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Part II Roman 18 The Merchant Of Venice

The merchant of venice, written in 1596 or 1597, lays its scene in what is surely one of the most remarkable cities in history It is a city which at its peak was richer and more powerful than almost any full-sized nation of its tiainst the formidable Turks

This city, Venice, which was like an Italian Athens born after its time, or an Italian Amsterdam born before, had its birth at the ti Italians hid in the lagoons offshore along the northern Adriatic and about this colony as the nucleus Venice arose

While the Franks, the Byzantines, the Loled for control over Italy, Venice, under skillful leadership,independence and, through trade, a steadily increasing prosperity

Venetian prosperity and power cli the period of the Crusades, since it, along with several other Italian cities, had the ships to carry the Crusaders and their supplies-and charged healthily for it By 1203 Venice could black the Byzantine Empire first In 1204 the Crusaders took Constantinople itself and the Byzantine E to Venice, which thus became a major Mediterranean power

Venice ele with Genoa, a port on the other side of the Italian boot, and by 1380 had won completely The war made her aware of her need for continental territories to assure herself of food supr plies despite the ups and downs of naval warfare She spread out into nearby Italy and by 1420 northeastern Italy was hers from the Adriatic nearly to Lake Como

The fifteenth century, however, saw her pass her peak The Turk captured Constantinople in 1453 and it becauese explorers circled Africa by 1497 and, as it grew possible to bypass the Mediterranean, the Venetian stranglehold on trade with the East further diminished

Then, ha the sixteenth century, France, Spain, and the Eround and the entire peninsula, including Venice, was reduced to misery

But even in Shakespeare's tier what she had been, she res of e-established government over wealthy merchants and skillful seamen with territory and bases here and there in the Mediterranean What's hts Titian and Tintoretto were sixteenth-century Venetians, for instance

Then too, even in decline, Venice rehout Shakespeare's lifetime and for several decades after his death

why I am so sad

The play opens with Antonio on stage He is the "merchant" of the title and he is in conversation with two friends, Salerio and Solanio Antonio says:

In sooth I know not why I am so sad

It wearies me, you say it wearies you;

- Act I, scene i, lines 1-2

The sadness is never explicitly explained in the play and ita mood Antonio, after all, is to spend er

However, it is possible to speculate that there is a more specific cause of sadness, one which Shakespeare does not care to elaborate upon As will appear soon enough, Antonio has a male friend to whom he is devoted with a self-sacrificial intensity that is almost unbelievable This friend, we are soon to find out, is about to woo a young lady in the hope ofher

Antonio may very easily be meant by Shakespeare to represent the nobility of ho he hints at in several plays (as, for instance, in The Two Gentle to be specific about it

Well then, if Antonio's friend has, in the eagerness of his new plans involving a lady, grown h for the poor race, to his friends?

your argosies

His friends, however, have a ests that he is nervous over the state of his business affairs, saying:

Youron the ocean,

There where your argosies with portly sail-

- Act I, scene i, lines 8-9

The word "argosies" harks back to a city founded on the eastern shore of the Adriatic in the seventh century by refugees, as Venice had similarly been founded two centuries earlier In this case, the founders were Greeks ere being pushed out of the interior by invading Slavs The new city was nausiuusa

Ragusa was, for a ti city, usa was particularly known for its large lish the first two letters were transposed and the word becaosy"

It is clear froes, then, that Antonio is an extremely wealthy merchant, but one whose business involves extreme risk Antonio, however, pooh-poohs the chances of these risks co to pass

two-headed Janus

But if Antonio is not worried about business and is merely irrationally sad, then, says Solanio with a touch of iht just as well be irrationally merry Solanio says:

Now by two-headed Janus,

Nature hath frae fellows in her time:

Soh their eyes

And laugh like parrots at a bagpiper,

And other of such vinegar aspect

That they'll not show their teeth in way of smile

Though Nestor swear the jest be laughable

- Act I, scene i, lines 50-56

In other words, some people are, by simple temperament, happy; others sad

As for Janus, he is the ods He was the god of doorways and therefore the god of going in and going out (The word "janitor" is derived fro in his (and January, the beginning of the year, is named in his honor)

In the Roates were open in time of war and closed in time of peace Rome's military history was such that for seven centuries they were hardly ever closed

Though on Roman representations he is shoith two identical faces in opposite directions, it is possible to is, he ined to have one face turned toward the past and the other toward the future

It could easily be i face was cheerful, since the pains of the past were over, while the forward-viewing face was sad, since there was uncertainty as to what the pains of the future ure of speech in Solanio's statement

let my liver rather heat

Three other friends of Antonio enter: Bassanio, Gratiano, and Lorenzo, while Salerio and Solanio leave

Gratiano also notes Antonio's sadness and he too advocates merriment for its own sake He says to Antonio:

Let me play the fool!

