Yes
No
When Portia says "Tarry a little; there is something else"(MV4.1.304), Shylock may be standing face to face with Bassanio. That Shylock has a knife in his hand evoked the death of Marlowe. That Bassanio is a scholar and a soldier evoked the life and death of Sir Philip Sidney. The fact that no character in this play is killed makes the question of this thread quite difficult.
And in the last scene of R&J we have: "and if aught in this / Miscarried by my fault, let my old life / Be sacrificed some hour before his time / Unto the rigor of severest law"(R&J5.3.266-9). Shylock's "I stand here for law"(MV4.1.142) plainly echoes the Friar. As we have seen, Shylock's first line in the play, "Three thousand ducats, well"(MV1.3.1), plainly recalls Romeo's "Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight"(R&J5.1.34). "Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things"(R&J5.3.307), says the Prince. During the Nazi era in Germany, the lunatic government used Shakespeare as a terrorist tool. We read that goons were present in the audience to threaten anyone interested in obeying Shakespeare's Prince.
And as Professor Parrott wrote some eighty years ago for students, criticism is often written in response to other critics. Professor Bevington's remarks(see post #391), then, may be in reply to Isaac Asimov, Professor Bloom or his own Christian students whose first impression of the play may be that Shakespeare is rejecting Christianity. For example, Hawkman's remark here that Antonio would rather die than be poor is a thought that might be tempered by further study. And I'm responding in part to John Gross' fine book about the play. Professor Kenneth Gross was responding in part to John Gross and Philip Roth.
Professor Barnet begins his notes about the stage history of the play by quoting a comment on Charles Macklin's nineteenth century performance: "This is the Jew that Shakespeare drew." He goes on to add "exactly what does one mean when one says that a certain portrayal renders the figure 'that Shakespeare drew?'.........One school of scholarship protests that we will get the most out of the play if we try to see it in its Elizabethan context, but to argue that 'the Elizabethans' thought thus-and-so about Jews is scarcely convincing, for although Shakespeare certainly was an Elizabethan, he certainly was not a typical Elizabethan..........Moreover, the Shakespeare that interests us is the playwright." Barnet also quotes Shylock's "eyes speech"(as Hawkman calls it here) exactly where Marchette Chute did, "I am a Jew," but he leaves it to us to note that the Elizabethan context is such that the phrase rhymes with Juliet's "What's Montague?" from Shakespeare's ROMEO AND JULIET. Answering the question of this thread is a team effort.
Dang! Charles Macklin performed the part of Shylock for nearly half of the eighteenth century, not nineteenth. Portia's "How all the other passions fleet to air"(MV3.2.110) speech can be overlooked as it is found between two lengthy speeches from Bassanio. It does contain, however, a list of passions where we find "green-eyed jealousy." One may then argue that "green-eyed jealousy" is an important motive among others that drive Shylock's "losing suit"(MV4.1.63).
I still have to look up Portia's speech "How all the other passions fleet to air"( I didn't understand why it has to be ignored only because Bassanio's speeches are longer.
"I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row
Sorry about a lack of clarity in #500. I meant to note that the speech has not been noted prior to the other day here. Jealousy is also a subject in the scene just before the court scene: "I shall grow jealous of you shortly, Launcelot, if you thus get my wife into corners"(MV3.5.29-30). "Rash-embraced despair"(MV3.2.109), I should think, might recall the first conversation in the play. One might suggest that Portia's "How all the other passions" speech brings together such things as Hawkman and Charles D.'s disagreement in posts #50-53 here. It is reasonable to suggest that one passion motivating Shylock is jealousy. This is suggested in a speech from Launcelot earlier: "Adieu! Tears exhibit my tongue. Most beautiful pagan, most sweet Jew! If a Christian do not play the knave and get thee, I am much deceived"(MV2.3.10-12). Some editors,as we have seen, substitute "did" for "do."
Interesting, Stanley. Launcelot seems to like Jessica indeed. But in the case of Shylock I would rather suggest envy ( of the greater freedom of the Christians) than jealousy.
"I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row
Well done Danik! One might recall Professor Leggatt's comment for the Folger edition, that various comments are "allowed" by the text. The author's use of the word "or" also comes to mind: "What said my man when my betossed soul / Did not attend him as we rode? I think / He told me Paris should have married Juliet. / Said he not so? Or did I dream it so? / Or am I mad, hearing him talk of Juliet / To think it was so?"(ROMEO AND JULIET5.3.76-81). Eminent scholar J. Dover Wilson wrote that MV was written near the time of R&J and that it is interesting to compare the two.
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