The Merchant of Venice

The Merchant of Venice is a tragic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been
written between 1596 and 1598. Though classified as a comedy in the First Folio and sharing
certain aspects with Shakespeare's other romantic comedies, the play is perhaps most
remembered for its dramatic scenes, and is best known for Shylock and the famous 'Hath not a
Jew eyes' speech.

The title character is the merchant Antonio, not the Jewish moneylender Shylock, who is the
play's most prominent and most famous character. This is made explicit by the title page of the
first quarto: The moſt excellent Hiſtorie of the Merchant of Venice. With the extreame crueltie of
Shylock the Iewe towards the ſayd Merchant, in cutting a iuſt pound of his fleſh: and the
obtayning of Portia by the choyſe of three cheſts.

Characters
 Antonio - a merchant of Venice
 Bassanio – Antonio's friend, in love with Portia; suitor likewise to her
 Gratiano, Solanio, Salarino, Salerio – friends of Antonio and Bassanio
 Lorenzo – friend of Antonio and Bassanio, in love with Jessica
 Portia – a rich heiress
 Nerissa – Portia's waiting-maid
 Balthazar – Portia's disguise as a lawyer
 Stephano – Nerissa's disguise as 'Balthazar's law clerk.
 Shylock– a rich Jew, father of Jessica
 Tubal – a Jew; Shylock's friend
 Jessica – daughter of Shylock, in love with Lorenzo
 Lancelot Gobbo – a foolish man in the service of Shylock
 Old Gobbo – father of Lancelot
 Leonardo - servant to Bassanio
 Duke of Venice - Venetian authority who presides over the case of Shylock's bond
 Prince of Morocco – suitor to Portia
 Prince of Arragon – suitor to Portia
 Magnificoes of Venice, officers of the Court of Justice, Gaoler, servants to Portia, and
other Attendants

Synopsis
In the 14th century, the city of Venice in Italy was one of the richest of the world. Among the
wealthiest of its merchants was Antonio. He was a kind and generous person. Bassanio, a young
Venetian, of noble rank but having squandered his estate, wishes to travel to Belmont to woo the
beautiful and wealthy heiress Portia. He approaches his friend Antonio, who has previously and
repeatedly bailed him out, for three thousand ducats needed to subsidise his travelling
expenditures as a suitor for three months. Antonio agrees, but he is cash-poor; his ships and
merchandise are busy at sea. 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.

Shylock hates Antonio because of his antisemitism, shown when he insulted and spat on Shylock
for being a Jew. Additionally, Antonio undermines Shylock's moneylending business by lending
money at zero interest. Shylock proposes a condition for the loan: if Antonio is unable to repay it
at the specified date, he may take a pound 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 at
hand, Bassanio leaves for Belmont with his friend Gratiano, who has asked to accompany him.
Gratiano is a likeable young man, but is often flippant, overly talkative, and tactless. Bassanio
warns his companion to exercise self-control, and the two leave for Belmont and Portia.

Meanwhile in Belmont, Portia is awash with suitors. Her father has left a will stipulating each of
her suitors must choose correctly from one of three caskets – one each of gold, silver, and lead. If
he chooses the right casket, he gets Portia; if he loses, he must go away and never trouble her or
any other woman again with a proposal of marriage. The first suitor, the luxury- and money-
obsessed Prince of Morocco, reasons to choose the gold casket, because lead proclaims "Choose
me and risk hazard", and he has no wish to risk everything for lead, and the silver's "Choose me
and get what you deserve" sounds like an invitation to be tortured, but "Choose me and get what
most men desire" all but spells it out that he that chooses gold will get Portia, as what all men
desire is Portia. Inside the casket are a few gold coins and a skull with a scroll containing the
famous verse All that glisters is not gold / Often have you heard that told / Many a man his life
hath sold / But my outside to behold / Gilded tombs do worms enfold / Had you been as wise as
bold, / Young in limbs, in judgment old / Your answer had not been inscroll'd: / Fare you well;
your suit is cold.

