I didnīt know about that!
Yes
No
I didnīt know about that!
"I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row
Back in post #53, Hawkman wrote: "For me the most memorable characters in the play have always been Shylock, Portia and Antonio- and in that order." That the play recalls the conclusion of the ODYSSEY might inspire one to add Bassanio to the list, as he is the husband of Portia.
One might add that it is Bassanio who first replies to Shylock's presentation of his case in the court scene: "This is no answer, thou unfeeling man"(MV4.1.64). Shylock's "What, wouldst thou have a serpent sting thee twice?"(line 70) is spoken to Bassanio and is a plain echo of Juliet's "O serpent heart, hid with a flowering face!"(ROMEO3.2.74). And as we've seen, Bassanio's "Why dost thou whet thy knife so earnestly?"(MV4.1.123) is an allusion to the death of Marlowe, author of THE JEW OF MALTA. Someone suggested that it is interesting to compare Shakespeare's RICHARD THE THIRD to Marlowe's play.
i havenīt read "The Jew of Malta". But Shakespeare possibly did.
"I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row
The author of R3, then, invites the reader to compare the speech that begins the play to the prologue of THE JEW OF MALTA(see post #301). Marchette Chute wrote that R3 "is a melodrama of glitter and violence, as vigorous and bloody as its chief character" and that the chief source "does not have much resemblance to the real King Richard of history." Yet, it gave Shakespeare "the opportunity to show a complete villain in action and he made the most of it." It is then clear that neither Shylock nor Antonio is a "complete villain."
I agree with you, Stanley.R3 is hardly human
"I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row
It can be interesting to return to the 2002 book THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, NEW CRITICAL ESSAYS, edited by John W. Mahon and Ellen Macleod Mahon. One finds much regarding the character Jessica. For example, we have from Professor Halio: "Jessica's feelings toward her father reveal less ambivalence[than other characters], of course('Our house is hell,'2.3.2), though she recognizes the sin of being ashamed of her parentage, and later on she may have second thoughts about her defection, if like Jonathan Miller we read too much into--or out of--her last line('I am never merry when I hear sweet music,'5.1.69)." Of Lorenzo's reply we find in CliffsComplete: "When Lorenzo claims that 'The man that hath no music in himself.......Is fit for treasons, strategems and spoils'(83-85), the audience may well remember Shylock, who ordered Jessica to shut the windows against the sounds of the musicians outside(2.5.28-36)." One may also recall the first scene: "Not in love neither? Then let us say you are sad / Because you are not merry; and 'twere as easy / For you to laugh and leap, and say you are merry / Because you are not sad"(1.1.48-9). In another fine essay, Professor Tiffany suggests that "the Christians' harsh lampooning of Shylock's Jewishness tempts us to view his 'locked' guardedness as a necessary detachment and reserve. The plays major female characters' names suggest a like moral complexity.......Jessica earns our compassion as the imprisoned bird, tied with 'jesses' to her grim father's leash. But her dishonest escape from his house and her thoughtless discarding of her father's ring limit our sympathy for her."
We note here that Hawkman, Gladys, Lokasenna and others suggest that Antonio and Shylock are co-villains or co-comic villains. One might return to the court scene: "I pray you, think you question with the Jew: You may as well go stand upon the beach / And bid the main flood bate his usual height; / You may as well use question with the wolf.................O, be thou damned, inexecrable dog." These lines recall a memorable speech from Romeo: "But if thou jealous dost return to pry / In what I farther shall intend to do, / By heaven I will tear thee joint by joint, / And strew this hungry churchyard with thy limbs. / The time and my intents are savage-wild, / More fierce and more inexorable far / Than empty tigers or the roaring sea"(ROM5.3.33). Shakespeare was most likely grieving the loss of his son when he wrote these plays.
For me Jessica is an interesting but very ambivalent character. I think she does well in leaving her father but not in robbing him. And once free of hers fathers house it seems that she becomes wholly dependent of Lorenzo.
"I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row
One might return to the court again: "Till thou canst rail the seal from off my bond / Thou but offend'st thy lungs to speak so loud. / Repair thy wit, good youth, or it will fall / To cureless ruin. I stand here for law"(MV4.1.139-42). Another editing question is here. Some editors tell us that in the folio text "cureless" is replaced by "endless." I think it important to note that it is clear that Shylock's "wit" is not holding together very well either. This supports the suggestion that we regard Shylock and Antonio as equally at fault. Shylock's "I stand here for law," however, is another line making it difficult to rate the play anti-Semitic.
I think "cureless" fits better into the sentence than "endlless", Stanley.
I didn't quite get your argument about the play not being antisemitic.Is it because Shylock is allowed to express his point of view?
"I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row
Shylock says to the "Salads:" "My own flesh and blood to rebel!"(MV3.1.30). In the court scene Portia notes: "This bond doth give thee here no jot of blood, / The words expressly are a pound of flesh"(MV4.1.303-4). In the first scene of R&J we also find Shakespeare's interest in "law:" "Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?" says Abram. Samson then says to his buddy: "Is the law of our side if I say ay?" Gregory replies: "No." Samson then says to Abram: "No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir; but I bite my thumb, sir"(ROM1.1.46-9). One might note here that Shakespeare seems to like the word "or." "To be or not to be" is one example. "Or it will fall / To cureless ruin"(MV4.1.141-2), says Shylock. In A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM we find Oberon say: "This is thy negligence; still thou mistak'st; / Or else committ'st thy knaveries wilfully"(MND3.2.351-2). In the third line of MV we have: "But how I caught it, found it, or came by it, / What stuff 'tis made of, whereof it is borne(MV1.1.3-5). This last one is Antonio speaking of his "sadness."
And also from the speech that begins the play: "And such a want-wit sadness makes of me." When Arragon exits, Portia says: "O these deliberate fools, when they do choose, / They have the wisdom by their wit to lose"(MV2.9.80-1). So Antonio is not the only want-wit in the play, it seems. And I'm not sure what you're suggesting, Danik. I have carefully documented that the play is linked throughout to other plays. For example, Antonio and Shylock are co-villains much as Duke Frederick and Oliver in AS YOU LIKE IT. And Shylock's aside in Act one, scene 3 is linked to speech from Tybalt and Romeo in ROMEO AND JULIET.
That is, Shylock's aside in Act 1, scene 3 recalls Romeo's "As if that name, / Shot from the deadly level of a gun / Did murder her, as that name's cursed hand / Murdered her kinsman. O, tell me, Friar, tell me / In what vile part of this anatomy / Doth my name lodge? Tell me that I may sack / The hateful mansion"(ROM3.3.105). In Act 3, scene 1 of R&J we find the Prince agrees with Romeo's father regarding the death of Tybalt: "And for that offense / Immediately we do exile him hence"(ROM3.1.183-4). In Shylock's presentation of his case we find: "More than a lodged hate and a certain loathing"(MV4.1.61) and 'Nearest his heart', those are the very words"(MV4.1.261). Jessica doesn't quite sack the hateful mansion: "Here, catch this casket, it is worth the pains"(MV2.6.34).
"And I'm not sure what you're suggesting, Danik. I have carefully documented that the play is linked throughout to other plays."
Sometimes I wonder a bit at the connections you point out. I am trying to remain within the play. For example when writing about Jessica, I donīt compare her to other Shakespeare heroins.
Is your point that Jessica only takes what she thinks is due to her?
"I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row
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