Yes--but doesn't the contrast say a lot? There's no Paulina hounding
Shylock, no sense in the text that he should be haunted by her ghost,
not even much to activate the latent sense of Leah as second-best sister
(fit for a second-best bed). It seems to me a truly striking moment of
pathos because it's equally uncharacteristic of Shakespeare and of
Shylock. At the risk of sounding naive, I think it's a stroke of genius
in the play.
David Lee Miller
Department of English
University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC 29208
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803 777-4256 (office)
803 777-4256 (fax)
803 466-3947 (cell)
>>> [log in to unmask] 4/3/2005 7:38:47 PM >>>
Leontes in _The Winter's Tale_. JDF
On Sun, 3 Apr 2005 19:29:23 -0400 [log in to unmask] wrote:
> The mere fact that we know Leah's name means a lot. Many husbands
in
> Shakespeare remember their daughters' mothers long deceased. Is
there a
> single other character who remembers his wife *by name*?
>
>
> David Lee Miller
> Department of English
> University of South Carolina
> Columbia, SC 29208
>
> [log in to unmask]
> 803 777-4256 (office)
> 803 777-4256 (fax)
> 803 466-3947 (cell)
>
>
> >>> [log in to unmask] 04/03/05 2:11 PM >>>
> How does Leah's (and we really don't know who Leah is) ring fit in
> here? Leah gave Shylock a turquois ring when he was a bachelor, and
his
> daughter gave it for a monkey, or so reports Tubal (3.1.118ff.).
Shylock
> responds that he would not have sold it even for a wilderness of
> monkeys. I take it that Shylock means that he would not have sold
it
> under
> any conditions.
>
> Bill Godshalk
> ***************************************
> W. L. Godshalk *
> Department of English *
> University of Cincinnati Stellar disorder *
> Cincinnati OH 45221-0069 *
> 513-281-5927
> ***************************************
>
James Dougal Fleming, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of English,
Simon Fraser University,
(604) 291-4713
Laissez parler les faits.
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