O znaczkach z Szajlokiem
On Shylock Postage Stamps

Author(s): Mieczysław Abramowicz
Subject(s): Theatre, Dance, Performing Arts, Cultural history, Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Studies of Literature, Philology, Theory of Literature, British Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: postage stamp; Shakespeare portrait; The Merchant of Venice; Shylock
Summary/Abstract: The first postage stamp bearing the image of William Shakespeare was issued 24 years after the world’s first ever stamp, the Penny Black, came out on 6 May 1840. Today, a complete collection of Shakespeare-themed stamps from all over the world would have to include almost a thousand items (stamps, stamp series, souvenir sheets, commemorative postmarks, first day covers, postcards) with hundreds of themes ranging from portraits of Shakespeare to scenes from his plays, including "The Merchant of Venice". Shylock first appeared on a postage, stamp issued by the Emirate of Fujeira as part of a nine-piece series (1969), followed by two Senegalese stamps (1972) and a Sierra Leone series (1989). The most recent Merchant of Venice-themed stamp is part of a ten-stamp series issued by Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, a tiny island nation in the Caribbean. The stamp shows Portia who is played, rather surprisingly, by the Disney character of Minnie (the series also shows Donald Duck as Hamlet, Mickey Mouse and Daisy as Romeo and Ophelia, Goofy as Mark Antony and Clarabell Cow as Titania). The Polish Post Office has never come up with Shakespeare-themed stamps, so the author takes the liberty of recommending a virtual series to feature portraits of famous actors appearing in performances of "The Merchant of Venice" in Gdańsk, including Siegfried Gotthilf Eckhardt (1780), Ludwig Devrient (1818, 1821), Ira Aldridge (1854), Marija Vera (1917), and others.

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