The second suitor is the conceited Prince of Arragon. He decides not to choose lead, because it is
so common, and will not choose gold because he will then get what many men desire and wants
to be distinguished from the barbarous multitudes. He decides to choose silver, because the silver
casket proclaims "Choose Me And Get What You Deserve", which he imagines must be
something great, because he egotistically imagines himself as great. Inside the casket is the
picture of a court jester's head on a baton and remarks "What's here? the portrait of a blinking
idiot… / Did I deserve no more than a fool's head?"[1] The scroll reads: Some there be that
shadows kiss; / Such have but a shadow's bliss: / …Take what wife you will to bed, / I will ever
be your head — meaning that he was foolish to imagine that a pompous man like him could ever
be a fit husband for Portia, and that he was always a fool, he always will be a fool, and the fact
that he chose the silver casket is mere proof that he is a fool.

The last suitor is Bassanio, who chooses the lead casket. As he is considering his choice of
caskets, members of Portia's household sing a song which says that "fancy" (not true love) is
"engend'red in the eyes, / With gazing fed."[2] Seemingly in response to this little bit of
philosophy, Bassanio remarks, "So may the outward shows be least themselves. / The world is
still deceived with ornament." And at the end of the same speech, just before choosing the least
valuable, and least showy metal, Bassanio says, "Thy paleness moves me more than eloquence; /
And here choose I; joy be the consequence!" He has made the right choice.

At Venice, Antonio's ships are reported lost at sea. This leaves him unable to satisfy the bond (in
financial language, insolvent). Shylock is even more determined to exact revenge from
Christians after his daughter Jessica flees his home to convert to Christianity and elope with
Lorenzo, taking a substantial amount of Shylock's wealth with her, as well as a turquoise ring
which was a gift to Shylock from his late wife, Leah. Shylock has Antonio arrested and brought
before court.

At Belmont, Portia and Bassanio have just been married, as have Gratiano and Portia's handmaid
Nerissa. Bassanio receives a letter telling him that Antonio has been unable to return the loan
taken from Shylock. Shocked, Bassanio and Gratiano leave for Venice immediately, with money
from Portia, to save Antonio's life by offering the money to Shylock. Unknown to Bassanio and
Gratiano, Portia has sent her servant, Balthazar, to seek the counsel of Portia's cousin, Bellario, a
lawyer, at Padua. The climax of the play comes in the court of the Duke 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 unwilling to set a dangerous legal
precedent of nullifying a contract, refers the case to a visitor who introduces 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 actually Portia in disguise, and the "law clerk"
who accompanies her is actually Nerissa, also in disguise. Portia, as "Balthazar", asks Shylock to
show mercy in a famous speech ("The quality of mercy is not strain'd, It droppeth as the gentle
rain from heaven Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest: It blesseth him that gives and him
that takes."—IV,i,185, arguing for debt relief), but Shylock refuses. Thus the court must allow
Shylock to extract the pound of flesh. Shylock tells Antonio to "prepare". At that very moment,
Portia points out a flaw in the contract (see quibble): the bond only allows Shylock to remove the
flesh, not the "blood", of Antonio. Thus, if Shylock were to shed any drop of Antonio's blood, his
"lands and goods" would be forfeited under Venetian laws.

Defeated, Shylock concedes to accepting Bassanio's offer of money for the defaulted bond, but
Portia prevents him from taking the money on the ground that he has already refused it. She then
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 to the government and half to Antonio, leaving
his life at the mercy of the Duke. The Duke immediately pardons Shylock's life. Antonio asks for
his share "in use" (that is, reserving the principal amount while taking only the income) until
Shylock's death, when the principal will be given to Lorenzo and Jessica. At Antonio's request,
the Duke grants remission of the state's half of forfeiture, but in return, Shylock is forced to
convert to Christianity and to make a will (or "deed of gift") bequeathing his entire estate to
Lorenzo and Jessica (IV,i).

Bassanio does not recognize his disguised wife, but offers to give a present to the supposed
lawyer. First she declines, but after he insists, Portia requests his ring and Antonio's gloves.
Antonio parts with his gloves without a second thought, but Bassanio gives the ring only after
much persuasion from Antonio, as earlier in the play he promised his wife never to lose, sell or
give it. Nerissa, as the lawyer's clerk, also succeeds in likewise retrieving her ring from Gratiano,
who does not see through her disguise.

At Belmont, Portia and Nerissa taunt and pretend to accuse their husbands before revealing they
were really the lawyer and his clerk in disguise (V). After all the other characters make amends,
Antonio learns from Portia that three of his ships were not stranded and have returned safely
after all.

