Is The Merchant of Venice anti-Semitic?

[stanley2]

(#54) noted that Shylock's "plight as father and a person wronged are equally balanced by his passion for revenge." He also may be a grieving widower, like Romeo. The report that the actor playing Shylock wore a red wig, in Bevington's judgement a "doubtful tradition," is balanced by Bassanio's "The world is still deceived with ornament." Professor Kenneth Gross imagines asking Shylock "What could you have been thinking?" He soon asks "Who is Shylock? Shylock is Shakespeare. Shylock is Shakespeare and Shakespeare is Shylock." This is balanced by Antonio's reply to Portia's "You, merchant, have you anything to say?"(MV4.1.260), where we find the passion of Sonnet 144. If Shylock and Bassanio were portrayed on stage by Richard Burbage and Billy S., that Bassanio does not kill Shylock would have been noted by some in the audience as a dramatic contrast to the real life death of Marlowe.

[Danik 2016]

"Professor Kenneth Gross imagines asking Shylock "What could you have been thinking?" He soon asks "Who is Shylock? Shylock is Shakespeare. Shylock is Shakespeare and Shakespeare is Shylock."

Just wondering if Shakespeare would have enjoyed that comparison.

[stanley2]

"Thou art a scholar, speak to it, Horatio"(HAMLET1.1.42). Therefore, as Samuel Johnson might say, Professor Gross is following Shakespeare's instructions. "So have I heard and do in part believe it"(HAMLET1.1.147) is a solid answer to the Professor. Joining Charles D. and Hawkman's(page 4) chat we find in the RSC edition that Portia has 22% of the total lines in the play and Shylock and Bassanio each has 13%. Gratiano, Lorenzo and Antonio each has 7%. The question posed by the Professor, "What could you have been thinking?", corresponds to Hawkman's comment regarding Antonio: " What a twit!" Again, these are unhappy sports fans. Marchette Chute wrote of Portia and Shylock, "between them they create an extraordinary play." One will note that the minor characters were also written by Shakespeare. In HENRY V, the King, in disguise, encounters a character named Williams. In AS YOU LIKE IT, Touchstone has a brief chat with a character named William(AYL5.1). During the brief scene, the name "William" is spoken four times.

[stanley2]

delete

[stanley2]

On the other hand, Hawkman compared the character Alf Garnet from the 1968 British comedy show, the show that inspired the American counterpart Archie Bunker in the program ALL IN THE FAMILY, to MV. Talk show host Steve Allen imagined interviewing Shakespeare for his series THE MEETING OF THE MINDS. In the court scene, the Duke says to Shylock: "How shalt thou hope for mercy, rendering none?"(MV4.1.87). Professor Drakakis noted that this is an allusion to JAMES 2.13. It may also be an indication that Shylock's life is in danger. Therefore, Portia's purpose in the court scene might be characterized as arbitration. That is, she is there to save Antonio and Shylock too. In the conclusion, Portia says to Antonio: "Sir, you are very welcome to our house. / It must appear in other ways than words"(MV5.1.139-40). Drakakis notes that "she will shortly make good this promise by restoring Antonio to his merchandise." She also will shortly say "Then you shall be his surety. Give him this, / And bid him keep it better than the other"(MV5.1.254-5). She hands Antonio the ring that he had previously bid Bassanio give to the "young doctor of Rome." This echoes Shylock's "I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor"(MV3.1.110) and the Nurse's "Here, sir, a ring she bid me give you, sir"(ROM3.3.162). So I was wrong, in a previous post, Antonio is also given a ring though he has it for only a moment.

[stanley2]

Regarding Shylock, Mr. yesno asked, "why is he so often called just 'the Jew?'" One answer is that as Hawkman suggested, the characters have something in common with the characters Alf Garnet and Archie Bunker. Another is that "Jew" rhymes with "Montague." As we have seen, Shakespeare suggests that the passions of Shylock and Antonio may be much like those of Romeo. Charles D. wrote that the clownish fool Lancelet's purpose is a "comic mirroring or parody of what is happening in the main plot." In his little play within the play(Act 2 , scene 2), he follows the advice of "the fiend." This is in keeping with the beginning of the play where Antonio is a "want-wit." And one might argue that the court scene is engaging, in part, because Antonio and Shylock are co-villains. That is, as Hawkman noted, Antonio is also blameworthy.

[stanley2]

In AS YOU LIKE IT, the clownish fool says to young William: "I do now remember a saying: ' The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool'"(AYL5.1.31). Portia's "I have within my mind / A thousand raw tricks of these bragging Jacks, / Which I will practice"(MV3.4.76-8). This last passage must be noted if we are to consider the puzzle of how she and her cousin prepared for the court scene. Therefore, one might argue that Portia herself is, to some extent, the clownish fool even in the court scene. And Shakespearean baseball fans will suggest that Shylock hits a three run homer off relief pitcher Gratiano: "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).

[stanley2]

And in AS YOU LIKE IT, Touchstone and young William are rival suitors of Audrey. The clownish fool threatens the life of William(Act 5, scene 1). In MV, the clownish fool says to Jessica: "so now I speak my agitation of the matter"(MV3.5.4). Professor Drakakis glosses "agitation:" " A possible malapropism, since the clown appears to substitute agitation for cogitation(Ecclesiastes, quoted in Furness, 182); but agitation neatly combines the sense of 'reflection' (OED 1: 'cogitation') and anxiety or perturbation(OED 4: 'agitation') both on Jessica's predicament and on her behalf." I tried to count the number of times he cites the Oxford English Dictionary(more than 700?), but here, I think, it is clear that Shakespeare is interested in the question of comedy vs. tragedy as topic. Scholars note that King Lear comments on the topic of adultery and the subject is central in OTHELLO. Therefore, it is also an implied subject here. Paris says to Romeo: "Can vengeance be pursued further than death? / Condemned villain, I do apprehend thee. / Obey and go with me, for thou must die"(ROMEO5.3.55-7). Romeo replies: "I must indeed, and therefore came I hither." This is the context in which MV was first performed.

[stanley2]

If Sen. Graham and V.P. Pence are trustworthy, President Trump was playing the clownish fool after Shakespeare Wednesday. Did he not say "everybody knows" and then pause enough to allow us to sing " a turkey and some mistletow?" When Trump first suggested that the election was stolen, we patiently waited for more information. Given that Sen. Cruz said merely that the subject of fraud is a real concern, we can only conclude that the President has no more information. When I turned on the TV Wednesday afternoon, I was reminded of the storming of the Bastille in the French Revolution. Others will say it rather recalls the "first we'll kill all the lawyers" character . So, back to MV, in 1986, Professor Bloom wrote: " I know of no legitimate way in which THE MERCHANT OF VENICE ought to be regarded as other than an anti-semitic text agreeing in this with E.E. Stoll as against Harold Goddard, my favorite critic of Shakespeare." Of course, he later added that some of his students are very unhappy when he says this. And Rosalind says to Touchstone; "Peace, you dull fool, I found them on a tree."(AYL3.2.112). When Bassanio stands between Shylock and Antonio in the court, we will recall his "So may the outward shows be least themselves"(MV3.2.75). Drakakis and Bevington gloss the above: "external appearances or displays that may lead to deception(OED sb. 2 and 3b)" and " least represent the inner reality." Therefore, as Shylock stands before him, knife in hand, Bassanio must be prepared to both defend Antonio and disarm Shylock. And thus, we are left with the questions regarding the inner reality of Shylock and Antonio. One answer is that
Shylock and Antonio are grieving the loss of Leah. The last lines in KING LEAR tell us that this is the best answer.

[stanley2]

In baseball, there is a phrase known as "fielder's choice." One might then regard Gratiano's "O, be thou damned, inexecrable dog"(MV4.1.127) as an editor's choice as some editor's prefer "inexorable" to "inexecrable." In my copy of CLIFF'S NOTES, we find the former without a definition. If one then looks in MERRIAM-WEBSTER'S DELUXE DICTIONARY, where we would expect to find "inexecrable," we instead find "inexhaustible." The first words regarding meaning are "not exhaustible." Therefore it is reasonable to define "inexecrable" to mean "not detestable." Professor Drakakis tells us that in the OED we find "inexecrable" is " used as an intensifier of 'execrable.'" All of this is reasonable. As I have documented, the author plainly has in mind Romeo's use of "inexorable" from the conclusion of R&J. Therefore there is no easy answer regarding both the "editor's choice" and the subject of this thread.

[stanley2]

In Professor Bate's introduction we find: "The representation of Shylock as monstrous villain has played a part in the appalling history of European anti-semitism. But such a representation necessarily occludes the subtler moments of Shakespeare's characterization. A ring is not only the device whereby Portia and Nerissa assert their moral and verbal superiority over their husbands, but also the means by which Shylock is humanized........'I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor'......" Bate does note other comedies by Shakespeare, but leaves it to us to note Professor Wilson's recommendation of comparison to ROMEO AND JULIET. One might then rank Marchette Chute's "The MERCHANT OF VENICE is a romantic comedy, but of a most unusual kind" as the best introduction.

[Danik 2016]

"The MERCHANT OF VENICE is a romantic comedy, but of a most unusual kind" I agree. At moments it is too dramatic for a comedy.

[Jim Joyce]

Simple answer: It's Venice as in Venezia, Italia, an almost mythical Roman Catholic City State where the English believed that money lending by Christians was against the law but permitted by Jews.
Shylock couldn't be a Christian.

For further read the appropriate parts of: https://library.ndsu.edu/ir/bitstream/handle/10365/28450/Usury%20as%20a%20Human%20Problem%20in%20Shakespear e%27s%20Merchant%20of%20Venice.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

[stanley2]

Professor Bate also wrote: "Shakespeare often returned to a triangular structure of relationships in which close male friendship is placed at odds with desire for a woman. The pattern recurs not only in several of the plays but also as the implied narrative of the Sonnets." "I would be friends with you and have your love"(MV1.3.137), says Shylock. I think we have not yet noted indications that Shylock desires Portia. Romeo's last lines seem to be mostly spoken to Juliet, though he believes that she is dead. Of course she is alive, as is Portia. Shylock flatters Portia: "O wise young judge, how do I honor thee!"(MV4.1.228). It is also ironic: "O noble judge! O excellent young man!"(4.1.252). Gratiano follows Shylock's example: "O upright judge! Mark, Jew. O learned judge!"(MV4.1.321). Earlier in the play, Morocco has said of Portia: "all the world desires her"(MV2.7.38). The above, then, is yet more proof.

[Danik 2016]

Gratiano follows Shylock's example: "O upright judge! Mark, Jew. O learned judge!" Isn´t Gratiano being ironic here?

[stanley2]

As writer C.J. Box might say: "maybe." We have yet another conundrum. In the first scene, Gratiano says: "Let me play the fool"(1.1.82). The intentions of the clownish fool are often uncertain: "Your 'if' is the only peacemaker; much virtue in 'if'"(AS YOU LIKE IT5.4.100). Gratiano seems to follow Bassanio's example: "You must not deny me. I must go with you to Belmont"(AYL2.2.161).

[Danik 2016]

Remember the wisdom of the Shakespearean fools!

[stanley2]

Gratiano's line: "Let me play the fool"(1.1.82), echos Nick Bottom: "An I may hide my face, let me play Thisby too"(DREAM1.2.45) and "Let me play the lion too: I will roar that I will do any man's heart good to hear me; I will roar that I will make the duke say, 'Let him roar again, let him roar again.'"(DREAM1.2.64-6). Later, of course, the Duke will say: "I wonder if the lion be to speak"(DREAM5.1.157), and in response to Hippolyta's "This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard," "The best in this kind are but shadows,; and the worst are no worse, if imagination amend them"(DREAM5.1.216). This, then, contrasts with Hamlet's "purpose of playing" speech.

[stanley2]

Hamlet's "purpose of playing" speech is early in Act 3, scene 2 of HAMLET. Returning to Professor Gross's suggestion, "Shylock is Shakespeare," we might note again Professor Bate's comment, "the collection called SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS stitches together multiple poems with very different origins and styles to make a single narrative. But this narrative should no more be read back literally into Shakespeare's life than should the narrative of that other lovely boy, Viola/Cesario." One might then return to the epilogue in THE TEMPEST. There we find the character Prospero speaking directly to the audience, yet one also may regard the speech, in part, as Shakespeare himself as Professor Greenblatt put it, peeking out from behind his mask.

[stanley2]

The first lines in TWELFTH NIGHT are spoken by Orsino, whom Professor Bate tells us is "the conventional Elizabethan sonneteer." Therefore, one might suggest that the author is inviting us to compare Orsino to Antonio, who speaks the first lines in MV.

[stanley2]

And there is a character named Antonio in TWELFTH NIGHT. It then is a straight forward matter to "read back literally"(see#269 above) and identify the Antonio in MV with Sonnet 144.

[stanley2]

The aside from Shylock in Act 1, scene 3 is often noted as problematic. If one notes the original context of the play, that is, it follows ROMEO AND JULIET, Shylock's "I hate him for he is a Christian," recalls Tybalt's "What, drawn, and talk of peace? I hate the word / As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee. / Have at thee, coward!"(ROM1.1.68-70). Little wonder, then, that scholars use such phrases as "endlessly ironic" and "undoubted ironies" to introduce MV.

[stanley2]

And Shylock's "But more"(MV1.3.40) recalls Romeo's "Here's much to do with hate, but more with love"(ROM1.1.174). Therefore, one might regard Orsino's speech that begins TWELFTH NIGHT as Shakespeare suggesting that one have music playing in the backround when reading this play and the criticism.

[Danik 2016]

"Stanley2- The aside from Shylock in Act 1, scene 3 is often noted as problematic. If one notes the original context of the play, that is, it follows ROMEO AND JULIET, Shylock's "I hate him for he is a Christian," recalls Tybalt's "What, drawn, and talk of peace? I hate the word / As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee. / Have at thee, coward!"(ROM1.1.68-70). Little wonder, then, that scholars use such phrases as "endlessly ironic" and "undoubted ironies" to introduce MV. "
Well, maybe one can say that both cases show prejudice. But in both cases there is much more involved.

[stanley2]

Indeed, and the first lines in R&J read: "Two households, both alike in dignity, / In fair Verona, where we lay our scene / From ancient grudge break to new mutiny"(ROM1.1). Shylock's "I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him"(MV1.3.44), then, may be another example of "new mutiny." Professor Bevington wrote that Shylock "approvingly cites Jacob's ruse to deprive Laban of his sheep(1.3.69-88)." Professor Kermode is not so sure: "Was Jacob cheating when he made sure by a trick that the lambs would be parti-colored, and so due to him?" One then might recall Nick Bottom's speech that begins: "When my cue comes, call me, and I will answer"(MND4.1.199-216), where Bevington notes: "Bottom garbles the terms of 1 Corinthians 2:9." Bevington also suggested that "However much we may come to sympathize.......Shylock remains essentially the villain of a love comedy." The other day, a movie version of RICHARD 3 was shown on TV. The first lines there are spoken by Richard, played by Ian McKellen. One might borrow from Lancelot(MV2.2) and say that Richard "is the devil himself." Therefore , as Antonio speaks the first lines in MV, the audience is invited to consider Antonio and Shylock as co-comic villains.

