Transcript Shakespeare today

‘Which is the Merchant
here, and which the Jew?’
Jewish ‘Otherness’ in The Jew of Malta
and The Merchant of Venice
‘Hath not a Jew eyes?’
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D. M. Cohen argues that the moment paints Shylock in
an unfavourable light:
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‘His speech of wheedling self-exculpation is surely intended
to be regarded in the way that beleaguered tenants today
might regard the whine of their wealthy landlord: “Hath not a
landlord eyes? Hath not a landlord organs, dimensions,
senses, affections, passions?” Instead of eliciting sympathy
for an underdog, Shakespeare intended the speech to elicit
detestation for one in a privileged and powerful position who
knowingly and deliberately abases himself in a plea for
unmerited sympathy.’ (Cohen 1980: 60-1)
The question of Anti-Semitism
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‘Is Shylock a money-grubbing usurer eager to take a
knife to Christians, or a Lear-like Jew, more sinned
against than sinning? How do we reconcile his forced
conversion – after he has been stripped of his wealth,
his work, and his daughter – with the play’s comic
closure?’ (Shapiro 2007)
Can we ask similar questions of The Jew of Malta?
Jewish stereotypes: The Bible
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The story of Barabbas
‘When Pilate saw that he
could not prevail, but rather
that a tumult was beginning,
he took water and washed his
hands before the multitude,
saying, “I am innocent of the
blood of this just person. See
ye to it.” Then answered all
the people and said, “His
blood be on us, and on our
children!”’ Matthew 27: 24-5,
King James Bible, 1611
Barabbas as depicted in Mel Gibson’s The
Passion of the Christ (2004)
Jewish stereotypes: Usury
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‘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.’ Exodus 22: 25, King James
Bible, 1611
‘And the Lord spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying
… And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in
decay with thee; then … take thou no usury of him …
but fear thy God; … thou shalt not give him thy money
upon usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase.’
Leviticus 25: 35-37, King James Bible, 1611
Jewish stereotypes: Greed
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‘Their breath stinks with lust for the
Gentiles’ gold and silver; for no nation
under the sun is greedier than they were,
still are, and always will be, as is evident
from their accursed usury. … They live
among us, enjoy our shield and
protection, they use our country and our
highways, our markets and streets.
Meanwhile our princes and rulers… let
the Jews, by means of their usury, skin
and fleece them and their subjects and
make them beggars with their own
money.’
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Martin Luther, Von den Juden und Ihre Lügen
(About the Jews and Their Lies),1543
Jewish stereotypes: Murder
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The Black Death and
‘poisoning wells’
Child murder and Saints’ cults:
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Saint William of Norwich, 1144
Saint Harold of Gloucester,
1168
Saint Robert of Bury, 1181
Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln,
1255
Geoffrey Chaucer’s ‘Prioress’s
Tale’
Massacre in York, 1190
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York had a small but significant Jewish community.
Locals in York grew resentful of their wealth.
Following the coronation of Richard I in 1189, a spate of violence
against Jews swept across England based on a false rumour that
the King had authorised the violence.
Edict of Expulsion, 1290
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English Jews had to
wear identifying yellow
badges from 1218
All Jews were ordered
to leave England by
Edward I in 1290
Most settled in Spain,
Germany, Poland and
Itlay (Venice, of course,
had its own Jewish
Ghetto)
The edict was not
overturned until 1656
Roderigo Lopez
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A Portuguese Jew, physician to Elizabeth I, confessed in 1594
that ‘upon a contract for 50000 ducats he had promised to
poison the Queen’:
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‘At the Bar, Lopez spake not much, but cried out … that he intended no
hurt against the Queen, … and that he had no other meaning but to
deceive the Spaniard and wipe him of his money.’
‘They were all of them condemned, and after three months put to death
at Tyburn, Lopez affirming that he had loved the Queen as he loved Jesus
Christ, which from a man of the Jewish profession was heard not without
laughter.’
(William Camden, The Historie of the Life and Reigne of that Famous Princesse,
Elizabeth, 1629.)
Described by his prosecutors as a ‘vile Jew’
Hanged, drawn and quartered on 7 June 1594.
