Trial by Jewry: the Jewish Figure As Subversive Critic in the Plays of The

I University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. "Trial By Jewry*: The Jewish Figure as Subversive Critic in the Plays of the Public Theatre, 1580-1600 by Lloyd Edward Kermode A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts of the University of Birmingham in partial fulfilment of the degree of Master of Philosophy The Shakespeare Institute. August 1992 SYNOPSIS This thesis sets out to analyse the role of the Jewish figure on the late Elizabethan public stage. To do this, an historical approach is used. The first chapter charts generally the movements of the Jews on the Continent in the fifteenth- and sixteenth-centuries, showing how some Jews were to find their way to England, and where those Jews lived; but also painting a picture of the Jews' situation in various key European locations, a picture from which many images found their way onto the English stage. The second chapter analyses the place of the public theatre in the suburbs around London, and surveys the English arena into which the Jews were received. Chapters three to seven follow the estimated early performances of the plays involving Jewish or 'Jew-ish 1 figures, and analyse the social, cultural, religious and political significance of the interest in a race of people officially absent from the country since 1290. These analyses are concerned with how the Jewish figure is used through the 1580s and 1590s to comment on such issues as political power: its fragility and defence; religious fidelity; material and sexual greed and lust; and the individual's reaction to suppressive and oppressive authority - These are not just powerful tropes of the drama, but provide a satirical, sometimes playful, and often subversive critique of both the manner in which princes ruled realms, and the ways in which authorities policed their cities and population. The eternally transient figure without geographical nationality, the Jew, provided a potent cocktail that mixed the universal banes of rejection, prejudice, alienation, and oppression, to produce a bitter-tasting draught of the very ideology in which the playgoers lived; it was a product which they consumed avidly. This thesis contains approximately 50,000 words. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My gratitude is due to Dr. Martin Wiggins for his valuable criticism during the past year, and also to Dr. Susan Brock for extending the library facilities from Stratford-upon-Avon to my Birmingham outpost. The co-operation of administrative staff makes no small difference to the academic state of mind, and for their cheerful help, I thank Daphne Ingram and Etta Mahon at the Shakespeare Institute office. I am also grateful for the generosity of Mr. Richard Gross and Mrs. Pamela Gross, who provided me with money to visit Washington D.C., where I was able to use the Folger Shakespeare Library and bring to a hasty conclusion the seemingly eternal first chapter of the thesis. My debt to my parents is unfathomable. What is certain, however, is that the debt has deepened by several thousand pounds during the past year. To Mum and Dad this work is dedicated. CONTENTS List of Illustrations Preface Introduction p. ± Chapter One p. i The Jews Across Europe [The Spanish-Portuguese Connexion; The French Connexion; The Low Countries Connexion; The German and Central European Connexion; The Italian Connexion; The Turkish Connexion; London: A Head Too Big; The Inflation: Freezing Assets; London's Jewry] Chapter Two p. 62 The Suburban Theatre of London [The Theatre as Second City; "abowt my playe howsse"] Chapter Three p. 88 The Three Ladies of London; or "Christian Usury" Chapter Four, Part One p. 114 The Jew of Malta & 1592-3 Chapter Pour, Part Two p. 157 The Jew of Malta & 1594 [Selimus] Chapter Five p. 180 The Blind Beggar of Alexandria; or "Clothes Maketh the Man 1 Chapter Six p. 201 The Merchant of Venice; or "The Picture-Perfect Trial" Chapter Seven p. 237 Jack Drum's Entertainment; or "Over-the-Hill" Conclusion p. 253 Appendices p. 257 APPENDIX A - THE PLAYS p. 257 1. A possible staging of The Three Lords, in repertoire with The Three Ladies. 