[stanley2]

Professor Bevington's introduction attests to the wide range of subject matter in the play. When we encounter the terms "romantic comedy," we should study what they mean. What is essential, though, is a matter of discussion. Shylock, as we have seen, is associated with characters in other works. Egeus in MND, Romeo in R&J and even Nick Bottom and Ms. Juliet Capulet, each is plainly associated with Shylock. And Antonio? Dick 3(if I may borrow from P.B.) and as Professor Bate noted, Prospero's usurping brother in THE TEMPEST. Further review is required to note that Antonio too is associated with Romeo and THE SONNETS.

[stanley2]

The "melancholy Jaques"(AS YOU LIKE IT2.1.26), echoes Antonio's "I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano, / A stage where everyman must play a part, / And mine a sad one"(MV1.1.77): "All the world's a stage / And all the men and women merely players....."(AYL2.7.140). One might quote a comment from Duke Senior from his first conversation with Jaques: "Most mischievous foul sin in chiding sin. / For thou thyself hast been a libertine, / As sensual as the brutish sting itself, / And all th' embossed sores and headed evils / That thou with licence of free foot hast caught / Wouldst thou disgorge into the general world"(AYL2.7.64-9). And yet Duke Senior had expressed his desire to speak with him: "Show me the place. / I love to cope him in these sullen fits, / For then he's full of matter"(AYL2.1.67).

[stanley2]

Bevington's introduction to A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM is interesting. As we have seen, Shylock's reply to Portia's "The quality of mercy" speech echoes a line from Egeus: I beg the law, the law, upon his head"(MND4.1.154). "Egeus is as heavy a villain as we are likely to find in this jeu d'esprit," says the Professor. Shylock, like Egeus, brings his problems to the local Duke. In MV, the Duke enlists the aid of Portia's cousin, who in turn, it seems, is already at work with Portia on the matter. Hawkman(post #50) notes the "most memorable lines" in the play. One might then add to the list Portia's "Tarry a little; there is something else"(MV4.1.303). Any discussion of this play seems to bring that line to mind.

[stanley2]

Antonio's "The weakest kind of fruit / Drops earliest to the ground, and so let me"(MV4.1.115-16) echoes Mercutio: "Now will he sit under a medlar tree / And wish his mistress were that kind of fruit / As maids call medlars when they laugh alone"(ROM2.1.34-36). It is interesting that Bevington and Bate prefer "did" to "do" in Lancelet's s line "If a Christian did not play the knave and get thee, I am much deceived"(MV2.3.11), Though both Q1 and F1 read "doe." Therefore, Jessica may be Antonio's biological daughter. We recall Sonnet 129: "All this the world well knows, yet none knows well / to shun the heaven that leads men to this hell."

[stanley2]

The first scene in AS YOU LIKE IT ends with a speech from Oliver, Orlando's brother, where we find: "I hope I shall see an end of him; for my soul, yet I know not why, hates nothing more than he"(AYL1.1.155-6). This plainly echoes the first line in MV: "In sooth I know not why I am so sad." Historian Michael Wood suggested that there are too many unanswered questions left at the end of the play. Rather, one may choose to be a fan of Team Antonio, Team Shylock or Team Portia. Still, Antonio and Shylock are co-comic villains, or as Professor J. Dover Wilson suggested, Shakespeare's sympathy is no less for Shylock than the spitting Antonio.

[stanley2]

"Mark you this, Bassanio, / The devil can site Scripture for his purpose"(MV1.3.96-7), says Antonio. Lancelet begins Act 3, scene 5: "Yes truly, for look you, the sins of the father are to be laid upon the children"(MV3.5.1). Isaac Asimov noted that the Biblical passage the clownish fool refers to is amended in another passage. Therefore, we might suggest that here, the scene right before the court scene, is an example of what Antonio means. Lorenzo enters the scene and says: "I shall grow jealous of you shortly, Lancelet, if you thus get my wife into corners"(MV3.5.24). Therefore, in the court scene it is reasonable to suggest that we find yet another example of "triangular structure of relationships," as Professor Bate put it; Shylock, Antonio and Leah.

[Danik 2016]

You know I don´t agree here. Leah is dead before the play starts.

[stanley2]

This recalls a line from HAMLET: "For this relief much thanks"(HAM1.1.5). The ghost of Hamlet's father has appeared on the platform. And Professor Leggatt wrote, for the Folger edition, that opposed readings are "allowed" by the text. That is, Shakespeare wrote the play so as to suggest various possibilities. The line from A MIDSUMMER NIGHT's DREAM, "This passion, and the death of a dear friend, would go near to make a man look sad"(MND5.1.286) plainly indicates that the most likely cause of Antonio's sadness is either the death of Leah or the loss of Portia's father.

[stanley2]

Then again, according to Bate, Portia has 22% of the lines in the play and Shylock and Bassanio each has 13%. So, Antonio's sadness may be(as we noted in post #218) due to his losing Portia to Bassanio. This is much like Romeo in the first scene of R&J and of course Morocco and Aragon. His lines, "And when the tale is told, bid her be judge / whether Bassanio had not once a love"(MV4.1.284-5), are ironic as Portia is doing just that.

[Danik 2016]

But what of these lines would confirm Antonio´s love of Portia?

[stanley2]

In post #207 we noted that Antonio's "These griefs and losses"(MV3.3.32) echoes Morocco's "Portia, adieu. "I have too grieved a heart / To take a tedious leave. Thus losers part"(MV2.7.76-7). Therefore, when Antonio says "Well, jailer, on. Pray God Bassanio come / To see me pay his debt, and then I care not"(MV3.3.35-6). He knows full well that if Bassanio comes to Venice that Portia may too!

[stanley2]

Antonio's line, "Well, jailer, on. Pray God Bassanio come / To see me pay his debt, and then I care not"(MV3.3.35-6) is interesting. He knows full well that if Bassanio comes to Venice that Portia may too!

[stanley2]

Sonnet 148 begins: "O me, what eyes hath love put in my head, / which have no correspondence with true sight. / Or if they have, where is my judgment fled, / That censures falsely what they see aright? / If that be fair whereon my false eyes dote, / What means the world to say it is not so?" Morocco says of Portia, "all the world desires her"(MV2.7.38). In the court scene, the Duke says to Shylock : "the world thinks, and I think so too"(MV4.1.18). The poem ends: "No marvel then though I mistake my view; / The sun itself sees not till heaven clears / O cunning love, with tears thou keep'st me blind, / Lest eyes well-seeing thy foul faults should find." The scholar at the website "shakespeares-sonnets.com" has interesting comments on this sonnet. Yet it ends on a hopeful note, I think, which is in keeping with a romantic comedy and Antonio's state of mind.

[stanley2]

In R&J, Capulet, Juliet's father, has three lines in the first scene of the play. The second scene begins with him speaking to Count Paris: "But Montague is bound as well as I"(R&J1.2.1). In Act one ,scene 3, Shylock says: " Antonio shall become bound, well"(MV1.3.6). This is the second of the three times "bound" occurs in the first ten lines of the scene. Therefore, the reader in Shakespeare's time may well have noted that Jew rhymes with Montague and Shylock is identified with Capulet and Egeus(MND was also published in 1600).

[stanley2]

Professor N. Holland, for the Signet edition of HENRY IV, PART TWO, wrote that the epilogue is "mingled," that is, two epilogues in one. Professor Shapiro, in his fine book CONTESTED WILL, tells us that one was written for Shakespeare himself to speak before an audience including the Queen. It ends as follows: "And so I kneel down before you; but indeed, to pray for the Queen." Little wonder, then, that one may suggest that Team Portia is the winner of this match, if I may call it that. One might then note again that she seems to have prepared for the court scene with her cousins help.

[stanley2]

Salerio delivers a letter from Antonio to Bassanio regarding the bond and adds: "Never did I know / A creature that did bear the shape of man / So keen and greedy to confound a man"(MV3.2.280-2). Most editors gloss "confound" to mean "destroy." In HAMLET, Professor Hibbard tells us that Hamlet's use of "confound" means "dumbfound"(HAM2.2.553). My dictionary says that dumbfound is a synonym for "puzzle." This meaning is also in play, so to speak, in MV as the Duke says to Shylock in the court scene: "Shylock, the world thinks, and I think so too / That thou but lead'st this fashion of thy malice / To the last hour of act"(MV4.1.18-20). That is, the Duke has consulted others to help him solve the puzzle. Portia and her cousin seem to agree: "Of a strange nature is the suit you follow"(MV4.1.1790.

[stanley2]

Well, thanks are in order to Danik, Professor Drakakis and Mr. Yesno(post#79) for leading one to note that Shylock the Jew's line, "I stand here for law"(MV4.1.144), echoes lines from Montague, a Christian: "Not Romeo, Prince. He was Mercutio's friend. / His fault concludes but what the law should end, / The life of Tybalt"(R&J3.1.180-2).

[Danik 2016]

Thanks to you, stanley 2, for keeping this thread alive!

[stanley2]

Montague and Capulet are, like Shylock and Antonio, in serious danger: "Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word / By thee, old Capulet, and Montague..........If ever you disturb our streets again / Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace(ROM1.1.98-106). The above noted parallel(#292), then, suggests that the author is not favoring either religion. Each character recommends "law."

[stanley2]

Another puzzle is that while C.G. Jung's book MEMORIES, DREAMS, REFLECTIONS is interesting to compare to Sh, I have yet to find any mention of Sh in it. This is in contrast with Dr. Freud's comments, made famous by Dr. Ernest Jones. Both Jung and Billy S. seem to recommend religion. That is, in MV the author invites the reader to compare the clown's introductory speech(MV2.2) to the Friar's in R&J(R&J2.2). The tragic ending in R&J is, in part, due to immaturity. The Friar addresses Romeo as "Young son" and "pupil mine" early in the play and later says to him "I thought thy disposition better tempered"(R&J3.3.114)].

[stanley2]

One cannot read MEASURE FOR MEASURE more than once without comparing Angelo to Antonio in MV. Therefore, some in Shakespeare's audience might have noted that the Queen's mother, Ann Boleyn, was convicted of treason and adultery and sentenced to death("Most learned judge! A sentence! Come, prepare!"). Shylock has a longer list of complaints(see "complaint" in MND1.1.23) than Egeus, and does not mention adultery. "Pardon, Bassanio, / For, by this ring, the doctor lay with me"(MV5.1.274-3), says Portia in the last scene of the play. And thus adultery is a subject in the play. Little wonder then, that Professor Greenblatt says of the court scene: "this scene, as the experience of both the page and the stage repeatedly demonstrates, is deeply unsettled and unsettling."

[Danik 2016]

Montague and Capulet are, like Shylock and Antonio, in serious danger: "Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word / By thee, old Capulet, and Montague..........If ever you disturb our streets again / Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace(ROM1.1.98-106). The above noted parallel(#292), then, suggests that the author is not favoring either religion. Each character recommends "law."

I don´t think, religion is the issue in "Romeo and Juliet". Rather the Duke wants to keep peace and order in his domains and the quarrel between these two families is disturbing it.

[stanley2]

I'll return to post #297 later, "for I am slow of study"(MND1.2.59). Until then, another indication that the author recommends comparing one play to another is the first line of AS YOU LIKE IT: "As I remember, Adam, it was upon this fashion bequeathed me by will......." This is Orlando speaking to Adam, an aged servant. Adam is much like Giobbe, the clown's father in MV. One example is Giobbe's line, "By God's sonties, 'twill be a hard way to hit"(MV2.2.40), which corresponds to Adam's "Dear master, I can go no further. / O, I die for food! Here lie I down and measure out my grave. / Farewell, kind master"(AYL2.6.1-3).

[stanley2]

Another interesting hypothesis(post # 297). One might recall Tybalt's "Now, by the stock and honor of my kin, / To strike him dead I hold it not a sin"(ROM1.5.60-1). In turn, Romeo says to Juliet: "If I profane with my unworthiest hand / This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this....."(ROM1.5.95-6). Some editors replace Romeo's "sin" with "fine," suggesting a printer's error. Another hypothesis there is that Romeo has heard Tybalt say "sin" and in a slip of the tongue, so to speak, repeats "sin" where he meant to say "fine."

[Danik 2016]

Stanley,
"Sin" makes sense to me. Romeo regards Juliet as sacred, someone much above him and specially much above his touch.
"Sin" combines here semantically with the expressions "holy shrine" and "unworthiest hand".

[stanley2]

In MV, the author at times makes it difficult to determine where religion is an issue: "Now by two-headed Janus, / Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time. / Some that will evermore peep through there eyes, / And laugh like parrots at a bagpiper. / And other......"(MV1.1.29-32). Professor Bate included an excerpt from the prologue in THE JEW OF MALTA, by Marlowe(In his book, SOUL OF THE AGE): "I count religion but a childish toy, / And hold there is no sin but ignorance....." Bate tells us that this speech is a satirical sketch of Florentine political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli. Shakespeare, in turn, makes it difficult to determine if Portia is at times presenting a satirical sketch of Balthasar, though the "quality of mercy" speech is clearly serious.

[Danik 2016]

I have never thought about it, but what would Shakespeare own religious believes be?

[stanley2]

There's a fine article, a far ranging book review, by the late scholar Edward T. Oakes, S.J. in the journal FIRST THINGS, June/July 2004, Number144. Part of his conclusion reads: "So who knows what Shakespeare's religious convictions were? No one, probably. But at least Kermode, Wood and Bernthal can confirm this historical fact: he knew his theology, Catholic and Protestant. What audiences and readers make of that, it seems, is up to them."

[Danik 2016]

Thanks, Stanley. Do you have the link to that article?

[stanley2]

I think you can see the article at www.firstthings.com, then click issues archive, and june/july 2004. That is, as elsewhere, one is allowed a free sample, so to speak.

[Danik 2016]

Thanks, Stanley!

[stanley2]

For the RSC edition(2007), Professor Bate wrote; "shortly after the second world war, the Canadian literary critic Northrop Frye published a short essay that inaugurated the modern understanding that Shakespeare's comedies, for all their lightness and play, are serious works of art..........the essential structure of Shakespearean comedy was ultimately derived from the 'new comedy' of ancient Greece, which was mediated to the Renaissance via its Roman exponents Plautus and Terence." It is interesting, then, to note that Shakespeare plainly had in mind the conclusion of THE ODYSSEY(see the other thread). Bate goes on to note that Shylock is a bit like Jaques in AS YOU LIKE IT. I noted that Jaques is also associated with Antonio(see post #277).

