The Merchant of Venice (opera) latter's flesh. Lorenzo kidnaps Jessica, together with much of Shylock's wealth. Shylock is taunted by the citizens of Venice. Act II takes place at Portia's residence at Belmont, where Bassanio is able to win her hand after defeating two foreign princes in choosing correctly between three caskets of gold, silver and lead. Act III is set in the Duke's courtroom; Antonio's business ventures seem to have failed, and Shylock claims his pound of flesh. Portia and her servant Nerissa, disguised as lawyers, successfully defend Antonio and force Shylock to forgo his loan, to accept Lorenzo as a son-in-law, and to
Lyman S. Ayres II (1913) Lyman II grew up in Indianapolis. At the age of twenty-one he replaced his middle name with the initial S. Lyman II graduated "cum laude" from Yale University. He served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy in the South Pacific during World War II. Lyman's grandfather, Lyman S. Ayres, a dry goods merchant from Oswego, New York, founded the L. S. Ayres retail department store in Indianapolis in 1872. Lyman II's father, Fred, was president of the family's department store business from 1896 until 1940. On September 22, 1934, Ayres married Isabel Ferguson, the daughter of Eliza and