The Merchant of Venice and the Paschal Moon
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Peter D. Usher
Peter D. Usher is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics of the Pennsylvania State University. In addition to research in astronomy, he works on the science in Shakespeare. He is the author of
Shakespeare and the Dawn of Modern Science (Cambria Press, 2010) andShakespeare and Saturn: Accounting for Appearances (Peter Lang, 2015).
Abstract
The Merchant of Venice contains a puzzling passage by Lancelot Gobbo that refers to Ash Wednesday and Easter Monday, two dates in the Christian religious calendar. The passage is nonsensical, yet it is a commonplace that the utterances of Shakespeare’s clowns are often noteworthy. This paper notes that Lancelot refers to an unusual four-fold coincidence of Passover with Easter Monday, the former on the correct Gregorian calendar, the latter on the outdated Julian calendar. The interpretation is tested and leads to the determination of the dramatic time of the play which with other evidence from the script suggests that the paschal moon of 14 Nisan 5357 (April 2, 1597) is a crux of the play. The resulting timeline is consistent with events in the script and leads to a new interpretation for Old Gobbo’s dish of doves. The timeline leads also to a solution for a question on equity and the law.
About the author
Peter D. Usher is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics of the Pennsylvania State University. In addition to research in astronomy, he works on the science in Shakespeare. He is the author of Shakespeare and the Dawn of Modern Science (Cambria Press, 2010) and Shakespeare and Saturn: Accounting for Appearances (Peter Lang, 2015).
© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
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Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Introduction: Digital Ontology and Epistemology. Between Law, Literature and the Visual Arts
- “The Earth Is Flat!” The Literary Complexity of Truth, Lies and Fake Knowledge
- Saving Content in Digital Surroundings: A Safe Solution?
- Digital Justice: Shining Future or Illusory Chimera?
- “Select before You Collect”: Uses and Abuses of Profiling and Data Mining in Law and Literature
- Supposing the Law: Nomos and Categorical Imperatives in Never Let Me Go
- Digital Voodoo: Who Does What?
- Forensic Iconicity: The Experimental Law’s Whatness in Digital Culture
- Research
- Digital Media, Fears, and Their Ontological Demagogic Power: Utopia, Homeland, Occupied
- Law as Literature: The Interdisciplinary Endeavour of Oudropo,, and Their Interdisciplinary Play with Text
- The Merchant of Venice and the Paschal Moon
- Book Reviews
- Daniela Carpi: Monsters and Monstrosity. From the Canon to the Anti-Canon: Literary and Juridical Subversions
- Jonas Ross Kjærgård, Reimagining Society in Eighteenth-Century French Literature
