... of poor-man’s Mercutio; the other is to form, with Nerissa, a pair of lovers on a “lower level’’than Portia and Bassanio-a grouping that bears some similarity to Mozart’s habitual practice in his later operas. Broadly speaking, one could say that Gratiano is Papageno to Bassanio’s Tamino...

... intended purpose. Shylock is perverting its letter to commit legalized murder. Bassanio’s remedy would be to break the law: he begs Portia to “Wrest once the law to your authority,- / To do a great right, do a little wrong” (IV.i.211-12).2 Portia, ho\ve\*el-.is firm: It must...

... theory in its pur- est form. “Graziano,” Bassanio says, “speaks an infinite deal of nothing, more than any man in all Venice” (1.1.114 – 15).7 Maybe the word for 5  George Kubler, “Style and the Representation of Historical Time,” in Studies in Ancient American and European Art...

... with both Jews and Turks, but in terms suitable to a romantic comedy Shake- speare has provided analogous evidence. Thus, although Antonio ex- hibits a selfless love for Bassanio (“I think he only loves the world for him” [I I.viii.50 that merchant is also characterized by his intense...

... father’s consent, and so wins himself a wife and the inheritance of a duchy, with less effort and even more by chance, than Bassanio wins Portia.* In fact, aside from the initial wrestling match, Orlando’s own designs and labors have little to do with all this happy outcome: Adam and Adam’s...

... James Do0 lit t 1c 65 from its original. Bassanio, finding nothing to guide his choice of caskets, says that man can rely only upon his heart to find out truth. The term caxr is here explicitly differentiated from mind, the faculty of reason, and from the senses, the faculty...

... is kept in reserve. Her first project to win Bertram operates on the romantic, folk-tale level. She will win him as Bassanio wins Portia, by fulfilling a task, a task with a certain aura of magic-the curing of the King. Taken realistically, her skill as a physician would be an irrele- vant claim...

... such as are represented by the “dish of doves” that Old Gobbo has brought for his son’s master (2.2.135). The incongruity of this rustic detail lies not simply in its quaintness but in the fact that, for the opportunistic and upwardly mobile Launcelot, both Shylock and Bassanio are masters not in a feudal...

... of the bond’s law can be transformed into the ring of love” (p. 210). If we see the Jessica-Lorenzo affair “as it is,” it provides a meaningful contrast to that of Portia and Bassanio by being “lawless,” an “inversion of true, bonded love” (pp. 223, 224). In a continuation of the word-play which always...

... kindle the boy thither, which now I’ll go about” (1.1.170-71). Ironically, Oliver has identified his brother by the surname linking him with his father, the old boyishness that will triumph over Charles. Just as Bassanio wins Portia’s, Orlando wins an admiring lady’s heart in the briefest...

.... The relation of this to Bassanio’s lines on opening the leaden casket is obvious, but the verses are Hoffmannesque. In Der Zusamncnhang der Dinge (XI) there are four lyrics. Ludwig has offended V-iktorine in a way that makes the future loo!< dark indeed. Euchar asks him to explain...

... roots of the massacre itself. Eyre’s tragedy seems to be that he came to Jamaica thinking, to draw on Froude’s words, like a Theseus or a Hippolyta but instead found himself in the position of a Bassanio, hiding from the cultural and eco- nomic forces that he feared would cannibalize him. He...