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Shakespeare The Invention of the Human Seventh
Impression Edition Bloom Digital Instant Download
Author(s): Bloom, Harold
ISBN(s): 9781573227513, 157322751X
Edition: Seventh Impression
File Details: PDF, 5.88 MB
Year: 1999
Language: english
SHAKESPEARE
 ALSO BY HAROLD BLOOM

Omens of Millennium (1996)

The Western Canon (1994)

The American Religion (1992)

The Book of J (1990)

Ruin the Sacred Truths (1989)

Poetics of Influence (1988)

The Strong Light of the Canonical (1987)

Agon: Towards a Theory of Revisionism (1982)

The Breaking of the Vessels (1982)

The Flight to Lucifer: A Gnostic Fantasy ( 1979)

Wallace Stevens: The Poems of Our Climate ( 1977)

Figures of Capable Imagination (1976)

Poetry and Repression (1976)

A Map of Misreading (1975)

Kabbalah and Criticism (1975)

The Anxiety of Influence (1973)

The Ringers in the Tower: Studies in

Romantic Tradition ( 1971)

Yeats (1970)

Commentary on David V. Erdman's Edition

of The Poetry and Prose of William Blake (1965)
Blake's Apocalypse (1963)

The Visionary Company (1961)

Shelley's Mythmaking (1959)

SHAKESPEARE
TH E I N V EN T I ON O F TH E HU M AN

HAROLD BLOOM

RIVERHEAD BOOKS

A MEMBER OF PENGU I N PUTNAM I NC

NEW YORK • 1998

 Riverhead Books

a member of

Penguin Putnam Inc.

375 Hudson Street

New York, NY 10014

Copyright © 1998 by Harold Bloom

All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not

be reproduced in any form without permission.

Published simultaneously in Canada

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bloom, Harold.

Shakespeare : the invention of the human I Harold Bloom.

p. em.

ISBN 1-57322-120-1 (acid-free paper)

1. Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Characters. 2. Shakespeare,

William, 1564-1616--Knowledge-Psychology. 3. Characters and

characteristics in literature. 4. Drama-Psychological aspects.

5. Personality in literature. 6. Humanism in literature.

1.11tle.

PR2989.B58 1998 98-21325 CIP

822.3'3-dc21

Printed in the United States of America

10

This book is printed on acid-free paper. S

Book desig• by Chris Wdch

 TO

JEANNE
That for which we find words is something already dead in our
hearts. There is always a kind of contempt in the act of speaking.
Nietzsche, The Twilight of the Idols

Our wills and fates do so contrary run

That our devices still are overthrown,
Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own.
The Player King in Hamlet
 C ON T EN T S

Chronology xiii
To the Reader xvii
Shakespeare's Universalism

T H E E A R LY C O M E D I ES

1. The Comedy of Errors 21

2. The Taming of the Shrew 28

3. The Two Gentlemen of Verona 36

I I T H E F I R ST H I ST O R I E S

4. Henry VI 43

5. King John 51

6. Richard III 64

I l l T H E A P P R E N T I C E T R AGE D I ES

7. Titus Andronicus 77

8. Romeo and Juliet 87

9. Julius Caesar 104

I V T H E H IGH C O M E D I ES

10. Love's Labour's Lost 121

11. A Midsummer Night's Dream 148

12. The Merchant of Venice 171

13. Much Ado About Nothing 192

 14. As You Like It 202

15. Twelfth Night 226

V T H E M AJ O R H I ST O R I ES

16. Richard II 249

n. Henry IV 211

18. The Merry Wives of Windsor 31 5

19. Henry V 319

V I T H E "P R O B L E M P L AYS"

20. Troilus and Cressida 327

21. All's Well That Ends Well 345

22. Measure for Measure 358

V I I T H E G R E AT TRAG E D I ES

23. Hamlet 383

24. Othello 432

25. King Lear 476

26. Macbeth 516

27. Antony and Cleopatra 546

V I I I T R A G I C E P I LO G U E

28. Coriolanus 577

29. Timon of Athens 588

IX T H E LATE R O M A N C E S

30. Pericles 603

31. Cymbeline 614

32. The Winter's Tale 639

33. The Tempest 662

34. Henry VIII 685

35. The Two Noble Kinsmen 693

Coda: The Shakespearean Difference 714

A Word at the End: Foregrounding 737

 A C K NO W L E D G M EN T S

S
ince there cannot be a definitive Shakespeare, I have employed a va­
riety of texts, sometimes silently repunctuating for myself. In general,
I recommend the Arden Shakespeare, but frequently I have followed the
Riverside or other editions. I have avoided the New Oxford Shakespeare,
which perversely seeks, more often than not, to print the worst possible
text, poetically speaking.
Some of the material in this book was del ivered, in much earlier drafts,
as the Mary Flexner lectures at Bryn Mawr College, in October 1 990, and
as the Tan ner Lectures at Princeton University, in November 1 995.
John Hollander read and improved my manuscript, as did my devoted
editor, Celina Spiegel. I have considerable debts also to my literary agents,
Glen Hartley and Lynn Chu; to my copy editor, Toni Rachiele; and to my
research assistants: Mirjana Kalezic, Jennifer Lewin, Ginger Gaines, Eric
Boles, Elizabeth Small, and Octavia Dileo . As always, I am grateful to the
l ibraries and librarians of Yale University.
H.B.

