Venice and Belmont

Abstract

The Merchant of Venice is built on a set of contrasts. As with the two history plays which Shakespeare probably wrote immediately after it, its structure is contrapuntal. In Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2 the action alternates between king and rebels, court and tavern. In The Merchant of Venice the contrast is between Venice and Belmont, and it is less straightforward than it appears. Shakespeare’s counterpoint does not alternate easy positives and negatives but forces harder questions. In Henry IV, Part I Hotspur ends the scene of the rebels’ conspiracy with the word ‘sport’ [I iii 302]. Repeated in the next scene by Gadshill as he sets up the robbery in which Hal and his friends are to take part [II i 70], the word calls attention to the ironic parallel between two disorderly enterprises. This kind of linking, similarly prompted by verbal repetition, also occurs in The Merchant.