"As with most of his plays, Shakespeare did not invent the story of The Merchant of Venice himself."
"His genius lay, not in creating an original plot, but in giving new life and meaning to already existing stories."
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"The story of the bond for a pound of flesh seems to have been borrowed from a collection of Italian stories, although which particular version was read by Shakespeare remains unclear."
"The story of the caskets, however, is taken from a different source, most probably the collection called Gesta Romanorum (The Deeds of the Romans)."
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"As with his other plays, Shakespeare has added characters and incidents to create his own better story."
