| The Merchant of Venice | |
|---|---|
 Title page of thefirst quarto (1600) | |
| Written by | William Shakespeare |
| Characters | |
| Original language | English |
| Series | First Folio |
| Subject | Debt |
| Genre | Shakespearean comedy |
| Setting | Venice, 16th century |
The Merchant of Venice is a play byWilliam Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. A merchant in Venice namedAntonio defaults on a large loan taken out on behalf of his dear friend,Bassanio, and provided by a Jewish moneylender,Shylock, with seemingly inevitable fatal consequences.
Although classified as acomedy in theFirst Folio and sharing certain aspects with Shakespeare's otherromantic comedies, the play is most remembered for its dramatic scenes, and it is best known for the character Shylock and his famous demand for a "pound of flesh".
The play contains two famous speeches, that of Shylock, "Hath not a Jew eyes?" on the subject of humanity, and that ofPortia on "the quality of mercy". Debate exists on whether the play isantisemitic, with Shylock's insistence on his legal right to the pound of flesh being in opposition to his seemingly universal plea for the rights of all people suffering discrimination.
Bassanio, a youngVenetian of noble rank, wishes to woo the beautiful and wealthy heiress of Belmont,Portia. Having squandered his estate, he needs 3,000ducats to subsidise his expenditures as a suitor. Bassanio approaches his friendAntonio, a wealthy merchant of Venice, who has previously and repeatedly bailed him out. Antonio agrees, but has no liquid cash as his ships and merchandise are busy at sea toTripolis,the Indies,Mexico andEngland – he promises to cover a bond if Bassanio can find a lender, so Bassanio turns to the Jewish moneylender Shylock and names Antonio as the loan's guarantor.
Antonio has already antagonized Shylock through his outspokenantisemitism and because Antonio's habit of lending money without interest forces Shylock to charge lower rates. Shylock is at first reluctant to grant the loan, citing abuse he has suffered at Antonio's hand. He finally agrees to lend the sum to Bassanio without interest upon one condition: if Antonio were unable to repay it at the specified date, Shylock may take apound of Antonio's flesh. Bassanio does not want Antonio to accept such a risky condition; Antonio is surprised by what he sees as the moneylender's generosity (no "usance" – interest – is asked for), and he signs the contract. With money in hand, Bassanio leaves for Belmont with his friend Gratiano, who has asked to accompany him. Gratiano is a likeable young man, but he is often flippant, overly talkative, and tactless. Bassanio warns his companion to exercise self-control, and the two leave for Belmont.
Meanwhile, in Belmont, Portia is awash with suitors. Her father left awill stipulating that each of her suitors must choose correctly from one of three caskets, made of gold, silver and lead respectively. Whoever picks the right casket wins Portia's hand. The first suitor, the Prince of Morocco, chooses the gold casket, interpreting its slogan, "Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire",[1] as referring to Portia. The second suitor, the conceited Prince of Aragon, chooses the silver casket, which proclaims, "Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves",[2] as he believes he is full of merit. Both suitors leave empty-handed, having rejected the lead casket because of the baseness of its material and the uninviting nature of its slogan, "Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath".[3] The last suitor is Bassanio, whom Portia wishes to succeed, having met him before. As Bassanio ponders his choice, members of Portia's household sing a song that says that "fancy" (not true love) is "It is engendered in the eye, / With gazing fed";[4] Bassanio chooses the lead casket and wins Portia's hand.
In Venice, news arrives that Antonio's ships have been lost at sea, leaving him unable to repay his bond to Shylock. Shylock, angered by his daughter Jessica's elopement with the Christian Lorenzo and her conversion, becomes more determined to exact revenge on the Christians. Jessica had taken with her a considerable portion of Shylock's wealth, including a turquoise ring given to him by his late wife, Leah. Shylock subsequently has Antonio summoned before the court.
At Belmont, Bassanio receives a letter telling him that Antonio has been unable to repay the loan from Shylock. Portia and Bassanio marry, as do Gratiano and Portia's handmaid Nerissa. Bassanio and Gratiano leave for Venice, with money from Portia, to save Antonio's life by offering the money to Shylock. Unknown to Bassanio and Gratiano, Portia sent her servant, Balthazar, to seek the counsel of Portia's cousin, Bellario, a lawyer, atPadua.
