2011-04-16 The Merchant of Venice - Wikipedia, the f…

The Merchant of Venice

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Merchant of Venice is a tragic comedy by William

Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and
1598. Though classified as a comedy in the First Folio and sharing
certain aspects with Shakespeare's other romantic comedies, the
play is perhaps most remembered for its dramatic scenes, and is
best known for Shylock and the famous 'Hath not a Jew eyes'
speech.

The title character is the merchant Antonio, not the Jewish

moneylender Shylock, who is the play's most prominent and most
famous character. This is made explicit by the title page of the first
quarto: The moſt excellent Hiſtorie of the Merchant of Venice.
With the extreame crueltie of Shylock the Iewe towards the ſayd
Merchant, in cutting a iuſt pound of his fleſh: and the obtayning
of Portia by the choyſe of three cheſts.

Contents
1 Characters
Title page of the first quarto (1600)
2 Synopsis
3 Date and text
4 Sources
5 Performance
5.1 Shylock on stage
6 Themes
6.1 Shylock and the antisemitism debate
6.1.1 The antisemitic reading
6.1.2 The sympathetic reading
6.1.3 Influence on antisemitism
6.1.4 Character study
6.2 Sexuality in the play
6.2.1 Antonio, Bassanio
7 Adaptations and cultural references
7.1 Film adaptations
7.2 Opera
7.3 Cultural references
8 Notes
9 References
10 External links
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10 External links

Characters
Antonio - a merchant of Venice
Bassanio – Antonio's friend, in love with Portia; suitor likewise to her
Gratiano, Solanio, Salarino, Salerio – friends of Antonio and Bassanio
Lorenzo – friend of Antonio and Bassanio, in love with Jessica
Portia – a rich heiress
Nerissa – Portia's waiting-maid
Balthazar – Portia's disguise as a lawyer
Stephano – Nerissa's disguise as 'Balthazar's law clerk.
Shylock– a rich Jew, moneylender, father of Jessica
Tubal – a Jew; Shylock's friend
Jessica – daughter of Shylock, in love with Lorenzo
Lancelot Gobbo – a foolish man in the service of Shylock
Old Gobbo – father of Lancelot
Leonardo - servant to Bassanio
Duke of Venice - Venetian authority who presides over the case of Shylock's bond
Prince of Morocco – suitor to Portia
Prince of Arragon – suitor to Portia
Magnificoes of Venice, officers of the Court of Justice, Gaoler, servants to Portia, and other Attendants

Synopsis
In the 14th century, the city of Venice in Italy was one of the richest of the world. Among the wealthiest of its
merchants was Antonio. He was a kind and generous person. Bassanio, a young Venetian, of noble rank but having
squandered his estate, wishes to travel to Belmont to woo the beautiful and wealthy heiress Portia. He approaches
his friend Antonio, who has previously and repeatedly bailed him out, for three thousand ducats needed to subsidise
his travelling expenditures as a suitor for three months. Antonio agrees, but he is cash-poor; his ships and
merchandise are busy at sea. 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.

Shylock hates Antonio because of his antisemitism, shown when he insulted and spat on Shylock for being a Jew.
Additionally, Antonio undermines Shylock's moneylending business by lending money at zero interest. Shylock
proposes a condition for the loan: if Antonio is unable to repay it at the specified date, he 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 at hand, Bassanio leaves for Belmont with his friend Gratiano, who has asked to accompany him. Gratiano is
a likeable young man, but is often flippant, overly talkative, and tactless. Bassanio warns his companion to exercise
self-control, and the two leave for Belmont and Portia.

Meanwhile in Belmont, Portia is awash with suitors. Her father has left a will stipulating each of her suitors must
choose correctly from one of three caskets – one each of gold, silver, and lead. If he chooses the right casket, he
gets Portia; if he loses, he must go away and never trouble her or any other woman again with a proposal of
marriage. The first suitor, the luxury- and money-obsessed Prince of Morocco, reasons to choose the gold casket,
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because lead proclaims "Choose me and risk hazard", and he has no wish to risk everything for lead, and the silver's
"Choose me and get what you deserve" sounds like an invitation to be tortured, but "Choose me and get what most
men desire" all but spells it out that he that chooses gold will get Portia, as what all men desire is Portia. Inside the
casket are a few gold coins and a skull with a scroll containing the famous verse All that glisters is not gold /
Often have you heard that told / Many a man his life hath sold / But my outside to behold / Gilded tombs do
worms enfold / Had you been as wise as bold, / Young in limbs, in judgment old / Your answer had not been
inscroll'd: / Fare you well; your suit is cold.

