#One of the most moving scenes in the merchants of venice is Shylock bitterly telling the readers how Christians treat jew unfairly and cruely

(Translated into simple english)

’ll use Antonio's pound of body flesh for fish bait. You can’t eat human flesh, but if it feeds nothing else, it’ll feed my revenge. He’s insulted me and cost me half a million ducats. He’s laughed at my losses, made fun of my earnings, humiliated my race, thwarted my deals, turned my friends against me, riled up my enemies—and why? Because I’m a Jew. Doesn’t a Jew have eyes? Doesn’t a Jew have hands, bodily organs, a human shape, five senses, feelings, and passions? Doesn’t a Jew eat the same food, get hurt with the same weapons, get sick with the same diseases, get healed by the same medicine, and warm up in summer and cool off in winter just like a Christian? If you prick us with a pin, don’t we bleed? If you tickle us, don’t we laugh? If you poison us, don’t we die? And if you treat us badly, won’t we try to get revenge? If we’re like you in everything else, we’ll resemble you in that respect. If a Jew offends a Christian, what’s the Christian’s kind and gentle reaction? Revenge. If a Christian offends a Jew, what punishment will he come up with if he follows the Christian example? Of course, the same thing—revenge! I’ll treat you as badly as you Christians taught me to—and you’ll be lucky if I don’t outdo my teachers.

But after this very scene, Shylock and his jew friend is shown like a pair of cartoonishly evil villains.

#So what did Shakespeare want to convey to readers? Are JewsBad or good to him?

Specifically, I'm wondering about after the fall of the Roman Empire and prior to extensive trade outside of Europe which would introduce things like potatoes, tomatoes, coffee, and spices from the far east.

I imagine things like beer, bread, milk, and eggs would be common. How often would they eat meat? What types of vegetables were readily available? Would the diet of a peasant in Poland or Russia differ heavily from that of England or France?

Many old cities around the world have even older, past versions of themselves underneath. Even in the U.S, where cities are barely a few hundred years old, there are vast subterranean ruins of older cities.

When I was in Scotland, I went on a "haunted" tour of the entire underground medieval Edinborough. I was impressed that the former "street" level was 20 or 30 feet lower than the modern day streets. How does this happen?

When I was in Barcelona, 20 or 30 feet below the city was an entire Roman colony!

Why do cities seem to have this tendency to creep upwards? How do they do it? Is there a way to observe it in modern cities happening in real time?

I just listened to the podcast on Regency Era fashion with /u/chocolatepot, which I really enjoyed. In it, she says that men's fashion didn't change much during this period.

I've heard a different story, but I'm not a fashion historian and now I wonder if that story is wrong.

Received wisdom has this period as one of radical change where menswear produces the first recognizable ancestor of the modern business suit and tie. Bruce Boyer, for example, calls the changes to menswear in this period "the great renunciation." Received wisdom also attributes most of this change to Brummell.

Is this accurate? Have the roles of Brummell and the Regency been overstated?

Also, how did Russia transport all the nuclear missiles in the Ex-Soviet states into Russia?

I became curious after I read that Plutarch was considered somewhat of a "best-seller" in his time. How did the process of publishing, distributing, and circulation work in the Ancient World?

[deleted]

It has always seemed to me to be an optimal staging area for the invasion of England. They could have placed artillery on the North Coast and bombarded the Portsmouth Dockyard and used civilian airfields, farms, trains etc to aid their cause. Was the Isle of Wight heavily militarized during WWII? What other reasons did Hitler have for not invading the Island?

Specifically, I'm interested in Mussolini/Italian fascist view of communism before Hitler became prominent. Was it one of their basic tenets too? Did they care at all before becoming friendly with Nazi? Did they hate Soviets more than other European countries?

[deleted]

Is it due to Shakespeare's wordplay/puns, was he targeting a more sophisticated audience, or was it something else? To me, it has always seemed like Shakespeare was written in a much earlier form of modern English; but in looking at the dates, I see that isn't true.

How were candidates supposed to run for office then? Just passively wait to see who people voted for on their own?

If so, when did it become as widely accepted to "openly campaign", as it is today? How has it changed over the years?

Best regards,

Back in the U.S. Civil War how did the confederates recruit people from all over Southern Society how did they convince the poorer classes into joining the war was it State pride, fear of economic collapse, racism?

In the wake of the October Revolution, how was the military culture of the former Russian Empire transformed? Was there an effort to organize military forces in accordance to egalitarian and humanist socialist principles? What discussions were had about how the role of the military would change under socialism?

Essentially, how red was the Red Army?

Whether you argue from the mindset that they used religion as a way of pushing their message or whether you think the Nazis genuinely endorsed the religion, Nazi Germany backed a Christian message.

Their leadership were all either Catholics or Protestants and Adolf Hitler was quoted time and time again in his speeches as endorsing his Christianity and the Christianity of the German people.

My question is how could Hitler and his inner cirlcle have endorsed so strongly the idea of Christianity when the idea is centered around Jesus Christ, a Jew, being the lord and savior of mankind?