Merchant Venice

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The Merchant of Venice

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Title page of the first quarto (1600)

The Merchant of Venice is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been writtenbetween 1596 and 1598. Although classified as a comedyin the First Folio, and while itshares certain aspects with Shakespeare's otherromantic comedies, the play is perhapsmore remembered for its dramatic scenes, and is best known for the character ofShylock.

The title character is the merchantAntonio, not the JewishmoneylenderShylock, who isthe play's most prominent and more famous villain. Though Shylock is a tormentedcharacter, he is also a tormentor, so whether he is to be viewed with disdain or sympathyis up to the audience (as influenced by the interpretation of the play's director and leadactors). As a result, The Merchant of Venice is often classified as one of Shakespeare'sproblem plays.
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Contents

[hide]

1 Date and text 2 Characters 3 Synopsis 4 Performance

o 4.1 Shylock on stage 5 Themes

o 5.1 Shylock and the anti-Semitism debate 5.1.1 The anti-Semitic reading 5.1.2 The sympathetic reading 5.1.3 Influence on anti-semitism 5.1.4 Character study

o 5.2 A Catholic readingo 5.3 Sexuality in the play

5.3.1 Antonio, Bassanio 5.3.2 Bassanio, Portia and fidelity

6 Adaptations and cultural referenceso 6.1 Film adaptationso 6.2 Cultural referenceso 6.3 Pastime

7 Notes 8 References

9 External links

[edit] Date and text
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Facsimile of the first page ofThe Merchant of Venice from theFirst Folio, published in1623

The date of composition forThe Merchant of Venice, which draws strongly on Spanishliterature,[1] 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 pageof 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 theSpanish ship St. Andrew captured by the English at Cadiz in 1596. A date of 159697 isconsidered consistent with the play's style.

The play was entered in the Registerof the Stationers Company, the method at that timeof obtainingcopyright for a new play, by James Roberts on July 22, 1598 under the titleThe Merchant of Venice, otherwise called The Jew of Venice. On October 28, 1600Roberts transferred his right to the play to the stationer Thomas Hayes; Hayes publishedthe 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-calledFalse Folio. (Afterward, Thomas Hayes' sonand heir Laurence Hayes asked for and was granted a confirmation of his right to theplay, on July 8, 1619.) The 1600 edition is generally regarded as being accurate andreliable, and is the basis of the text published in the 1623 in the First Folio, which adds anumber of stage directions, mainly musical cues.[2]

The earliest performance of which a record has survived was held at the court ofKingJamesin the spring of 1605, followed by a second performance a few days later, but thereis no record of any further performances in the seventeenth century.[3] In 1701, GeorgeGranvillestaged a successful adaptation, titled The Jew of Venice, with Thomas Bettertonas Bassanio. This version (which featured a masque) was popular, and was acted for the

next forty years. Granville cut the Gobbos in line with neoclassicaldecorum; he added ajail scene between Shylock and Antonio, and a more extended scene of toasting at abanquet scene. Thomas Doggett was Shylock, playing the role comically, perhaps evenfarcically. Roweexpressed doubts about this interpretation as early as 1709; however,Doggett's success in the role meant that later productions would feature the troupe clownas Shylock.

In 1741 Charles Macklin returned to the original text in a very successful production atDrury Lane, paving the way forEdmund Kean seventy years later (see below).[4]

[edit] Characters

The Duke of Venice Prince of Morocco, Prince of Aragon Portias suitors Antonio a merchant from Venice Bassanio his friend in love with Portia Portia a rich Heiress and beautiful girl Nerissa her Waiting-maid Gratiano, Solanio, Salerio friends of Antonio and Bassanio
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Lorenzo in love with Jessica Shylock a rich Jew Tubal a Jew; his Friend Jessica Daughter of Shylock who becomes a Christian Launcelot Gobbo a clown servant to Shylock

Old Gobbo father to Launcelot Leonardo servant to Bassanio Balthazar, Stephano Servants to Portia Magnificoes of Venice, officers of the Court of Justice, Gaoler, servants to Portia,

and other Attendants

[edit] Synopsis

Portia by Henry Woods

Bassanio, a young Venetian, would like to travel to Belmontto woo the beautiful andwealthy heiress Portia. He approaches his friendAntonio, a merchant, for three thousandducats needed to subsidize his traveling expenditures as a suitor for three months. As allof Antonio's ships and merchandise are busy at sea, he promises to cover a bond, soBassanio turns to the moneylender/usurer Shylock.

