Merchant Of Venice Full Script

[Novella Poinsett]

The Diplomatic minuscule script (see 15.2.1), used by the chanceries (of the emperor, pope, kings, great feudal lords and bishops) to draft documents, had steadily spread to an international level. Between the 11th and 12th centuries, this writing was also dispersed due to the growing need to write outside the setting of chanceries or studies. It became an instrument used for the activities of work, for example that of notaries, who had become quite prevalent, and of the artisan and merchant class. At the beginning of the 13th century a New Cursive also developed from Diplomatic minuscule, especially in Italy, also called littera minuta corsiva (Cassamassima, Tradizione ) In turn, two new forms of writing will be formed from the latter and used as documentary and everyday writing, but also as bookhand, which also spread thanks to a private school system, managed directly by the professional classes: CANCELLERESCA MINUSCULE, used by notaries and the educated class (outside the university setting), and MERCHANT SCRIPT, a professional script of merchants, also used for literary texts (but only in the vernacular).

This script soon became the writing taught in notary schools, and it was executed using a pen with the nib cut in the middle, thereby allowing for softer trace marks, which were produced almost without chiaroscuro and roundish. The writing has an ever increasing number of ligatures, sometimes made with a hand movement leaning leftward (counterclockwise) and not toward the right, with extensions, flourishes added to high ascenders that tend to lean toward the baseline in a pronounced way and appendages on some of the descenders, and with an ornamental aspect even in the abbreviations.

It was also used for books, but for texts that did not belong to the ecclesiastical or university culture, which continued to use Gothic. It was used for texts in the vernacular, such as minor ascetic and devotional works, collections of sermons, recipe books, city chronicles and poetic compositions, and it is the writing in which the most ancient literary texts from Italy were spread and copied between the end of the 13th century and the 14th century. Chig L. VIII. 305 (Collection of italian poems) is a beautiful example from the second half of the 13th century, and in the following century there are at least forty manuscripts with texts by Dante Alighieri produced in cancelleresca Minuscule.

Outside Italy, especially in France but also in other central and northern European countries, cancelleresca Minuscule crossed with the contemporary Gothic textualis, through a process of reciprocal influence which gave rise to a writing called Bastard at the beginning of the 14th century. This is an angular script, with strong contrasts between thick and thin strokes, very short ascenders but with the s and f extending below the baseline, just as in the cancelleresca Minuscule. As a writing used mainly in the context of the chancery, it also had a certain diffusion in the book trade; an example is Pal. lat. 1523 with texts by Cicero, made in the early 15th century in northern France.

Merchant script is a cursive script, but it is rigidly vertical, with a uniform tracing of letters, without chiaroscuro, and carried out using a broad-edged nib cut square across at the end. The body of the letters is compressed with a slight inclination of the shafts, and it is rather roundish and often with closed bows. The ligatures are few, mostly leftward (as in the Cancelleresca script), often with a continuous stroke that curves back from the flourishes descending below the line. In the fifteenth century (when it extended from Tuscany to Bologna, Venice and Genoa), Merchant script became smaller and more disorderly

It was also used in books for vernacular texts, almost always in paper and non-parchment manuscripts, especially for technical texts (abacus and trade treaties, but also cookbooks, agricultural manuals) devotional works and vernacular Patristic texts, other vernacular texts, diaries and chronicles, memoirs.

In sacrificing himself for Bassanio's bond, Antonio metaphorically carves himself into Antonio's heart forever. Antonio sets himself up to be a martyr: someone who dies for a cause of their beliefs. Antonio becomes a Christ-like figure. However, unlike Christ who died in order to redeem man-kind, Antonio will die because he and Bassanio recklessly gambled away their money and took a dangerous bond. Antonio's rhetoric attempts to recast the reality of the situation so that he appears to be an innocent victim of an evil man.

Even though Portia has redirected Bassanio's bond to Antonio onto herself, Antonio is still able to assert his "love" against Bassanio's wife. Bassanio still follows Antonio's instructions more than he follows Portia's instructions.

