A Hebrew Source for The Merchant of Venice

Summary

Prefatory note

The author of this essay, for all his unassuming bearing, was such an unusual and truly original personality that a few words about him may be in place. Born in Rumania in 1892, he received a traditional schooling in Biblical and Talmudic studies. Later in Vienna, he listened receptively to everything the University there had to offer. He belonged to the circle of Sigmund Freud, living on commissions from officework as a side-line. At that time he was already taking an interest in Shakespearian research. In 1938 he emigrated to Israel, where he gained a very modest living for himself and his family as an ill-paid official, devoting his nights to the study of Shakespeare, until his death in Haifa in 1951. He could never bring himself to publish this essay, as he considered it a ‘preliminary communication’, no more.

I had the privilege of being personally acquainted with Schonfeld, and it has also been my privilege to prepare this study for publication at the behest of his admirers. I have reduced the original text by more than half, written as it was in rather complicated German and with no little hair-splitting subtlety. I can only express the hope that in the process I have nowhere misinterpreted or misrepresented Schonfeld’s thinking.

The translation from the German is the work of Mrs Daphna Allon of Jerasulem. I wish to thank her for her more than professional interest.

Yehuda T. Radday