Understanding Shakespeare: The Merchant of Venice by Robert A. Albano - HTML preview
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(1) Lorenzo beginsbymentioning Troilus and Cressida. Cressida at first loved Troilus but then abandoned him foranother.
(2) Jessica then mentions Pyramus and Thisbe. The two lovers were supposed to run away together at night, but Pyramus got frightened by a lion. Later, Pyramus thinks the lion killed Thisbe, and he commits suicide. When Thisbe finds his dead body, she then killsherself.
(3) Lorenzo then mentions Aeneas and Dido. Aeneas loved Dido, but then lefther.
(4) Jessica then mentions Jason and Medea. They were husband and wife, but Jason later left Medea for a princess of anotherland.
(5) Lorenzo then brings up his own tale, the story of Jessica andLorenzo.
The humor is that all four of the mythological tales involve unsuccessful love. Lorenzo is jokingly suggesting that their own love will be unsuccessful. Jessica plays on the notion by adding that in the story of Lorenzo and Jessica, Lorenzo made “many vows of faith” that his love was true, but that those vows were really false (19-20). Neither Lorenzo nor Jessica actually think that their spouses are false or that their love will be unsuccessful, and Lorenzo ends the dialogue with thefollowing: