A Momaria and a Baptism: A Note on Beginning and Ending in the Globe Merchant of Venice (2015)

Authors

  • Roberta Mullini University of Urbino Carlo Bo (but retired end 2015)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13136/sjtds.v4i1.135

Keywords:

Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, beginning, ending, New Globe, Jonathan Munby

Abstract

The New Globe 2015 performance of The Merchant of Venice made a very dark comedy of a so called ‘romantic’ one. Not only is Shylock shown as a victim of Venetian anti-Semitism from the very beginning, but he also turns out as a pitiful – and deeply pitied – character because of the addition to the end of the play created by the director Jonathan Munby. The article, after summarising the role of the initial and final phases of dramatic texts, discusses the beginning and ending added by Munby, also through some reviewers’ responses to the production both in London and in the USA. It then  articulates its own standpoint claiming that the additions made by the director to the original text, while legitimate as artistic objects and directorial choices, diminish the play’s complexity and constitute sort of performative paratext to the play. (The research is based on the “Globe on Screen” DVD version of the play).

Author Biography

  • Roberta Mullini, University of Urbino Carlo Bo (but retired end 2015)

    Roberta Mullini, former full rofessor of English Literature at the University of Urbino Carlo Bo, has published widely on English early modern and Shakespearean drama and theatre. She is also interested in theoretical issues connected to theatrical reception and to Shakespeare on screen. She has written volumes on Shakespeare’s fools (1983 and 1997), on early modern plays (1992), on John Heywood (1997), on the material culture of the theatre (2003, with Romana Zacchi), on WWI poetry (1977), and on David Lodge’s novels (2001). She has also directed students’ performances of English interludes. Her book Healing Words. The Printed Handbills of Early Modern London Quacks was published in 2015. She is now working on the aside in Shakespearean plays. She is editor-in-chief of Linguæ &, a journal devoted to modern languages and cultures.

References

Anglican Church of Canada (2016), http://cep.anglican.ca/tag/prayer-for-the-conversion-of-the-jews/ (last accessed 2 October 2017).

Author (1982),.

Beckett, Samuel (1985?), Waiting for Godot. Directed by Walter D. Asmus, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqpjddXaw4E.

Billington, Michael (2015, 1 May). “The Merchant of Venice review – Jonathan Pryce is a Shylock of Weight and Complexity”, https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/may/01/the-merchant-of-venice-review-jonathan-pryce-shylock-shakespeares-globe.*

Bommer, Lawrence (2016, 7 August), “The Globe’s Stunning Production Highlights Shakespeare’s Plea for Dignity as much as Mercy”, http://www.stageandcinema.com/2016/08/07/merchant-venice-globe/.

Book of the Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments . . . (The) (1549), Londini: in officina Richardi Graftoni. Mense Martij.

Brokes, Emma (2016, 22 July), “The Merchant of Venice review – A Barometer for the Anxieties of the Times”, https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/jul/22/the-merchant-of-venice-review-lincoln-center-new-york#comments.*

Brooks, Lucy (2015?), “Merchant of Venice, The Globe”. https://www.culturewhisper.com/r/article/preview/4522.*

Cavendish, Dominic (2015, 1 May), “The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare’s Globe, Review: ‘Oak-solid’”. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/theatre-reviews/11576773/The-Merchant-of-Venice-Shakespeares-Globe-review-oak-solid.html.*

Collins, Stephen (2015, 1 May). “The Merchant Of Venice, Shakespeare’s Globe”. http://britishtheatre.com/review-the-merchant-of-venice-shakespeares-globe-4stars/.*

Dodd, William (1982), “Parametri per l’analisi del dialogo nel testo drammatico”, in AA. VV., Interazione, dialogo, convenzioni. Il caso del testo drammatico, Bologna: CLUEB: 29-48.

Franco, Giacomo (1610), Habiti d'huomeni et donne venetiane con la processione della Ser.ma Signoria ed altri particolari . . ., Venezia: Giacomo Franco (a digitalized edition can be visualised at http://cdm.bostonathenaeum.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15482coll3/id/4278, last accessed 28 September 2017).

Gilmour, Alexander (2015, 4 May), “The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare’s Globe, London — Review”. https://www.ft.com/content/96dd112a-efe8-11e4-ab73-00144feab7de.*

Globe on Screen (2016), William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. Opus Arte. Director Jonathan Munby.