The second suitor is the conceited Prince of Arragon. He decides not to choose lead, because it is so common, and
will not choose gold because he will then get what many men desire and wants to be distinguished from the
barbarous multitudes. He decides to choose silver, because the silver casket proclaims "Choose Me And Get What
You Deserve", which he imagines must be something great, because he egotistically imagines himself as great. Inside
the casket is the picture of a court jester's head on a baton and remarks "What's here? the portrait of a blinking
idiot… / Did I deserve no more than a fool's head?"[1] The scroll reads: Some there be that shadows kiss; / Such
have but a shadow's bliss: / …Take what wife you will to bed, / I will ever be your head — meaning that he
was foolish to imagine that a pompous man like him could ever be a fit husband for Portia, and that he was always a
fool, he always will be a fool, and the fact that he chose the silver casket is mere proof that he is a fool.

The last suitor is Bassanio, who chooses the lead casket. As he is considering his choice of caskets, members of
Portia's household sing a song which says that "fancy" (not true love) is "engend'red in the eyes, / With gazing
fed."[2] Seemingly in response to this little bit of philosophy, Bassanio remarks, "So may the outward shows be least
themselves. / The world is still deceived with ornament." And at the end of the same speech, just before choosing
the least valuable, and least showy metal, Bassanio says, "Thy paleness moves me more than eloquence; / And here
choose I; joy be the consequence!" He has made the right choice.

At Venice, Antonio's ships are reported lost at sea. This leaves him unable to satisfy the bond (in financial language,
insolvent). Shylock is even more determined to exact revenge from Christians after his daughter Jessica flees his
home to convert to Christianity and elope with Lorenzo, taking a substantial amount of Shylock's wealth with her, as
well as a turquoise ring which was a gift to Shylock from his late wife, Leah. Shylock has Antonio arrested and
brought before court.

At Belmont, Portia and Bassanio have just been married, as have Gratiano and Portia's handmaid Nerissa.
Bassanio receives a letter telling him that Antonio has been unable to return the loan taken from Shylock. Shocked,
Bassanio and Gratiano leave for Venice immediately, with money from Portia, to save Antonio's life by offering the
money to Shylock. Unknown to Bassanio and Gratiano, Portia has sent her servant, Balthazar, to seek the counsel
of Portia's cousin, Bellario, a lawyer, at Padua. The climax of the play comes 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 unwilling to set a dangerous legal precedent of nullifying a
contract, refers the case to a visitor who introduces 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 actually Portia in disguise,
and the "law clerk" who accompanies her is actually Nerissa, also in disguise. Portia, as "Balthazar", asks Shylock
to show mercy in a famous speech ("The quality of mercy is not strain'd, It droppeth as the gentle rain from
heaven Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest: It blesseth him that gives and him that takes."—IV,i,185,
arguing for debt relief), but Shylock refuses. Thus the court must allow Shylock to extract the pound of flesh.
Shylock tells Antonio to "prepare". At that very moment, Portia points out a flaw in the contract (see quibble): the
bond only allows Shylock to remove 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.

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Defeated, Shylock concedes to accepting Bassanio's offer of money for the defaulted bond, but Portia prevents him
from taking the money on the ground that he has already refused it. She then 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 immediately pardons Shylock's
life. Antonio asks for his share "in use" (that is, reserving the principal amount while taking only the income) until
Shylock's death, when the principal will be given to Lorenzo and Jessica. At Antonio's request, the Duke grants
remission of the state's half of forfeiture, but in return, Shylock is forced to convert to Christianity and to make a will
(or "deed of gift") bequeathing his entire estate to Lorenzo and Jessica (IV,i).

Bassanio does not recognize his disguised wife, but offers to give a present to the supposed lawyer. First she
declines, but after he insists, Portia requests his ring and Antonio's gloves. Antonio parts with his gloves without a
second thought, but Bassanio gives the ring only after much persuasion from Antonio, as earlier in the play he
promised his wife never to lose, sell or give it. Nerissa, as the lawyer's clerk, also succeeds in likewise retrieving her
ring from Gratiano, who does not see through her disguise.

At Belmont, Portia and Nerissa taunt and pretend to accuse their husbands before revealing they were really the
lawyer and his clerk in disguise (V). After all the other characters make amends, Antonio learns from Portia that
three of his ships were not stranded and have returned safely after all.

