60 Fun Facts About The Merchant of Venice

What is Shylock's trade in the play?

The title character is actually Antonio, the merchant who defaults on the loan; Shylock is simply the more memorable part.

Between which years is The Merchant of Venice believed to have been written?

Francis Meres mentioned it in 1598, so it must already have been familiar on stage by then.

How is The Merchant of Venice classified in the First Folio of 1623?

Despite that label it is remembered chiefly for its dramatic scenes and Shylock's demand for a pound of flesh.

How many ducats does Bassanio need to borrow so he can woo Portia in style?

He has squandered his own estate, and Antonio has bailed him out repeatedly before.

Why does Antonio have no ready cash to lend Bassanio himself?

His vessels are bound for Tripolis, the Indies, Mexico and England, so he guarantees a loan instead.

Besides insulting him, how has Antonio hurt Shylock's business before the play begins?

Antonio's interest-free loans force Shylock to charge lower rates, and Shylock cites past abuse before agreeing to lend.

What interest does Shylock charge on the loan to Bassanio?

The only condition is the bond: a pound of Antonio's flesh if the money is not repaid on the day.

Which talkative, tactless friend accompanies Bassanio on his wooing trip?

Bassanio warns him to exercise self-control; he ends up marrying Portia's handmaid.

Where does the heiress Portia live?

It is a fictional estate near Venice where suitors face her late father's casket test.

Portia's suitors must choose between three caskets made of which materials?

Her father's will set the test; the winner finds Portia's portrait and a scroll inside the right one.

Which suitor picks the gold casket, reading 'what many men desire' as meaning Portia?

The Prince of Aragon then chooses silver, believing himself full of merit, and also leaves empty-handed.

Which casket contains Portia's portrait?

Its uninviting motto is 'Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath'; Bassanio chooses it and wins her.

In the 2004 film's telling, what must a suitor agree to if he chooses the wrong casket?

Both princes go home unmarried after rejecting the base-looking third box.

Shylock's daughter Jessica elopes with which Christian?

She converts and takes a large part of her father's wealth with her, hardening his desire for revenge.

What keepsake from his late wife Leah does Jessica take when she flees?

Hearing that she has sold it gives the audience a rare glimpse of Shylock's private grief.

Who accompanies the disguised Portia to court, posing as her law clerk?

She later talks her own new husband out of his wedding ring, as he fails to recognise her.

Under what male name does Portia appear in the Venetian court?

She presents a letter from her cousin Bellario, a learned lawyer, and is introduced as a young doctor of the law.

In which city does Portia's lawyer cousin Bellario live?

Portia sends her servant to consult him before setting off for Venice in disguise.

How many ducats does Bassanio offer Shylock in court, which he refuses?

It is twice the loan; Shylock still insists on the pound of flesh.

What legal quibble does Portia use to stop Shylock collecting on his bond?

She adds that he must cut exactly one pound, no more or less by 'the estimation of a hair', or forfeit his life and goods.

Under the law Portia then cites, what has Shylock forfeited for attempting a citizen's life?

His life is left to the mercy of the Duke, who spares it.

What does Antonio demand of Shylock 'for this favour' of sparing him the state's half?

He must also bequeath his whole estate to his daughter and her husband; Shylock accepts with the words 'I am content'.

What gift does the disguised Portia finally ask of Bassanio for saving Antonio?

He had vowed never to part with it; Antonio hands over his gloves without hesitation.

What good news does Portia give Antonio at the end of the play?

After the ring pranks are resolved, the play closes with the merchant's fortunes restored.

Which 14th-century tale by Giovanni Fiorentino supplied the casket test, the pound of flesh and the ring trick?

It was published in Milan in 1558; elements of the trial scene also appear in Alexandre Sylvane's The Orator.

The story of the three caskets can be found in which medieval collection of tales?

The collection was probably compiled at the end of the 13th century.

Under what alternative title was the play entered in the Stationers' Register in July 1598?

That title suggested comparison with an early-1590s hit by Christopher Marlowe.

Which stationer published the first quarto of the play in 1600?

Roberts had transferred his rights to him that October; the 1600 text is regarded as accurate and became the basis of the First Folio version.

Salerino's ship the Andrew is thought to allude to a Spanish vessel captured by the English where in 1596?

The allusion helps date the play to 1596–97.

Which Marlowe play was The Merchant of Venice seen as similar to in its own day?

Elizabethan society has been described as judeophobic; Jews had been expelled from England in 1290 and were not readmitted until Cromwell's era.

Which famous speech of Shylock's is often read as a plea for common humanity?

Critics who dispute the sympathetic reading point out that it ends with a call for revenge.

Which Hebrew Bible words did Harold Fisch hear echoed in the opening of the 'quality of mercy' speech?

