Antonio (The Merchant of Venice) Antonio (The Merchant of Venice) Antonio is the title character in Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice". An influential, powerful and wealthy nobleman of Venice, he is a middle-aged man and a merchant by trade who has his financial interests tied up in overseas shipments when the play begins. He is kind, generous, honest and confident, and is loved and revered by all the Christians who know him. His willingness to die for Bassanio is a manifestation of his character. Antonio manifests anti-semitism by cursing and spitting at Shylock (anti-semitism was common in Europe in Shakespeare's days). He is a structural
Jessica (The Merchant of Venice) Warburton's note—in his 1765 edition: "The commentator should have remarked, that this speech is not, even in his own edition, the speech of the "Jewess"." The lines in question are usually assigned Lorenzo. The next was by Edmond Malone in his 1790 edition. The editor of the "Second Folio" (1632) had emended the line "If a Christian do not / play the knave and get thee, I am much deceived", substituting "did" for "do". This changed the meaning, as an acerbic Malone points out: Malone's position turned out to be somewhat controversial. In his revised edition in 1821, multiple notes