Antidote to Sadness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Antonio of Venice is inexplicable sad. So is Portia of Belmont, her \u201clittle body . . . aweary of this great world\u201d (Merchant of Venice 2.1). Antonio and\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/10\/antidote-to-sadness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Antidote to Sadness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Antonio of Venice is inexplicable sad. So is Portia of Belmont, her \u201clittle body . . . aweary of this great world\u201d (Merchant of Venice 2.1). Antonio and\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/10\/antidote-to-sadness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Leithart\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Leithart\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-10-21T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter Leithart\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@PLeithart\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Peter Leithart\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/10\/antidote-to-sadness\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/10\/antidote-to-sadness\/\",\"name\":\"Antidote to Sadness\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-10-21T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-10-21T00:00:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/6bb7113e4dd45fe26045622aa56f891d\"},\"description\":\"Antonio of Venice is inexplicable sad. So is Portia of Belmont, her \u201clittle body . . . aweary of this great world\u201d (Merchant of Venice 2.1). Antonio and\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/10\/antidote-to-sadness\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/10\/antidote-to-sadness\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/10\/antidote-to-sadness\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Antidote to Sadness\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/\",\"name\":\"Leithart\",\"description\":\"My blog is a public notebook, featuring essays, notes, and explorations on Scripture, theology, literature, politics, culture.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/6bb7113e4dd45fe26045622aa56f891d\",\"name\":\"Peter Leithart\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f1033df9cd7263d2e0408cf9ee92ee4d?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f1033df9cd7263d2e0408cf9ee92ee4d?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Peter Leithart\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Leithart\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PLeithart\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/author\/pleithart\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Antidote to Sadness","description":"Antonio of Venice is inexplicable sad. So is Portia of Belmont, her \u201clittle body . . . aweary of this great world\u201d (Merchant of Venice 2.1). Antonio and","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/10\/antidote-to-sadness\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Antidote to Sadness","og_description":"Antonio of Venice is inexplicable sad. So is Portia of Belmont, her \u201clittle body . . . aweary of this great world\u201d (Merchant of Venice 2.1). Antonio and","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/10\/antidote-to-sadness\/","og_site_name":"Leithart","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Leithart\/","article_published_time":"2016-10-21T00:00:00+00:00","author":"Peter Leithart","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@PLeithart","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Peter Leithart","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/10\/antidote-to-sadness\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/10\/antidote-to-sadness\/","name":"Antidote to Sadness","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-10-21T00:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2016-10-21T00:00:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/6bb7113e4dd45fe26045622aa56f891d"},"description":"Antonio of Venice is inexplicable sad. So is Portia of Belmont, her \u201clittle body . . . aweary of this great world\u201d (Merchant of Venice 2.1). Antonio and","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/10\/antidote-to-sadness\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/10\/antidote-to-sadness\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/10\/antidote-to-sadness\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Antidote to Sadness"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/","name":"Leithart","description":"My blog is a public notebook, featuring essays, notes, and explorations on Scripture, theology, literature, politics, culture.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/6bb7113e4dd45fe26045622aa56f891d","name":"Peter Leithart","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f1033df9cd7263d2e0408cf9ee92ee4d?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f1033df9cd7263d2e0408cf9ee92ee4d?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","caption":"Peter Leithart"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Leithart\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/PLeithart"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/author\/pleithart\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3021"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18450\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":18450,"date":"2016-10-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-10-21T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leithart.level2d.com\/?p=196"},"modified":"2016-10-21T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-10-21T00:00:00","slug":"antidote-to-sadness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/10\/antidote-to-sadness\/","title":{"rendered":"Antidote to Sadness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

A<\/span>ntonio of Venice is inexplicable sad. So is Portia of Belmont, her \u201clittle body . . . aweary of this great world\u201d (Merchant of Venice<\/em> 2.1). Antonio and Portia have all that they could want. They aren\u2019t anxious about money; neither is pining for love. Why so sad?<\/p>\n

Marjorie Garber (Shakespeare After All<\/em><\/a>, 286-7) points out that \u201csad\u201d \u201ccarried a more specific gravitas in Shakespeare\u2019s period than perhaps it does in our own, deriving from the same word as \u2018satiated\u2019 or \u2018sated,\u2019 having had one\u2019s fill.\u201d Antonio and Portia \u201care rich, they are well attended, and yet their lives seem empty.\u201d Shakespeare is capturing the paradox of desire. Desire is enlivening only when it\u2019s not entirely fulfilled. Once we have all we desire, we feel empty. It seems that fullness comes from the desiring itself.<\/p>\n

Garber argues that to overcome their accedia, \u201cAntonio and Portia have to leave the prison of the self-sufficient self and commit themselves to the world, and to human relationships, friendship, passion, and love.\u201d They have to risk, as the inscription on the lead casket has it, prepared to \u201cgive and hazard all.\u201d<\/p>\n

She elaborates, \u201cGiving and hazarding are, in a way, the opposite of Shylock\u2019s usury, security, and interest. Antonio begins to lose his melancholy when Bassanio appeals to his friends and seeks to borrow money from him. Since he does not have the money on hand, he has to borrow it, to go into debt to Shylock. Taking on this debt is what, in an odd way, revitalizes him, giving him a purpose for living, a purpose of love and friendship toward Bassanio. The Antonio we see in the trial scene, ready to give his life in payment of the debt, is strangely happier and more alive than the Antonio of the play\u2019s opening lines.\u201d Antonio risks, in part, because Bassanio embarks on an adventure, a quest to gain the golden fleece of Portia. And Portia is drawn out of her sated sadness by risking much to plunge into the court to save her husband\u2019s friend.<\/p>\n

Shakespeare\u2019s antidote to sadness: Take a plunge.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"