Timothy Dwight College

Yale University
April199B
 C H R ONO L O G Y

A
rranging Shakespeare's plays in the order of their composition re­
mains a disputable enterprise. This chronology, necessarily tenta­
tive, partly follows what is generally taken to be scholarly authority. Where
I am skeptical of authority, I have provided brief annotations to account for
my surmises.
Shakespeare was christened on April 26, 1 564, at Stratford-on-Avon,
and died there on April 23, 1 6 1 6 . We do not know when he first j oi ned the
London theatrical world, but I suspect it was as early as 1 587. Probably i n
1 6 1 0, Shakespeare returned t o live in Stratford, until h i s death. A fter 1 6 1 3 ,
when he composed The Two Noble Kinsmen (with J oh n Fletcher), Shake­
speare evidently gave up his career as dramatist.
My largest departure from most traditional Shakespeare scholarship is
that I follow Peter Alexander's Introduction to Shakespeare ( 1 964) in assign i ng
the early Hamlet (written anytime from 1 589 to 1 59 3 ) to Shakespeare him­
self, and not to Thomas Kyd. I also dissent from the recent admission of
Edward III ( 1 592-95) into the Shakespeare canon, as I find nothing i n the
play representative of the dramatist who had written Richard III.
Henry VI, Part One 1 589-90
Henry VI, Part Two 1 590-9 1
Henry VI, Part Three 1 590-9 1
Richard III 1 592-93
The Two Gentlemen of Verona 1 592-93

X i i i
 H A R O L D B L O O M

Most scholars date this 1 594, but it is much less advanced than The Com­
edy of Errors, and seems to me Shakespeare's first extant comedy.
Hamlet ( first version) 1 589-93
This was added to the repertory of what became the Lord Chamber­
lain's Men when Shakespeare joined them in 1 594. At the same time, Titus
Andronicus and The Taming of the Shrew began to be performed by them. They
never acted anything by Kyd.
Venus and Adonis 1 592-93
The Comedy of Errors 1 593
Sonnets 1 59 3-1 609
The earliest of the Sonnets may have been composed in 1 589, which
would mean that they cover twenty years of Shakespeare's l i fe, ending a
year before his semi-retirement to Stratford.
The Rape of Lucrece 1 593-94
Titus Andronicus 1 59 3-94
The Taming of the Shrew 1 593-94
Love's Labour's Lost 1 594-95
I t is so great a leap from Shakespeare's earlier comedies to the great
feast of language that is Love's Labour's Lost that I doubt this early a date, un­
less the 1 597 revision for a court performance was rather more than what
generally we mean by a "revision." There is no printed version before 1 598.
King John 1 594-96
Another great puzzle in dating; much of the verse is so archaic that it
suggests the Shakespeare of 1 589 or so. And yet Faulcon bridge the Bastard
is Shakespeare's first character who speaks with a voice entirely his own .
Richard II 1 595
Romeo and Juliet 1 595-96
A Midsummer Night's Dream 1 595-96
The Merchant of Venice 1 596-97
Henry IV. Part One 1 596-97
The Merry Wives of Windsor 1 597
Henry IV, Part Two 1 598
Much Ado About Nothing 1 598-99
Henry V 1 599

X i V
 C H R O N O L O G Y

Julius Caesar 1 599

As You Like It 1 599
Hamlet 1 600- 1 60 1
The Phoenix and the Turtle 1 60 1
Twelfth Night 1 60 1 -2
Troilus and Cressida 1 60 1 -2
All's Well That Ends Well 1 602-3
Measure for Measure 1 604
Othello 1 604
King Lear 1 605
Macbeth 1 606
Antony and Cleopatra 1 606
Coriolanus 1 607-8
Timon of Athens 1 607-8
Pericles 1 607-8
Cymbeline 1 609- 1 0
The Winter's Tale 1 6 1 0- 1 1
The Tempest 161 1
A Funeral Elegy 1612
Henry VIII 1 6 1 2- 1 3
The Two Noble Kinsmen 161 3

