,

by George

Daniel,

1822.4 There is a

comedie

n

deux

acies,

en

vers,

a.

1855

(Harvard

Library),

wherein

hese

two

philosophers

ontinue

o

carry

on n

their

weeping

nd

aughing

apacities.

The

persistence

f he

con-

vention

s demonstrated

y

ts

recurrence

n

Santayana's

Dialogues

n

Limbo

n

1925,

n

which

Democritus,

he

main

character

mong

he

many

good

talkers

here,

s the

aughing

hilosopher

nd is referred

o

I

Translation

by

Pettlie

and

Young,

Tudor

Society.

,

Grosart's

Reprints,

Vol.

IV.

'

Walter

Jerrold,

Charles

Lamb

and

the

Laughing

Philosopher,"

Cornhill

Magazine,

LVII,

541 ff.

SSee

Dictionary

of

Anonymous

Authors;

lso Gent.

Mag.

(1852), p.

75.







164 GEORGE

COFFIN

TAYLOR

as

such.

Lastly,

in The

Story

f

Philosophy'

1927),

Will

Durant

alludesto

Democritus nd

Heraclitus,

alling

Democritus

y

his

right

name,

he

"laughing,"

ut

failing

o call

Heraclitus

y

his

right

ame,

the

"weeping."

Of thesewriters

hohandle

hetheme

t s

interesting

to note that

Jacques Tahureau,

Montaigne,

Robert

Burton,

and

Santayana

stand

out

conspicuously

s

the

avowed

followers

f

Demo-

critus n their

hilosophical

ttitudes

oward

ife,

referring

o

accept

the

aughing oint

of viewfor

iving

purposes.

Tahureau

and

Burton

are the most

extreme nstances

of actual

discipleship,

he

latter

assuming

nd

acting

the

part

of

Democritus. Burton

passes

under

the

pseudonym

f

Democritus, r.,

t will

be

remembered,

aking

t

his habitto

go

down

to

the

wharf

mong

the

aborers

n

order o

get

cause for

uproarious

aughter

t the absurd

manifestationsfhuman

anger.2

The


heme

n

English poetry

rises to

a

considerable

degree

of

importance f,

as

may

presently

ppear,

it

occurs

the

occurrence as

apparently

een

unobserved)

n

Milton.

The

editorsof

Milton

are

aware

that

prefixed

o

the

Anatomy f

Melancholy

n

1621 is

"The

Author's

Abstractof

Melancholy,

f

A

Dialogue

between

Pleasure and

Pain,"'

which s

given

credit s

sup-

plying

he "initial

dea"

of the

two

poems

L'Allegro

nd

Il

Penseroso.

But the

editors o not seem

to be

aware

that

this

dialogue

s

another

variant

f

the

debate of

Heraclitus

nd

Democritus n

their

apacities

I

p.

108.

2

See

further: Rissa

y

Planto de

Democrito

y

Heradito

.... Fue

Impresso

en

Valladolid,

1554;

The

Riddles of

Heraclitus

nd

Democritua

[with

the

solutions],

by

T.

Park,

1598;

Avisa

Parnassiaci, Das

ist:

....

Zum andern

Heracliti

und

Democrati lter

Philosophorum

relation

.... 1623; Der lachendeDemocritusund wainendeHeraclitus. In Bozlegung david Mullers

Buchendlers

in

Breslau

1632; England's

Ichabod, Glory

departed,

discoursed

by

two

Christian

men,

the one

called

Heraclitus,

junior,

....

the

other

called

Democritus natu

minimus,

London,

1650;

Heraclitus

Ridens,

at a

Dialogue

between

Jest and

Earnest

con-

cerning

the

times

[By

T.

Flatman],

1681;

A

Neiw

Dialogue

betwixt

Heraclitus

and

Towzer

i.e.

Sir

Roger

L.

Estrange

concerning

the

times,

London,

1681;

Democrati

Turba

Philoso-

phorum

der

derer Etats

Malcontenten

Meister-Gesang

Heraclyti

dediceret

und

in

geheim

publicerat

[17107];

Democriti

Condolens

n

Heraclytum(Satyrical

Dialogues.

On the defeat

of

the

French

arms

by

the

Duke of

Marlborough

in

the

war

of the

Spanish

succession

1702-13], 1710;

Democritus

en

Heraclitus

Brabantische

Voyage.

Bezweering

vanden des-

peraten

Antwerpschen

Courantier

[Amsterdam],

1712;

Heraclieten

Democriet.

Zinnebeelig

Divertissement

met

zang

en dans

[Amsterdam?]

1763;

Zaamenspraak

tusachen

Democritus

en

Heraclitus

... P. F.

