Shakespeare and racism
It is not an unsurprising fact for most language experts but I could not comprehend this accusation. Not that my knowledge of Shakespeare was extensive by any means. I wanted to read his works "verbatim" and find out if this was true. On a largely uneventful Sunday with nothing to do, I tried to search for his books in my library. It is a blessing if your library is within 100 feet from your house because your only excuse i.e, laziness to go to a library is no longer valid. I searched the whole catalogue and got books which were dissertations, summaries but I wanted a verbatim copy. Finally I laid my hand on one "The Merchant of Venice" and lo ! I could not understand one bit of it. How else could you comprehend the following iambic pentameter,
You know me well, and herein spend but time
To wind about my love with circumstance,
And out of doubt you do me now more wrong
In making question of my uttermost
Than if you had made waste of all I have
This is nothing but Antonio's plea to Bessanio to not waste time and tell him what he wanted right away. The verbatim dissertation is "... Doubting I would back you unreservedly hurts more than squandering my fortune!...." Ah even this dissertation needs another dissertation to be understood.
Portia the beautiful maid is proposed by the Prince of Morocco (of dark colour of course). There are three cases of Gold, Silver and Lead of which one contains the portrait of Portia. Portia already tells her maid that she hates him because of the colour. Fortunately for her the prince chooses the gold case and it has a manuscript that reads "All that glitters is not gold.." and he loses her, whereupon Portia utters the words,
A gentle riddance. Draw the curtains, go. Let all of his complexion choose me so.
Which literally means "May all of his dark colours choose the same" [and never marry a woman like me]. Portia also ridicules a German for his manners, a Scottish for his accent, a French for his manhood?
I won't even go near Shylock because he is a Jew villain. He is just one among the many villains in Shakespeare who are non-Christians. It is also known that Antonio has spit on his Jewish beard, kicked him before asking him for money.
You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog,
And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine,
Shylock's origins are constantly the matter of contention and even Shylock rebukes Antonio with anti-christ taunts. And now last but not the least the mother of all instances. When Shylock is defeated in court he is subjected to several punishments for treachery, intention to kill etc. His punishments include "conversion to christianity"??
Two things provided more, that, for this favour,
He presently become a Christian;
The other, that he do record a gift,
And this punishment is of course accepted.....
