Background
Minorities in Shakespeare's England and the Americas
William Shakespeare, living most of his life in Elizabethan England before the first African slaves landed in the Jamestown, might not have anticipated that an authentic tragedy for Africans would play out on the newly "discovered" continent over the next 400 years, or that his play would be a continuing touchstone of progress or lack thereof, on and off the stage. Joseph Papp, producer extraordinaire, suggested that basing a major tragedy on a Moor, given the small population of people of color in England at the time (similarly, the writing of The Merchant of Venice given the small Jewish community) was a puzzlement. Stereotypes of the financially grasping Jew, however, had taken root, with the establishment of working restrictions that limited Jewish participation in other professions, simultaneous with Christian eschewing of the lending vocation or usury. Even if the African population in England was small, their numbers apparently discomfited Queen Elizabeth sufficiently to move her to seek removal of the 'Negroes and Blackamoors…which are crept into the realm…to the annoyance of her own people.' 6 Nevertheless, Shakespeare's Moor held considerable stature in the Venetian society he had adopted, and Shylock, given a sympathetic portrayal, might be seen as a mourning widower and parent rather than an avaricious moneylender. A most interesting confluence occurred in the stage career of Ira Aldridge, the stellar 19 th century African American exile, who performed Shylock in Russia "so sympathetically…that the Jewish community thanked him for his interpretation of a character that Jews have usually condemned as inimical to their race." 7
Both Blacks and Jews, in Elizabethan England and in contrasting ways in the Americas, lived close to yet apart from white and Christian society. Although numerous Caucasians, notably Irish debtors, arrived in the New World as indentured servants, their terms of service, in contrast to the Africans, were limited because the challenge of detaining them given their ability to blend into the general population became too troublesome. Better designate people of color as destined for servitude based on their "birthright" and Biblically-certified subhuman status. Re-capturing and retention, the latter with the help eventually of the U.S. Constitution, made better economic sense. Jews had dramatically greater freedom (some, regrettably, using it to profit from the slave trade), yet could still be suspected as being in league with the devil and could be denied the privilege of signing the Declaration of Independence. Both of these groups, segregated residentially and separating during hours of worship, carried the burden of being considered 'the other,' and appeared in popular theater not as unique individuals (human characters) but as stereotypes. Though included in Shakespeare's pantheon of major characters, they were relegated to the two roles, Othello and Shylock, that, especially when played in caricature, reinforced stereotypes.
Shakespeare's True Beliefs
It is important, certainly to Shakespeare's admirers (not just your garden variety predictable high school English teachers), that the stereotypes seeming to flow from the characters of Othello and Shylock not be attributed to the true feelings of our beloved author. As Marjorie Garber so acutely points out: "The question 'What was Shakespeare like?' often contains a not-so-secret wish that Shakespeare should be like us." 8 I can certainly picture a 21 st century Will living on the East Coast, registered Democratic and contributing to the Obama campaign. He could not, of course, escape the influences of the society in which he lived, but could — given his great heart, powers of observation, and dedication to creating a world of human characters with nary a flat one to behold - take himself and his audience through poetry and drama to a world of possibility beyond the narrow outlook of a single time and place.
Everyday Worldview in Early Modern England
As mentioned earlier, persons of color and Jews held a precarious position in Elizabethan society. Moors, Barbary Coast captives and Egyptians as well as Spaniards and Portuguese and even the occasional Italian stood apart from their pale fellow British Islanders. James Schultz, reporting on Imtiaz Habib's 2002 study, Shakespeare's Colors: Race and Culture in Elizabethan England, highlights the "true" Englishperson's wary confusion: Africans, Indians, South Asians, pre-Columbian Americans and blacks were "interchangeable in the Elizabethan popular mind." G.K. Hunter, in his essay, "Elizabethans and foreigners" notes that persons from outside England lived "between the xenophobic poles of Fear and Derision." 9 Certainly the concept of melding varied populations into one multicultural family would be neither preached nor practiced.
Jews had an even more interesting position in England based on their actual absence, dramatically made effective by their expulsion in 1290, leaving them "A people utterly despised and degraded… deported en masse and never allowed to return, an invisible people who functioned as symbolic tokens of all that was heartless, vicious, rapacious, and unnatural…". 1 0 It stands to reason that people you cannot see are more frightening than those you can, hence the medieval rumors of Jews kidnapping Christian children for the production of matzoah, spreading disease, and plotting uprisings.
The two groups shared a geographical commonality: the commercial and world conquering port of Venice. Shakespeare's two plays, written ten years apart, allowed audiences in England and later in America, to revel in imaginative dramatizations of groups they would prefer to keep at a distance.
