The Merchant of Vengeance (2 page)

"Indeed. An uneducated man. And yet, you seem to feel yourself somehow qualified to sit in judgement upon the writings of a master of the arts, and rearrange them to suit your fancy. You take painstakingly well-crafted literary verses and then have them jet about the stage in tragical buskins, styling yourself a poet like some upstart country crow beautifying yourself with the feathers of your betters. What do you have to say for yourself, sir?"

Shakespeare sat there stunned, completely taken aback. He looked as if the floor had suddenly dropped out from underneath him, and he could think of no reply. Smythe, too, was completely unprepared for this sudden vitriol and for a moment found himself absolutely speechless, but he recovered quickly and rose to the defence of his friend.

"Sir, I see you are offended," he said. "Please let me assure you that such was never our intent. 'Twas my idea that we come here to seek you out and meet with you, for I have read nearly all of your pamphlets and thought that—"

"My pamphlets?" Greene said with a snort. "For God's sake. My bloody pamphlets. A lifetime spent in pursuit of mastering the arts, Ball, and all they truly care about are my bloody cautionary pamphlets written for the common man. Tell us, Master Greene, how to avoid being cozened by some sharper, how not to have our purses lifted, how to tell if someone is cheating us at cards, or how the alley-man plies his trade, so that we may avoid being waylaid in some alley whilst out looking for some whore to bugger. And in the meantime, we shall grow fat upon your plays, rewriting them howsoever we may choose, for what are a poet's words, after all, but a lot of sound and fury, signifying nothing? Why not make a jig of them? Why must we respect an artist's original intent? Why not add a little speech in the first act and cut out one in the second, put in a jest or two, perhaps a song, take a little sample here and a little sample there, rearrange it and call it all our own. Why, 'tis brilliant, positively brilliant! What great artists we all are, eh, 'Master' Shakescene?"

Shakespeare had turned pale. He sat deathly still and speechless, a stricken look in his eyes.

"Sir," said Smythe, "meaning no disrespect, but surely a poet such as yourself must understand that plays are a collaborative medium, a crucible in which the intent of the author and the interpretation of the player co-mingle with the perception of the audience to yield a new alchemical concoction with every new performance."

"
Concoction
? Concoct this, you infernal jackanapes," said Greene, and dashed the remnants of his ale into Smythe's face. "You dare to lecture me? Bloody leeches! Go fatten on some other beast and leave me well enough alone!"

Smythe got to his feet, ale dripping from his chin onto his spattered runic, and Cutting Ball was just as quick to rise pugnaciously and draw his dagger once again.

Smythe drew his own dagger. "Right, then," he said grimly. "If that is how you want it, you scurvy rogue, I shall be more than happy to oblige you." Then he felt Shakespeare take him firmly by the arm and pull him back.

"Nay, Tuck, let us be gone from this place, quickly," he said. "Please, I beg of you. Let us be gone."

Smythe kept his gaze locked on Cutting Ball, who looked somewhat undecided now, but still belligerent. For a moment, they held each other's gaze, and then Cutting Ball's eyes slid away.

"Bastards," Greene was muttering to himself. "Bloody bastards."

Slowly, Smythe backed away, keeping careful track of those around them until they had cleared the door and were once more outside in the cobbled street.

"I am truly sorry, Will," he said, "for what just happened back there."

"Why?" asked Shakespeare. "'Twas not your fault, Tuck. You have done nothing whatever for which any apology is warranted."

"I fear that I must disagree," said Smythe. "'Twas my idea that we come here to seek out Robert Greene in the first place. I should have left well enough alone. I should have listened when you told me you heard that he was dissipated and fallen on hard times. The man is deeply embittered and in a bilious humour. Yet there is simply no excuse for the foul manner in which he addressed you. And to think that I admired him."

"You admired his work," said Shakespeare. "But until now, you knew nothing of the man. And I repeat, you have done nothing for which any apology is warranted. You could not possibly have known he would have responded. thus to me. 'Strewth, I never would have guessed it myself."

Smythe sighed. "Nevertheless, I feel at least in part to blame. 'Twas I who dragged you here, and more's the pity."

"And 'twas Robert Greene who took it in his head to dress me down," responded Shakespeare. "He could have greeted me in friendship as a colleague, but instead he chose to upbraid me for having the audacity to improve upon his work. Well, as it happens, his criticism was not entirely without merit. I am not a university man, and as such may indeed be regarded as 'an upstart crow' by the academic poets, his fellow masters of the arts. 'Beautified with the feathers of his betters.' I must say, Greene may have become a bloated old sot, but soused or not, he still knows how to turn a phrase."

