The Merchant of Venice

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The Merchant of Venice

• Paradox, Contradiction, History

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FRIAR BARNARDINE Thou hast committed
BARABAS Fornication? But that was in another
country and besides, the wench is dead. (Jew of
Malta 4.1.41-43)_________________________________
_____________________________SHYLOCK Out upon
her! Thou torturest me, Tubal. It was my
turquoise. I had it of Leah when I was a
bachelor. I would not have given it for a
wilderness of monkeys. (The Merchant of Venice
3.1.110-113)

• Two Memories

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Would you be pleased To find a nation of
such barbarous temper That breaking out in
hideous violence Would not afford you an abode
on earth, Whet their detested knives against
your throats, Spurn you like dogs, and like as
if that God Owed not nor made not you, nor that
the elements Were not all appropriate to your
comforts But chartered unto them what would you
think To be used thus? This is the strangers
case, And this your mountainish inhumanity.
(Sir Thomas More, Hand D addition, 145-55)
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Why we have galls and though we have some
grace, Yet we have some revenge. Let husbands
know Their wives have sense like them. They see,
and smell, And have their palates both for sweet
and sour, As husbands have. (Emilia,
Othello, 4.3.92-5)
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The Magic If

• Lets start with the word if.
• Its significance lies, above all, in the fact
  that it initiates every creative act For
  actors, if is the lever which lifts us out of
  the world of reality into the only world where we
  can be creative.
• Konstantin Stanislavski, An Actor Prepares

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EdmundKean asShylock(1814)
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William Hazlitt on Edmund Keans Shylock
(1814)The constant apprehension of being burnt
alive, plundered, banished, reviled, and trampled
on, might be supposed to sour the most forbearing
nature The desire of revenge is almost
inseparable from the sense of wrong, and we can
hardly help sympathizing with the proud spirit,
hid beneath his Jewish gabardine, stung to
madness by repeated undeserved provocations
He is honest in his vices they are hypocrites in
their virtues. 
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 ATTIRE  Elegant attire has long been a
tradition at Belmont Park. Ladies and Gentlemen
who honor this tradition are always
appreciated.Box Seats Gentlemen Suits or
sports jackets (tie optional).Ladies Dresses,
skirts or slack outfits. Absolutely no shorts or
jeans.Garden Terrace RestaurantElegant attire
is recommended Gentlemen should wear suits or
sports jackets. Ladies should wear dresses,
skirts or pant suits. No jeans, shorts or
abbreviated wear is permitted.Business casual is
acceptable attire Gentlemen are required to wear
collared shirts. Suits or sports jackets are
optional. No jeans, shorts or abbreviated wear
permitted. Management reserves the right to use
its discretion to determine acceptable attire.
ClubhouseProper attire at discretion of
management. No abbreviated attire. Gentlemen may
not wear tank tops.
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The pale pink face, surrounded by bright red
hair and beard, with its unsteady, cunning little
eyes the greasy caftan with the yellow prayer
shawl slung round the splay-footed, shuffling
walk the foot stamping with rage the claw-like
gestures with the hands the voice, now bawling,
now muttering all add up to a pathological
image of the East European Jewish type,
expressing all its inner and outer uncleanliness,
emphasising danger through humour. 

• Vienna 1943

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The Jew in Shakespeares play is meant to embody
what he wishes us to despise. The portrayal of
Shylock offends by being a lie about the Jewish
character. Im unforgiving, unforgiving of the
plays astigmatic and murderous hatred of the
Jew. It is a hateful, ignorant portrayal. The
authority of a great dramatist reinforces those
people who are inclined toward anti-Semitism Im
especially afraid of a television production
young people will see it, and they dont have the
antibodies to resist the infection that
Shakespeare so skilfully offers. London
1977 (Arnold Wesker)
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A number of the most apt jokes have grown up on
the soil of Jewish popular life. They are stories
created by Jews and directed against Jewish
characteristics. The jokes made about Jews by
foreigners are for the most part brutal comic
stories in which a joke is made unnecessary by
the fact that Jews are regarded by foreigners as
comic figures. Incidentally, I do not know
whether there are many other instances of a
people making fun to such a degree of its own
character  

• Sigmund Freud, Jokes and their Relation to the
  Unconscious, Penguin, 1960 157.

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Textual Healing Trevor Nunns 1999 National
Theatre production
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