The Merchant of Venice 1936 / 2024

 

I was first introduced to Shakespeare by my English teacher Mrs Grocott. This was at Cwmcarn Comprehensive back in the late 1970s and for “O” level English literature we studied the Merchant of Venice. I had a difficult relationship with English Literature as a subject. I enjoyed the plays (we also studied An Inspector Calls by J. B. Priestly and She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith). But the novels didn’t do much for me (one was The Pearl by John Steinbeck) and as for the poetry. It left me cold. So much so that I failed my O level.

But as I’ve said Mrs Grocott introduced me to Shakespeare and for that I’m grateful.

If you’ve never seen the Merchant of Venice, what follows contains spoilers.

Compared to some Shakespeare plays on the face of it the Merchant is an easy one. The story, or should that be stories, are straightforward. Bassanio, a young Venetian of noble rank, wishes to woo the beautiful and wealthy heiress Portia of Belmont. But he’s squandered all his money. So, he asks his friend Antonio – the Merchant of the title – for a loan. Antonio’s assets are all tidied up in various trading ships. He’s asset rich and cash poor. Nonetheless he agrees to help Bassanio and Antonio goes a to a Jewish money lender – Shylock – for a loan.

But the loan comes with a heavy price. If Antonio defaults Shylock wants from Antonio

an equal pound
Of your fair flesh, to be cut off and taken
In what part of your body pleaseth me.

Antonio agrees thinking all will be well when his ships come back to port. But they don’t, and Shylock calls in the loan. Antonio and Shylock go to court for Shylock to have his penalty clause enforced. Shylock wants his “pound of flesh” which in reality means Antonio will be killed.

At this point in the play Shakespeare uses one of his tried and tested plot devices – women disguised as men. In this instance Portia, who is now Bassanio’s wife, disguises herself as a lawyer brought in to advise on the law. She concludes that the contract is valid and yes Shylock  is entitled to his pound of flesh. However, she points out that there is nothing in he contract about any of Antonio's blood being shed. Therefore, Shylock can only have his pound of flesh if no blood is spilled in the taking of the pound of flesh.

Bassanio offers Shylock the money for the loan which Shylock reluctantly agrees to (having previously refused and insisted on the pound of flesh.) But Portia also prevents Shylock from doing this, on the ground that he has already refused it "in the open court". She cites a law under which Shylock, as a Jew and therefore an "alien", having attempted to take the life of a citizen, has forfeited his property, half to the government and half to Antonio, leaving his life at the mercy of the Judge. 

Shylock is bankrupted and the play ends happily ever after with Bassanio and Portia happily married and Antonio alive. (OK, there’s more to it than this. DO NOT rely on this blog as an aid to revision.)

For many years the play has come under scrutiny for antisemitism. Certainly, it can be interpreted that way from the way Shylock is treated and referred to. And in some productions Shylock has become a caricature of a Jew. (In Nazi Germany the Merchant of Venice was staged this way.)

However, Shylock can be portrayed in other ways. He can be portrayed as a sympathetic character. A Jew who is persecuted for his faith and is pushed to breaking point by anti-semites because of his faith.

Early on in the play Shylock is challenged about why he wants a pound of flesh from Antonio. Shylock says:

“… it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and
hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses,
mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my
bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine
enemies; and what's his reason? I am a Jew.”

And this brings me to a production of the Merchant of Venice by the Roal Shakespeare Company at Stratford on Avon. It was entitled “The Mercnat of Venice 1936” and the actor and writer Tracy Ann Oberman appeared as Shylock. It was set in the East End of London in 1936 at the time of the rise of Oswald Mosely’s fascist Black Shirts.

Shylock was portrayed as a hard businesswoman. But one who has been pushed to demand his pound of flesh, as revenge for the way Antonio and his Black Shirt wearing friends had treated him and other Jewish people.  (And let’s not forget, was Shylock really expecting he’d get his revenge? What were the chances of all of Antonio’s fortunes being lost at sea?)

