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= The_Merchant_of_Venice =
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Introduction
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'The Merchant of Venice' is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to
have been written between 1596 and 1598. A merchant in Venice named
Antonio defaults on a large loan taken out on behalf of his dear
friend, Bassanio, and provided by a Jewish moneylender, Shylock, with
seemingly inevitable fatal consequences.
Although classified as a comedy in the First Folio and sharing certain
aspects with Shakespeare's other romantic comedies, the play is most
remembered for its dramatic scenes, and it is best known for the
character Shylock and his famous demand for a "pound of flesh".
The play contains two famous speeches, that of Shylock, "Hath not a
Jew eyes?" on the subject of humanity, and that of Portia on "the
quality of mercy". Debate exists on whether the play is antisemitic,
with Shylock's insistence on his legal right to the pound of flesh
being in opposition to his seemingly universal plea for the rights of
all people suffering discrimination.
Characters
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* Antonio - a prominent merchant of Venice in a melancholic mood and
friend of Bassanio
* Bassanio - Antonio's close friend; suitor to Portia; later the
husband of Portia
* Gratiano - friend of Antonio and Bassanio; in love with Nerissa;
later the husband of Nerissa
* Lorenzo - friend of Antonio and Bassanio; in love with Jessica;
later the husband of Jessica
* Portia - a rich heiress; later the wife of Bassanio
* Nerissa - Portia's waiting maid - in love with Gratiano; later the
wife of Gratiano; disguises herself as Portia's clerk
* Balthazar - Portia's servant
* Stephano - Portia's servant
* Shylock - a Jew; moneylender; father of Jessica
* Jessica - daughter of Shylock, later the wife of Lorenzo
* Tubal - a Jew; friend of Shylock
* Launcelot Gobbo - servant of Shylock; later a servant of Bassanio;
son of Old Gobbo
* Old Gobbo - blind father of Launcelot
* Leonardo - servant to Bassanio
* Duke of Venice - authority who presides over the case of Shylock's
bond
* Prince of Morocco - suitor to Portia
* Prince of Arragon - suitor to Portia
* Salarino and Salanio - friends of Antonio and Bassanio
* Salerio - a messenger from Venice; friend of Antonio, Bassanio and
others
* Magnificoes of Venice, officers of the Court of Justice, gaolers,
servants to Portia, and other attendants
* Doctor Bellario, cousin of Portia, a character by reference who does
not appear onstage
Plot summary
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Bassanio, a young Venetian of noble rank, wishes to woo the beautiful
and wealthy heiress of Belmont, Portia. Having squandered his estate,
he needs 3,000 ducats to subsidise his expenditures as a suitor.
Bassanio approaches his friend Antonio, a wealthy merchant of Venice,
who has previously and repeatedly bailed him out. Antonio agrees, but
has no liquid cash as his ships and merchandise are busy at sea to
Tripolis, the Indies, Mexico and England - he promises to cover a bond
if Bassanio can find a lender, so Bassanio turns to the Jewish
moneylender Shylock and names Antonio as the loan's guarantor.
Antonio has already antagonized Shylock through his outspoken
antisemitism and because Antonio's habit of lending money without
interest forces Shylock to charge lower rates. Shylock is at first
reluctant to grant the loan, citing abuse he has suffered at Antonio's
hand. He finally agrees to lend the sum to Bassanio without interest
upon one condition: if Antonio were unable to repay it at the
specified date, Shylock may take a pound of Antonio's flesh. Bassanio
does not want Antonio to accept such a risky condition; Antonio is
surprised by what he sees as the moneylender's generosity (no "usance"
- interest - is asked for), and he signs the contract. With money in
hand, Bassanio leaves for Belmont with his friend Gratiano, who has
asked to accompany him. Gratiano is a likeable young man, but he is
often flippant, overly talkative, and tactless. Bassanio warns his
companion to exercise self-control, and the two leave for Belmont.
Meanwhile, in Belmont, Portia is awash with suitors. Her father left a
will stipulating that each of her suitors must choose correctly from
one of three caskets, made of gold, silver and lead respectively.
