Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice (written circa 1594-97 – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Merchant_of_Venice) is known, more than anything else, for the antisemitism inherent in its portrayal of Shylock as an evil Jewish moneylender. I find myself wondering why Shakespeare put that in. All Jews were expelled from England in 1290 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jews_in_the_Middle_Ages#Expulsions.) and were not allowed back in until 1655, by decree of Cromwell (http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/7221/jewishistory.htm). Most of Shakespeare’s audience, unless they had traveled abroad, would never even have seen a Jew. He had to set the play in a foreign city to put a Jew in it at all. How could an antisemitic plot resonate in such an environment?
The very fact that Jews were still ‘unwelcome’ is a clear indication that antisemitism was there. You don’t have to see something to be afraid of it. (Even today, the areas which opinion polls report as having a population most concerned about immigration are the areas with lowest immigration. Go figure.)
The moneylender stereotype is something that still persists today, in various guises. Shakespeare’s Londoners will have recognised it fully. Also, don’t image for a moment that being an island isolated Britain at that time - until the 19th century, travel by boat was the most efficient and reliable way to get around. It was quicker to get from London to France than from London to, umm, Stratford-upon-Avon 
The same way racist sentiments resonate in rural villages that haven’t ever seen an African-American, or the same way that vile slanders of homosexuals resonated throughout the country when being out and proud was unthinkable. Humans fear the unknown more than they fear the known.
Plus, there was the whole Lopez execution in 1594, so murderous Jews would have been on people’s mind.
That’s the real answer. A little background:
Dr. Roderigo “Ruy” Lopez was a Portuguese Jew and became Queen Elizabeth I’s personal physician in 1586. Because of tensions between England and Spain, powerful people accused him of trying to poison the Queen and he was executed. That stirred up a great deal of anti-Jewish sentiment. One result was a very popular revival of Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta, which is about the completely over-the-top evil Barrabas. That in turn might have influenced The Merchant of Venice, which came about between 1594 and 1597.
Also I think it’s arguable that the play is antisemitic, since the Christians in it are major assholes and Shylock is not so simply evil. But that’s a whole other thing.
That is a point. Shylock, if played properly and not as some moustache-twisting Snidely Whiplash, comes off as a deeply wounded soul turned bitter who sees a chance to get one back at the Christians when Antonio makes his deal. There’s actual characterization of Shylock, not just nasty anti-semitic stereotypes.
Of course that raises the issue of how Marlowe’s wildly antisemitic play had been a success in its first incarnation, predating the whole Lopez affair.
As Greenblatt’s WILL IN THE WORLD partly speculates, Jews, being rare, were a good target for xenophobia. When I taught MERCHANT last, in the early 1990s, I asked my students to think “Iranians” wherever they saw “Jews” and they got it, even my Jewish students: it’s very easy to imagine that a swarthy foreign people with values opposed to your own are not quite human, and a comedy could easily be written about the ultimate suffering and humiliation of one prime example of this “Other.”
I had never meet any Jews and I still liked the Ten Commandments.
If it’s entertaining it doesn’t have to be about things you know.
Question-if Lopez was Portuguese, and since Portugual and England had long been allies, why would they execute him because of tennsion with Spain?
Sorry, knew I’d screw something up. He was born in Portugal but “studied medicine in Spain,” so he’d lived there at least for some time.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/beyond/factsheets/makhist/makhist7_prog5a.shtml
Between 1580 and 1640, the Spanish monarchs also ruled Portugal.
From 1580 to 1640, the king of Spain was also king of Portugal. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Portugal#Affirmation_of_Portugal
Darn! Quinn beat me to it!
Thanks.
Guin, you might also want to read Clavell’s Shogun, set in Japan in 1600. The Portuguese and the Spanish in Asia hate each other’s guts – but they regard the English (and the Dutch) as the common enemy, mainly for religious reasons (Catholic vs. Protestant).
I too would argue that Shakespeare makes one of the first attempts in English literature to portray a Jew with a modicum of sympathy, in the famous “Hath not a Jew eyes?” speech, which is about anti-Semitism.
Wouldn’t you know it - I get to the end of the thread and Walloon makes the point I wanted to make - The “Hath not a Jew eyes” speech is fine.
Also, there were Jews in England at the time of Shakespeare.
Although the speech is just Shylock trying to justify his revenge, not a plea toward human sympathy or whatever.
Possibly one or two leaked in over a span of over 300 years? Or conceivably not every single one was expelled?
Many Jews lived in Elizabethan England, ostensibly as converts to Christianity, although some continued to be practicing Jews in private.