The Merchant of Venice

This reflection essay was commissioned by Mount St. Mary's University in 2001, and examines some conceptual overlap between two generically bending and historically separated texts, Shakespeare's much discussed play "The Merchant of Venice," and Walter van Tilburg Clarke's cowboy novel "The Oxbow Incident."

*** I consider this essay an interesting example of my juvinelia, but it is specifically NOT a research essay, for the editor's directions were to compose reflection pieces based more in exercises of close reading.

This paper investigates the double standard of brothers and others present in two economic activities, usury and opium trade. Nelson indicated that the double standard of brothers and others refers to the unification of brothers and others in tribes and the division of brothers and others in universe (3). I firstly introduce the concept of usury and the context of opium trade, and then argue that how do brotherhood and otherhood contradict with each other in usury, an act of money lending with interest, within the play The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare. I further analyze that the paradox of brotherhood and otherhood in the opium trade betrays the law of comparative advantage within the novel Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh. Finally, by explaining Adam Smith's opposing attitude towards colonialism, I demonstrate that opium merchants and colonial politicians selectively interpreted his idea of the invisible hand and then compare with The Merchant of Venice to argue that both Christians and Jews tend to selectively interpret the Bible as well to promote their own interest. Through exploring the contradiction of tribal brotherhood and universal otherhood, I assert that both Late-Renaissance Christians and Late-Modern colonists utilized the double standard of brothers and others as a tool to maximize their self-interest.

Tracing connections between research methodologies and classroom practices in the study of Shakespeare and race, this essay argues for the importance of offering students’ opportunities to build and demonstrate expertise. The essay discusses the use of a glossary exercise in classes on race and early modern literature, and the learning objectives for such courses. Finally, the essay offers a critique of such courses as commonly structured and suggestions for new directions in teaching race in literature from this period.

Resumo: Objetivando realizar uma análise lítero-jurídica da obra O mercador de Veneza, de William Shakespeare, no sentido de aproximar Direito e Literatura, parte-se de uma revisão crítica no que diz respeito à genericidade teatral do texto e aos seus símbolos culturais e psicológicos, para situar a problemática jurídica da interpretação no processo de julgamento do contrato firmado entre Bassânio, Shylock e Antônio, estudada à luz dos institutos civis do Direito Romano. Ao longo da reflexão, suscita-se uma série de questões atinentes à obra, tais como o antissemitismo, a intolerância à homossexualidade, a validade do contrato e do julgamento, etc.; constata-se o esvaziamento da questão hermenêutica, transmudada em problemas políticos.
Palavras-chave: Literatura; Direito Romano; O Mercador de Veneza; Hermenêutica.

Resumen: Con el fin de llevar a cabo un análisis literario-jurídico de la obra El mercader de Venecia, de William Shakespeare, acercándose Derecho y Literatura, partiendo de un revisión crítica con respecto a la generalidad del texto teatral y sus símbolos culturales y psicológicos, se discute la problemática jurídica de la interpretación en el proceso de juzgamiento del contrato firmado entre Bassanio, Shylock y Antonio, estudiada a la luz de los institutos civiles del Derecho Romano. A lo largo de la reflexión, surge una serie de cuestiones relacionadas con el texto literario, tales como el antisemitismo, la intolerancia a la homosexualidad, la validez del contrato y del juicio, etc.; se observa el vaciado de la cuestión hermenéutica, transmutada en problemas políticos.
Palabras clave: Literatura; Derecho Romano; El mercader de Venecia; Hermenéutica.

This paper compares and contrasts notions of rarefied greed in Tolkien's novel, The Hobbit, compared alongside Shakespeare's play, The Merchant of Venice,  when taking into consideration the idea of wealth as defined by Max Weber in his own work, "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism." The idea of greed in Tolkien's world, is older, fro ma more traditional moral-driven framework featuring Tolkien's own version of racial tropes; on the other hand, Shakespeare's play is penned in an older period, but is more modern or progressive in its ideas of greed, deviating away from rarefied symbols, like the Medieval dragon, in favor of illustrating the exchanges of wealth between the burgeoning merchant class in the Renaissance period as seen as tolerated through motifs of religious friction and bigotry disguised as Christian generosity and limited to interactions between human characters, even if those characters are described as inhuman or animal.

