Virginia Commonwealth University VCU Scholars Compass Menorah Review VCU University Archives 2000 Menorah Review (No. 50, Fall, 2000) Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/menorah Part of the History of Religion Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons © The Author(s) Recommended Citation https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/menorah/49 This Full Issue is brought to you for free and open access by the VCU University Archives at VCU Scholars Compass. It has been accepted for inclusion in Menorah Review by an authorized administrator of VCU Scholars Compass. For more information, please contact [email protected]. NUMBER 50 • CENTER FOR JUDAIC STUDIES OF VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY • FALL 2000 For the Enrichment of Jewish Thought firsttime with the most controversial play he tunity to celebrate their achievement with a The Merchant of Venice ever wrote. production of The Merchant of Venice. and Skylock's "Christian It is possible, although unverified, that WernerKrauss, a Nazi himself, plays Shylock Problem" the one Jew who we know was living in as something revoltingly alien, greasy, dirty, Williamsburg at the time also was in atten­ repulsive--<:rawling across the stage. dance that night. He was a Sephardic Jew Now it is June 1999 at the Shakespeare 2000 Brown Lecture whose family came from Portugal during the Theater in Washington. Hal Holbrook plays Inquisition. John de Sequeyra was born in Skylock as a tall, straight-backed, proud London in 1716, came to Williamsburg when man who speaks with authority and dignity. The following article is excerpted from the he was 29 and died there at the ripe age of 79. A revolting Shylock in Vienna. A noble lecture presented by Dr. Jack D. Spiro for During 22 of those years he was the visiting Shylock in Washington. Who the Williams­ the 15th Selma and Jacob Brown Lecture physician at the "Lunatic Asylum," which is burg Shylock was we may never know. held last March. This annual lecture is now called Eastern State Hospital. He was But what we do know is that with only sponsored by the Center for Judaic Studies also one of the most respected physicians in 400 lines, on stage for only five of20scenes­ and the Friends of the Library of Virginia early Williamsburg. And something as glit­ there is no character in Shakespeare's reper­ Commonwealth University(VCU). Dr. Spiro tering as opening night of the firstlegitimate tory who can run the gamut of diverse and holds the HarryLyons Distinguished Chair theater may have enticed him to occupy one contradictory interpretations like Shylock. in Judaic Culture at VCU and edits this of its seats. Ay, there's the rub! Is there any way that we publication. De Sequeyra could have been moti­ can possibly know Shakespeare's Shylock­ vated also by the major lead in the play-a the Shylock that his peerless creator wanted William Levingston, a merchant in 18th­ Jew named Shylock who may have been of to present? Has any of his plays provoked as century Williamsburg, Virginia planted the Sephardic descent since he lived in Venice. much passionate contention as The Mer­ seed for the first legitimate theater in the Did the play make him uneasy and uncom­ chant of Venice? Indeed, no. Through the colonies. In May 1752, the Hallams, a fortable? Did the play agitate the non­ decades and centuries, critics have been so at theatrical company from London, electri­ Jewish audience? Of course we don't know odds with each other that you might think we fied the theater-goers of Williamsburg by but chances are it did in some way because were reading a vast assortment of different transforming their stage into the first truly it has been agitating audiences since its plays altogether. legitimate theater of the New World. initial performance at the end of the 17th One of the reasons for this is that What an evening that must have been! century at the Globe Theater in London. Shakespeare ingeniously creates a profu­ Read all about it in the Virginia Gazette of It is not only a play that agitates. It also sion of equivocal signals to the point where August 21, 1752: confuses and bemuses people; it mixes them the play is always urging us, as the famous "We are desired to inform the Publick, that up and baffles them; it provokes and embar­ critic Hazard Adams put it, to "look again." as the Company ... lately from London, have rasses them. Categorized as a comedy, it's No matter how many times I see and read the obtained His Honour the Governour'sPer­ not at all amusing. play, I always seem to be looking again and mission, and have with great Expense, en­ But in May 1943, it delights its audience again and again. tirely altered the Play-House ofWilliamsburg at the Burgtheater in Vienna. The