With the exception of a cameo appearance or two I have kept Shylock in the wings, but it is time to give him a full scene. I need barely mention The Merchant of Venice, and the reader can fill in the blanks as to how well suited the play is to this book's themes. There are body parts and human flesh acting as a money substance; we have scales, knives, justice, revenge; measuring and meting. At the core of the play's thematic structure is the question of what counts as money and how it should behave; what symbolizes and stores value best. Even the folkloric casket story, which embarrasses us now and mostly seems to reveal the stupidity of the princes of Morocco and Aragon – of course it is the lead casket, you idiots, don't you folk in folktales know the first thing about a folktale? – and which seems so crudely jerry-rigged to the main drama, reproduces the core themes of evaluating human flesh, in whole or parts, by reference to various metal repositories of value. What is moving against what? Is it gold, silver, and lead that are money substances, but Portia is pure soul, pure spirit? Or the other way around? Gold, silver, and lead are pure airy symbol, but Portia is so much meat on the hoof. Pardon the vulgarity: it is not her flesh, that kind of meat, that interests her suitors: it is her dough.