This paper aims to show, that there is a need for society to change their ideologies or even their governmental system because, for example, especially for the society of Venice, although it is a trade country that is ruled by money, the fight is always for the power through religion. In fact, they are using religion not just for the power but for their own benefits to get rid of ‘others’. In regards to that, what I’m going to explain with this paper is, with the ideas of Karl Marx and other philosophers who are dealing with Marxism, there can be a solution for societies, which are in need for some changes, so that they can understand the real problem.

For centuries scholars have grappled with the fact that many of the Shakespearean characters are members of the Bassano family, but few have considered them as serious candidates for the dramatists of the Shakespearean works, until I released Shakespeare Exhumed: The Bassano Chronicles in 2013. In the lead up to the release of Genesis of the Shakespeare Works in early 2017, I thought it was time to release a paper containing some of my research into the Bassano family gathered over the last 14 years while forensically examining many thousands of relevant documents throughout the world.

https://academic.oup.com/oaj/article-abstract/44/1/23/6460077

The casket scene in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice is the supreme audio–visual manifestation of the cultic and erotic power of Elizabethan portraiture. Bassanio chooses the lead casket containing a portrait miniature of Portia. But it is so meticulous and sensuously alive that Bassanio is jealous of the ‘demi-god’ painter, and of his perceived tactile and visual intimacy with Portia during the sittings. Bassanio believes the painter ‘plays the spider’ in her hair. The purpose of this essay is to explore this scene’s rich cultural and political context. Shakespeare exploits prevailing notions of the spider as a symbol of touch that is both creative and destructive. Bassanio’s commentary is far more than a witty conceit; it is imbued with Protestant fears about the visual arts. Yet there were good grounds for his suspicions – in art myth and theory, and sometimes in practice. Shakespeare was most likely thinking of Nicholas Hilliard, the Queen’s miniature painter. Hilliard spun web-like patterns in his royal portraits, intensifying trends in elite fashion – the Queen had a penchant for spider motifs. He also envisaged the painter as necessarily in love with his English sitters, in line with the new vogue for authorial empathy.

The Music Libel Against the Jews is a wide-ranging study of the historical Christian exclusion of the Jews, accused as producers of noise in a musical universe dominated by harmonious sounds.  Associating harmonies with divine grace, Christians interpreted "Jewish noise" they heard in medieval synagogues as a sign of divine abandonment. Ruth HaCohen traces the manifestations and roots of the noise accusation to a variation on the famous blood libel that spread in Europe during the Crusades, alleging that Jews kill singing Christian boys in order to silence their “intolerable” hymns and canticles. Stemming from two diametrically opposed performing practices of handling sound in ritual space, the book argues that the noise accusation records the two adversarial communities’ reciprocal rejection of each other’s sonic world.

Surprisingly, a focused study of the subject from historical, musical, aesthetic or theological perspectives has never been undertaken. Nor was it even diagnosed as a pervasive cultural phenomenon that may account for a host of texts, contexts, and subtexts addressing the mutual perceptions of Jews and Christians, in various domains and periods. Thus the book examines the dissemination and impact of this music libel from  medieval through modern times, in a variety of artistic and political contexts. Transcending the confines of church and synagogue, this study investigates the opening up of the musical sphere towards the Jews' inclusion in the wake of the Enlightenment. Acculturated Jews indeed made great efforts to integrate in that sphere, but as it turned out, they were not actually so welcomed, as old libels began to resurface. Pivotal to the Jews' struggle for aural accession are certain art works—musical, literary and pictorial—created by both "invaders" into that common audial space and by those considered its privileged "inhabitants. “ From Bach through Lessing, Handel,  Mendelssohn, and Heinrich Heine, to Richard Wagner, George Eliot, and many others, expressions and rebuttals of the noise accusation are traced and compared.  No less crucial to the story of the “noisy Jews” are modern ethnographic records of synagogues’ vocalities, by both Jews and Christians.  These records are analyzed against the massive reshaping of synagogal practices in both reform and traditional communities, all through the 19th century, in Germany and beyond. Simultaneously, the often intuitive Jewish project to emancipate noise and dissonance in the sphere of art, is viewed in this study as an integral part of European literature and music, consummated by Arnold Schoenberg, Franz Kafka and other creators of Jewish origin. The noise accusation reached a peak in Nazi propaganda films which also marks its final historical stage. The book exposes the often neglected, however crucial, role of the sonic in shaping modes of religious, communal and ethnic experience, self-perception and perception of the Other, which reinforce, if not determine, major political trends in human culture.

