101-515: John Clare (13 July 1793 – 20 May 1864) was an English poet. The son of a farm labourer, he became known for his celebrations of the English countryside and sorrows at its disruption. His work underwent major re-evaluation in the late 20th century; he is now often seen as a major 19th-century poet. His biographer Jonathan Bate called Clare "the greatest labouring-class poet that England has ever produced. No one has ever written more powerfully of nature, of
202-421: A masque ) was popular, and was acted for the next forty years. Granville cut the clownish Gobbos in line with neoclassical decorum ; he added a jail scene between Shylock and Antonio, and a more extended scene of toasting at a banquet scene. Thomas Doggett was Shylock, playing the role comically, perhaps even farcically. Rowe expressed doubts about this interpretation as early as 1709; Doggett's success in
303-437: A metaphysical depth parallel with his contemporary poets and many of his pre-asylum poems deal with intricate play on the nature of linguistics. His "bird's nest poems", it can be argued, display the self-awareness and obsession with the creative process that captivated the romantics. Clare was the most influential poet, apart from Wordsworth , to prefer an older style. In a foreword to the 2011 anthology The Poetry of Birds ,
404-444: A prize fighter and that he had two wives, Patty and Mary. He started to claim he was Lord Byron . Allen wrote about Clare to The Times in 1840: It is most singular that ever since he came... the moment he gets pen or pencil in hand he begins to write most poetical effusions. Yet he has never been able to obtain in conversation, nor even in writing prose, the appearance of sanity for two minutes or two lines together, and yet there
505-405: A Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villainy you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction." Even if Shakespeare did not intend the play to be read this way, the fact that it retains its power on stage for audiences who may perceive its central conflicts in radically different terms is an illustration of
606-470: A Jew eyes?" speech redeems him and even makes him into something of a tragic figure; in the speech, Shylock argues that he is no different from the Christian characters. Detractors note that Shylock ends the speech with a tone of revenge: "if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?" Those who see the speech as sympathetic point out that Shylock says he learned the desire for revenge from the Christian characters: "If
707-693: A Journey from Essex", "Excursions with an Angler", "For Essay on Modesty and Mock Morals", "For Essay on Industry", "Keats", "Byron", "The Dream", "House or Window Flies" and "Dewdrops". Clare was relatively forgotten in the later 19th century, but interest in his work was revived by Arthur Symons in 1908, Edmund Blunden in 1920 and John and Anne Tibble in their ground-breaking 1935 two-volume edition, while in 1949 Geoffrey Grigson edited Poems of John Clare's Madness (published by Routledge and Kegan Paul ). Benjamin Britten set some of "May" from A Shepherd's Calendar in his Spring Symphony of 1948 and included
808-401: A Shylock justified in wanting his revenge ; Adler's Shylock evolved over the years he played the role, first as a stock Shakespearean villain, then as a man whose better nature was overcome by a desire for revenge, and finally as a man who operated not from revenge but from pride . In a 1902 interview with Theater magazine, Adler pointed out that Shylock is a wealthy man, "rich enough to forgo
909-455: A character named Abraham Abrahams, who is quoted as saying, "I verily believe the odious character of Shylock has brought little less persecution upon us, poor scattered sons of Abraham , than the Inquisition itself." Cumberland later wrote a successful play, The Jew (1794), in which his title character, Sheva , is portrayed sympathetically, as both a kindhearted and generous man. This was
1010-572: A child, but attended school in Glinton church until he was 12. In his early adult years, Clare became a potboy in The Blue Bell public house and fell in love with Mary Joyce, but her father, a prosperous farmer, forbade them to meet. Later, Clare was a gardener at Burghley House . He enlisted in the militia , tried camp life with Gypsies , and worked in Pickworth, Rutland , as a lime burner in 1817. In
1111-531: A disdain for the crass anti-Semitism of the Christian community's laws. David Henry Wilson 's play Shylock's Revenge , was first produced at the University of Hamburg in 1989, and follows the events in The Merchant of Venice . In this play Shylock gets his wealth back and becomes a Jew again. The Star Trek franchise sometimes quote and paraphrase Shakespeare, including The Merchant of Venice . One example
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#17328589225611212-525: A further grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to help preserve the building and provide educational activities for youngsters visiting it. In chronological order: In chronological order: Clare's father was, according to Clare, a 'noted singer', and Clare himself played the fiddle and collected folk songs and tunes. Regarding his fiddle playing ability, he described himself as "a decent scraper", and collected over two-hundred folk tunes in two books,
1313-463: A ghetto. Shakespeare's play may be seen as a continuation of this tradition. The title page of the Quarto indicates that the play was sometimes known as The Jew of Venice in its day, which suggests that it was seen as similar to Marlowe's early 1590s work The Jew of Malta . One interpretation of the play's structure is that Shakespeare meant to contrast the mercy of the main Christian characters with
