There was a controversy in the columns of an important daily paper, some time ago, on the subject of the character of Shylock in Shakespeare.

Actors and authors of distinction, including some of the most brilliant of living Jews, argued the matter from the most varied points of view.
Some said that Shakespeare was prevented by the prejudices of his time from having a complete sympathy with Shylock.
Some said that Shakespeare was only restrained by fear of the powers of his time from expressing his complete sympathy with Shylock.
Some wondered how or why Shakespeare had got hold of such a queer story as that of the pound of flesh, and what it could possibly have to do with so dignified and intellectual a character as Shylock.
In short, some wondered why a man of genius should be so much of an Anti-Semite, and some stoutly declared that he must have been a Pro-Semite.

But all of them in a sense admitted that they were puzzled as to what the play was about.
The correspondence filled column after column and went on for weeks.
And from one end of that correspondence to the other, no human being even so much as mentioned the word "usury." It is exactly as if twenty clever critics were set down to talk for a month about the play of Macbeth, and were all strictly forbidden to mention the word "murder." The play called _The Merchant of Venice_ happens to be about usury, and its story is a medieval satire on usury.

It is the fashion to say that it is a clumsy and grotesque story; but as a fact it is an exceedingly good story.

It is a perfect and pointed story for its purpose, which is to convey the moral of the story.