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Should there ever arise any doubts as to the possibility that a stage figure may indeed become in the human imagination transmuted into a character endowed with as vivid and realistic traits as to evoke the impression of a historical person, we have but to point at Shakespeare's Shylock. He quite undeniably was the creation of poetic fantasy, intended for the stage, and nevertheless, subsequently succeeded in acquiring such strong and clearly cut features in man's unconscious mind, as to be visualized by the readers and spectators of the play as a quasi-historical figure instead of a poet's fancy product. Thus, Shylock turned into the realistic impersonation of the Jew, not without most repulsive and abominable propensities being conferred on him and ever since attributed to the members of his race.1
As to the essential motifs deriving from sources which had evidently been used by Shakespeare, the following have to be noted: a) A debt amounting to 3,000 ducats owed by the merchant Antonio to the Jewish money-lender Shylock has to be settled according to the obligation laid down by the debtor in a bond: in case of his inability of refunding