Учебное пособие 4 unit I. The renaissance 1485-1649

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE
The Merchant of Venice, first published in 1600 though seemingly
written in 1596 or 1597, shares the lyric beauty and fairy-tale ending of A
Midsummer Night’s Dream. But the strong characterization of the play’s
villain, a Jewish moneylender named Shylock, shadows the gaiety.
Shakespeare drew the main plot from an Italian story in which a crafty Jew
threatens the life of a Christian merchant. Its composition may have arisen
from a desire by Shakespeare’s acting company to stage a play that could
compete with
The Jew of Malta
(1589), a tragedy by English dramatist
Christopher Marlowe, performed by a rival company, the Admiral’s Men. In
the play Shakespeare sets motifs of masculine friendship and romantic love
in opposition to the bitterness of Shylock, whose own misfortunes are
presented so as to arouse understanding and even sympathy. While this play
reflects European anti-Semitism of the time (although Jews had been
banished from England in 1290 and were not formally readmitted until
1656), its exploration of power and prejudice also promote a critique of such
bigotry. As Shylock says, confronted by the double standards of his
opponents: «He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million; laughed
at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains,
cooled my friends, heated mine enemies, and what’s his reason?—I am a
Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses,
affections, passions; fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons,
subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled
by the same winter and summer as a Christian is? If you prick us do we not
bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And
if you wrong us shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will
resemble you in that». (Act III, scene 1)
MATURE COMEDIES
The romantic plays
Much Ado About Nothing
,
As You Like It, The Merry
Wives of Windsor
, and Twelfth Night are often characterized as joyous

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comedies because of their generally happy mood and sympathetic characters.
Written around 1599 and 1600, they represent Shakespeare’s triumph in the
field of high comedy. These mature comedies revolve around beautiful,
intelligent, and strong-minded heroines, a type anticipated by the quick-
witted heiress Portia in
The Merchant of Venice
. Nothing quite like these
plays appears in earlier English drama, and Shakespeare never wrote
anything like them in later years. They present a contrast to the satiric
comedy that was coming into fashion at the time, and many critics believe
they demonstrate not only Shakespeare’s mastery of his art but also his
congenial temperament in the sympathy he reveals toward his characters.