Shylock, who hates Antonio because he had insulted and spat on him for being a Jew aweek previously, proposes a condition. If Antonio is unable to repay the loan at the
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specified date, Shylock will be free to take apound of Antonio's flesh. AlthoughBassanio does not want Antonio to accept such a risky condition, Antonio, surprised bywhat he sees as the moneylender's generosity (no "usance" interest is asked for),accedes and signs the contract. With money at hand, Bassanio leaves for Belmont withanother friend Gratiano.

In Belmont, Portia is awash with suitors. Her father has left awillstipulating each of hersuitors must choose correctly from one of three caskets one each ofgold,silver, andlead before he could win Portia's hand. In order to be granted an opportunity to marryPortia, each suitor must agree in advance to live out his life as abachelorif he loses thecontest. The suitor who correctly looks past the outward appearance of the caskets willfind Portia's portrait inside and win her hand.

After two suitors choose incorrectly (the Princes ofMorocco and Aragon) Bassaniochooses the leaden casket. He gets it right. The other two contain mocking verses,including the famous phrase all that glisters [glistens] is not gold.

At Venice, all ships bearing Antonio's goods are reported lost at sea, leaving him unableto satisfy the bond. Shylock is even more determined to exact revenge from Christiansafter his daughter Jessica flees his home to convert to Christianity and elope with theChristian Lorenzo, taking a substantial amount of Shylock's wealth with her. With thebond at hand, Shylock has Antonio arrested and brought before court.

At Belmont, Portia and Bassanio have just been married, along with his friend Gratianoand Portia's handmaid Nerissa. He receives a letter telling him that Antonio has defaultedon his loan from Shylock. Shocked, Bassanio and Gratiano leave forVenice immediately,with money from Portia, to save Antonio's life. Unknown to Bassanio and Gratiano,

Portia and Nerissa leave Belmont to seek the counsel of Portia's cousin, Bellario, alawyer, at Padua.

The dramatic center of the play comes in the court of the Duke of Venice. Shylockrefuses Bassanio's offer, despite Bassanio increasing the repayment to 6000 ducats (twicethe specified loan). He demands the pound of flesh from Antonio. The Duke, wishing tosave Antonio but unwilling to set a dangerous legal precedent of nullifying a contract,refers the case to Balthasar, a young male "doctor of the law" who is actually Portia indisguise, with "his" lawyer's clerk, who is Nerissa in disguise. Portia asks Shylock toshow mercy in a famous speech (The quality of mercy is not strainedIV,i,185), butShylock refuses. Thus the court allows Shylock to extract the pound of flesh.

At the very moment Shylock is about to cut Antonio with his knife, Portia points out aflaw in the contract (see Quibble (plot device)). The bond only allows Shylock to removetheflesh, not blood, of Antonio. If Shylock were to shed any drop of Antonio's blood indoing so, his "lands and goods" will be forfeited under Venetian laws.

Defeated, Shylock concedes to accepting monetary payment for the defaulted bond, but isdenied. Portia pronounces none should be given, and for his attempt to take the life of a
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citizen, Shylock's property will be forfeited, half to the government and half to Antonio,and his life will be at the mercy of the Duke. The Duke pardons his life before Shylockcan beg for it, and Antonio asks for his share "in use" (that is, reserving the principalamount while taking only the income) until Shylock's death, when the principal will begiven 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 tomake 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 thesupposed lawyer. First she declines, but after he insists, Portia requests his ring and hisgloves. He gives the gloves away without a second thought, but gives the ring only aftermuch persuasion from Antonio, as earlier in the play he promised his wife never to lose,sell or give it away. Nerissa, as the lawyer's clerk, also succeeds in retrieving her ringfrom Gratiano.

At Belmont, Portia and Nerissa taunt their husbands before revealing they were really the

lawyer and his clerk in disguise.After all the other characters make amends, all ends happily (except for Shylock) asAntonio learns that three of his ships were not stranded and have returned safely after all.