Gosse,

1783;

Dialogo

tra

Eraclito

e

Democrito

Redivivi

sulla

Rovo-

luzio politicodi Venizia, 1797. The matter ofthe use ofthename Heraclitus or Democritus

as

a

pseudonym by

the

political

and

theological

pamphleteers

hardly

belongs

here. There

are

some

fifty

r more

listed

under

these

titles

in

the

catalogue

of

the

British

Museum

alone.

3

So

entitled

in

the

Students

Cambridge

edition of

Milton's

Complete

Works,

p.

23,

and

so

called

by

R.

E.

Browne,

English

Poems

by

John

Milton

(Clarendon Press,

1897),

p.

267.







Is

SHAKESPEARE'S

ANTONIO

HERACLITUS?

165

respectively

f the

weeping

and

laughingphilosophers.

ne

needs

only

to turn nd

read it in

connectionwiththe other

xamples

ited

here to

conclude

that

it

is

unmistakably part

of

the

Heraclitus-

Democritus

evelopment

n

English

poetry.

For the

immediate

urpose

n

hand,

however,

t

is

important

o

notice

here

that of the

many

treatments f the theme

of Heraclitus

and

Democritus

as the

weeping

and

laughing philosophers,

he

Dialogue

in

Sylvester's

ditionsof

The

Devine Weekes

helps

best to

throw

ight

on

the contention

etween

Antonio,

pokesman

or

mel-

ancholy,

nd

Gratiano

nd

his

group, pokesmen

or

mirth,

n the first

scene

of

the first ct

of

The Merchant

f

Venice. The most

extr.aor-

dinary

f

all

the

lines

spoken

by

Antonio n

the

play

are those

in

whichhe

emphasizes

o

Gratiano

his

melancholy

ttitude o

life as

against

the

aughing

ttitude f

Gratiano.

Notice the

extraordinary

similarity

f this

peech

o that of

Democritus

peaking

o Heraclitus

in

the

Dialogue

of

Sylvester, similarity

oo definite o

be brushed

aside

as

an

Elizabethan

commonplace.

Commonplaces

ndeed have

been

assembled

in

connection

with

the

better-known

aying

of

Jacques

n

As

You

Like

It,

All the

world's

stage

And ll

themen nd womenmerely

layers.'

But none of

them

corresponds

losely

o the

very

wordsof

Antonio.

Those

of the

Dialogue

cited

heredo

correspond ery

closely:

I

hold

theworld utas

the

world,

I

take heworld

o

be

but s a

Stage

Gratiano,

Where

et-masked

endo

play

their

A

stage

where

very

man

must

play personage.3

hispart

And a sad

one.2

It so

happens,

moreover,

hat

only

ne

hundred

nd

sixty

ines

further

forwardn

TheMerchant

f

Venice

ortia

comes

back

to

a

reconsidera-

tion of the

sadness-mirthheme

nd

characterizes

ne of

her

suitors,

the

County Palatine,

as

follows:

"He

hears

merry

ales

and smiles

not.

I

fear

he

will

prove

the

weeping hilosopher

hen

he

grows

ld,

being

so full

of

unmannerly

adness

n

his

youth.

I

had ratherbe

1Furness' Variorum edition of As You Like It.

I

Merchant

of Venice, , i,

77,

78.

SDu

Bartas,

loc.

cit.

Among

the

many

Elizabethan

commonplaces

which

have been

gathered

in

connection with

Jacques'

"All

the world's a

stage,"

it will

appear upon

exam-

ination

that

none of them

so

closely

resembles the

passage

cited

above

from

The

Merchant

of

Venice as this

one from

Sylvester's Dialogue.







166

GEORGE

OFFIN

TAYLOR

married o

a

death's

head

witha bone

in his

mouth."' By

this

time

it is

apparent

that "the

weepingphilosopher"

s the

well-known

Elizabethan

erm

escriptive

f

Heraclitus.

These

considerations,

ne

of them n the

very

body

of

the debate over

melancholy

nd

mirth

waged

by

Antonio

nd

Gratiano,

nd

the other lmost

mmediately

after

t,

make

t

appear

ikely

hat

Shakespeare

r whoever

wrote

he

original

raft f The Merchant

f

Venicehad

read this same

dialogue

or

some

dialogue

fromwhich t came. In addition

to

the

structural

similarity

f

the

first

cene of

The Merchant

f

Venice nd

A

Dialogue

and

the

very

remarkable

imilarity

f

phrasing

ited

above,

certain

minordetails

of

expression

n A

Dialogue

strengthen

he

impression

that

Shakespeare

had read

it.

For

example,

lthough

he

employs

he

word

"sport"

some one

hundred nd

twenty-odd

imes n his

plays,

he

uses the combination

merry

port"

but once. This

combination

is in A

Dialogue.

And it is not

without

ignificance

hat

n

The Mer-

chant

f

Venice

t s

to

be

found,

when ound t

all,

n

Act

.2

Likewise,

the

phrase

"iron

age,"

which

occurs

only

once

in

the

plays,'

s

to be

found

n A

Dialogue.

