Portia (The Merchant of Venice)
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Portia is a female character and protagonist in The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare. In creating her character Shakespeare drew from the historical figure of Porcia, the daughter of Cato the Younger, as well as several parts of the Bible.
Kate Dolan as Portia (1886), by John Everett Millais
Portia (1888) by Henry Woods
La belle Portia (1886) Alexandre Cabanel
Portia and Shylock, by Thomas Sully
The Merchant of Venice
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The Merchant of Venice is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. A merchant in Venice named Antonio defaults on a large loan taken out on behalf of his dear friend, Bassanio, and provided by a Jewish moneylender, Shylock, with seemingly inevitable fatal consequences.
Title page of the first quarto (1600)
Gilbert's Shylock After the Trial, an illustration to The Merchant of Venice
A depiction of Jessica, from The Graphic Gallery of Shakespeare's Heroines
The title page from a 1565 printing of Giovanni Fiorentino's 14th-century tale Il Pecorone