[stanley2]

Professor Bloom also wrote in 1986 that "Shakespearean representation presents us with many perplexities throughout the comedies and romances: Angelo and Malvolio, among others, are perhaps as baffling as Shylock." He quite reasonably argues that the play is a "problem play" in part due to "xenophobia and the Gospel of John." Antonio's line, "Mark you this, Bassanio, / The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose"(MV1.3.92), is noted by editors as proverbial and a reference to Matthew 4:6. There are indications that Shakespeare also had in mind the Gospel of John. The last line of Antonio's speech reads: "O what a goodly outside falsehood hath!" This line echoes the last line of Juliet's "O, serpent" speech: "O, that deceit should dwell / In such a gorgeous palace!"(Romeo3.2.84-5), yet another link to ROMEO AND JULIET. Juliet is speaking of Romeo. Another indication is the multiple mention of the word "father" in each text. In chapter 8 of the Gospel we find, "Abraham is our father.....If God were your Father.......Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died?" In the second scene of MV we find: "so is the will of a living daughter curbed by the will of a dead father. Is it not hard Nerissa, that I cannot choose one, nor refuse none?(MV1.2.21-2). The clownish fool's monologue(Act 2, scene 2), with talk of "the devil himself," is followed by the stage direction, "Enter Old Gobbo with a basket."

[stanley2]

That is, following the Prologue in ROMEO AND JULIET, as we have seen, the first and last lines of the ensuing conversation are together an allusion to the first line of the Gospel of John. The play ends with a speech by the Prince where we find: "Go hence to have more talk of these sad things."

[Danik 2016]

These allusion to the Gospel of John is not so clear to me.

[stanley2]

Professor Halio's introduction(see post #243, page 17) suggests that we should expect various opinions regarding the author's Biblical allusions. You may find having a look at the King James translation of the Bible interesting in comparison to Shakespeare as it was written by his contemporaries.

[Danik 2016]

Thanks for the indication.

[stanley2]

Shylock's "Mark what Jacob did:................The skillful shepherd peeled me certain wands, / And in the doing of the deed of kind, / He stuck them up before the fulsome ewes, / Who then conceiving, did in eaning time / Fall parti-coloured lambs"(MV1.3.75-86), is glossed by Bate and Rasmussen as follows: "refers to the idea that what the mother sees during conception influences the appearance of the offspring." In CLIFFSNOTES(2000 edition) we find "Antonio(like many playgoers) is baffled by the story's relevance to the matter at hand." Therefore, in trying to make sense of it one may consider that Shakespeare here has the Gospel of John in mind. Juliet's "What devil art thou that dost torment me thus?"(R&J3.2.45) is another piece of the puzzle.

[stanley2]

As the Friar's monologue(R&J2.2) reaches it's conclusion, Romeo enters and says: "Good morrow, father." This corresponds to Lancelet's 'O heavens, this is my true-begotten father"(MV2.2.28). Bate and Rasmussen gloss "true-begotten" to mean "honestly conceived(Lancelet means 'real, true)."

[stanley2]

So, Professor Bloom found Shylock "baffling." We find in Hawkman's notes here much the same impression regarding Antonio. Again it makes sense that when Portia says "Tarry a little," Bassanio is standing between Shylock and Antonio. In CLIFFSCOMPLETE(2000), we find in their notes on the court scene that Portia "further realizes that Venetian law prevents the shedding of blood"(though not in all cases). Portia continues: "there is something else. / This bond doth give thee here no jot of blood"(MV4.1.304-5). Juliet's "O serpent" speech follows the Nurse's reply to Juliet's question: "O God, did Romeo's hand shed Tybalt's blood?"(ROM3.2.71).

[Danik 2016]

Do you mean Harold Bloom, Stanley?

[stanley2]

Right, the late Yale Professor I last noted way back in post #193. I have not read Allan Bloom or other noted Blooms. I thought it interesting that Harold included the phrase "or reinvention" in his chapter about MV in his big Shakespeare book.

[Danik 2016]

Well, he was an acclaimed critic, I have a booklet by him here. But I have read very little by him.

[stanley2]

Juliet's "O serpent" speech is in turn linked to the clownish fool Lancelet's "Certainly" speech. The word "fiend" is found twice in the former and in the clown's we have "To be ruled by my conscience, I should stay with the Jew my master, who, God bless the mark, is a kind of devil; and, to run away from the Jew, I should be ruled by the fiend, who, saving your reverence, is the devil himself"(MV2.2.19-23).

[stanley2]

And so Portia's "Tarry a little" speech is in stark contrast to the bloody deaths in R&J. At the same time, Shylock may be contemplating rushing at Antonio with his knife. If Bassanio is close by, we might have then seen a reenactment of the death of Marlowe.

[Danik 2016]

May Portia´s speech not also be viewed as reason against passion?

[stanley2]

Another question where there might be more than one solid answer. Merry Christmas!

[stanley2]

Romeo's line, "O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!"(ROM1.4.162), is clearly echoed in MV: "I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done........"(MV1.2.15). One might therefore argue that the author is himself a fan of Team Portia. Romeo's line is in the scene before the much noted second conversation between R&J where we find: "Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?"(ROM2.1.84). Most editors include the word "Aside" to tell us that Juliet cannot hear what he is saying. Shylock's "How like a fawning publican"(MV1.3.38) speech is also an "aside" as Bassanio and Antonio cannot hear it. This, then, is yet another detail that engenders sympathy for Shylock.

[Danik 2016]

Shylock stands up lucidly against Jewish discrimination. Unfortunately I think this is not so noted, because it is overshadowed by his hateful behavior towards Antonio.

By the way, what do you think about Jessica? She is pictured as nice, mainly because she punishes her father and gets converted, but I don´t think her nice at all.
Best wishes for 2022!

[stanley2]

I do agree with you and Professor Bevington that such lines from Shylock as "If I can catch him once upon the hip, / I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him"(MV1.3.43-4) are to be taken seriously. It is no less important to note that when the Duke says "How shalt thou hope for mercy, rend'ring none?"(MV4.1.87), Shylock's life is also in danger. We have therefore seen that the author regards Shylock and Antonio as co-villains or co-comic-villains. In due course, Capulet regards his daughter Juliet to be "young baggage, disobedient wretch!"(R&J3.5.159). Lorenzo's last line in the play reads: "Fair ladies, you drop manna in the way / Of starved people"(MV5.1.293-4). As this is a reference to the book of Exodus, one might wonder if he will be converting to Judaism. Happy new year.

[stanley2]

The late baseball announcer Harry Caray(should we add "and clownish fool?") would exclaim "holy cow!" in response to something happening on the field. The phrase is helpful here as one reviews Act 3, scene 5 where Jessica, Lancelet and Lorenzo are talking. In the first scene of MND, Demetrius and Lysander are suitors of Hermia and later both reject Hermia in favor of Helena. We find Lancelet speaks the word "father" four times. Therefore, the author may again intend to refer to Chapter 8 of the Gospel of John. Jessica's reply to Lorenzo regarding Portia, "Past all expressing........for the poor rude world / Hath not her fellow"(MV3.5.63-73), might recall lines from Nick Bottom: "Methinks I have a great desire to a bottle of hay: good hay, sweet hay, hath no fellow"(MND4.1.30-1). At any rate, this follows comments from Charles D and Marchette Chute.

[stanley2]

In Professor Bevington's notes we find: "'Shylock is a bloody-minded monster,' confided Henry Irving in 1879, 'but you mustn't play him so, if you wish to succeed; you must get some sympathy with him.' The paradox that Irving described is central to the history of THE MERCHANT OF VENICE in performance." One who has memorized all of Shylock's lines might say something like that. The clownish fool's monologue is such that we find "Certainly" at the beginning and at line 24 "Certainly the Jew is the very devil incarnation"(MV2.2.1-24). Professor Halio and most other editors gloss "incarnation" as follows: "Lancelot's malapropism for 'incarnate.'" He and Professor Drakakis add that in HENRY THE FIFTH we find a boy saying: "Yes, that 'a did; and said they were devils incarnate"(HV2.3.34). The lady replies: "'A could never abide carnation; 't was a colour he never liked." Little wonder that Drakakis quotes the OED over 700 times.

[stanley2]

I'm sure that everyone will agree that Shakespeare's use of the word "Certainly" is ironic.

[stanley2]

In Act 3, scene one, we find Solanio and Salerio speaking with Shylock. The play begins with these same two "Salads" speaking with Antonio. Solanio's comment, "And Shylock for his own part knew the bird was fledged, and then it is the complexion of them all to leave the dam"(MV3.1.25-7), contains the third time we find "complexion." Portia speaks the word twice, line 116 in Act 1, scene 2 and line 79 in Act 2, scene 7. Editors tell us that Portia is being clever as the meaning could be "nature, character, temperament, color or disposition." Professor Raffel glosses "dam" to mean "mother" and adds "Is there a wife and mother currently in Shylock's house? We learn, in 3.1.103, that her name is or was Leah." As in the first scene of the play, here the Salads exit and one or more characters enter and speak to the character who remains onstage.

[Danik 2016]

"it is the complexion of them all to leave the dam" for me an unusual use of the word complexion.

[stanley2]

And Professor Braunmuller noted in his introduction that "manna" is also found in Chapter 6 of the GOSPEL OF JOHN.

[Danik 2016]

Yes, there are a lot of biblical terms in the play.

[stanley2]

R&J then begins with an allusion or indirect reference to the GOSPEL OF JOHN and MV ends with one. Holy cow! It seems to me that though it is clear that Antonio's "Mark you this, Bassanio, / The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose"(MV1.3.95-6), is a reference to the Gospel by the author, whether Antonio also has this in mind is uncertain.

[stanley2]

In the second scene of ROMEO AND JULIET is a memorable line: "I must to the learned"(ROM1.2.44). One might recall that when considering Professor Bloom's comments. In the GOSPEL we find, in the translation that I have before me, "Your father Abraham rejoiced that he was to see my day; he saw it and was glad"(GOSPEL OF JOHN 8:56). The context is such that one might suggest that this is another indication that Antonio's "Mark you this, Bassanio"(MV1.3.95) is an allusion to the Gospel.

[Danik 2016]

It seems that here is a word missing:

"I must to the learned"(ROM1.2.44).

[stanley2]

Prince Hamlet, if he were a real person, might say that the line is a "contraction"(HAMLET3.4.47).

[stanley2]

Fans of Team Portia might recommend that President Putin appoint a modern day Team Portia to engage in parallel talks with a corresponding team from the other side. Back to the matter here, Professor Parrott wrote of Duke Orsino in TWELFTH NIGHT: 'It required no little skill in character portrayal to keep such a sentimentalist as the Duke from becoming a ridiculous, if not a contemptible, figure." Professor Greenblatt notes that "Viola, disguised as a boy and serving Duke Orsino, is assigned the task of helping him woo the countess Olivia.........Orsino is clearly attracted to the servant he believes to be a sexually ambiguous boy and Olivia falls madly in love with this same ambiguous go-between." Again, one might compare Antonio, Orsino and Sonnet 144.

[Danik 2016]

I agree with you! Modern life is badly in want of the wisdom of Portia.

[stanley2]

The challenge of single combat that Elon Musk offered to President Putin, in due course, recalls the first scene in HAMLET: "our last king, / Whose image even but now appeared to us, / Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway, / Thereto pricked on by a most emulate pride / Dared to the combat; ........." In Act 2, scene 2 Polonius says to the King: "At such a time I'll loose my daughter to him. / Be you and I behind an arras then. / Mark the encounter. If he love her not, / And be not from his reason fall'n thereon, / Let me be no assistant for a state, / But keep a farm and carters"(HAMLET2.2.176-180). President Putin might then consider ordering his forces to withdraw then conclude his lengthy career of public service. One suggestion would be to follow Curt Gowdy's example and host a hunting and fishing program for television.

[stanley2]

We recall that Romeo is "banished" by the Prince as the result of his single combat with Tybalt. The speech from Polonius above is prominently placed. Isaac Asimov agreed with Professor Wilson that Hamlet may be eavesdropping on the conversation. Therefore, the author is suggesting that Hamlet might have averted tragedy if instead of or along with "Now might I do it pat, now he is a-praying"(HAM3.3.77), he suggested to his uncle the farmers life as it were. One might note that this is consistent with the work of Leo Tolstoy and Voltaire. Songwriters and pop musicians Ray Davies, Bob Marley and David Bowie wrote songs about "pressure." So it surely is also for President Putin.

[Danik 2016]

Dear Stanley. Let´s keep to the ingenious play MV. It seems to me that there is a lot to be learned there

[stanley2]

"If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches and poor men's cottages princes' palaces"(MV1.2.11-13). One will recall Isabella's famous speech from MM: "Could great men thunder / As Jove himself does, Jove would never be quiet; / For every pelting, petty officer / Would use his heaven for thunder, / nothing but thunder! Merciful Heaven, / Thou rather with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt / Splits the unwedgeable and gnarled oak / Than the soft myrtle; but man , proud man, / Dress'd in a little brief authority, / Most ignorant of what he's most assur'd,- / His glassy essence- like an angry ape, / Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven / As makes the angels weep; who, with our / spleens, / Would all themselves laugh mortal"(Measure for Measure2.2.110-123). What else have we overlooked in MV?

[stanley2]

Drshadow03's post(#31), where we find, "You seem to be suggesting that you can either; a) believe Shakespeares's play [is an artistic failure]....... or b) think it is a great work of art with wonderful aesthetic merit. But are those the only two choices?" and Hawkman's post (#50) where we find "I was hard pressed to identify a "hero" unless it is Portia who delivers Antonio" are together indications that MV is, by design, an invitation to further study.

[stanley2]

In another thread I noted that the line "'Tis all one"(R&J1.1.20) is an allusion at once to DEUTERONOMY 6:4 and GENESIS 1:27. This lends credence to the idea that Antonio's "Mark you this"(MV1.3.96-7) is an allusion to both MATTHEW 4:6 and JOHN: 8.

[stanley2]

And by the way, there is a minor error in the article by the late Father Oakes(see post #305). He wrote: "Shakespeare signals his agreement with these claims when he has Hamlet expostulate in these terms: 'In the corrupted currents of this world, / Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice, / And oft 'tis seen the wicked prize itself / Buys out the law. But 'tis not so above: / There is no shuffling; there the action lies / In his true nature, and we ourselves compelled, / Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults, / To give in evidence'(HAMLET3.3.61-68)." The speech is spoken by Hamlet's uncle the King.

[Danik 2016]

Good discovery, stanley2!

[stanley2]

The last play Shakespeare is thought to have written all by himself is THE TEMPEST. In the epilogue we find: "Now I want / Spirits to enforce, art to enchant; / And my ending is despair / Unless I be relieved by prayer, /Which pierces so that it assaults / Mercy itself, and frees all faults. / As you from crimes would pardoned be, / Let your indulgence set me free." Professor Greenblatt wrote: "For Prospero[the character that speaks the epilogue], whose morality and legitimacy are repeatedly insisted upon, this guilt does not make entire sense, but it might have made sense for the playwright who peers out from behind the mask of the prince"(see post #302).

