The Merchant of Venice, William Shakespeare, 1596

Shylock the usurer and citizen of Venice loans Bassanio 3000 ducats and takes as his bond ‘a pound of flesh’ of Antonio, the eponymous merchant.  When Antonio’s ships and their cargo are rumored to have sunk, Shylock demands his ‘pound of flesh’.  The Duke is prepared to rule in Shylock’s favor when Portia, dressed as a visiting judge from Padua, points out that Shylock may take his pound but if he sheds any blood, he will lose his fortune and be killed for harming a citizen of Venice.  Portia marries Bassanio who successfully solves the three casket riddle, Graziano marries Nesseria, Shylock loses his daughter, Jessica, to Lorenzo and everyone but Shylock repairs to the Eden of Belmont.  Anti-semitism, the opposition of love and commerce, good and evil, free will and fate, are all mixed together in this most tragic of Shakespeare’s comedies.