Isherwood, Charles (2016, 23 July), “‘The Merchant of Venice’ with Extra Fog, Moral and Atmospheric”. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/23/theater/the-merchant-of-venice-jonathan-pryce-review.html.*

Kellaway, Kate (2015, 3 May), “The Merchant of Venice Review – A Double Star Turn”. https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/may/03/merchant-of-venice-review-double-star-turn.*

Luther, Martin (1962), “That Jesus Christ Was Born a Jew” (“Dass Jesus Christus ein geborener Jude sei”, 1523), trans. by Walter I. Brandt, in Luther's Works, ed by Jaroslav Pelikan and Helmut T. Lehmann, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, vol. 45: 195-229.

Luther, Martin (1971), On the Jews and Their Lies (Von den Jüden and iren Lügen, 1543), trans. by Walter I. Brandt, in Luther's Works, ed. by Jaroslav Pelikan and Helmut T. Lehmann, Philadelphia: Fortress Press: vol. 47: 121-306.

Luther, Martin (1948), The Jews and their Lies, Los Angeles: Christian Nationalist Crusade.

Michael, Robert (2006), Holy Hatred. Christianity, Antisemitism, and the Holocaust, Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan.

Muraro, M. Teresa (1981), “La festa a Venezia e le sue manifestazioni rappresentative: le Compagnie della Calza e le momarie”, in Storia della cultura veneta, a cura di Girolamo Arnaldi e Manlio Pastore Stocchi, Vicenza: Neri Pozza: vol. 3/III, 315-41.

Nicolotti, Andrea (2012), “Perfidia iudaica. Le tormentate vicende di un’orazione liturgica prima e dopo Erik Peterson”, in Erik Peterson. La presenza teologica di un outsider, a cura di Giancarlo Carosello, Città del Vaticano: Libreria Editrice Vaticana: 477-514.

Sacks, Harvey (1995), Lectures on Conversation, vols I & II, ed. by Gail Jefferson woth an Ontroduction by Emanuel A. Schlegoff, Oxford: Blackwell.

Serpieri, Alessandro (1987), “Prefazione”, in William Shakespeare, Il mercante di Venezia. Introduzione di Nemi d’Agostino. Prefazione, traduzione e note di Alessandro Serpieri, Milano: Garzanti.

Shakespeare, William. (1985), The Merchant of Venice, ed. by John Russell Brown, London: Methuen (The Arden Shakespeare, second series).

Sheridan, Richard Brinsley (1781), The Critic or A Tragedy Rehearsed, The Seventh Edition, London: for T. Becket.

Stasio, Marylin (2016, 24 July), “New York Theatre Review: ‘The Merchant of Venice’ Starring Jonathan Pryce”, http://variety.com/2016/legit/reviews/the-merchant-of-venice-review-jonathan-pryce-1201820911/.*

Visual Story: The Merchant of Venice (2016), http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/theatre/whats-on/globe-theatre/the-merchant-of-venice-2016 (last accessed 25 September 2017).

Westfall, Susan (1990), Patrons and Performance, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Wickham, Glynne (1974), The Medieval Theatre, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.

Williams, Holly (2015, 1 May), “Jonathan Pryce’s Beleaguered Shylock Impresses in an Otherwise Middling Production”, http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/merchant-of-venice-globe-theatre-review-jonathan-pryce-s-beleaguered-shylock-impresses-in-an-10217931.html.*

Zorzi, Ludovico (1990), “‘Spettacoli popolari veneziani del tardo Cinquecento (dagli Habiti di Giacomo Franco)”, in L’attore, la commedia, il drammaturgo, Torino: Einaudi: 172-82.
Skenè 4.1 cover

Downloads

Published

2018-05-21

Issue

Vol. 4 No. 1 (2018): Transitions – For Alessandro Serpieri

Section

Miscellany

License

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

This Journal is a CC-BY 4.0 publication (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). This Licence allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work’s authorship and initial publication in this Journal, providing a link to the Licence and explicitly underlining any change (full mention of Issue number, year, pages and DOI is required).

  1.  The Author retains (i) the rights to reproduce, to distribute, to publicly perform, and to publicly display the Article in any medium for any purpose; (ii) the right to prepare derivative works from the Article; and (iii) the right to authorise others to make any use of the Article so long as the Author receives credit as Author and the Journal in which the Article has been published are cited as the source of first publication of the Article. For example, the Author may make and distribute copies in the course of teaching and research and may post the Article on personal or institutional Web sites and in other open-access digital repositories.
  2. The Author is free to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the Journal’s published version of the work, with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this Journal and explicitly underlining any change (full mention of Issue number, year, pages and DOI is required).
  3.  The Author is permitted and encouraged to post their work online after the evaluation process has been successfully passed, as it can lead to productive exchanges as well as to a wider dissemination of the published work.