[edit] Performance

[edit] Shylock on stage

Jacob Adlerand others report that the tradition of playing Shylock sympathetically beganin the first half of the 19th century with Edmund Kean[5] , and that previously the role had

been played "by a comedian as a repulsive clown or, alternatively, as a monster ofunrelieved evil." Kean's Shylock established his reputation as an actor. [6]

From Kean's time forward, all of the actors who have famously played the role, with theexception ofEdwin Booth, who played Shylock as a simple villain, have chosen asympathetic approach to the character; even Booth's father, Junius Brutus Booth, playedthe role sympathetically. Henry Irving's portrayal of an aristocratic, proud Shylock (firstseen at the Lyceum in 1879, with Portia played by Ellen Terry) has been called "thesummit of his career".[7]Jacob Adler was the most notable of the early20th century.[citationneeded] Adler played the role in Yiddish-language translation, first inManhattan's LowerEast Side, and later on Broadway, where, to great acclaim, he performed the role in

Yiddish in an otherwise English-language production.[8]

Kean and Irving presented a Shylock justified in wanting his revenge; Adler's Shylockevolved over the years he played the role, first as a stock Shakespearean villain, then as aman whose better nature was overcome by a desire for revenge, and finally as a man whooperated not from revenge but frompride. In a 1902 interview with Theatermagazine,Adler pointed out that Shylock is a wealthy man, "rich enough to forgo the interest onthree thousand ducats" and that Antonio is "far from the chivalrous gentleman he is made
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to appear. He has insulted the Jew and spat on him, yet he comes with hypocriticalpoliteness 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 defianthatred and scorn?"[9]

Some modern productions take further pains to show how Shylock's thirst for vengeancehas some justification. For instance, in the2004 film adaptation directed by MichaelRadford and starringAl Pacino as Shylock, the film begins with text and a montage ofhow the Jewish community is cruelly abused by the bigoted Christian population of thecity. 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 allowedto live in the ghetto, and would still not be accepted by the Christians, as they would feelthat Shylock was yet the Jew he once was.

[edit] Themes

Shylock and Jessica by Maurycy Gottlieb

[edit] Shylock and the anti-Semitism debate
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This section may contain original research or unverified claims.

Please help Wikipedia by adding references. See the talk page for details.(October 2007)

The play is frequently staged today, but is potentially troubling to modern audiences dueto its central themes, which can easily appearanti-Semitic. Critics today still continue to

argue over the play's stance on anti-Semitism.

[edit] The anti-Semitic reading

English society in the Elizabethan era has been described as anti-Semitic. [10]English Jewshad been expelled in the Middle Ages and were not permitted to return until the rule ofOliver Cromwell. Jews were often presented on the Elizabethan stage in hideouscaricature, with hooked noses and bright red wigs, and were usually depicted asavaricious usurers; an example is Christopher Marlowe's play The Jew of Malta, whichfeatures a comically wicked Jewish villain called Barabas. They were usuallycharacterized as evil, deceptive, and greedy.

During the 1600s in Venice and in some other places, Jews were required to wear a redhat at all times in public to make sure that they were easily identified. If they did notcomply with this rule they could face the death penalty. Jews also had to live in a ghettoprotected by Christians, supposedly for their own safety. The Jews were expected to paytheir guards. [11]

Readers may see Shakespeare's play as a continuation of this anti-Semitic tradition. Thetitle page of the Quartoindicates that the play was sometimes known as The Jew ofVenice in its day, which suggests that it was seen as similar to Marlowe's The Jew ofMalta. 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 thereligious grace to comprehend mercy. Similarly, it is possible that Shakespeare meantShylock's forced conversion to Christianity to be a "happy ending" for the character, as it'redeems' Shylock both from his unbelief and his specific sin of wanting to kill Antonio.This reading of the play would certainly fit with the anti-Semitic trends present inElizabethan England.

Hyam Maccoby argues that the play is based on medieval morality plays in which theVirgin Mary (here represented by Portia) argues for the forgiveness of human souls, asagainst the implacable accusations of the Devil (Shylock). On this reading, the Merchantis notably more anti-Semitic 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 covertsympathy.

