The Merchant of Venice "play Antonio as gay". Joseph Fiennes, however, who plays Bassanio, encouraged a homoerotic interpretation and, in fact, surprised Irons with the kiss on set, which was filmed in one take. Fiennes defended his choice, saying "I would never invent something before doing my detective work in the text. If you look at the choice of language … you'll read very sensuous language. That's the key for me in the relationship. The great thing about Shakespeare and why he's so difficult to pin down is his ambiguity. He's not saying they're gay or they're straight, he's leaving it up to his
Jessica (The Merchant of Venice) of Poetry". Malone responds that ""Sweet" is "pleasing", "delightful", and such is the meaning of "dulcis" in Horace." All references to "The Merchant of Venice", unless otherwise specified, are taken from the Folger Shakespeare Library's "Folger Digital Texts" edition, edited by Barbara Mowat and Paul Werstine. Under their referencing system, acts, scenes, and lines are marked in the text, so 2.6.34–40 would be Act 2, Scene 6, lines 34 through 40. Jessica (The Merchant of Venice) Jessica is the daughter of Shylock, a Jewish moneylender, in William Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" (). In the play, she elopes with Lorenzo,