Jessica (The Merchant of Venice) Jessica (The Merchant of Venice) Jessica is the daughter of Shylock, a Jewish moneylender, in William Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" (). In the play, she elopes with Lorenzo, a pennyless Christian, and a chest of her father's money, eventually ending up in Portia and Bassanio's household. In the play's dramatic structure, Jessica is a minor but pivotal role. Her actions motivate Shylock's vengeful insistence on his "pound of flesh" from Antonio; her relationships with Lorenzo and Shylock serves as a mirror and contrast to Portia's with Bassanio and with her father; her conversion to Christianity is the end of
Spelling of Shakespeare's name (1602) and the second of "King Lear" (1619). The name printed at the end of the poem "The Phoenix and the Turtle", which was published in a collection of verse in 1601, is hyphenated, as is the name on the title page of "Shake-speares Sonnets" (1609). It is used in the cast list of Ben Jonson's "Sejanus His Fall", and in six literary allusions published between 1594 and 1623. The un-hyphenated spelling "Shakespeare" (or Shakeſpeare, with a long s) appears on 22 of the 58 quartos. It is spelled this way in the first quartos of "The Merchant of Venice"