Mark the Music

�By the sweet power of music: therefore the poet
did feign that Orpheus drew trees, stones and floods;
since nought so stockish, hard and full of rage,
but music for the time doth change his nature.
The man that hath no music in himself, nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils;
The motions of his spirit are dull as night
and his affections dark as Erebus:
Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music.�

- William Shakespeare, "The Merchant of Venice"



This lyric passage from Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice" is one of my favorites on illumination and human nature. For not only is Shakespeare's language full and transcendent, touching on myth and poet, the passage has a timeless truth at its core. The human animal is moved, persuaded toward virtue, by a natural capacity and recognition for the arts. Music in this case transforms the brute to the aesthete, the warrior to the statesman, one who is dangerous to an ally. Shakespeare writes of the flame within: that aspect of mankind unconsciously attuned to natural beauty. What power in the shepherd's reed, the primitive landscape, the brushstrokes of a civilization past, to spark the human soul. Our appreciation of beauty causes us to better our natures, to bring forth the genuine, and unexpected goodness. Mark the music, Shakespeare writes, for concord within casts the light of the soul.

I find myself thinking of this passage and the raucous, brawling nobility of the discourses that embolden The Merchant of Venice, whenever I worry about the future of books, bookstores, or contemporary culture in general. Whether we encourage, patronize, or sustain the arts, as people we are nonetheless deeply connected to them. What it is about art that elevates the soul is also that which draws us into its presence. Nature, song, dancer, poet... We are "moved with concord of sweet sounds."