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
Timeline of Shakespeare criticism Jonson's concept of Shakespeare as the "child of nature." Bevill Higgons: From the preface to the revision of "The Merchant of Venice" (1701) by George Granville, 1st Baron Lansdowne. Here, Shakespeare is made both to recognize his own lack of sophistication and to approve the neoclassical polish added by Granville. Joseph Addison, 1712: "Among the English, Shakespeare has incomparably excelled all others. That noble extravagance of fancy, which he had in so great perfection, thoroughly qualified him to touch... his reader's imagination, and made him capable of succeeding, where he had nothing to support him besides the strength of his