She, an Italian lady, remarks: "You know I say nothing to
him, for he understands not me nor I him. He hath neither Latin,
French, nor Italian. He is a proper man's picture, but, alas! who can
converse with a dumb show." This moving plaint draws attention to a
defect which is not yet supplied. There are few Englishmen nowadays
who, on being challenged to court Portia in Italian, would not cut a
sorry figure in dumb show--sorrier figures than Frenchmen or Germans.
No true patriot ought to ignore the fact or to direct attention to it
with complacency.
Again, Shakespeare was never unmindful of the drunken habits of
his compatriots. When Iago sings a verse of the song beginning,
"And let me the cannikin clink," and ending, "Why then let a
soldier drink," Cassio commends the excellence of the ditty.
Thereupon Iago explains: "I learned it in England, where indeed
they are most potent in potting; Your Dane, your German, and
your swag-bellied Hollander--drink, ho!--are nothing to your
English." Cassio asks: "Is your Englishman so expert in his drinking?"
Iago retorts: "Why, he drinks you, with facility, your Dane dead
drunk," and gains, the speaker explains, easy mastery over the German
and the Hollander.
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