The climax of the play is set in the court of theDuke of Venice. Shylock refuses Bassanio's offer of 6,000 ducats, twice the amount of the loan. He demands his pound of flesh from Antonio. The Duke, wishing to save Antonio but unable to nullify a contract, refers the case to a visitor. He identifies himself as Balthazar, a young male "doctor of the law", bearing a letter of recommendation to the Duke from the learned lawyer Bellario. The doctor is Portia in disguise, and the law clerk who accompanies her is Nerissa, also disguised as a man. As Balthazar, Portia in afamous speech repeatedly asks Shylock to show mercy, advising him that mercy "is twice blest: / It blesseth him that gives and him that takes."[5] However, Shylock adamantly refuses any compensations and insists on the pound of flesh.
As the court grants Shylock his bond and Antonio prepares for Shylock's knife, Portia deftly appropriates Shylock's argument for "specific performance". She says that the contract allows Shylock to remove only theflesh, not the blood, of Antonio(seequibble). Thus, if Shylock were to shed any drop of Antonio's blood, his "lands and goods" would be forfeited under Venetian laws. She tells him that he must cut precisely one pound of flesh, no more, no less; she advises him that "if the scale do turn / But in the estimation of a hair, / Thou diest, and all thy goods are confiscate."[6]
Defeated, Shylock consents to accept Bassanio's offer of money for the defaulted bond: first his offer to pay "the bond thrice", which Portia rebuffs, telling him to take his bond, and then merely the principal; but Portia also prevents him from doing this, on the ground that he has already refused it "in the open court". She cites a law under which Shylock, as a Jew and therefore an "alien", having attempted to take the life of a citizen, has forfeited his property, half tothe government and half to Antonio, leaving his life at the mercy of the Duke. The Duke spares Shylock's life and says he may remit the forfeiture. Portia says the Duke may waive the state's share, but not Antonio's. Antonio says he is content that the state waive its claim to half Shylock's wealth if he can have his one-half share "in use" until Shylock's death, when the principal would be given to Lorenzo and Jessica. Antonio also asks that "for this favour" Shylock convert to Christianity and bequeath his entire estate to Lorenzo and Jessica. The Duke then threatens to recant his pardon of Shylock's life unless he accepts these conditions. Shylock, re-threatened with death, accepts with the words, "I am content."[7]
Bassanio, unaware that the lawyer is his disguised wife, offers a gift in gratitude for the supposed legal assistance. Initially declining, Portia eventually requests his ring and Antonio's gloves. Antonio gives his gloves without hesitation, while Bassanio parts with the ring only after Antonio's persuasion, having earlier vowed to his wife never to lose, sell, or give it away. Nerissa, disguised as the lawyer's clerk, similarly obtains her own husband Gratiano's ring, as he fails to recognize her.
At Belmont, Portia and Nerissa playfully taunt and feign accusations against their husbands before revealing their true identities as the lawyer and clerk. Following reconciliations among the characters, Portia informs Antonio that three of his ships were not lost at sea and have safely returned.
The forfeit of a merchant's deadlybond after standing surety for a friend's loan was a common tale in England in the late 16th century.[8] In addition, the test of the suitors at Belmont, the merchant's rescue from the "pound of flesh" penalty by his friend's new wife disguised as a lawyer, and her demand for the betrothal ring in payment are all elements present in the 14th-century taleIl Pecorone byGiovanni Fiorentino, which was published in Milan in 1558.[9] Elements of the trial scene are also found inThe Orator byAlexandre Sylvane, published in translation in 1596.[8] The story of the three caskets can be found inGesta Romanorum, a collection of tales probably compiled at the end of the 13th century.[10]
The date of composition ofThe Merchant of Venice is believed to be between 1596 and 1598. The play was mentioned byFrancis Meres in 1598, so it must have been familiar on the stage by that date. The title page of the first edition in 1600 states that it had been performed "divers times" by that date. Salerino's reference to his ship theAndrew (I, i, 27) is thought to be an allusion to the Spanish shipSt. Andrew, captured by the English atCádiz in 1596. A date of 1596–97 is considered consistent with the play's style.[citation needed]
The play was entered in theRegister of theStationers Company, the method at that time of obtainingcopyright for a new play, byJames Roberts on 22 July 1598 under the title "the Marchaunt of Venyce or otherwise called the Jewe of Venyce."[11] On 28 October 1600 Roberts transferred his right to the play to the stationerThomas Heyes; Heyes published the firstquarto before the end of the year. It was printed again in 1619, as part of William Jaggard's so-calledFalse Folio. (Later, Thomas Heyes' son and heir Laurence Heyes asked for and was granted a confirmation of his right to the play, on 8 July 1619.) The 1600 edition is generally regarded as being accurate and reliable. It is the basis of the text published in the 1623First Folio, which adds a number of stage directions, mainly musical cues.[12]
