The Cost of Comedy Or Equity Strained Civilized

The Cost of Comedy: Or, Equity Strained

Civilized Wealth and its Discontents The Merchant of Venice exhibits the beneficence of civilized wealth – people saw great commercial Venice as a prototype of cultured prosperity • Frederick Leighton, Two Venetian Gentlemen, c. 1862 -63 • Sir Samuel Luke Fildes, Jessica. Exhibited 1888 The first two scenes establish the gracious, opulent world of the Venetian gentlemen and of the "lady richly left" at Belmont: – see Salerio, 1. 1. 8 -14 and 29 -36 – here there is no incompatibility between money and love

The Discontent Shylock is the kind of "stony adversary" (Duke, 4. 1. 4) that threatens sociable luxury. • pp. 14 -15; 1. 3. 1 -27; recall Lawrence Olivier as Shylock in this scene (1973; set in Edwardian London) What is it about Shylock, even this early on in the play, that is “stony” and adversarial? • A mechanistic view of wealth and human relations • A refusal to take risks

More Discontent BUT Shylock also embodies anxieties within this culture about money. Afterall, • both Shylock and Antonio seek profit • both Antonio and Bassanio need Shylock's money • and both Shylock and Portia equate their marriage partners with possessions (rings)

Indeed, the quantification of human worth has a long tradition in Western Civilization, pagan and Christian: 1. Roman Law - creditors could claim the body of a defaulting debtor and divide it among themselves 2. Anglo-Saxon wergild (payment to kinsmen for killing one of their kin) 3. Contemporary civil law cases: • O. J. Simpson trial -- wrongful death • Sept. 11 deaths • Ford Pinto

In effect, then, Shylock, while the opposite of what the Venetians are, is at the same time troublingly like them: • hence Olivier's skullcap lies hidden under his Edwardian top hat • hence Shylock's distinctively English name and Jessica's Scottish one (the diminutive of Jesse) • hence the Puritan connection in Macklin's costume and Shylock might well elicit sympathy from Shakespeare's audience, who embraced frugality • hence also the uncanny similarity between the skullcap Macklin toted and the skullcap of another Christian group, Roman Catholic cardinals.

In this light, the play may not at all be about Jew versus Christian but Christian versus Christian.

Summary: • Shylock threatens Venetian civilized wealth and festivity, and as such must be faced and defeated. • But just as he is "native" to Venice, he is the enemy inherent in and at the heart of all they value. – How can one defeat oneself? – “Which is the merchant here? And which the Jew? ”

Act 4. 1: “Venice: A court of Justice” Portia: "Then must the Jew be merciful. " Shylock: "On what compulsion must I? Tell me that. Portia: "The quality of mercy is not strained" (4. 1. 182 -83) What legal principle is Portia invoking here? A) Due Diligence B) Proportionality C) Tort D) Equity E) None

Is Portia herself merciful to Shylock? A) Yes E) No

What is the punishment, according to the law of Venice, if an alien is found to conspire against the life of a citizen of Venice? A) The alien is deported. B) The alien loses his life and lands to the state. C) The alien loses his life and half of his goods to the state and the other half to the person he conspired against. D) The alien loses half of his goods to the state and the other half to the person he conspired against, and he must also convert to Christianity. E) The alien must beg mercy of the Duke of Venice.

Is the Duke of Venice merciful to Shylock? A) Yes E) No Is Antonio merciful to Shylock? A) Yes E) No

In your estimation does Shylock get his “just deserts”? A) Yes E) No

If Bassanio has won Portia by the end of Act 3 and the “pound of flesh” plot is resolved by the end of Act 4, why do we need Act 5? A) Because Shakespeare’s plays always have a 5 th act B) Because the fantasy world of Belmont is needed to “soften” the harsh realities of Venice and achieve a more satisfying comic ending C) Because Portia can’t be a woman in Venice D) Because the ring test is best resolved in Belmont on Portia’s turf E) B and D

Compared to our last being there, the Belmont of Act 5 is now A) a more melancholy place B) a less magical place C) a poorer place D) a less mature place E) a male dominated place

A melancholy and taint hovers over the plays's final Act: • Bassanio and Gratiano are exposed by Portia and Nerissa as unfaithful once they return home • Jessica and Lorenzo banter about traiterous loves and accuse themselves of the same: Lorenzo. In such a night Did Jessica steal from the wealthy Jew, And with an unthrift love did run from Venice As far as Belmont. Jessica. In such a night Did young Lorenzo swear he loved her well, Stealing her soul with many vows of faith, And ne'er a true one. (5. 1. 12 -19)

It’s All Relative: The cost of the comedy of The Merchant of Venice, more positively presented, is a new, more mature, if bittersweet, awareness of the relativity of all things human: • The music of the spheres plays in the heavens, says Lorenzo to Jessica in the final act, and "Such harmony is in immortal souls, " "But whilst this muddy vesture of decay / Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it" (5. 1. 63 -65) • Portia on returning home to Belmont with Nerissa, notes the variability of her sense of light and sound (5, 1, 89 -109) – "Nothing is good, I see, without respect" (relation) – That is, everything is relative.

Gaining Perspective • Jews who are opposites of Christians are in certain lights just like them. – To defeat the Jew is to defeat a part of yourself • We revisit again Holbein's The Ambassadors Portrait – To defeat the Jew is to discover the skull-cap in the perfect Christian picture.