Shylock and Barabas
as the Jewish ‘Other’
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Mary Metzger describes Shylock’s first appearance as ‘the
incarnation of the inherently evil Jew of medieval and early
modern Christian legend’: scheming, greedy, satanic, and
bloodthirsty (1998: 56).
SHYLOCK. (aside) How like a fawning publican he looks.
I hate him for he is a Christian;
But more, for that in low simplicity
He lends out money gratis, and brings down
The rate of usance here with us in Venice. (1.3.39-43)
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Compare Barabas’ first appearance in The Jew of Malta, ‘in his
counting-house, with heaps of gold before him’, and his later assertion to
Ithamore: ‘Both circumciséd, we hate Christians both’ (2.3.216).
Shylock and Barabas
as the Jewish ‘Other’
SOLANIO. I never heard a passion so confused,
So strange, outrageous, and so variable
As the dog Jew did utter in the streets.
‘My daughter! O, my ducats! O, my daughter!’ (2.8.12-15)
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Like Shylock, Barabas is never clear which he loves the
most: his gold, or his daughter.
BARABAS. O girl, O gold, O beauty, O my bliss! (2.1.54)
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But both texts leave space for either interpretation…
Ludicrous stereotypes
in The Jew of Malta
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Are we supposed to credit Barabas’ claims here?
BARABAS. First, be thou void of these affections:
Compassion, love, vain hope, and heartless fear.
Be moved at nothing; see thou pity none,
But to thyself smile when the Christians moan. …
As for myself, I walk abroad a-nights
And kill sick people groaning under walls;
Sometimes I go about and poison wells… (2.3.170-7)
Ludicrous stereotypes
in The Jew of Malta
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How might we respond to the following exchange?
FRIAR BARNADINE. First help to bury this, then go with
me
And help me to exclaim against the Jew.
FRIAR JACOMO. Why? What has he done?
FRIAR BARNADINE. A thing that makes me tremble to
unfold.
FRIAR JACOMO. What, has he crucified a child? (3.6.45-9)
Endemic corruption
in The Jew of Malta
BARABAS. … I can see no fruits in all their faith
But malice, falsehood, and excessive pride,
Which methinks fits not their profession. (1.1.114-16)
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Indeed, Ferneze’s sudden imposition of the tax on the
Jewish population is, by any account, impulsive, grossly
unfair, and ultimately dishonest.
Malta’s ruling class are duplicitous and corrupt, while
the friars are lustful, mercenary and violent.
Endemic corruption
in The Jew of Malta
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Ferneze is capricious in his imposition of law:
FERNEZE. Sir, half is the penalty of our decree.
Either pay that, or we will seize on all.
BARABAS. Corpo di Dio! Stay, you shall have half.
Let me be used but as my brethren are.
FERNEZE. No, Jew, thou hast denied the articles,
And now it cannot be recalled. (1.2.89-94)
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Ferneze ultimately defeats Barabas through the kind of
Machiavellian deception we have come to associate
with Barabas himself.
Does Ferneze’s concluding promise to ‘let due praise be
given / Neither to fate nor fortune, but to heaven’
(5.5.122-3) ring a little hollow?
The Merchant of Venice
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The trial scene:
‘…arguably the darkest moment in Shakespearean
comedy’ (Berry 2002: 126).
 The Duke calls Shylock ‘an inhuman wretch /
Uncapable of pity, void and empty / From any dram
of mercy.’ (4.1.3-5)
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The trial scene
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Berry on Shylock’s conversion:
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‘Although some critics (mercifully few) argue that
from an Elizabethan perspective forced conversion
represents genuine mercy, the moment seems
intended to shock. By losing his status as “other,”
Shylock loses his sense of self. … Acceptance of the
“other” seems in this case more malicious than
ostracism.’ (2002: 126)
Disrupting Shylock’s ‘Otherness’
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Portia’s question – ‘Which is the merchant here, and which the
Jew?’ (4.1.171) – immediately disrupts any stable sense of ‘self’
and ‘other’.