Even “fair Portia” was portrayed as antisemitic. Initially, in the way Portia treated Shylock’s daughter Jessica (who had eloped with the Christian Lorenzo taking some of Shylock’s wealth with her.) Then at court. (Portia was portrayed as someone like Lady Diana Mitford - wife of Moseley, and in her own right a fascist and Hitler sympathiser.) In this production by what might be termed “the establishment” joins forces to even deny Shylock justice in a court of law. No separation of powers here. (As an aside, just a few days after seeing this production, the Conservative MP Jacob Rees – Mogg demanded that courts no longer be separate but should be subject to Parliament. https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/popular-conservatives-rees-mogg-attacks-lady-hale-and-calls-for-neutering-of-supreme-court/5118671.article)

I am writing this not a review of the play (which was excellent by the way with Ms Oberman on top form.) But because I was affected by words of Shakespeare said by Shylock.

It is a continuation of the speech I’ve quoted earlier:

Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs,
dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with
the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject
to the same diseases, healed by the same means,
warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as
a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed?
if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison
us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not
revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will
resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian,
what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian
wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by
Christian example? Why, revenge.

Words reminding us that all people are the same regardless of their race, their faith, their gender or sexuality. Whether Israeli or Palestinian.

As a sixteen year old this was one of the many quotes from the play we had to memorise and regurgitate. It is one that stuck – though at the time I’m not sure I realised the importance of it. I do now.

This production will transfer to the West End on 15^th February. If you can go and see it.

Where are the prophets?

 

The Book of Deuteronomy is a second giving of the law to Moses. The law is given immediately prior to the crossing of the river Jordan and Israel’s entry into the land promised to its ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is a second giving as the first giving was set out in the terms of the covenant concluded between Moses and God on Mount Sinai, on behalf of the people of Israel, immediately after their delivery from slavery in Egypt.

In Deuteronomy Moses is fleshing out the law already given.

One of the themes that emerges from Deuteronomy is that once the people of Israel have finally crossed the Jordan, the leadership of Israel would be made up of four distinct groups – Kings, Judges, Priests and Prophets. And in the next few books of the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible, we see these groups featuring.

But this morning I want us to think about one of those groups, the prophets.

Broadly speaking from this time onwards, and as the people entered the promised land, prophets figured largely. We only have to look at the Hebrew Bible to see them – great prophets such as Elijah, Isaiah and Jeremiah, then Daniel and Ezekiel; and others who are termed “minor prophets” such as Amos, Hosea and Micah.

Prophets consistently, and regularly, appeared. They were often – though not always – charismatic, eloquent speakers and preachers. To outsiders and opponents, prophets appeared to be self - appointed speakers, but to their followers they were seen as God  - appointed revealers of truth.

Prophets were generally held in high regard because they shared truth from God alone. They presented themselves as the very mouth of God to speak to Israel.

But throughout the time of the prophets there was an important bench mark. And that is what Moses said in Deuteronomy 18:15

¹⁵ The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him. Deuteronomy 18: 15

raise up for you a prophet like me

In other words, for a prophet to be regarded as authentic, the prophet needed to be “like Moses”. They had to be native Israelites and the important part being that prophets must be like Moses, meaning that the teaching of a prophet must accord with the words and spirit of Moses.

As Christians of course, we interpret the words spoken by Moses in Deuteronomy 15 as a pointer to the coming of Christ. An idea that comes up in Matthew 16:13-20

¹³ When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

¹⁴ They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

Though when Jesus presses Peter

¹⁵ “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

¹⁶ Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

The words of Moses point to Jesus who was greater than a prophet of course.

Though interestingly in his gospel John draws several analogies between Jesus and Moses. But that’s for another time.

What is a prophet?

Chambers dictionary tells us that a prophet is “someone who speaks on behalf of a deity; Someone who proclaims a divine message; an inspired teacher, preacher or poet; Someone who speaks on behalf of a group, movement or doctrine; A foreteller, whether claiming to be inspired or not;”

That’s what a prophet is. But Where are the prophets now? Or did God stop using prophets after Jesus? Well clearly not. We might refer to the likes of Paul as an Apostle but he proclaimed a divine message. And over the centuries countless other Christians have been prophetic too.

