Shylock, Salanio, Shakespeare, and Stage Stereotypes

On this date in 1598 William Shakespeare submitted “The Merchant of Venice” to the authorities. The play was entered in the Stationers’ Register as “The Marchaunt of Venyce or otherwise called The Jewe of Venyce”.

Before I say anything else, I’d better make something clear.

In my considered opinion, late 16th century England is not early 21st century America.

Back then, printers, bookbinders, booksellers, and publishers licensed their products through the Stationers’ Register.

Looking at it one way, it was an early version of copyright protection. From another angle, it was the government’s way of keeping unauthorized content away from the public.

While the Stationers’ Register protected the common folk from naughty ideas, the Master of the Revels entertained royalty. And kept subversive ideas off the English stage.

These days, we call that sort of thing prior restraint. In America, it’s a hard sell. At least for folks who lack unqualified approval of The Establishment’s¹ preferences.

Words, Assumptions and Serious Thinkers

In 1598, “The Merchant of Venice” was cleared as non-subversive and deemed fit for public performance. By 1600, it had been performed “divers times”. So I figure the non-subversive stamp of approval stuck.

Shakespeare died in 1616.

In 1623, two of Shakespeare’s colleagues published “Mr. William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies”. That’s a mouthful, so academics generally call it the First Folio.

Despite the “First Folio” moniker, it’s not the first printed edition of Shakespeare’s plays. That’s another topic: and a complicated one, so I’ll skip it this week.

Where was I?

“The Merchant of Venice”.

Elizabethan England isn’t today’s America.

Shakespeare, censorship and (by implication) why I’m not fond of prior restraint. Right.

“The Merchant of Venice” was classified as a comedy in the First Folio.

Calling “The Merchant of Venice” a comedy doesn’t sit right with a fair number of today’s serious thinkers, since these days it’s the dramatic scenes that stick in our memory.

The play is also, according to at least some serious thinkers, antisemitic. I see their point, but I also see why some serious thinkers called “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” racist.²

“‘…We blowed out a cylinder-head.’
“‘Good gracious! anybody hurt?’
“‘No’m. Killed a [redacted]
“‘Well, it’s lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt….’
(“The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” Part 2 (1885), Chapter XXXII, Mark Twain; via gutenberg.org)

And that’s another yet another topic, along with my reasons for leaving words like [redacted] out of these posts.

And my conversations, for that matter.

I live in today’s America, think that human beings are people no matter how the powers that be classify them, and I’m drifting off-topic again.

A Shylock by Any Other Name

Another problem with “The Merchant of Venice” is that Shylock is a stereotype villain. He’s greedy, scheming, and eventually thwarted by the forces of justice: and Portia.

The criticism has some merit. “The Merchant of Venice” abounds with stock characters.

Salarino and Salanio, for example, are about as distinguishable as Pat and Mike.

And Shylock — as I see it, “The Merchant of Venice” is a romantic comedy written for London audiences in Elizabethan England.

Again, it is a romantic comedy.

Stereotypes and stock characters are part of the package.

Anticipating anything else makes about as much sense as expecting lyrical locutions and literary allusions in a sitcom.

It’d be astounding if Shylock didn’t conform to at least some of the culture’s expectations and biases.

Let’s remember that Shakespeare and folks at the Globe had to get the play past censors before selling tickets.

Let’s also remember that many in the audience had never seen a Jew. England’s Edward I took care of that, back in 1290, with his Edict of Expulsion.

Yes, Shylock reflects antisemitic stereotypes. And stereotypes can be a problem, even in a romantic comedy, if they reinforce biases.

But one of Shylock’s famous lines, “My daughter! O my ducats! O my daughter!”, isn’t delivered by Shylock. It’s Salanio, quoting Shylock.

Whether or not the quote’s accurate — that’s a question.

Act II, Scene VIII. Venice. A street.
Salanio
“…[Shylock] did utter in the streets:
‘My daughter! O my ducats! O my daughter!
…my ducats, and my daughter!…'”
(“The Merchant of Venice“, Shakespeare; via The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, hosted by MIT IS&T)

Act III, Scene I. Venice. A street.
Shylock
“…If you prick us, do we not bleed?
if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison
us, do we not die?…”
(“The Merchant of Venice“, Shakespeare; via The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, hosted by MIT IS&T)

Or maybe “The Merchant of Venice” is anti-Saxon propaganda which somehow escaped the notice of England’s defenders.

I don’t think so. But that didn’t keep me from looking up “Shylock”. Apparently it was a fairly common Saxon name in Shakespeare’s day.

Scholars have found Hebrew names that sort of sound something like “Shylock”, but the name itself (probably) comes from “æsce locc”: “ash lock” — light grey lock of hair.³

Being (part) Irish

Since I’m about as gentile as it gets, west of the Urals, antisemitism hasn’t directly affected me.