Shakespeare uses dramatic irony here for comedic effect. The audience knows that this doctor is actually the person as this "mad wife." While the doctor claims that only a mad woman would be upset about giving a ring to the man who saved Bassanio's best friend, Portia is actually testing Bassanio's fidelity. She will be angry if he gives away the ring.

Remember that this is the ring that Portia gave Bassanio as a symbol of her love and herself. She told him to never part with it as long as he still loved her. However, rather than telling the doctor that this is his wedding ring and that he cannot part with it, Bassanio attempts to devalue the ring. He tells the doctor that it is an unimportant piece of jewelry that the man cannot want.

By this Gratiano means that had he been in charge, Shylock would have faced a jury of twelve men and been sentenced to hang. Notice that even though Shylock has been defeated and forced to convert to Christianity, the Christians still see him as a hated other.

Antonio's condition gets at a major theme of the play: appearances versus reality. On the surface, this might seem like a positive request from a Christian perspective; in forcing him to convert, Antonio "saves" Shylock's soul. However, a conversion without conviction means nothing, a fact that would not go unnoticed by a Shakespearian audience that was alive during England's break with the Catholic Church. Antonio's requirement thus undermines not only the sanctity of his religion but the religious values he professes to have. Therefore, while this appears to be a form of "Christian mercy," it actually reveals how vacuous the Christian's faith is.

Antonio offers Shylock a semblance of mercy by allowing him to keep half his fortune and admitting in open court that a Christian stole Jessica. However, his condition is forcing Shylock to recognize Lorenzo as his proper heir, undermining the idea that Jessica was wrongfully taken and essentially condoning the marriage.

While an unsympathetic audience may hear Shylock's words as a reflection of an obsession with money, Shylock highlights the lack of mercy within this sentence. As a man hated for his religion and denied all other avenues of work, he cannot survive in Venice without his money and his trade.

The Duke offers Shylock to reduce the amount of money he owes the state to a fine by acting "humble." In other words, the Duke asks Shylock to beg for his money. This is neither humility nor mercy on the part of the Christians. The Christians seek to take Shylock's money, the only thing that gave him any power within Venetian society, and force him to grovel to the privileged class. This is a form of humiliation meant to put Shylock back in his place. In pardoning Shylock, the Duke does not offer him mercy but rather makes him an example to all other marginalized peoples that attempt to upset the status quo.

Gratiano's overly exuberant and insulting statements make him, and the Christian opinion that he represents, petty. It is unclear whether or not Shakespeare's audience would have jeered with Gratiano, but modern audiences lose sympathy for these characters who need to degrade and punish Shylock on top of defeating him. The Christian characters lose their credibility in this moment because this invocation of mob justice completely contradicts the idea of "mercy" that they claimed to value at the beginning of this scene.

Notice how the concept of "mercy" has changed here. While at the beginning, Portia triumphed the concept of mercy for mercy's sake, assuming Shylock would simply grant it to Antonio, she expects Shylock to "beg," meaning that he must prove he is worthy of mercy in a way that Antonio did not have to.

Under Venetian law, any foreigner who conspires against the life of a Venetian must give half their assets to their victim and the other half to the state. The fate of their life is then left up to the Duke to decide. Notice that Portia, who earlier triumphed mercy, demonstrates extreme prejudice here. She uses Shylock as an example to all other 'aliens' that try to use Venetian laws for their own benefit. She proves that the law is for rich merchants, not marginalized peoples.

Portia converts Shylock, a Venetian citizen, into an alien, or foreigner, in order to enact this bit of the law. Portia stretches the law in order to save Antonio and punish Shylock, proving that the law protects Venice's privileged citizens and neglects its marginalized citizens.

This is a colloquial term taken from wrestling that means to have the upper hand or the advantage. Notice that Gratiano uses Shylock's exact words against him to show that Shylock has lost; he robs Shylock's words of their intended meaning in order to use them against him.

Notice that now that she has the upper hand, Portia abandons all notions of mercy. She asked Shylock to show Antonio mercy, and when time comes for her to offer Shylock mercy, she instead decides to punish him. This action demonstrates the double standard under which Shylock lives: he is expected to be better than the Christians, to turn his cheek even though they do not show him the same kindness.

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