VV(11): Non e Vero

[Dave Monroe]

"'You tell me you are half-Jewish and half-Italian,' Mafia was saying in
the other room.  'What a terribly amusing role.  Like Shylock, non e
vero, ha, ha.'" (p. 223)

Shylock (William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice) is, of course, an
Italian Jew, certainly the most notorious one in literature (and,
perhaps, otherwise).  But why a "terribly amusing role"?  "Comic relief
and villainy were invariably the lost of Negroes, Jews and South
European immigrants" (V., Ch. 5, Sec. ii, p. 126).  But "non e vero, ha
ha"?  "Non e vero" = "It is not true," "non e vero?" = "is it not
true?"?  "Non e vero, e buon trovato" = "It is not true, but it is a
good idea"?  A litle help here ... and, of course, Fergus Mixolydian,
the "Irish Armenian Jew," albeit not quite an "actor" (see p. 56), so
maybe hence Grant's uncertainty here?  Again, let me know ...