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The play is frequently staged, but is potentially troubling to modern audiences because of its central themes, which can easily appearantisemitic. Modern critics argue over the play's stance on the Jews and Judaism. American literary criticHarold Bloom argued in 1998 that "one would have to be blind, deaf and dumb not to recognise that Shakespeare's grand, equivocal comedyThe Merchant of Venice is nevertheless a profoundly anti-semitic work".[13]
English society in the Elizabethan and Jacobean era has been described as "judeophobic".[14]English Jews had beenexpelled underEdward I in 1290 and were not permitted to return until 1656 under the rule ofOliver Cromwell. PoetJohn Donne, who was Dean ofSt Paul's Cathedral and a contemporary of Shakespeare, gave a sermon in 1624 perpetuating theBlood Libel – the entirely unsubstantiated antisemitic lie that Jews ritually murdered Christians to drink their blood and achieve salvation.[15] In Venice and in some other places, Jews were required to wear a yellow or red hat at all times in public to make sure that they were easily identified, and had to live in a ghetto.[16]
Shakespeare's play may be seen as a continuation of this tradition.[17] The title page of theQuarto indicates that the play was sometimes known asThe Jew of Venice in its day, which suggests that it was seen as similar to Marlowe's early 1590s workThe Jew of Malta. One interpretation of the play's structure is that Shakespeare meant to contrast the perceived mercy of the main Christian characters while giving the Jewish character vengeful characteristics. Similarly, it is possible that Shakespeare meant Shylock'sforced conversion to Christianity to be a "happy ending" for the character, as, to some Christian audiences, it saves his soul and allows him to enter Heaven.[18][page range too broad]
Regardless of what Shakespeare'sauthorial intent may have been, the play has been made use of by antisemites throughout the play's history. TheNazis used the usurious Shylock for their propaganda. Shortly afterKristallnacht in 1938,The Merchant of Venice was broadcast for propagandistic ends over the German airwaves. Productions of the play followed inLübeck (1938),Berlin (1940), and elsewhere within the Nazi territory.[19][page needed]
In a series of articles calledObserver, first published in 1785, British playwrightRichard Cumberland created a character named Abraham Abrahams, who is quoted as saying, "I verily believe the odious character of Shylock has brought little less persecution upon us, poor scattered sons ofAbraham, than theInquisition itself."[20] Cumberland later wrote a successful play,The Jew (1794), in which his title character,Sheva, is portrayed sympathetically, as both a kindhearted and generous man. This was the first known attempt by a dramatist to reverse the negative stereotype that Shylock personified.[21]
Thedepiction of Jews in literature throughout the centuries bears the close imprint of Shylock. With slight variations much of English literature up until the 20th century depicts the Jew as "a monied, cruel, lecherous, avaricious outsider tolerated only because of his golden hoard".[22]
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Many modern readers and theatregoers have read the play as a plea for tolerance, noting that Shylock is a sympathetic character. They cite as evidence that Shylock's "trial" at the end of the play is a mockery of justice, with Portia acting as a judge when she has no right to do so. The characters who berated Shylock for dishonesty resort to trickery in order to win. In addition to this, Shakespeare gives Shylock one of his most eloquent speeches:
SALARINO: Why, I am sure if he forfeit, thou wilt not
take his flesh! What's that good for?
SHYLOCK: To bait fish withal; if it will feed nothing else,
it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me and
hindered me half a million, laughed at my losses,
mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted
my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies—
and what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not
a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions,
senses, affections, passions? Fed with the
same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to
the same diseases, healed by the same means,
warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer
as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not
bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you
poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall
we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will
resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian,
what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong
a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian
example? Why, revenge! The villainy you teach me I
will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the
instruction.
