 |
|
     |
|
|
|
A.R. Braunmuller offers some suggestive comments in his introduction to the Merchant of Venice in the Pelican Shakespeare. Having summarized Portia's speech (which he suggests might be a "setup that turns on a technicality" that "turns back on Shylock a legal rigidity he had been duped into demanding"), he notes that the Elizabethan audience would likely have taken the turnabout differently:
"the blood/flesh distinction that defeats Shylock's agreement with Antonio has ample biblical precedent: Genesis 9:4, Leviticus 7:26, Deuteronomy 12:32, Acts 15:29, among others. These Scriptural distinctions and prohibitions give rise to many important Judeo-Christian practices."
Further, "considered as comic action, Act IV, scene 1 has a long history in Western and Elizabethan drama. It exemplifies what folklorists might call 'the Biter Bit' - Shylock, seemingly in command of his enemies, himself becomes a victim through the very means he employed to gain that victory, now empty and reversed upon him." Though Braunmuller does not note it, this comic plot twist also has biblical precedent, in the countless stories of wicked falling into the pit they dig and the stories of Yahweh employing the lex talionis against Israel's enemies.
Braunmuller does recognize the echoes of Romans 11 in the convrsion of Shylock: "to understand how an Elizabethan audience might have understood Shylock's forced conversion, we must remember that such conversions were regarded as beneficent. Only converted could a Jew hope for (Christian) salvation, and Christian belief held that the 'conversion of the Jews' (Andrew Marvell's phrase) would precede the end of tme and the world's final return to eternal joy."
Portia's adopton of the name "Baltassar" is also significant, since this is the name of the prophet Daniel, though the Daniel in view is the Daniel of Bel and the Dragon or Susanna rather than of the canonical Daniel.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Wednesday, March 29, 2006 at 03:08 PM
Permission is given to use material on this site, provided the source is cited, blog entries are republished in full, and the author is notified in advance.
1 & 2 Kings
Brazos Theological Commentary
The Promise Of His Appearing: An Exposition Of Second Peter
A Great Mystery: Fourteen Wedding Sermons
Deep Comedy: Trinity, Tragedy, And Hope In Western Literature
Miniatures & Morals: The Christian Novels of Jane Austen
The Priesthood of the Plebs: A Theology of Baptism
A Son To Me: An Exposition of 1 & 2 Samuel
From Silence to Song: The Davidic Liturgical Revolution
Ascent to Love: A Guide to Dante's Divine Comedy
Blessed Are the Hungry: Meditations on the Lord's Supper
A House For My Name: A Survey of the Old Testament
Heroes of the City of Man: A Christian Guide to Select Ancient Literature
Brightest Heaven of Invention: A Christian Guide To Six Shakespeare Plays
Wise Words: Family Stories That Bring the Proverbs to Life
The Kingdom and the Power: Rediscovering the Centrality of the Church