X V
 TO T H E RE A D E R

L
iterary character before Shakespeare is relatively unchanging; women
and men are represented as aging and dying, but not as changing be­
cause their relationship to themselves, rather than to the gods or God, has
changed. I n Shakespeare, characters develop rather than unfold, and they
develop because they reconceive themselves. Sometimes this comes about
because they overhear themselves talking, whether to themselves or to oth­
ers. Sel f-overhearing is their royal road to individuation, and no other
writer, before or since Shakespeare, has accomplished so well the virtual
miracle of creating utterly di fferent yet self-consistent voices for his more
than one hundred major characters and many hundreds of highly distinc­
tive minor personages.
The more one reads and ponders the plays of Shakespeare, the more
one realizes that the accurate stance toward them is one of awe. How he
was possible, I cannot know, and after two decades of teaching little else,
I fi nd the enigma insoluble. This book, though it hopes to be useful to oth­
ers, is a personal statement, the expression of a long ( though hardly
unique) passion, and the culmination of a life's work in reading, writing
about, and teaching what I stubbornly still call imagi native literature. Bar­
dolatry, the worship of Shakespeare, ought to be even more a secular reli­
gion than it already is. The plays remain the outward limit o f human
achievement: aesthetically, cognitively, in certain ways morally, even spir­
itually. They abide beyond the end of the mind's reach; we cannot catch

X V i i
 H A R O L D B L O O M

up to them. Shakespeare will go on explaining us, in part because he in­

vented us, which is the central argument of this book. I have repeated that
argument throughout, because it will seem strange to many.
I offer a fairly comprehensive interpretation of all Shakespeare's plays,
addressed to common readers and theatergoers. Though there are living
Shakespearean critics I admire (and draw on here, by name), I am dis­
heartened by much that now passes as readings of Shakespeare, whether
academic or journalistic. Essentially, I seek to extend a tradi tion of inter­
pretation that includes Samuel Johnson, William Hazlitt, A C. Bradley,
and Harold Goddard, a tradition that is now mostly out of fashion. Shake­
speare's characters are roles for actors, and also they are considerably more
than that: their influence upon life has been very nearly as enormous as
their effect upon post-Shakespearean literature. No world author rivals
Shakespeare in the apparent creation of personality, and I employ "appar­
ent" here with some reluctance. To catalogue Shakespeare's largest gifts is
almost an absurdity: where begin, where end? He wrote the best poetry
and the best prose in English, or perhaps in any Western language. That
is inseparable from his cognitive strength; he thought more comprehen­
sively and originally than any other writer. It is startling that a third
achievement should overgo these, yet I join Johnson ian tradition in argu­
ing, nearly four centuries after Shakespeare, that he went beyond all prece­
dents (even Chaucer) and invented the human as we continue to know it.
A more conservative way of stating this would seem to me a weak mis­
reading of Shakespeare: it might contend that Shakespeare's originality
was in the representation of cognition, personality, character. But there is an
overflowing element in the plays, an excess beyond representation, that is
closer to the metaphor we call "creation." The dominant Shakespearean
characters-Falstaff, Hamlet, Rosalind, !ago, Lear, Macbeth, Cleopatra
among them-are extraordinary instances not only of how meanin g gets
started, rather than repeated, but also of how new modes of consciousness
come into being.
We can be reluctant to recognize how much of our culture was literary,
particularly now that so many of the institutional purveyors of literature
happily have joined in proclaiming its death. A substantial number of

X V i i i
Discovering Diverse Content Through
Random Scribd Documents
 TROPICAL RAILWAY TRAIN AND STATION.
Merida, the capital, is about thirty miles from Progreso, and connected with it
by railway. The train rolled slowly along, taking nearly three hours for the
journey; but as it has no competition it has no occasion to hurry. Passengers
sometimes complain of the snail-like speed, and are told that they can
possibly do better by getting out and walking. Our friends made no complaint,
as they realized that even at a pace not exceeding ten miles an hour it was
much better than no railway at all. The engine and cars were of American
make, and the conductor was a New Yorker who had become so bronzed by
the sun as to be readily taken for a Mexican.
"This railway was built like a good many other lines in Mexico," said a
passenger on the train who fell into conversation with Doctor Bronson and the
youths. "All the material was brought from foreign countries and landed at
Progreso; it was then hauled in carts to Merida, and the line was built from
Merida towards the sea. The same ideas prevailed as in the case of the line
between Vera Cruz and the city of Mexico; the peace of the country would be
endangered if the railway should be constructed from the sea-coast inland.
"The story goes that the contractor received a liberal subsidy from the
Government only on condition that he built from Merida, and as he began to
use the line as soon as he had five or six miles completed, he made money by
the operation. There is another story, that he was allowed to charge a high
price for passengers while the road was under construction, but must come
down to a low figure when it was completed.
"The result was that the contractor stopped work before reaching the coast,
and did not resume for a long time; there was a mile or so of unfinished road,
and this gave him an excuse for exorbitant rates for passengers. Complaints
were so numerous that the Government was obliged to interfere and compel
him to carry out the spirit as well as the letter of his contract."