Whoever picks the right casket wins Portia's hand. The first suitor,
the Prince of Morocco, chooses the gold casket, interpreting its
slogan, "Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire", as
referring to Portia. The second suitor, the conceited Prince of
Aragon, chooses the silver casket, which proclaims, "Who chooseth me
shall get as much as he deserves", as he believes he is full of merit.
Both suitors leave empty-handed, having rejected the lead casket
because of the baseness of its material and the uninviting nature of
its slogan, "Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath". The
last suitor is Bassanio, whom Portia wishes to succeed, having met him
before. As Bassanio ponders his choice, members of Portia's household
sing a song that says that "fancy" (not true love) is "It is
engendered in the eye, / With gazing fed"; Bassanio chooses the lead
casket and wins Portia's hand.
In Venice, news arrives that Antonio's ships have been lost at sea,
leaving him unable to repay his bond to Shylock. Shylock, angered by
his daughter Jessica's elopement with the Christian Lorenzo and her
conversion, becomes more determined to exact revenge on the
Christians. Jessica had taken with her a considerable portion of
Shylock's wealth, including a turquoise ring given to him by his late
wife, Leah. Shylock subsequently has Antonio summoned before the
court.
At Belmont, Bassanio receives a letter telling him that Antonio has
been unable to repay the loan from Shylock. Portia and Bassanio marry,
as do Gratiano and Portia's handmaid Nerissa. Bassanio and Gratiano
leave for Venice, with money from Portia, to save Antonio's life by
offering the money to Shylock. Unknown to Bassanio and Gratiano,
Portia sent her servant, Balthazar, to seek the counsel of Portia's
cousin, Bellario, a lawyer, at Padua.
The climax of the play is set in the court of the Duke of Venice.
Shylock refuses Bassanio's offer of 6,000 ducats, twice the amount of
the loan. He demands his pound of flesh from Antonio. The Duke,
wishing to save Antonio but unable to nullify a contract, refers the
case to a visitor. He identifies himself as Balthazar, a young male
"doctor of the law", bearing a letter of recommendation to the Duke
from the learned lawyer Bellario. The doctor is Portia in disguise,
and the law clerk who accompanies her is Nerissa, also disguised as a
man. As Balthazar, Portia in a famous speech repeatedly asks Shylock
to show mercy, advising him that mercy "is twice blest: / It blesseth
him that gives and him that takes." However, Shylock adamantly refuses
any compensations and insists on the pound of flesh.
As the court grants Shylock his bond and Antonio prepares for
Shylock's knife, Portia deftly appropriates Shylock's argument for
"specific performance". She says that the contract allows Shylock to
remove only the 'flesh', not the blood, of Antonio . Thus, if Shylock
were to shed any drop of Antonio's blood, his "lands and goods" would
be forfeited under Venetian laws. She tells him that he must cut
precisely one pound of flesh, no more, no less; she advises him that
"if the scale do turn / But in the estimation of a hair, / Thou diest,
and all thy goods are confiscate."
Defeated, Shylock consents to accept Bassanio's offer of money for the
defaulted bond: first his offer to pay "the bond thrice", which Portia
rebuffs, telling him to take his bond, and then merely the principal;
but Portia also prevents him from doing this, on the ground that he
has already refused it "in the open court". She cites a law under
which Shylock, as a Jew and therefore an "alien", having attempted to
take the life of a citizen, has forfeited his property, half to the
government and half to Antonio, leaving his life at the mercy of the
Duke. The Duke spares Shylock's life and says he may remit the
forfeiture. Portia says the Duke may waive the state's share, but not
Antonio's. Antonio says he is content that the state waive its claim
to half Shylock's wealth if he can have his one-half share "in use"
until Shylock's death, when the principal would be given to Lorenzo
and Jessica. Antonio also asks that "for this favour" Shylock convert
to Christianity and bequeath his entire estate to Lorenzo and Jessica.
The Duke then threatens to recant his pardon of Shylock's life unless
he accepts these conditions. Shylock, re-threatened with death,
accepts with the words, "I am content."