1414-422: A lack of sentiment about the place of animals in the countryside. At this time he often used poetic forms such as the sonnet and the rhyming couplet. His later poetry tends to be more meditative and use forms similar to the folk songs and ballads of his youth. An example of this is "Evening". Clare's knowledge of the natural world went far beyond that of the major Romantic poets. However, poems such as "I Am" show
1515-433: A letter telling him that Antonio has been unable to repay the loan from Shylock. Portia and Bassanio marry, as do Gratiano and Portia's handmaid Nerissa. Bassanio and Gratiano leave for Venice, with money from Portia, to save Antonio's life by offering the money to Shylock. Unknown to Bassanio and Gratiano, Portia sent her servant, Balthazar, to seek the counsel of Portia's cousin, Bellario, a lawyer, at Padua . The climax of
1616-469: A local bookseller, Edward Drury, who sent them to his cousin, John Taylor of the Taylor & Hessey firm, which had published the work of John Keats . Taylor published Clare's Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery in 1820. The book was highly praised and the next year his Village Minstrel and Other Poems appeared. "There was no limit to the applause bestowed upon Clare, unanimous in their admiration of
1717-403: A mercantile society.) Other interpreters of the play regard Auden's conception of Antonio's sexual desire for Bassanio as questionable. Michael Radford, director of the 2004 film version starring Al Pacino , explained that, although the film contains a scene where Antonio and Bassanio actually kiss, the friendship between the two is platonic, in line with the prevailing view of male friendship at
1818-474: A merchant's deadly bond after standing surety for a friend's loan was a common tale in England in the late 16th century. In addition, the test of the suitors at Belmont, the merchant's rescue from the "pound of flesh" penalty by his friend's new wife disguised as a lawyer, and her demand for the betrothal ring in payment are all elements present in the 14th-century tale Il Pecorone by Giovanni Fiorentino , which
1919-406: A million, laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies— and what’s his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by
2020-498: A monster of unrelieved evil." Kean's Shylock established his reputation as an actor. From Kean's time forward, all of the actors who have famously played the role, with the exception of Edwin Booth , who played Shylock as a simple villain, have chosen a sympathetic approach to the character; even Booth's father, Junius Brutus Booth , played the role sympathetically. Henry Irving 's portrayal of an aristocratic, proud Shylock (first seen at
2121-463: A need to write poetry and a need for money to feed and clothe his children. His health began to suffer and he had bouts of depression, which worsened after his sixth child was born in 1830 and as his poetry sold less well. In 1832, his friends and London patrons clubbed together to move the family to a larger cottage with a smallholding in the village of Northborough , not far from Helpston. However, he only felt more alienated there. Clare's last work,
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#17328589225612222-624: A poetical genius coming before them in the humble garb of a farm labourer." On 16 March 1820, Clare married Martha ("Patty") Turner, a milkmaid , in the Church of St Peter and St Paul in Great Casterton . An annuity of 15 guineas from the Marquess of Exeter , in whose service he had been, was supplemented by subscription, so that Clare gained £45 a year, a sum far beyond what he had ever earned. Soon, however, his income became insufficient and in 1823 he
2323-593: A recitation of the "Hath not a Jew eyes?" speech to Nazi soldiers. The rock musical Fire Angel was based on the story of the play, with the scene changed to the Little Italy district of New York. It was performed in Edinburgh in 1974 and in a revised form at Her Majesty's Theatre , London, in 1977. Braham Murray directed. Arnold Wesker 's play The Merchant (1976) is a reimagining of Shakespeare's story. In this retelling, Shylock and Antonio are friends and share
2424-628: A rural childhood, and of the alienated and unstable self." Clare was born in Helpston , 6 miles (10 km) to the north of the city of Peterborough . In his lifetime, the village was in the Soke of Peterborough in Northamptonshire and his memorial calls him "The Northamptonshire Peasant Poet". Helpston is now part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority . Clare became an agricultural labourer while still
2525-514: A setting of The Evening Primrose in his Five Flower Songs . Copyright on much of his work was claimed after 1965 by Professor Eric Robinson, the editor of the Complete Poetry , but this has been contested. Some publishers such as Faber and Carcanet Press refused to acknowledge it. Robinson died in 2019 and neither his widow nor his literary agent maintain his claim to own the copyright. The largest collection of original Clare manuscripts
2626-402: A wider sense of orthography) to tyrannical government and slavery, personifying it in jocular fashion as a "bitch". He wrote in Northamptonshire dialect, introducing local words to the literary canon such as "pooty" (snail), "lady-cow" ( ladybird ), "crizzle" (to crisp) and "throstle" ( song thrush ). In early life, he struggled to find a place for his poetry in the changing literary fashions of
