Merchant of Venice. - Repositories

198 NOTES
name of Antonio Perez. The affair caused general interest
and excitement in London, and we can easily imagine that
Shakespeare might have been as much stirred as any by the
death of the unfortunate doctor.
Summary. — That parts of The Merchant of Venice can be
traced back into the Dark Ages, is not by any means a proof
that Shakespeare spent his days and nights poring over old
manuscripts and translating forgotten languages before he began
to stir the heart of Bassanio with love for the Lady of
Belmont, or before he set Shylock to work on his evil plot
against Antonio. Indeed he was probably not aware of the
existence of most of the "sources" that his commentators have
spent their lives in unearthing. Perhaps he was familiar with
the Italian novel in the original, or in an English translation;
perhaps he had heard a ballad about a cruel Jew. In brief the
truth probably is that Shakespeare founded his play on the
older one mentioned by Gosson, that one of these two plays
derived much of its material from II Pecorone, that Shakespeare
found some suggestions in Silvayn's Orator, and in
Marlowe's Jew of Malta, and that as he wrote he often thought
of Dr. Lopez and of his undeserved fate.