Shylock makes a valid point about the Christian characters’
hypocrisy:
SHYLOCK. You have among you many a purchased slave
Which, like your asses and your dogs and mules,
You use in abject and in slavish parts
Because you bought them. Shall I say to you
‘Let them be free, marry them to your heirs.
Why sweat they under burdens? Let their beds
Be made as soft as yours, and let their palates
Be seasoned with such viands.’ You will answer
‘The slaves are ours.’ So do I answer you. (4.1.89-97)
Disrupting Barabas’s ‘Otherness’
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We might be reminded here of Barabas, who points out Christian hypocrisy
by citing scripture:
FIRST KNIGHT. …If your first curse fall heavy on thy head
And make thee poor and scorned of all the world,
’Tis not our fault, but thy inherent sin.
BARABAS. What? Bring you scripture to confirm your wrongs?
Preach me not out of my possessions.
Some Jews are wicked, as all Christians are;
But say the tribe that I descended of
Were all in general cast away for sin,
Shall I be tried by their transgression?
The man that dealeth righteously shall live;
And which of you can charge me otherwise? (1.2.108-18)
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We might also be reminded of The Jew of Malta’s slave-market, where ‘Every
one’s price is written on his back’ (2.3.3).
Disrupting Shylock’s ‘Otherness’
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‘Shylock’s vengefulness marks him as a Jew, an “other”
to the Christians, who espouse the doctrine of mercy
that Portia enunciates in the trial scene. Yet as the scene
unfolds, Shylock’s vengefulness comes to seem almost
indistinguishable from a Christian charity that outwits
and breaks him.’ (Berry 2002: 131)
PORTIA. Down, therefore, and beg mercy of the Duke.
(4.1.360)
Disrupting Shylock’s ‘Otherness’
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‘Portia’s eloquent and oft-quoted speech on the “quality
of mercy” which, in the context of the trial scene…
urges on Shylock a generosity of behaviour that Portia
herself will ultimately fail to show toward him.’ (Garber
2004: 283)
An echo here of Ferneze?
PORTIA. He hath refused it in the open court.
He shall have merely justice and his bond.
(4.1.335-6)
Disrupting Shylock’s ‘Otherness’
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‘…the certainty of the moral superiority of the Christian /
Catholic over the Jew is eroded … by Shylock’s scathing account
of his customary treatment by Antonio’ (O’Rourke 2003: 377):
SHYLOCK. Signior Antonio, many a time and oft
In the Rialto you have rated me
About my moneys and my usances. […]
You call me misbeliever, cut-throat, dog,
And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine,
And all for use of that which is mine own. […]
ANTONIO. I am as like to call thee so again,
To spit on thee again, to spurn thee too. (1.3.105-29)
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As Shylock says himself: ‘The villainy you teach me I will
execute.’ (3.1.66-7)
Other ‘Others’?
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‘Given the nature of the dominant ideology and social ethos
of Elizabethan England, one is not surprised to find in
Shakespeare’s comedies biases in favour of aristocratic, male,
white, English, heterosexual Christians. In Elizabethan
culture, such categories define a normative “self”; those who
fall outside them are considered “other”.’ (Berry 2002: 124)
By Berry’s logic, nearly all the characters in The Merchant
of Venice are ‘othered’ in some way.
The whole play becomes about a system in which every
character is included somehow, but excluded in another
way.
Other ‘Others’: Class
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Antonio as merchant vs. Bassanio as aristocrat
Class ‘bonds’:
Gratiano to Bassanio
 Nerissa to Portia
 Launcelot Gobbo and Old Gobbo to Shylock
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Other ‘Others’: Race
MOROCCO. Mislike me not for my complexion,
The shadowed livery of the burnished sun,
To whom I am a neighbour and near bred.
Bring me the fairest creature northward born,
Where Phoebus’ fire scarce thaws the icicles,
And let us make incision for your love,
To prove whose blood is reddest, his or mine. (2.1.1-7)
PORTIA. A gentle riddance. Draw the curtains, go.
