PLEASE NOTE: This is an HTML preview only and some elements such as links or page numbers may be incorrect.
Download the book in PDF, ePub, Kindle for a complete version.
Christopher Marlowe’sThe Jew of Malta(1589) may also have influenced Shakespeare. Marlowe’s drama depicts a cruel, vindictive Jew who is more evil and more of a stereotype than isShylock.
Real-life historical events of 1586 may also have influenced Shakespeare slightly.Roderigo Lopez, a Jewish-Portuguese doctor, became Queen Elizabeth’s personal physician. He was alleged to have been involved in a plot to assassinate the heir to Portuguese throne; and, later, he was suspected of attempting to poison the Queen. Elizabeth was not convinced that Lopez was guilty, but she reluctantly signed his death warrant in 1594. Lopez was hanged, drawn, and quartered. The event incited public hostility toward Jews. The reference towolf(in ActIV,1: 134) could be a pun on Lopez’s name (lupe=wolf).