A contrast between appearance and reality is one of the most important themes in Shakespeare’s plays. This theme is necessary for the progression from ignorance to knowledge that Shakespeare’s characters often go through, as in the case of King Lear, Othello, and Twelfth Night. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, this theme permeates every aspect of the play. In Romeo and Juliet and The Merchant of Venice, mistaking appearance for reality is the action that produces the tragic and comic effect respectively. Whichever the case, it is used to both comic and tragic effect, providing a means for the conflict of the play to occur.

Study Guide from 1987 for undergraduate students in a course in Shakespeare's plays up to HAMLET, stressing the Comedies and Histories. Possibly of interest for an approach to MERCHANT in the late 20th c. by a Jewish professor teaching classes with a plurality of bright students from respectable Roman Catholic schools with only limited backgrounds in Christian doctrine, with the Protestants not having much more background.

This study examines re-writings of Shakespeare in British drama, Edward Bond’s Lear (1971), Arnold Wesker’s The Merchant (1976) and Howard Barker’s Gertrude-The Cry (2002) in relation to the socio-political, historical and cultural backgrounds of the periods in which they were generated. These works are considered both as commentary to the events of their historical background, and as plays that question Shakespeare’s literary and cultural status. Thus, it is asserted that re-writing has a significant function in terms of creating alternative ideas to the ways in which critical issues are discussed in the canonical texts and their political and ideological foundations. In the Introduction, re-writing’s association with adaptation theory and intertextuality as a postmodern practice is considered. Additionally, the development of Shakespearean re-writing, its reception, and its functions are discussed. Within the scope of these ideas, it is concluded that Shakespeare’s works are questioned, and their ideological aspects are criticised through reworkings. In the first chapter, Edward Bond’s Lear is examined as a Marxist-Socialist appropriation written against Shakespeare’s uncritical attitude to issues like class inequality and violence in King Lear (1606). Considering the problems of the 1970s’ Britain such as unequal class structure, student and worker’s riots, inefficiency of leftist politicians, violence triggered by Stalinism and the Vietnam War, it is discussed that Bond’s appropriation is not only a Shakespeare re-writing but also a play that sheds light on the concerns of its period. In the second chapter, Arnold Wesker’s The Merchant is analysed in terms of identity politics as the play criticises Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice (1605) for its antisemitic discourse. Accordingly, Wesker’s re-writing, as a play produced in the post-Holocaust context, is correlated with some events in its historical background such as Arab-Israeli conflict, Six Day War and Yom Kippur War. In the third chapter, Howard Barker’s Gertrude-The Cry is discussed as a response to the representation of the woman figure in Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1600) in terms of sexual and gender politics. Considering the issues of the play such as individual will and sexual freedom in relation to the regulations of New Labour as the ruling party in Britain in the 2000s, Barker’s work is also analysed as a criticism of its historical context. In the Conclusion, it is revealed that re-writings of Shakespeare in British Drama reflect theoretical, cultural, socio-political and ideological aspects of the periods in which they are created, and they also adopt a critical attitude to Shakespeare’s works. In the light of the plays examined thematically and technically in this study, it is discussed that, Shakespeare’s works evolve in a way that reflects the significant events and concerns of subsequent ages.

Keywords
Shakespeare, King Lear, The Merchant of Venice, Hamlet, Edward Bond, Arnold Wesker, Howard Barker, Lear, The Merchant, Gertrude-The Cry, re-writing, adaptation