Let all of his complexion choose me so. (2.7.78-9)
Other ‘Others’: Gender
PORTIA. …this reasoning is not in the fashion to choose me a
husband. O me, the word ‘choose’! I may neither choose who I
would nor refuse who I dislike; so is the will of a living daughter
curbed by the will of a dead father. (1.2.20-4)
PORTIA. Myself and what is mine to you and yours
Is now converted. But now I was the lord
Of this fair mansion, master of my servants,
Queen o’er myself; and even now, but now,
This house, these servants, and this same myself
Are yours, my lord’s. I give them with this ring. (3.2.166-71)
Other ‘Others’: Gender
BASSANIO. Sweet doctor, you shall be my bedfellow.
When I am absent, then lie with my wife. (5.1.284-5)
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All three central female characters
in the play blur gender lines by
cross-dressing at some point.
Berry argues that a similar
disruption of categories of ‘self’
and ‘other’ is at work:
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‘Each of these characters is a shapeshifter, capable of calling into
question the very nature of identity
itself.’ (2002: 129)
Other ‘Others’: Homosexuality
DISCLAIMER: The idea that sexuality is a defining factor in a
person’s identity is a relatively modern one. While some
Elizabethans certainly engaged in what we might now call
‘homosexual’ activities, then, they did not think of
‘homosexuality’ in anything like the modern sense (indeed, the
word did not then exist).
SALERIO. And even there, his eye being big with tears,
Turning his face, he put his hand behind him
And, with affection wondrous sensible,
He wrung Bassanio’s hand; and so they parted.
SOLANIO. I think he only loves the world for him. (2.8.46-50)
Other ‘Others’: Homosexuality
SOLANIO. Why then, you are in love.
ANTONIO.
Fie, fie. (1.1.46)
ANTONIO. My purse, my person, my extremest means
Lie all unlock’d to your occasions. (1.1.138-9)
ANTONIO. Commend me to your honourable wife.
Tell her the process of Antonio’s end.
Say how I loved you. Speak me fair in death,
And when the tale is told, bid her be judge
Whether Bassanio had not once a love. (4.1.270-4)
Other ‘Others’: Homosexuality
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Antonio promises to pass Shylock’s wealth to Jessica
and Lorenzo, not to his own heirs.
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‘If Antonio is excluded from the good life at the end of the
Merchant, so the gay man is excluded from the play’s address.
… It is the Shakespearean text that is reconfirming the
marginalization of an already marginalized group.’ (Sinfield
1996: 128)
‘Antonio hates Shylock not because he is a more fervent
Christian than others, but because he recognizes his own alter
ego in this despised Jew who, because he is a heretic, can
never belong to the state. … He hates himself in Shylock: the
homosexual self that Antonio has come to identify
symbolically as the Jew.’ (Kleinberg 1985: 120)
Other ‘Others’ – a final observation
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‘Not only were there no Jewish moneylenders in
London in 1594, but the hated foreign usurers in
London in the 1590s were mostly Italians’
(O’Rourke 2003: 376).
References
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Berry, Edward (2002) ‘Laughing at “Others”’, in
Leggatt, A. [ed.] The Cambridge Companion to
Shakespearean Comedy, Cambridge: C.U.P., 123-38.
Cohen, D. M. (1980) ‘The Jew and Shylock’, Shakespeare
Quarterly, 31: 1, 53-63.
Garber, Marjorie (2004) Shakespeare After All, New
York: Pantheon Books.
Kleinberg, Seymour (1985) ‘The Merchant of Venice: The
Homosexual as Anti-Semite in Nascent Capitalism’ in
Kellog, S. [ed.] Literary Visions of Homosexuality, New
York: The Haworth Press.
References
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Metzger, Mary Janell (1998) ‘“Now by My Hood, a
Gentle and No Jew”: Jessica, The Merchant of Venice, and
the Discourse of Early Modern English Identity’,
PMLA, 113: 1, 52-63.
O’Rourke, James (2003) ‘Racism and Homophobia in
The Merchant of Venice’, ELH, 70: 2, 375-397.
Shapiro, James (2007) ‘The Villainy You Teach Me’,
Financial Times, January 12.
Sinfield, Alan (1996) ‘How to Read The Merchant of
Venice without being Heterosexist’, in Terence Hawkes
[ed.] Alternative Shakespeares 2, London: Routledge, 12239.