Shakespearian Comedy by Charlton H. B.;

Author:Charlton, H. B.; [Charlton, H. B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 1938-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

It sounds like a convincing exposure of the horrors of Shylock's devil's kitchen, since it comes from his daughter's mouth. But words, after all, are not absolute in their meaning: they must be interpreted in their context. Perhaps, at this stage of the story, not enough is known of Jessica to provide a key to her terminology. But it is clear that her words have not a simple dictionary meaning. “Our house is hell” is a comprehensive expression of disapproval and disgust. But what does it really mean? “And thou, a merry devil, didst rob it of some taste of tediousness.” Notions of hell certainly do differ and differ very widely. But into whose idea of hell before Jessica's did the expectation of tedium ever enter? Indeed, her phrase says more of Jessica's frivolous nature than of the repulsiveness of her father's house. Shylock's is admittedly a sober house, without gramophone or wireless and other “sounds of shallow foppery.” But that hardly makes it “hell,” although it may explain Jessica's tedium in it.

Her elopement strikes the same note. She appears at the upper window disguised in a boy's suit, and, obHvious al-together of the tremendous significance of her flight to her father and to her own faith, she bandies sweet dalliance with those below, and then lightly plays the cross-word tricks of conventional lovers—

And now who knows

But you, Lorenzo, whether I am yours?

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