Date and text

The date of composition for The Merchant of Venice is believed to be between 1596 and 1598.
The play was mentioned by Francis Meres in 1598, so it must have been familiar on the stage by
that date, and the title page of the first edition in 1600 states that it had been performed "divers
times" by that date. Salarino's reference to his ship the "Andrew" (I,i,27) is thought to be an
allusion to the Spanish ship St. Andrew captured by the English at Cadiz in 1596. A date of
1596–97 is considered consistent with the play's style.

The play was entered in the Register of the Stationers Company, the method at that time of
obtaining copyright for a new play, by James Roberts on July 22, 1598 under the title The
Merchant of Venice, otherwise called The Jew of Venice. On October 28, 1600 Roberts
transferred his right to the play to the stationer Thomas Hayes; Hayes published the first quarto
before the end of the year. It was printed again in a pirated edition in 1619, as part of William
Jaggard's so-called False Folio. (Afterward, Thomas Hayes' son and heir Laurence Hayes asked
for and was granted a confirmation of his right to the play, on July 8, 1619.) The 1600 edition is
generally regarded as being accurate and reliable, and is the basis of the text published in the
1623 First Folio, which adds a number of stage directions, mainly musical cues.[3]

Performance
The earliest performance of which a record has survived was held at the court of King 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 seventeenth century.[4] In 1701, George Granville staged a
successful adaptation, titled The Jew of Venice, with Thomas Betterton as Bassanio. This version
(which featured a masque) was popular, and was acted for the next forty years. Granville cut the
Gobbos in line with neoclassical decorum; he added a jail scene between Shylock and Antonio,
and a more extended scene of toasting at a banquet scene. 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 at Drury
Lane, paving the way for Edmund Kean seventy years later (see below).[5] Arthur Sullivan wrote
incidental music for the play in 1871.[6]
[edit] Shylock on stage
See also: Shylock

Jewish actor Jacob Adler and others report that the tradition of playing Shylock sympathetically
began in the first half of the 19th century with Edmund Kean,[7] and that previously the role had
been played "by a comedian as a repulsive clown or, alternatively, as a monster of unrelieved
evil." Kean's Shylock established his reputation as an actor.[8]

From Kean's time forward, all of the actors who have famously played the role, with the
exception of Edwin 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 by Ellen Terry) has been called "the summit of his career".[9]
Jacob Adler was the most notable of the early 20th century: Adler played the role in Yiddish-
language translation, first in Manhattan's Lower East Side, and later on Broadway, where, to
great acclaim, he performed the role in Yiddish in an otherwise English-language production.[10]

Kean and Irving presented a Shylock justified in wanting his revenge; 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 from pride. In a 1902 interview with Theater 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?"[11]

Some modern productions take further pains to show how Shylock's thirst for vengeance has
some justification. For instance, in the 2004 film adaptation directed by Michael Radford and
starring Al Pacino as Shylock, the film begins with text and a montage of how the Jewish
community is cruelly abused by the bigoted Christian population of the city. 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, and would still not
be accepted by the Christians, as they might feel that Shylock has not changed.

Themes
Shylock and the antisemitism debate

The play is frequently staged today, but is potentially troubling to modern audiences due to its
central themes, which can easily appear antisemitic. Critics today still continue to argue over the
play's stance on antisemitism.
[edit] The antisemitic reading

English society in the Elizabethan era has been described as antisemitic.[12] English Jews had
been expelled in the Middle Ages and were not permitted to return until the rule of Oliver
Cromwell. Jews were often presented on the Elizabethan stage in hideous caricature, with
hooked noses and bright red wigs, and were usually depicted as avaricious usurers; an example is
Christopher Marlowe's play The Jew of Malta, which features a comically wicked Jewish villain
called Barabas. They were usually characterized as evil, deceptive and greedy.

During the 17th century in Venice and in some other places, Jews were required to wear a red hat
at all times in public to make sure that they were easily identified. If they did not comply with
this rule they could face the death penalty. Jews also had to live in a ghetto protected by
Christians, supposedly for their own safety. The Jews were expected to pay their guards.[13]

In the 2004 film, Antonio is seen to spit on Shylock in the beginning, in accordance with
Shylock's line "you spit on my Jewish gaberdine", so that Shylock's hate for Antonio grows out
of the antisemitic treatment he receives.

