The Merchant of Venice
The biggest Jewish presence and stereotype in any of Shakespeare’s plays comes from The Merchant of Venice. The protagonist is a Jew named Shylock. The antagonist is a Christian named Antonio. Although Shylock is shown to be more of a moneylender and not a merchant, and Antonio is a merchant, the play does take place in Venice. Shylock is shown to be the stereotypical Jew when he speaks of Antonio: “I hate him for he is a Christian; / But more…He lends money gratis, and brings down / The rate of usance here with us in Venice” (1.3.36-40). He hates Christians and he hates that they give money away for free, which makes Shylock less money. He is a greedy Jew. Shakespeare has Shylock spew out a list of Jewish stereotypes when Bassanio asks Shylock to dine with him and Antonio:
Yes, to smell pork, to eat of the habitation which your
prophet the Nazarite conjured the devil into! I will buy with
you, sell with you, talk with you, walk with you, and so fol-
lowing, but I will not eat with you, drink with you, nor pray
with you. (1.3.28-32)
Steven Marx wrote that, “It is the Jews’ hatred, portrayed in the gospel stories and perennially revived with later stories of well-poisoning and child murder, which warrants and stimulates Christian hatred against them.”[13] Shakespeare vilifies Shylock in his play more than once, just by the statements he makes. When he is lending Bassanio 3,000 ducats, he states: “I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him…Cursed be my tribe / If I forgive him” (1.3.42, 46-47). Here, there are multiple meanings to the grudge he bears Antonio and stereotype of all Jews who bore grudges against Christianity. This mirrors Antonio’s grudge towards Shylock and the grudge Christians have toward Jews for urging the Romans to kill Jesus. The curse of Shylock’s tribe means all Jews, all of God’s chosen children. Not taking the revenge would go against the teachings of revenge in the Old Testament and the vengeful God that it portrays.
The Venice in The Merchant of Venice is not the true Venice of Shakespeare’s time. Many historians say, he does a remarkable job getting some things correct, but the Venice he portrays is more of a mythical Venice. Although it was a city famous for its tolerance of many religions, the Jews lived in a ghetto and, according to Maus it was gated and locked at night.[14] Whether Shakespeare knew that or not, is anyone’s guess. The idea of usury being something only Jews did, was not all together correct either. Shakespeare would have certainly known usury was legalized in England in 1571, but it was still a standard stereotype of Jews.
There have been multiple ideas of where Shakespeare learned about Italy and Venice. He could have just read about Italy. But few think he would have been able to understand so many nuances about Italy from someone’s diary or a well-written book about a traveler’s journey through Italy. One hypothesis is that Shakespeare was a friend of John Florio’s. Florio was an Italian who held a position at Oxford to tutor French and Italian. He was often seen in court and it would only seem natural that Florio and Shakespeare might become friendly. It is thought that he helped Shakespeare make Shylock seem more foreign to the English populace, characterized by grammatical inflexions that were more Italian.[15]
