The merchant of Venice -- Textual note --A note on the sources of The merchant of Venice -- Commentaries -- Nicholas Rowe: from The works of Mr. William Shalespear -- William Hazlitt: from Characters of Shakespear's plays -- Anonymous: "Henry Irving's Shylock" -- Elmer Edgar Stoll: from Shylock
Summary
Shylock loans money to a man he despises, the merchant Antonio, only if a pound of Antonio's flesh will be due, in a court of law, upon default. Antonio borrows the money so that his friend Bessanio can travel to woo the woman he loves, Portia, whose freedom to marry is bound up in a fairy-tale decree of her father's. --From publisher's description