Bassanio, unaware that the lawyer is his disguised wife, offers a gift
in gratitude for the supposed legal assistance. Initially declining,
Portia eventually requests his ring and Antonio's gloves. Antonio
gives his gloves without hesitation, while Bassanio parts with the
ring only after Antonio's persuasion, having earlier vowed to his wife
never to lose, sell, or give it away. Nerissa, disguised as the
lawyer's clerk, similarly obtains her own husband Gratiano's ring, as
he fails to recognize her.
At Belmont, Portia and Nerissa playfully taunt and feign accusations
against their husbands before revealing their true identities as the
lawyer and clerk. Following reconciliations among the characters,
Portia informs Antonio that three of his ships were not lost at sea
and have safely returned.
Earlier sources
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The forfeit of a merchant's deadly bond after standing surety for a
friend's loan was a common tale in England in the late 16th century.
In addition, the test of the suitors at Belmont, the merchant's rescue
from the "pound of flesh" penalty by his friend's new wife disguised
as a lawyer, and her demand for the betrothal ring in payment are all
elements present in the 14th-century tale 'Il Pecorone' by Giovanni
Fiorentino, which was published in Milan in 1558. Elements of the
trial scene are also found in 'The Orator' by Alexandre Sylvane,
published in translation in 1596. The story of the three caskets can
be found in 'Gesta Romanorum', a collection of tales probably compiled
at the end of the 13th century.
Date and text
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The date of composition of 'The Merchant of Venice' is believed to be
between 1596 and 1598. The play was mentioned by Francis Meres in
1598, so it must have been familiar on the stage by that date. The
title page of the first edition in 1600 states that it had been
performed "divers times" by that date. Salerino's reference to his
ship the 'Andrew' (I, i, 27) is thought to be an allusion to the
Spanish ship 'St. Andrew', captured by the English at Cádiz in 1596. A
date of 1596-97 is considered consistent with the play's style.
The play was entered in the Register of the Stationers Company, the
method at that time of obtaining copyright for a new play, by James
Roberts on 22 July 1598 under the title "the Marchaunt of Venyce or
otherwise called the Jewe of Venyce." On 28 October 1600 Roberts
transferred his right to the play to the stationer Thomas Heyes; Heyes
published the first quarto before the end of the year. It was printed
again in 1619, as part of William Jaggard's so-called False Folio.
(Later, Thomas Heyes' son and heir Laurence Heyes asked for and was
granted a confirmation of his right to the play, on 8 July 1619.) The
1600 edition is generally regarded as being accurate and reliable. It
is the basis of the text published in the 1623 First Folio, which adds
a number of stage directions, mainly musical cues.
Shylock and the antisemitism debate
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The play is frequently staged, but is potentially troubling to modern
audiences because of its central themes, which can easily appear
antisemitic. Modern critics argue over the play's stance on the Jews
and Judaism. American literary critic Harold Bloom argued in 1998 that
"one would have to be blind, deaf and dumb not to recognise that
Shakespeare's grand, equivocal comedy 'The Merchant of Venice' is
nevertheless a profoundly anti-semitic work".
Shylock as an antagonist
==========================
English society in the Elizabethan and Jacobean era has been described
as "judeophobic". English Jews had been expelled under Edward I in
1290 and were not permitted to return until 1656 under the rule of
Oliver Cromwell. Poet John Donne, who was Dean of St Paul's Cathedral
and a contemporary of Shakespeare, gave a sermon in 1624 perpetuating
the Blood Libel - the entirely unsubstantiated antisemitic lie that
Jews ritually murdered Christians to drink their blood and achieve
salvation. In Venice and in some other places, Jews were required to
wear a yellow or red hat at all times in public to make sure that they
were easily identified, and had to live in a ghetto.
Shakespeare's play may be seen as a continuation of this tradition.
The title page of the Quarto indicates that the play was sometimes
known as 'The Jew of Venice' in its day, which suggests that it was
seen as similar to Marlowe's early 1590s work 'The Jew of Malta'. One
interpretation of the play's structure is that Shakespeare meant to
contrast the perceived mercy of the main Christian characters while
giving the Jewish character vengeful characteristics. Similarly, it is
possible that Shakespeare meant Shylock's forced conversion to
Christianity to be a "happy ending" for the character, as, to some
Christian audiences, it saves his soul and allows him to enter Heaven.
