“Shallow fopp’ry” and “music of the spheres”: the multifarious mnemonic values of music in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice

In The Merchant of Venice, music is perceived both mentally through the words alluding to it – literally or metaphorically – and from the sounds of the words – through resounding rhetorical forms and the musicality of language. These musical encounters address the memory of the characters and audience alike, reviving traumatic experiences or reminding them of joyous events. In addition, the characters’ lines are environed by songs and instrumental music, psychically inspiring and contributing to reach a desired and universal harmony, as recorded in classical texts.This paper offers close readings of the musical and rhetorical strategies at work in the play’s text (as well as in some recent performances) to shed light on the ways in which music is embedded in the play and stimulates memorization processes. At the same time, it shows how Shakespeare’s play serves as a reminder of Early Modern social and religious issues tied in to the understanding of music and its practices.