Appropriations of Shakespeare’s so-called “Balcony Scene” in Romeo and Juliet appear worldwide in novels, films, plays, social media and all kinds of popular outlets, ranging from the duets sung on the fire escape in the classic Broadway musical West Side Story to the fights in the martial-arts movie Romeo Must Die, the rock group Dire Straits’ 1981 power ballad “Romeo and Juliet,” in which a male singer “serenade[s]” his lover at her “window” with a “movie song” (Figure 1), or the Peabody-award-winning ice-dancing extravaganza Romeo and Juliet on Ice, starring the Olympic figure-skating medallist Dorothy Hamill.  Often such allusions are “attenuated,” to borrow Katherine McCluskie’s term: attenuated references allude glancingly to a famous phrase, staging, or plot motif, and engage with “Shakespeare” or the plays or poems themselves only to a very limited extent.  The attenuated Shakespearean references in popular cultural texts communicate meaning only because audiences, storytellers, and lovers all over the world identify the scene in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet instantly as an emblem of romantic love. Two Gentlemen of Verona and Merchant of Venice likewise include scenes in which lovers are separated by vertical distance on stage and engage in a kind of duet. This essay surveys Shakespeare’s three romantic balcony scenes, identifies the key speech-acts and use of visual space that they share, and contrasts with them what I call an anti-balcony scene – the opening of Othello, in which Iago and Roderigo, below and without, roughly awaken Brabantio, upstairs and within, with the shouted news of Othello and Desdemona’s elopement. I observe the power and translatability to world cinema of the opening movement of Othello and suggest we can likewise understand that scene and its ubiquity as an anti-romantic appropriation of the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet, one that renders Othello and Desdemona’s match instantly recognizable as a wooing gone awry. Finally, I speculate (following recent work by Balz Engler) that the power of the romantic balcony-scene in Shakespeare stems from its folkloric origins, which eased its global translation into other cultures and modes.

The Merchant of Venice is a 16th-century comedy written by William Shakespeare, in which a merchant in Venice named Antonio defaults on a large loan provided by a Jewish moneylender, Shylock. Portia is a rich, gracious, charming, beautiful, intelligent and quick-witted heiress of Belmont; her only weakness is being a woman in the 16th century, which she quite wittily doesn't let get in her way of being the heroine and the main protagonist of the play. She is bound by the lottery set forth in her father's will, which gives potential suitors the chance to choose between three caskets composed of gold, silver and lead. If they choose the right casketthe casket containing Portia's portrait and a scrollthey win her hand in marriage. If they choose the incorrect casket, they must leave and never seek another woman in marriage. Portia is glad when two suitors, one driven by greed and another by vanity, fail to choose correctly, although she demonstrates tact to the Princes of Morocco and Arragon, who unsuccessfully seek her hand. She favours Bassanio, a young Venetian noble, and using her wit and intelligence, she does end up getting married to him. Later in the play, she disguises herself as a man, then assumes the role of a lawyer's apprentice (named Balthazar) whereby she saves the life of Bassanio's friend, Antonio, in court. In the court scene, Portia finds a technicality in the bond, thereby outwitting the Jewish moneylender Shylock and saving Antonio's life from the pound of flesh demanded when everyone else including the Duke presiding as judge and Antonio himself fails. Shylock leaves the trial with both his life and his job intact but retains only half of his money and is deprived of his identity on being forced to convert to Christianity, while his daughter Jessica and her husband Lorenzo with whom she had previously eloped are found in Portia's castle in complete happiness. Portia and Bassanio, on the other hand, continue to live together along with the former's lady-in-waiting Nerissa and her husband Gratiano.

This extended piece will examine the treatment of race by Shakespeare through analysis of three different characters. Aaron from Titus Andronicus and the eponymous Othello are both moors, and the character of Shylock from The Merchant of Venice is Jewish. Aaron is the primary antagonist of Titus Andronicus and Shakespeare’s earliest Moor whereas Othello, created over a decade later,
can be seen to echo the anti-hero of classical tragedy. Both characters in some way subvert racial stereotypes, from Aaron’s rejection of white superiority to the honourable nature of Othello. The question of race is complicated further in Othello through Shakespeare’s creation of the villain Iago, the play’s whiteequivalent of Aaron. Much like Othello and Aaron, Shylock conforms to Jewish stereotypes, including his seemingly overwhelming desire for riches and wealth regardless of the moral cost. However, he does much to challenge such expectations. The rationale for his actions promotes sympathy for the character, and highlights the double standards present in the Elizabethan period. This paper will also consider the chronology of Shakespeare’s plays and the social conventions of the time regarding race, with the intention of
discerning how the playwright’s own racial prejudices, if any, evolved during his career.

This essay argues that Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice is a tragicomedy. As such, a tragic figure must be present. While this is not a tragedy in the traditional sense-- as in nobody dies-- Shylock is the true tragic hero of the play. Even though he does not suffer a tragic death-- at least not a physical one-- he comes to embody the tragic elements proposed by Aristotle in his Poetics. Because of this, Shylock rightfully takes his place among Shakespeare's greatest tragic figures.

