ABSTRACT
What does Lancelet mean when he predicts that “my conscience will serue me to run from this Iew my Maister”? Will conscience support him? Or will conscience indict him? To whom or what is conscience answerable in The Merchant of Venice? Taking Lancelet’s famous monologue on desertion as its starting point, this chapter argues that Shakespeare’s play echoes and critiques the myth of early modern Venice as a haven for cultural diversity and liberty of conscience. Using William Thomas’ The Historie of Italie (1549) and Lorenzo Lotto’s “Portrait of a Young Man” (c. 1530) as case studies, this chapter unravels contemporary attitudes to Venice’s ideal republic and revaluates the place of conscience in the play and in Venice’s wider cultural discourse.
