The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 12.1188  Wednesday, 23 May 2001

[1]     From:   Terence Hawkes <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Tuesday, 22 May 2001 13:29:19 -0400
        Subj:   SHK 12.1169 Re: Tragic Hero

[2]     From:   Edmund Taft <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Tuesday, 22 May 2001 14:19:04 -0400
        Subj:   Re: Tragic Hero

[3]     From:   Florence Amit <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Tuesday, 22 May 2001 22:09:06 -0700 (PDT)
        Subj:   Re: SHK 12.1169 Re: Tragic Hero


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Terence Hawkes <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Tuesday, 22 May 2001 13:29:19 -0400
Subject: Re: Tragic Hero
Comment:        SHK 12.1169 Re: Tragic Hero

The pomposity of some of the attacks on Stephanie Hughes has become
quite breathtaking.  Sean Lawrence's sonorous 'Philosophy generally
trumps history' finally takes the cake. What on earth can it possibly
mean?  Such high-minded posturing outstrips anything of which Ms Hughes
is accused.

Terence Hawkes

[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Edmund Taft <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Tuesday, 22 May 2001 14:19:04 -0400
Subject:        Re: Tragic Hero

Concerning MoV, Clifford Stetner writes:

>I do think a two
>part allegory in which the narrative of the play serves as a parallel
>for contemporary political and cultural events is characteristic of a
>great many plays.

Yes. And the really interesting thing about Shylock, as I see it, is
that he points opposite ways, depending on your frame of reference. From
a Renaissance, conservative, religious point of view, Shylock is a man
of the past -- part of a tribe that used to be favored by God, but is
now out of favor, outmoded, outdated, and impoverished of spirit.  Yet
from an economic point of view, Shylock is the man of the future, not
only able to trade with the best of them, but also willing to loan at
interest (as many Elizabethans did!), and able, like a
good-proto-capitalist, to commodify things and relationships, and thus
quantify the qualitative, the hallmark of the new capitalism.

I wonder if this paradox (if that's what it is) made Shylock more of a
problematic character to Elizabethan audiences than, say, C.S. Lewis
recognized.

--Ed Taft

[3]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Florence Amit <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Tuesday, 22 May 2001 22:09:06 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: 12.1169 Re: Tragic Hero
Comment:        Re: SHK 12.1169 Re: Tragic Hero

I am prepared to answer with as much precision that I can muster
questions that any members of the forum may want to put to me. For
instance: where Belmont might be from where Portia leaves for a short
land journey and then must take the identification papers of her servant
for a ferry ride, or how may those young men be classified , that
Solanio and Salaria disdain to converse with, but who never the less
select just them to witness an "elopement".

However Ms. Bonomi disqualifies herself from heeding me. She already
knows all the answers she needs, including those relating to my personal
psychology. I have a few times written her that she is mistaken about
the character of my "devotion". But she knows better. On the other hand,
I need not try to please Ms. Bonomi by my contributions, nor to ask
permission from her that they be shown. I do intend to stay a while
despite nuisance attacks which I will no longer regard.

Florence Amit

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