« With oaths upon your finger ». Una lettura di The Merchant of Venice a partire dalla sua fonte

The Merchant of Venice is inspired directly to an Italian novel by Ser Giovanni Fiorentino, which is not translated in the time of Shakespeare. Allowed the possibility of a direct comparison – obviously already tried many times –, this essay emphasizes some elements, dedicating rather than the carefully designed figure of Shylock, that of Portia in the direction of a ‘comic-law’ and, in particular in the rich connection, especially metaphorical, between the double referents of nuptial ring that is welded around the meat of Bassanio and the knife that claims to extract the famous ‘pound of flesh’ as a pledge from the Antonio’s body.