Shylock and Othello as Representatives of Their Races
In The Merchant of Venice (in one source alternately titled The Jew of Venice) we find two Christian business men, Antonio and Bassanio, the former a regular harasser of the Jewish lender, Shylock, in need of a loan. Having no collateral because Antonio's goods-laden ships are at sea, the Christian accedes to the Jew's proposal of a pound of flesh as surety for the loan of 3,000 ducats. When the loan comes due, Shylock, though offered payment from another source (Bassanio's new wife), perseveres in his seemingly bloodthirsty demand. A clever solution (flesh can be paid only with the absence of bloodletting - see the fine print) leaves Shylock bereft of daughter and fortune and facing forced conversion to Christianity.
Othello, the Moor of Venice, though not a native son, has risen to great heights in society through his military valor and exploits. When the Venetian hospitality of an aristocrat, Brabantio, leads without his intention to the development of a love relationship and eventual elopement with the clueless parent's daughter, Desdemona, the stage is set for tragedy. Key strategist in bringing everyone to grief is Iago, disgruntled (so he says) aide-de-camp to General Othello who has been passed over for a promotion. With this justification, and many others equally suspect along the way, Iago sets out step-by-step to bring this "outsider" to a deadly fall. That the Moor is a man of color, royal in birth but enslaved in battle and converted to Christianity, and significantly older than his wife, sets him apart in enough ways to allow Iago, himself an "outsider" by class status, to cast Othello as "barbarian" and "savage", especially in the play's culminating horror of the murder of Desdemona. The character with the black skin establishes himself and his kin as sensuous and violent.
Modern Day Defense and Interpretations
Though commoner and aristocratic crowds in Elizabethan theaters would neither shrink from these portrayals nor argue with their implications modern contemporary writers find mitigating evidence for all the parties: Elizabethan society, the characters, and Shakespeare himself. One of American's most prolific interpreters of Othello on stage, actor James Earl Jones suggests that "Race was a convenient category to put people in, especially when it could be manipulated to keep the Western mind feeling superior; but institutional racism as we know it did not exist in Shakespeare's time." 1 1 Jones further seeks to exculpate Othello by identifying his murderous mental state not as jealousy, but as insanity, the result of the vision of his world crumbling implanted in his brain by Iago. Othello's challenge, in the eyes of C.L.R. James, a 1960's Socialist writer, "was not that he was black, but that he was a foreigner, an outsider in Venetian society…." 1 2
With an exhaustive and historical report on Shylock through the ages along with information on presentation and interpretation, Marjorie Garber provides a semi-palatable compromise for the unsympathetic userer: we can seem him as "an ambivalent figure, neither the one-dimensional monster of the past nor the humane, tragic victim of modern, post-Holocaust productions." 1 3 Since so much of what constitutes the character of Shylock is embedded in centuries of religious history, perhaps a historian's insight would be of special value. A.L. Rouse writes in 1963: "We hardly need to be reminded, after the appalling anti-Semitism that has disgraced this century, that with the Elizabethan mob, a Shylock was a villain. And so his creator meant him to be - then Shakespeare's indefeasible human sympathy took over and the villain becomes a human being." 1 4
Text Analysis in Defense of the Bard
It is proven over and over again in human history and relations that accurate communication is essential for judicious and happy outcomes. As a recent interaction between a college teacher and a local peace officer in Cambridge Massachusetts amply demonstrates, understanding only comes with clear and careful review of what was actually said. So it is with Shakespeare and his characters, particularly in the case of those whose portrayals might, though not intended by the author, lead to deleterious representations and even harmful incidents befalling actual persons.
Thus, for scholars, general readers, and— most important in this context— for students, we must look at the received text of the plays, read them carefully, and reach our conclusions based on citations of that text. To this end, students will have the opportunity to consider the plays in their entirety, to pay attention to what is said by whom, what the statements can be understood to mean, and how they might reasonably reach conclusions (however tentative) about the author's intent. Since Shakespeare could not have envisioned the depth, breadth and longevity of attention his plays have received, this seems only fair.