FLOCK OF PELICANS.
Frank watched from one side of the train while Fred kept a sharp eye out on
the other. Soon after starting, the train passed a lagoon which abounded in
aquatic birds—duck, teal, egrets, herons, curlews, snipe, pelicans, and the
like. Were it not for the liability to fevers, owing to the unhealthy miasmas
rising from the lagoon, the region would be an attractive one for sportsmen.
Even with its drawbacks a fair number of hunters find their way there, and
some of them praise the locality in glowing terms. After passing the lagoon
the road reaches the coral rock which is the foundation of Yucatan and
supports a thin and rather dry soil.
The youths thought they were again among fields of the maguey plant and
haciendas for pulque-making as soon as the solid ground was reached, but
their new acquaintance undeceived them.
 SISAL-
HEMP.
"These fields that stretch for miles in every direction between the coast and
the capital," said he, "are not covered with the maguey from which pulque is
made, but with henequin. Henequin belongs to the aloe family, as does the
maguey, and it is from this plant that a variety of fibre like hemp is produced.
When Sisal was the seaport the product took its name; it is known in
commerce as sisal-hemp, though very little of it comes directly from that place
at present. It grows, like the maguey, on rocks or very thin soil where nothing
else can flourish, and it requires no water or but very little. Take away the
henequin plant and the fibre made from it, and Yucatan would be seriously
crippled in its commerce. Considerable corn is raised, but it is mostly needed
for home consumption. The value of the sisal-hemp export is above three
millions of dollare annually, sometimes exceeding and sometimes falling below
that figure.
"Yucatan has no rivers," he continued, "and the planters depend entirely upon
rains for irrigation. These are supplied by the moisture from the Gulf of
Mexico, and if this should fail the country would soon become a desert."
The gentleman then gave some information relative to the cultivation of
henequin and the preparation of the fibre which we will reserve for a later
page, when the youths have had an opportunity to see the process. Fred
made note of the fact that the plant was indigenous to Yucatan, and used for
the production of fibre long before the advent of the whites. Its exportation in
large quantities is a matter of recent times, and is steadily increasing.
Henequin is grown from shoots which are cut from the base of the old plants.
Three years after the shoots are set out the plant is large enough for a first
crop of leaves to be cut; the cutting goes on for twelve or fifteen years, and in
the mean time new shoots are set out every year, so that a plantation is
constantly being renewed. When the plant is at its full size the leaves are four
or five feet long. After a plantation is fairly under way, and producing
regularly, it requires very little attention.

INDIANS OF YUCATAN.
The scientific name of sisal-hemp is Agave Sisalensis or Agave Sisolana;
properly speaking, it is not hemp at all, and reminds us of the peddler of "hot
mutton-pies" who replied, when a customer complained that his wares were
frozen, "hot mutton-pies is the name of 'em." The true hemp is an annual
plant, supposed to be a native of India, whence its culture has spread through
the world, and it has no resemblance whatever to henequin, or Agave
Sisalana.
While we have been talking on this and other topics the train has been rolling
on towards Merida. Frank recorded in his note-book that Yucatan was first
seen by the eye of a white man in 1506, and was first visited and partially
explored in 1517 by Hernandez de Cordova. The visit of Cordova was not
altogether encouraging, as the Indians killed or wounded all but one of his
companions, among the wounded being Bernal Diaz, the historian of Cortez.
Not discouraged by his injuries, Diaz came the following year to Yucatan with
Grijalva, and in 1519 with Cortez to the same country and Mexico.
Mexico and its treasures attracted attention for the next decade or two, and
very little thought was given to Yucatan. In 1537 a settlement was effected;
but the Spaniards were opposed by a ferocious people, and found time for
nothing but fighting until 1540, when they defeated the natives in a great
battle on the present site of Merida. After conquering the country they found
they had achieved a barren victory, as Yucatan contained neither gold nor
silver, the object of all the Spanish conquests in the New World.
After their defeat the Indians seem to have accepted the situation, and
acknowledged themselves vassals of the Spaniards. They became Christians,
like the people of Mexico, and though they may have been somewhat
perplexed in their endeavors to reconcile the precepts and practices of the
religion of the white men from beyond the sea, they did not find it worth
while to argue vigorously with their masters. From an exceedingly warlike race
they became a peaceable one, though they might have been otherwise had
their country contained gold and silver mines, in which they would have been
put to work as slaves.
According to history, they did not forget all the arts of war or lose their
instinct for it. In 1761, and again in 1847, they rebelled against the
Government and made a great deal of trouble; and even at the present time
there is a section of the country where the Indians are living in open hostility
to the authorities. A few thousand of them in the eastern part of Yucatan have
made a great deal of trouble, causing towns and villages to be abandoned in
consequence of the raids which they make at irregular intervals. Several times
they have come into the neighborhood of Merida and caused a great deal of
excitement.
Frank and Fred heard terrible stories about these Indians, and were cautioned
not to go anywhere near their country. "If they get hold of a white man," said
their informant, "they cut him to pieces immediately without waiting for any
explanation, or else they take him to one of their villages and torture him in
the most cruel manner for the amusement of the women and children. They
live among the hills, swamps, and forests of the south-eastern part of the
country, and though several expeditions have been sent against them, it
seems impossible to penetrate to their retreats. They have a very little trade
with the English residents of British Honduras, but refuse to allow them to
enter their country; one Englishman who had dealt with them for several
years ventured to go there, and was never seen or heard of again.
"They are constantly making threats of destroying Merida, and as these
stories are circulated they greatly alarm the timid portion of the inhabitants. It
is not likely that they really intend anything of the kind, as they would
probably be defeated, but they know the value of rumors and keep them
constantly circulating. In this way they have diminished the population and
business of Valladolid more than one-half. It was once a prosperous city, but
is now languishing, and many of its houses are in ruins."

