The Battle for the Cue-Space: The Merchant of Venice

Cues can be an integral constituent of characterization, and of no one is this truer than Shylock. This chapter explores not only how cue-effects contribute to the Shylock-part, but how cues can be the ‘plumbing’ of a play, at once visible and subterranean, directing the flow and determining the temperature. It shows that the repeated cue is used when the unstable genre of the play — tragedy, comedy, or something in between — is palpably up for grabs. Shylock and Mercutio embody this struggle; they alike scuff or straddle the supposed boundaries between comedy and tragedy.

Cues can be an integral constituent of characterization, and of no one is this truer than Shylock. This chapter explores not only how cue-effects contribute to the Shylock-part, but how cues can be the ‘plumbing’ of a play, at once visible and subterranean, directing the flow and determining the temperature. It shows that the repeated cue is used when the unstable genre of the play — tragedy, comedy, or something in between — is palpably up for grabs. Shylock and Mercutio embody this struggle; they alike scuff or straddle the supposed boundaries between comedy and tragedy.