2727-527: Is Portia in disguise, and the law clerk who accompanies her is Nerissa, also disguised as a man. As Balthazar, Portia in a famous speech repeatedly asks Shylock to show mercy, advising him that mercy "is twice blest: / It blesseth him that gives and him that takes." However, Shylock adamantly refuses any compensations and insists on the pound of flesh. As the court grants Shylock his bond and Antonio prepares for Shylock's knife, Portia deftly appropriates Shylock's argument for "specific performance". She says that
2828-530: Is a play by William Shakespeare , believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. A merchant in Venice named Antonio defaults on a large loan taken out on behalf of his dear friend, Bassanio , and provided by a Jewish moneylender, Shylock , with seemingly inevitable fatal consequences. Although classified as a comedy in the First Folio and sharing certain aspects with Shakespeare's other romantic comedies ,
2929-599: Is asked for), and he signs the contract. With money in hand, Bassanio leaves for Belmont with his friend Gratiano, who has asked to accompany him. Gratiano is a likeable young man, but he is often flippant, overly talkative, and tactless. Bassanio warns his companion to exercise self-control, and the two leave for Belmont. Meanwhile, in Belmont, Portia is awash with suitors. Her father left a will stipulating that each of her suitors must choose correctly from one of three caskets, made of gold, silver and lead respectively. Whoever picks
3030-436: Is at first reluctant to grant the loan, citing abuse he has suffered at Antonio's hand. He finally agrees to lend the sum to Bassanio without interest upon one condition: if Antonio were unable to repay it at the specified date, Shylock may take a pound of Antonio's flesh. Bassanio does not want Antonio to accept such a risky condition; Antonio is surprised by what he sees as the moneylender's generosity (no "usance" – interest –
3131-549: Is cash-poor – his ships and merchandise are busy at sea to Tripolis , the Indies , Mexico and England – he promises to cover a bond if Bassanio can find a lender, so Bassanio turns to the Jewish moneylender Shylock and names Antonio as the loan's guarantor. Antonio has already antagonized Shylock through his outspoken antisemitism and because Antonio's habit of lending money without interest forces Shylock to charge lower rates. Shylock
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3232-410: Is coming to an age where he will marry a woman. In his plays and poetry Shakespeare often depicted strong male bonds of varying homosociality , which has led some critics to infer that Bassanio returns Antonio's affections despite his obligation to marry: ANTONIO […] Commend me to your honorable wife, Tell her the process of Antonio’s end, Say how I loved you, speak me fair in death, And when
3333-525: Is common to see an absence of punctuation in Clare's original writings, although many publishers felt the need to remedy this in most of his work. Clare argued with his editors about how it should be presented to the public. Clare grew up in a time of massive changes in town and countryside as the Industrial Revolution swept Europe. Many former agricultural and craft workers, including children, moved from
3434-442: Is concentrated upon a member of his own sex." Antonio's feelings for Bassanio are likened to a couplet from Shakespeare's Sonnets : "But since she pricked thee out for women's pleasure,/ Mine be thy love, and my love's use their treasure." Antonio, says Auden, embodies the words on Portia's leaden casket: "Who chooseth me, must give and hazard all he hath." Antonio has taken this potentially fatal turn because he despairs, not only over
3535-532: Is held at Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery , where items are available to view by appointment. Other Clare papers are in public libraries in Northampton and New York. Altering what Clare actually wrote continued into the later 20th century. Helen Gardner , for instance, amended both the punctuation and the spelling and grammar when editing the New Oxford Book of English Verse 1250–1950 (1972). Since 1993,
3636-414: Is no indication of insanity in any of his poetry. Clare was an Anglican . Whatever he may have felt about liturgy and ministry, and however critical an eye he may have cast on parish life, Clare retained and replicated his father's loyalty to the Church of England . He dodged services in his youth and dawdled in the fields during the hours of worship, but he derived much help in later years from members of
3737-552: Is the Shakespeare-aficionado Chang in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991), a Klingon , who quotes Shylock. Steven Spielberg 's Schindler's List (1993) depicts SS Lieutenant Amon Göth quoting Shylock's "Hath not a Jew eyes?" speech when deciding whether to rape his Jewish maid. In David Fincher 's 1995 crime thriller Seven , a lawyer, Eli Gould, is coerced to remove
3838-468: The instruction. It is difficult to know whether the sympathetic reading of Shylock is entirely due to changing sensibilities among readers or that Shakespeare, a writer who created complex, multi-faceted characters, deliberately intended this reading. One of the reasons for this interpretation is that Shylock's painful status in Venetian society is emphasised. To some critics, Shylock's celebrated "Hath not