RETREATING FROM HOSTILE INDIANS.

 CHAPTER XXIX.
RAILWAY-STATION AT MERIDA.—PUBLIC
CONVEYANCES.—THE CALESA.—A RIDE THROUGH
THE STREETS.—WHEN MERIDA WAS FOUNDED.—
PRACTICAL MODE OF DESIGNATING STREETS.—
PUBLIC BUILDINGS.—CASA MUNICIPAL.—DRESS
AND MANNERS OF THE PEOPLE.—INDIANS,
SPANIARDS, AND MESTIZOS.—A CITY OF PRETTY
WOMEN.—CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MAYA RACE.—
THE MESTIZO QUARTER.—SCENES IN THE MARKET.—
BREAKFASTING AT A MEDIO RESTAURANT.—EUCHRE
OR YUCCA.—USES OF THE YUCCA PLANT.—
GAMBLING IN YUCATAN.—LA LOTERIA; HOW IT IS
PLAYED.—AMERICAN COUNTERPART OF THE
YUCATEO GAME.—A POPULAR ASSEMBLAGE.

IN THE OUTSKIRTS.
The train rolled into Merida and halted under the walls of an old convent that
has been converted into a public hospital. As the passengers emerged from
the station Frank and Fred were impressed with the listlessness of the cab-
drivers, who did not seem to care whether they obtained customers or not.
They stood or sat idly near their vehicles, and one was sound asleep on his
box, where he evidently did not wish to be disturbed for so trivial a matter as
earning a living.

THE CALESA.—ENTRANCE OF A MERIDA HOUSE.

The carriages in waiting were of various kinds. That which first caught the
eyes of the youths was a calesa, a sort of chaise carrying two persons, the
driver being seated on the horse; the shafts were of unusual length, and the
weight was so placed that fully one-third of it rested on the animal, in addition
to that of the driver. The wood-work was bright with paint and gilding, and
over the frame was drawn a cover of white linen to ward off rain and dust
together with the heat of the sun, which is by no means light in Yucatan. Fred
suggested that it was a wise provision of nature to seat the driver on the
horse, as he could not conveniently go to sleep there.
A somewhat rickety carriage to hold four persons was secured, and in this
conveyance the travellers proceeded to the only hotel of which Merida can
boast. Until recently the place had no hotel whatever, and strangers were
obliged to hunt lodgings for themselves or apply to their consular
representative or a foreign merchant. Even as it is, a letter of introduction to a
resident is a very useful document. Few travellers go to Merida, and the
universal testimony of those who have been there is that the residents are
hospitable. The same may be said generally of the inhabitants of the towns,
villages, and haciendas throughout Yucatan.
The streets of Merida are broader than those of many other Mexican cities,
but their pavement does not attract attention by its excellence. The houses
are of stone, and mostly but a single story in height. The entrance is generally
through an arched door-way into a court-yard, and the windows that face the
street are invariably grated and nearly all without glass. The construction of
the houses suggests Moorish and Spanish architecture, together with some
features peculiar to the dwellings of the natives.
Merida stands on the site of a native city, where a great and decisive battle
was fought in 1540. According to the Spanish historians, there were 200
Spaniards against 40,000 Indians. Doubtless the figures are not exact, but it is
quite likely that the defeated army was vastly superior in numbers to the
invaders. The Spaniards had, of course, the advantage of fire-arms, as they
had in the conquest of Mexico, and we have seen in previous pages what a
great advantage it was. The Indians had only spears, swords, and bows and
arrows, and their bodily defences were tunics of wadded cotton. These tunics
were efficient against their own kind of weapons, but of little use to repel a
musket-ball. The cannon of the Spaniards created terrible havoc among them,
and one chronicler says that when the Indians were heavily massed the
cannon-balls tore through them and mowed down hundreds at every
discharge.
Where is now the Plaza Mayor was a mound of stone and earth at the time of
the Conquest. On the top of the mound was an altar, on which sacrifices were
made; but the natives were not as much addicted to them as were the people
of Mexico. This very circumstance had much to do with the success of Cortez
in his conquest. The Aztecs sought to take their enemies alive in order to
sacrifice them on their altars; and it is said that Cortez himself was in their
hands on two occasions. They might easily have killed him, but while they
were leading him away uninjured, in order that he should be kept for sacrifice,
he was rescued by his followers.
The mound referred to was torn down for the sake of the building material it
contained; and the same was the case with many other mounds and pyramids
in its neighborhood. Very much of the material of which Merida is constructed
was obtained from these edifices.
The streets cross each other at right angles, and Frank observed something
which he thought quite original in the naming of the streets. Here is his
memorandum on the subject:
"For the convenience of the Indians who could not read or write Spanish, or
anything else, in fact, the streets were named after birds and beasts. In
addition to the Spanish name in letters there was the figure of the creature
after which the street was called. The Street of the Ox had the figure of an ox
in stone or plaster, or painted on the wall; the Street of the Flamingo
presented a tall flamingo with a beak of fiery red, and the Street of the
Elephant had a well-moulded figure of that animal with enormous trunk and
tusks. The idea is a capital one, and I'm surprised it has been so little
utilized."
"It is utilized more than you think," said Doctor Bronson, when Frank called
his attention to the subject. "You remember that in Russia and other countries
where large numbers of the population cannot read, the shop-keepers
ornament their signs with pictures of the things they have to sell; and the
custom is by no means unknown in our own land. A watch-maker hangs out a
wooden watch, a boot-maker displays a boot or shoe, and a druggist shows a
mortar and pestle. You remember how convenient it was in the far East, for
the servants who did not know a single Roman letter, that the canned fruits,
meats, and vegetables from America and England bore on their labels a
picture of the article contained in the can?"
"Certainly, I do remember," replied the youth. "After all, there's nothing new
under the sun, though the application of the idea here is something we have
not before seen."
 HOUSE BUILT BY MONTEJO.
There are twelve or fifteen squares, or plazas, in the city, the most important
being, of course, the central one known as the Plaza Mayor. The cathedral and
the Casa Municipal, or City Hall, face upon this square, and on one side of it is
the oldest house in the city, dating from 1549. The city was founded in 1542
by Don Francisco de Montejo, the son of the Governor of the Province of
Yucatan, and bearing exactly the same name. Montejo, junior, was lieutenant-
governor and captain-general, and the old house just mentioned, which is one
of the sights of Merida, was built by him. The façade is ornamented with
sculptures, which are said to have been made by Indians after designs
supplied by the Spaniards. They represent the conquerors trampling on the
bodies of natives, who have been made non-resistant by the removal of their
heads. It was probably the idea of Montejo that the sight of these sculptures
would deter the Indians from any further resistance to the white men who
came from beyond the sea, and brought the Christian religion to replace the
paganism which they found here.
 MUSICAL
INSTRUMENTS.
The hotel in which our friends were lodged is also on the great square,
directly opposite the old house of Montejo, which was the first building to
which the youths gave special attention. Most of the buildings fronting the
square are of more than one story; in fact, the best architecture of the place
may be said to be in that neighborhood. The Casa Municipal is an imposing
building of two stories, with broad porticos supported on arches. It has a high
tower, from which watchmen are supposed to be constantly on the lookout for
fires; though, owing to the material used in the construction of Merida, and
the absence of stoves and furnaces, fires are of exceedingly rare occurrence.