With hter let old wrinkles come,

And let my liver rather heat ine

Than roans

- Act I, scene i, lines 79-82

The link between liver and wine ht seem at first blush to indicate that Shakespeare had a prescient knowledge of the connection physicians would eventually draeen cirrhosis of the liver and alcoholism

Nothing of the sort The liver is the largest gland in the body, weighing three or four pounds in e in other ue that the liver is so large because it has a peculiarly important function and must therefore serve as the seat of life and of the emotions (The similarity between "liver" and "live" is not accidental)

Contributing to this also is the fact that ancient priests, looking for prognostications of things to coods This is natural, since the liver is so large and varies so in detail from animal to animal that it is particularly easy to study Yet it is not the ease that can be advanced as a reason, so special importance must be insisted upon instead

In Belmont

It is Bassanio hoth of the lat-ter's affection is quickly shown Bassanio has been living beyond his means and is deeply in debt He has been forced to borrow and says, frankly:

To you, Antonio,

I owe the most in money and in love,

- Act I, scene i, lines 130-31

But Antonio is willing to continue the support He says earnestly to Bassanio:

be assured

My purse, my person, my extremest means

Lie all unlocked to your occasions [needs]

- Act I, scene i, lines 137-39

Surely the attachment on Antonio's side can only be love in its fullest sense Yet itmore than friendship, for he see to draw on Antonio's support for a co love

Bassanio explains that he may be in a position to repay all he has borrowed if only Antonio will be willing to invest a bit more He says:

In Belmont is a lady richly left;

- Act I, scene i, line 161

In short, Bassanio knows of a rich heiress and if he can h ar

(The beginning of Bassanio's speech makes him sound like a fortune hunter, but the play will amply show that he wants the woman for herself and that the money is secondary He stresses the money now because he wants to explain that he will be able to pay off his debt to Antonio, and not that he is greedy for wealth for himself)

As for Belmont, that may well be a fictitious name for the estate left to the heiress In the Italian tale from which this portion of the plot is derived, the place is Belmonte, and there is a Belmonte in Italy, on the western shore of the Italian toe, a little over five hundred miles south of Venice Probably there is no connection, and as far as the play is concerned, it doesn'tthat a Belmonte exists

Her name is Portia

Bassanio has seen the lady and knows her to be beautiful and virtuous He says:

Her na undervalued

To Cato's daughter, Brutus' Portia;

- Act I, scene i, lines 165-66

Brutus' Portia-that is, his wife-appears as a pattern of Roe I-281), a play Shakespeare wrote some two years after The Merchant of Venice

Calchos' strand

Bassanio goes on in his lyrical praise of Portia to say:

her sunny locks

Hang on her teolden fleece,

Which makes her seat of Belmont Colchos' strond,

And many Jasons come in quest of her

- Act I, scene i, lines 169-72

The tale of the Golden Fleece is one of the hter of a king of Thebes, had a wicked stepods they hisked away froolden fleece (see page I-541) The ram flew them to what must have seemed the end of the world to the very early Greeks-the easternmost shore of the Black Sea

On the way, the girl, Helle, fell off and drowned in one of the narroays between the Aegean and the Black seas, a ay known as the "Hellespont" in consequence The boy, however, was carried safely to the kingdoe) The King of Colchis, Aeetes, sacrificed the ra it under the guard of a never sleeping dragon

To attain that Golden Fleece and bring it back to Greece was a worthy aim for an adventurer, and Jason, an exiled Thessalian prince, undertook the quest With a fifty-oared ship, the Argo, and a crew of heroes, he penetrated the Black Sea and won the Fleece

the County Palatine

When Bassanio is done explaining, Antonio promptly offers to finance the project in a characteristic burst of selflessness With that done the scene shifts at once to Belmont, where we meet Portia and her companion, Nerissa