3939-682: The Northampton Manuscripts Nos. 12 and 13 . As well as collecting folk tunes, Clare also collected many folk songs which are recorded in the Northampton Manuscript No. 18 , and the Peterborough Manuscripts B4 and B7 . According to George Deacon, the Northampton Manuscript No. 18 contains "more polished and refined versions" of songs which were originally written up in a rougher form in the two Peterborough Manuscripts, B4 and B7 . Deacon's research led him to view
4040-508: The Rural Muse (1835), was noticed favourably by Christopher North and other reviewers, but its sales were not enough to support his wife and seven children. Clare's mental health began to worsen. His alcohol consumption steadily increased along with dissatisfaction with his own identity and more erratic behaviour. A notable instance was his interruption of a performance of The Merchant of Venice , in which Clare verbally assaulted Shylock . He
4141-672: The Stationers Company , the method at that time of obtaining copyright for a new play, by James Roberts on 22 July 1598 under the title "the Marchaunt of Venyce or otherwise called the Jewe of Venyce." On 28 October 1600 Roberts transferred his right to the play to the stationer Thomas Heyes ; Heyes published the first quarto before the end of the year. It was printed again in 1619, as part of William Jaggard's so-called False Folio . (Later, Thomas Heyes' son and heir Laurence Heyes asked for and
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4242-480: The 400 year anniversary of Shakespeare's death, The Merchant of Venice was performed in the ghetto main square in 2016 by the Compagnia de' Colombari . Jewish actor Jacob Adler and others report that the tradition of playing Shylock sympathetically began in the first half of the 19th century with Edmund Kean , and that previously the role had been played "by a comedian as a repulsive clown or, alternatively, as
4343-536: The John Clare Society of North America has organised an annual session of scholarly papers concerning John Clare at the annual Convention of the Modern Language Association of America . In 2003 the scholar Jonathan Bate published the first major critical biography of Clare, which helped to keep up the revival in popular and academic interest. The thatched cottage where Clare was born was bought by
4444-588: The John Clare Trust in 2005. In May 2007, the Trust gained £1.27 million of funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and commissioned Jefferson Sheard Architects to create a new landscape design and visitor centre, including a cafe, shop and exhibition area. The cottage at 12 Woodgate, Helpston, has been restored using traditional building methods and is open to the public. In 2013, the John Clare Trust received
4545-659: The Lyceum in 1879, with Portia played by Ellen Terry ) has been called "the summit of his career". Jacob Adler was the most notable of the early 20th century: Adler played the role in Yiddish -language translation, first in Manhattan 's Yiddish Theater District in the Lower East Side , and later on Broadway , where, to great acclaim, he performed the role in Yiddish in an otherwise English-language production. Kean and Irving presented
4646-498: The Old Testament vengefulness of a Jew, who lacks the religious grace to comprehend mercy. Similarly, it is possible that Shakespeare meant Shylock's forced conversion to Christianity to be a " happy ending " for the character, as, to some Christian audiences, it saves his soul and allows him to enter Heaven. Regardless of what Shakespeare's authorial intent may have been, the play has been made use of by antisemites throughout
4747-634: The Poems in Manuscript was compiled by David Powell and published by the County Borough of Northampton, Public Libraries, Museums and Art Gallery Committee in 1964. Included in the catalogue are the two books of folk tunes (MSS 12 & 13) and the book of folk songs (MSS 18). Catalogue entry reads: "A small oblong music book of song and dance tunes, inscribed on p.1 'John Clare / Helpstone / 1818' and entitled on p.3 A Collection / of Songs / Airs and Dances / For
4848-570: The Violin . 3¾" × 6¼", 82 pp., red quarter-leather with marbled boards. Contents consist of eighty-eight titles, but the tunes are without words and directions. The titles are noted down in Clare's hand. This is No. 109 in the Peterborough Centenary Catalogue." Catalogue entry reads: "An oblong music book of song and dance tunes. Undated. 5¾″ × 9½″, 56 pp., blue paper covers. Contents consist of 180 titles. Directions for some of
4949-551: The actor and theatrical director Paul Porel to make a French-verse adaptation of The Merchant of Venice . His play Shylock , first performed at the Théâtre de l'Odéon in December 1889, had incidental music by the French composer Gabriel Fauré , later incorporated into an orchestral suite of the same name . St. John Ervine authored a sequel play, The Lady of Belmont , in 1924, in which
5050-407: The asylum was paid for by Earl Fitzwilliam , "but at the ordinary rate for poor people". He remained there for the rest of his life under the humane regime of Thomas Octavius Prichard , who encouraged and helped him to write. Here he wrote possibly his most famous poem, " I Am ". It was in this later poetry that Clare "developed a very distinctive voice, an unmistakable intensity and vibrance, such as
5151-422: The audience to decide." The earliest performance of which a record has survived was held at the court of King James in the spring of 1605, followed by a second performance a few days later, but there is no record of any further performances in the 17th century. In 1701, George Granville staged a successful adaptation, titled The Jew of Venice , with Thomas Betterton as Bassanio. This version (which featured