The

extraordinary

ines

n A

Dialoguesuggest

obviously

enough

the

extraordinary

ines

from the

melancholy

Hamlet:

Melt

thee

distill

hee

0,

that this

too

too

Distill'd

almost

to

turneo

wax

or

snow,

solid

flesh

would

Jelly.

Make

sad

thy

gesture,

melt,

turne

hy

voyce

to Thaw and

resolve t-

woe.

self nto

dew

The

line

n A

Dialogue,

When

heare orters

rate

of

State

designes,"

suggests

urther:

And hear

poor

rogues,/Talk

f

courtnews."4

It

is

a matter

f

common

knowledge

hat

during

he time when

Shakespeare

was

reading

ery

ctively

nd

widely

nd

doubtless on-

versing

ery

ctively

nd

widely

with

Jonson

nd

many

notherwide-

ly

read

man of his

age, Sylvester

was

being

read

by

the

great

body

of

literary

men

n

London.5The

fact hatthe

many

men

ssociatedwith

Shakespeare

n

various

apacities

were lso

associatedwith

Sylvester,

I

Merchantof Venice, I, ii, 52 ff. The note interpreting hisphrase in the Furness

Variorum

edition

of As You Like It consists

simply

of

the word

"Heraclitus."

i

Scene

iii,

1. 146.

3

King

John,

V,

1,

60.

*

Lear, V,

111,

3-14.

i

See A. H.

Upham,

French

Influence

in

English Literature,

pp.

152

ff.;

H.

Ashton,

Du

Bartas

en

Angleterre

1908).







Is SHAKESPEARE'S ANTONIO

HERACLITUS?

167

from

outhampton

o Ben

Jonson,

makes

t rather

mprobable

hat

Shakespeare

should have left unturned

he

leaves

of a writer

he

years

of whose

ife

oincidedmore

xactly

with

his

own

than

those

of

any

other

iterary

man of his

age,

and

one,

moreover,

hose

iterary

vogue

was for

many years

during

hakespeare's

most active

reading

years

s

great

s

Shakespeare's

wn.'

Of

course,

fone

prefers

o do

so,

it

is

open

to

him

to believe

that

Sylvester

was the

borrower

f

any

borrowing

here

may

be. It is also true

that

in the case of

many

of

the

passages

cited the

printed

hakespeareplay

was

earlier han the

first

nown

rinted

ollectedworks f

Sylvester's

u Bartas

1605-6).

Sylvester,

owever,

ad announced

his translation

n

1590, and,

as

in the case

of

Florio's

translation f

Montaigne's ssays,

many

por-

tionsof this

work

were

completed

ong

before

he final

ublication

f

the

complete

works.2

Other

hings

eing

equal,

it

would seem

to

be

more

reasonable to assume that

Shakespeare

was

influenced

y

Sylvester.

hakespeare

himself,

s

has

been shown

n

innumerable

instances,

aving

an,

stonishing

memory,

was

extraordinarily

iven

to that

sort

of

thing.

Wherever

e

may

have

got

t

from,

hakespeare

was

familiar

ith

the


evice for

allying

with

he

theme f mel-

ancholy

ersus

mirth,

nd

employed

t

as

literary

men

did

before im

and

are

doing

o this

day.

He

had

certainly

ead the

essay

on

the ub-

ject

in

Florio's

Montaigne.

But this

would

not

go

far

toward

xplain-

ing

the first cene n

The Merchant

f

Venice.

His

familiarity

ith

he

theme,

owever,

s

developed

n

the

Dialogue

would

help

o

explain

t.

It

is

interesting

o note

on

leaving

the

subject

that

the

earliest

biographer

f

Shakespeare

inds

n

the


onven-

tion

a

clevermeans

of

praising

he comedies

nd

tragedies

f

Shake-

speare. Says

Bishop

Fuller,

"so

that

Heraclitus

himself

...

might

afford

o

smile

at his

comedies

hey

were

so

merry,

nd

Democritus

scarce

forbears o

sigh

at his

tragedies

hey

were

o

mournful."3

GEORGE

COFFIN

TAYLOR

UNIVERSITY

F

NORTH

AROLINA

I

Sidney

Lee,

The

French

Renaissance

in

England,

pp. 344,

346

fr.;

Upham, op.

cit.,

pp. 156 ff.

2

For an aid to

the

dates

of the different

ortions

of

the

translation of

the Divine

Weekea

nd of

his

own

poems

see Joshua

Sylvester,

Dict.

Nat.

Biog.;

Upham, op.

cit.,

pp.

152

ff.;

Grosart's edition

of

Sylvester (Chertaey

Worthies,

880),

Introduction.

&

Thomas

Fuller,

The

Hi-tory

of

the

Worthies

of England

(ed.

P.

Austin

Nutthall;

London,

1840),

III,

284.

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