1. By William Shakespeare

2. The Merchant of Venice combines two folk-tales: The story of a savage creditor who tries to obtain a pound of human flesh as payment for a debt; and The story of a lover who gains his lady because he chooses the right casket among three in a riddle game. Shakespeare’s immediate sources are the first story of the fourth day in Ser Giovanni’s prose collection Il Pecorone, a lost play called The Jew, and Gesta Romanorum. Shakespeare was also influenced by Christopher Marlowe’s wildly successful tragedy The Jew of Malta (1589).

3. The Merchant of Venice was written in either 1596 or 1597. This was just after he had written Romeo and Juliet and Richard III. However, this was before he wrote his four great tragedies ( King Lear, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth) and before his great middle period comedies ( A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night, and The Merry Wives of Windsor)

4. Portia was Shakespeare’s first great heroine. Shylock is Shakespeare’s first great villain. Deals with themes that are very relevant to you today: Selfishness versus love, Mercy for others, and racisim (i.e. anti-semitism).

5. Scholars argue that Shakespeare was not actually anti- Semitic. His plays were merely a reflection of the treatment of Jewish people in 16 th C England. Jews were banished from England for three centuries, since the reign of Edward I.

6. In 1594, Roderigo Lopez, a Portuguese Jew who had been Queen Elizabeth’s physician, was tried and executed for his part in a supposed poisoning plot aimed against her.

7. Antonio: a merchant of Venice Bassanio: his friend, suitor to Portia Solanio, Gratiano, Salerio: friends to Antonio and Bassanio Lorenzo: in love with Jessica Shylock: a rich Jew

8. Tubal: a Jew, his friend Launcelot Gobbo: a clown, servant to Shylock Old Gobbo: father to Launcelot Leonardo: servant to Bassanio Balthazar and Stephano: servants to Portia

9. Portia: a rich heiress of Belmont Nerissa: her waiting-gentlewoman ( lady-in waiting and confidant) Jessica: daughter to Shylock The Duke of Venice, Prince of Morocco, Prince of Arragon: suitors for Portia