Holocaust But before anything else, I must put to a regular [i.e., legitimate] Theater, fit for has been raging for 17 months; the city on aside the idea heard so often-that the reception of Ladies and Gentlemen, and the Danube is Judenrein; Viennese Jews Shakespeare was anti-Jewish. Let me give the Execution of their own Performances, have been transported in cattle cars to the you a quick example of why he was not by they intend to open on the first Friday in eastern death camps. Members of the Nazi referring to another source. One of his great September next, with a Play call'd 'The party in Vienna consider it a perfect oppor- tragedies, as you know, was Othello. Actu­ Merchant of Venice,' (written by ally, the full name of the play is Othello, the Shakespeare) .... The Ladies desired to give IN THIS ISSUE Moor of Venice, just as our play is The timely notice .. .fortheir places in the house, Merchant of Venice. In Othello there are at • Skylock's and on the Day of Performance to send their The Merr:hant of Venhland least 15 references to the color of Othello's servants early to keep them in order to 'Chris/ian Problem' skin, which is black, and 67 times he is prevent Trouble and Disappointment." • JewsSlaves and referred to as being a Moor, which is equiva­ • Lambs and WorVes? lent to an ebony hue. The references are all The opening was dynamite. Not one racist remarks-especially by Brabantio, • RabbicAuthority in Babylonia empty seat, the house packed with excited Desdemona's father, and by !ago, Othello's • Is an first-nighters including the Royal Governor M andUterature of the Holocaust unknown antagonist. Does the racism in the and his officialfamily. Shakespeare came to Possible ... play mean that Shakespeare himself was a a legitimate theater in the New World for the • NoteworthyBooks racist? And similarly, do the defamatory 2 Menorah Review, Fall 2000 remarks about Shylock's Jewish identity preoccupied with financial metaphors and be kind and generous rather than mean­ indicate that Shakespeare was anti-Semitic? the entanglements of money, love, power spirited and villianous? lf he behaves kindly, Yes, you can say he was both a black hater and justice. Nothing is left to the imagina­ Shylock must be Christian. Such is the only and a Jew hater; you could say that if you tion with regard to the highly questionable logic available to a soft-spoken bigot like were not familiar with the concept of"nega­ integrity of every individual. In this realm, Antonio-but such is Antonio's world. The tive capability." Shylock is not alone. world in which Shylock and his people have One of the most amazing characteristics But in every other way, he is alone. endured; it is their badge, the fate of the of this artist has been described as"negative ...reaching a point in his life when he is outsider, whose possibility of being let in is capability," an idea first developed by Wil­ agonizingly and, then, intolerably alone, re­ beyond the imagination. liam Hazlitt and then by John Keats. But jected, maligned, dehumanized-more than Being the outsider is keenly dramatized even Shakespeare himself seems aware of ever, ever before. We will get to that criti­ when Shylock is in court. Venetian society this, one of his special gifts, when he wrote cally unbearable moment soon. But first, appears to permit Shylock a legal standing in Sonnet Ill: " ...my nature is subdued to look at Shylock in his world-the world of and yet the legal protection, supposedly his, what it works in, like the dyer's hand." Venice where his primary confrontation is is undermined by the process of one law What did he mean? His very being is with a Christian merchant named Antonio. subverting another, the law as applied to subdued in what the artist happens to be What is Shylock's experience with Anto­ him-the Jew, the stranger, the alien, the working. Probably that he possesses "nega­ nio-several encounters validated by Anto­ outsider-is a sham. tive capability;" that is, the creative, unpar­ nio himself and verbalized by both men. Just as the trial scene is a satire on a alleled genius of giving mutually conflicting court of justice, Portia's speech on mercy is notions full imaginative development­ Shakespeare held the mirror up to also a satire in terms of her own hypocrisy in opening the mind to all kinds of possibilities, demanding more than justice. It turns out to letting "the mind be a thoroughfare for all the nature of anti-Jewishness as it be nothing more than the exertion of power thoughts." The negatively capable artist is truly existed in Venice and by the insiders against the impotence of the one who can get out of himself and his outsider, having nothing to do withjustice or environment, subdue his own ego totally, throughout Europe..