The Merchant of VeniceParadox, Contradiction, History

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)

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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

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)

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)

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

EdmundKean asShylock(1814)

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.

 

 ATTIRE

  

Elegant 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.

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

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)

‘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.

Textual Healing: Trevor Nunn’s 1999 National Theatre

production