It see, has left three caskets behind, one of gold, one of silver, and one of lead Each suitor must choose one of the caskets, and only he who picks the correct casket, the one with Portia's portrait inside, can marry her If the suitor loses, he must swear to leave at once and never to reveal which casket he had chosen

There are many suitors come to take their chances and Portia has an opportunity to display herwit at their expense (and Shakespeare has a chance to air his prejudices)

Nerissa mentions a prince of Naples first and he is dismissed by Portia at once as interested only in horses and horsemanship Nerissa then says:

Then is there the County Palatine

- Act I, scene ii, line 44

In the early Middle Ages a "count palatine" was a high official who served in the King's household; that is, in the palace Eventually, the title came to be inherited only as a tide and without any special house-holdly duties

In only one case did the title remain pro the middle Rhine River whose ruler remained the Count Palatine The territory was therefore known as the "Palatinate" Its capital was at Heidelberg

In Shakespeare's time the Palatinate was a center of Gerlish Puritanism In 1592, just a few years before The Merchant of Venice ritten, Frederick IV succeeded to the title He was a sincere Calvinist (he was called "Frederick the Upright"), which ree

It was perhaps with that in mind that Shakespeare has Portia say with respect to him:

He hears merry tales and smiles not;

I fear he will prove the weeping philosopher

when he grows old, being so full of unmannerly

sadness in his youth

- Act I, scene ii, lines 46-49

There was a "weeping philosopher"; he was Heraclitus of Ephesus, who lived about 500 BC and whose gloomy view of life caused hihing philosopher," Democritus of Abdera, who lived about 400 bc and whose cheerful disposition enabled hih over the follies of mankind)

every man in no man

A reference to a French suitor has Portia say:

Why, he hath a horse better than the Neapolitan's,

a better bad habit of frowning than the Count Palatine;

he is every ,

he jails straight a-cap'ring;

- Act I, scene ii, lines 57-60

This is, in part, the old stereotype of the French convictions who takes on the coloring of his surroundings In this case, Shakespeare may even have a specific case in mind

In 1593, just three years before The Merchant of Venice ritten, the French Protestant leader Henry of Navarre (pictured so favorably in Love's Labor's Lost, see page I-423) accepted Catholicislish Protestants this was a perfect case of French lack of principle

his behavior everywhere

An English suitor does not escape Portia's sharp tongue either Concerning him, she says:

How oddly he is suited [outfitted]!

1 think he bought his doublet in Italy,

his round hose in France, his bonnet in Germany,

and his behavior everywhere

- Act I, scene ii, lines 72-75

This is the old colishman (of whoeneration isbut contempt for the traditions of their own land (This view is not confined to England or to the sixteenth century)

borrowed a box of the ear

The s forth an expression of contempt from Portia, who says:

he hath a neighborly charity in him,

for he borrowed a box of the ear of the Englishman

and swore he would pay hiain when he was able

I think the Frenchman became his surety

- Act I, scene ii, lines 78-81

Scotland was, like France, one of England's traditional eneularly beaten, so that Shakespeare can indulge in a rather cheap vaunt over an enemy that was often defeated but never accepted defeat

As a land inflict two disastrous boxes of the ear upon Scotland In 1513 England defeated Scotland in the Battle of Flodden Field (see page II-746), and then again, in 1542, at the Battle of Solway Moss

Shakespeare's reference to the French the Scotsman's surety refers to the traditional friendship between France and Scotland France was always ready to support Scotland financially in her wars against England, but was never able to support her by direct military force

Then Nerissa asks about another:

How like you the young German,

the Duke of Saxony's nephew?

- Act I, scene ii, lines 83-84

To which Portia replies:

Very vilely in thewhen he is sober,

and most vilely in the afternoon when he is drunk

- Act I, scene ii, lines 85-86

This was nofun of the proverbial German habit of drunkenness, but Shakespeare hit closer than he knew The Elector of Saxony (a title unique to Germany, which Shakespeare converts into the more familiar "duke") had, at the tier brother as then about twelve years old, and who grew up to be a notorious drunkard

as old as Sibylla

However, none of these suitors will even try the casket test They are there only to serve as butts for Portia's jokes, and now Nerissa reports they are leaving Portia is relieved, but she insists she will marry only in accordance with the casket test just the same:

// / live to be as old as Sibylla,

I will die as chaste as Diana unless

I be obtained by the manner of my father's will

- Act I, scene ii, lines 105-7

Sibylla's age was proverbial (see page I-452) and Shakespeare makes use of that in several plays

the Marquis of Montferrat

But noe get down to business Nerissa asks:

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?

