William Shakespeare
and
The Merchant of Venice

Next session (March 9) discussion with the Shakespeare Companys director Maria Bass Mortensen about The Merchant of Venice with a focus on Shylock

The issue of second-hand clothes

Cosmic order

being that order which God before all ages hath set down with himself, for himself to do all things by

Cosmic order

If the Elizabethans believed in an ideal order animating earthly order, they were terrified lest it should be upset, and appalled by the visible tokens of disorder that suggested its upsetting. (Tillyard, The Elizabethan World Picture)

Cosmic order and law

His [Hooker in Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity] name for it is law, law in its general sense. Above all cosmic or earthly orders or laws there is Law in general, that Law which giveth life unto all the rest which are commendable just and good, namely the Law whereby the Eternal himself doth work. (Tillyard)

Sin and salvation

You could revolt against it but you could not ignore it. Atheism not agnosticism was the rule. It was far easier to be very wicked and think of yourself so than to be a little wicked without a sense of sin. (Tillyard)

Sin and salvation

Sin brings disorder and chaos; the only way to salvation is to contemplate the divine order of the created universe.

Comedies and gender

The heroines of Shakespeares comic marriage-plots perform wonders on their own behalf but they also help to make their world safe for mens cultural privilege. (Danson, Shakespeares Dramatic Genres)

Comedies and gender

But the girl-disguised-as-a-boy also changes what she preserves [] the distribution of gendered power, on stage and possibly even in the society staged, will never look quite the same. (Danson)

Comedies and gender

The social androgyny of Shakespeares comic heroines (whether literally disguised or not) derives also from the doubleness of their embodiment in language. (Danson)

Comedies and gender

In the tragedies men get the soliloquies [] But in the comedies the big speeches are as likely to belong to a Portia as to a Shylock; and regardless of size, they are speeches of power which undo masculine folly or rage, and permit comic closure. (Danson)