Was the Bard friend or foe?

TOVA G. KORNFELD

It’s that time of the year again, that is, Bard on the Beach time, running all summer long, with Much Ado About Nothing and Antony and Cleopatra playing under the big tent and the history plays, Falstaff and Henry V, playing on the Duncan Campbell Studio Stage, all in repertory.

When one thinks of Shakespeare and Jews, The Merchant of Venice (written in 1596) and its Jewish protagonist Shylock, immediately comes to mind. However, 10 other Shakespearean plays contain references to Jews, including all four on this year’s Bard menu. What were Shakespeare’s perceptions of Jews? Was he an antisemite or did he inject some sympathy into his portrayal of the Jewish people? To answer this, one has to look at the man and the times in which he wrote.

The Bard was born into a Catholic family in Elizabethan England in 1564. He died in 1616. He penned 37 plays, which formed part of the golden age of the English literary renaissance. During his lifetime, there were technically no Jews living in England, as they had been expelled in 1290 by King John and weren’t invited back until 1655 by Oliver Cromwell. Therefore, the chances of Shakespeare actually having known any Jews are small. Politically, England was just coming out of a devastating war with Spain. Costly expeditions were being undertaken to obtain a stake in the “New World.” The country was in the midst of the Protestant Reformation and its doctrinal separation from the Roman Catholic Church. Witches were still being burned at the stake, public executions were the order of the day and bear baiting was the entertainment choice of the masses.

On stage, Elizabethan audiences were favored with productions of Christopher Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta, written in 1590. Then, in 1594, in the Queen’s court, Dr. Lopez, a known Marrano and the Queen’s personal physician, was sentenced to death for allegedly being involved in a plot to poison her. It is within this historical context that one must analyze Shakespeare’s words, and it would be folly to consider his work with post-Holocaust eyes.

Shakespeare generally based his works on that of others: old Greek or Roman tragedies or, even, the work of some of his contemporaries. There is some argument as to whether or not he actually wrote by himself all of the plays attributed to him. Many scholars suggest that Merchant was based on The Jew of Malta (in which the main character, Barabas, of biblical fame, manifests Jewish stereotypes) with the real Dr. Lopez providing the prototype for Shylock.

There are two schools of thought on whether Shylock’s character is one to evoke sympathy or disgust. Some feel that Shylock’s iconic soliloquy (“Hath not a Jew eyes? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?”) suggests that Shakespeare was challenging his audience to view Jews as no different from themselves. Also, Shakespeare has Shylock make several statements that point out Christian hypocrisy in the whole sordid affair. Contrast that with the play’s references to Shylock as “the Jew is the very devil,” “the villain Jew,” “the dog Jew,” and the play’s “happy ending” of Shylock’s forced conversion to Christianity.

Only two official performances of Merchant took place in the 1600s. In each, Shylock was depicted as a hideous character with a hooked nose and a red wig, the latter to signify the red hats the Jews of Venice were required to wear in the Venetian Ghetto for identification purposes.

It was not until the mid-1800s that actors, such as English thespian Edward Kean, provided a sympathetic Shylock, which subsequently became the norm. It is noteworthy that the Nazis used regular radio broadcasts of the play to promote their antisemitic propaganda.

So, after penning a play where a Jewish character is front and centre, how did Shakespeare choose to portray the Jews in his other works?

• 1588-94, Love’s Labor’s Lost: “My sweet ounce of man’s flesh! My incony [rare] Jew!”

• 1592-94, Two Gentlemen of Verona: “If thou wilt, go with me to the alehouse; if not, thou art an Hebrew, a Jew, and not worth the name of a Christian.”

• 1595, Richard II: “... as is the sepulchre in stubborn Jewry, of the world’s ransom....”

• 1595-96, Midsummer Night’s Dream: “... most lovely Jew” (tongue-in-cheek)

• 1596-97, Henry IV, Part I: Falstaff, responding to a challenge to his veracity, states, “You rogue, they were bound, every man of them; or I am a Jew else, an Ebrew Jew.”

• 1597, Merry Wives of Windsor: “What a Herod of Jewry is this, oh wicked world.”

• 1598-99, Henry V: “... as did the wives of Jewry at Herod’s bloody – hunting slaughtermen.”

• 1598-99, Much Ado About Nothing: Bennedick says, “If I do not love her, I am a Jew.”

• 1605-06, Macbeth: part of the witches’ cauldron brew contained “liver of blaspheming Jew.”

• 1606-07, Antony and Cleopatra: various references to “Herod of Jewry,” suggestive of negative character traits of the ruthless, mad “King of the Jews.”

In 11 of his plays, or nearly a third of his work, Shakespeare depicts Jews negatively, as liars, cheaters, devils and blasphemers. This at a time when he likely did not know even one Jew.

Shakespeare wrote about enduring and universal themes of love, lust, hate, grief and war, but he did so within the context of his own times, and that is the only way to understand his words. Shakespeare ... Jewish friend or foe? The answer remains uncertain. For further insights, read James Shapiro’s book Shakespeare and the Jews.

Tova G. Kornfeld is a lawyer and freelance writer living in Vancouver.

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