Readers may see Shakespeare's play as a continuation of this antisemitic tradition. The title page
of the Quarto indicates that the play was sometimes known as The Jew of Venice in its day,
which suggests that it was seen as similar to Marlowe's The Jew of Malta. One interpretation of
the play's structure is that Shakespeare meant to contrast the mercy of the main Christian
characters with the vengefulness of a Jew, who lacks the religious grace to comprehend mercy.
Similarly, it is possible that Shakespeare meant Shylock's forced conversion to Christianity to be
a "happy ending" for the character, as, to a Christian audience, it saves his soul and allows him to
enter Heaven.

Hyam Maccoby argues that the play is based on medieval morality plays in which the Virgin
Mary (here represented by Portia) argues for the forgiveness of human souls, as against the
implacable accusations of the Devil (Shylock). On this reading, the Merchant is notably more
antisemitic than The Jew of Malta, in which there are no good Christian characters and the
Jewish villain seems to be regarded by the author with a certain covert sympathy.[citation needed]

The sympathetic reading

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,
Shakespeare gives Shylock one of his most eloquent speeches:

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, heal'd by the same means,
warm'd and cool'd 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)

[edit] Influence on antisemitism

Regardless of what Shakespeare's own intentions may have been, the play has been made use of
by antisemites throughout the play's history. One must note that the end of the title in the 1619
edition "With the Extreme Cruelty of Shylock the Jew…" must aptly describe how Shylock was
viewed by the English public. The Nazis used the usurious Shylock for their propaganda. Shortly
after Kristallnacht in 1938, "The Merchant of Venice" was broadcast for propagandistic ends
over the German airwaves. Productions of the play followed in Lübeck (1938), Berlin (1940),
and elsewhere within the Nazi Territory.[14]

The depiction of Jews in English 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".[15]

Character study

It is difficult to know whether the sympathetic reading of Shylock is entirely due to changing
sensibilities among readers, or whether Shakespeare, a writer who created complex, multi-
faceted characters, deliberately intended this reading.

One reason for this interpretation is that Shylock's painful status in Venetian society is
emphasized. To some critics, Shylock's celebrated "Hath not a Jew eyes" speech (see above)
redeems him and even makes him into something of a tragic figure. In the speech, Shylock
argues that he is no different from the Christian characters. Detractors note that Shylock ends the
speech with a tone of revenge: "if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?" Those who see the
speech as sympathetic point out that Shylock says he learned the desire for revenge from 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 characterizations.
In the trial Shylock represents the Jewish side in contrast to the Christian one in a matter of
highest importance: Justice (Jewish, Old Testament) is confronted with Mercy (Christian, New
Testament). In the Christian view mercy is the decisive step after justice is reached. Therefore
the Christians in the courtroom urge mercy. Beside the fact, that Shylock as a Jew is not in duty
to give mercy, he is not able as well, because for this you need love. He does not find love at all,
but hate. Shakespeare explains this in Shylock's monologue very clearly. To be merciful despite
the hate nevertheless you have to love your enemy (New Testament). That means in fact that the
Christians in the courtroom urge Shylock to behave like a very true Christian by loving his
enemies although they themselves failed even in loving just their neighbours (the Jews) in the
past before.

Sexuality in the play

Antonio, Bassanio

Antonio's unexplained depression—"In sooth I know not why I am so sad"—and utter devotion
to Bassanio has led some critics to theorize that he is suffering from unrequited 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 varying homosociality, which
has led some critics to infer that Bassanio returns Antonio's affections despite his obligation to
marry:[citation needed]

ANTONIO: Commend me to your honourable wife:

Tell her the process of Antonio's end,

Say how I lov'd 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. (IV,i)

In his essay "Brothers and Others", published in The 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's Sonnets: "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 as Dante,
with which Shakespeare was likely familiar. (Auden sees the theme of usury 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 of the 2004 film version starring Al Pacino, explained
that although the film contains a scene where Antonio and Bassanio actually kiss, the friendship
between the two 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."[16]

[edit] Adaptations and cultural references

[edit] Film adaptations

The Shakespeare play has inspired several films.