- Act I, scene ii, lines 111-13

The marquisate of Montferrat was an independent state in Shakespeare's time located just north of Genoa In 1587 Vicenzo I becahtened rulers who had patronized art and literature and were therefore looked upon with great favor by artists and writers Vicenzo hireat poet Torquato Tasso from the insane asylum to which he had been sent as a result of his paranoid mania

Nevertheless, Vicenzo was a ant and wasteful ruler, and at the time The Merchant of Venice ritten, these proclivities of his were quite clear If Bassanio was his friend and had been forced to keep up with hih so much of Antonio's fortune

It was undoubtedly on this earlier visit that Bassanio had seen Portia and discovered her beauty and virtue She had not been unaffected either, for on the rows excited But new suitors are co and the scene reaches its end

Three thousand ducats

Back in Venice, there is the proble Bassanio Antonio's ready cash is tied up in hisman must borrow the actual uarantor of the loan (Otherwise, Bassanio would lack the credit to borrow anything at all)

The third scene of the play opens, then, with Bassanio in conversation with a prospective source of ly (for it is a large sum):

Three thousand ducats-well

- Act I, scene iii, line 1

In the Middle Ages there were few regions with a sufficiently reliable supply of silver to issue good coins Venice was one of the exceptions Her rich trade brought precious ood coins of full weight and honest value The reputation of Venice lay behind the coins and merchants from all over Europe and the Mediterranean lands were anxious to accept those coins-which was to the benefit of Venetian trade

These coins were put out by the Duchy of Venice, a state which in the Italian language was the "Ducato di Venezia," so that the coins were called ducati or, in English, "ducats" Good coins, also called ducats, were put out by the Duchy of Apulia in southern Italy

In either case, three thousand ducats was a huge su

The person to who is not an ordinary Venetian We can picture hie) as a tallblack beard, curly sideburns, a skull cap, and a long black coat He is, in short, a Jew, and his name is Shylock

Shylock is not a Jewish name; there was never a Jew named Shylock that anyone has heard of; the name is an invention of Shakespeare's which has entered the coe (because of the power of the characterization of the reedy, hard-hearted creditor I have heard Jews the back to Shakespeare's character

Where did Shakespeare get the name? There is a Hebreord shalakh, which appears twice in the Bible (Leviticus 11:17 and Deuterono listed as unfit articles of diet for Jews No one knows exactly what bird is ives it as "cormorant"

The cormorant is a sea bird which eats fish so voraciously that the word has coreed and voraciousness Shakespeare apparently is using a form of the Hebreord both as name and characterization of the Jewish moneylender

upon the Rialto

Shylock hesitates The loan is a large one but Antonio, who is being offered as surety, has a good reputation for honest business dealing and is known to be wealthy enough to cover the sum And still Shylock hesitates, for Antonio's ventures are thinly spread and he is at the moment in a period of unusual risk Shylock says of Antonio:

he hath an argosy bound to Tripolis, another to the Indies;

I understand, moreover, upon the Rialto, he hath a third at Mexico,

a fourth for England-and other ventures he hath, squandered abroad

- Act I, scene iii, lines 17-21

Of the places listed by Shylock, the least familiar is Tripolis This word means "three cities" in Greek and any city built up out of the union of three towns is liable to be given that name As an example there is one in northern Africa, which is better known to us by the Italian version of the nadom of Libya

There is also a second Tripolis on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, in what is now Lebanon It is the second largest city of that nation nowadays, and is better known to the west as Tripoli Its Arabic name is Tarabulus

Which Tripoli Antonio's argosy was bound for, whether the one on the southern or the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, we have no way of telling

Shylock heard his news "upon the Rialto," a phrase that needed no explanation for the audience of the play

In 1590, some seven years before The Merchant of Venice ritten, the Venetians built a e across the Grand Canal, their chief ay The Latin rivus altusthe stream would very likely adopt its name The Italian version of the phrase is "Rialto"

The Rialto bridge was lined with a row of shops on either side and with a broad footpath between It became a busy coather there to exchange news and gossip

your prophet the Nazarite

Despite his ood surety for the loan Bassanio, eager to help Shylock come to a favorable decision, invites him to dinner, and Shylock draws back at once:

Yes, to smell pork, to eat of the habitation

which your prophet the Nazarite conjured

the devil into!