[stanley2]

S.T. Coleridge said that Hamlet finds himself in "stimulating" circumstances. So too is the invasion of Ukraine. One might note memorable lines from HENRY THE FIFTH: "But if the cause be not good, the King himself hath a heavy reckoning to make, when all those legs and arms and heads, chopped off in a battle, shall join together at the latter day and cry all, 'We died at such a place'; some swearing, some crying for a surgeon, some upon their wives left poor behind them, some upon the debts they owe, some upon their children rawly left. I am afeard there are few die well that die in a battle; for how can they charitably dispose of anything, when blood is their argument? Now, if these men do not die well, it will be a black matter for the King that led them to it; who to disobey were against all proportion of subjection"(HV4.1.140-153).

[stanley2]

In the Signet Classic edition is an excerpt from William Hazlitt's comments on the play(1818): "When we first went to see Mr. Kean in Shylock, we expected to see, what we had been used to see,............We were disappointed, because we had taken our idea from other actors, not from the play..............so rooted was our habitual impression of the part from seeing it caricatured in the representation, that it was only from a careful perusal of the play itself that we saw our error. The stage is not in general the best place to study our author's characters in. It is too often filled with traditional commonplace conceptions of the part........" This is consistent with the idea that Shakespeare was himself well aware that his work is best understood by both seeing it performed onstage and in the study as such critics as Joseph Wood Krutch noted. Here in the Chicago area a group of actors have presented readings of the plays that have been very helpful.

[stanley2]

Another passage from AS YOU LIKE IT is helpful: "Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile, / hath not old custom made this life more sweet / Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods / More free from peril than the envious court? / Here feel we not the penalty of Adam"(AYL2.1.1-5). The speaker's brother is one of the plays villains. The meaning of "court" here is not exactly the same as in the court scene in MV, yet there are echoes to the earlier plays. "Envious" might recall from R&J: "An envious thrust from Tybalt hit the life / Of stout Mercutio"(ROM3.1.167-8). There is irony too as the character who replies to Duke Senior's famous speech suggests: "Happy is Your Grace / That can translate the stubbornness of fortune / Into so quiet and so sweet a style"(AYL2.1.
18-20). Soon such lines as "I rather will subject me to the malice / Of a diverted blood and bloody brother"(AYL2.3.36-7), referring to the other comic villain of AS YOU LIKE IT, and Rosalind's echo of Portia, "O Jupiter, how weary are my spirits!"(AYL2.4.1) follow.

[stanley2]

In Professor Bevington's 1988 introduction we have: "However much we may come to sympathize with Shylock's misfortunes........[he] remains essentially the villain of a love comedy." This is reasonable when tracking the implications the author has packed his play with. Portia's "Tarry a little" speech must also be noted as Professor Drakakis suggested twenty something years later: "The play turns upon the semantic instability of 'flesh' and 'blood'........Blood.........figures as the juridical absence that ultimately invalidates the Jew's bond." The Nurse in ROMEO AND JULIET says: "I saw the wound, I saw it with mine eyes..........All in gore-blood: I swooned at the sight"(R&J3.2.54-58). She is speaking of the death of Tybalt. One may find oneself regarding Tybalt as the sole villain in the tragedy, for a time. Further study of both plays reveals more implications. Antonio and Shylock are plainly co-villains.

[Danik 2016]

Antonio and Shylock are plainly co-villains.

For me Antonio can only be seen as a villain, in that he is a racist. The both sided racist conflict between Shylock and Antonio is one of the main causes of the absurd contract. The other cause, I think, is economical. Shylock hates Antonio, because his generosity ultimately lowers the taxes on the loans.

[stanley2]

Also of interest, if we return to Father Oakes' article(#305), we find him quoting lines from MEASURE FOR MEASURE: "Mercy is not itself that oft looks so; pardon is still the nurse of second woe"(MM2.1.292-3). This echoes the Prince in R&J(the name of the character in each case is Escalus: "Mercy but murders, pardoning those that kill"(R&J3.1.199). Your comment, Danik, "in both cases there is much more involved"(#274) reverberates.

[stanley2]

It seems to me that one could argue that Antonio's line, "I am a tainted wether of the flock / Meetest for death"(MV4.1.114-5), suggests that he himself feels that we should regard the two of them to be co-villains. One might review such notes here as page 6 where Hawkman says of Antonio: "he is delivered from an unjust punishment for the crime of arrogant stupidity by the letter of the bond and a quick witted Portia." In MEASURE FOR MEASURE(see above), Escalus is allowing the harsh sentence handed down by Angelo against Claudio. This is, once again, a stark contrast as Prince Escalus in R&J is simply banishing Romeo.

[stanley2]

Portia's "Tarry a little" speech is also an allusion to the liturgy of the Eucharist. This rite is performed by clergy during church services. Study of this play might also recall from R&J: "It strains me past the compass of my wits"(R&J4.1.48).

[hellsapoppin]

In all probability, yes. After all, Shakespeare had the option of making this notorious lender a Neopolitan or Parisian or Londoner.

I wrote a post graduate seminar paper on MOV and reported its many legal flaws. For example, under the law, a presiding judge cannot have an interest or stake in the proceedings. Portia obviously did so as her betrothed was a litigant. As a judge she pronounced a death sentence upon Shylock as conversion to Christianity is considered under Talmudic law to be apostasy tantamount to death. As judge she was presiding over a court of equity, not a criminal court and had no right to pronounce a death sentence or to even charge anyone with attempted murder as she did with the claimant. At the end of the story she reports that the argosies (the ships) did come in safely so that there was no reason to render a judgment against Shylock. The fact that she rendered an unfair judgment on him was a terrible injustice as she and her future husband got all the money and the claimant did not.

In my research for my seminar paper I learned that there was a common phrase used in the theaters of that era in London which went, "I pray there is not a Jew among you". There were a few Jews in London but I'm sure none would attend a theater with that type of prevailing attitude.

[stanley2]

One might quote Marchette Chute's introduction to LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST for young people: "The play is less a story than a game. The plot is as light as a soap bubble, and its charm lies in the kind of dancing light that it throws on some of the subjects which fascinated young men and women in Shakespeare's day. It is almost a Valentine of a play, half a love-Valentine and half a comic-Valentine, and has to be read in the spirit in which it was written............The story opens in the park of the king of Navarre, where he and his lords are discussing a highly idealistic project." This corresponds to Danik and Professors Bevington and Parrott's Antonio the idealist in MV, I should think. Not that any of this is unreasonable, as Professor Parrott said of LLL: "LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST remains the most original and the most delightful of Shakespeare's early comedies."

[stanley2]

And again Lokasenna's comment(page 2), "The quandry is to decide whether, to borrow from another Shakespeare play, he is 'more sinned against than sinning,'" is apt. William Hazlitt noted the same line from KING LEAR in 1817: "he becomes a half-favorite with the philosophical part of the audience who are disposed to think that Jewish revenge is at least as good as Christian injuries. Shylock is a 'good hater; a man no less sinned against than sinning.'" Therefore, Antonio and Shylock are co-villains. Another noted passage from KING LEAR, "Ay every inch a king! / When I do stare, see how the subject quakes; / I pardon that man's life. What was thy cause? / Adultery? Thou shalt not die. Die for adultery! No: / The wren goes to it, and the small gilded fly / Does lecher in my sight. / Let copulation thrive"(KING LEAR4.6.109-116), is also apt as all the links to R&J, MND and the many sexual suggestions indicate.

[Danik 2016]

It´s now years ago that Lokasenna left. I used to like his posts.

The problem I see with Antonio is his antisemitism (which probably was generally shared by the Christian community. The Jews had to live in a ghetto).I´d rather consider that Shylock was also, to a good extent, a victim of prejudice. Would the ill feeling between him and Antonio have existed, without racism? Maybe, because there was also an economic reason. By lending money without demanding interest, Antonio put the Jews in a bad situation, as they made their living out of the interest. And if I rightly remember, at that time Jews were allowed to work only as usurers.

[stanley2]

For her introduction, Professor Crawford included a few notes regarding the historical moment: "Usury, the business of lending money at (often extreme) interest rates, was widely criticized in the period in such tracts as Miles Mosse's THE ARRAIGNMENT AND CONVICTION OF USURY (1595). Usury was in fact widely practiced in England, as evidenced by the fact that Queen Elizabeth officially set the rate of interest on loans at 10 percent." Historian Michael Wood's contention that there are too many unanswered questions left at the end of the play might be a clue regarding how Shakespeare's audience may have responded to the play. One might also note from Professor Bevington: "Shylock does indeed suffer from his enemies, and his sufferings add a tortured complexity to this play--- even, one suspects, for an Elizabethan audience."

[stanley2]

As we have seen, then, Sonnet 144 alone will not allow us to dismiss Antonio as only a buffoonish sidekick of Bassanio. The question of whether he had an adulterous affair with Shylock's wife remains unanswered. Adultery was an important subject regarding the fate of the Queen's mother, some in Shakespeare's audience might have noted. Shakespeare and Marlowe were 8 years old when news of the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre must have reached England in 1572. It seems reasonable then that we would find lines such as "Go hence to have more talk of these sad things"(R&J5.3.317) in their work.

[stanley2]

In a collection put together by the Mahons in 2002 we find an essay by Professor Levith. He recommends the play DOCTOR FAUSTUS by Marlowe as an important part of the context in which MV is found. As Antonio's line "Let me have judgement and the Jew his will"(MV4.1.84) allows identification of both Antonio and Shylock with Doctor Faustus, it is plain that Shylock and Antonio are to be regarded as co-villains in this most unusual romantic comedy.

[stanley2]

For the Everyman edition, John Andrews glosses Antonio's "Let him alone" speech(Act 3, scene 3) in part as follows: "the merchant conveniently omits mention of the abuse he has heaped on Shylock, with no apologies and with no indication that his attitude and behavior might ever change."

[stanley2]

Another quote from Bevington's introduction, if I may: "Bassanio's adventure is partly commercial. Yet his pilgrimage for Portia is magnanimous as well. The occasional modern practice of playing Bassanio and Portia as cynical antiheroes of a 'black' comedy points up the problematic character of their materialism and calculation, but it inevitably distorts the play." Some scholars have noted that Shakespeare himself may have played the role of Antonio onstage. It is then no stretch at all to link the character to Sonnet 144.

[Danik 2016]

IMO the text of Shakespeare paints Portia and Bassanio as a romantic pair, even if there are riches involved. This is a mercantile play that anticipates the duplicity of the 19 C English novel, where the hero had to prove the purity of his/her love to be then rewarded with riches and the consequent social ascent.

But Bassanio's journey also has something of the quest of the medieval knight. To win Portia he has to pass a test.

[stanley2]

Portia's "Let not that doctor e'er come near my house. / since he hath got the jewel that I loved...........Now, by mine honor, which is yet mine own, / I'll have that doctor for my bedfellow"(MV5.1.223-233) recalls Tubal's "One of them showed me a ring that he had of your daughter for a monkey"(MV3.1.109-10) and Shylock's reply. Lines from the Prince of Aragon are notable here: "I will not jump with common spirits / And rank me with the barbarbous multitudes"(MV2.9.31-2). If one desires to argue that the play favors either Shylock or Antonio, one finds oneself recalling Portia again: "Tarry a little; there is something else"(MV4.1.303). This again is in keeping with Professor Wilson's comments.

[stanley2]

As noted somewhere, the Prince in R&J says of Tybalt: "Romeo slew him; he slew Mercutio. / Who now the price of his dear blood doth owe?"(ROM3.1.181-2). In due course, some famous lines from Mercutio are spoken during this scene. Among them is: "A plague a both your houses! I am sped."(ROM3.1.90). One thing is clear enough, Mercutio and Tybalt each insist that a duel is required. One then might regard each as equally to blame.

[stanley2]

Another echo of MV in AS YOU LIKE IT follows: "Was't you that did so oft contrive to kill him?"(AYL4.3.135). This is Celia, daughter of Duke Frederick, speaking to Oliver, brother of Orlando. The line recalls from Portia the lines "The party 'gainst the which he doth contrive.........Thou hast contrived against the very life"(MV4.1.348-356).

[stanley2]

And thus Shylock is identified or associated with or echoes an astonishing array of characters before and after MV. Little wonder, then, that Professor Kenneth Gross suggested that Shylock is Shakespeare. Antonio is perhaps as baffling given that his first lines in the play associate him with Romeo and Dick3. Yet, as we have seen he is also identified with Jaques in AYL. His "I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano, / A stage, where every man must play a part, / and mine a sad one"(MV1.1.77-8) is plainly echoed in AS YOU LIKE IT: "All the world's a stage"(AYL2.7.138).

[Danik 2016]

Hi, stanley! First time I see Richard !!! called Dick3.

[stanley2]

P.B. placed it on one of the Sonnet threads

[stanley2]

Therefore, Professor Parrott wrote that "Shylock is as human as any of his Christian adversaries." This, in due course, recalls the obscurity of the Duke's "I am sorry for thee. Thou art come to answer / A stony adversary, an inhuman wretch....."(MV4.1.3-4). One might also return to Hawkman's post #50 where he tells us that he was hard pressed to identify a 'hero' unless it is Portia. We must then add that her cousin was at least consulted and that Bassanio has an important part to play in the court scene. This is in keeping with the idea that the author designed the play to foster discussion. And, once again, Oliver's "Farewell good Charles. Now will I stir this gamester. I hope I shall see an end of him; for my soul, yet I know not why, hates nothing more than he"(AS YOU LIKE IT, ACT 1 scene one) echoes through the plays to Romeo: "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"(ROM3.3.107-10).

[stanley2]

The last lines of Fitzgerald's translation of THE ODYSSEY are then worth another look: "Athena / cast a grey glance at her friend and said: / 'Son of Laertes and the gods of old, / Odysseus, master of land ways and sea ways, / command yourself. Call off this battle now, / or Zeus who views the wide world may be angry.' / He yielded to her, and his heart was glad. / Both parties later swore to terms of peace / set by their arbiter, Athena, daughter / of Zeus who bears the stormcloud as a shield- / though still she kept the form and voice of Mentor." Professor Drakakis suggests that Shakespeare may have been inspired by a portion of THE ODYSSEY found in a translation of Ovid 's METAMORPHOSES. We are then left with the question of which character did Shakespeare have in mind to match Odysseus? I think it is plain that any of at least three is reasonable.

[Danik 2016]

I agree with Professor Parrot, whoever he is. Shylock is a complex character, who however stands up to his point of view. And as Gladys states on page 1 his punishment was disproportionate to his crime. Which made me think that the play took in consideration anti semitic audiences.

[hellsapoppin]

stanley2,

"Shylock does indeed suffer from his enemies, and his sufferings add a tortured complexity to this play--- even, one suspects, for an Elizabethan audience."



Indeed. As I have posted previously, Portia (disguised as a presiding jurist) knew that the "argosies" did land safely so that the terms of the guarantor contract had been met. Yet, she violated the law by lying in court when she pretended that they did not make landfall safely and when she rendered her judgment. As Christians, no doubt, they were greatly moved by her "quality of mercy" speech:


The quality of mercy is not strained;
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
'T is mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown:
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway;
It is enthronèd in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice.