MUNICIPAL PALACE AND SQUARE, MERIDA.

"The first thing to attract our attention as we strolled through the streets,"
wrote Fred, "was the dress of the people. The men—I am speaking of the
native Indians—wear cotton trousers, or drawers, which are tight at the waist,
and descend to the knee or below it. Sometimes they have shirts on their
backs and sometimes none; but in the latter case a man is reasonably certain
to have one folded away in his hat, to be worn on state occasions or when the
rules of society demand. Some of them wear a long shirt and no trousers, and
altogether the wardrobe of a native of the lower class is not costly. Frequently
we see men with one leg of the trousers rolled up and the other hanging
down, and it is a comical sight when a half a dozen thus arrayed are grouped
together. A very noticeable feature about the shirt is that it is worn with the
'flaps' outside, like a carter's frock or 'jumper,' and not inside, as in northern
countries.
"The dress of the women is a skirt hanging from the waist to the ground, and
a white uipil, or outer garment, that hangs from the shoulders to the ground,
like a loose wrapper. It is the traditional dress of 300 years ago, and the
fashion has not changed at all in that time. On Sundays and feast days both
sexes are arrayed in spotless white, but on other days their garments are apt
to be more or less dingy. Compared to the Mexicans, the Yucateos, as the
people of Yucatan are called, are wonderfully cleanly in their dress and ways,
and it is as rare to see a dirty Yucateco as it is to see a clean Aztec. The uipil
of the women has short sleeves, and is not as high in the neck as the close-
fitted dress of New England, but is a modest and neat-looking dress, and the
whiteness of the material makes a fine contrast with the dark skin of the
wearer.