The trouble is I feel we tend to associate prophets with the dramatic. And in our age sadly many of those who claim to be prophets are no such things. For example you may have seen some news reports a few weeks ago about Pastor T B Joshua who ran a mega church in Lagos Nigeria. He claimed to be a prophet but his “ministry” involved the sexual abuse of many vulnerable women. 

I like something American minister Jeremiah Wright of the Trinity United Church of Christ in a run down area of Chicago said “There ain’t no prophet in the written record who is a pastor of a megachurch”.

It's worth remembering once again those words spoken by Moses

¹⁵ The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me

Prophets must be like Moses. And I would add as Christians, we should expect prophets to share the message and values of Jesus Christ. Being like Moses, or being like Christ, means that a prophet’s words must be like the words and spirit of Moses and Jesus.

Where are the prophets?

I suspect there are few here this morning old enough to remember Simon & Garfunkel’s song “The Sound of Silence”. If you do remember it that song contained a line “The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls”. I don’t know what Simon & Garfunkel meant by that line. But for me it has been an indication that we can find words of prophecy in unlikely places and spoken by unlikely people. In other words, God can speak to us in ways we may find unlikely, through people we may find unlikely. After all, he spoke to Moses through a burning bush which is hardly a normal form of communication – even back then!

I would suggest that God can sometimes use people to be prophets even if they don’t know it. You may have views on the climate emergency affecting the world now. But someone like Greta Thunberg I’d suggest is a prophet. She brings a message that is a reminder from God that we as his people are custodians of his planet. Likewise Sir David Attenborough whose Blue Planet programme featuring plastic waste in the oceans did so much to raise this issue.

And talking of the words of the prophets on subway walls, the artist Banksy’s paintings have often said so much. Such as this one in the West Bank of Palestine:

But if we accept that prophets can be unlikely people, in unlikely places and at unlikely times, how do we determine if someone really is bringing us a word from God? A God - given insight?

As Jesus says in Matthew 7

¹⁵ “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. ¹⁶ By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?

We go back to the words of Moses in Deuteronomy God will raise up for you a prophet like me. Is the “prophet” speaking in manner that is compatible with Moses or more importantly compatible with Jesus? That is the test.

The second factor for acknowledging a true prophet, as far as the passage in Deuteronomy is concerned is whether the prophet’s messages should be proved true by the actual outcome of events.

²¹ You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?” ²² If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously, so do not be alarmed.

Of course this is rather unhelpful; since prophecies might take the form of warnings, it may be of little assistance to find that such warnings were true when it was too late to heed the message!

Didache, a short book on Christian behaviour and church practice from the 2nd century tell us “The false and the genuine prophet will be known by their ways. If a prophet teaches the truth but does not practise what he teaches, he is a false prophet.”

But what of now? Where are the prophets now?

Antoinette Doolittle 19^th century American writer said: 

“every time has its prophets as guiding stars; They are the burning candles of the Lord to light the spiritual temple on earth, for the time being. When they have sown their work they will pass away; But the candle sticks will remain, and other lights will be placed on them.”

Who replaces the prophetic candles that have burned out? Who takes their place on the prophetic candlesticks?

Where are the prophets? Look around you. Here are the prophets. Each one of us can be prophetic. We can and must speak of Christlike values. We can and must voice our concerns at injustices.

As Christians we are called to be prophetic. To speak into the age we live in. To speak up for the values of Christ and challenge those things and values that aren’t Christ like.

Cardinal Basil Hume Archbishop of Westminster once said:

 “whenever the poor are afflicted or neglected, or whenever human freedom and dignity is not respected, then the church has a duty to sound a prophet’s note, and it must be prepared to be unpopular on matters which concern politicians as well.”

Where are the prophets?

 

Banksy photo: https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/art/banksy-in-palestine-a-look-at-the-street-artist-s-work-in-gaza-and-the-west-bank-1.1031618