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Replies | Post Reply | Shakespeare Queries From Genuinely Interested Students 3.15.97: Top | Help
For both the "Shrew" and the "Merchant" and probably "Measure for Measure" too. Sly and Launcelot are there to address the audience and give them a pack of thoughts to go home with."The Mercant of Venice" has not been produced properly in Israel or from my point of view anywhere. The last Israeli production destoyed it as a comedy. The brutality of the anti-semites in the play was I suppose to justify Shylock's very unJewish bond. But since I believe the admittance to the court for the allocation of his wealth to his daughter was the real desire of Shylock and not the harm of Antonio - the threat of which was liable to the severist penalty, and the play is resolved so that Shylock is "content" in this, his main purpose, I see no reason to continue to struggle with the wickedness of those words. Words that could have been copied out of a Blood libel tract. They were just a paper dragon that nobody could see beyond.
Posted by Florence Amit on March 28, 1997 at 10:46:14
In Reply to "On the other hand ..." posted by Linden on March 26, 1997 at 23:32:00
Replies | Post Reply | Shakespeare Queries From Genuinely Interested Students 3.15.97: Top | Help