[edit] The sympathetic reading
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Shylock and Portia (1835) by Thomas Sully

Many modern readers and theatregoers have read the play as a plea for tolerance asShylock is a sympathetic character. Shylock's 'trial' at the end of the play is a mockery ofjustice, with Portia acting as a judge when she has no real right to do so. Thus,Shakespeare is not calling into question Shylock's intentions, but the fact that the verypeople who berated Shylock for being dishonest have had to resort to trickery in order towin. Shakespeare puts one of his most eloquent speeches into the mouth of this "villain":

Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fedwith the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, heal'd by the samemeans, warm'd and cool'd by the same winter and summer as a Christian is? If you prick us, dowe not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if youwrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If aJew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what shouldhis 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

[edit] Influence on anti-semitism

Regardless of what Shakespeare's own intentions may have been, the play has been madeuse of by anti-Semites throughout the play's history. One must note that the end of thetitle in the 1619 edition "With the Extreme Cruelty of Shylock the Jew" must aptlydescribe how Shylock was viewed by the English public. TheNazis used the usuriousShylock for theirpropaganda. Shortly afterKristallnacht in 1938, "The Merchant ofVenice" was broadcast for propagandistic ends over the German airwaves. Productions of
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the play followed in Lbeck(1938), Berlin(1940), and elsewhere within the NaziTerritory.[12]

The depiction of Jews in English Literature throughout the centuries bears the closeimprint 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 onlybecause of his golden hoard". [13]

[edit] Character study

It is difficult to know whether the sympathetic reading of Shylock is entirely due tochanging sensibilities among readers, or whether Shakespeare, a writer who clearlydelighted in creating complex, multi-faceted characters, deliberately intended thisreading.

One reason for this interpretation is that Shylock's painful status in Venetian society is

emphasised. To some critics, Shylock's celebrated "Hath not a Jew eyes" speech (seeabove) 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 thatShylock ends the speech with a tone of revenge: "if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?"However, those who see the speech as sympathetic point out that Shylock says he learnedthe desire for revenge from the Christian characters: "If a Christian wrong a Jew, whatshould 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 itspower on stage for audiences who may perceive its central conflicts in radically different

terms is an illustration of the subtlety of Shakespeare's characterizations.

SirHerbert Beerbohm Tree as Shylock, painted by Charles Buchel (18951935).

[edit] A Catholic reading
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In 2004 Clare Asquith published her analysis of Shakespeare's writing from theperspective of Catholics toiling under the nascent Reformation movement in England, inher book[14]Shadowplay. Asquith maintains that Shakespeare was a recusant Catholicwhose sympathies are covertly woven within his works.Queen Elizabeth Iwas the thirdmonarch to reign over the Church of England's split from Rome (succeeding her Catholic

half-sisterQueen Marywho had attempted to undo their younger half-brotherEdward'sconsolidation ofHenry VIII's original schism). Asquith's thesis posits that the dramatispersonae mask actual persons in the politics of England at the end of the 16th century.Portia can be seen to represent Queen Elizabeth I herself, while Shylock represents apatriarch of the Puritan merchant classes who had suffered under Queen Mary'spersecutions. The relevance of the legal setting to the plot calls to mind the convictionthat Christ's new Law of Lovefulfills the Old Covenant, the natural law revealed toMoses (defended by Shylock in the speech quoted above) whereby an eye-for-an-eye is areasonable measure, superior to the lawlessness of barbarian rape and pillage, but inferiorto peaceful reconciliation dispensed with Christ-like mercy.

The question remains, does Portia dispense a Christian portion of Divine mercy? Or doesshe deal out a punishment harsher than any that Shylock could have come up with? Thefinal act contains many allusions to Catholic rituals for the celebration of solemnities inthe three days before Easter, the Triduum, banned in England at the time the play waspublished, but still celebrated elsewhere in Catholic Europe, certainly in Venice. AsAsquith[14] points out

"The opening love-duet between Lorenzo and Jessica in Act V repeats the phrase "in such anight"eight times: exactly the same number that the phrase "this is the night"is repeated in thegreat Easter hymn, theExultet. "

Catholics in England continued to be persecuted for more than two centuries beforeregaining their religious freedoms, albeit with concessions to the civil rights of their Irishbrethren, under the second Catholic Relief Act. Antonio is reprieved by Portia'scomprehension of the Christian Mystery: Christ the Pascal Lamb shed blood for us all,justice does not require a second blood-shedding.

