Antonio is the title character in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. An influential, powerful, and wealthy nobleman of Venice, he is a middle-aged man and a merchant by trade who has his financial interests tied up in overseas shipments when the play begins. He is kind, generous, and honest to Christians, and is loved and revered by all the Christians who know him, but not by the Jew Shylock, whom he himself scorns.
First Appearance Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice first performed c. 1596–1597 (court performance for Elizabeth I)
First Publisher Edward Blount and William and Isaac Jaggard
Appearance List One of the First Quartos (1600), Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies – Published according to the True Originall Copies, i.e. First Folio (1623)
Description Antonio is the title character in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. An influential, powerful, and wealthy nobleman of Venice, he is a middle-aged man and a merchant by trade who has his financial interests tied up in overseas shipments when the play begins. He is kind, generous, and honest to Christians, and is loved and revered by all the Christians who know him, but not by the Jew Shylock, whom he himself scorns.