- Act I, scene iii, lines 31-33

So far the exchange between Bassanio and Shylock has indicated nothing of the religious difference; ita business deal But noith the , comes the first clear stamp of Jewishness upon Shylock He won't eat pork!

The Jewish abhorrence of pork is based on biblical statutes The eleventh chapter of the Book of Leviticus states that only those beasts that have a cloven hoof and that chew the cud are ritually clean and may be eaten and sacrificed As one example of a beast that is not ritually clean, the seventh and eighth verses say: "And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be cloven-footed, yet he cheweth not the cud; he is unclean to you Of their flesh shall ye not eat, and their carcase shall ye not touch"

Many other creatures are listed as unclean in the chapter; such as the camel, the hare, the owl, the cormorant, the shellfish, and so on

It is the pig, though, that stands out Most of the other creatures forbidden to Jeere not a customary part of the diet of Gentiles either Pork, on the other hand, was a favored dish of Gentiles, and for Jews to have so extreme an abhorrence of it seemed most peculiar

It became a hallmark of the difference between Jew and Gentile When Antiochus IV of the Seleucid Empire tried to eradicate Judaism in the second century bc, he insisted that Jews eat pork as the best way of indicating they had abandoned their religion (and a number of Jews suffered martyrdom rather than comply) In medieval Europe too the value of a conversion froerness hich the erstwhile Jew ate pork

Shylock, in his comment on pork, does not, however, refer to the Old Testament prohibition The Elizabethan audience would not have been familiar with that The dietary laws of the Mosaic Code had, in the Christian view, been superseded through a vision St Peter had had (as is described in Chapter 10 of the Book of Acts) and the Leviticus chapter was therefore a dead letter

Instead, Shylock is ust by means of a reference to the New Testa Jesus which describes how at one time he evicted many devils from a man possessed and sent them into a herd of swine The version in Matthew states (8:32) that the devils "went into the herd of swine and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters"

Presumably, Shylock scorns pork as evil-haunted, and feels swine to be a fit habitation for demons and therefore ht also view the passage as areference by Shy-lock to the kind of childish and superstitious tales (in his view) that ion

In actual fact, a Jew of the ti at Christianity or to refer sneeringly to "your prophet the Nazarite," out of consideration for his own safety in a hostile world Shakespeare, however, was intent on constructing a villain, and how better to do so than to have him sneer at what the audience held sacred

It is also important to remember that neither Shakespeare nor his audience had any firsthand knowledge of hos talked or acted anyway The Jews had been driven out of England by Edward I in 1290, and save for a few special exceptions, they were still absent from the land in Shakespeare's time They were not allowed to return, in fact, until the time of Oliver Cromwell, forty years after Shakespeare's death

a fawning publican

Now Antonio enters and Shylock views him with instant hate He says, aside:

How like a fawning publican he looks

I hate him for he is a Christian;

- Act I, scene iii, lines 38-39

The word "publican" occurs on a number of occasions in the New Testament, where it is used for those who collected taxes on behalf of the Roman masters of Judea A tax collector is never popular and one who collects on behalf of an occupying power is doubly da the Jews of Roman times The word is frequently coupled with "sinners," so that when the Pharisees wished to express their disapproval of Jesus, they pointed out that he ate "with publicans and sinners" (as in Matthew 9:11, for instance)

Certainly Antonio cannot possibly be considered a publican and it is very likely that an actual Jeould not so glibly have used a term that does not occur in the Old Testament But Shakespeare's audience knew "publican" as a word associated with the only Jews they really knew, those spoken of in the New Testament, and as a word of opprobrium besides

Thus, the very use of the word, whether sensible or not, indicated Shy-lock's Jewishness, and that is what Shakespeare wanted it to do

Shylock's next re Christians further eood Christian audience They are not likely to reflect that the Jews of Shakespeare's tihbors but abuse, blows, and worse and could scarcely be expected to love thelish-Jeriter, is supposed to have said with sardonic bitterness in the last years of the nineteenth century: "The Jews are a frightened people Nineteen centuries of Christian love have broken down their nerves")

