Jew, was not explained to the audiences; despite many noble speeches from the lips of Shylock, it is evident Shakespeare had no intention of championing or vindicating the Jewish cause. (See Calisch, “The Jew in English Literature,” Richmond, 1909, pp. 73 ff.) Mr. Abraham Abrahams, in Cumberland’s ‘Observer’, exaggerates the case only slightly when he says: “I verily believe the odious character of Shylock has brought little less persecution upon us, poor scattered sons of Abraham, than the Inquisition itself.”
During the 17th century, a host of minor dramatists carried forward the anti-Jewish stage tradition: Marston, Beaumont and Fletcher, Ben Jonson, Massinger, Webster, Middleton and Rowley, Henninge and Crowne, were authors of plays which contained either obnoxious Jewish characters or uncomplimentary Jewish references. The 18th century began with a travesty on “The Merchant of Venice” (1701); Richard Brindsley Sheridan, in 1775, produced a comic opera in prose entitled “The Duenna” wherein
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