Jessica (The Merchant of Venice) and happiness. For the Jessica–Shylock relationship, John Drakakis, the editor of The Arden Shakespeare's third series edition, highlights the verbal connection between "The Merchant of Venice" and "The Jew of Malta" with Barabas's words when Abigail rescues his gold and Shylock's at Jessica's theft of his Ducats. Another version of the play's plot can be found in Anthony Munday's "Zelauto: The Fountain of Fame Erected in an Orchard of Amorous Adventures" (1580). In this version it is Munday's Jessica analogue, Brisana, who pleads the case first in the courtroom scene, followed by Cornelia, the Portia analogue. But the Jessica–Lorenzo plot
Jessica (The Merchant of Venice) actions amount to abandoning her father and betraying him to his enemies. By the last half of the 20th century this "sentimentally sympathetic reading" was starting to be rejected, but without a corresponding reassessment of Jessica. She was still viewed as inhabiting primarily negative values, in contrast with the positive values associated with Portia, Bassanio, and Antonio. Writing in 1977, Raymond B. Waddington thinks that: Slights contradicts this view, pointing out that it conflicts with "a natural audience response" and argues that "we must question judgments that deny the most obvious emotional force of Shakespearean plots and characters." Shakespeare's plays