3.3.4.1. Il Pecorone, The Merchant of Venice, Zelauto

As we have already seen, Shake-speare had first-hand knowledge of the Italian novel Il Pecorone, (which was not translated in to English until the end of the nineteenth century, see 3.3.1 Il Pecorone) he adopts the same location for the plot: Venice. He also adopts the name of the heroine’s home (if we allow the removal of the final “e” : Belmonte (alternatively Belmont) and the following story lines:

	Il Pecorone [see 3.3.2]	The Merchant of Venice
x	Venice	Venice
x	a merchant and his godson	a merchant and his young friend
	bedroom scene and sleeping potion	the choice of the three caskets
x	the country of Belmonte	Portia’s house at Belmont
x	the Jewe as money lender	the Jewe as money lender
x	bloody security, a pound of flesh	bloody security, a pound of flesh
x	failure to repay the debt on time	failure to repay the debt on time
x	demand of one pound of flesh	demand of one pound of flesh
x	The newly married bride as a doctor of laws	The newly married bride as a doctor of laws
x	a male servant announces the doctor of laws	a female servant announces the doctor of laws
	the doctor of laws appears in court alone	the doctor of laws appears in court accompanied by a female servant
x	verdict- the pound of flesh may be removed but no blood may be spilled	verdict- the pound of flesh may be removed but no blood may be spilled

Anthony Munday also used the fable of the gory guarantee for the repayment of a loan, which was not permitted to cause loss of blood during its collection. However, Munday tells a different story which features neither Jew, merchant nor pound of flesh. Munday’s story does not even take place in Venice.

Munday sets his story in Verona. An elderly Christian usurer by the name of Truculento wishes to marry the beautiful Cornelia. Strabino, a young man who is also in love with Cornelia borrows money from the usurer to buy a gift for Cornelia’s father which ruins Truculento’s chances. In the contract for the loan, the usurer sets the condition that by default of payment the young man’s right eye will be cut out along with that of his friend Rodolfo.

The two stories end in the same way. Both money lenders are told that they may extract their due; however, if a single drop of blood is spilled thereby, they will be executed. With that the money lenders not only lose their money, they are also stripped of all hope.

From the above, it is safe to draw the following conclusions:

Fiorentino’s Il Pecorone and not Munday’s Zelauto (1580) served as the inspiration for The Merchant of Venice with all accompanying details.
As demonstrated in 3.3.2; the play referred to as The Jewe which Gosson, Harvey and Batman described after they had seen it in 1579 was in fact an earlier version of The Merchant of Venice. In view of the fact that Munday was in Oxford’s employ it is safe to assume that Munday based his story Zelauto on The Merchant of Venice (The Jewe) and not on Il Pecorone. This assumption is supported by Munday’s numerous quotations from Oxford’s The Adventures of Master F. I. - See 10.1.1 When was The Merchant of Venice written? By Martin Peake.
If it were not for The Jewe (The Merchant of Venice), Munday would not have had any reason to present his version of the story as a book which draws attention to Oxford and is also dedicated to him. Just like Shake-speare, he could have used the material in the Italian novel, without fear of reprisals.

A comparison between Il Pecorone and Zelauto is shown below. (Direct usages of the original material are marked with an x and similarities are marked with an o.)

	Il Pecorone	Zelauto
	Venice	Verona
o	a merchant and his godson	two befriended students
	bedroom scene and sleeping potion
	the country of Belmonte
o	the Jewe as money lender	The Christian usurer as money lender
o	bloody security, a pound of flesh	bloody security: two right eyes
x	failure to repay the debt on time	failure to repay the debt on time
o	demand of one pound of flesh	demand of the two right eyes
x	The newly married bride as a doctor of laws	The newly married bride as a doctor of laws
	a male servant announces the doctor of laws
	the doctor of laws appears in court alone	the usurer’s daughter disguises herself as the lawyer’s clerk
o	verdict- the pound of flesh may be removed but no blood may be spilled	verdict- the two right eyes may be removed but no blood may be shed

That means that Munday did not use anything from Il Pecorone that he could not have read in The Jewe (= The Merchant of Venice ). It is clear in writing his novel; Munday did not intend to openly plagiarize the play The Jewe (The Merchant of Venice) he merely wished to create a literary variation. That explains why he replaced the more plausible pound of flesh with the removal of the right eyes of the two debtors; Strabino and Rodolfo, and why he replaced the repugnant Jew with the Christian usurer Truculento. Furthermore Munday’s story has none of the truly tragic aspects of The Merchant of Venice; it is more what we would expect from a boulevard theatre. The plot follows a predictable path: Truculento is skilfully tricked because the clever young woman Cornelia knew all along, how to make a fool of the old miser. The two young men don’t risk their lives by setting a pound of flesh as the guarantee but rather they each risk an eye (which was extremely foolhardy but not life threatening).