And I’m too young for the old “no Irish need apply” hiring practices to have kept me unemployed.

On the other hand, my father and some of his boyhood buddies got free rides on a roller coaster, back in the day. The ride’s operator, I understand, had to test it each morning: and the kids were about the same weight as the sandbags he could have used.

The free rides ended when my father’s mother caught wind of the situation.

Maybe the ride’s operator was giving some poor Irish kids a break, letting them enjoy a ride they could never afford. Or maybe he figured they were either more expendable than sandbags, or a better test load. Maybe a bit of both, plus other reasons I haven’t guessed.

Either way, that helped me appreciate how attitudes and beliefs of my betters may affect me: or other folks who aren’t near the top of society’s ladder.

Not that I’ve been oppressed something fierce.

Looking Anglo and blatantly male wasn’t exactly an advantage in academia, back when political correctness was in bloom.

But I’ve got a noticeable forehead and voice like James Earl ‘Darth Vader’ Jones. Look a little like him, too, in a way, and that’s yet again another topic. The point is that I won’t play the victim card.

I do, however, think that penalizing — or rewarding — folks based on how others see their ancestors may not be a good idea.

Let’s see how that lines up with how I’m supposed to act.

We All Matter

I’m a Catholic, so loving God and my neighbors is a must. And ‘my neighbors’ includes everybody: No exceptions. (Matthew 5:43–44, 7:12, 22:36–40, Mark 12:28–31; 10:25–27, 29–37; Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1789)

‘Loving my neighbors’ isn’t, or shouldn’t be, some light, fluffy, abstractly fuzzy feeling.

I should act as if everyone matters. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1928-1942)

Remembering that each of us has a share in humanity’s transcendent dignity and deserves respect as a person — isn’t always easy. But it’s a good idea, anyway.

A Few Thoughts After a Fraught Week

With a little encouragement, I could be a “serious thinker” myself.

I’m a very emotional man, and never quite lost ideals that were current in my youth, back in the Sixties.

To this day, I think that buying stuff I don’t need with money I don’t have to impress people I don’t like makes no sense. At all.

Small wonder I didn’t enjoy the benefits and penalties of a “successful career”.

I also think that knee-jerk anti-anything is a bad idea.

And I see no point in expecting someone who lived in another century, in another culture, with beliefs, biases and dangers that are not those of my homeland’s last few decades, to live up or down to contemporary standards.

Finally, although I called this a “fraught week”, it really wasn’t all that bad.

One of my teeth has settled down after a routine dental procedure. And I wrapped up my part of a family/household decision Friday afternoon.

The family/household thing involved something that I’ll keep under my hat for the moment: nothing spectacular or spicy, just something that’ll affect us for at least the next few years.

Thing is, doing discussions, organizing ideas and making notes so I’ll remember what we talked about when it comes up again — All that took time. And concentration.

So I couldn’t work on what I’d planned to have ready for today.

Instead, I looked up ‘this date in history’, noticed “The Merchant of Venice”, and started writing this thing. I hope you enjoyed it.

Now, the usual links to stuff that may or may not have anything to do with this post:

• “Independence Day: Freedom, Citizenship and Looking Ahead“
  (July 4, 2023)
• “Sharing My Catholic Faith Story: Mostly Online“
  (November 19, 2022)
• “Marlowe’s ‘Dr. Faustus,’ Freedom, Censorship and Speculation“
  (September 10, 2022)
• “St. Patrick’s Day: Prickly Problems, Shamrocks and Saints“
  (March 13, 2021)
• “Christopher Marlowe and His World“
  (March 6, 2021)

¹ Elizabethan England and the powers that be (or were), very briefly:

• Wikipedia
  • 1598
  • Boston Brahmin
  • The Establishment
  • July 22
  • Master of the Revels
  • The Merchant of Venice
  • Prior restraint
  • Stationer’s Register
  • White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP)

² Two books and a play:

• Wikipedia
  • Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
  • First Folio
  • The Merchant of Venice
  • William Shakespeare

³ Viewpoints, vocabulary, stories and an English king:

• Wikipedia
  • Edict of Expulsion
  • Edward I of England
  • The Merchant of Venice
  • St. Patrick’s Day
    • Criticism
  • Plastic Paddy
  • Portia (The Merchant of Venice)
  • Shylock
  • Stereotype
• Wiktionary
  • ash
  • lock, Etymology 2
• Etymology online
  • ash
  • lock
• Characterization in Literature
  Instructor Becky Villarreal, Austin Community College
• Shakespeare’s Plays: Comedy
  ENGL 339 – Shakespeare; Dr. Debora B. Schwartz; English Department, California Polytechnic State University