the opportunity he had to solidify the humanization of Shylock and the injustice he faced but no that was a comedy and yes audiences of his time thought it was joyous that Shylock lost his livelihood

I assume you’ve read Marlowe’s Jew of Malta, at once 1000x more horrible but also more radical since it’s a tragedy and not a comedy.

And yeah bardolotry is cringe and I feel ppl that actually study Shakey nowadays are way less prone to it (though it’s still there). If nothing else, there’s a deep Marxist tradition in the academy now that pushes back on great man theory.

Say what you will about the new historicisists, they gave us that at least