History of cross-dressing the Pelennor Fields outside the city Minas Tirith. In Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness series, the main character, Alanna, disguises herself as a boy for eight years in order to become a knight. William Shakespeare made substantial use of cross-dressing for female characters who took on masculine clothing to carry out actions difficult for women. In "The Merchant of Venice", Portia and her maid dress as men to plead in court on the merchant's behalf, and are quite successful in their ruse; in the same play, Shylock's daughter Jessica dresses as a man to elope with her Christian lover.
The Merchant of Venice (1969 film) and doubled for Venice; and filming was completed in Rome, where Welles was editing "Don Quixote". The film itself was a shortened version of the play, Welles even eliminated the character of Portia from the film after his mistress Oja Kodar declined the role, due to her then-limited knowledge of English. Francesco Lavagnino, who had written the musical scores of Welles's previous two Shakespeare films, "Othello" (1952) and "Chimes at Midnight" (1966), provided a full musical score for this film. Welles completed the film in the summer of 1969, and gave a preview screening to Oja Kodar and her mother