And yet the Christians were but victi too Each Christian knew of Jews from the New Testament tales that were repeated in church week in and week out The Jews had rejected Jesus and demanded the crucifixion The Jews had opposed and persecuted the apostles In the time of the Crusades, tales arose that Jews poisoned wells and sacrificed Christian children as part of the celebration of the Passover

Furtherland a conteed enormous villainy Queen Elizabeth I had had as her personal physician one Roderigo Lopez He first accepted the post in 1586

Lopez was of Portuguese origin, which ner, and he had once been a Jehich ner To be sure, he was converted to Christianity, but born Christians generally suspected the sincerity of a Jew's conversion

In 1594 Lopez ca to poison the Queen in return for Spanish bribes It is the modern opinion that he was innocent, and certainly Queen Elizabeth seemed to believe he was innocent The Earl of Essex (of who belief in Lopez' guilt and forced a trial A Portuguese ex-Jew could scarcely expect a very objective or fair trial, and Lopez was convicted and then executed before a huge crowd under conditions of utmost brutality

The execution made the whole question of Jewish villainy very topical, and a play entitled The Jew of Malta was promptly revived This play, first produced in 1589, had been written by Christopher Marloho had died in 1593) and dealt with the flamboyant and monstrous villainy of a Jew The revival was enormously successful

Shakespeare, who always had his finger on the popular pulse, and as nothing if not a "co a play of his own about a villainous Jew, and The Merchant of Venice was the result

The rate of usance

But Shakespeare is Shakespeare; he cannotvillainy Shylock must have rational motives, and he says, in further explanation of his hatred of Antonio:

He lends out s down

The rate of usance here with us in Venice

- Act I, scene iii, lines 41-42

"Usance" represents the "use" of money, and closely allied to it is the word "usury" In early tiesture of friendship or charity, to relieve distress; and it would seee "usance" (or "interest") was strongly condes of Judais: "If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as an usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury"

In a more complicated society, however, ers; and not to those who are in personal need, but to those who need ready in a course of action that will eventually (it is hoped) lead to profit The money is hired for business purposes and the hire should be paid for Naturally the rate of payreater

Theout of charity and lending out of business need, and interest on both were alike forbidden

The Jews, however,to " at interest to non-Jeould therefore be permissible Furthermore, Jews in Christian countries found themselves locked out of one type of employment after another, until very little was left the, which was (in theory) forbidden to Christians

Thus was set up the sort of vicious cycle that is constantly used to plagueusurers and then the fact that they were usurers was used to prove how villainous and hateful they were

To make matters still more ironical, Christians were by no means as virtuous in the matter as theory had it The church's strictures could not stand up against economic needs Christian usurers arose in northern Italy to the point where the terland with "pawnbroker" or "moneylender" In fact, it was because Italian land in the thirteenth century that Edward I was able to do without Jews and could expel them from the nation

once upon the hip

Shylock broods on the wrongs he and his have suffered, and he mutters:

If I can catch hie], /

will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him

He hates our sacred nation

- Act I, scene iii, lines 43-45

The hatred is thus e shortly to come Antonio makes it clear that it is) The villainy is not, however To the Christian audience, Shylock's hatred of Christians is a nant villainy, but Antonio's hatred of Jews is very natural and even praiseworthy Undoubtedly, if the audience consisted entirely of Jews, the vieould be precisely reversed-and no more rational

This double standard in viewing the ethical behavior of oneself and one's enemy is common to almost all men and is the despair of the few

The skillful shepherd

Antonio and Bassanio are anxious for a definite reply froht turn Antonio's need to his advantage

Shylock is stung, too, by Antonio's scornful hint that ordinarily he does not lend or borrow at interest Shylock feels it necessary to prove that shrewd bargaining is not sinful

He turns to the Old Testareed with his uncle, Laban, to herd his sheep and goats and take for his own pay only those lambs and kids ere born streaked, spotted, or otherwise not of solid color

Ordinarily these would have reed to the bargain), but Jacob peeled wands in such a way as to give them a striped appearance and placed the Shylock says:

The skillful shepherd pilled 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 [la] time

Fall parti-colored lambs, and those were Jacob's

This was a way to thrive, and he was blest;