Regardless of what Shakespeare's authorial intent may have been, the
play has been made use of by antisemites throughout the play's
history. The Nazis used the usurious Shylock for their propaganda.
Shortly after Kristallnacht in 1938, 'The Merchant of Venice' was
broadcast for propagandistic ends over the German airwaves.
Productions of the play followed in Lübeck (1938), Berlin (1940), and
elsewhere within the Nazi territory.
In a series of articles called 'Observer', first published in 1785,
British playwright Richard Cumberland created a character named
Abraham Abrahams, who is quoted as saying, "I verily believe the
odious character of Shylock has brought little less persecution upon
us, poor scattered sons of Abraham, than the Inquisition itself."
Cumberland later wrote a successful play, 'The Jew' (1794), in which
his title character, Sheva, is portrayed sympathetically, as both a
kindhearted and generous man. This was the first known attempt by a
dramatist to reverse the negative stereotype that Shylock personified.
The depiction of Jews in literature throughout the centuries bears the
close imprint of Shylock. With slight variations much of English
literature up until the 20th century depicts the Jew as "a monied,
cruel, lecherous, avaricious outsider tolerated only because of his
golden hoard".
Shylock as a sympathetic character
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Many modern readers and theatregoers have read the play as a plea for
tolerance, noting that Shylock is a sympathetic character. They cite
as evidence that Shylock's "trial" at the end of the play is a mockery
of justice, with Portia acting as a judge when she has no right to do
so. The characters who berated Shylock for dishonesty resort to
trickery in order to win. In addition to this, Shakespeare gives
Shylock one of his most eloquent speeches:
It is uncertain whether the sympathetic reading of Shylock is due to
changing sensibilities among readers or that Shakespeare, a writer who
created complex, multi-faceted characters, deliberately intended this
reading. Stephen Greenblatt points out that, though Shylock is not a
"lovable alien", he is given "more theatrical vitality, quite simply
more urgent, compelling life, than anyone else in his world".
One basis for this interpretation is the emphasis on Shylock's
marginalized position within Venetian society. Some critics regard his
well-known "Hath not a Jew eyes?" speech as a redeeming moment that
lends him qualities of a tragic figure. In this speech, Shylock
contends that he is fundamentally no different from the Christian
characters. Critics who dispute a sympathetic reading of the speech
note that it concludes with a call for revenge: "if you wrong us,
shall we not revenge?" Those who view the passage more sympathetically
emphasize that Shylock attributes his desire for retribution to the
example set by the Christian characters: "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."
Even if Shakespeare did not intend the play to be read this way, the
fact that it retains its power on stage for audiences who may perceive
its central conflicts in radically different terms is an illustration
of the subtlety of Shakespeare's characterisations. Additionally, when
Shylock discovers that his daughter, Jessica, has sold his ring, a
gift from his wife Leah, the audience is provided with sympathetic
biographical information tangential to the plot.
Later, in the trial Shylock represents what Elizabethan Christians
believed to be the Jewish desire for "justice", contrasted with their
obviously superior Christian value of mercy. The Christians in the
courtroom urge Shylock to love his enemies, although they themselves
have failed in the past. Jewish critic Harold Bloom suggests that,
although the play gives merit to both cases, the portraits are not
even-handed: "Shylock's shrewd indictment of Christian hypocrisy
delights us, but ... Shakespeare's intimations do not alleviate the
savagery of his portrait of the Jew..."
Notably, in Nazi Germany, concerns arose that the portrayal of Shylock
would elicit too much sympathy for the plight of a Jewish person, thus
prompting many alterations to the play, including the excision of
Shylock's final speech.
Antonio, Bassanio
===================
Antonio's unexplained depression - "In sooth I know not why I am so
sad" - and utter devotion to Bassanio has led some critics to theorise
that he is suffering from unrequited love for Bassanio and is
depressed because Bassanio is coming to an age where he will marry a
woman. In his plays and poetry Shakespeare often depicted strong male
bonds of varying homosociality, which has led some critics to infer
that Bassanio returns Antonio's affections despite his obligation to
marry:
In his essay "Brothers and Others", published in 'The Dyer's Hand', W.
