The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 19.0201  Wednesday, 2 April 2008

From:		Mario DiCesare <
 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
 >
Date:		Friday, 28 Mar 2008 22:47:53 -0400
Subject: 19.0190 Untouchable Shakespeare
Comment:	Re: SHK 19.0190 Untouchable Shakespeare

Robert Projansky perceptively notes (March 16) that when Tubal, in 
III.i, tells Shylock he heard Jessica traded a ring for a monkey, 
Shylock is stunned. He "starts to wail again..., but then WS uses this 
momentum to jiu-jitsu his audience, suddenly forcing them to see 
Shylock's humanity."

Shylock's deepest feelings well up here for Leah, who gave him the 
turquoise. In the BBC film of the play, Warren Mitchell receives the 
news of the lost ring with palpable, searing anguish, escaping at least 
for a moment the wily control of Tubal, who has been tormenting him 
unmercifully:

    "Out upon her!--thou torturest me Tubal--it was my turquoise,
    I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor; I would not haue giuen it
    for a wilderness of monkeys."

Projansky also suggests that Shakespeare "ratchets up Shylock's
    nastiness, e.g., he never has him show any feeling for his lost
    daughter or even mention her without wailing for his money or jewels
    in the same breath."

I disagree. I don't think the play as a whole or this text in particular 
requires us to believe that Shylock has no feeling for his lost 
daughter; quite the contrary. Salerio and Solanio's imitations of 
Shylock in II.viii -- "O my ducats! O my daughter!" -- most likely do 
not accurately reflect Shylock's miseries. Given their incapacity for 
decent human feeling, they have probably invented their sing-song 
mockeries. (It is hard to imagine Shylock crying out, "O my Christian 
ducats!") Worse, in III.i, they mock Shylock's despairing line, "My own 
flesh and blood to rebel!" and torture it into an ugly joke ("Out on it, 
old carrion! rebels it at these years?) As they leave and Tubal enters, 
Shylock's first question to Tubal is "what news from Genoa? hast thou 
found my daughter?" Shortly after this he cries out,

    "I would my daughter were dead at my foot, and the jewels in her ear;
    would she were hears'd at my foot, and the ducats in her coffin:"

It is worth noting that the structure and rhythm of this passage is 
psalmic. Having run off with a Christian, she is dead to him.

Though Shylock does show himself in Act IV, to be what Projansky calls a 
"nasty piece of work," still, he also says, in an aside, forgetting his 
earlier anguish: "These be the Christian husbands! I have a daughter...."

Cheers,
Mario A. DiCesare

_______________________________________________________________
S H A K S P E R: The Global Shakespeare Discussion List
Hardy M. Cook, 
 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
 
The S H A K S P E R Web Site <http://www.shaksper.net>

DISCLAIMER: Although SHAKSPER is a moderated discussion list, the 
opinions expressed on it are the sole property of the poster, and the 
editor assumes no responsibility for them.