2. The State of the Text of The Blind Beggar of Alexandria 3. Shylock's Bond according to Wilson's A Discourse upon Usury - APPENDIX B - TRAVELOGUES p. 265 1. Hakluyt on Spain & Portugal, and Venetian Jews 2. Sandys Relations Concerning the Jews 3. From Coryat's Crudities (Venice) APPENDIX C - ENGLAND AND THE JEWS p. 273 1. Hugh Broughton's Letters, 1597-1611 2. Statutes of Jewry (England), 1275 3. Documents Relating to Lopez a) Letter appealing for his life b) CSP Pom counts of treason] 4. Usury Law of England, 1545-1600 Bibliography p. 284 Frontispiece: Alberto Giacometti, The Nose (1947), Hirshhorn Museum, Washington D. C. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS [llustrations are located at the end of each chapter] CHAPTER ONE: Fig. l.l The ritual murder of St. Simon of Trent, from Hartmann Schedel, The Nuremberg Chronicle CCLIV verso. Fig. 1.2 Child murder in Sappenfeld, reprinted in R. Po-Chia Hsia, The Myth of Ritual Murder p. 60. Fig. 1.3 The "Judensau" (late 15th c.), reprinted in David Kunzle, The Early Comic Strip p. 24. Fig 1.4 Crucifixion of a child by Jews in Norwich on Good Friday (12th c.). Reprinted in Schedel, The Nuremberg Chronicle CCI verso. Fig. 1.5 Hieronymous Bosch, The Carrying of the Cross (c. 1510?). Reproduced in Gardner, Art Through the Ages p. 674. Fig. 1.6 The prophanation of the Host by Jews ("A Horrible Deed Committed by the Jews in Passau", 1490s), reprinted in Kunzle, The Early Comic Strip p. 27. Fig. 1.7A "Lopez Compounding to Poison the Queen", detail of fig. 1.8. Fig. 1.7B "Lopez Compounding to Poison the Queen", reproduced in Claire Hilton, "St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, and its Jewish Connections", p. 25. Fig. 1.8 Cornells Danckertsz, "First are Described the Cursed Plots they Laid, and on the Side their Wretched Ends Display"d" (1624). Reprinted in Kunzle, The Early Comic Strip p. 124. Map 1 City of London c. 1600, West, according to stow's description. From C. L. Kingsford edition of Stow, A Survey of London. Map 2 City of London c. 1600, East. As above. CHAPTER TWO: Fig. 2.1A Detail from Claude de Jongh's sketch of London Bridge. Reproduced in R. A. Foakes, Illustrations of the English Stage p. 23. Fig. 2.IB Claude de Jongh, "View of Old London Bridge" (1630), in Kenwood House. Reproduced in R. A. Foakes, as above. Fig. 2.2A Ground plan of Rose Theatre foundations, 1588(?)- 1594, Museum of London. Reproduced in Christine Eccles, The Rose Theatre p. 88; and S. Q. 40 (4), p. 479. Fig. 2.2B Ground plan of Rose Theatre foundations, 1594-, Museum of London. Reproduced in C. Eccles, as above, p. 92; and S. Q., as above. Fig. 2.3 The homo ad quadratum, after Vitruvius Pollio. In Cesariano trans. of De Architectura book 3. CHAPTER THREE: Fig. 3.1A Usury mounted on an Elephant, from Stephen Batman, A Christall Glasse of Christian Reformation (1569), B4r. Reprinted in T. W. Craik, The Tudor Interlude between pages 48 and 49; Craik plate VII. Fig. 3. IB A Prophet, a Friar, and a Murderer, from Stephen Batman, as above, C4v; Craik plate VIII. CHAPTER FOUR: Pig. 4.1A Upside-down execution of a Jew, from Thomas Murner, Die Entehrung Mariae durch die Juden. Reprinted in R. Po-chia Hsia, The Myth of Ritual Murder p. 28. Fig. 4.IB St. Peter's crucifixion, from H. Schedel, The Nuremberg Chronicle p. CHIIverso. Fig. 4.2A The covetous boiled in lead and oil, from Sommer ed., Kalender of Shepherds E4v (p. 235). Reprinted in G. K. Hunter, "The Theology of Marlowe's The Jew of Malta", p. 28. Fig. 4.2B Fall of Antichrist. From the Antichrist block-book in John Rylands Library, Manchester, fol. 26v (p. 234). Reprinted in G. K. Hunter, as above. Fig. 4.2C Torments of the damned, detail from Last Judgement at chaldon, Surrey,- SS. Peter and Paul. Reproduced in G. K. Hunter, as above. Fig. 4.2D Fiends stir the pots in Hell's kitchen with pitchforks. German woodcut, fifteenth-century. Reprinted in Hughes, Heaven and Hell in Western Art p. 209. Fig 4.3 Sinners boiling in the cauldron, from York Minster Mouth of Hell. Reproduced in Robert Hughes, Heaven and Hell in Western Art p. 186. (For non-English images see pp. 187, 189, 207, 209, 210.) CHAPTER FIVE: Fig 5.1 A prophet, painting after fresco from Winchester Cathedral (13th c.). Reprinted in Alfred Rubens, A History of Jewish Costume p. 96. Fig. 5.2 Drawing of an English Jew (1275), from British Museum Cottonian MS Nero D II. Reprinted Alfred Rubens, as above, p. 86; and Cecil Roth, Essays and Portraits (fig. 3, between pp. 50 & 51). Tig. 5.3 Caricature of English Jews (1233), from a drawing in Public Record Office MS. Depicts Isaac of Norwich, and Jews subject to Henry III. Reprinted in Alfred Rubens, as above, p. 94. Fig. 5.4 Woodcut of Austrian Jew, "Jobst Mellern" (Prague 16th c.).

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