— Act III, scene I, l. 50–72[23]
It is uncertain whether the sympathetic reading of Shylock is due to changing sensibilities among readers or that Shakespeare, a writer who created complex, multi-faceted characters, deliberately intended this reading.Stephen Greenblatt points out that, though Shylock is not a "lovable alien", he is given "more theatrical vitality, quite simply more urgent, compelling life, than anyone else in his world".[24]
One basis for this interpretation is the emphasis on Shylock's marginalized position within Venetian society. Some critics regard his well-known "Hath not a Jew eyes?" speech as a redeeming moment that lends him qualities of a tragic figure. In this speech, Shylock contends that he is fundamentally no different from the Christian characters.[25] Critics who dispute a sympathetic reading of the speech note that it concludes with a call for revenge: "if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?" Those who view the passage more sympathetically emphasize that Shylock attributes his desire for retribution to the example set by the Christian characters: "If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villainy you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction."
Even if Shakespeare did not intend the play to be read this way, the fact that it retains its power on stage for audiences who may perceive its central conflicts in radically different terms is an illustration of the subtlety of Shakespeare's characterisations.[26] Additionally, when Shylock discovers that his daughter, Jessica, has sold his ring, a gift from his wife Leah,[27] the audience is provided with sympathetic biographical information tangential to the plot.[24]
Later, in the trial Shylock represents what Elizabethan Christians believed to be the Jewish desire for "justice", contrasted with their obviously superior Christian value of mercy. The Christians in the courtroom urge Shylock to love his enemies, although they themselves have failed in the past. Jewish criticHarold Bloom suggests that, although the play gives merit to both cases, the portraits are not even-handed: "Shylock's shrewd indictment of Christian hypocrisy delights us, but ... Shakespeare's intimations do not alleviate the savagery of his portrait of the Jew..."[28]
Notably, in Nazi Germany, concerns arose that the portrayal of Shylock would elicit too much sympathy for the plight of a Jewish person, thus prompting many alterations to the play, including the excision of Shylock's final speech.[29]
Antonio's unexplained depression – "In sooth I know not why I am so sad" – and utter devotion to Bassanio has led some critics to theorise that he is suffering fromunrequited love for Bassanio and is depressed because Bassanio is coming to an age where he will marry a woman. In his plays and poetry Shakespeare often depicted strong male bonds of varyinghomosociality, which has led some critics to infer that Bassanio returns Antonio's affections despite his obligation to marry:[30]
ANTONIO [...]
Commend me to your honorable wife,
Tell her the process of Antonio's end,
Say how I loved you, speak me fair in death,
And when the tale is told, bid her be judge
Whether Bassanio had not once a love.
[...]
BASSANIO [...]
But life itself, my wife, and all the world
Are not with me esteemed above thy life.
I would lose all, ay, sacrifice them all
Here to this devil, to deliver you.
— The Merchant of Venice. Act 4, scene 1, ll. 285–298[31]
In his essay "Brothers and Others", published inThe Dyer's Hand,W. H. Auden describes Antonio as "a man whose emotional life, though his conduct may be chaste, is concentrated upon a member of his own sex." Antonio's feelings for Bassanio are likened to a couplet from Shakespeare'sSonnets: "But since she pricked thee out for women's pleasure,/ Mine be thy love, and my love's use their treasure." Antonio, says Auden, embodies the words on Portia's leaden casket: "Who chooseth me, must give and hazard all he hath." Antonio has taken this potentially fatal turn because he despairs, not only over the loss of Bassanio in marriage but also because Bassanio cannot requite what Antonio feels for him. Antonio's frustrated devotion is a form of idolatry: the right to live is yielded for the sake of the loved one. There is one other such idolator in the play: Shylock himself. "Shylock, however unintentionally, did, in fact, hazard all for the sake of destroying the enemy he hated, and Antonio, however unthinkingly he signed the bond, hazarded all to secure the happiness of the man he loved." Both Antonio and Shylock, agreeing to put Antonio's life at a forfeit, stand outside the normal bounds of society. There was, states Auden, a traditional "association of sodomy with usury", reaching back at least as far asDante, with which Shakespeare was likely familiar. (Auden sees the theme ofusury in the play as a comment on human relations in a mercantile society.)
