Which is the Jew that Shakespeare Knew?: Shylock on the Elizabethan Stage

Edelman, Charles

doi:10.1017/ccol0521660742.008

Cited by 7 publications

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“…70 While Ottoman hospitality and the integration of Sephardic Jews into the Ottoman social life were antithetical to how Jewish communities faced xenophobia in Western Europe, 71 the Jewish merchant Gerontus' positive characterisation in the play was also against negative literary and dramatic stereotypes found in early modern English literature. 72 From Gerontus, Mercatore took 3,000 Ducats in total but has not paid him back for years. While in Turkey, Mercatore comes across his creditor, who gently requests that Mercatore return his money.…”

Section: Disquieting Justicementioning

confidence: 99%

The Three Ladies of London (ca. 1581): Re‐Reading Anxieties of Anglo‐Ottoman Exchanges Through Critical Race Theory

Öğütcü

2023

Renaissance Studies

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Robert Wilson's The Three Ladies of London (ca. 1581) is the earliest extant Turk play that features one of the earliest instances of direct anxieties regarding Anglo‐Ottoman encounters. Contemporary with the 1580 Ahdname (capitulations), the play provides a local point‐of‐view of the newly established Anglo‐Ottoman commercial relations. We observe how seemingly overpriced Turkish goods, such as perfumes and jewels, metaphorically conquer the English market and pose a threat to local businesses. The play's multi‐national commercial exchange is marked by how the Italian intermediate cheats both his Ottoman suppliers and his English customers. The play is usually studied for its use of allegory, its references to the anti‐usury proclamations, how it stood apart from the staging history of Jews on the early modern English stage and how the positive attitude might have reflected the emerging Anglo‐Ottoman relations, which have been analysed as separate entities. Yet, there is a need to focus on how the intersections of race, gender, class and early modern performance practices overlap and conflict with each other in order to have a comprehensive view about the anxieties about dominance within the Anglo‐Ottoman context. Therefore, using a critical race theory framework this essay aims to analyse Wilson's The Three Ladies of London and re‐examine how the anxieties about Anglo‐Ottoman commercial and cultural exchanges were reflected on the early modern commercial stage.

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Section: Disquieting Justicementioning

confidence: 99%

The Three Ladies of London (ca. 1581): Re‐Reading Anxieties of Anglo‐Ottoman Exchanges Through Critical Race Theory

Öğütcü

2023

Renaissance Studies

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“…When Gerontus first threatens Mercadorus with legal action, he dismisses the merchant's initial plea for an extension of 'tree or four days' to conduct 'much business in hand' (12.6) with 'Tush, this is not my matter; I have nothing therewith to do. / Pay me my money, or I'll make you' (7)(8), promising to post officers outside his lodgings 'so that you cannot pass by' and to take him to 'prison' should the debt remain unpaid (9)(10). It is only after this exchange that Mercadorus announces his plan to turn Turk to avoid repayment of the loan -since 'if any man forsake his faith, king, country, and become a Mahomet, / All debts are paid' (14.15-16) 58 -to which Gerontus reacts with disbelief: 'This is but your words, because you would defeat me; / I cannot think you will forsake your faith so lightly' (12.15-16).…”

Section: Argument Counter-argument and Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Jewish Questions in The Three Ladies of London

Hirsch

2016

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In the history of portraying Jews on the early modern stage, critics frequently cite Robert Wilson’s The Three Ladies of London as an anomaly. The play’s first modern editor, H.S.D. Mithal, went so far as to describe Gerontus as ‘a character sui generis’, quite unlike Marlowe’s porridge-poisoning Machiavel, Shakespeare’s knife-whetting usurer, and the devilish doctor in Selimus. This essay explores the questions raised by Wilson’s portrayal of Gerontus, paying particular attention to their critical and theatrical implications. What was understood by the term ‘Jew’ and how might Elizabethan audiences have recognized Gerontus as a Jew? Is the play really an anomaly of early modern theatre history?

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2003

The Merchant of Venice

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Which is the Jew that Shakespeare Knew?: Shylock on the Elizabethan Stage

Cited by 7 publications

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The Three Ladies of London (ca. 1581): Re‐Reading Anxieties of Anglo‐Ottoman Exchanges Through Critical Race Theory

The Three Ladies of London (ca. 1581): Re‐Reading Anxieties of Anglo‐Ottoman Exchanges Through Critical Race Theory

Jewish Questions in <i>The Three Ladies of London</i>

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