H. Auden describes Antonio as "a man whose emotional life, though his
conduct may be chaste, is concentrated upon a member of his own sex."
Antonio's feelings for Bassanio are likened to a couplet from
Shakespeare's 'Sonnets': "But since she pricked thee out for women's
pleasure,/ Mine be thy love, and my love's use their treasure."
Antonio, says Auden, embodies the words on Portia's leaden casket:
"Who chooseth me, must give and hazard all he hath." Antonio has taken
this potentially fatal turn because he despairs, not only over the
loss of Bassanio in marriage but also because Bassanio cannot requite
what Antonio feels for him. Antonio's frustrated devotion is a form of
idolatry: the right to live is yielded for the sake of the loved one.
There is one other such idolator in the play: Shylock himself.
"Shylock, however unintentionally, did, in fact, hazard all for the
sake of destroying the enemy he hated, and Antonio, however
unthinkingly he signed the bond, hazarded all to secure the happiness
of the man he loved." Both Antonio and Shylock, agreeing to put
Antonio's life at a forfeit, stand outside the normal bounds of
society. There was, states Auden, a traditional "association of sodomy
with usury", reaching back at least as far as Dante, with which
Shakespeare was likely familiar. (Auden sees the theme of usury in the
play as a comment on human relations in a mercantile society.)
Other interpreters of the play regard Auden's conception of Antonio's
sexual desire for Bassanio as questionable. Michael Radford, director
of the 2004 film version starring Al Pacino, explained that, although
the film contains a scene where Antonio and Bassanio actually kiss,
the friendship between them is platonic, in line with the prevailing
view of male friendship at the time. Jeremy Irons, in an interview,
concurs with the director's view and states that he did not "play
Antonio as gay". Joseph Fiennes, however, who plays Bassanio,
encouraged a homoerotic interpretation and, in fact, surprised Irons
with the kiss on set, which was filmed in one take. Fiennes defended
his choice, saying "I would never invent something before doing my
detective work in the text. If you look at the choice of language ...
you'll read very sensuous language. That's the key for me in the
relationship. The great thing about Shakespeare and why he's so
difficult to pin down is his ambiguity. He's not saying they're gay or
they're straight, he's leaving it up to his actors. I feel there has
to be a great love between the two characters ... there's great
attraction. I don't think they have slept together but that's for the
audience to decide."The literary critic Hollis Robbins has suggested
that his melancholy is economic in nature, as decline in Venetian
shipping monopolies made voyages far more risky.
Performance history
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The earliest performance of which a record has survived was held at
the court of King James in the spring of 1605, followed by a second
performance a few days later, but there is no record of any further
performances in the 17th century. In 1701, George Granville staged a
successful adaptation, titled 'The Jew of Venice', with Thomas
Betterton as Bassanio. This version, which featured a masque ('The
Masque of Peleus and Thetis') was popular, and was acted for the next
forty years. Granville cut the clownish Gobbos in line with
neoclassical decorum; he added a jail scene between Shylock and
Antonio; an extended scene of toasting at a banquet scene, and had
Bassanio give Portia his ring when she is disguised as a male lawyer,
removing any homosexual subtext that could be inferred from that scene
in the original play. Thomas Doggett was Shylock, playing the role
comically, perhaps even farcically. Rowe expressed doubts about this
interpretation as early as 1709; Doggett's success in the role meant
that later productions would feature the troupe clown as Shylock.
In 1741, Charles Macklin returned to the original text in a very
successful production at Drury Lane, paving the way for Edmund Kean
seventy years later (see below).
Arthur Sullivan wrote incidental music for the play in 1871. As part
of the 500 year anniversary of the Venetian Ghetto, which converged
with the 400 year anniversary of Shakespeare's death, 'The Merchant of
Venice' was performed in the ghetto main square in 2016 by the
Compagnia de' Colombari.