Theatrical Portrayals of and by People of Color
Producer Glenda Gill notes that "White playwrights all too often wrote parts for the African American in dialect, as if all blacks lacked formal education." 1 5 For African American men, their presentation on stage, first by whites in blackface and then by themselves, presented "black minstrel troupes in the 1860's and 1870's….wearing blackface, using 'darky' dialect, and presenting southern stereotypes…". It is encouraging to note that "black resistance….occurred early…" 1 6
Women, both on stage and in the world of work, were portrayed as "the Mammy, the Tragic Mulatto, and the Jezebel." 1 7 Advertising history cites Aunt Jemima as the longest lived commercial image extant. As sophisticated and entertaining as fast-talking comedy films from the 1930's might be, a 21 st century fan must steel oneself for the almost inevitable appearance of the black maid or nanny. The first African American winner of an Academy Award, Hattie McDaniel, played Scarlett O'Hara's mammy, a character of great resources, but the actress was barred from attending the film's 1939 premiere in an Atlanta movie theater. In an ironic twist, a decade later, Vivien Leigh, the actress who played Scarlett, served on a judge's panel in London at the royal Academy of Dramatic Art where she awarded the category of 'distinction' to future theater historian Errol Hill for his recitation of a selection from Othello. Leigh's husband, Laurence Olivier, famously portrayed Othello in a film version rated wanting by Earle Hyman.
Errol Hill, an experienced actor himself and author of a seminal study of this aspect of Shakespearean history, noted that a mentor "insisted that the only way to learn acting was to start with Shakespeare." Yet it was clear from many of his experiences with theater in the course of his London studies and play attendance that "Shakespeare reigned …as the prerogative of the ruling class." In his training in London, mid 20 th century, the few black actors allotted parts in these productions were constrained to wear white face. Hill enjoyed the experience of becoming unrecognizable to his closest friends, but envisioned a bleak future for his own Shakespearean stage aspirations when he reflected that in three years attending performances in England, he "…never saw a black actor in Shakespeare." 1 8
Harlem itself, both in the Renaissance era of the 1920's and later, provides a backdrop for the interaction of African Americans with the Elizabethan muse. As mentioned before, A. Philip Randolph's theatrical aspirations found expression as he and his wife participated in a community theater, Ye Friends of Shakespeare, in the 1920's. 1 9 This activity was contemporaneous with Randolph's designation by the U.S. Attorney General as "the most dangerous Negro in America," following the Socialist's urging his peers to decline military service in a country still tolerating widespread discrimination and sporadic lynching. Langston Hughes boldly paid tribute to Avon's son with his book of poetry, "Shakespeare in Harlem," adapted for a 1960 Forty-first Street show. 2 0 In the poem "Theme for English B," Hughes appeals to his Columbia professor:
I like a pipe for a Christmas present,
Or records—Bessie, bop, or Bach.
I guess being colored doesn't make me NOT like
the same things other folks like who are other races.
Zora Neale Hurston was a kindred spirit of Will as she was not only inspired in her youth, as he was, by a traveling troupe of actors, but actually ran away with the troupe and in later years produced a story, "Spunk," whose plot roughly mirrors Hamlet. Valerie Traube avers: "African-American women writers' return to Shakespearian drama is hardly surprising, for what more obviously status-studded example of Anglo- European patriarchal culture exists to 'signify' or 'trope' upon?" ("Rainbows of Darkness: Deconstructing Shakespeare in the Work of Gloria Naylor and Zora Neale Hurston," 1993. www.enotes.com).
Both during and after the era of slavery in the United States, African Americans faced a multi-faceted challenge of survival. Bereft of homeland, family, language, culture, and spiritual sustenance, labeled as sub-human, subject to involuntary servitude whose justification was based on Scripture citations, the seekers of freedom built a history of triumph against incredible odds. That they would embrace the religion that had been complicit in denying their humanity and adopt as their entitlement the literature of the society that first brutalized then shunned them, is testament to a fortitude worthy of tribute and emulation.
African American Shakespeareans
Four actors, three men and one woman, typify the yearning felt and the struggle joined by African American Shakespeareans. Two of the four, Ira Aldridge and Paul Robeson, could earn more approbation abroad than in their own land. The other two, A. Philip Randolph, never reaching beyond amateur status, and Henrietta Vinson Davis, who traveled and appeared widely in her theatrical career, channeled their disappointment into political activism.
