In Shakespeare's The Merchant of
Venice, Shylock tries to defend the charging of interest by referring to a
Biblical story in the Old Testament.
The story he refers to
is Jacob taking care of his uncle Laban's sheep (in the book of Genesis). Shylock relays
the story of how Jacob manipulated an agreement with Laban to make out financially with
regard to Laban's sheep.
Shylock describes Laban and Jacob
agreeing that of Laban's sheep, any that were spotted would belong to Jacob. Shylock
tries to say that Jacob had a way to provide for the birth of more spotted sheep than
plain sheep.
Using a bit of superstitious "nonsense,"
Shylock explains what he says took
place.
The skillful shepherd peeled me
certain wands.
And
in the doing of the deed of
kind
He stuck them
up before the fulsome
ewes,
Who then
conceiving did in eaning
time
Fall
parti-colored lambs—and those were
Jacob’s.
In other words, the
newborn sheep will look like whatever its mother saw while mating, so Jacob, knowing
this, placed wands (a branch or stem of a tree) with spots on it, on the ground in front
of the ewes. When the sheep were born, the many that were spotted, went to Jacob,
according to Shylock, because of the steps Jacob had guaranteed to
be successful. His thought is that trickery is not treacherous, as long as there is no
outright stealing involved.
Antonio argues that the sheep
were spotted because it was the will of God, not because of anything Jacob had done. And
he asks Shylock what his point is, to prove that charging interest is a good
thing?
This was a venture, sir, that
Jacob served for—
A
thing not in his power to bring to
pass
But swayed and
fashioned by the hand of
heaven.
Was this
inserted to make interest
good?
Shylock will not be
convinced otherwise, saying that this is what he practices when lending
money:
I make it breed as
fast.
So Shylock tries to
twist the meaning of a Bible story to rationalize his uncharitable
behavior.
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