Shylock on stage
==================
Jewish actor Jacob Adler and others report that the tradition of
playing Shylock sympathetically began in the first half of the 19th
century with Edmund Kean, and that previously the role had been played
"by a comedian as a repulsive clown or, alternatively, as a monster of
unrelieved evil." Kean's Shylock established his reputation as an
actor.
From Kean's time forward, all of the actors who have famously played
the role, with the exception of Edwin Booth, who played Shylock as a
simple villain, have chosen a sympathetic approach to the character;
even Booth's father, Junius Brutus Booth, played the role
sympathetically. Henry Irving's portrayal of an aristocratic, proud
Shylock (first seen at the Lyceum in 1879, with Portia played by Ellen
Terry) has been called "the summit of his career". Jacob Adler was the
most notable of the early 20th century: Adler played the role in
Yiddish-language translation, first in Manhattan's Yiddish Theatre
District on the Lower East Side, and later on Broadway, where, to
great acclaim, he performed the role in Yiddish in an otherwise
English-language production.
Kean and Irving presented a Shylock justified in wanting his revenge;
Adler's Shylock evolved over the years he played the role, first as a
stock Shakespearean villain, then as a man whose better nature was
overcome by a desire for revenge, and finally as a man who operated
not from revenge but from pride. In a 1902 interview with 'Theater'
magazine, Adler pointed out that Shylock is a wealthy man, "rich
enough to forgo the interest on three thousand ducats" and that
Antonio is "far from the chivalrous gentleman he is made to appear. He
has insulted the Jew and spat on him, yet he comes with hypocritical
politeness to borrow money of him." Shylock's fatal flaw is to depend
on the law, but "would he not walk out of that courtroom head erect,
the very apotheosis of defiant hatred and scorn?"
Some modern productions take further pains to show the sources of
Shylock's thirst for vengeance. For instance, in the 2004 film
adaptation directed by Michael Radford and starring Al Pacino as
Shylock, the film begins with text and a montage of how Venetian Jews
are cruelly abused by bigoted Christians. One of the last shots of the
film also brings attention to the fact that, as a convert, Shylock
would have been cast out of the Jewish community in Venice, no longer
allowed to live in the ghetto. Another interpretation of Shylock and a
vision of how "must he be acted" appears at the conclusion of the
autobiography of Alexander Granach, a noted Jewish stage and film
actor in Weimar Germany (and later in Hollywood and on Broadway).
Adaptations and cultural references
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The play has inspired many adaptions and several works of fiction.
Film, TV and radio versions
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* 1914 - 'The Merchant of Venice', a silent film directed by Lois
Weber and Phillips Smalley. Weber played Portia and Smalley, her
husband, played Shylock. With this film, Weber became the first woman
to direct a full-length feature film in America.
* 1916 - 'The Merchant of Venice', an unsuccessful silent British film
produced by Walter West for Broadwest.
* 1923 - 'The Merchant of Venice' ('Der Kaufmann von Venedig'), also
'The Jew of Mestri', a silent German film directed by Peter Paul
Felner. Though based in part on Shakespeare's play, it was also based
on Christopher Marlowe's 'The Jew of Malta', as well as stories by
Giovanni Fiorentino, Masuccio Salernitano and Pietro Aretino.
* 1941 - 'Shylock', an Indian Tamil language film directed by the duo
Sama-Ramu.
* 1953 - 'The Merchant of Venice', a French-Italian drama film
directed by Pierre Billon and starring Michel Simon, Andrée Debar and
Massimo Serato.
* 1961 - 'The Merchant of Venice', an Australian television
adaptation.
* 1969 - 'The Merchant of Venice', an unreleased 40-minute television
film directed by and starring Orson Welles; the film was completed,
but the soundtrack for all but the first reel was stolen before it
could be released.
* 1972 - 'The Merchant of Venice', BBC video-taped television version
directed by Cedric Messina for the BBC's 'Play of the Month' series.
Cast includes Maggie Smith, Frank Finlay, Charles Gray and Christopher
Gable.