Date and text

The date of composition for 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, and the title page of
the first edition in 1600 states that it had been performed "divers times" by that date. Salarino'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 Cadiz 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 July 22, 1598 under the title The Merchant of Venice, otherwise called The Jew
of Venice. On October 28, 1600 Roberts transferred his right to the play to the stationer Thomas Hayes; Hayes
published the first quarto before the end of the year. It was printed again in a pirated edition in 1619, as part of
William Jaggard's so-called False Folio. (Afterward, Thomas Hayes' son and heir Laurence Hayes asked for and
was granted a confirmation of his right to the play, on July 8, 1619.) The 1600 edition is generally regarded as being
accurate and reliable, and is the basis of the text published in the 1623 First Folio, which adds a number of stage
directions, mainly musical cues.[3]

Sources
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 sixteenth century.[4] 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 present in the
14th century tale Il Pecorone by Giovanni Fiorentino, which was published in Milan in 1558.[5] Elements of the trial
scene are also found in The Orator by Alexandre Sylvane, published in translation in 1596.[4]

Performance
The earliest performance of which a record has survived was held at the court of King James in the spring of 1605,
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followed by a second performance a few days later, but there is no record of any further performances in the
seventeenth century.[6] In 1701, George Granville staged a successful adaptation, titled The Jew of Venice, with
Thomas Betterton as Bassanio. This version (which featured a masque) was popular, and was acted for the next
forty years. Granville cut the Gobbos in line with neoclassical decorum; he added a jail scene between Shylock and
Antonio, and a more extended scene of toasting at a banquet scene. 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).[7] Arthur Sullivan wrote incidental music for the play in 1871.[8]

Shylock on stage

See also: Shylock

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,[9] 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.[10]

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".[11] Jacob
Adler was the most notable of the early 20th century: Adler played the role in Yiddish-language translation, first in
Manhattan's Lower East Side, and later on Broadway, where, to great acclaim, he performed the role in Yiddish in
an otherwise English-language production.[12]

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?"[13]

Some modern productions take further pains to show how Shylock's thirst for vengeance has some justification. 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 the Jewish community is cruelly abused by the bigoted Christian population of the
city. 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, and would still not be accepted
by the Christians, as they might feel that Shylock has not changed.

Themes
Shylock and the antisemitism debate
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The play is frequently staged today, but is potentially troubling to modern audiences due to its central themes, which
can easily appear antisemitic. Critics today still continue to argue over the play's
stance on antisemitism.

The antisemitic reading

English society in the Elizabethan era has been described as antisemitic.[14] English
Jews had been expelled in the Middle Ages and were not permitted to return until
the rule of Oliver Cromwell. Jews were often presented on the Elizabethan stage
in hideous caricature, with hooked noses and bright red wigs, and were usually
depicted as avaricious usurers; an example is Christopher Marlowe's play The
Jew of Malta, which features a comically wicked Jewish villain called Barabas.
They were usually characterized as evil, deceptive and greedy.

Shylock and Jessica by
Maurycy Gottlieb
During the 17th century in Venice and in some other places, Jews were required
to wear a red hat at all times in public to make sure that they were easily
identified. If they did not comply with this rule they could face the death penalty.
Jews also had to live in a ghetto protected by Christians, supposedly for their own
safety. The Jews were expected to pay their guards.[15]

In the 2004 film, Antonio is seen to spit on Shylock in the beginning, in accordance with Shylock's line "you spit on
my Jewish gaberdine", so that Shylock's hate for Antonio grows out of the antisemitic treatment he receives.

Readers may see Shakespeare's play as a continuation of this antisemitic 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 The Jew of Malta. One interpretation of the play's structure is that Shakespeare meant to
contrast the mercy of the main Christian characters with the vengefulness of a Jew, who lacks the religious grace to
comprehend mercy. Similarly, it is possible that Shakespeare meant Shylock's forced conversion to Christianity to
be a "happy ending" for the character, as, to a Christian audience, it saves his soul and allows him to enter Heaven.