Ira Aldridge
Ira Aldridge was born in 1807 in New York City. He attended the African Free School and took an early interest in Shakespeare performance. His early adolescence coincided with the establishment in Manhattan of the New York African Theater. The theater's founder, William Henry Brown, worked with his premier acting star, James Hewlett, to produce both works of Shakespeare and original works like Brown's own play King Shotaway. Beginning as the African Grove in 1821, where free African Americans could enjoy dessert treats of a summer's evening, and transforming into a legitimate theater, the company's first production was Richard III. White patrons were welcomed and invited to sit in the rear of the auditorium. When rowdiness of later uninvited Caucasians developed, a police raid resulted in the demand by authorities that the group were 'never to act Shakespeare again.' 2 1 Fortunately, the troupe returned for an additional year or two before having its challenge to a rival theater met with legal action. This provided Aldridge the opportunity to make his first appearance on the stage as Romeo. If one looks for omens of what might follow in the hostility expressed by hecklers, critics, law enforcement and especially rival companies, it can be found in Hill's assessment: "…the determination of the white theater establishment at this early date to keep Afro-American performers out of the theatrical mainstream was prophetic of its attitude for generations to come." 2 2
To mix metaphors, Ira Aldridge saw the handwriting on the wall, took his cue and departed for Europe before his 18 th birthday. His acting career spread across forty years and took him to a dizzying round of cities, including Vienna, Budapest, Prague, Munich, Stockholm, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Constantinople, Warsaw, and Paris. Because critics in London were loathe to sanction the appearance of a black man on the stage, particularly in the role of Othello, a power figure of color who both kisses and strangles a white woman, Aldridge's performances in the British Isles took place primarily in the countryside. Not only did he break free of the tradition limiting black men to the roles of Shakespeare's three black male characters — Othello, The Prince of Morocco (Merchant of Venice), and Aaron the Moor (Titus Andronicus) by taking as his own Richard III, Shylock, Hamlet, Macbeth, and King Lear - but he took part in the evolution of Shakespeare production from declamation to more naturalistic acting. An English critic offered praise by pointing out that Aldridge "…rants less than almost any tragedian we know…" and in Moscow, he won approval because he "…concentrates all your attention only on the inner meaning of his speech [and] moves about completely naturally, not like a tragedian, but like a human being." 2 3 Perhaps in this last appreciation lay a hint of the romantic ideal Communism held for a later Shakespearean, Paul Robeson.
It is poignant to contemplate that at the same time Aldridge would be recognized as both artist and human being, African Americans for the most part were either still enslaved, or if free, subject to random slave catchers emboldened by the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Eight years later, press reports suggested that Aldridge might be returning to America and he gave the idea more serious consideration with the end of the Civil War. Sadly, Aldridge died in Poland in 1867, never to return to his native land. His dream of sharing his talent in his homeland, as Errol Hill explains, would likely have been punctured promptly upon his arrival, since "the only roles available to black performers were on the minstrel stage. Interracial casting was nonexistent, and there were no black companies with which he could work." 2 4
Aldridge's acceptance as fully human (on an individual basis) on the Continent and in the British Isles was affirmed by his marriages and additional liaisons with white women: the Irish Margaret Gill and the Countess Amanda von Brandt of Sweden. His four children went on to careers in music and theater. This is not to say that controversy did not erupt initially; but he eventually enjoyed a full life as a family man, attractive lothario and, finally, a British citizen. A monument in his memory can be viewed in the town of William Shakespeare's birth, Stratford-on-Avon. Numerous amateur theatrical companies in the United States took Aldridge's name in tribute to his worldwide fame. Through the four decades of his exile he continued to take an interest in his family back home and provided financial support for his sister and her children.
Henrietta Vinton Davis
Not to say that women are less adventurous than men, but another thespian of African descent in the United States, Henrietta Vinton Davis, carried on her effort to establish a career in Shakespeare performance within the bounds of her own country. Born in 1860, she experienced, in Errol Hill's words, "all of the promise, high expectations, and frustrations experienced by black actors of her generation." 2 5 Born in Baltimore, she studied elocution with a white tutor, Marguerite E. Saxton, in Washington, D.C. At the conclusion of her studies, the instructor wrote a note filled with sentiment: "My dearest Pupil: I shall watch with the keenest interest your future career. You have studied diligently, faithfully; you have talent, youth and beauty; in fact, all the qualifications essential to success, and I have, I think, a right to feel proud of you." 2 6
Davis embarked on her promising but ultimately frustrating journey by traveling extensively, and continuing to study. On her own, and throughout the country, she performed readings of speeches by Rosalind, Cleopatra, Juliet, Portia, Ophelia, Lady Anne, Queen Elizabeth and Lady Macbeth. Her advertising offered audiences an opportunity to witness "the first lady of her race to publicly essay a debut in Shakespeare." 2 7 In collaboration with another black actor, Powhatan Beaty, for a 1884 production of scenes from Macbeth and another play in Cincinnati, they elicited this astoundingly hopeful pronouncement: "The local newspapers, black and white, had been lavish in their praise for both principals." 2 8 Preparation, hard work, recognition by critics, a triumphant performance in Washington D.C. (graced by the presence of other distinguished actors, selected Howard University players and Frederick Douglass himself) taken altogether would, in a perfect world, have brought Henrietta to the legitimate stage. Despite all her promise and prodigious efforts, the doors remained closed. Understanding that simple excellence would not create fair opportunity, Davis moved on to social service; then she joined the efforts of Marcus Garvey to lift the lives of African Americans on a mass scale, holding leadership positions for a period of twelve years. She did not abandon theatrical performance altogether and died in 1941.