Beautiful sentiments for sure - an example of what Christian mercy is supposed to be. Based on these words, one would have thought that Shylock would be shown at least some measure of leniency. But does she render any mercy towards Shylock? No she does not. Instead she renders a harsh punishment which was tantamount to a death sentence. On the one hand these so called Christians call for mercy but then they engage in severe, unjust, and, as I posted previously, illegal retribution.

For those who were anti Semitic at that time, the outcome was undoubtedly a just and desired one. But a true Christian, whether in that audience or even today, would be outraged at the hypocrisy, the Pharisaism, and the injustice imposed upon Shylock.

[stanley2]

The last scene of the play begins as follows: "The moon shines bright. In such a night as this, / When the sweet wind did gently kiss the trees / And they did make no noise, in such a night / Troilus methinks mounted the Trojan walls / And sighed his soul toward the Grecian tents / Where Cressid lay that night"(MV5.1.1-6). Shakespeare chose this beginning, with it's classical allusions, to further suggest recollection of the conclusion of THE ODYSSEY I should think. Portia's purpose, as in the conclusion of the Homeric poem, is as arbiter.

[Danik 2016]

Maybe he also wanted to point out the kinship with another play he had written.

[stanley2]

Hi Danik. In due course, Portia is also comparable to Penelope in THE ODYSSEY. Each is beset with many suitors. It is then reasonable to compare Bassanio and the hero of the Homeric epic poem. The very uncertainty regarding which character the author intends to identify with the hero of THE ODYSSEY suggests that Shakespeare intends to regard Antonio and Shylock as co-villains.

[Danik 2016]

Hi, Stanley. I think Portia is the heroine of MV. She is also similar to Penelope in cleverness. Both have to impose their will in a men ruled world.

Antonio is the great hero of the trial, but toward the end his figure pales. And Bassanio in fact doesn´t shine as a hero with stronger characters like Portia and Antonio beside him.

[stanley2]

I'm not quite sure what you mean regarding Antonio(post #379). In the 2000 edition of CliffsComplete we find: "Shylock can be interpreted in many ways on the stage. He can be seen as a simple comic villain who occasionally reveals sympathetic qualities. Or he can be a tragic hero, a spurned and battered victim of oppression, who tries unsuccessfully to to challenge the society that oppresses him." In the court scene, Antonio says: "Let me have judgment, and the Jew his will"(MV4.1.83). Therefore, do you mean to suggest that Antonio and Shylock are both tragic hero's? And regarding Bassanio, the text allows more than one interpretation. As we have seen, one may play Bassanio standing between Shylock and Antonio ready to defend Antonio if Shylock were to lunge at Antonio with his knife. If he were then to kill Shylock with Shylock's own knife, some might recall that Marlowe died in the very same manner.

[Danik 2016]

One of the complexities of the play are the changes in the protagonist Antonio, he is the merchant after all. Because of his sacrifice he could be considered a tragic hero until he is rescued from his dead sentence by the noblewoman Portia. But Portia steals his beloved and also his protagonism in the play. As a pale compensation he gets some of his ships and with them his position as merchant back.

As for Shylock, he is the villain, but Shakespeare grants him some very human speeches.

Torn between Portia and Antonio, Bassanio is a sort of romantic hero. But he is outshone by the stronger figures of Portia, Antonio and Shylock.

[stanley2]

Thanks, then, to CliffsComplete and Danik! I think the phrase "tragic hero" is better than my previous favorite character sketch of Antonio: "The arrogance(and stupidity) of the man is staggering.........What a twit!(see posts #181 and #28).

[stanley2]

Antonio's line, "bid her be judge / Whether Bassanio had not once a love"(MV4.1.273-4), might recall two more lines from ROMEO AND JULIET. In the first scene of R&J we have Sampson's "Take it in what sense thou wilt"(ROM1.1.25). In the second conversation between Romeo and Juliet we have "At lovers' perjuries / They say Jove laughs"(ROM2.2.92). It is then reasonable to suggest that Antonio may have desired Shylock's wife. And Charles D. has good reason to regard Bassanio as a major character. In the second scene Nerissa tells us that "he of all the men that ever my foolish eyes looked upon, was the best deserving a fair lady"(1.2.105-6). In the court scene, Bassanio's "Why dost thou whet thy knife so earnestly?"(MV4.1.121), recalls the death of Marlowe and the lines from Romeo and Juliet: "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"(ROM3.3.105-7) and "Give me some present counsel; or, behold / 'Twixt my extremes and me this bloody knife / Shall play the umpire, arbitrating that........"(ROM4.1.61-3). If memory serves, there's a line regarding confession in the popular song SUNDOWN, by Gordon Lightfoot, that might help.

[Danik 2016]

Antonio's line, "bid her be judge / Whether Bassanio had not once a love"(MV4.1.273-4) I think this line refers very explicitly to Antonio's love for Bassanio. The triangle Antonio-Bassanio-Portia forms one of the field of tensions of the play, until Portia affirms her superior claim by creating the dispute of the wedding ring.

[stanley2]

Of the last line of the play, editors have given us various notes. Professor Drakakis wrote: "The final word of the play underlines through innuendo Gratiano's sexual fears." Professor Bevington wrote simply, "with sexual suggestion." Others have written "crude joke" and "bawdy pun." To these one might add the phrase "double entendre." We have seen that the character Antonio's speech corresponds to Sonnet 144. Therefore, when one suggests that Shylock is a villain, it follows that Antonio is so as well given his speeches just before and during the court scene.

[stanley2]

Professor Leggatt, for the Folger edition, wrote: "there are constant echoes back and forth between the play's apparently disparate worlds. Portia gives a ring to Bassanio, who gives it away; Leah gave a ring to Shylock, and Jessica steals it. Keys lock Shylock's house and unlock the caskets of Belmont. Portia calls Bassanio "dear bought"(3.2.326) and Shylock uses almost the same words for his pound of flesh, which is "dearly bought"(4.1.101). Shylock's proverb, "Fast bind, fast find"(2.5.55), could be a comment on the way the women use the rings to bind the men to them. His claim on Antonio's body is grotesque, but the adultery jokes of the final scene remind us that married couples also claim exclusive rights in each other's bodies. Marriage is mutual ownership, and Shylock's recurring cry of "mine!" echoes throughout the play." As we have seen, the "adultery jokes" also suggest that Antonio may have desired Shylock's wife.

[Danik 2016]

Interesting ideas I only don't agree about bringing in Shylock's deceased wife. I don't think she has anything to do with the animosity between Shylock and Antonio.

[stanley2]

It can be interesting to review the character Lady Capulet when studying MV. In Act 3, scene 5, she says to Juliet: "Well, girl, thou weep'st not so much for his[Tybalt's] death / As that the villain lives which slaughtered him"(ROM3.5.79-80). Juliet replies: "What villain, madam?" The lady responds: "That same villain Romeo." Further down she says: "We will have vengeance for it, fear thou not. / Then weep no more. I'll send one to Mantua, / Where that same banished runagate doth live, / Shall give him such an unaccustomed dram / That he shall soon keep Tybalt company." Earlier, she says to the Prince: "Prince, as thou art true, / For blood of ours shed blood of Montague"(ROM3.1.147-8). And on the next page or so we find: "I beg for justice, which thou, prince, must give. / Romeo slew Tybalt; Romeo must not live." We then have the question of whether Lady Capulet has performed the same crimes as Shylock.

[Danik 2016]

It seems that in Shakespeare's noblemen plays blood revenge is very common. But in the "civilized" commercial Venice of the Renaissance the slaying during a fight is substituted by the contractual cutting out of a pound of flesh.

Well, let Antonio and Shylock and the others rest for a while.
I wish you a Merry Christmas, Stanley!

[stanley2]

Merry Christmas Danik and all fans of team Portia. Following Hawkman's notes here one might quote some more from Professor Parrott: ""What the people wanted in a play was first of all action--- serious or comic, but even the serious must be interspersed with comedy...........The clown was always the favorite actor; Tarleton was a darling of the public before Alleyn or Burbage rose to fame. It was customary, indeed, to end every performance with a 'jig,' a comic dance which developed into a rough farce spoken or sung." In Professor Shapiro's fine book, A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, 1599, we find: "No less gnawing a problem for Shakespeare was the clown's afterpiece, the jig. It may be hard for us to conceive of the conclusion of ROMEO AND JULIET---with the image of the dead lovers fresh in our minds-----immediately followed by a bawdy song and dance, but Elizabethan audiences demanded it. Jigs were basically semi-improvisational one-act plays, running to a few hundred lines, usually performed by four actors.........If comedies were about love, jigs were about what happened after marriage---adultery, deception, and irrepressible sexual desire."

[stanley2]

It is then helpful to compare Bevington's "However much we may come to sympathize with Shylock's misfortunes.........[he] remains essentially the villain of a love comedy" to Professor Leggatt's comment regarding Antonio: "In the trial his courageous acceptance of death shades into an actual yearning for it." One may argue that we may exchange the two names Antonio and Shylock and the opinion still is, as Professor Leggatt put it, "allowed" by the text. In AS YOU LIKE IT, Duke Frederick's line, "Till thou canst quit thee by thy brother's mouth"(AYI3.1.11), echoes Antonio's "so please my lord the Duke and all the court / To quit the fine for one half of his goods"(MV4.1.396-7). Professor Dusinberre glosses the conversation in AS YOU LIKE IT: "The confrontation between the two villainous brothers- Frederick and Oliver- contrasts with the comradeship of Duke Senior and Orlando at the end of 2.7." It plainly also echoes the confrontation of Antonio and Shylock. They are both villains in a love comedy.

[stanley2]

We have noted that Jaques in AS YOU LIKE IT echoes Antonio(see post 277). In one of Hamlet's speeches(HAMLET2.2.575-634) we find him responding to an excerpt spoken by an actor: "Is it not monstrous that this player here, / But in a fiction, in a dream of passion.......What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, / That he should weep for her?" So, one might ask much the same question regarding Antonio and Leah. As we have also seen, the author also allows one to regard Antonio to be homosexual and his desire is or was instead for Bassanio. Or perhaps Mercutio describes Antonio: "this driveling love is like a great natural that runs lolling up and down to hide his bauble in a hole"(R&J2.4.90-1).

[stanley2]

In the collection of essays put together by the Mahons we find by Professor Gray: "When the actress playing Portia launches into the play's most famouis speech, "The quality of mercy is not strained," is her character delivering a prepared speech or is it an impromtu argument? By the same token then, is her last minute legal quibble that saves Antonio's life a well-prepared piece of courtroom histrionics, or a genuine flash of desperate inspiration?" One might then suggest that the author wrote the play to foster discussion. It is firstly a conversation piece.

[Danik 2016]

Hi, Stanley

I would say it depends on the time context. I think, Shakespeare´s carefully chiseled barock verses can be considered anything but not an improviso.

[stanley2]

In the first scene of the play Gratiano says: "Let me play the fool: / With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come." In the court scene it is Gratiano who first responds to Portia's "Tarry a little" speech: "O upright judge! Mark, Jew. O learned judge!"(MV4.1.321). One might argue then that we are not going to see a character die in the same manner as did the real life Marlowe. In Act 5, scene 3 of R&J we find Romeo and Count Paris threaten each other and Paris is killed. In the last scene of MV we find Antonio saying: "I am the unhappy subject of these quarrels"(MV5.1.251). Portia replies: Sir, grieve not you. You are welcome notwithstanding." We then have another topic to discuss. What, exactly, does she have in mind by "notwithstanding"? One suggestion is found earlier in the scene. When Portia arrives Lorenzo says: "That is the voice, /Or I am much deceived, of Portia"(MV5.1.119). Portia replies: "He knows me as the blind man knows the cuckoo, /By the bad voice." One can easily imagine Antonio, as a young man, standing in the street below Leah's window, playing a lute and singing the song from MY FAIR LADY: "People stop and stare, they don't bother me......." Like Romeo and Count Paris, Shylock and Antonio were rival lovers.

[stanley2]

In post #377, Danik wrote: "Maybe he also wanted to recall another of his plays," or something near to this. I guess she had in mind Shakespeare's TROILIS AND CRESIDA(see post #376). I have not read the play. I have read some of Professor Bate's notes on the play in his book SOUL OF THE AGE.

[Danik 2016]

Yes. And if I recollect rightly also the parody play of the workers in A Summer Night´s Dream.

[stanley2]

Bonjour. "Well shone, Moon. Truly, the moon shines with a good grace"(MND5.1.264). One might add something from ROMEO AND JULIET: "Lady, by yonder blessed moon I vow / That tips with silver all these fruit-tree tops"(ROM2.1.150-1). In due course, TROILUS AND CRESSIDA is thought to have been written a few years after MV. One might quote, however, Parrott's comments: "All in all a strange and mystifying play. So far as the love-story goes it is a comedy of disillusion.........On the other hand some of the speeches, especially those of Ulysses are in Shakespeare's gravest and most thoughtful vein." This might help explain why it is hard to find mention that the major classical allusion in MV is the conclusion of THE ODYSSEY.

[stanley2]

One might add one more note regarding Antonio's sadness. Perhaps Antonio does agree that "the duke / Will never grant this forfeiture to hold"(MV3.3.27-8). He is aware that the duke has sent for Portia's cousin to determine the case. He is hopelessly in love with Bellario, the learned doctor. He is hoping that he will get to talk with him. By convincing Bassanio to give his ring to Balthasar, Antonio hopes that the young doctor of Rome will put in a good word for him.

[stanley2]

One might return to Hawkman's comment "Yes, Shakespeare gives the audience what they want, but at the same time he questions their preconceptions." One means then is that he presents Shylock and his co-villain Antonio from different "angles" as Charles D suggested way back in this thread. That is, Antonio's speech in Act 3, scene one(see post #171) is such that Antonio may be distracted by a hopeless love for Portia's cousin Doctor Bellario and the possibility that Bellario will be deciding the case.

[Danik 2016]

Now I am totally confused: In the play Bellario is Portia in disguise. The real Bellario never appears. That would mean that Antonio is in love with Portia. But although he is very thankful as regards Portia, his real love seems to be Bassanio.And warranting \bassanios fidelity means to lose him for ever.

[stanley2]

Perhaps Charles Dickens wrote A TALE OF TWO CITIES after seeing a performance of MV onstage. In due course, Portia plays a young doctor of laws named Balthasar. Shakespeare, then, may be recommending that one should practice what religion one finds suitable. Or perhaps you're thinking of TWELFTH NIGHT where Olivia is fond of Viola disguised as a young man and finally marries Viola's twin brother.

[stanley2]

If memory serves, the late William F. Buckley Jr. often said that reasonable people may disagree. I picked up William L. Shirer's book THE NIGHTMARE YEARS the other day. One is reminded that during the Nazi regime in Germany reasonable people who disagreed were beaten and murdered.

[Danik 2016]

Probably William F. Buckley Jr. was thinking of equals.When power is involved I am reminded of the Brazilian saying: "He who can, gives orders.He who has sense obeys."