I believe that Munday never read the Italian original but rather, he took his inspiration entirely from Shake-speare’s The Jewe The (= Merchant of Venice).

Is it possible to prove this hypothesis?

Let us set the two works next to each other. (Munday’s direct usages of the original material are marked with an x and similarities are marked with an o.)

	The Merchant of Venice	Zelauto
	Venice	Verona
o	a merchant and his young friend	two befriended students
	the choice of the three caskets
	Portia’s house at Belmont
o	the Jewe as money lender	the Christian usurer as moneylender
o	bloody security: a pound of flesh	gruesome security: two right eyes
x	failure to repay the debt on time	failure to repay the debt on time
o	demand of one pound of flesh	demand of the two right eyes
x	Christian admonition from the presiding judge	Christian admonition from the presiding judge
x	the newly married bride as doctor of laws	the newly married bride as doctor of laws
	a female servant announces the doctor of laws
o	The female servant disguised as lawyer’s clerk	the usurer’s daughter disguised as lawyer’s clerk
o	verdict- the pound of flesh may be removed but no blood may be shed	verdict- the two right eyes may be removed but no blood may be shed
o	the lawyer’s clerk (Nerissa) falls in love with Gratiano, Bassanio’s friend	the lawyer’s clerk (Brisana) falls in love with Rodolfo, Strabino’s friend
o	the money-lender’s daughter (Jessica) falls in love with Lorenzo, one of Bassanio’s friends	the money-lender’s daughter (Brisana) falls in love with Rodolfo, Strabino’s friend

There are five instances where Shakespeare departs definitely from the Italian story:

	Il Pecorone	The Merchant of Venice
a	bedroom scene and sleeping potion	the choice of the three caskets
b	the doctor of laws appears in court alone	the doctor of laws appears in court accompanied by a woman disguised as lawyer’s clerk
c	no admonition from the presiding judge	Christian admonition from the presiding judge
d	no lawyer’s clerk	the lawyer’s clerk (Nerissa) falls in love with Gratiano, Bassanio’s friend
e	the Jew (or money-lender) does not have a daughter	the Jew’s daughter (Jessica) falls in love with Lorenzo, one of Bassanio’s friends

In four of five instances (b-e) where Shake-speare departs from the original story, Munday follows Shake-speare and not the original Fiorentino!

b. In Il Pecorone the “Lady of Belmonte” appears before the court. Her appearance is heralded by a male servant but she stands alone in the courtroom. Not so in Shake-speare’s The Merchant of Venice, whereby Portia is supported by a lawyer’s clerk (in reality the female servant Nerissa, disguised as a man). In Shake-speare’s version two women disguised as men appear before the court and not one single woman.

c. In Il Pecorone the judge does not make any effort to make the money lender withdraw the suit. In The Merchant of Venice the judge does appeal to the better nature of the plaintive. Munday picks up on this appeal from The Merchant of Venice and intensifies it to a more Christian appeal. In Munday’s version we also see two women disguised as men in the courtroom; Strabino’s wife Cornelia as the doctor of laws and Truculento’s daughter Brisana (who is also Cornelia’s girlfriend), dressed as the lawyer’s clerk.

d. In Shake-speare’s version Portia and her servant Nerissa each have a male partner. Portia (the doctor of laws) has her Bassanio- and Nerissa, the lawyer’s clerk, is in love with Gratiano, Bassanio’s friend. In Munday’s version the disguised Cornelia defends her husband Strabino and the disguised Brisana pleads for her beloved Rodolfo.

e. In Fiorentino’s version of the story the Jew of Mestri in Il Pecorone does not have a daughter. Shake-speare’s Shylock has a daughter named Jessica who marries Lorenzo, a friend of Bassanio. Munday again ignores Fiorentino to follow Shake-speare’s lead and gives the Christian usurer in his story a daughter who marries Strabino‘s friend Rodolfo.

In these four cases we observe a concrete and irreversible pattern of imitation. Munday’s version contains nothing which he couldn’t have read in The Merchant of Venice; it does however contain important plot characteristics which he could only have taken from Shake-speare and not from Fiorentino.

That means that Zelauto, The Fountain of Fame (1580) from Anthony Munday was clearly written after The Jewe =The Merchant of Venice (1578/79) from Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford alias William Shake-speare.

In 1579, Will Shaksper from Stratford on Avon, whom some consider to be the author of the Shakespearian works, celebrated his 15^th birthday.

Tell me where is fancy bred,
Or in the heart or in the head?
How begot, how nourished?
Reply, reply.
It is engend'red in the eyes,
With gazing fed, and fancy dies
In the cradle where it lies.
Let us all ring fancy's knell.
I'll begin it. Ding, dong, bell.
Ding, dong, bell.