The Merchant of Venice know not why I am so sad" – and utter devotion to Bassanio has led some critics to theorise that he is suffering from unrequited love for Bassanio and is depressed because Bassanio is coming to an age where he will marry a woman. In his plays and poetry Shakespeare often depicted strong male bonds of varying homosociality, which has led some critics to infer that Bassanio returns Antonio's affections despite his obligation to marry: In his essay "Brothers and Others", published in "The Dyer's Hand," W. H. Auden describes Antonio as "a man whose emotional life, though his conduct
The Merchant of Venice "The Merchant of Venice". His play "Shylock", first performed at the Théâtre de l'Odéon in December 1889, had incidental music by the French composer Gabriel Fauré, later incorporated into an orchestral suite of the same name. Ralph Vaughan Williams' choral work "Serenade to Music" (1938) draws its text from the discussion about music and the music of the spheres in Act V, scene 1. In both versions of the comic film "To Be or Not to Be" (1942 and 1983) the character "Greenberg", specified as a Jew in the later version, gives a recitation of the "Hath Not a Jew