[stanley2]

And the scene in R&J where Mercutio and Tybalt are killed: "Up sir, go with me. / I charge thee in the Prince's name obey"(ROM3.1.141-2). As you noted before, one may take up various topics and directions. Buckley was speaking to a general television audience on his show FIRING LINE. Professor Edelman, in his book about the stage history of MV wrote: "Another persistent myth about THE MERCHANT OF VENICE is that it was the Nazi's favorite play, but as Hortmann notes, although 'unser Shakespeare' continued to be performed throughout the Third Reich, after 1933 the number of productions of MERCHANT dropped to less than a third of what it had been before Hitler came to power, and Berlin saw only one production during the entire era." Shirer wrote that the Nazi's were quite ignorant of other cultures and languages.

[Danik 2016]

I didn´t know about that!

[stanley2]

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.

[stanley2]

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.

[Danik 2016]

i haven´t read "The Jew of Malta". But Shakespeare possibly did.

[stanley2]

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."

[Danik 2016]

I agree with you, Stanley.R3 is hardly human

[stanley2]

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."

[stanley2]

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.

[Danik 2016]

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.

[stanley2]

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.

[Danik 2016]

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?

[stanley2]

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."

[stanley2]

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.

[stanley2]

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).

[Danik 2016]

"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 don´t compare her to other Shakespeare heroins.
Is your point that Jessica only takes what she thinks is due to her?

[stanley2]

You yourself wrote in post #192 that "when you take these sentences out of their original context, they can be read in several ways." Professor Tiffany also wrote: "TWELFTH NIGHT'S Antonio-Sebastian pairing is curiously revived in THE TEMPEST, although THE TEMPEST'S Antonio and Sebastian share a political(and criminal) rather than an amorous tie." In the list of characters for THE TEMPEST and AS YOU LIKE IT, we find an "usurping brother" in both. Antonio in the former and Frederick in the latter. Therefore the author invites the reader to compare Antonio in MV to Antonio in THE TEMPEST. She also wrote that "'Antonio' is variously allusive, invoking both the reputations of genuine historical figures (including the saint), and the associations which would eventually accrue to the Antonio's scripted later by Shakespeare--- not only the Antonio of TWELFTH NIGHT, but the Antonio of THE TEMPEST, and ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA as well." I myself am not too worried about Jessica, who like Lancelet, is young. Bassanio says: "So may the outward shows be least themselves, / The world is still deceived with ornament"(MV3.2.75-6). Shylock's aside begins: "How like a fawning publican he looks!"(MV1.3.36). Antonio's first line, "In sooth I know not why I am so sad"(MV1.1.1), plainly is also allusive. The words "sad" and "sadness" also are found in Act one, scene 1 of ROMEO AND JULIET.

[stanley2]

"I am trying to remain within the play"(post #420). One thought regarding this is suggested by reading a fine essay by Professor Linda Bamber included in the Signet Classic KING LEAR. That is, you are in a sense preparing to play the part of Portia onstage. Professor Bevington was imagining himself playing the role of Antonio(see post#391). I don't have this propensity as I can only imagine myself playing the part of the Second Clown in HAMLET("But is this law?" HAM5.1.20). This is reasonable as Portia has by far the most lines to speak.

[stanley2]

And speaking of Lancelot, one might compare his father and Shylock. "Marry, God forbid! The boy was the very staff of my age, my very prop"(MV2.2.58-9). In the court scene, Shylock says: "You take my house, when you take the prop / That doth sustain my house"(MV4.1.371-2). "Her name is Margery, indeed. I'll be sworn, if thou be Lancelot, thou art mine own flesh and blood," says Old Gobbo. In Act three, scene 1 we have Shylock's "My own flesh and blood to rebel!"(MV3.1.29) and "I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor"(MV3.1.101).

[stanley2]

In Professor Parrott's intro to TWELFTH NIGHT we find: "the third in time of Shakespeare's glorious triad of romantic comedies is in some ways the most delightful, in many ways the most perfectly finished. It lacks to be sure, the greenwood atmosphere of AS YOU LIKE IT; it has no such rapier thrusts of repartee as we find in the wit-combats of MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING." The guy could not help himself; he was always comparing one play to another and here recalls even R&J. The "amorous tie"(see #421) between Antonio and Sebastian contrasts with Benedick, who would rather "fetch a toothpicker now from the furthest inch of Asia"(I don't have it in front of me) than marry Beatrice. Lokasenna's comment that the quandry is to decide if Shylock is more sinned against than sinning is, as we've seen, a two hundred year old question. Therefore, Antonio and Shylock are co-comic villains. In the intro to MV by Professor Bate we find the first page and a half are comments regarding the title of the play. No character but Antonio is explicitly identified as a merchant, yet Bate notes that "The part almost seems to be deliberately underwritten." And yet "to remain within the play" it is important to note such lines as "Mark you this, Bassanio, / The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose"(MV1.3.96-7).

[stanley2]

Therefore, Portia's line, "Tarry a little, there is something else," is crucial to understanding the play. As we have seen, some people, at first, feel that the play either favors Antonio or Shylock. It is clear that the text favors neither. When we search the play we always find "something else." When Shylock says "How like a fawning publican he looks! / I hate him for he is a Christian," we find in the same speech "He hates our sacred nation."

[stanley2]

It is then notable to quote Antonio in Act 3, scene 3: "He seeks my life, his reason well I know; / I oft delivered from his forfeitures / Many that have at times made moan to me: / Therefore he hates me"(MV3.3.23-4). All this will bring one back to MND: "What, should I hurt her, strike her, kill her dead? Although I hate her, I'll not harm her so.............What, can you do me greater harm than hate?............'Tis no jest / That I do hate thee, and love Helena"(MND3.2.269-81).

[Danik 2016]

The theme of hatred is so up to date!

[stanley2]

In another fine article about the play onstage, writer and instructor John O' Conner wrote: "Many Shylocks, even those presented as having a real and understandable grievance, have nonetheless forfeited audience sympathy when they approach the merchant with intent to take their pound of flesh." He goes on to note that Paul Butler, playing Shylock in the 1994 Goodman Theatre production, did not approach Antonio and thereby helped make the character dignified. We noted recently that in the last scene Portia says to Antonio: "you are welcome notwithstanding"(MV5.1.239). In Act One, scene 3, we find Shylock saying to Bassanio: "The man is, notwithstanding, sufficient"(MV1.3.25). One might suggest that this echo helps dignify both Antonio and Shylock.

[stanley2]

Back in post #280 we noted that Orlando's brother says, "I hope I shall see an end of him; for my soul, yet I know not why, hates nothing more than he"(AS YOU LIKE IT1.1.155-6), and that it echoes the first line of MV. We have also noted that in Shylock's "How like a fawning publican" speech(MV1.3) we find an echo of Romeo's "Here's much to to with hate, but more with love." The speech from Orlando's brother then, also echoes not only Shylock's speech in Act one, scene 3 but his presentation of his case before the court. Therefore, Shakespeare was either aware that the "publican" speech is troublesome or he was told that it is. AS YOU LIKE IT, then, is plainly linked to MV.

[Danik 2016]

However the context of the plays is very different.

[stanley2]

Let's return to the larger context of the play. In another discussion we found Queen Elizabeth I may have been reluctant to marry because her father, Henry VIII, permitted the execution of Elizabeth's mother. The major speech in MV, "The Quality of mercy.......," may then have been quite effective onstage in 1597. In A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, the fantasy of a Queen as one's lover was one that may have had special resonance in 1595.

[stanley2]

Hawkman's notes regarding the historic context of the play (#32 and others) are interesting. We then might consider Bevington's opinion(see#391) again. Shylock seems to be required to attend Roman Catholic church services with Antonio. According to Hawkman, everyone was required to attend Church of England services in Shakespeare's time. Shylock would then be failing to follow instructions in place in Shakespeare's England. The fact that it is implied that Antonio and Shylock will(pun intended) be attending the same church leads one to then suggest again that Shylock and Antonio are co-comic villains.

[stanley2]

The lines from MND(#426) are spoken by the characters Lysander and Hermia. Lysander's feelings have been affected by the fairy Robin Goodfellow. Was it Shakespeare's intention that one might wonder if Mr. Goodfellow is causing mischief again here in MV?

[stanley2]

Let's return to the 2009 book by Professor Bate: "In 1598 Francis Meres, Cambridge educated and with his finger on the literary pulse of the age, wrote that the 'mellifluous and honey-tongued Shakespeare' was circulating 'his sugared sonnets among his private friends.' He also included Shakespeare in a list of poets who were 'the most passionate among us to bewail and bemoan the perplexities of love.' For educated Elizabethans, sonnets were the place where you went for an immersion in the doubts, intricacies, uncertainties, troubles, and 'anguish of mind' associated with love. For Meres, Shakespeare was not an isolated genius but one among many." Holy cow! If Tybalt was the Nurse's best friend, Mary Sidney may have been Shakespeare's.

[stanley2]

And regarding the matter of THE GOSPEL OF JOHN that Professor Bloom noted, in Professor Drakakis' list of citations we find Caroline Spurgeon's 1935 book SHAKESPEARE"S IMAGERY AND WHAT IT TELLS US. She noted dark and light imagery in R&J. We have noted(see latter half of 1/28/2014 thread here) that these images tell us that the line "'Tis all one" in the first conversation in R&J is at once an allusion to GENESIS 1:27 and DEUTERONOMY 6:4. Therefore, as Isaac Asimov suggested, to Shakespeare, context is important when studying THE BIBLE. Thus it is that Antonio's "Mark you this, Bassanio, / The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose"(MV1.3.93-4) plainly points to the gospel.

[stanley2]

In Act 4, scene 4, Portia instructs her man Balthasar to travel to "Padua." Editors Drakakis and Andrews, though, follow the earliest text which reads "Mantua," the town near Verona where Romeo goes in R&J. Given that the two plays are closely linked, Shakespeare either deliberately mentions Mantua, though Padua is near Venice, or we have another indication that both plays were on the author's mind at the same time. And thus the comment from John Gross(see post #248) is in part an invitation. That is he was asking the reader to add his or her own reasons why his use of the term "absurd" is reasonable.

[stanley2]

Some of kiki1982's notes might recall Portia's "Speak not so grossly"(MV5.1.266). Hawkman asked "is Antonio hated just for being Christian?" He goes on to say that Shylock "has good reason to hate Antonio." Yet Shylock "is necessarily the villain who drives the plot." Make no mistake, the first line of the play, spoken by Antonio, echoes the first scene of R&J. In the court scene, Antonio echoes the passion of Romeo in the last scene of R&J,"You may as well go....."(MV4.1.71-3). We are asked to compare the confrontation of Romeo and Count Paris(R&J 5.3) to Shylock vs. Antonio. Shylock and Antonio are co-villains. Why else would the Duke allow Shylock to present his case? And once again, Shakespeare and Marlowe were 8 years old when the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre happened. This was a Christian vs. Christian event, as was the plot to murder the Queen that cost Dr. Lopez his life in 1594.

[stanley2]

Professor Bate wrote that: "LOVE'S LABOR'S LOST is a play packed with wit, elegance, philosophical reflection, and filthy jokes." The character Don Armado, Marchette Chute tells us, has written a letter to the king regarding their "highly idealistic project:" "Besieged with sable-coloured melancholy, I did commend the black-oppressing humour to the most wholesome physic of thy health-giving air." She goes on to note that "What he does not explain is the real reason for his indignation: he is in love with Jaquenetta himself." It follows then, that the melancholy Antonio may also be leaving something out in his speech before the Duke of Venice in the court scene.

[stanley2]

And to clarify post #435, that the line in R&J is at once an allusion to DEUTERONOMY 6:4 and GENESIS 1:27 suggests that Antonio's "The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose" is at once an allusion to MATTHEW 4:6 and JOHN 8.

[stanley2]

Let's return to Professor Parrott's note that Antonio "is an idealist, overshadowed, like most of Shakespeare's men of thought, with a cloud of melancholy..........For Antonio embodies the Renaissance conception of the high worth of friendship, a conception to which Shakespeare gave supreme expression in his sonnets." We've noted that in Sonnet 144 the author has "Two loves." In the court scene Antonio lists one. Perhaps then a second love is suggested by Hawkman(see post #57). That is, "love of money," as in Scripture(the Pauline text, TIMOTHY 6:10). He loves money but is ashamed to confess it.

[stanley2]

Professor Greenblatt, in his WILL IN THE WORLD book, is near to Hawkman regarding the strife Shakespeare himself faced: "In 1596, at the funeral of Hamnet[Shakespeare's son], the issue would almost certainly have surfaced. The boy's soul needed the help of those who loved and cared for him. John Shakespeare, who had virtually raised his grandson, may well have urged his prosperous son William to pay for masses for the dead child, just as likely wanted masses to to be said for his own soul...........If this delicate subject was broached, did William angrily shake his head or instead quietly pay for clandestine Masses for Hamnet's soul?" In Professor Bevington's book, SHAKESPEARE"S IDEA'S, MORE THINGS IN HEAVEN AND EARTH, we find: "But how, if at all, did Shakespeare respond to the horror of Hamnet's death when it occurred?............Yet despite the seemingly huge importance of the father-son relationship to Shakespeare, nothing emerges in the plays of 1596 and immediately afterwards. THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, AS YOU LIKE IT, 1 HENRY IV, HENRY V, JULIUS CAESAR: none of these is concerned with the death of a son." As we have seen, MV is closely linked to ROMEO AND JULIET and AS YOU LIKE IT.

[Danik 2016]

I didn't know or remember that Shakespeare lost his son so early. Do you know the cause of his death?

[stanley2]

Unknown. Greenblatt wrote that "One out of three died by the age of ten, and overall mortality rates were by our standards exceedingly high." Bate wrote that "Plague was the single most powerful force shaping his life and those of his contemporaries."

[Danik 2016]

It makes sense. And probably many illnesses and treatments where still unknown. Oi

[stanley2]

It is important to note, I think, that scholars, especially editors, explain obscurities in their glossaries that readers might overlook and leave to the reader other things that are still important. One example is Antonio's "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"(MV4.1.72-3). This is plainly a deliberate echo of Romeo's speech to his man in the last scene of R&J. In the second scene of AS YOU LIKE IT, Celia, speaking to Touchstone, speaks the phrase "in the great heap of your knowledge." Scholars can't cover everything.

[stanley2]

In post #89, Hawkman wrote, "The point I'm making is that the Christians are as morally flawed as Shylock, as was pointed out much earlier." Professor Marjorie Garber, in her book, noted a famous drawing that seems to be at once a rabbit and a duck. Therefore the text indicates that Antonio may be homosexual and also that he may have desired Shylock's wife.