And thrift is blessing if men steal it not

- Act I, scene iii, lines 81-87

The story is a reasonably accurate rendition of the second half of the thirtieth chapter of Genesis The belief that the characteristics of the young can be influenced by the nature of the environnancy is part of the folklore of the ages, but it lacks any real foundation No reputable biologist accepts this view, nor can real evidence be cited for it, and even the authority of the Bible is insufficient to put it across

If the biblical tale were true and if the young animals were born as described, it would have had to be the result of a ht about by Jacob

cite Scripture

The case of Jacob is a poor one to support usury (so Antonio quickly poults out), and a real Jew could easily have found better arguments However, the use of the Jacob tale is to condemn Shylock to the andience rather than to support him Since he is made to quote, with approval, a shady act of business on the part of Jacob, the audience can nod to each other and say "Jeere always like that fro"

But to avoid so to stick to the Bible rather than to Shylock (for Shakespeare never knowingly sought trouble with the authorities) Antonio is made to remark in an aside to Bassanio:

The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose

- Act I, scene iii, line 95

This is not merely a metaphorical reference to Shylock, but is a direct derivation fro tested in the desert by the devil, who tries to persuade Jesus to display randizement

Thus, the devil takes Jesus to the top of the Tees hiht display the protection that angels would afford hi with a quotation fro: " for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any tiainst a stone" (This is from Matthew 4:6 and the quotation is from Psalms 91:11-12)

aberdine

As Shylock continues to be pressed, his politeness suddenly snaps and his hatred peeps forth Bitterly, he begins:

Signior Antonio, many a time and oft

In the Rialto you have rated [reviled] me

About my moneys and my usances

Still [Always] have I borne it with a patient shrug

For suffranee [patience] is the badge of all our tribe

You call ,

And spit upon aberdine,

- Act I, scene iii, lines 103-9

The Jewish gaberdine was a long, coarse cloak of the kind pilgri soiven In arb of hu to the world what sinners they were and at the sa Christians fro Jews any kindness or courtesy

Indeed, in the very city of Venice in which this play is laid, and in 1516, sohty years before the play ritten, the authorities went further It was decided to herd the Jews into a special quarter which could be efficiently isolated In part, this was a further development of the idea that Jews should not pollute Christians with their presence; and in part there was a kind of humanity behind it, since the Jeere safer in their own section and could beand lynching (They could also be more easily massacred en masse if the authorities chose to look the other way)

For the purpose, the Venetians chose an island on which an iron foundry (gheto in Italian) must once have stood, for that was the name of the island It was established as the Jewish quarter and "ghetto," with an additional "t," has gone ringing down history ever since as the name for any Jewish quarter anywhere and, in very recent tiroup

Again, a vicious cycle was established The Jeere forced to dress differently and live separately and were then hated for being different and exclusive

an equal pound of your fair flesh

Shylock's point is that he can scarcely be expected to lend money to someone who has treated him with such scorn and hatred If Antonio had, at this point, been diploht have been made in ordinary fashion and that would have been that Instead, however, Antonio answers cruelly:

I aain,

To spit on thee again, to spurn thee too

- Act I, scene iii, lines 127-28

This is utterly out of character for Antonio, who throughout the play is shown to be the soul of courtesy, gentleness, and love, and in the end has mercy even on Shylock But Shakespeare needs a motive for Shylock's behavior in this play, and Antonio's harshness nohen Shylock all but begs for some sort of Christian remorse for the cruelty shown him, turns his persecuted heart to stone

He agrees to :

If you repay me not on such a day,

In such a place, such sum or sums as are

Expressed in the condition, let the forfeit

Be nominated for an equal pound

Of your fair flesh, to be cut off and taken

In what part of your body pleaseth me

- Act I, scene iii, lines 142-48

On the surface, there is so money without interest If he is repaid on ti, no more And if the money is not repaid, there is a forfeit of a pound of flesh, no money at all

Shylock suggests this as a kind ofshot He has already expressed his doubts of the safety of Antonio'sshould happen to them, by means of the forfeit he can kill Antonio If the ships come home safe, he loses interest, of course, but after Antonio's remarks, the loss of interest is worth the slender chance of killing hially

Bassanio and Antonio both realize this, and Bassanio, in horror, refuses the deal Antonio, however, convinced that his ships will return, insists on agreeing to the terms