Mercy 'droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven' recalls 'My doctrine shall drop as the rain'.

Which historical Roman woman did Shakespeare draw on in creating Portia?

Some have also suggested she was modelled on Queen Elizabeth, who shared her taste for proverbs.

Which planet has a moon named Portia, after the character?

Uranus's moons are named for characters from Shakespeare and Pope rather than classical mythology.

The 'Portia Hypothesis' claims women with what kind of name do better in the legal profession?

Portia wins her case in court disguised as a male lawyer.

Some scholars think the name Shylock derives from which biblical figure, grandson of Shem?

All the Jewish characters' names come from minor figures in the genealogies of Genesis; others note Shylock was simply a common English surname meaning 'white-haired'.

Which actor began the tradition of playing Shylock sympathetically in the early 19th century?

Charles Macklin had restored the original text at Drury Lane in 1741, paving the way for him seventy years later.

Which 19th-century American actor was the notable exception who played Shylock as a simple villain?

His own father, Junius Brutus Booth, had played the role sympathetically.

Which actress played Portia opposite Henry Irving's Shylock at the Lyceum in 1879?

The portrayal has been called the summit of Irving's career.

Jacob Adler famously played Shylock in which language in an otherwise English Broadway production?

He had first played the role in Manhattan's Yiddish Theatre District on the Lower East Side.

Who staged a successful 1701 adaptation that cut the clownish Gobbos and added a jail scene?

Thomas Betterton played Bassanio; the adaptation had Bassanio hand the disguised Portia the token directly.

Where is the earliest recorded performance of The Merchant of Venice known to have taken place?

A second performance followed a few days later, then no record of any performance for the rest of the 17th century.

Who played Shylock in Michael Radford's 2004 film?

Radford saw Shylock as Shakespeare's first great tragic hero; Jeremy Irons played Antonio.

What distinction does Michael Radford's 2004 adaptation hold?

Earlier versions, such as Jack Gold's 1980 BBC production, were made for television.

Which actor surprised Jeremy Irons with an on-set kiss between Bassanio and Antonio in the 2004 film?

Irons and Radford insisted the friendship was platonic, in line with the period's view of male friendship.

Which poet's essay 'Brothers and Others' argued that both Antonio and Shylock stand outside society?

Auden also noted an old association of usury with sodomy going back to Dante.

Which critic wrote in 1998 one must be 'blind, deaf and dumb' not to see the play as antisemitic?

He also conceded that Shylock's indictment of Christian hypocrisy 'delights us'.

In which year did Arnold Wesker's reimagining of the story, titled The Merchant, appear?

Mark Leiren-Young's 1996 monologue Shylock centres on a Jewish actor cast in the role.

Which regime used the usurious Shylock in propaganda, staging the play in Lübeck in 1938?

Modern productions often open, as Radford's film does, with the abuse suffered by Venice's Jews.

Which Czech composer's opera Jessika, based on the play, premiered in Prague in 1905?

The three-act opera takes its title from Shylock's daughter.

With which line about his unexplained sadness does Antonio open the play?

Critic Hollis Robbins suggests his melancholy is economic: Venetian shipping had become far riskier.

Who plays Portia in Michael Radford's 2004 film of the play?

Jeremy Irons played Antonio and Joseph Fiennes played Bassanio alongside Al Pacino's Shylock.

Which actor returned to the original text in a celebrated 1741 Drury Lane production as Shylock?

His success paved the way for Edmund Kean's sympathetic Shylock seventy years later.

Which composer wrote incidental music for The Merchant of Venice in 1871?

Reynaldo Hahn later turned the play into a French opera, premiered at the Paris Opéra in 1935.

Where in Venice was the play staged in 2016 for the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death?

In the 1600s Venetian Jews had to wear a red hat in public and were confined to the ghetto.

At which festival was the 2004 film screened out of competition in its billed world premiere?

A UK-Italy-Luxembourg co-production, it grossed about $21.3 million against a $30 million budget.

Which 2002 film has Henryk Szpilman recite 'Hath not a Jew eyes?' in the Warsaw Ghetto?

The scene is drawn from Władysław Szpilman's memoir of surviving the Nazi occupation.

Under which English king were the Jews expelled in 1290, not to return until Cromwell's time?

Elizabethan England, where the play was written, has been described as 'judeophobic'.

In which year did Laurence Olivier play Shylock on British television, in a late-Victorian setting?

Jeremy Brett was Bassanio in the ATV production, which was also broadcast in the US on ABC.

Whose opera The Merchant of Venice premiered at the Bregenz Festival in 2013?

The Polish-born composer had died in 1982; Beecham's operatic version was written when he was just 15.