[stanley2]

Among the interesting notes from Charles D. and Hawkman we have "he starts in a state of sadness and we have no idea why"(#51). Professors Wilson and Parrott pointed to the Sonnets and R&J which in turn might recall(in our own time) the song from Jimmy Buffet: "Some people claim that there's a woman to blame, but I Know-it's my my own damn fault." Hawkman's "Shylock's relationship and interaction with Antonio constitutes the drama of the piece,"(#50) is also notable. It is Bassanio who is interacting with Shylock in Act 1, scene three before the arrival of Antonio. It is Bassanio who first responds to Shylock when Shylock presents his case before the Duke. Professor Parrott noted that there are four fully developed characters in the play, Antonio, Bassanio, Portia and Shylock.

[hellsapoppin]

Is MOV anti-Semitic?


The quality of mercy is not strained;
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes ...



Remarkably beautiful and noble words. However, it is all ironic in that while Christians preach a good, moral lesson, they practice the precise opposite by being brutally merciless upon the man called "the Jew". Thereafter, Shylock is left to wallow in misery while Christians end up profiting by deceiving and crucifying the man. He is made to look evil. They are made to look angelic despite their thieving, dishonesty, and judicial corruption. Highly ironic.

[stanley2]

Isaac Asimov's and Harold Goddard's comments on MV in their books, ASIMOV'S GUIDE TO SHAKESPEARE and THE MEANING OF SHAKESPEARE, are worthwhile. Professor Drakakis noted that when Portia says "I am informed throughly of the cause. / Which is the merchant here, and which the Jew?"(MV4.1.174), we also find the word "cause" in the last scene of OTHELLO: "It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul"(OTHELLO5.2.1). The moor of Venice then proceeds to murder Desdemona, whom he thinks has had a love affair.

[Danik 2016]

I agree with hellsapoppin, allbeit the Jew has his saying too. I particularly dislike the characterization of Jessica, his daughter, who is depicted as good, because she robs her father and goes over to the Christians.

[stanley2]

I think that Jessica is then another puzzle in this play. In the scene right before the court scene we find: "Nay, you need not fear us, Lorenzo. Lancelot and I are out. He tells me flatly there's no mercy for me in heaven, because I am a Jew's daughter: and he says you are no good member of the commonwealth, for, in converting Jews to Christians, you raise the price of pork"(MV3.5.26-30).

[Danik 2016]

Very ironic. But what did Lorenzo say before she gave that answer?

[stanley2]

"I shall grow jealous of you shortly, Lancelot, if you thus get my wife into corners!" I remember my knee-jerk reaction to Graham Midgley's 1960 essay: "Boy is this guy out in left field. If Antonio desired sex with anyone it was with Shylock's wife." I'm not smart enough to come up with anything. My reaction came about by reading Shakespeare. For his 1986 essay, Bloom wrote: "Bardolatry is not always an innocent disease, and produces odd judgments, as when J. Middleton Murry insisted: 'THE MERCHANT OF VENICE is not a problem play; it is a fairy story.' For us, contemporary Jews and Gentiles alike, it had better be a problem play, and not a fairy story. Shylock, Murry admitted, was not 'coherent,' because a Shakespearean character had no need to be coherent. Yet Shylock is is anything but incoherent. His palpable mimetic force enhances his rapacity and viciousness, and works to make an ancient bogeyman come dreadfully alive." We have seen that Shylock is linked throughout to Shakespearean characters before and after MV. The play is both a problem play and in part a fairy story.

[stanley2]

In Bevington's introduction, along with his notes regarding "paradox' and "ironies" we have "......spiritual as well as financial. Unless one recognizes these aspects of Bassanio's quest, as well as the clear fairy-tale quality with which Shakespeare deliberately invests this part of the plot, one cannot properly assess Bassanio's role in this romantic comedy." Of Shylock he wrote: "He bears an 'ancient grudge' against Antonio simply because Antonio is 'a Christian.'" The first lines of R&J read: "Two households both alike in dignity, / In fair Verona where we lay our scene / From ancient grudge, break to new mutiny." The fact that the first word is "Two" and that the phrase "ancient grudge" is found in these two instances only in all of Shakespeare is another indication that the author presents two comic villains in MV. Shylock's "How like a fawning publican "(1.3) speech is spoken to the audience. The Clown Lancelet's first speech is also spoken to the audience: "Certainly, my conscience will serve me to run from".....(2.2). Antonio begins the play speaking to Solanio and Salerio, two Salads. The play is full of duos.

[stanley2]

Let's return to Hazlitt's comments from 1817: "he becomes a half-favorite with the philosophical part of the audience who are disposed to think that Jewish revenge is at least as good as Christian injuries. Shylock is a 'good hater;' a man no less sinned against than sinning." The phrase "half-favorite" might inspire one to search for the other half and come up with Antonio. One may then reasonably argue that the play rejects Judaism or Christianity. Or one might then add to Lokasona's early "quandry" comment here. If one then considers Bassanio's part in the court scene and the link to the death of Marlowe, one might argue that the author is suggesting that religion might be helpful to anyone who who finds himself in such a situation. That is, all the characters survive the court scene in part because they are religious.

[stanley2]

Bevington's comments(#454) came about two years after Bloom's(#453). He was clearly responding to the man from Yale. We have seen that a single speech in the play can be cited to support opposing opinions. For example, Shylock's "I hate him for he is a Christian, But more......"(MV1.3)) echoes Romeo's "Here's much to do with hate, but more with love"(ROM1.1.170).

[Danik 2016]

I think the religious hate in the play is strong with Antonio as well as with Shylock. The strange thing is, the administration of Venice being Christian, that such a court case is at all possible. But there is also the comercial aspect of it. Shylock hates Antonio, as he himself states, because he lends money so cheaply bringing the interest down.

[stanley2]

I finally found the quote from the "Your favorite quote from Shakespeare" thread. She wrote only that it's from HAMLET: "Are you like the painting of a sorrow; a face without a heart?"(HAM4.7.123-4). It's near a line from Laertes: "But my revenge will come"(HAM.4.7.31). Earlier in HAMLET, the Ghost says to the Prince: "So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear"(HAM1.5.12). Certainly, the author has some sympathy for the characters in his longest play. Therefore, my first impression of THE MERCHANT OF VENICE was that the author's sympathy was more for Shylock than Antonio. And one might return to John Gross' comment: "I personally think it is absurd to suppose that there is a direct line of descent from Antonio to Hitler, or from Portia to the SS, but that is because I do not believe that the Holocaust was in any way inevitable." Gross and others are rightly concerned about the relationship of folklore in Europe to Shakespeare's play. Still, if one has read some of the Sonnets, it is plain that Antonio may have desired Shylock's wife or even had a love affair.

[stanley2]

In Bevington's introduction we also find: "Portia and Nerissa cleverly present their new husbands with a cruel choice:................The two husbands, who have vowed never to part with these wedding rings, must therefore choose between love and friendship. The superior claim of friendship is clear, no matter what the cost, and Portia knows well enough that Bassanio's obedience to this Neoplatonic ideal is an essential part of his virtue..........As Gratiano bawdily points out in the play's last line, the ring is both a spiritual and a sexual symbol of marriage. The resolution of this illusory quarrel also brings to an end the merry battle of the sexes between wives and husbands." I think that we have seen that this play was written to promote discussion.

[Danik 2016]

And if you think of Antonio as concurring with Portia for Bassanio's love, this episode of the ring serves to establish Portia´s rights as wife definitively.

[stanley2]

As Professor Greenblatt noted, the death of Dr. Lopez , the Queen's physician, may have been noted by Shakespeare. There is a report that at the execution of Lopez, some in the audience giggled at his last words. Therefore we find in MV the author's interest in what makes people laugh. One example is the contrasting responses from Antonio and Bassanio to Shylock's "merry sport"(MV1.3) proposal. John Gross noted that during the Nazi era the government provided goons and faux scholars during performances. Certainly this discouraged discussion. William Shirer reported that the Nazis jailed hundreds of Christian clergy and though the majority of Germans supported the government at the time one might suggest that doing so also discouraged discussion with tragic results.

[stanley2]

It can be interesting to compare the anthology SHAW ON SHAKESPEARE with Ron Rosenbaum's THE SHAKESPEARE WARS. Edwin Wilson's introduction to the former begins: "For many people Bernard Shaw's writing on Shakespeare began as a joke. When he became drama critic of THE SATURDAY REVIEW in the 1890s Shaw attacked Shakespeare with an impudence that had not been seen before, nor is likely to be seen again." To say "attacked" is hyperbole as the following example shows, I think: "With the single exception of Homer, there is no eminent writer, not even sir Walter Scott, whom I can despise so entirely as I despise Shakespear when I measure my mind against his." In Rosenbaum's book there are many interesting interviews with actors, directors and scholars.

[stanley2]

Back in post #280 we noted that Oliver in AS YOU LIKE IT echoes the first line of MV, spoken by Antonio. Editors note that Oliver's speech is spoken to the audience: "Farewell, good Charles. - Now will I stir this gamester. I hope I shall see an end of him; for my soul - yet I know not why - hates nothing more than he"(AYL1.1.153-62). Did we note that Shylock's "How like a fawning publican" speech(MV1.3.37-48) is also spoken to the audience? Shylock's "If I can catch him once upon the hip"(line 42) is echoed by Gratiano later: "Now, infidel, I have you on the hip"(MV4.1.330). "Good Charles" is a professional wrestler. I believe that I did note this previously, yet it is important. There are two comic villains in each play.

[Danik 2016]

I don't see Shylock as a comic character.

[stanley2]

Thanks Danik. There are two villains in each play. The Duke says to Shylock: "How shalt thou hope for mercy rendering none?"(MV4.1.89). Therefore, the Duke believes that Antonio has done something wrong. Antonio's line, "Let me have judgement and the Jew his will"(MV4.1.84) is problematic. I don't see any way to solve the problem other than to regard Antonio and Shylock as equally culpable.

[stanley2]

Let's return to historian Michael Woods IN SEARCH OF SHAKESPEARE where he suggests that there are too many unanswered questions left at the end of the play. I think that we have seen that there are various answers suggested by the links to other plays and poems. The author is also suggesting that we discuss with others such things as Juliet's question "What's Montague?"(ROM2.2.39) and Shylock's "I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes?"(MV3.1.49-50).

[stanley2]

I should say that one might well argue that Ron Rosenbaum is a fan of team Portia as well as of team Shylock. Portia's "Tarry a little, there is something else"(MV4.1.313) seems to bring us all back to search the play. He noted that Shylock's "Signior Antonio" speech(MV1.3.105-127) is too full of the letter "s." One then may note that the scrolls that Portia's father included in the gold and silver caskets are also adorned with the same letter: "Some there be that shadows kiss / Such have but a shadow's bliss"(2.9.66-7). Therefore, Shylock is linked to yet another character. In Act 3, scene 5 of R&J we find Juliet exclaiming: "Ancient damnation! O most wicked fiend!" She is sharing with the reader her opinion of the Nurse. It also is another place where the author makes use of the term "ancient." Is Shakespeare here simply implying that the Nurse is a senior citizen? Or is there more to it?

[Danik 2016]

I don´t remember any more if this nurse had an active role in the play.

[stanley2]

As Professor Julia Kristeva noted, R&J, as it has come down to us, was most likely written in late 1596 shortly after the loss of the author's son. It is therefore a kind of elegy. This may be why we find little mention of links to MV. In Norrie Epstein's fine book, THE FRIENDLY SHAKESPEARE, she included an interview with an actor where she asks him if Antonio is gay or homosexual. His answer is that we're not to know. Antonio is a puzzle at the center of the play. The same may be argued regarding Shylock. Shylock, it seems, desires to kill Antonio. Yet the Duke's line, "How shalt thou hope for mercy, rend'ring none?"(MV4.1.89), plainly indicates that Shylock's life is the one in danger.

[stanley2]

Back in post #83, Hawkman asks: "Why does Shylock want to kill Antonio?" He notes a long list. Drkshadow03 responds(#84) that the play is in part about the BIBLE. There we read in DEUTERONOMY as translated by Shakespeare's contemporaries that one may not "desire thy neighbor's wife." Portia's father wrote "Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire"(MV2.7.5). One may then suggest that Antonio desired Shylock's wife.

[stanley2]

When Bassanio asks Shylock, "Why dost thou whet thy knife so earnestly?"(MV4.1.123), one might note that the line that precedes Bassanio's is Nerissa's: "From both. My lord Bellario greets your grace." It is Nerissa who speaks the line "Do you not remember, lady, in your father's time, a Venetian, a scholar and a soldier, that came hither in company of the Marquis of Montferrat?"(MV1.2.98). As Marlowe was a scholar and a government secret agent, we have another indication that the author had his fellow dramatist in mind. The second to last line of the play, "Well, while I live I'll fear no other thing" might recall Shylock's first line in the play: "Three thousand ducats, well"(MV1.3.1). In the lines that follow the word "well" is repeated twice. In R&J, we find: "How doth my lady? Is my father well? / How fares my Juliet? That I ask again, / For nothing can be ill if she be well. Balthasar replies: "Then she is well, and nothing can be ill"(R&J5.1.17). Eighteen lines later, Romeo says: "Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight." I returned to these lines again after reviewing Ron Rosenbaum's notes on the play. Therefore, we have yet more links to Marlowe and R&J.

[stanley2]

In Professor Kenneth Gross' fine book, SHYLOCK IS SHAKESPEARE, he comments on Shylock's last lines: "Shylock abruptly leaves the court; the Christian world wants to know no more about him, but it is not likely he will go out of our minds...........The last act, with its moving evocation of cosmic music, and its touching game of rings, offers us a sense of time restored, of fortune made right, of a happiness, a 'life and living, 'that extend toward an unknown future." The "game of rings," as Professor Bate suggested, recalls the ring that Shylock's wife gave him(MV3.1.104). One may then argue that Shylock believed that Antonio had an adulterous relationship with Leah. One then might quote John Gross again: "I personally think it is absurd to suppose that there is a direct line of descent from Antonio to Hitler, or from Portia to the SS, but that is because I do not believe that the Holocaust was in any way inevitable." This last quote, I think, supports what we have seen here. That is, the author wrote the play to foster discussion.

[Danik 2016]

This Professor Bate seems obsessed by Shylock's wife who never was a character in the play.

Happy New Year, stanley!

[stanley2]

Happy New Year, Danik. And thanks so much for helping me stay on track. Professor Parrott suggested that Shakespeare himself had a kind of "sex obsession." This may in part be due to the fact that the top government office was held by Elizabeth I from 1548-1603. At any rate, Bate is not altogether fool: "Whether or not it is appropriate to invoke the idea of sexual transgression, Shakespeare often returned to a triangular structure of relationships in which close male friendship is placed at odds with desire for a woman. The pattern recurs not only in several of the plays but also as the implied narrative of the Sonnets."

[Danik 2016]

You are welcome! Possibly this triangular pattern exited already in the old Greek plays.

[stanley2]

I botched the numbers in #474. Elizabeth was queen in 1558, not 48.