Comment vivre au quotidien avec cet Autre que représente l'Étranger ? Par l'étude des " Turcs " musulmans installés à Venise au XVIe siècle, ce mémoire de recherche analyse l'histoire d'une rencontre, celle du citoyen de la République et du sujet de l'Empire... à moins que ce ne soit celle du Chrétien et du Musulman ? Entre échanges et heurts, fascination et peur, la cohabitation semble loin d'être évidente. Et pourtant, elle existe !

How to live everyday with this Other than represents the Foreigner ? By the study of the Muslim " Turks " settled in Venice in the Cinquecento, this Master 2 thesis analyzes the history of a meeting, that of the citizen of the Republic and the subject of the Empire ... unless it is the one among Christian and Muslim ? Between exchanges and conflicts, fascination and fear, the cohabitation seems far from being obvious. And yet, it exists !

While the cinematic history of _The Merchant of Venice_ includes several English language versions, the best-known productions have come out of Germany: The Jew of Mestry, a silent film, was produced in 1923 by Peter Paul Felner (and its inter-titles were adapted into various languages), and two important television productions were directed by Otto Schenk (starring Fritz Kortner) in 1968, and by Peter Zadek in 1990. Radford’s is probably the best-known English-language film version of the play.

In the 16 th century, the Semitics were forced to live in a segregated part of Venice, the Ghetto, which was guarded by Christians at night. They had to wear a red cap as their Jewish identity during the day and were locked into their neighbourhood after nightfall. Such was the prejudice of the Venetian Christians that they failed to view their fellow humans as living beings having the same need for freedom of movement and speech as them!

“... Il volume ricostruisce per la prima volta, dopo le sintesi erudite ottocentesche, la dinamica dei conflitti scoppiati tra le due città, soffermandosi, in particolare, sulle motivazioni, sui giochi di alleanze e sulle operazioni militari, di cui è fornita un’ampia contestualizzazione...”
Luogo d’incontri per eccellenza, il Mediterraneo basso-medievale fu, anche e soprattutto, un luogo di aspri scontri, che vide potenze quali Genova e Venezia – ma il discorso vale anche per Pisa e la corona catalano-aragonese, per limitare il quadro alle principali potenze marittime europee – condurre una lotta senza quartiere l’una contro l’altra ricorrendo a ogni mezzo, lecito o illecito, per assicurarsi il controllo delle principali rotte di trasporto. Sin dalla fine dell’XI secolo, le due città erano andate stabilendo il proprio predominio commerciale sul Mediterraneo orientale, moltiplicando gl’insediamenti sui litorali più favorevoli alla mercatura. Le loro attenzioni s’erano volte precocemente agli scali levantini; in particolare, all’Egitto e alla costa siro-palestinese, divenuti, dopo l’esperienza crociata, una parte essenziale della loro percezione del mondo. La conquista veneziana di Costantinopoli, nel 1204, rivoluzionò il quadro politico, dando avvio ai primi scontri tra le due marine. Alla metà del secolo, a seguito della cosiddetta “guerra di San Saba”, conclusasi con la cacciata dei Genovesi da Acri, capitale del regno di Gerusalemme, si giunse a guerra aperta. Da questo momento, Genova e Venezia diverranno protagoniste d’uno scontro secolare, scandito da innumerevoli battaglie navali, partecipando a una sorta di Great Game mediterraneo, fatto di equilibri frantumati e capovolti a seconda della convenienza, che si protrarrà – salvo alcune pause, anche consistenti – per oltre un secolo e mezzo. Il volume ricostruisce per la prima volta, dopo le sintesi erudite ottocentesche, la dinamica dei conflitti scoppiati tra le due città, soffermandosi, in particolare, sulle motivazioni, sui giochi di alleanze e sulle operazioni militari, di cui è fornita un’ampia contestualizzazione.

Με βάση το Εισαγωγικό Κεφάλαιο του ανά χείρας τόμου «Μια μεθοδολογική προσέγγιση του Άλλου στη Λογοτεχνία» επιχειρείται η προσέγγιση του Άλλου στον Έμπορο της Βενετίας του William Shakespeare (1596-7), στo πλαίσιο του μαθήματος των Νεοελληνικών Κειμένων. Αφόρμηση στάθηκε η παρακολούθηση μέσα στην τάξη πρόσφατης κινηματογραφικής μεταφοράς του έργου, σε σκηνοθεσία του Michael Radford, με τον Al Paccino στο ρόλο του Shylock, 2004. Η διδακτική αυτή πρόταση εφαρμόστηκε σε τμήμα της Γ΄ Γυμνασίου του Διαπολιτισμικού Γυμνάσιου Ευόσμου Θεσσαλονίκης, 2005-2006.

