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: Commend me to your honourable 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 judge Whether Bassanio had not once a love. 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.

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 frustrated devotion is a form of idolatry: There is one other such idolator in the play: 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 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 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.

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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. The earliest performance of which a record has survived was held at the court of King James in the spring of , followed by a second performance a few days later, but there is no record of any further performances in the 17th century.

This version which featured a masque was popular, and was acted for the next forty years. Granville cut the clownish Gobbos [22] 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 ; Doggett's success in the role meant that later productions would feature the troupe clown as Shylock. In , 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.


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Arthur Sullivan wrote incidental music for the play in 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 , [25] and that previously the role had been played "by a comedian as a repulsive clown or, alternatively, as a monster of unrelieved evil. 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 , with Portia played by Ellen Terry has been called "the summit of his career". Adler played the role in Yiddish -language translation, first in Manhattan 's Yiddish Theater District in the Lower East Side , and later on Broadway , where, to great acclaim, he performed the role in Yiddish in an otherwise English-language production.

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 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.

Some modern productions take further pains to show the sources of Shylock's thirst for vengeance. For instance, in the film adaptation directed by Michael Radford and starring Al Pacino as Shylock, the film begins with text and a montage of how Venetian Jews are cruelly abused by bigoted Christians. 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. Another interpretation of Shylock and a vision of how "must he be acted" appears at the conclusion of the autobiography of Alexander Granach , a noted Jewish stage and film actor in Weimar Germany and later in Hollywood and on Broadway.

Edmond Haraucourt , French playwright and poet, was commissioned in the s by the actor and theatrical director Paul Porel to make a French-verse adaptation of The Merchant of Venice. 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 and the character "Greenberg", specified as a Jew in the later version, gives a recitation of the "Hath Not a Jew eyes?

The rock musical Fire Angel was based on the story of the play, with the scene changed to the Little Italy district of New York. It was performed in Edinburgh in and in a revised form at Her Majesty's Theatre , London, in Arnold Wesker 's play The Merchant is a reimagening of Shakespeare's story. In this play Shylock gets his wealth back and becomes a Jew again. The Undiscovered Country , a Klingon , who quotes Shylock.

In David Fincher 's crime thriller Seven , a lawyer, Eli Gould, is coerced to remove a pound of his own flesh and place it on a scale, alluding to the play. One of the four short stories comprising Alan Isler 's The Bacon Fancier is also told from Shylock's point of view. In this story, Antonio was a converted Jew. In the spy comedy OSS Lost in Rio , a speech by the nazi Von Zimmel parodies Shylock's tirade. All of the characters come from those two plays with the exception of Pocket, the Fool, who comes from Moore's earlier novel based on King Lear.

The play continues the story of Shylock's daughter Jessica, who lives in an anti-semitic Venice and practices her Jewish faith in secret.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This article is about Shakespeare's play. For other uses, see The Merchant of Venice disambiguation.

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Views Read Edit View history. In other projects Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Wikisource. This page was last edited on 5 December , at By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. In return, the spirit would provide him with tobacco, food, drink, and an endless supply of money. The soldier, who by his very nature was not especially fond of either prayers or of cleanliness, entered into the agreement.

He took lodgings in a village inn, and discovered soon enough that his great wealth was ample compensation for his strange looks and ill smell. A nobleman frequented this inn. Impressed by Bearskin's lavish and generous expenditures, he presented him with a proposal. The two older daughters made no attempt to hide their repugnance of the strange suitor, but the youngest unhesitatingly accepted her father's will.

Bearskin formalized the betrothal by removing a ring from his own finger and twisting it into two pieces. One piece he gave to his future bride; the other he kept. Saying that soon he would return, he departed. The seven years were nearly finished, so a short time later Bearskin did indeed come back for his bride.

Now freshly bathed, neatly shorn, elegantly dressed, and riding in a luxurious carriage, he was a suitor worthy of a princess. Identifying himself with his half of the twisted ring, he claimed his bride. Beside themselves with envy, and furious that they had squandered their rights to this handsome nobleman, one of the bride's older sisters hanged herself from a tree and the other one drowned herself in a well. Thus the devil gained two souls for the one that he had lost.

I used this edition: Brockhaus, , pp. Return to the table of contents. Bearskin Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm Once upon a time there was a young fellow who enlisted as a soldier, conducted himself bravely, and was always at the very front when it was raining bullets. As long as the war lasted all went well, but when peace was made he was dismissed, and the captain said he could go wherever he wanted to.

His parents were dead, and he had no longer a home, so he went to his brothers and asked them to support him until there was another war. The brothers, however, were hardhearted and said, "What can we do with you? We have no work for you. See that you go and make a living for yourself. The soldier had nothing left but his gun, so, putting it on his shoulder, he went forth into the world. He came to a large heath, on which nothing was to be seen but a circle of trees. Filled with sorrow, he sat down beneath them and thought about his fate.

Suddenly he heard a rustling sound, and when he looked around, a strange man was standing before him. He wore a green jacket and looked quite stately, but he had a hideous horse's foot. I will give you a jacket and a cloak, which you must wear during this time. If you die during these seven years, you are mine. If you stay alive, you are free, and rich as well, for all the rest of your life.

The soldier thought about his desperate situation, and having faced death so often before, he decided to risk it now as well, and he entered into the agreement. The devil took off his green jacket and gave it to the soldier, saying, "Whenever you wear this jacket and reach into its pocket, you will find a handful of money. Then he pulled the skin off the bear and said, "This shall be your cloak, and your bed as well, for you are to sleep on it, and you are not allowed to lie in any other bed. Because of your clothing you shall you be called Bearskin.

The soldier put on the jacket, immediately reached into the pocket, and found that the promise was really true. Then he put on the bearskin and went forth into the world. He did whatever he pleased, refraining from nothing that did him good and his money harm. During the first year his appearance was still acceptable, but during the second he looked like a monster.

His hair covered nearly his entire face. His beard looked like a piece of coarse felt cloth. His fingers had claws, and his face was so covered with dirt that if someone had planted cress on it, it would have grown. Everyone who saw him ran away. However, because everywhere he went he gave money to the poor to pray that he might not die during the seven years, and because he paid well for everything, he always found shelter. In the fourth year he arrived an inn. The innkeeper would not let him enter, refusing even to let him have a place in the stable because he was afraid he would frighten the horses.

However, when Bearskin reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of ducats, the innkeeper softened and gave him a room in an outbuilding. Bearskin, however, had to promise not to let himself be seen, lest the inn should get a bad name. One evening Bearskin was sitting alone, wishing with all his heart that the seven years were over, he heard a loud moaning in a neighboring room. He had a compassionate heart, so he opened the door and saw an old man weeping bitterly and striking his hands together above his head. Bearskin went nearer, but the man jumped to his feet and tried to run away.

At last, hearing a human voice, the man let Bearskin talk to him, and with friendly words Bearskin succeeded in getting the old man to reveal the cause of his grief. Slowly but surely the old man had lost his wealth, and now he and his daughters would have to starve. He was so poor that he could not pay the innkeeper and was to be sent to prison.

When the old man saw that he was freed from all his troubles he did not know how to show his gratitude. Choose one of them for your wife. When she hears what you have done for me she will not refuse you. You do look a little strange, to be sure, but she will put you in order again.