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I’ll stay to argue no more.° 170 {I’ll stay no longer question}

—Portia Tarry, Jew,
The law hath yet another hold on you. 171
It is enacted° in the laws of Venice, / here written
If it be proved against a foreigner,° 172 {an alien} 173
That by direct, or indirect, attempts,
He seek the life of any citizen,
The party ‘gainst the which he doth conspire 174 {contrive} /thus has plotted
Shall seize° one half° his goods; the other half / get // come by half
Comes° to the private° coffer° of the state, / Goes {privy} // treasury
And the offender’s life lies in the mercy
175
So granted by the Duke, whose word is final.°
And now you stand in this predicament. ° / very position

/ Why then, the devil’s work has well been done! / Well then, to hell with you and all your justice! / Why
then, I’m done—and to hell with it all!
170. {I’ll stay no longer question}
question: to argue, to debate the case.
Here Shylock gives up, accepts defeat, and accepts the lost his principle—and now, in a position of weakness, he
is trying to make a quick exit (before some other surprise emerges.) But alas, he again hears the ominous words,
Tarry, Jew.
171. The Authorship Question revolves around the question, ‘Who wrote the plays attributed to ‘William
Shakespeare’?’ There is a question with respect to authorship since there is no evidence that William Shakespeare,
the actor, actually wrote the plays—and much to suggest that he did not—other than the fact that his name (or some
embodiment of it) appears upon most of the plays contained in the canon. The basis of the argument that William
Shakespeare, the actor, did not (or could) write the plays that bear his name (and that the name ‘William
Shakespeare’ was a pen name for someone else—perhaps someone of high standing who did not want his or her
name associated with the plays—is as follows: a) Shakespeare, the actor, did no have the means nor the wherewithal
to write the plays, b) there is no evidence of any manuscript, nor any portion thereof, written in the hand of
Shakespeare (nor anyone else for that matter), c) that he lacked a university education, and moreover was without
access to the source material used for most of the plays (which could only have been secured through a university
library), and d) that he could not read Italian—as many of his plays’s source materials, including the major source
for this play, were written in Italian and not available in English during Shakespeare’s time.
I bring up the Authorship Question here, because in my mind, the change in the original text, by the author,
in this very place, may offer a clue as to the true author. In the source novella, (Il Perecone) upon which the story of
The Merchant of Venice is based, the Jewish usurer is defeated by the wits of the female judge, the merchant is
saved, and the Jew leaves the court with nothing, not even his principal. Here, the author radically departs from the
source story, and adds additional proceedings, whereby the Jew is not only defeated but destroyed—both in terms of
his wealth and his Judaism. The forced conversion of Shylock was something not found in the source story, and
something added by the author. This ‘resolution’ may offer some fodder in terms of the Authorship Question.
For mine own part, I am of the opine—which comes after much review and my own insights—that Mary
Sidney Herbert was the true author of the plays, and that William Shakespeare (an actor in the company of Lord
Chamberlain, and known to Mary Sidney) loaned his name to the canon of plays that she did not want her high-
standing name associated with. Such anonymity would also give her more freedom to truly express herself and her
ideas—most of which were in support of the superiority of women. Even in this play, all the men need the help of a
woman, who can only accomplish her task (and be taken seriously) when in the guise of a man. [See Additional
Note, 4.1.342]
172. Shylock is held to be an alien, and not a citizen.
173. alien: refers to foreigners and non-Venetians. Jews, at the time, were not allowed to own property in Venice
and were therefore held as ‘aliens.’
174. / The party ‘gainst whom he hath so contrived
175. {Of the Duke only ‘gainst all other voice}
/ So granted by the Duke, whose word is final / Of the good Duke, who has the final word / Of the
Duke—and his word’s above all others / Of the Duke’s favor, ‘bove all other voices
/ And the offender’s life lies in what mercy | Is bestowed by the Duke