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The Merchant of Venice pp 183–245Cite as

‘A Daniel come to judgement’: The Trial

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Abstract

Prayer does indeed seem ‘bootless’ (3.3.20) as the peril for Antonio mounts: ‘These griefs and losses have so bated me / That I shall hardly spare a pound of flesh’ (3.3.32-4). Shakespeare probably intends a pun on ‘bated’, recalling Shylock’s earlier response that Antonio’s flesh was good ‘to bait fish withal; if it will feed nothing else, it will feed [his] revenge’ (3.1.42-3). Shakespeare powerfully coalesces the idea of the inner consumption of Antonio’s flesh and life, due to biting usury, with the idea of literally cutting off the same flesh and life, due to sharp-edged revenge. The problems of usury and free lending, enemy and friend, hate and love, folly and wisdom, appearance and reality, safety and risk, keeping the law and violating the law (man’s as well as God’s law), giving and forgiving, justice and mercy are all ‘bound up’ in the formulation of the flesh bond and its resolution in the trial.

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Notes

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  1. Joan Ozark Holmer
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© 1995 Joan Ozark Holmer

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Holmer, J.O. (1995). ‘A Daniel come to judgement’: The Trial. In: The Merchant of Venice. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-23846-0_5

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