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