* 1973 - 'The Merchant of Venice' British Associated Television
version directed by John Sichel. Broadcast in the United States over
ABC-TV. Set in the late Victorian era, the cast included Laurence
Olivier as Shylock, Anthony Nicholls as Antonio, Jeremy Brett as
Bassanio, and Joan Plowright as Portia.
* 1980 - 'The Merchant of Venice', a version for the BBC Television
Shakespeare directed by Jack Gold. The cast includes Gemma Jones as
Portia, Warren Mitchell as Shylock and John Nettles as Bassanio.
* 1996 - 'The Merchant of Venice', a Channel 4 television film
directed by Alan Horrox. The cast included Bob Peck as Shylock and
Haydn Gwynne as Portia.
* 2001 - 'The Merchant of Venice', a Royal National Theatre production
directed by Trevor Nunn. Set around 1930, Henry Goodman played
Shylock.
* 2002 - 'The Māori Merchant of Venice', directed by Don Selwyn. In
Māori, with English subtitles. This film was based on a 1945
translation of the play to Māori by Pei Te Hurinui Jones.
* 2003 - In 'Shakespeare's Merchant', a film directed by Paul Wagar,
Antonio and Bassanio have a homosexual relationship.
* 2004 - 'The Merchant of Venice', directed by Michael Radford and
produced by Barry Navidi. This was the first "big-screen" adaptation
of the play. The cast included Al Pacino as Shylock, Jeremy Irons as
Antonio, Joseph Fiennes as Bassanio, Lynn Collins as Portia, and
Zuleikha Robinson as Jessica.
* Broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on 22 April 2018 and transposing the plot
from Venice to the City of London and the 2008 financial crisis. The
cast included Andrew Scott as Shylock, Ray Fearon as Antonio, Colin
Morgan as Bassanio, Hayley Atwell as Portia, and Lauren Cornelius as
Jessica.
Operas
========
* Josef Bohuslav Foerster's three-act Czech opera 'Jessika' was first
performed at the Prague National Theatre in 1905.
* Adrian Welles Beecham, 15-year-old son of Sir Thomas Beecham,
composed an operatic version which premiered at the Grand Theatre in
Brighton on 18 September 1922 followed by 32 performances at the Duke
of York's Theatre in London from 20 November to 16 December 1922.
Augustus Milner sang Shylock, later replaced during the run by
producer F. R. Benson. Although described in the vocal score as "a
Shakespearean Opera" the play was perhaps better defined as a "play
with music", with 27 musical sections or arias.
* Reynaldo Hahn's three-act French opera 'Le marchand de Venise' was
first performed at the Paris Opéra on 25 March 1935.
* André Tchaikowsky's (1935-1982) opera 'The Merchant of Venice'
premiered at the Bregenz Festival on 18 July 2013.
* A modernized interpretation of 'The Merchant of Venice' was staged
at the Royal Lyceum in Edinburgh from late 2024 to early 2025.
Cultural references
=====================
Edmond Haraucourt, French playwright and poet, was commissioned in the
1880s by the actor and theatrical director Paul Porel to make a
French-verse adaptation of 'The Merchant of Venice'. His play
'Shylock', first performed at the Théâtre de l'Odéon in December 1889,
had incidental music by the French composer Gabriel Fauré, later
incorporated into an orchestral suite of the same name.
St. John Ervine wrote a sequel play, 'The Lady of Belmont', in 1924,
in which the characters from Shakespeare's work reunite ten years
after the events of the earlier play.
Ralph Vaughan Williams' choral work 'Serenade to Music' (1938) draws
its text from the discussion about music and the music of the spheres
in act V, scene 1.
In both versions of the comic film 'To Be or Not to Be' (1942 and
1983) the character "Greenberg", specified as a Jew in the later
version, gives a recitation of the "Hath not a Jew eyes?" speech to
Nazi soldiers.
The rock musical 'Fire Angel' was based on the story of the play, with
the scene changed to the Little Italy district of New York. It was
performed in Edinburgh in 1974 and in a revised form at Her Majesty's
Theatre, London, in 1977. Braham Murray directed.