"'Twas a vile phrase, a most vile phrase, indeed!" said Smythe as they walked. "And I must disagree with you that his criticism was not without merit. I say 'twas completely without merit! Why, how can you possibly say otherwise!"

"But I did rewrite some of his plays."

"You rewrote some speeches here and there, and that only because the company had asked you to, for they were not working well on the stage," said Smythe. "For God's sake, Will, must I defend you to yourself? Greene's plays are full of pompous posturings and pretentious speeches that tend to ridicule the very audiences to whom he purports to play. The truth of the matter is that he fancies himself a grand literary poet superior to all but others like himself, the so-called 'masters of the arts,' if you will. Masters of conceit, if you ask me! Well, unfortunately for Master Greene, a university degree does not, apparently, elevate one above the mundane task of eating, and so for sustenance he must write plays and publish pamphlets, not for other university men such as himself, whose patronage could not support him, but for the groundlings, common people like ourselves, for whom it seems he has nothing but contempt. But then we mere mortals are not quite so ignorant as he supposes, and when he continually ridicules us in his plays, we respond accordingly and begin to look elsewhere for our entertainments. Aye, even to 'upstart crows' who may lack the advantages of a university degree, but at least do not bite the hands that feed them!"

"Upon my word, Tuck, that was as fine a speech as any Robert Greene could ever hope to write," said Shakespeare.. "I can only hope that I might do as well one day."

"I have every confidence that you shall do much better."

"You are a kind soul, Tuck, if not quite an honest one. Nevertheless, I do esteem you for your kindness. But 'twould seem now that you no longer admire Greene's work, yet prior to this, I think you did. I am sorry this encounter has soured you on him."

"'Tis the man that I have soured on, more so than the work, although in truth, after this insufferable exhibition, I doubt that I shall be purchasing any more of his pamphlets at the bookstalls. However, what I had said about his plays was what I had felt about his plays, even prior to this encounter. I was never very fond of them. 'Twas his pamphlets that I liked. They seemed much more direct and colourful, and not at all pretentious. He may write well, I do not know, for I do not presume to be a judge upon such matters, but as for how his work plays on the stage before an audience, one need not be a learned university man to be able to determine that. His plays have not done well for us. At least, not until you had doctored them somewhat. And even then, they have not drawn much of an audience, unlike Marlowe, who packs them in with his
Tamburlaine
and his Doctor
Faustus
and his
Jew of Malta
. His plays are so exciting that people cannot seem to get enough of him."

"Aye, for an Englishman, Kit is very much a Roman," Shakespeare said with a smile. "He gives them bread and circuses upon the stage. And therein, Tuck, lies the rub, you see. The audiences for plays have changed. Perhaps men such as Tom Kyd and Kit Marlowe have changed them by whetting their appetites for something new, a brew more heady than the small beer they have hitherto imbibed. Perhaps these new poets have merely responded to their jaded appetites for something more by perceiving their thirst and thus pouring stronger beverage for them. Either way, there is no question that Greene's day has come and gone. In their excesses on the stage, Kyd and Marlowe have exceeded him, so to speak. What remains to be seen now is what shall exceed them."

"It seems difficult to believe that anything could be much more excessive than Kit Marlowe," Smythe said wryly.

Shakespeare grinned, knowing it was not just Marlowe's plays Smythe was referring to. The flamboyant young poet's name had become nearly synonymous with debauchery and decadence. After a chance encounter with them in a London pub, it was Marlowe who had steered them toward their first jobs with a company of players. He had seemed like a wild man then, and in the few intervening years he had only grown even more rebellious and intemperate. Although his plays were now all the rage in London, he was treading on very dangerous ground with his outrageous behaviour and public utterances.

"Marlowe has only cracked open the door," said Shakespeare. "It remains for someone else to kick it open fully. I have said before, and I believe it still, that the time for jigs and pratfalls on the stage is past. Each new production of an old standby from our traditional repertoire falls flatter than the last. The groundlings have seen such things before, and they are tired of them. They are ready now for something different, something better. Marlowe, for all his cleverness and undoubted gifts, only gives them something much more grand. He gives them spectacle, which is why Ned Alleyn so relishes playing his work. Marlowe writes speeches that a bombastic player like Ned can seize between his teeth and tear into like a rabid hound. The audiences love it. 'Strewth, I love it, as well. When he is fully in his element, Ned is a joy to watch, for all that he can often be insufferable to know. Yet mark me well, it shall not be very long before the novelty of Marlowe's grand excesses also starts to pale, and then what shall we feed these hungry groundlings?"

