The Merchant of Venice

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379889/

My partner and I watched this amazing film, last night. I must admit that I've only had cursory exposure to the works of the great Billy S. (mostly in High School), but one thing struck me about the film: Back in the late 1500s, Shakespeare wrote a play that included a rather openly gay character (Antonio). Given that I am learning more and more about gays in history, and in consideration of the ongoing threads about gay issues (including marriage), I wanted to pose a few questions, especially to those more learned with regard to Shakespeare.

1. Was the portrayal of the same-sex romantic relationship between Bassanio and Antonio true to the original text?

2. The community of Venice apparently knew of Antonio's sexual orientation, and payed little regard to it. He was apparently a well-respected member of the community. Moreover, in the courtroom scene, Antonio and Bassanio were openly affectionate. Was this a commonplace scenario for 14th Century Venice and/or Europe?

3. Queen Portia, who was courted by Bassanio, was aware of her new husband's romantic relationship with Antonio. That part did not seem to bother her; his fidelity was more of a concern to her (the ring incident). Any deeper introspection or commentary on this phenomenon?

4. On a broader note, I have seen documentaries that chronicle the rather common practice of married men having male lovers on the side. Even in present-day Greece and Turkey, this appears to be the expectation for gay men: Take a respectable wife, but have your male lovers on the side. (That's apparently much more socially acceptable than living an openly gay life in those regions.) That said, anyone care to elaborate on the histrocity of this practice? Any other thoughts on this as an alternative lifestyle in present-day Western society?

Appreciate your insights. Please stay on topic and don't hijack this with anti-gay rhetoric. I simply want to learn about "my heritage."

BTW: This was an excellent film. I highly recommend it.

Hey Paolo,

I can't really say what the level of cultural acceptance of homosexuality was in Europe during the period you're talking about, my impression was that it was both frowned upon and illegal during most of the last millenium, but hey, pretty much everything enjoyable has been illegal at some point and that hasn't stopped people doing it.

I just wanted to let you know that in the 1996 Romeo and Juliet movie with Leonardo di Caprio, Tybalt, Romeo's best friend, is portrayed as being unabashedly, flamboyantly gay and it's quite a performance. I don't know how true to Shakespeare's intent this is but the fun thing about dead writers is they can't say boo if you misinterpret their scripts. There's probably some scholarly treatise on gay characters in the works of Shakespeare somewhere but it's probably terribly dry. Try the movie instead.

There was circumstantial evidence that Shakespeare himself was bisexual. I wrote a little college paper about it once.

Lots of people think that Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, was the "real" Shakespeare, but in my opinion it's far more likely that the plays were collaborations between the two. Many people also believed they were lovers. It is probable as well that de Vere sponsored Shakespeare.

I do think that the lines between gay and straight were not as defined during Shakespeare's time, especially among the aristocracy. It was a rowdy, creative, sexy period. I'm sure someone else has more information on that since I'm too lazy to find references.

I was in a production of the Merchant of Venice, and I'd have to say that I didn't pick up on any gay undertones at all. It seemed to me perfectly natural that two dear friends could declare their deep love for one another without any regard to their sexual orientation (and Bassanio's relationship with Portia, at least in our production, was quite passionate). A great deal of the subtext in any modern production of Shakespeare is at the discretion of the director.

But... there are persistant rumors that Shakespeare himself was gay, and the "dark lady" of his sonnets was in fact a dark gent. We know little of his life, but we do know that he did not dwell long with his wife and children, and in his will left his wife his "second best bed" (a cryptic reference that has puzzled scholars). What he might have done on his own time in jolly old London Towne is not recorded by history.

Open homosexuality was accepted by the ancient Greeks, and a lot of the Renaissance was based on reviving the spirit of the classical world. The influence of the Church was also waning during that period. While I don't know that anybody was openly gay during that period, there were doubtless more than a few who were thinly closeted.

So I'm guessing that the movie was, if not inventing something out of whole cloth, at least emphasizing something that was subtextual in the original play. But is that subtext plausible? I think so... but I'm not a specialist in history.