Jessica (The Merchant of Venice) misfortune, is unable to repay and is subjected to an onerous default (a literal "pound of flesh" cut from his body). In addition, the play contains subplots regarding Bassanio's courtship of Portia; Launcelot Gobbo's humorous interactions with his father, and his change of allegiance from Shylock to Portia and Bassanio; and Jessica and Lorenzo's elopement, with Shylock's casket of Ducats. The role of Jessica is a relatively minor one. She speaks a grand total of 660 words over the play's five acts. In the dramatic structure of the play, the role is, however, pivotal: her elopement with Lorenzo, and her
Jessica (The Merchant of Venice) followed the First Folio, not the Second. Malone's response was simply that "In answer to Mr. Steevens, I have to state that I printed this play in 1784, and that Mr. Reed's edition did not appear till 1785. I may add that I communicated to that gentleman this very correction." The back and forth continued in notes on Jessica's line in Act 5, Scene 1: "I am never merry when I hear sweet music." Steevens opinied that: For this point, Steevens cites the word's use in "Measure for Measure" and a similar usage of "dulcia" by Horace in his "Art