Is The Merchant of Venice anti-Semitic?

"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.

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

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.

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.

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

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!

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!

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.

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).

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.

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.

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).

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

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."

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)].

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."

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 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."

---

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.

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).

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."

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".

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.

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

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."

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

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.

Thanks, Stanley!

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).

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."

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."

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

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.

Thanks for the indication.

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.

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)."

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).

Do you mean Harold Bloom, Stanley?

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.

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

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).

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.