"
and again he will not contend, but begs the Court,
".... with all brief and plain conveniency
Let me have judgement and the Jew his will."
Even when Bassanio tries to cheer him,
"What, man, courage yet!
The Jew shall have my flesh, blood, bones and all,
Ere thou shalt lose for me one drop of blood."
Antonio answers:
"I am a tainted wether of the flock,
Meetest for death: the weakest kind of fruit
Drops earliest to the ground: and so let me:
You cannot better be employed, Bassanio,
Than to live still and write mine epitaph."
He will not be saved: he gives himself at once to that "sweet way of
despair" which we have found to be the second Richard's way and
Shakespeare's way.
Just as we noticed, when speaking of Posthumus in "Cymbeline," that
Shakespeare's hero and
alter ego is always praised by the other
personages of the drama, so this Antonio is praised preposterously by
the chief personages of the play, and in the terms of praise we may see
how Shakespeare, even in early manhood, liked to be considered.
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