Shakespeare and the Gesta Romanorum

I thought that article I found for Henry V about the sources was very interesting, so I went back to Blogging Shakespeare and found the same lady's series for the sources of The Merchant of Venice.

In the series of Shakespeare's Sources by Liz Dollimore, she once again finds what Shakespeare is using for his source and idea. She specifically compares the 13th Century Gesta Romanorum (which was a Latin book of tales) in which there is a story that is almost the exact same plot line as the Merchant of Venice. She did also state that there are many more stories as well in history with the same plot line.

I thought this was very interesting because it is like Shakespeare took an age old fairy tale almost and created a new and dynamic play. He took the simplicity of the original story and added more characters to give the story more depth. This also allowed for his to create questions for the readers to ask them selves like if friendship or love is stronger and about Christianity and even now people draw Anti-Semitism form the play. It is also interesting that in the original story the princess saved her lover; but in The Merchant of Venice, Portia saves her lovers friend. So Shakespeare put all of these complex spins on the original tale to really create an interesting plot. 

This also shows how much literature is taking others ideas and creating them into new stories. Like what was done with the Lion King to Hamlet, Shakespeare did this with the story from the Gesta Romanorum to The Merchant of Venice.

The article was really interesting, so if this sparks your interest you should definitely read the original article or you can just take my word for it haha