Asa Philip Randolph
On a somewhat parallel track, an individual born in Florida in 1889 also set the goal of professional Shakespeare performance and likewise diverted his talents to the political realm. Asa Philip Randolph, son of a former slave and itinerant minister, grew up in a household that boasted volumes of Shakespeare and other great writers in bookcases and promoted the message that education mattered and that religion formed the basis of a good life. Excelling in school both academically and in sport, Phil Randolph showed early promise in debate. Since his family could not provide the economic support for college, Randolph secured a series of odd jobs, but in his spare time memorized Shakespeare speeches for performance in churches and in the community. 2 9 Restless at the lack of opportunity in Jacksonville, he headed for New York City via steam boat. Once there, he continued his search for meaningful employment and began taking college courses, yet, his "mind was never far from the purpose that had brought him to New York: to become a stage actor." 3 0
When Asa joined church groups, particularly the Epworth League, for social reasons, he proceeded to create opportunities for political discussion and for theater performance. Randolph was a prime mover in "…rehearsing scenes from Shakespeare and presenting them, at least one Sunday afternoon a month, before community audiences at the Salem Methodist Church." On his own he worked to 'memorize every line from Othello, Hamlet, and The Merchant of Venice.' 3 1 Taking elocution lessons on the side, Randolph perfected his already powerful voice and took on the faint accent that led people he encountered throughout his crusading career to believe that he might have attended Oxford or Cambridge University. When he arrived at a crossroads where he might have embarked on a professional acting career, his respect for his father's wishes (the elder Randolph was already disappointed that his son had not pursued the ministry) caused him to relinquish the opportunity. Focusing then instead on his political interests, Asa took on the publication of a radical newspaper, The Messenger. Though it was focused on issues of workers' rights and social justice, Randolph included columns devoted to the arts. As he moved on to take leadership of the upstart Brotherhood of Pullman Porters, Randolph's stage presence and elocution may have served him well in inspiring workers at union meetings and in negotiations with elite railroad powerbrokers. If one audits Randolph's stentorian tones as he introduced the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, one can perceive the echoes of that young Shakespearean aspirant and reflect that though his path diverged from his original intent, his efforts on behalf of all African Americans may in some small part have contributed to the opening of doors for later generations of professional thespians.
Paul Robeson
The pattern of early striving and career path divergence can be seen in the life and art of Paul Robeson. Also the son of a former slave and pastor, born in 1898, Robeson's early life in New Jersey was, from his point of view, idyllic until the tragic death of his mother in a house fire. Nevertheless, Paul went on to achieve outstanding academic and athletic success in high school and in college at Rutgers. He went on to law school and toyed with the concept of one day rising to a position on the Supreme Court. This bold vision was promptly quashed by his encounter with a secretary in a law firm where he applied for a job. She vowed that she would never take dictation from a "black man." Profoundly disillusioned, though not entirely surprised, Paul accepted the opportunity to appear in a play on Broadway and the rest is theater and music history. Rapturous crowds responded to his performances in Showboat, concerts of spirituals and opera, and Othello.
Shakespeare's work with Robeson in the role was presented in London in 1930, in New York (1943) by way of Cambridge and New Haven in 1942, and in Stratford-on-Avon in 1959. Reviews of the New York performance offered this tribute: "the production presented a black man of dignity and intelligence in the role of a black man of dignity and intelligence." 3 2 Accolades of this and greater magnitude could not, however, save Robeson from meeting hostility - again as for earlier black actors playing Othello - from audiences who could not abide visions of race mixing - and even in one instance where a fellow elevator passenger spit on him when he was in the company of Uta Hagen, his co-star. Worse, for Robeson's theatrical life, was the public anger at his association with the Communist Party. Seeing this leftest of left-wing organizations and its political state, the Soviet Union, as the only hope for true recognition of African American humanity, Robeson was hounded by government agencies, denied a passport and deprived of the opportunities due him for his magnificent voice and acting skills. A small museum in Philadelphia, once the home of Robeson's sister, who provided him refuge in his final years, is seeking to honor his legacy.
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