[edit] Sexuality in the play

This section may contain original research or unverified claims.

Please help Wikipedia by adding references. See the talk page for details.(October 2007)

[edit] Antonio, Bassanio

Antonio's unexplained depression"In sooth I know not why I am so sad"and utterdevotion to Bassanio has led some critics to theorize that he is suffering from unrequitedlove for Bassanio and is depressed because Bassanio is coming to an age where he willmarry a woman. In his plays and poetry Shakespeare often depicted strong male bonds ofvarying homosociality, which has led some critics to infer that Bassanio returns Antonio'saffections despite his obligation to marry:[citation needed]
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ANTONIO: Commend me to your honorable wife:Tell her the process of Antonio's end,Say how I lov'd you, speak me fair in death;And, when the tale is told, bid her be judgeWhether Bassanio had not once a love.

BASSANIO: But life itself, my wife, and all the worldAre not with me esteemed above thy life;I would lose all, ay, sacrifice them allHere to this devil, to deliver you. (IV,i)

In his essay "Brothers and Others", published in The Dyer's Hand,W. H. Audendescribes Antonio as "a man whose emotional life, though his conduct may be chaste, isconcentrated upon a member of his own sex." Antonio's feelings for Bassanio are likenedto a couplet from Shakespeare's Sonnets: "But since she pricked thee out for women'spleasure,/ 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 onlyover the loss of Bassanio in marriage, but also because Bassanio cannot requite whatAntonio feels for him. Antonio's frustrated devotion is a form of idolatry: the right to liveis 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 sakeof destroying the enemy he hated; and Antonio, however unthinkingly he signed thebond, hazarded all to secure the happiness of the man he loved." Both Antonio andShylock, agreeing to put Antonio's life at a forfeit, stand outside the normal bounds ofsociety. 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 ofusury 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 forBassanio as questionable. Michael Radford, director of the 2004 film version starringAlPacino, explained that although the film contains a scene where Antonio and Bassanioactually kiss, the friendship between the two is platonic, in line with the prevailing viewof male friendship at the time.Jeremy Irons, in an interview, concurs with the director'sview and states that he did not "play Antonio as gay".

[edit] Bassanio, Portia and fidelity

Portia and Bassanio marry, with the promise that he will never give up her ring. The ringis a symbol of marital fidelity. The Elizabethans were obsessed with wifely fidelity, and awhole subgenre of jokes were devoted to the subject. [citation needed] An Elizabethan audiencemay have seen the significance of Bassanio giving Portia's "ring" back to her as anemblem of his potential for infidelity.

[edit] Adaptations and cultural references
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[edit] Film adaptations

The Shakespeare play has inspired several films.

1914silent film directed by Lois Weber

o Weber, who also stars as Portia, became the first woman to direct a full-length feature film in America with this film.o The Merchant of Venice at the Internet Movie Database

1973television film directed by John Sichelo The cast included Sir Laurence Olivieras Shylock, Anthony Nichollsas

Antonio, Jeremy Brett as Bassanio, Joan Plowright as Portia, LouisePurnell as Jessica.

o The Merchant of Venice at the Internet Movie Database 1980A BBC television film directed by Jack Gold

o The cast included Warren Mitchellas Shylock and John Rhys-Davies asSalerio

o The Merchant of Venice at the Internet Movie Database 1996A Channel 4 television film directed by Alan Horrox

o The cast included Paul McGann as Bassanio andHaydn Gwynneas Portiao The Merchant of Venice at the Internet Movie Database

2001A BBC television film directed by Trevor Nunno Royal National Theatreproduction starring Henry Goodman as Shylocko The Merchant of Venice at the Internet Movie Database

2004The Merchant of Venice directed by Michael Radford.o The cast included Al Pacinoas Shylock, Jeremy Irons as Antonio, Joseph

Fiennes as Bassanio, Lynn Collins as Portia, Zuleikha Robinson asJessica.

o The Merchant of Venice at the Internet Movie Database

[edit] Cultural references

Arnold Wesker's play The Merchanttells the same story from Shylock's point of view. Inthis retelling, Shylock and Antonio are fast friends, and make the bond as a joke againstthe Christian establishment. Shylock is manipulated into the position of having to enforceit, and is grateful when Portia cuts the knot by showing that the wording is ambiguousand unenforceable.