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#17328589225615252-424: The bond, hazarded all to secure the happiness of the man he loved." Both Antonio and Shylock, agreeing to put Antonio's life at a forfeit, stand outside the normal bounds of society. There was, states Auden, a traditional "association of sodomy with usury", reaching back at least as far as Dante , with which Shakespeare was likely familiar. (Auden sees the theme of usury in the play as a comment on human relations in
5353-403: The broadcaster and bird-watcher Tim Dee notes that Clare wrote about 147 species of British wild birds "without any technical kit whatsoever". The only Clare essay to appear in his lifetime was "Popularity of Authorship", which described anonymously his predicament in 1824. Other essays by Clare to appear posthumously were "Essays on Landscape", "Essays on Criticism and Fashion", "Recollections on
5454-458: The characters from Shakespeare's work reunite ten years after the events of the earlier play. Ralph Vaughan Williams ' choral work Serenade to Music (1938) draws its text from the discussion about music and the music of the spheres in Act V, scene 1. In both versions of the comic film To Be or Not to Be ( 1942 and 1983 ) the character "Greenberg", specified as a Jew in the later version, gives
5555-425: The choice of language ... you'll read very sensuous language. That's the key for me in the relationship. The great thing about Shakespeare and why he's so difficult to pin down is his ambiguity. He's not saying they're gay or they're straight, he's leaving it up to his actors. I feel there has to be a great love between the two characters ... there's great attraction. I don't think they have slept together but that's for
5656-467: The clergy. He acknowledged that his father "was brought up in the communion of the Church of England, and I have found no cause to withdraw myself from it." If he found aspects of the established church uncongenial and awkward, he remained prepared to defend it: "Still I reverence the church and do from my soul as much as anyone curse the hand that's lifted to undermine its constitution." Much of Clare's imagery
5757-499: The contract allows Shylock to remove only the flesh , not the blood, of Antonio. (see quibble ) Thus, if Shylock were to shed any drop of Antonio's blood, his "lands and goods" would be forfeited under Venetian laws. She tells him that he must cut precisely one pound of flesh, no more, no less; she advises him that "if the scale do turn / But in the estimation of a hair, / Thou diest, and all thy goods are confiscate." Defeated, Shylock consents to accept Bassanio's offer of money for
5858-415: The country dances are given in abbreviated form, but the only words given are those for Black Ey'd Susan and Dibdin's The Sailors Journal . The titles are noted down in Clare's hand. A few fragmentary lines of verse are scribbled inside the back cover. This is No. 108 in the Peterborough Centenary Catalogue." Catalogue entry reads: "A small oblong notebook, entitled Old Songs & Ballads , which Clare
5959-491: The countryside to crowded cities, as factory work mechanized. The Agricultural Revolution saw pastures ploughed up, trees and hedges uprooted, fens drained and commons enclosed . This destruction of an ancient way of life distressed Clare. His political and social views were mainly conservative. ("I am as far as my politics reaches 'King and Country' – no Innovations in Religion and Government say I.") He refused even to complain of
6060-481: The day. He also felt that he did not belong with other peasants. As Clare once wrote: "I live here among the ignorant like a lost man in fact like one whom the rest seemes careless of having anything to do with—they hardly dare talk in my company for fear I should mention them in my writings and I find more pleasure in wandering the fields than in musing among my silent neighbours who are insensible to everything but toiling and talking of it and that to no purpose." It
6161-412: The defaulted bond: first his offer to pay "the bond thrice", which Portia rebuffs, telling him to take his bond, and then merely the principal; but Portia also prevents him from doing this, on the ground that he has already refused it "in the open court". She cites a law under which Shylock, as a Jew and therefore an "alien", having attempted to take the life of a citizen, has forfeited his property, half to
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#17328589225616262-486: The first known attempt by a dramatist to reverse the negative stereotype that Shylock personified. The depiction of Jews in literature throughout the centuries bears the close imprint of Shylock. With slight variations much of English literature up until the 20th century depicts the Jew as "a monied, cruel, lecherous, avaricious outsider tolerated only because of his golden hoard". Many modern readers and theatregoers have read
6363-508: The five months following, but eventually Patty called the doctors. Between Christmas and New Year, 1841, Clare was committed to Northampton General Lunatic Asylum (now St Andrew's Hospital ). On his arrival at the asylum, the accompanying doctor, Fenwick Skrimshire , having treated Clare since 1820, completed the admission papers. Asked, "Was the insanity preceded by any severe or long-continued mental emotion or exertion?" Skrimshire entered: "After years of poetical prosing." His maintenance at
