Word: merchant
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...THIS MERCHANT OF VENICE is prime evidence for the view that Shakespeare should be produced on stage as a necessary adjunct to classroom study. The text appears to be a mare's nest of incompatible themes and emotional effections, careening from Shylock's tragedy to Bassanio's comedy to Antonio's romance. But in a good production--and the Loeb mainstage production is a very good production indeed--these problems are reconciled in performance...
Shylock, of course, presents the most difficult problems for any production. Many people continue to view The Merchant of Venice as, for all intents and purposes, unperformable after the Holocaust. At worst this view leads to the total suppression of an early Shakespeare masterpiece, at best to a crushing overemphasis on Shylock's role, so that the play becomes a one-man tragedy. Ask most people the name of the merchant of Venice, and they will answer "Shylock" more frequently than "Antonio." Antonio has not passed into the language as a generic term; "Shylock" is one of the most durable...
Like most comedies, The Merchant of Venice is about the conflict between law and the powers above law. Throughout the first four acts we are shown, as we are shown in most tragedy, the conflict of two irreconcilable rights: Shylock's right to "justice" and Antonio's to humane treatment. Mercy and justice seem to be at odds. But the whole point of Shylock's Judaism is that only the old dispensation, the Mosaic law of "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth," is incompatible with mercy. The coming of Christ means that mercy becomes...
...Merchant of Venice. The Loeb takes on Shakespeare's not-so-funny comedy about the struggle between justice and mercy in a Venetian courtroom. Jon Epstein's performance as Shylock should be good. At the Loeb, November 13-16 and 19-22, at 8 p.m. Tickets...
...prosperous every year. Now Slater, 46, has also had his comeuppance, His company's role in alleged fiscal improprieties is under investigation in Hong Kong and Singapore; he has resigned as chairman of Slater, Walker and gone into seclusion. Last week the Bank of England and several powerful merchant banks moved in to prevent collapse of Slater, Walker and the further weakening of an already shaky British financial establishment...