Fighting Words

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The long-running Fighting Words ranked among the most intelligent, provocative and popular shows of its day. It was a panel show with a simple premise: viewers send in controversial quotations and the panellists discuss them. From 1953-1962, host Nathan Cohen presided over verbal bombshells and spirited arguments of prominent thinkers, artists and controversialists, including Pierre Trudeau, Irving Layton, Robertson Davies, Norman Mailer, Peter Ustinov and many more. Watch the fireworks as the CBC Digital Archives features 20 of the most lively, fascinating and provocative panels in CBC history.

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Was the bard a bigot?

Broadcast Date: Sept. 4, 1955

Dapper Canadian author Robertson Davies comes to Fighting Words in 1955 to argue the idea that William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice "is the most brutal and dramatic specimen of racial propaganda in the English language." Joining him are Toronto lawyer E.B. Jolliffe, Rabbi Abraham L. Feinberg and actor Frederick Valk, who has played the sometimes vilified Shylock on stage.

Was the bard a bigot?

• Many historians conclude that Shakespeare likely never met any Jews, as they were expelled from England in 1290 and not readmitted until 1656, 50 years after Shakespeare's death.

• Actor Frederick Valk fled Czechoslovakia not long before Nazi Germany annexed the country. Ironically, he later earned numerous film roles as Nazi officers and prison camp commanders, although he won greater recognition for his stage portrayals of Othello and Shylock.

Fighting Words: Was the bard a bigot?

Medium: Television

Program: Fighting Words

Broadcast Date: Sept. 4, 1955

Guest(s): Robertson Davies, Abraham L. Feinberg, E.B. Jolliffe, Frederick Valk

Host: James Scott

Duration: 24:40

Last updated:
April 3, 2008

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Media	Title and date	Description
Television 3:30	April 2, 1962 Fighting Words: Arguing about happiness	Open for discussion: "To be happy at home is the ultimate aim of all ambition."
Television 19:43	Dec. 11, 1961 Fighting Words: Critics: frustrated failures?	A touchy topic: "Critics are the men who have failed in literature and in art."
Television 8:16	April 2, 1961 Fighting Words: Talking about speaking	Discuss: "Spare us the mischief unloosed by instructors of good speech."
Television 4:44	April 2, 1961 Fighting Words: Tax evasion: right of the rich and clever	Today's argument: "Anybody has a right to evade taxes if he can get away with it."
Television 16:42	March 19, 1961 Fighting Words: The perils of independence	Discuss: Giving independence to underdeveloped countries "is like the gift of a razor to a child."
Television 5:36	March 19, 1961 Fighting Words: Kiss me, I'm … a crybaby?	Definite fighting words: "The Irish are the cry-babies of the Western world."
Television 10:09	June 19, 1960 Fighting Words: Defending dirt and slamming smut	A dirty debate: "Defenders of the right to read cheap smut are the intellectuals who never read it."
Television 3:17	June 19, 1960 Fighting Words: Views on very violent feminism	Men debate: "To defend her chastity, a woman has the right to kill."
Television 12:46	May 22, 1960 Fighting Words: Is spying a necessary evil?	Today's argument: "Espionage is an unpleasant necessity."
Television 3:49	May 22, 1960 Fighting Words: Chatting about charm	Today's fighting words: "If you have charm, you don't need to have anything else."
Television 6:02	May 22, 1960 Fighting Words: The heartbreaking words of Anne Frank	Today's fighting words: "I still believe people are good at heart."
Television 12:21	Jan. 31, 1960 Fighting Words: The CBC: monopolizing Canada's intellectuals?	The argument: "Canadian intellectuals never crawl out of their ivory towers except to go on CBC panel shows."
Television 10:24	Jan. 31, 1960 Fighting Words: Debating dirty jokes	Up for debate: "A taste for ribaldry is inherent in the human animal."
Television 28:00	Jan. 17, 1960 Fighting Words: A hip half-hour	Author Norman Mailer explains the philosophy of the hipster.
Television 11:09	March 22, 1959 Fighting Words: People still can't tell right from wrong?	Say what? "People today can't tell right from wrong in family behaviour and public morals."

22 results available . 1 . 2

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Fighting Words

Was the bard a bigot?

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