6464-422: The following year, he was obliged to accept parish relief . Malnutrition stemming from childhood may have been the main factor behind his five-foot (1.5 m) stature and contributed to his poor physical health in later life. Clare had bought a copy of James Thomson 's The Seasons and began to write poems and sonnets. In an attempt to hold off his parents' eviction from their home, Clare offered his poems to
6565-515: The ghetto. Another interpretation of Shylock and a vision of how "must he be acted" appears at the conclusion of the autobiography of Alexander Granach , a noted Jewish stage and film actor in Weimar Germany (and later in Hollywood and on Broadway). The play has inspired many adaptions and several works of fiction. Edmond Haraucourt , French playwright and poet, was commissioned in the 1880s by
6666-749: The government and half to Antonio, leaving his life at the mercy of the Duke. The Duke spares Shylock's life and says he may remit the forfeiture. Portia says the Duke may waive the state's share, but not Antonio's. Antonio says he is content that the state waive its claim to half Shylock's wealth if he can have his one-half share " in use " until Shylock's death, when the principal would be given to Lorenzo and Jessica. Antonio also asks that "for this favour" Shylock convert to Christianity and bequeath his entire estate to Lorenzo and Jessica. The Duke then threatens to recant his pardon of Shylock's life unless he accepts these conditions. Shylock, re-threatened with death, accepts with
6767-565: The inscriptions "To the Memory of John Clare The Northamptonshire Peasant Poet" and "A Poet is Born not Made". In his time, Clare was commonly known as "the Northamptonshire Peasant Poet". His formal education was brief, his other employment and class origins lowly. Clare resisted the use of the increasingly standardised English grammar and orthography in his poetry and prose, alluding to political reasoning in comparing "grammar" (in
6868-430: The interest on three thousand ducats" and that Antonio is "far from the chivalrous gentleman he is made to appear. He has insulted the Jew and spat on him, yet he comes with hypocritical politeness to borrow money of him." Shylock's fatal flaw is to depend on the law, but "would he not walk out of that courtroom head erect, the very apotheosis of defiant hatred and scorn?" Some modern productions take further pains to show
6969-517: The later pictures of Van Gogh" possessed. John Clare died of a stroke on 20 May 1864, in his 71st year. His remains were returned to Helpston for burial in St Botolph's churchyard, where he had expressed a wish to be buried. On Clare's birthday, children at the John Clare School, Helpston's primary, parade through the village and place their "midsummer cushions" around his gravestone, which bears
7070-432: The lawyer's clerk, succeeds in likewise retrieving her ring from Gratiano, who does not see through her disguise. At Belmont, Portia and Nerissa taunt and pretend to accuse their husbands before revealing they were really the lawyer and his clerk in disguise (V). After all the other characters make amends, Antonio learns from Portia that three of his ships were not stranded and have returned safely after all. The forfeit of
7171-554: The lead casket and wins Portia's hand. At Venice, Antonio's ships are reported lost at sea, so the merchant cannot repay the bond. Shylock has become more determined to exact revenge from Christians because his daughter Jessica eloped with the Christian Lorenzo and converted. She took a substantial amount of Shylock's wealth with her, as well as a turquoise ring which Shylock had been given by his late wife, Leah. Shylock has Antonio brought before court. At Belmont, Bassanio receives
7272-416: The lead casket because of the baseness of its material and the uninviting nature of its slogan, "Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath". The last suitor is Bassanio, whom Portia wishes to succeed, having met him before. As Bassanio ponders his choice, members of Portia's household sing a song that says that "fancy" (not true love) is "It is engendered in the eye, / With gazing fed"; Bassanio chooses
7373-428: The loss of Bassanio in marriage but also because Bassanio cannot requite what Antonio feels for him. Antonio's frustrated devotion is a form of idolatry: the right to live is yielded for the sake of the loved one. There is one other such idolator in the play: Shylock himself. "Shylock, however unintentionally, did, in fact, hazard all for the sake of destroying the enemy he hated, and Antonio, however unthinkingly he signed
7474-638: The play as a plea for tolerance, noting that Shylock is a sympathetic character. They cite as evidence that Shylock's "trial" at the end of the play is a mockery of justice, with Portia acting as a judge when she has no right to do so. The characters who berated Shylock for dishonesty resort to trickery in order to win. In addition to this Shakespeare gives Shylock one of his most eloquent speeches: SALARINO : Why, I am sure if he forfeit, thou wilt not take his flesh! What’s that good for? SHYLOCK : To bait fish withal; if it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me and hindered me half
7575-410: The play is most remembered for its dramatic scenes, and it is best known for the character Shylock and his famous demand for a " pound of flesh ". The play contains two famous speeches, that of Shylock, " Hath not a Jew eyes? " on the subject of humanity, and that of Portia on " the quality of mercy ". Debate exists on whether the play is anti-Semitic , with Shylock's insistence on his legal right to