Hyam Maccoby argues that the play is based on medieval morality plays in which the Virgin Mary (here
represented by Portia) argues for the forgiveness of human souls, as against the implacable accusations of the Devil
(Shylock). On this reading, the Merchant is notably more antisemitic than The Jew of Malta, in which there are no
good Christian characters and the Jewish villain seems to be regarded by the author with a certain covert
sympathy.[citation needed]

The sympathetic reading

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, Shakespeare gives Shylock one of his most eloquent speeches:

Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs,

dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with
the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject
to the same diseases, heal'd by the same means,
warm'd and cool'd by the same winter and summer
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as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed?
If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us,
do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?
If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that.
If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility?
Revenge. 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.
(Act III, scene I)

Influence on antisemitism

Regardless of what Shakespeare's own intentions may have been, the

play has been made use of by antisemites throughout the play's history.
One must note that the end of the title in the 1619 edition "With the Shylock and Portia (1835) by
Extreme Cruelty of Shylock the Jew…" must aptly describe how Shylock Thomas Sully
was viewed by the English public. 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.[16]

The depiction of Jews in English 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".[17]

Character study

It is difficult to know whether the sympathetic reading of Shylock is entirely due to changing sensibilities among
readers, or whether Shakespeare, a writer who created complex, multi-faceted characters, deliberately intended
this reading.

One reason for this interpretation is that Shylock's painful status in Venetian society is emphasized. To some critics,
Shylock's celebrated "Hath not a Jew eyes" speech (see above) redeems him and even makes him into something of
a tragic figure. In the speech, Shylock argues that he is no different from the Christian characters. Detractors note
that Shylock ends the speech with a tone of revenge: "if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?" Those who see the
speech as sympathetic point out that Shylock says he learned the desire for revenge from 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 characterizations.

In the trial Shylock represents the Jewish side in contrast to the Christian one in a matter of highest importance:
Justice (Jewish, Old Testament) is confronted with Mercy (Christian, New Testament). In the Christian view mercy
is the decisive step after justice is reached. Therefore the Christians in the courtroom urge mercy. Beside the fact,
that Shylock as a Jew is not in duty to give mercy, he is not able as well, because for this you need love. He does
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not find love at all, but hate. Shakespeare explains this in Shylock's monologue very clearly. To be merciful despite
the hate nevertheless you have to love your enemy (New Testament). That means in fact that the Christians in the
courtroom urge Shylock to behave like a very true Christian by loving his enemies although they themselves failed
even in loving just their neighbours (the Jews) in the past before.

Sexuality in the play

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 theorize 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:[citation needed]

ANTONIO: Commend me to your honourable wife:

Tell her the process of Antonio's end,
Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Say how I lov'd you, speak me fair in death;
Shylock, painted by Charles Buchel And, when the tale is told, bid her be judge
(1895–1935). Whether Bassanio had not once a love.
BASSANIO: But life itself, my wife, and all the world
Are not with me esteemed above thy life;
I would lose all, ay, sacrifice them all
Here to this devil, to deliver you. (IV,i)

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 the two 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

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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."[18]

Adaptations and cultural references

Film adaptations

The Shakespeare play has inspired several films.

1914—silent film directed by Lois Weber

Weber, who also stars as Portia, became the first woman to direct a full-length feature film in America
with this film.
The Merchant of Venice (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0004325/) at the Internet Movie Database
1973—television film directed by John Sichel
The cast included Laurence Olivier as Shylock, Anthony Nicholls as Antonio, Jeremy Brett as
Bassanio, Joan Plowright as Portia, Louise Purnell as Jessica.
The Merchant of Venice (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070386/) at the Internet Movie Database
1980—A BBC television film directed by Jack Gold
The cast included Warren Mitchell as Shylock and John Rhys-Davies as Salerio
The Merchant of Venice (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081152/) at the Internet Movie Database
1996—A Channel 4 television film directed by Alan Horrox
The cast included Paul McGann as Bassanio and Haydn Gwynne as Portia
The Merchant of Venice (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0138606/) at the Internet Movie Database
2001—A BBC television film directed by Trevor Nunn
Royal National Theatre production starring Henry Goodman as Shylock
The Merchant of Venice (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0298061/) at the Internet Movie Database
2002—The Maori Merchant of Venice, directed by Don Selwyn.
In Maori, with English subtitles. The cast included Waihoroi Shortland as Shylock, Scott Morrison as
Antonio, Te Rangihau Gilbert as Bassanio, Ngarimu Daniels as Portia, Reikura Morgan as Jessica.
The Maori Merchant of Venice (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0300179/) at the Internet Movie
Database
2003—Shakespeare's Merchant, directed by Paul Wagar and produced by Lorenda Starfelt, Brad Mays
and Paul Wagar.
Shakespeare's Merchant (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0362141/) at the Internet Movie Database
2004—The Merchant of Venice, directed by Michael Radford.
The cast included Al Pacino as Shylock, Jeremy Irons as Antonio, Joseph Fiennes as Bassanio, Lynn
Collins as Portia, and Zuleikha Robinson as Jessica.
The Merchant of Venice (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379889/) at the Internet Movie Database
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Opera

Reynaldo Hahn's three act French opera Le marchand de Venise was first performed at the Paris Opéra, on 25
March 1935.

