Followup: Palin Versus Merchant of Venice

Making Shylock a Monster

by Joachim Martillo (ThorsProvoni@aol.com)

 

In Palin versus Merchant of Venice I made the following observation.

If Shylock is a monster -- and Shakespeare never informs the audience whether he [Shylock] is, the audience must wonder who or what made him a monster.

Diane Duane in Star The Next Generation Dark Mirror provides passages from an alternate Merchant of Venice in which Shylock collects his pound of flesh (pp. 188-189).

Por. And hath this Shylock not such right to justice

as much as any other man in Venice?

Did not Antonio the merchant there

know well enough the rigor of the bond

when first its terms were named? Yea, though he did,

did he not laugh, and bind himself therewith,

no matter that he did not love the Jew?

Though justice be his plea, consider this:

that even so the Jew lent on his gold,

trusting the just completion of his bond.

And now Antonio comes, and mercy asks,

in lieu of justice in this noble court.

What, shall the weight of our old dreadful law

be bent by mere fond pity and soft loves,

the oak bowed while the reed stands by and mocks?

The quality of mercy must be earned,

and not strewn gratis on the common ground

as pearls for rooting swine, to any fool

who staggers eyeblind into his own folly

and cries, "Oh pity me!" Else mercy's self

grows cheap and tawdry from her overuse.

 

Shy. O Wise young judge, how do I honor thee!

Now forfeiture: now justice, and my bond!

 

Por. Nor shall men trifle with our law's sense,

seeking their own escape. Saith not the bond

`a pound of flesh'? And who beyond child's years

is such a fool to think that flesh is cut

without blood shed? Such wry and cogging thought

does but betray itself as treachery,

deception in the egg, addled ere hatched.

 

Shy. 'Tis very true: most wise and upright judge!

We trifle time: I pray thee, pursue sentence!

 

Por. A pound of that Antonio's flesh is thine:

the law allows it and the court awards it.

And let what blood may in this surgery run

be interest on three thousand ducats lost.

 

Shy. Most learned judge! A sentence! Come, prepare!

Antonio being held, he cuts out his heart and weighs it.

Ant. Oh, I die! A curse on all your heads!

 

Shy. Fie, such felons' mouthing shall miss merely.

Nay, 'tis too much. Prithee, give it him back.

He throweth the excess back.

In this alternate version, Lorenzo betrays Jessica, and according to the stage directions: "She runs on his sword and kills herself."

 

While the real Merchant of Venice does not make Jessica a suicide, it does not suggest a happy ending for Jessica's romance with Lorenzo.

 

I pointed out in the earlier blog entry:

A lot of the classical allusions in the superficially happy ending [of the Merchant of Venice] are sarcastic to say the least.

Here is the critical scene.

ACT V

SCENE I. Belmont. Avenue to PORTIA'S house.

Enter LORENZO and JESSICA

LORENZO

The moon shines bright: in such a night as this,
When the sweet wind did gently kiss the trees
And they did make no noise, in such a night
Troilus methinks mounted the Troyan walls
And sigh'd his soul toward the Grecian tents,
Where Cressid lay that night.

JESSICA

In such a night
Did Thisbe fearfully o'ertrip the dew
And saw the lion's shadow ere himself
And ran dismay'd away.

LORENZO

In such a night
Stood Dido with a willow in her hand
Upon the wild sea banks and waft her love
To come again to Carthage.

JESSICA

In such a night
Medea gather'd the enchanted herbs
That did renew old AEson.

The romance of Troilus and Cressida is characterized by unfaithfulness.

 

Pyramus and Thisbe take part in a tragedy of dual suicide.

 

The stories of Dido and Aeneas as well as Medea and Jason describe abandonment.

 

Possibly, Jessica and Lorenzo are supposed to be aware that their love is flawed, but however interpreted the text hardly presages that they will live happily ever after as a couple.

 

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