DANCING SCENE.
"Many of the women are pretty, and we do not wonder that the Spanish
conquerors were loud in their praises of the comeliness of the feminine part of
the inhabitants of Yucatan. Their eyes are black as coals, and their sight is as
sharp as that of the traditional Indian everywhere; altogether the people have
a close resemblance to the Malay race, and we have but to close our eyes a
moment to imagine ourselves once more in Batavia or Singapore.
"The people are of the Maya race, and here, in the name, we have a near
approach to 'Malay.' By some they are supposed to be an ancient people who
lived here before the advent of the Toltecs, which happened about the twelfth
century; others believe them to be a combination of two races, the Toltecs
from the west and another race from the islands of the Caribbean Sea. Landa,
Stephens, Squier, and other writers say the Mayas were the most civilized
people of America; they had an alphabet and a literature, cultivated the soil,
had rude machinery for manufacturing textile and other fabrics, possessed
sailing-vessels, and had a circulating medium which corresponded to the
money of the Old World.
"The great temples of Palenque and other cities of this part of the world were
built by this people, or by tribes and races closely allied to them; we have
shown by our accounts of Palenque and Lorillard City that these temples were
of no mean architecture, and we shall have more to say when we come to the
ruined cities of Yucatan.
"According to the Spanish historians, the people were ruled despotically by a
king, and were divided into nobles, priests, common people, and slaves. The
king, nobles, and priests held the greater part of the lands; the land of the
common people was held on the communistic principle, and each man had
enough to cultivate for the support of his family. The commoners were obliged
to supply the noble with fish, game, salt, and other things he wanted; to
cultivate his land, and follow him to war whenever he chose to go on a
campaign. In fact the condition of the peasants in Yucatan was much like that
of the subjects of a rajah of India before the English took possession of the
country, or of a daimio of Japan. They had nothing they could call their own,
not even their lives, and their condition was not at all improved by the
conquest of the country by the Spaniards, except that they were not liable to
be taken for sacrificial purposes, according to the ancient custom.
 NATIVE VILLAGE IN THE INTERIOR.
"Slavery has been abolished, and imprisonment for debt is no longer allowed
by law; but every man between the ages of twenty-one and fifty can be
drafted for military service. When so employed he receives six cents a day and
supplies his own food!
"Merida has a population of about 50,000, by far the greater number of them
being of Indian blood either pure or mixed. There is a large proportion of
mestizos, or half-castes, and they are the handsomest part of the population.
We have seen some mestizo women who could compete successfully in a
beauty show including Mrs. Langtry and all the other 'professionals' of the
day. The mestizos inhabit a part of the town by themselves, where their
thatched huts stand in quarter-acre lots planted with grass and trees. These
huts are said to be very much like those occupied by the Indians before the
Conquest.
"You know we always go to the market-place in every strange city that we
visit, and may be sure we did not omit that of Merida. It is not unlike the
market-places of Mexican cities in general, but has some features peculiarly
its own.
"Half the population of the city seemed to have gathered there—Indians,
mestizos, Spaniards, foreigners, and dogs; and there was a hum of voices
which never ceased for an instant. The manners of the natives are more
pleasing than those of the people in the markets of Mexico. They chat good-
naturedly and with many a smile, as though they enjoyed coming to the
market without regard to whether they sell anything or not. A great deal of
bargaining is necessary in making purchases, for the Indian has no notion of
the value of time; and for the matter of that, the tropical resident, whatever
his nationality, is rarely in a hurry. We passed many picturesque groups, fruit-
sellers with their wares in broad baskets, their heads wrapped in rebozos
either white or colored, and their eyes shining like little globes of polished
anthracite set in their brown skins.

FRUIT-SELLERS IN THE
MARKET-PLACE.
"These fruit-sellers were so numerous near the entrance of the market that it
was no easy matter to get past them into the open space beyond. A medio
would buy all the oranges, bananas, or mangoes that one would care for.
Frank and I invested two medios (twelve cents) in oranges, and distributed
them to a lot of boys that were strolling through the place. They took the fruit
with an air of gratitude combined with dignity, and during the rest of our stay
several of them followed us about in the hope that our princely generosity
would be renewed.
 SITTING FOR HER
PORTRAIT.
"The square where the market was held was filled with little shelters to keep
off the heat of the sun. These shelters were made by sticking up poles so as
to hold a piece of matting or common cloth in a horizontal position. Under
each of these impromptu tents a vender was seated, generally a woman or a
girl, and the articles for sale were spread on the ground. Eggs, fruit, lettuce,
peas, beans, and kindred products of the garden were thus displayed; and the
wonder seemed to be that nobody trod upon the wares, which were certainly
endangered by careless feet. Mules and donkeys with large panniers on each
side brought loads of things to be disposed of, but the greater part of the
burdens were borne on the backs of men. Occasionally a man on horseback
appeared in the market, and once in a while a policeman showed himself,
though his presence did not appear to be needed at all. We did not hear or
see anything that approached a quarrel, and were told that fights were of
very rare occurrence.
"Some of these shelters are restaurants on a small scale, and one day we
went to the market to take a medio breakfast, being assured that it was one
of the sensations of the country. We sought one of the most attractive
restaurants we could find, and squatted on the ground close to the one
individual who was proprietor, chef, head-waiter, waiter, and everybody else.
Our breakfast was a stew of frijoles, chile con carne, and tortillas. It was
served to us in jicaras, or half-shells of some kind of tree-fruit whose name
we did not learn. No spoons or forks were supplied. We used the tortillas for
spoons, and afterwards devoured them in true Mexican style. As Sam Weller
said of veal-pie, a medio breakfast in a Yucateo restaurant is 'werry fillin'' at
the price. The Yucateos are as devoted to the tortilla as are the inhabitants of
the rest of Mexico, and the native cooks are expert in its manufacture.