Cultural references

Arnold Wesker's play The Merchant tells the same story from Shylock's point of view. In this retelling, Shylock
and Antonio are fast friends bound by a mutual love of books and culture and a disdain for the crass anti-Semitism
of the Christian community's laws. They make the bond in defiant mockery of the Christian establishment, never
anticipating that the bond might become forfeit. When it does, the play argues, Shylock must carry through on the
letter of the law or jeopardize the scant legal security of the entire Jewish community. He is, therefore, quite as
grateful as Antonio when Portia, as in Shakespeare's play, shows the legal way out. The play received its American
premiere on November 16, 1977 at New York's Plymouth Theatre with Joseph Leon as Shylock and Marian
Seldes as Shylock's sister Rivka. This production had a challenging history in previews on the road, culminating
(after the first night out of town in Philadelphia on September 8, 1977) with the death of the larger-than-life
Broadway star Zero Mostel, who was initially cast as Shylock. The play's author, Arnold Wesker wrote a book
chronicling the out-of-town tribulations that beset the play and Zero's death called "The Birth of Shylock and the
Death of Zero Mostel."

David Henry Wilson's play Shylock's Revenge, which was first performed by The University Players at the
Audimax, Hamburg, on 9 June 1989, can be seen as a full-length sequel to Shakespeare's drama.

Edmond Haraucourt, the 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.[19]

One of the four short stories comprising Alan Isler's Op Non Cit is also told from Shylock's point of view. In this
story, Antonio was a boy of Jewish origin kidnapped at an early age by priests.

Ralph Vaughan Williams' choral work Serenade to Music 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 the character "Greenberg", specified as a Jew only in the
later version, gives a recitation of the "Hath not a Jew Eyes?" to Nazi soldiers.[20]

In The Pianist, Henryk Szpilman quotes a passage from Shylock's 'Hath a Jew No Eyes?' speech to his brother
Wladyslaw Szpilman in a Jewish Ghetto in Warsaw, Poland, during the Nazi occupation in World War II. Given the
questioning of Antisemitism in the speech and also the Nazi use of the play for antisemitic propaganda purposes, the
quote is seen as particularly poignant and symbolic.

Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List depicts SS Lieutenant Amon Göth quoting Shylock's 'Hath a Jew No Eyes?'
speech when discussing whether to turn in his Jewish lover to the death squads.

Regina Spektor's song "Pound of Flesh" references The Merchant of Venice.

Notes
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1. ^ Merchant of Venice: Act 2, Scene 9, Lines 54-59 (http://www.shakespeare-
navigators.com/merchant/MerchantText29.html#54)
2. ^ Merchant of Venice: Act 3, Scene 2, Lines 67-68 (http://www.shakespeare-
navigators.com/merchant/MerchantText32.html#67)
3. ^ Stanley Wells and Michael Dobson, eds., The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare Oxford University Press, 2001,
p. 288.
4. ^ a b Muir, Kenneth (2005). "The Merchant of Venice". Shakespeare's Sources: Comedies and Tragedies. New
York: Routledge. p. 49. ISBN 0-415-35269-X.
5. ^ Bloom (2007: 112–113)
6. ^ Charles Boyce, Encyclopaedia of Shakespeare, New York, Roundtable Press, 1990, p. 420.
7. ^ F. E. Halliday, A Shakespeare Companion 1564–1964, Baltimore, Penguin, 1964; pp. 261, 311–12. In 2004, the
film was released.
8. ^ Information about Sullivan's incidental music to the play
(http://math.boisestate.edu/GaS/other_sullivan/venice/index.html) at The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, accessed 31
December 2009
9. ^ Adler erroneously dates this from 1847 (at which time Kean was already dead); the Cambridge Student Guide to
The Merchant of Venice dates Kean's performance to a more likely 1814.
10. ^ Adler 1999, 341.
11. ^ Wells and Dobson, p. 290.
12. ^ Adler 1999, 342–44.
13. ^ Adler 1999, 344–350
14. ^ Philipe Burrin, Nazi Anti-Semitism: From Prejudice to Holocaust. The New Press, 2005, ISBN 1-56584-969-8,
p. 17.