It is fro in the play that the phrase "pound of flesh" has entered the language as ain, however harsh and brutal the consequences

my complexion

The Shylock and Portia scenes now alternate Back in Belins:

Mislike me not for my complexion,

The shadowed livery of the burnished sun,

To whohbor and near bred

- Act II, scene i, lines 1-3

There is nothing here to indicate that the Prince of Morocco is anything more than a Moor, that is, a swarthy member of the "white race" However, Shakespeare's eined as a black, for Shakespeare confused Moors and blacks, as in Titus Andronicus (see page I-402)

Sultan Solyman

As Morocco prepares to take the test of the casket, he can't resist boasting a little He swears he would dare anything to win Portia:

By this scimitar

That slew the Sophy, and a Persian prince

That won three fields of Sultan Solyman,

- Act II, scene i, lines 24-26

"Sultan Solynificent, under wholory He reigned froest ruler in Europe, far greater in war and peace than the contemporary Christian e II-747), whose nareater noise in the West-oriented chronicles of our historians

During the early part of his reign Suleiman led the Ottoarian arary into his realm In 1529 he reached the peak of his fortunes when he actually laid siege to Vienna (which, however, he did not succeed in taking)

Suleiainst Europe, had he not also had to face eastward and battle the Persians, who, although Moslems, were of a different sect Between 1548 and 1555 there was strenuous war between Suleiman and the Persians; a hich on by Suleiin There were further wars between the Ottoman Empire and the Persians after Suleiress at the ti written, so that Morocco's reference was topical

Froht as an Ottoman ally, for it was Persians he claims to have beaten When Morocco says he "slew the Sophy," he is referring to the Shah of Persia

In the sixteenth century Persia was undergoing one of its periods of greatness under the rule of a family descended from one San-al-Din, who had lived in the thirteenth century The falish

The first ruler of the Safavid line was Ismail I, who came to the throne in 1501 In 1587 Abbas I becareatest of the line and is sometimes called Abbas the Great He labored to reform and revitalize the Persian arainst the Ottolish ainst the common Turkish enemy

Thus, at the tune that The Merchant of Venice ritten, references to Persia and the Sophy were easily understood

Nevertheless, Morocco, despite his vauntings, realizes that the casket choice ive the victory He says:

// Hercules and Lichas play at dice

Which is the better reater throw

May turn by fortune from the weaker hand

So is Alcides beaten by his page

- Act II, scene i, lines 32-35

Lichas is the attendant of Hercules (or Alcides, see page I-70), and, as it happens, he coe I-380)

thou a merry devil

Before we come to Morocco's casket choice, however, it is back to Venice and a distant glie comes Launcelot Gobbo, Shylock's Christian house servant Launcelot is considering leaving Shylock, for as a good Christian, he has qual a Jew

Eventually, after an encounter with his blind father, Launcelot enters the service of Bassanio He announces this change of service to Shylock's daughter (who makes her first appearance) She says:

I am sorry thou wilt leave my father so;

Our house is hell, and thou a merry devil

Didst rob it of some taste of tediousness

- Act II, scene iii, lines 1-3

There is, of course, nothing to indicate that Shylock is cruel to his daughter or anything but a good fah he is later shown to be puritanical and intent on keeping his daughter fro) Nevertheless, the audience would readily assume that a Jew's home would be bound to be hellish

Jessica is beautiful and lacks all the stigmata associated by Elizabethan audiences with Jews Thus, Launcelot weeps at leaving her, even though she is as Jewish as Shylock

This is, of course, an old convention The villainous Jew (or Moslem, or Indian chief, or Chinese hter who falls in love with the handsome Christian and betrays her people for his sake to the cheers of the audience In irl can hardly wait to fall in love with the handsome American spy and switch sides (The audience would consider it unspeakably horrible if the situation were reversed, however)

The name "Jessica" by the way, is not likely to strike modern readers as particularly Jewish, yet is much more so than "Shylock" Toward the end of the eleventh chapter of Genesis, the sister of the wife of Abrahaiven as Iscah It is of this name that Jessica is a form

Become a Christian

That Jessica is in love with a Christian appears at once, for she loves Lorenzo, who has already appeared as a friend of Antonio's Jessica says in a soliloquy after bidding Launcelot goodbye:

Alack, what heinous sin is it in me