Merchant Of Venice - Blog Posts

chironhooves

4 years ago

I am him

Because like Antonio

'In sooth I know not why I am sad.'

I am weary till I am distraught,

Though my sunken ships never see the shore.

- reign

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art poetry poem dark academia sadnees short poem dark acadamia aesthetic sad poem sad poetry shakespeare shakesqueer merchant of venice

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philosophical-amoeba

7 years ago

I read once that shortly before The Merchant Of Venice was written, Queen Elizabeths doctor (who was Jewish) tried to poison her; is that true?

Sort of.

There was a doctor accused of trying to poison Queen Elizabeth. His name was Roderigo Lopez. He was Jewish and of Spanish descent and was fairly well off. He was accused of trying to poison her and conspiring against her with Spanish officials. I believe he is the only English physician to have been executed.

HOWEVER, we don’t know if he actually wanted to poison her. There was no attempt I believe, just accusations. He stated before he died that he “loved the Queen as much as he loved Jesus Christ” which can (and was) be interpreted in many ways. Some people think the Queen thought he was innocent because she took a long time to sign his death warrant. The character may have been the inspiration for Shylock in the Merchant of Venice, since they are both considered villains and evil because they’re Jewish but no one is 100% sure. Based on what I’ve heard, I don’t think he actually wanted to poison the queen and was probably just a target of antisemitism and maybe anti Spanish sentiment but who knows.

Thanks for bringing this up! I’m sure people would love to read about it. I’ve put the Wikipedia article below:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roderigo_Lopez#Royal_physician

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