 1914—silent film directed by Lois Weber

o Weber, who also stars as Portia, became the first woman to direct a full-length feature
film in America with this film.
o The Merchant of Venice at the Internet Movie Database
 1973—television film directed by John Sichel
o The cast included Laurence Olivier as Shylock, Anthony Nicholls as Antonio, Jeremy Brett
as Bassanio, Joan Plowright as Portia, Louise Purnell as Jessica.
o The Merchant of Venice at the Internet Movie Database
 1980—A BBC television film directed by Jack Gold
o The cast included Warren Mitchell as Shylock and John Rhys-Davies as Salerio
o The Merchant of Venice at the Internet Movie Database
 1996—A Channel 4 television film directed by Alan Horrox
o The cast included Paul McGann as Bassanio and Haydn Gwynne as Portia
o The Merchant of Venice at the Internet Movie Database
 2001—A BBC television film directed by Trevor Nunn
o Royal National Theatre production starring Henry Goodman as Shylock
o The Merchant of Venice at the Internet Movie Database
  2002—The Maori Merchant of Venice, directed by Don Selwyn.
o In Maori, with English subtitles. The cast included Waihoroi Shortland as Shylock, Scott
Morrison as Antonio, Te Rangihau Gilbert as Bassanio, Ngarimu Daniels as Portia,
Reikura Morgan as Jessica.
o The Maori Merchant of Venice at the Internet Movie Database
 2003—Shakespeare's Merchant, directed by Paul Wagar and produced by Lorenda Starfelt, Brad
Mays and Paul Wagar.
o Shakespeare's Merchant at the Internet Movie Database
 2004—The Merchant of Venice, directed by Michael Radford.
o The cast included Al Pacino as Shylock, Jeremy Irons as Antonio, Joseph Fiennes as
Bassanio, Lynn Collins as Portia, and Zuleikha Robinson as Jessica.
o The Merchant of Venice at the Internet Movie Database

[edit] Cultural references

Arnold Wesker's play The Merchant tells the same story from Shylock's point of view. In this
retelling, Shylock and Antonio are fast friends bound by a mutual love of books and culture and
a disdain for the crass anti-Semitism of the Christian community's laws. They make the bond in
defiant mockery of the Christian establishment, never anticipating that the bond might become
forfeit. When it does, the play argues, Shylock must carry through on the letter of the law or
jeopardize the scant legal security of the entire Jewish community. He is, therefore, quite as
grateful as Antonio when Portia, as in Shakespeare's play, shows the legal way out. The play
received its American premiere on November 16, 1977 at New York's Plymouth Theatre with
Joseph Leon as Shylock and Marian Seldes as Shylock's sister Rivka. This production had a
challenging history in previews on the road, culminating (after the first night out of town in
Philadelphia on September 8, 1977) with the death of the larger-than-life Broadway star Zero
Mostel, who was initially cast as Shylock. The play's author, Arnold Wesker wrote a book
chronicling the out-of-town tribulations that beset the play and Zero's death called "The Birth of
Shylock and the Death of Zero Mostel."

David Henry Wilson's play Shylock's Revenge, which was first performed by The University
Players at the Audimax, Hamburg, on 9 June 1989, can be seen as a full-length sequel to
Shakespeare's drama.

Edmond Haraucourt, the French playwright and poet, was commissioned in the 1880s by the
actor and theatrical director Paul Porel to make a French verse adaptation of the Merchant of
Venice. His play Shylock, first performed at the Théâtre de l'Odéon in December 1889, had
incidental music by the French composer Gabriel Fauré, later incorporated into an orchestral
suite of the same name.[17]

One of the four short stories comprising Alan Isler's Op Non Cit is also told from Shylock's point
of view. In this story, Antonio was a boy of Jewish origin kidnapped at an early age by priests.

Ralph Vaughan Williams' choral work Serenade to Music draws its text from the discussion
about music and the music of the spheres in Act V, scene 1.
In both versions of the comic film TO BE OR NOT TO BE a recitation of the "Hath not a Jew
Eyes?" speech is featured, given by a Jewish character to Nazi soldiers.

In The Pianist, Henryk Szpilman quotes a passage from Shylock's 'Hath a Jew No Eyes?' speech
to his brother Wladyslaw Szpilman in a Jewish Ghetto in Warsaw, Poland, during the Nazi
occupation in World War II. Given the questioning of Antisemitism in the speech and also the
Nazi use of the play for antisemitic propaganda purposes, the quote is seen as particularly
poignant and symbolic.