Love, power and money determine the characters in this play switch from open to hidden discourse and action. The ability of characters to reveal or conceal their agenda connects communication skills to the success or failure of their negotiation. What is loss and gain in their quest for justice? How are the politically (in) correct elements articulated in public speaking via dramatic techniques? Where does ambiguity start and where does obligation end, entailing both comic and tragic effects on the fate of protagonists? This paper aims to explore the means of negotiation employed by both female and male characters in a complex cultural background, and their adjustable tactics displayed in public contexts.

Following his return to England in February 1592 after a twelve absence abroad working closely with spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham for the English Secret Service, Anthony Bacon went to live with his brother Francis Bacon who was then already heavily in debt at Gray’s Inn. From the moment Anthony returned to England he immediately became involved in supporting and assisting his brother Francis with his money troubles and considerable debts. Francis and Anthony set up a literary workshop with connections to printers and publishers employing writers, translators, scribes and copyists for the distribution of private manuscripts, books, plays, masques and other entertainments. The enormous crippling costs of running and financially supporting this literary workshop resulted in Francis and Anthony further entering into a never ending cycle of debt incurred by having to raise large loans from money-lenders through bonds (legal agreements for loans) and other legal instruments.
The Bacon brothers were still dealing with various loans and mounting debts when in Trinity Term 1597 a goldsmith named Sympson of Lombard Street who held a bond for £300 principal, sued Francis for repayment but agreed to respite the satisfaction of it until the beginning of the following term. However without any warning a fortnight before Michaelmas Term commenced, Bacon was walking from the Tower of London when at the instigation of the moneylender Sympson he was served with an execution and arrested with a view to confining him to the Fleet prison. The events were to inform and colour the most famous legal play in the history of English drama, The Merchant of Venice, whose titular character is named Antonio, the Italianate form of Anthony named after and modelled upon Anthony Bacon. It was entered as a new play on the Stationers’ Register on 22 July 1598 and was first published in 1600 as The Most excellent Historie of the Merchant of Venice.
In the modern Arden edition of the play Professor Drakakis makes the obvious but very important observation ‘The central drama of The Merchant of Venice revolves around the relationship between the merchant Antonio and the Venetian Lord Bassanio.’ The character of Bassanio is modelled upon its author Francis Bacon. In The Merchant of Venice the two characters Antonio and Bassanio mirror the complex relationship and circumstances of Francis and Anthony Bacon before and during the time the play was written, revised and performed.
Apart from Bassanio, the spectral presence of Bacon is dispersed through several other characters in the play. Professor Lamb voices that not only does Bassanio resemble Bacon but so too its heroine Portia. Then there is the character of Dr Bellario who as pointed out by the orthodox scholar Mark Edwin Andrews also represented Bacon which is further substantiated by the videos and lectures of Simon Miles and Christina G. Waldman the first to publish a full-length work on the subject entitled Francis Bacon’s Hidden Hand in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice (2018). In his work Law Versus Equity in The Merchant of Venice as its title indicates Mark Edwin Andrews reads the play as an allegory of the conflict between law and equity which constitutes the consensus among modern scholars that the trial scene dramatizes the struggle between the common law courts and the equitable Court of Chancery. From the outset of the trial Andrews juxtaposes a prose version alongside the text of the play in which he substitutes Bacon for Dr Bellario.
The Merchant of Venice is about love and friendship particularly focused on the characters of Antonio (Anthony Bacon) and Bassanio (Bacon); about usury (a subject on which Bacon composed an essay and legal paper); money-lending mirroring the real lives of the Bacon brothers; and a bond between Antonio and Shylock similar to the bond between Bacon and Sympson. It’s also partly an allegory about the issue of debt and assumpsit that was finally decided in Slade’s Case (Slade v Morley), in which Bacon appeared for the defendant Morley, whose first substantive arguments made before the Justices of the Exchequer occurred in the Michaelmas Term of 1597 and 1598, at the very time Bacon was planning, writing and revising The Merchant of Venice, the most dramatic legal play in all world literature.