deserving of Portia than any other man. The Prince then makes a short speech about honor and merit, and the speech also serves the function ofsocial criticism:
Let none presume To wear an undeserved dignity.
O, that estates, degrees, and offices
Were not derived corruptly, and that clean honour Were purchased by the merit of the wearer!
(38-42)
The lines suggest that many men in society hold highly honored positions and high-ranking titles, but such men do not deserve these positions and titles because such men lack merit. They have done nothing to earn their positions or titles. Shakespeare himself would fully agree with Aragon on this point. The playwright was well aware that during the Renaissance the class system in England was unfair and unjust. Many aristocrats treated the commoners unfairly and even cruelly at times. A key word in this speech ishonor. Aristocrats felt that only aristocrats were capable of being honorable. Shakespeare, time and again in his plays, showed that this was not entirely true. Shakespeare’s most glaring example of this idea was the creation of the character ofFalstaff(in theHenry IVplays). Falstaff was a knight, an aristocrat; but he was also the embodiment of dishonor.
Yet, despite the playwright’s agreement with the speech, Aragon is not the man to win Portia. He