Arnold Wesker's play 'The Merchant' (1976) is a reimagining of
Shakespeare's story. In this retelling, Shylock and Antonio are
friends and share a disdain for the crass anti-Semitism of the
Christian community's laws.
David Henry Wilson's play 'Shylock's Revenge', was first produced at
the University of Hamburg in 1989, and follows the events in 'The
Merchant of Venice'. In this play Shylock gets his wealth back and
becomes a Jew again.
The 'Star Trek' franchise sometimes quote and paraphrase Shakespeare,
including 'The Merchant of Venice'. One example is the
Shakespeare-aficionado Chang in 'Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered
Country' (1991), a Klingon, who quotes Shylock.
Steven Spielberg's 'Schindler's List' (1993) depicts SS Lieutenant
Amon Göth quoting Shylock's "Hath not a Jew eyes?" speech when
deciding whether to rape his Jewish maid.
In David Fincher's 1995 crime thriller 'Seven', a lawyer, Eli Gould,
is coerced to remove a pound of his own flesh and place it on a scale,
alluding to the play.
The German Belmont Prize was established in 1997, referring to
'Belmont' as "a place of destiny where Portia's intelligence is at
home." The eligibility for the award is encapsulated by the
inscription on the play's lead casket, "Who chooses me must give and
hazard all he hath."
One of the four short stories comprising Alan Isler's 'The Bacon
Fancier' (1999) is also told from Shylock's point of view. In this
story, Antonio was a converted Jew.
'The Pianist' is a 2002 film based on a memoir by Władysław Szpilman.
In this film, Henryk Szpilman reads Shylock's "Hath not a Jew eyes?"
speech to his brother Władysław in the Warsaw Ghetto during the Nazi
occupation in World War II.
In the 2009 spy comedy 'OSS 117: Lost in Rio', a speech by the Nazi
Von Zimmel parodies Shylock's tirade.
Christopher Moore combines 'The Merchant of Venice' and 'Othello' in
his 2014 comic novel 'The Serpent of Venice', in which he makes Portia
(from 'The Merchant of Venice') and Desdemona (from 'Othello')
sisters. All of the characters come from those two plays with the
exception of Jeff (a monkey); the gigantic simpleton Drool; and
Pocket, the Fool, who comes from Moore's earlier novel 'Fool', based
on 'King Lear'.
Naomi Alderman's 'The Wolf in the Water' is a radio-play first
broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in 2016. The play continues the story of
Shylock's daughter Jessica, who lives in an anti-semitic Venice and
practices her Jewish faith in secret. Part of the BBC's Shakespeare
Festival, the play also marked that 500 years had passed since the
Venetian Ghetto was instituted.
Sarah B. Mantell's 'Everything that Never Happened' is a play first
produced in 2017 at the Yale School of Drama. Similar to 'Rosencrantz
and Guildenstern Are Dead', the play occurs in the gaps between scenes
of the canonical 'The Merchant of Venice', with the characters
gradually recognizing how conflicts over assimilation and
anti-Semitism recur throughout past, present, and future.
See also
======================================================================
* List of idioms attributed to Shakespeare
Further reading
======================================================================
* Abend-David, Dror (2003).
[
https://www.amazon.com/Scorned-Nation-Translations-Comparative-Literatures/dp/0820457981/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1284135061&sr=1-1
'"Scorned My Nation": A Comparison of Translations of The Merchant of
Venice into German, Hebrew, and Yiddish'], New York: Peter-Lang. .
* Caldecott, Henry Stratford (1895). "Our English Homer; or, the
Bacon-Shakespeare Controversy". 'Johannesburg Times'.
*
*
*
* Smith, Rob: 'Cambridge Student Guide to The Merchant of Venice'. .
* Yaffe, Martin D.: 'Shylock and the Jewish Question'.
External links
======================================================================
*
*
*
* [
http://www.bl.uk/works/the-merchant-of-venice 'The Merchant of
Venice'] at the British Library
*
* [
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vznq94vgfrI Shakespeare in the
Ghetto, the Ghetto in Shakespeare], 2021 video with Shaul Bassi.
License
=========
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Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Merchant_of_Venice
