EN1106

SHAKESPEARE

Course Convenor: Dr Deana Rankin,

deana.rankin@rhul.ac.uk
INT 253, Consultation and Feedback
Hours: Tues, Wed, Thurs, 2-3pm.

Seminar Leaders:
Jessica Chiba, Deana Rankin,
Scott Shepherd.
COMPULSORY ACTIVITIES FOR THE COURSE:
Lectures: Tuesdays 11-1pm (2 lectures each week)
Boiler House Lecture Theatre

Seminars: Thursdays, one hour, check your

personal schedule for details.

Study Group meetings: These are independently

scheduled with your group members. They should
ideally take place each week between the lectures
and your seminar (i.e between Tues 1pm and Thurs
9am). They can take place anywhere. You decide
where to meet.
SUPPLEMENTARY VOLUNTARY ACTIVITIES:

The study group drop-in consultancy

is on Wednesdays, 1-2, in ABF01 with
Jessica Chiba.

The Shakespeare Reading Group is on

Thursdays, 3-4pm in IN-029
The first text this term will be As You
Like it.
Please remember that this course
is
DOUBLE WEIGHTED
so
it should take up
TWICE AS MUCH OF YOUR TIME
as the other two courses you
study in the Autumn term.
Week Two Introduction/ The Merchant of Venice w/c 26 Sept.
Lectures: Dr Deana Rankin Professor Tiffany Stern

Essential reading: The Merchant of Venice and the Norton

Introduction to the play.

BRING THE TEXT, NOTE TAKING MATERIALS AND YOUR DIARY!

Topics and Issues for Discussion: Why does Shakespeare matter?

How the course will run. How to get the most out of it. The
Merchant of Venice: Is the play a comedy? How important are the
issues of trade and finance to the play? What does the play value?
How does the play dramatise power? What is its view of ‘aliens’
and ‘outsiders’? What is its view of love and of revenge? How can
the play work for 21st century audiences?

Study Group Activity [MORE LATER]

Further reading:
The Merchant of Venice, ed. Martin Coyle (London: Macmillan, 1998).
James Shapiro, Shakespeare and the Jews (New York: Columbia University Press,
1996).
Thomas Moisan, ‘“Which is the merchant here? And which the Jew?”’: subversion
and recuperation in The Merchant of Venice, in Shakespeare Reproduced: The Text
in History and Ideology, ed. Jean Howard and Marion O’Connor (London and New
York: Routledge, 1987).
Walter Cohen, ‘The Merchant of Venice and the possibilities of historical criticism’,
in Materialist Shakespeare: A History, ed. Ivo Kamps (London and New York: Verso,
1995)
Kiernan Ryan, Shakespeare (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2002), 16-23.
Fiona Mountford ‘The Merchant of Venice Review: this haunting production
crackles with tension’ The Evening Standard, 22 May 2015.
http://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/theatre/the-merchant-of-venice-review-
haunting-production-crackles-with-tension-10270578.html
Michael Billington, ‘The Merchant of Venice review – poorly conceived and drably
spoken’ The Guardian, 22 May 2015
http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/may/22/the-merchant-of-venice-review-
royal-shakespeare-company
My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.
(Juliet, Romeo and Juliet, 2.1.175-7)

Methought I heard a voice cry ‘Sleep no more!

Macbeth does murder sleep’, the innocent sleep,
Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleeve of care
(Macbeth, 2.2.33-5)

Still, methinks,
There is an air comes from her: what fine chisel
Could ever yet cut breath?
(Leontes on the ‘statue’ of Hermione, The
Winter’s Tale, 5.3.77-9)
‘[Shakespeare] writes not for past ages but for that in which he lives and
that which is to follow. It is natural that he should conform to the
circumstances of his day, but a true genius will stand independent of
these circumstances . . . while he registers what is past, he projects the
future in a wonderful degree’. (Samuel Taylor Coleridge)

‘[the poet] not only beholds intensely the present as it is, and discovers
those laws according to which present things ought to be ordered,
but he beholds the future in the present . . . [poets are] the mirrors of
the gigantic shadows which futurity casts upon the present’
(Percy Bysshe Shelley, Defence of Poetry)

‘Shakespeare refuses to be boxed in. Not only do we know very little

about what he really thought, felt and believed, but the plays themselves
are elusive. Just when you think you’ve got a meaning nailed down, your
interpretation melts like jelly and you’re left scratching your head.
(Margaret Atwood, The Guardian, on Hag-Seed her rewrite of The
Tempest out next week).
 MERCHANT OF VENICE – POSSIBLE APPROACHES

Who is the merchant of Venice, and why is the comedy named

after him?
What light do the casket-scenes shed on the central issues of the
play?
Is The Merchant of Venice an anti-semitic play? If not, why not?
What does The Merchant have to say about gender and power?
Study Shylock’s speech in the trial scene, beginning ‘What
judgement shall I dread . . .?’ (4.1.88-102). What does it tell us
about the point of Shylock’s revenge?
What is the purpose of the clown, Lancelot Gobbo?
How satisfactory is the fifth act as a conclusion to the comedy?
Consider in particular the ramifications of the ring-test and the
plight of Antonio.
The Merchant…..
In sooth, I know not why I am so sad.
It wearies me; you say it wearies you,
But how I caught it, found it, or came by it,
What stuff ’tis made of, whereof it is born,
I am to learn; (Antonio, 1.1.1-5)

I am a tainted wether of the flock,

Meetest for death. The weakest kind of fruit
Drops earliest to the ground; and so let me.
(Antonio, 4.1.113-15)
I once did lend my body for his wealth;
Which, but for him that had your husband’s ring,
Had quite miscarried: I dare be bound again,
My soul upon the forfeit, that your lord
Will never more break faith advisedly.
(Antonio, 5.1.248-52)
Casket scenes….
O me, the word ‘choose’! I may neither choose who I would,
nor refuse who I dislike; so is the will of a living daughter
curbed by the will of a dead father. (Portia, 1.2.19-22)

So may the outward shows be least themselves.

The world is still deceived with ornament.
In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt,
But, being seasoned with a gracious voice,
Obscures the show of evil? . . .
The seeming truth which cunning times put on
To entrap the wisest. (Bassanio, 3.2.73-7, 100-101)
Study Group Activity: Choose ONE of following activities. Prepare a short (500 word max)
report, one per group, to post on the moodle site. Think of how you can carry this
discussion forward into your seminar. Your report might, for example, end with one or two
questions for the seminar group and/or leader.

Close reading: Choose an extract eg Shylock’s ‘Hath not a Jew eyes’ or his ‘What
judgement shall I dread . . .?’; Portia’s ‘The quality of Mercy’. Underline all tricky words.
Make sure you understand them all – you might think you understand some that you
don’t… [Use the OED online via the library: http://www.oed.com/] Discuss first the
structure of the extract and then the effect of this structure on the judge/ audience.

Using Textual Evidence in debate: Choose ONE of the topics for discussion listed above.
Choose TWO short extracts from the play which are particularly relevant for further
exploration of this topic. It might be useful to choose one from the first and one from the
second half of the play. Analyse and discuss them paying attention to the vocabulary, the
structure, the dramatic effect, any shifts in the mood and/or pace of the scenes.

Connecting text and performance: Focus on ONE of the topics and issues for discussion
about performance above. Choose a short extract from the play which poses challenges for
performance today. Discuss how you could make it work/ what difficulties you might face
in terms of eg audience reaction. The ‘Further Reading’ list below contains some reviews
of recent controversial productions of the play which might fuel your discussion, but
always try to focus on the detail of the text.