7676-483: The play is set in the court of the Duke of Venice . Shylock refuses Bassanio's offer of 6,000 ducats, twice the amount of the loan. He demands his pound of flesh from Antonio. The Duke, wishing to save Antonio but unable to nullify a contract, refers the case to a visitor. He identifies himself as Balthazar, a young male "doctor of the law", bearing a letter of recommendation to the Duke from the learned lawyer Bellario. The doctor
7777-582: The play's history. The Nazis used the usurious Shylock for their propaganda. Shortly after Kristallnacht in 1938, The Merchant of Venice was broadcast for propagandistic ends over the German airwaves. Productions of the play followed in Lübeck (1938), Berlin (1940), and elsewhere within the Nazi territory. In a series of articles called Observer , first published in 1785, British playwright Richard Cumberland created
7878-583: The play's stance on the Jews and Judaism. American literary critic Harold Bloom argued in 1998 that "one would have to be blind, deaf and dumb not to recognise that Shakespeare's grand, equivocal comedy The Merchant of Venice is nevertheless a profoundly anti-semitic work". English society in the Elizabethan and Jacobean era has been described as "judeophobic". English Jews had been expelled under Edward I in 1290 and were not permitted to return until 1656 under
7979-537: The poet told a newspaper editor, "I was Byron and Shakespeare formerly." In July 1841, Clare absconded from the asylum in Essex and walked some 80 miles (130 km) home, believing he was to meet his first love Mary Joyce, to whom he was convinced he was married. He did not believe her family when they told him she had died accidentally three years earlier in a house fire. He remained free, mostly at home in Northborough, for
8080-427: The portraits are not even-handed: "Shylock's shrewd indictment of Christian hypocrisy delights us, but ... Shakespeare's intimations do not alleviate the savagery of his portrait of the Jew..." Antonio's unexplained depression – "In sooth I know not why I am so sad" – and utter devotion to Bassanio has led some critics to theorise that he is suffering from unrequited love for Bassanio and is depressed because Bassanio
8181-488: The pound of flesh being in opposition to his seemingly universal plea for the rights of all people suffering discrimination. Bassanio, a young Venetian of noble rank, wishes to woo the beautiful and wealthy heiress Portia of Belmont. Having squandered his estate, he needs 3,000 ducats to subsidise his expenditures as a suitor. Bassanio approaches his friend Antonio , a wealthy merchant of Venice, who has previously and repeatedly bailed him out. Antonio agrees, but since he
8282-485: The right casket wins Portia's hand. The first suitor, the Prince of Morocco, chooses the gold casket, interpreting its slogan, "Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire", as referring to Portia. The second suitor, the conceited Prince of Aragon, chooses the silver casket, which proclaims, "Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves", as he believes he is full of merit. Both suitors leave empty-handed, having rejected
8383-463: The role meant that later productions would feature the troupe clown as Shylock. In 1741, Charles Macklin returned to the original text in a very successful production at Drury Lane , paving the way for Edmund Kean seventy years later (see below). Arthur Sullivan wrote incidental music for the play in 1871. As part of the 500 year anniversary of the Venetian Ghetto , which converged with
8484-531: The rule of Oliver Cromwell . Poet John Donne , who was Dean of St Paul's Cathedral and a contemporary of Shakespeare, gave a sermon in 1624 perpetuating the Blood Libel – the entirely unsubstantiated antisemitic lie that Jews ritually murdered Christians to drink their blood and achieve salvation. In Venice and in some other places, Jews were required to wear a yellow or red hat at all times in public to make sure that they were easily identified, and had to live in
8585-504: The same winter and summer as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge! The villainy you teach me I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better
8686-661: The show, arriving in London for his first visit to the capital a short while after. Clare wrote that 'on the night we got into London it was announcd in the Play Bills that a song of mine was to be sung at Covent Garden by Madam Vestris and we was to have gone but it was too late. I felt uncommonly pleasd at the circumstance'." The Catalogue of the John Clare Collection in the Northampton Public Library with Indexes to
8787-447: The sources of Shylock's thirst for vengeance. For instance, in the 2004 film adaptation directed by Michael Radford and starring Al Pacino as Shylock, the film begins with text and a montage of how Venetian Jews are cruelly abused by bigoted Christians. One of the last shots of the film also brings attention to the fact that, as a convert, Shylock would have been cast out of the Jewish community in Venice, no longer allowed to live in
8888-553: The stage by that date. The title page of the first edition in 1600 states that it had been performed "divers times" by that date. Salerino's reference to his ship the Andrew (I, i, 27) is thought to be an allusion to the Spanish ship St. Andrew, captured by the English at Cádiz in 1596. A date of 1596–97 is considered consistent with the play's style. The play was entered in the Register of
