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
Bardolph (Shakespeare character) Russell of Thornhaugh and Edward Russell, 3rd Earl of Bedford), and so used the name of the rebel. Since the character originally appears to have been a knight (both the Norman-French names "Russell" and "Bardolph" imply knighly status), this suggests that Shakespeare was following closely his source "The Famous Victories of Henry V" in which Prince Hal's disreputable companions are unruly knights rather than vagabonds. However Bardolph is clearly identified as a mere servant of Falstaff's in "Henry IV, Part 2", something that is not explicit in Part 1. In Part 2 Bardolph seems to copy the role of Hal's