The Merchant of Venice (1 of 3)

[cancan]

Amazing lecture, it's great to feel someone's passion and sense of humour

[sattarabus]

Paul is a nonpareil. He backgrounds the play so well that we are able to appreciate not only the finished edifice but every brick in the block, and every block in the building. Money is the predominant meme that permeates the warp and the woof of the text. Thank you, professor, for entertaining both the teachers and the taught, and also those who were lounging on the lawn because they couldn't stand the bad breath of the rant from the podium in the classroom. How old are you, bwana ? Going by the bravura of the presentation, you sound ageless.

[jennyhirschowitz]

The typical American Jew sits in shul and also thinks about his merchandise. C’est la meme chose. The Merchant of Venice ought to be taught in every school…… the narrowing of the American mind grows ever narrower. Thank you Professor Paul Cantor ….. Shakespeare scholar el supremo. Miss Jenny (music teacher in exile in Manhattan).

[leigh]

If you go to the Jewish Ghetto in Venice there is a touching apology from the Italians on how they treated them

[aniketchatterjee]

very useful lecture series... one request, can there be a series for king lear and for tempest?

[johnyohalem]

He makes one mistake: F. Murray Abraham in Arabic not Jewish.

[parisapart]

I need more explanation on what are the features that make this play a comedy. if someone can help from 2024 🤓

[melaniezuckerman]

Love watching your series of classes on Shakespeare and Politics. One minor error, F. Murray Abraham isn't, as you stated, Jewish.

All the best,

Howard, New York City

[sbnwnc]

David Suchet is another Jewish actor who embraced playing Shylock.

[jamesduggan]

Cantor hits all the right notes in this lecture, tho one must wonder if it is consistent with politics. Well, there arae three lectures on the play, and even so it's a really good lecture.

[ryak]

God forbid the fragile students should be offended by something written hundreds of years ago, best to pretend it doesn't exist. Go read something else that's more hugs and puppies. University is not about learning new things or open mindedness, it's about safe spaces.

[crewalpha]

W.r.t. the movie, it opens, for example, with misleading claims about Jews and usury. Yes, the Catholic Church forbade usury for moral reasons as an unjust and exploitative practice (think loan sharks and pawnbrokers, but the principle that makes them unsavory, not the degree of exploitation). But the Jews also forbade usury, but only among Jews. According to Talmudic law, Gentiles could be subjected to usury. Also, in response to the claim that antisemitism was a "fact of [...] life", it is worth mentioning that Poland was exceptionally tolerant in the 16th century (some have criticized it as excessive). Jews were relieved of being immediate subjects of anyone but the Crown and so had privileges that were not available to Gentile peasants and burghers.

W.r.t. the lecture, very interesting characterization of Venetian virtue as materialistic polity.

[MAIKOLKOLMAI]

Great lecture! But he claims the Venetians were the first masters of globalisation and that’s wrong. It was actually the Spaniards.

[snoopenny]

Cantor knows his Shakespeare and this series is very illuminating, but can he stop picking his nose constantly??

[alobaidius]

Ok so now Shylock is a victim not a villain? Are we changing history, literature, and common sense because of the jewish lobby in the US and Europe?
What next to blame Muslims for Antonio’s suffering and Shylock predatory behavior?

[RFKjrForPres]

Every time he says "Shake-Speare" he should say "Sir Francis Bacon, " as there never was a person alive named Shakespeare. "Shake-speare" as the first and second folio of "Shake-Speare Plays" was always written with a hyphen. And in the folios it lists the actor, William Shakspere (pronounced "Shack-Spur" ) with the correct spelling as his will shows, since they were first published 7 years after the death of the actor. There was never a person alive named William Shakespeare. Oh course Sir Francis Bacon had been to Venice many times and was fluent in most of the language new and old of Europe at the time.

[BrendanLee-lbzu]

For academic, his understanding of Christianity, in particular, the Catholicism of Venice at the time, is quite poor.

[horsymandias-ur]

Why is it unconventional to treat The Merchant of Venice as a comedy? Isn’t it traditionally recognized as such?

[scottanderson]

Imagine that. A play about a loan shark who comes from a weird tribe of loan sharks would offend people from that weird tribe or loan sharks, and so they used their loan shark influence to get it banned.

[ChristianMartin-sz]

Shylark is arguably the only sympathetic character in the whole play. Portia, especially, is pretty terrible.