The Merchant of Venice (William Shakespeare, between 1596 and 1598)

Continuing to work my way through Shakespeare's plays.

I read this in short chunks over the course of a few months, so perhaps lost the flow.  But I didn't like this as much as Julius Caesar or Richard III, when I thought I remembered liking it quite a bit.

Shylock - the avaricious Jew - yet given perhaps the best speech in the entire play ("Hath not a Jew eyes?").  Fuel for anti-Semitism; but it seems to me that Shakespeare had a more nuanced view.  (I do like the use of this speech in Ernst Lubitsch's movie "To Be or Not to Be").

Always interesting, but mostly saddening:  the incredible continuing definition of the Jew as the "other", or the "outsider".  And not just in Christian Europe - I suppose one could carry this story back to the book of Exodus, to the Babylonian Captivity, to any long list of occurrences.  Not clear how much this particular viewpoint is shaped by the formation of the State of Israel in 1948 - seems like "not much."  Amazing, frustrating, how little things change.  What's up with this?

Usury as a flash point in those days.

Portia with her famous - and really, quite lovely - speech about mercy.  "The quality of mercy is not strained:  It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath.  It is twice blest:  It blesseth him that gives and him that takes."  [etc.]

Then, in disguise, she switches to some fancy legalese.

Shakespeare = so worth reading.