The Merchant of Venice in the court of the Duke of Venice. Shylock refuses Bassanio's offer of 6,000 ducats, twice the amount of the loan. He demands his pound of flesh from Antonio. The Duke, wishing to save Antonio but unable to nullify a contract, refers the case to a visitor. He identifies himself as Balthasar, a young male "doctor of the law", bearing a letter of recommendation to the Duke from the learned lawyer Bellario. The doctor is Portia in disguise, and the law clerk who accompanies her is Nerissa, also disguised as a man. As Balthasar, Portia repeatedly asks Shylock to show
The School of Night (play) his own knife. Skeres and Poley are horrified. Marlowe dies. Shakespeare and Rosalinda visit Marlowe's grave in Deptford. Rosalinda is still convinced that all went as planned and she will meet Marlowe in Venice. Shakespeare says she must prepare herself for the possibility that Marlowe is dead. In "Shakespeare Survey", Jill L. Levinson, says that Whelan creates an "elusive Shakespeare, gifted and influential" and that the play weaves together references to "more than half a dozen scripts from Henry VI to Othello." The Hollywood Reporter complained that the play was far too heavy on exposition, but that "Whelan does capture