The Merchant of Venice was a play written by dramatist William Shakespeare.
In 2293, General Chang paraphrased lines from play, saying "Tickle us, do we not laugh? Prick us, do we not bleed? Wrong us, shall we not revenge?" while his Bird-of-Prey attacked the USS Enterprise-A over Khitomer. (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country)
In 2364, under the influence of polywater intoxication, Data used a slightly rephrased quote from the play to finish his explanation of his similarity to Humans saying, "I have pores. Humans have pores. I have fingerprints. Humans have fingerprints. My chemical nutrients are like your blood. If you prick me, do I not leak?" (TNG: "The Naked Now")
In 2364 and 2367, several pages of this play from The Annotated Shakespeare were on display in Captain Jean-Luc Picard's ready room and quarters on the USS Enterprise-D. (TNG: "The Battle", "The Arsenal of Freedom", "Suddenly Human") In 2370, pages from this play from the same book were on display in Data's quarters. (TNG: "Force of Nature")
As Luther Sloan explained to Kimara Cretak in 2375 "The phrase 'never say die' was originally from a 19th century poem based on Shakespeare's 'Merchant of Venice'. It has since passed into the vernacular as an exhortation never to give up, no matter what the cost." (DS9: "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges")
| Selected works of William Shakespeare |
|---|
| All's Well That Ends Well • As You Like It • Hamlet • Henry IV, Part I • Henry IV, Part II • Henry V • Henry VI, Part I • Henry VI, Part II • Henry VI, Part III • Henry VIII • Julius Caesar • King John • King Lear • Love's Labour's Lost • Macbeth • Measure for Measure • The Merchant of Venice • A Midsummer Night's Dream • Much Ado About Nothing • Othello • Richard II • Richard III • Romeo and Juliet • The Tempest • Timon of Athens • Twelfth Night, or What You Will • sonnets |
Appendices[]
Background information[]
The identification of illustrations was made by Jörg Hillebrand and Bernd Schneider for Ex Astris Scientia. [1] Pages of this play were, also, seen in the episodes "We'll Always Have Paris" and "The Child".
The poem to which Sloan refers is "The Merchant of Venice: A Legend of Italy" by Richard Harris Barham.
The titles of TNG: "Sins of The Father" and SNW: "A Quality of Mercy" reference quotes from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.
According to Dark Mirror, the mirror universe version of the play by William Shakespeare contained a passage which began with the line, "The quality of mercy must be earned."
External links[]
- The Merchant of Venice at Wikipedia
- The Merchant of Venice at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
- Full text of The Merchant of Venice at The Literature Network
- Text of "The Merchant of Venice: A Legend of Italy" by Richard Harris Barham at PoemHunter.com
- The Merchant of Venice at Project Gutenberg