"What?" asked Smythe with interest.

"Meat," said Shakespeare. 'We shall feed them meat."

"Meat?"

"Aye, once they are done with bread and circuses, my friend, they shall want meat. Something with more sustenance and substance. And I shall do my utmost to provide it for them."

"And just how do you propose to do that?"

"By being a very careful cook," said Shakespeare, "and not just tossing things haphazardly into a pot without giving due consideration to how the flavours marry. 'Tis that blend of flavours that gives a dish its fullest texture. Consider Marlowe's
Tamburlaine
, if you will, the very apotheosis of cruelty. Not since the ancient Greeks have we seen such terrible savagery portrayed upon the stage. And then witness Barabas, Marlowe's Jew of Malta. He slaughters more people than Caligula, each murder more gruesome than the last, until he meets his end in the last act by falling into a cauldron of hot oil and thereupon delivers his final speech, all whilst being boiled alive, mind you! Now I ask you, Tuck., as a man who has worked long hours at the forge and doubtless knows, how likely is one to declaim a bombastic, dying soliloquy whilst one's flesh is being cooked?"

Smythe chuckled. "Not very likely, I fear. When one's flesh is being burned, one is much more likely to scream with agony than deliver up a fustian speech. Bur then the audiences do not seem to mind that overmuch."

"Granted, 'tis because they are being given something different, something novel," Shakespeare said. "And they are hungry for such novelty at present. But in time, methinks that they shall look upon such things askance. Tamburlaine is cruelty made manifest in man, but how is man made manifest in Tamburlaine? Barabas, as we have agreed, is the very embodiment of evil, but take away that evil and what do you have left?"

"A man who has been wronged?" said Smythe.

"Aye, perhaps," said Shakespeare, "but then where is he?" Smythe frowned. "What do you mean, where is he?"

"Surely, not upon the stage," said Shakespeare, with a shrug. "Aside from the fact that he is bent upon revenge, and that in this quest no evil seems to be beyond him, what else do we truly know of him?"

"Why… that he is a Jew, I suppose."

"But then how do we know that Barabas is a Jew?"

Smythe frowned again. "Why, we know he is a Jew because we are told he is a Jew. I am not certain what you mean, Will."

"Well, then, let us ask ourselves, what is a Jew?"

"One who is not a Christian, I suppose," said Smythe. "One who has rejected Jesus." He shrugged. "I cannot say much more than that for certain, for methinks that I have never met a Jew."

"And you are not alone, for neither have most Englishmen," said Shakespeare. "The Jews were expelled from England some three hundred years ago, in the time of King Edward I. What few Jews remained behind had all converted, though whether such conversion was a matter of faith or of expediency is another matter altogether. I, for one, know little more of Jews than you do. One hears the sorts of things that people say, but then in truth, these sorts of things are little different from the manner of speech they bruit about the Spaniard.. or the Flemish or the French, which is to say that most of it is likely arrant nonsense. We English seem to dislike foreigners, simply because they happen to be foreign. They mayor may not be dislikable in and of themselves, but that is quite beside the point. The fact that they are foreign is enough for us. Hence, we dislike them."

"Whether we truly know anything of them or not, you mean."

"Just so," said Shakespeare. "Marlowe wished to present the audience with something evil on the stage, a character whom they could loathe and despise and fear all at the same time. Thus,. he gave them a Jew, someone who was foreign, thus engaging the English predilection to despise the foreigner; someone who was not a Christian, thus invoking the one thing Catholic and Protestant alike could both agree to despise; someone who already has the reputation of being so undesirable and disagreeable that nearly all his kind have long since been driven out of England. Ergo, they must be evil. And, to add the crowning touch, he bestowed upon his Jew the name of Barabas, a name fraught with hatred of literally biblical proportions. And lo, there he stands before you now upon the stage," said Shakespeare, gesturing dramatically toward the street in front of them, as if he had just conjured Marlowe's character up out of his imagination. "All that is left for us to do is clothe him in a black robe and skullcap, add a nose like a promontory, and give him a wig of black tresses falling down about the ears in ringlets.
Hola
! Barabas, the dreaded, evil Jew of Malta! Boo! Hiss!"