The Tricksy Word: Richard Weisberg on The Merchant of Venice

This essay is a critical appreciation of Richard Weisberg's understanding, in his Poethics, of the ethical and jurisprudential aspects of The Merchant of Venice. It agrees with him on the importance played by "the structure of mediations" as a major concern in Shakespeare. But it challenges the way he contrasts, on this basis, the character of Antonio as a too-accommodating Christian, with Shylock as one who, "unmediated," keeps his word and bond. The essay argues that Antonio and Shylock are both odd-men-out in the society represented by Shakespeare, and that the play's underlying, often subversive theme is how to deal, in law as in human affairs generally, with the "tricksy word." Weisberg, in this early book, is beginning to work through a major theme of his career: a "postmodern" (in his view) avoidance of judgment, as well as an ancient danger rooted in the Christian (Pauline) interpretation of Hebrew Scripture. This interpretation permitted, in crucial modern legal situations (like Vichy's definition of "le status du juif"), a near-unlimited hermeneutic flexibility.