IN THE MARKET-PLACE.
"While in the market we met our acquaintance of the railway-train. His first
question was as to whether we had seen how the natives practise gambling,
and his second, 'Have you tried euchre?'
"We thought it a singular question, and Frank replied that neither of us played
that or any other game of cards.
"He laughed and said, 'I don't mean euchre; I mean yucca.'
"We looked rather puzzled I'm sure, and then with another laugh he pointed
to a pile of something that looked very much like 'ruta-baga' turnips, such as
cattle are fed with in some parts of the United States.
"'That,' said he, 'is yucca, and it belongs to the same family as the maguey
and henequin.' As soon as he said this we remembered to have seen the plant
in Mexico. We had just been talking about the fondness of the people for
gambling, and hence our misunderstanding.
"We bought a medio's worth of the article and tasted it. The flavor was
something like that of a sweet turnip, and not at all disagreeable. I can readily
understand that one might become fond of it, and our friend said that it was
quite nutritious. The root is eaten by the natives, the fibres furnish a textile
fabric like henequin, and soap is made from the stalk and leaves. Recently an
enterprising American has manufactured a preparation for the hair from the
yucca plant, and it is said to possess remarkable powers for restoring hair to
heads that for years have been as smooth as an ostrich-egg.
"While on the subject of gambling we will mention the popular amusement of
la loteria, or 'the lottery.'
"Our guide took us into a large hall, which is open to the public, or rather to
anybody who can force his way through the dense crowd at the door. All
classes seemed to have assembled there; rich and poor were seated at the
same tables, and their object seemed to be amusement rather than gain. The
stakes were very small, ordinarily a medio, and in a few instances dos reales.
The room was hot as an oven, brilliantly lighted, every foot of standing and
sitting room was occupied, and white people of all grades in life, gentlemen as
well as ladies, negroes, Indians, and mestizos crowded together at the tables,
which were in two rows the whole length of the hall.
"The amusement is licensed by the Government, which sells sheets of paper
for a real each on which the game is played. It is done by a combination of
numbers all the way from one to ninety. These numbers are arranged on the
paper or cards in different combinations, no two cards being alike.
"Each player buys a card and places it in front of him on the table. Then a hat
or a basket is passed around, and each one puts in his medio or whatever
else the stake may be. When the money has all been collected and the
amount of the stake announced, the game begins. In addition to his card
each player has a pile of grains of corn in front of him, and a stick with which
to rap on the table when the time to do so arrives.
"The object is to get a row of five numbers on the cards from the numbers
which are drawn, and the one who first gets a row wins the purse. On a
platform, in full view of everybody, is a man with a bag containing wooden or
ivory balls, on which the numbers from one to ninety are painted. When the
game is to begin, this man draws a ball from the bag and announces the
number upon it, and the player who finds that number on his card places a
grain of corn over the figures. One after another, numbers are called out in a
voice that rises above all the confusion of sounds with which the place is
filled, and each time a number is called it is marked with the corn.
"Everybody is intently watching his card, and there is a crowd of spectators
looking over the shoulders of the players. Men, women, children—white,
black, yellow, and all other colors possible to humanity—are there; and so are
all the dresses of Yucatan, from the uniform of the high official and the satin
or silk of the grand dame of society down to the cotton garb of the Indian,
and quite likely his bare shoulders with no garb at all. Three-fourths of those
present are smoking, and the atmosphere is like a morning fog, only a great
deal worse.
"By-and-by somebody raps sharply on the table with his stick to indicate that
he has made a row of five numbers, and stands up in his place. Then the man
on the platform calls the drawn numbers again, and if the announcement of
the row is correct the winner takes the purse. As the stake is small, he does
not win a great deal; but evidently he is the envy of his less fortunate
neighbors.
"Mistakes occur sometimes, and then there is a tumult, in which knives may
be drawn and things become very lively for the bystanders. We did not stay
long in the place, you may be sure, but we came away convinced that la
loteria is less ruinous to the pockets of the players than many other games of
chance.
"An American gentleman with whom we talked on the subject said that this
game is not unlike one known in some other parts of the world under the
name of 'keno.' He told us that there were many other forms of gambling in
Yucatan, most of them being forbidden by the Government, and consequently
played less openly than the lottery. He told us that there was heavy gambling
in the clubs; in some of them the play is only for gold, silver being considered
too insignificant and bulky for the amusement of gentlemen.
"We thought it was very much to the credit of the people of Merida that the
utmost good-nature seemed to prevail in the dense crowd at the hall we
visited. We did not hear a rude word, or witness a rude act of any kind; and
the only exceptions, we are told, is when there is a quarrel growing out of the
drawing of the numbers from the bag."
NO MORE "LOTERIA."
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