The Merchant of Venice

1. The Merchant of Venice Paradox, Contradiction, History

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

5. Would you be pleased To find a nation of such barbarous temper That breaking out in hideous violence Would not afford you an abode on earth, Whet their detested knives against your throats, Spurn you like dogs, and like as if that God Owed not nor made not you, nor that the elements Were not all appropriate to your comforts But chartered unto them: what would you think To be used thus? This is the strangers’ case, And this your mountainish inhumanity. (Sir Thomas More, Hand D addition, 145-55)

6. Why we have galls; and though we have some grace, Yet we have some revenge. Let husbands know Their wives have sense like them. They see, and smell, And have their palates both for sweet and sour, As husbands have. (Emilia, Othello, 4.3.92-5)

7. The Magic ‘If’ Let’s start with the word ‘if’. Its significance lies, above all, in the fact that it initiates every creative act […] For actors, ‘if’ is the lever which lifts us out of the world of reality into the only world where we can be creative. Konstantin Stanislavski, An Actor Prepares

8. EdmundKean asShylock(1814)

9. William Hazlitt on Edmund Kean’s Shylock (1814):The constant apprehension of being burnt alive, plundered, banished, reviled, and trampled on, might be supposed to sour the most forbearing nature… The desire of revenge is almost inseparable from the sense of wrong, and we can hardly help sympathizing with the proud spirit, hid beneath his ‘Jewish gabardine,’ stung to madness by repeated undeserved provocations […] He is honest in his vices; they are hypocrites in their virtues.

11. ATTIREElegant attire has long been a tradition at Belmont Park. Ladies and Gentlemen who honor this tradition are always appreciated.Box Seats Gentlemen: Suits or sports jackets (tie optional).Ladies: Dresses, skirts or slack outfits. Absolutely no shorts or jeans.Garden Terrace RestaurantElegant attire is recommended: Gentlemen should wear suits or sports jackets. Ladies should wear dresses, skirts or pant suits. No jeans, shorts or abbreviated wear is permitted.Business casual is acceptable attire: Gentlemen are required to wear collared shirts. Suits or sports jackets are optional. No jeans, shorts or abbreviated wear permitted. Management reserves the right to use its discretion to determine acceptable attire. ClubhouseProper attire at discretion of management. No abbreviated attire. Gentlemen may not wear tank tops.

12. The pale pink face, surrounded by bright red hair and beard, with its unsteady, cunning little eyes; the greasy caftan with the yellow prayer shawl slung round; the splay-footed, shuffling walk; the foot stamping with rage; the claw-like gestures with the hands; the voice, now bawling, now muttering – all add up to a pathological image of the East European Jewish type, expressing all its inner and outer uncleanliness, emphasising danger through humour. Vienna 1943

13. The Jew in Shakespeare’s play is meant to embody what he wishes us to despise. The portrayal of Shylock offends by being a lie about the Jewish character. I’m unforgiving, unforgiving of the play’s astigmatic and murderous hatred of the Jew. It is a hateful, ignorant portrayal. […] The authority of a great dramatist reinforces those people who are inclined toward anti-Semitism… I’m especially afraid of a television production: young people will see it, and they don’t have the antibodies to resist the infection that Shakespeare so skilfully offers. London 1977 (Arnold Wesker)

14. ‘A number of the most apt jokes have grown up on the soil of Jewish popular life. They are stories created by Jews and directed against Jewish characteristics. The jokes made about Jews by foreigners are for the most part brutal comic stories in which a joke is made unnecessary by the fact that Jews are regarded by foreigners as comic figures. Incidentally, I do not know whether there are many other instances of a people making fun to such a degree of its own character’ Sigmund Freud, Jokes and their Relation to the Unconscious, Penguin, 1960: 157.

15. Textual Healing: Trevor Nunn’s 1999 National Theatre production