Edmond Haraucourt, the French playwright and poet, was commissioned in the 1880's by

the actor and theatrical director Paul Porel to make a French verse adaptation of theMerchant of Venice. His play Shylock, first performed at the Thtre de l'Odon inDecember 1889, had incidental music by the French composerGabriel Faur, laterincorporated into an orchestral suite of the same name. [15]

One of the four short stories comprising Alan Isler's Op Non Citis also told fromShylock's point of view. In this story, Antonio was a boy of Jewish origin kidnapped atan early age by priests...
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Roman Polanski's movie "The Pianist" contains the quote "If you prick us, do we notbleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?" As pianistWladyslaw Szpilmanand others are waiting for the trains, Szpilman sees his brotherreading from "The Merchant of Venice." He asks the man to read aloud, after whichSzpilman comments that it is an appropriate play for their situation. His brother responds,

"That's why I brought it."Stephenie Meyer'sBreaking Dawn mentions "The Merchant of Venice" as the means forthe character Alice to give a message to the heroine Bella and the rest of the Cullenfamily, by ripping out the copyright page to write a note for the family, as well asinscribing a message only meant for Bella to know on the remaining book. Meyer hasalso said that the Twilightseries was based off of "The Merchant of Venice" as well as"A Midsummer's Night Dream".

[edit] Pastime

The device of three caskets with riddles has been used forlogic puzzles in workslike What is the name of this book? by Raymond Smullyan. The coffers makeassertions about the truthfulness of their and the other inscriptions (e.g. the goldencasket has the portrait,two of the caskets are lying"), to discover the portrait ofPortia, and the reader of thepastime has to find which is telling truth.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Caldecott: Our English Homer, p. 9.2. ^ Stanley Wells and Michael Dobson, eds., The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare

Oxford University Press, 2001, p. 288.

3. ^ Charles Boyce,Encyclopaedia of Shakespeare, New York, Roundtable Press, 1990, p.420.

4. ^ F. E. Halliday,A Shakespeare Companion 15641964, Baltimore, Penguin, 1964; pp.261, 31112.

5. ^ Adler erroneously dates this from 1847 (at which time Kean was already dead); theCambridge Student Guide to The Merchant of Venice dates Kean's performance to a morelikely 1814.

6. ^ Adler 1999, 341.7. ^ Wells and Dobson, p. 290.8. ^ Adler 1999, 34244.9. ^ Adler 1999, 344350

10. ^ 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), aregion until then peripheral but at this point expanding fast, a form of Judeophobia developed thatwas considerably more violent because of a new dimension of imagined behaviors, includingaccusations that Jews engaged in ritual murder, profanation of the host, and the poisoning of wells.With the preduces of the day against Jews, atheists and non christians in general Jews found it
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hard to fit in with society. Some say that these attitudes provided the foundations of anti-semitismin the 20th century. "

11. ^ The Virtual Jewish History Tour - Venice12. ^ Lecture by James Shapiro: "Shakespeare and the Jews"13. ^ The Fictive Jew in the Literature of England 1890-1920 David Mirsky in the Samuel

K. Mirsky Memorial Volume.14. ^ abASQUITH, Clare, Shakespeares Catholic Code.15. ^Nectoux, Jean-Michel (1991), Gabriel Faur: A musical life, Cambridge University

Press, pp. 143-146,ISBN 0-521-23524-3

[edit] References

Adler, Jacob,A Life on the Stage: A Memoir, translated and with commentary byLulla Rosenfeld, Knopf, New York, 1999, ISBN 0-679-41351-0.

Caldecott, Henry Stratford: Our English Homer; or, theBacon-Shakespeare

Controversy(JohannesburgTimes, 1895). Smith, Rob: Cambridge Student Guide to The Merchant of Venice. ISBN 0-521-00816-6.

Yaffe, Martin D.: Shylock and the Jewish question.

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Shakespeare's works containing hidden references to persecution of RomanCatholicism, published in her 2005 book Shadowplay.
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Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play

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e William Shakespeare and his works

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