Other interpreters of the play regard Auden's conception of Antonio's sexual desire for Bassanio as questionable.Michael Radford, director ofthe 2004 film version starringAl Pacino, explained that, although the film contains a scene where Antonio and Bassanio actually kiss, the friendship between them is platonic, in line with the prevailing view of male friendship at the time.Jeremy Irons, in an interview, concurs with the director's view and states that he did not "play Antonio as gay".Joseph Fiennes, however, who plays Bassanio, encouraged a homoerotic interpretation and, in fact, surprised Irons with the kiss on set, which was filmed in one take. Fiennes defended his choice, saying "I would never invent something before doing my detective work in the text. If you look at the choice of language ... you'll read very sensuous language. That's the key for me in the relationship. The great thing about Shakespeare and why he's so difficult to pin down is his ambiguity. He's not saying they're gay or they're straight, he's leaving it up to his actors. I feel there has to be a great love between the two characters ... there's great attraction. I don't think they have slept together but that's for the audience to decide."[32]
The earliest performance of which a record has survived was held at the court ofKing James in the spring of 1605, followed by a second performance a few days later, but there is no record of any further performances in the 17th century.[33] In 1701,George Granville staged a successful adaptation, titledThe Jew of Venice, withThomas Betterton as Bassanio. This version, which featured amasque (The Masque of Peleus and Thetis) was popular, and was acted for the next forty years. Granville cut the clownishGobbos[34] in line withneoclassicaldecorum; he added a jail scene between Shylock and Antonio; an extended scene of toasting at a banquet scene, and had Bassanio give Portia his ring when she is disguised as a male lawyer, removing any homosexual subtext that could be inferred from that scene in the original play.Thomas Doggett was Shylock, playing the role comically, perhaps even farcically.Rowe expressed doubts about this interpretation as early as 1709; Doggett's success in the role meant that later productions would feature the troupe clown as Shylock.
In 1741,Charles Macklin returned to the original text in a very successful production atDrury Lane, paving the way forEdmund Kean seventy years later (see below).[35]
Arthur Sullivan wroteincidental music for the play in 1871.[36] As part of the 500 year anniversary of theVenetian Ghetto, which converged with the 400 year anniversary of Shakespeare's death,The Merchant of Venice was performed in the ghetto main square in 2016 by theCompagnia de' Colombari.[37][38]: 141–142
Jewish actorJacob Adler and others report that the tradition of playing Shylock sympathetically began in the first half of the 19th century withEdmund Kean,[39] and that previously the role had been played "by a comedian as a repulsiveclown or, alternatively, as a monster of unrelieved evil." Kean's Shylock established his reputation as an actor.[40]
From Kean's time forward, all of the actors who have famously played the role, with the exception ofEdwin Booth, who played Shylock as a simple villain, have chosen a sympathetic approach to the character; even Booth's father,Junius Brutus Booth, played the role sympathetically.Henry Irving's portrayal of an aristocratic, proud Shylock (first seen at the Lyceum in 1879, with Portia played byEllen Terry) has been called "the summit of his career".[41] Jacob Adler was the most notable of the early 20th century: Adler played the role inYiddish-language translation, first inManhattan'sYiddish Theatre District on theLower East Side, and later onBroadway, where, to great acclaim, he performed the role inYiddish in an otherwise English-language production.[42]
Kean and Irving presented a Shylock justified in wanting hisrevenge; Adler's Shylock evolved over the years he played the role, first as a stock Shakespearean villain, then as a man whose better nature was overcome by a desire for revenge, and finally as a man who operated not from revenge but frompride. In a 1902 interview withTheater magazine, Adler pointed out that Shylock is a wealthy man, "rich enough to forgo the interest on three thousand ducats" and that Antonio is "far from the chivalrous gentleman he is made to appear. He has insulted the Jew and spat on him, yet he comes with hypocritical politeness to borrow money of him." Shylock's fatal flaw is to depend on the law, but "would he not walk out of that courtroom head erect, the very apotheosis of defiant hatred and scorn?"[43]
Some modern productions take further pains to show the sources of Shylock's thirst for vengeance. For instance, in the2004 film adaptation directed byMichael Radford and starringAl Pacino as Shylock, the film begins with text and a montage of how Venetian Jews are cruelly abused by bigoted Christians. One of the last shots of the film also brings attention to the fact that, as a convert, Shylock would have been cast out of the Jewish community in Venice, no longer allowed to live in the ghetto. Another interpretation of Shylock and a vision of how "must he be acted" appears at the conclusion of the autobiography[clarification needed] ofAlexander Granach, a noted Jewish stage and film actor in Weimar Germany (and later in Hollywood and on Broadway).[44]
The play has inspired many adaptions and several works of fiction.