It was not until the twelfth century that in northern Europe (England, Germany, and France), a
region until then peripheral but at this point expanding fast, a form of Judeophobia developed that
was considerably more violent because of a new dimension of imagined behaviors, including
accusations that Jews engaged in ritual murder, profanation of the host, and the poisoning of wells.
With the prejudices of the day against Jews, atheists and non christians in general Jews found it hard
to fit in with society. Some say that these attitudes provided the foundations of anti-semitism in the
20th century. "

15. ^ The Virtual Jewish History Tour - Venice (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Venice.html)

16. ^ Lecture by James Shapiro: "Shakespeare and the Jews"
17. ^ The Fictive Jew in the Literature of England 1890–1920 David Mirsky in the Samuel K. Mirsky Memorial
Volume.
18. ^ Reuters. "Was the Merchant of Venice gay?" (http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200412/s1273518.htm) ,
ABC News Online, 29 December 2004. Retrieved on 2010-11-12
19. ^ Nectoux, Jean-Michel (1991). Gabriel Fauré: A musical life. Cambridge University Press. pp. 143–146. ISBN 0-
521-23524-3
20. ^ Sammond, Nicholas; Mukerji, Chandra (2001). Bernardi, Daniel. ed. Classic Hollywood, classic whiteness.
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. pp. 15–27. ISBN 0-8166-3239-1.

References
Abend-David, Dror, 'Scorned My Nation:' A Comparison of Translations of The Merchant of Venice
into German, Hebrew, and Yiddish (http://www.amazon.com/Scorned-Nation-Translations-Comparative-
Literatures/dp/0820457981/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1284135061&sr=1-1) , New York:
Peter-Lang, 2003, ISBN 978-0-8204-5798-7.
Adler, Jacob, A Life on the Stage: A Memoir, translated and with commentary by Lulla Rosenfeld, Knopf,
New York, 1999, ISBN 0-679-41351-0.
…wikipedia.org/…/The_Merchant_of_Venice 11/12
2011-04-16 The Merchant of Venice - Wikipedia, the f…
Bloom, Harold (2007). Heims, Neil. ed. The merchant of Venice. New York: Infobase. pp. 112–113.
ISBN 0-7910-9576-2.
Caldecott, Henry Stratford: Our English Homer; or, the Bacon-Shakespeare Controversy (Johannesburg
Times, 1895).
Gross, John, Shylock: A Legend and Its Legacy (http://www.amazon.com/Shylock-Legend-Legacy-John-
Gross/dp/0671883860/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1284358222&sr=8-3) , US: Touchstone,
2001, ISBN 0671883860; ISBN 978-0671883867.
Smith, Rob: Cambridge Student Guide to The Merchant of Venice. ISBN 0-521-00816-6.
Yaffe, Martin D.: Shylock and the Jewish question.

External links
The Merchant of Venice Navigator (http://www.shakespeare-navigators.com/merchant) — Includes
annotated text, line numbers, search engine, and scene summaries.
Entire Script- The Merchant of Venice (http://www.bartleby.com/70/index19.html) fully copied, in easy to
read format
The Merchant of Venice (http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/2243) — plain vanilla text from Project Gutenberg
The Merchant of Venice (http://shakespeare.mit.edu/merchant/full.html) — HTML version of this title.
The Merchant of Venice (http://www.maximumedge.com/shakespeare/merchant.htm) — Searchable version
of the play, indexed by scene.
Thesis statements & important quotes from The Merchant of Venice
(http://www.paperstarter.com/merchantofvenice.htm)
CliffsNotes (http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/id-76.html)
SparkNotes: Study Guide (http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/merchant/)
Lesson plans for The Merchant of Venice (http://webenglishteacher.com/merchant.html) at Web English
Teacher
The Merchant of Venice (http://www.shmoop.com/merchant-of-venice/) study guide, themes, quotes,
character analyses, teaching guide
A Contemporary English Version of The Merchant of Venice (http://merchantofvenice.weebly.com/) —
includes extensive notes and commentary, with essays on "The Lottery" and "The Three Sals."
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Merchant_of_Venice"
Categories: 1590s plays | Shakespearean comedies | Italy in fiction | Judaism-related controversies | Works about
debt | Antisemitism in literature

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