8989-563: The subordinate position to which English society had placed him, swearing that "with the old dish that was served to my forefathers I am content." His early work expresses delight in nature and the cycle of the rural year. Poems such as "Winter Evening", "Haymaking" and "Wood Pictures in Summer" mark the beauty of the world and the certainties of rural life, where animals must be fed and crops harvested. Poems such as "Little Trotty Wagtail" show his sharp observation of wildlife, though "The Badger" shows
9090-429: The subtlety of Shakespeare's characterisations. In the trial Shylock represents what Elizabethan Christians believed to be the Jewish desire for "justice", contrasted with their obviously superior Christian value of mercy. The Christians in the courtroom urge Shylock to love his enemies, although they themselves have failed in the past. Jewish critic Harold Bloom suggests that, although the play gives merit to both cases,
9191-487: The tale is told, bid her be judge Whether Bassanio had not once a love. […] BASSANIO […] But life itself, my wife, and all the world Are not with me esteemed above thy life. I would lose all, ay, sacrifice them all Here to this devil, to deliver you. In his essay "Brothers and Others", published in The Dyer's Hand, W. H. Auden describes Antonio as "a man whose emotional life, though his conduct may be chaste,
9292-420: The time. Jeremy Irons , in an interview, concurs with the director's view and states that he did not "play Antonio as gay". Joseph Fiennes , however, who plays Bassanio, encouraged a homoerotic interpretation and, in fact, surprised Irons with the kiss on set, which was filmed in one take. Fiennes defended his choice, saying "I would never invent something before doing my detective work in the text. If you look at
9393-414: The two Peterborough manuscripts as more authentic, inasmuch as they showed, "less conscious interference from the poet in Clare" than the versions of the songs in the Northampton manuscript. Since Clare's death, many of his poems have been set to music by classical composers, and, more recently, by contemporary singer/songwriters working in the acoustic and folk genres. However, at least one of Clare's poems
9494-432: The words, "I am content." Bassanio does not recognise his disguised wife, but offers to give a present to the supposed lawyer. First she declines, but after he insists, Portia requests his ring and Antonio's gloves. Antonio parts with his gloves without a second thought, but Bassanio gives the ring only after much persuasion from Antonio, as earlier in the play he promised his wife never to lose, sell or give it. Nerissa, as
9595-543: Was becoming a burden to Patty and his family, and in July 1837, on the recommendation of his publishing friend, John Taylor, Clare went of his own volition (accompanied by a friend of Taylor's) to Dr Matthew Allen's private asylum High Beach near Loughton , in Epping Forest . Taylor had assured Clare that he would receive the best medical care. Clare was reported as being "full of many strange delusions". He believed himself to be
9696-663: Was drawn from the Old Testament (e.g. "The Peasant Poet"). However, Clare also honours the figure of Christ in poems such as "The Stranger". During his early asylum years in High Beach , Essex (1837–1841), Clare re-wrote poems and sonnets by Lord Byron . Child Harold , his version of Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage , became a lament for past lost love, and Don Juan, A Poem an acerbic, misogynistic, sexualised rant redolent of an ageing dandy. Clare also took credit for Shakespeare 's plays, claiming to be him. "I'm John Clare now,"
9797-446: Was granted a confirmation of his right to the play, on 8 July 1619.) The 1600 edition is generally regarded as being accurate and reliable. It is the basis of the text published in the 1623 First Folio , which adds a number of stage directions, mainly musical cues. The play is frequently staged, but is potentially troubling to modern audiences because of its central themes, which can easily appear antisemitic . Modern critics argue over
9898-456: Was nearly penniless. The Shepherd's Calendar (1827) met with little success, which was not increased by his hawking it himself. As he worked again in the fields, his health temporarily improved; but he soon became seriously ill. Earl Fitzwilliam presented him with a new cottage and a piece of ground, but Clare could not settle down. Clare was constantly torn between the two worlds of literary London and his often illiterate neighbours, between
9999-626: Was published in Milan in 1558. Elements of the trial scene are also found in The Orator by Alexandre Sylvane , published in translation in 1596. The story of the three caskets can be found in Gesta Romanorum , a collection of tales probably compiled at the end of the 13th century. The date of composition of The Merchant of Venice is believed to be between 1596 and 1598. The play was mentioned by Francis Meres in 1598, so it must have been familiar on
10100-408: Was set to music in his lifetime, although Clare arrived in London too late to attend the performance. According to Professor Simon Kövesi, " The Meeting ... [was] Clare's first poem to be set to music and performed on stage. The performance by singer Madame Vestris was at Drury Lane Theatre on 19 February 1820; the song was threaded into the pasticcio opera The Siege of Belgrade . Clare just missed
10201-541: Was using in 1827–8. 4″ × 6¼″, 34 pp. (+146 blank), worn brown half-calf with marbled boards. Jonathan Bate Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.226 via cp1108 cp1108, Varnish XID 761032963 Upstream caches: cp1108 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Fri, 29 Nov 2024 05:42:02 GMT The Merchant of Venice The Merchant of Venice
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