Edmond Haraucourt, French playwright and poet, was commissioned in the 1880s by the actor and theatrical directorPaul Porel to make a French-verse adaptation ofThe Merchant of Venice. His playShylock, first performed at theThéâtre de l'Odéon in December 1889, had incidental music by the French composerGabriel Fauré, later incorporated into an orchestralsuite of the same name.[68]
St. John Ervine wrote a sequel play,The Lady of Belmont, in 1924, in which the characters from Shakespeare's work reunite ten years after the events of the earlier play.[69]
Ralph Vaughan Williams' choral workSerenade to Music (1938) draws its text from the discussion about music and the music of the spheres in act V, scene 1.[70]
In both versions of the comic filmTo Be or Not to Be (1942 and1983) the character "Greenberg", specified as a Jew in the later version, gives a recitation of the "Hath not a Jew eyes?" speech to Nazi soldiers.[71]
The rock musicalFire Angel was based on the story of the play, with the scene changed to the Little Italy district of New York. It was performed in Edinburgh in 1974 and in a revised form atHer Majesty's Theatre, London, in 1977.Braham Murray directed.[72][73]
Arnold Wesker's playThe Merchant (1976) is a reimagining of Shakespeare's story.[74] In this retelling, Shylock and Antonio are friends and share a disdain for the crass anti-Semitism of the Christian community's laws.[75]
David Henry Wilson's playShylock's Revenge, was first produced at theUniversity of Hamburg in 1989, and follows the events inThe Merchant of Venice. In this play Shylock gets his wealth back and becomes a Jew again.[76]
TheStar Trek franchise sometimes quote and paraphrase Shakespeare, includingThe Merchant of Venice. One example is the Shakespeare-aficionadoChang inStar Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991), aKlingon, who quotes Shylock.[77]
Steven Spielberg'sSchindler's List (1993) depicts SS LieutenantAmon Göth quoting Shylock's "Hath not a Jew eyes?" speech when deciding whether to rape his Jewish maid.[78]
InDavid Fincher's 1995 crime thrillerSeven, a lawyer, Eli Gould, is coerced to remove a pound of his own flesh and place it on a scale, alluding to the play.[79]
The GermanBelmont Prize was established in 1997,[80] referring to 'Belmont' as "a place of destiny where Portia's intelligence is at home." The eligibility for the award is encapsulated by the inscription on the play's lead casket, "Who chooses me must give and hazard all he hath."[81]
One of the four short stories comprisingAlan Isler'sThe Bacon Fancier (1999) is also told from Shylock's point of view. In this story, Antonio was a converted Jew.[82]
The Pianist is a 2002 film based ona memoir byWładysław Szpilman. In this film, Henryk Szpilman reads Shylock's "Hath not a Jew eyes?" speech to his brother Władysław in theWarsaw Ghetto during theNazi occupation inWorld War II.[83]
In the 2009 spy comedyOSS 117: Lost in Rio, a speech by the Nazi Von Zimmel parodies Shylock's tirade.[84][85]
Christopher Moore combinesThe Merchant of Venice andOthello in his 2014 comic novelThe Serpent of Venice, in which he makes Portia (fromThe Merchant of Venice) and Desdemona (fromOthello) sisters. All of the characters come from those two plays with the exception of Jeff (a monkey); the gigantic simpleton Drool; and Pocket, the Fool, who comes from Moore's earlier novelFool, based onKing Lear.[86]
Naomi Alderman'sThe Wolf in the Water is a radio-play first broadcast onBBC Radio 3 in 2016. The play continues the story of Shylock's daughter Jessica, who lives in an anti-semitic Venice and practices her Jewish faith in secret. Part of the BBC's Shakespeare Festival, the play also marked that 500 years had passed since theVenetian Ghetto was instituted.[87][88]
Sarah B. Mantell'sEverything that Never Happened is a play first produced in 2017 at theYale School of Drama. Similar toRosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, the play occurs in the gaps between scenes of the canonicalThe Merchant of Venice, with the characters gradually recognizing how conflicts over assimilation and anti-Semitism recur throughout past, present, and future.[89][90][91]
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The Merchant of Venice public domain audiobook atLibriVox