[stanley2]

Professor Dusinberre, in her introduction to AS YOU LIKE IT, wrote that "THE MERCHANT OF VENICE(1596-7) and MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING(1598-9) feature in Portia and Beatrice powerful women who, like Rosalind, suggest parallels with Elizabeth I, before whose court-as well as at the public theatre, most of the comedies would have been performed." Of the character Cleopatra Professor Bate wrote: "She is the consummate actress, able to change her mood on a whim, to keep all around her guessing as to whether she is in earnest or at play..........She is also the only woman in Shakespeare's tragedies to have a wit comparable to that of such comic heroines as Rosalind in AS YOU LIKE IT and Portia in THE MERCHANT OF VENICE............Cleopatra is a grown-up Juliet." To answer this thread's question one must compare one play to another.

[stanley2]

A little book titled THE PASSIONATE PILGRIM was published in 1599. There, we are told, is a version of Sonnet 144. Professor Bate compares the poem to those of others: "Shakespeare introduces something more dramatic: a love triangle, a version of the morality-play scenario in which an 'everyman' character- or a restless spirit such as Marlowe's Dr. Faustus- has a good and bad angel hovering over him. The Petrarchan lady is traditionally an angel or goddess, whereas Shakespeare's female spirit is 'a woman coloured ill,' a 'female evil' who tempts the 'better angel,' 'a man right fair' into infidelity...........Shakespeare had explored the theme in his early comedy THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA and would return to it in his late plays THE WINTER'S TALE and THE TWO NOBLE KINSMEN." In Professor Bevington's introduction to AS YOU LIKE IT we find: "[the play] contains several motifs found in other Shakespearean comedies: ..........the heroine disguised as a man(as in THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, THE TWO GENTLEMAN OF VERONA, CYMBELINE, and TWELFTH NIGHT).........." I have yet to read THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA. Marchette Chute sums up the conclusion, however: "Proteus is instantly repentant of his bad behavior, and Valentine, his affection for his friend running away with him, makes a magnificent offer. 'All that was mine in Silvia I give thee.' At this Julia faints, and when she recovers she admits her identity. Proteus promptly reverses himself and decides he loves Julia after all, Valentine is at last fee to marry Silvia, and the duke of Milan suddenly appears and forgives everyone, even the outlaws." The clown in MV also has two characters hovering over him(MV2.2).

[stanley2]

Harold Bloom asked us why Shakespeare has Antonio demand that Shylock convert. One answer is in the first speech in the play: "And such a want-wit sadness makes of me"(MV1.1.6). Antonio would like Shylock to help him understand the Old Testament. Another is suggested by editors. Bevington glossed Jessica's "I shall be saved by my husband. He hath made me a Christian"(MV3.5.17-18): "1 Corinthians 7:14 'The unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband.'" Therefore, Antonio believes that the soul of Shylock's wife will be sanctified by Shylock's conversion.

[Danik 2016]

Dear Stanley. Are you sure Antonio thinks about Shylock´s deceased wife?

[stanley2]

Hi Danik! Sometimes I think that Leah ran away with a wandering Portuguese knight. Jessica is following her example. Marchette Chute quoted a few lines from a character in LOVES LABOR'S LOST: "Adieu, valor, rust rapier, be still, drum; for your manager is in love. Yea, he loveth. Assist me, some extemporal god of rhyme, for I am sure I shall turn sonnet." Does Peter Quince, in MND, echo the above ?: "You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring." I think the author recalls the above in MV: "Some god direct my judgement. Let me see / I will survey th' inscriptions, back again"(MV2.7.13-14), two lines from the Prince of Morocco.

[hellsapoppin]

It´s now years ago that Lokasenna left. I used to like his posts.

The problem I see with Antonio is his antisemitism (which probably was generally shared by the Christian community. The Jews had to live in a ghetto).I´d rather consider that Shylock was also, to a good extent, a victim of prejudice. Would the ill feeling between him and Antonio have existed, without racism? Maybe, because there was also an economic reason. By lending money without demanding interest, Antonio put the Jews in a bad situation, as they made their living out of the interest. And if I rightly remember, at that time Jews were allowed to work only as usurers.


Viniculture and wine selling were also two principles industries among Jews of that era:


https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jews-and-the-wine-and-liquor-trade



There were also several wealthy Jews involved in the maritime industry as merchants, ship owners & captains, and even a few pirates.

[stanley2]

Let's return to the question of Shakespeare's religion. He may have been responding to Marlowe's satirical comment "I count religion but a childish toy and hold there is no sin but ignorance," from THE JEW OF MALTA. Perhaps Voltaire's comment, if God did not exist it would be necessary to invent one(I don't have it in front of me), is helpful here. In HAMLET, thought to have followed a few years later, we find: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, then are dreamt of in our philosophy"(HAM2.1.169 or so).

[Danik 2016]

Viniculture and wine selling were also two principles industries among Jews of that era:


https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jews-and-the-wine-and-liquor-trade



There were also several wealthy Jews involved in the maritime industry as merchants, ship owners & captains, and even a few pirates.

Welcome on this tread Poppins. This article about Jewish viticulture and vine trade is very interesting. I wonder how much it might apply to Shakespeare Venice in MV. Clear to me is only that Shylock worked exclusively as an usurer. There is no mention of him having any other occupation in the play.

@stanley-I wonder if that Portuguese knight would wander all the way from Portugal to UK only to meet Leah.

[stanley2]

In #481, I meant to recall a line from MND: "What's Thisbe, a wandering knight?"(MND1.2.135). The character named Flute has been assigned the part of Thisbe by the director Peter Quince.

[stanley2]

I've tried to find where the author tells us where Leah may be. I think that he does not tell us specifically, only that it is likely that she has passed on to eternity.

[hellsapoppin]

Welcome on this tread Poppins. This article about Jewish viticulture and vine trade is very interesting. I wonder how much it might apply to Shakespeare Venice in MV. Clear to me is only that Shylock worked exclusively as an usurer. There is no mention of him having any other occupation in the play.

@stanley-I wonder if that Portuguese knight would wander all the way from Portugal to UK only to meet Leah.




Actually I was here before: http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?68499-Is-The-Merchant-of-Venice-anti-Semitic&p=1399857&viewfull=1#post1399857


I believe the only cargo mentioned in Act I, 1 was spices. No viticulture or other industry is mentioned. Also when Shylock loses his case at the end he is clearly broke which suggests he had no other business or resources to fall back on. I also remain convinced MOV was anti Semitic based on extensive research I did on the subject when I wrote my jurisprudence seminar paper in law school all those decades ago. One objectionable phrase widely used during that era involved a chorus or a town crier type saying to the crowd "I hope there is not a Jew among you". Sorry I don't have access to that seminar paper or I would give you a resource to check it out. Anyways, Shakespeare's milieu was one of rampant anti Semitism and he likely capitalized on it in this play.

[Danik 2016]

Sorry for taking so much time to answer, Poppins, this post needed some consideration and, as you must have noticed, the tread has long strayed from antisemitism to other matters.

I din´nt remember it, but I was here too and I supported your answer

"I agree with hellsapoppin, allbeit the Jew has his saying too. I particularly dislike the characterization of Jessica, his daughter, who is depicted as good, because she robs her father and goes over to the Christians." #450

My position remains the same. Shylock is a grotesque villain and his daughter Jessica is depicted as a positive character an redeemed because she evades her father ( after stealing money and precious stones) and becomes Christian.

Considering the antisemitic milieu of Shakespeare, nothing of these surprises. What may be new is that for a moment Shakespeare considers the matter from the Jews point of view

"To bait fish withal; if it will feed nothing else,
it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me and
hindered me half a million, laughed at my losses,
mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted
my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies—
and what’s his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not
a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions,
senses, affections, passions? Fed with the
same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to
the same diseases, healed by the same means,
warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer
as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not
bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you
poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall
we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will
resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian,
what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong
a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian
example? Why, revenge! The villainy you teach me I
will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the
instruction."
https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/the-merchant-of-venice/read/

[hellsapoppin]

^Good quote above. But what a remarkable contrast between the famous quality of mercy speech and the ill treatment accorded to poor Shylock. He sure could have used of that "mercy".

[stanley2]

Speaking of "irony"(post #488), in his book THE SHAKESPEARE WARS, Ron Rosenbaum regards John Gross' book as follows, "perhaps the definitive treatment of the question." And here in this thread, Danik noted that the "original context" of the play is important. We then might pick up Professor James Shapiro's fine book A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 1599. This was the year that the little book THE PASSIONATE PILGRIM was published. Sonnet 144 is found there. As we have seen, the poem links the author with Antonio. This also was the year when AS YOU LIKE IT was first performed. Shapiro noted that A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, MV and other works were published the next year, 1600.

[stanley2]

I meant to type in #448, not #488 above. I included the astonishing lines from John Gross in, I think, post #472. The context in which it is found might bring to mind Sonnet 145. In turn, Sonnet 145, I think, is interesting if one compares it to MV. Professor Kenneth Gross wrote: "Shakespeare's sonnets seem to belong to the mid 1590s(though the dating is a murky matter), roughly contemporary with THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, written around 1596. This may account for the play's peculiar crossing of concerns with the sonnets, its way of echoing their paradoxical, self-enfolding, and self-canceling pictures of desire, their jamming up together of the language of possession and dispossession, praise and slander. The sonnets are texts in which, as W.H. Auden says, the poet explores the shapes and limits of his own poetic powers. I have sometimes imagined what it would be like to hear the sad, self-wounding merchant Antonio recite sonnet 87 to Bassanio, for whom he hazarded so much, as the young man turns away to another, richer love, or to hear Shylock repeat these lines to Antonio after Shylock's own bond with hated merchant is voided in court, and the cost of that bond becomes so nakedly clear. 'Farewell, thou art too dear for my possessing.' Could Shylock speak this line to his absent daughter Jessica, converted to Christianity and enriched with his gold, spending it so carelessly?"

[stanley2]

If I may return to "The quality of mercy" speech(MV4.1.181-202). Shylock replies: "My deeds upon my head! I crave the law." This echoes a speech from Egeus, Hermia's father in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM: "Enough, enough, my lord. You have enough; / I beg the law , the law, upon his head"(MND4.1.154-5). And Professor Gross' notes above might recall more from Act 3, scene one: "The thief gone with so much, and so much to find the thief, and no satisfaction, no revenge, nor no ill luck stirring but what light's o'my shoulders. no sighs but o'my breathing, no tears but o'my shedding"(MV3.1.80-84). This might recall lines from R&J: "There on the ground, with his own tears made drunk"(R&J3.3.86) and "Hold thy desperate hand. / Art thou a man? Thy form cries out thou art. / Thy tears are womanish, thy wild acts denote / The unreasonable fury of a beast"(3.3.112-114).

[stanley2]

In Wikipedia we find that Sir Philip Sidney was "an English poet, courtier, scholar and soldier who is remembered as one of the most prominent figures of the Elizabethan age." In the second scene of MV we are told that Bassanio is a "scholar and a soldier"(1.2.102). Sidney had died from an infection caused by a battlefield wound some years before the play was written. Therefore, when Salerio recounts the emotional departure of Bassanio for Belmont,"I think he only loves the world for him"(MV2.8.50), there is nothing odd about the matter. In the court scene, Antonio says "bid her be judge / Whether Bassanio had not once a love"(MV4.1.273-4). Given the fact that Sonnet 144 was published in 1599 and MV first published one year later, it is reasonable to suppose that Antonio loved both Leah and Bassanio.

[stanley2]

When Bassanio chooses the correct casket(MV3.2.107), Portia says: "How all other passions fleet to air, / As doubtful thoughts, and rash-embraced despair, / And shuddering fear, and green-eyed jealousy!" In the court scene we find: "You'll ask me why I rather choose to have / A weight of carrion flesh that to receive / Three thousand ducats. I'll not answer that, / But say it is my humor"(MV4.1.40-3). If Antonio does not know why he is melancholy, it follows that Shylock may not fully know why he seeks to murder Antonio. He may be a jealous lover like 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"(R&J5.3.33--6).

[stanley2]

And once again, in AS YOU LIKE IT we have:: "Farewell, good Charles. Now will I stir this gamester. I hope I shall see an end of him; for my soul, yet I know not why, hates nothing more than he"(AYL1.1.155-8). As this echoes both the first line in MV and Shylock's aside(1.3), one might suggest that if Antonio is gay then so is Shylock.

[stanley2]

When Portia says "Tarry a little; there is something else"(MV4.1.304), Shylock may be standing face to face with Bassanio. That Shylock has a knife in his hand evoked the death of Marlowe. That Bassanio is a scholar and a soldier evoked the life and death of Sir Philip Sidney. The fact that no character in this play is killed makes the question of this thread quite difficult.

[stanley2]

And in the last scene of R&J we have: "and if aught in this / Miscarried by my fault, let my old life / Be sacrificed some hour before his time / Unto the rigor of severest law"(R&J5.3.266-9). Shylock's "I stand here for law"(MV4.1.142) plainly echoes the Friar. As we have seen, Shylock's first line in the play, "Three thousand ducats, well"(MV1.3.1), plainly recalls Romeo's "Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight"(R&J5.1.34). "Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things"(R&J5.3.307), says the Prince. During the Nazi era in Germany, the lunatic government used Shakespeare as a terrorist tool. We read that goons were present in the audience to threaten anyone interested in obeying Shakespeare's Prince.

[stanley2]

And as Professor Parrott wrote some eighty years ago for students, criticism is often written in response to other critics. Professor Bevington's remarks(see post #391), then, may be in reply to Isaac Asimov, Professor Bloom or his own Christian students whose first impression of the play may be that Shakespeare is rejecting Christianity. For example, Hawkman's remark here that Antonio would rather die than be poor is a thought that might be tempered by further study. And I'm responding in part to John Gross' fine book about the play. Professor Kenneth Gross was responding in part to John Gross and Philip Roth.

[stanley2]

Professor Barnet begins his notes about the stage history of the play by quoting a comment on Charles Macklin's nineteenth century performance: "This is the Jew that Shakespeare drew." He goes on to add "exactly what does one mean when one says that a certain portrayal renders the figure 'that Shakespeare drew?'.........One school of scholarship protests that we will get the most out of the play if we try to see it in its Elizabethan context, but to argue that 'the Elizabethans' thought thus-and-so about Jews is scarcely convincing, for although Shakespeare certainly was an Elizabethan, he certainly was not a typical Elizabethan..........Moreover, the Shakespeare that interests us is the playwright." Barnet also quotes Shylock's "eyes speech"(as Hawkman calls it here) exactly where Marchette Chute did, "I am a Jew," but he leaves it to us to note that the Elizabethan context is such that the phrase rhymes with Juliet's "What's Montague?" from Shakespeare's ROMEO AND JULIET. Answering the question of this thread is a team effort.

[stanley2]

Dang! Charles Macklin performed the part of Shylock for nearly half of the eighteenth century, not nineteenth. Portia's "How all the other passions fleet to air"(MV3.2.110) speech can be overlooked as it is found between two lengthy speeches from Bassanio. It does contain, however, a list of passions where we find "green-eyed jealousy." One may then argue that "green-eyed jealousy" is an important motive among others that drive Shylock's "losing suit"(MV4.1.63).