Antonio (The Merchant of Venice) did it for the person who saved his friend he sends to ring with Gratiano to the doctor. Nerissa then manages to secure the ring she gave Gratiano from him as well. Act 5 Antonio accompanies Bassanio home to Belmont to celebrate his good fortune and meet Portia. After some teasing, all discover the ladies deception in regards to the rings and the trial. Antonio plays benefactor again, this time to Jessica when he gives her legal documentation to show that she is to inherit Shylock's property at his death. The play ends with Portia bearing good news that Antonio's
Jessica (The Merchant of Venice) ultimately stems from medieval archetypal plots and characters. The Christian in love with a Jewess appears frequently in "exemplum" from the 13th to the 15th century. Beatrice D. Brown, in her 1929 article, "Mediaeval Prototypes of Lorenzo and Jessica", finds the most direct match in "… MS. Royal 7 D. 1, a collection of theological pieces probably compiled by a Dominican friar at or near Cambridge in the thirteenth century." It contains a spendthrift Christian lover, the fair Jewess, the rich old father, the lovers robbing the father, and the father's conflicted grief over his daughter's betrayal and the loss