The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 12.1226  Friday, 25 May 2001

[1]     From:   Edmund Taft <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Thursday, 24 May 2001 13:10:58 -0400
        Subj:   Re: Tragic Hero

[2]     From:   Florence Amit <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Thursday, 24 May 2001 13:46:12 -0700 (PDT)
        Subj:   Re: SHK 12.1199 Re: Tragic Hero


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Edmund Taft <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Thursday, 24 May 2001 13:10:58 -0400
Subject:        Re: Tragic Hero

Terence Hawkes is right: Stephanie Hughes (and Florence Amit) march to
the beat of their own drummers. They have every right to do so. If other
contributors to the list have exposed what they consider to be
shortcomings or contradictions in the views of Ms. Hughes and Ms. Amit,
the act of stating such shortcomings or contradictions should be enough.
Anything more is just piling on.

I also think that Sean mistakes Terence Hawkes's dry, British wit for
"pomposity." The two can sound alike to the untrained, Canadian ear.

--Ed Taft

[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Florence Amit <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Thursday, 24 May 2001 13:46:12 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: 12.1199 Re: Tragic Hero
Comment:        Re: SHK 12.1199 Re: Tragic Hero

The requested textual references are easy for me to supply. The problem
is not that. It lies with the recipient being receptive to a
non-establishment interpretation and in accepting that the means to read
it is usually not openly supplied by the characters concerned, who are
playing a game of deception.  (according to my reading). Particularly
defeating is an un-abating tendency by the dominant culture, on stage
and off,  until this very day, to misinterpret anything that will not
represent itself in a flattering way. How could Shakespeare favor
Shylock over Solanio and Salario? Perish the thought. So I will give you
a few references, once again. Although my question becomes, will they be
considered at all?  Ms. Bonomi said in no uncertain terms, "never"- that
I should disappear and with me my texts and my supposed motives. Ask
her. However I shall endeavor to supply your request for act, scene and
line in a professional way.

Salario says he saw Bassanio and Gratiano under sail" is III,i,1,2 and
Jessica takes a sea voyage with Lorenzo. All of them end up in Belmont.
Obviously, Belmont therefore, is not a suburb of Venice. I do not think
it is in prejudicial Genoa III,i,72,  which name is put to mislead
Shylock's adversaries. So where is it? I know from history books where
it should be and Shakespeare compliments history. Launcelet has got a
"Negro" with child: a local girl of Montenegro, surely. Belmont, (the
name of a great center in Portugal for Marrano culture) is in the
Ottoman held Balkans where crypto Jews were free from the threat of the
inquisition. The placing corresponds to Portia's procedures III,iv, 84,
to arrive in Venice for the trial. After a land journey she must takes
the ferry III,iv, 53 to Padua , which is on an  estuary that is close to
Venice. She uses her servant's, Balathazar, identity. (His name suffix
spelled with a z means "returned" and "helper" in Hebrew. The text can
change the z to an s for another meaning.). He returns and she goes in
his stead.

Florence Amit

_______________________________________________________________
S H A K S P E R: The Global Shakespeare Discussion List
Hardy M. Cook, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The S H A K S P E R Webpage <http://ws.bowiestate.edu>

Subscribe to Our Feeds

Search

Make a Gift to SHAKSPER

Consider making a gift to support SHAKSPER.