From the play The Merchant of Venice: Bassanio a gentleman of Venice requires 3000 ducats to pay for his travel expenses to Belmont. Bassanio wishes the money as he is seeking to wed the Heiress Portia. Bassanio turns to his good friend Antonio, who is a wealthy merchant.
Unfortunately, Antonio's money is tied up on Ships doing business. He, however has offered to be Guarantor, they attempt to borrow money from a wealthy Jew, Shylock. Shylock reluctantly agrees, but on the condition that if he doesn't pay the 3000 Ducats by three months then Antonio has to give up a pound of his flesh, closest to the heart. They agree to the Bond. And then Antonio fails to pay on the date stated in the contract.
Actually, there is no play by Shakespeare called "A Pound of Flesh". The phrase is an important phrase in Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice. Originally the main characters in this play were Bassanio and Portia, but as time went on, more and more big name actors wanted to play the main character in the subplot, Shylock, to the extent that Shylock is now considered to be the main character (along with Portia). The "Merchant of Venice" himself, a character called Antonio, is not the main character of the play.
Wrong play. The expression "pound of flesh" comes not from Macbeth but from The Merchant of Venice.
There actually is no such phrase. People using it are confusing the phrase "a pound of flesh" from the Shakespeare play The Merchant of Venice with the title of the 2008 Will Smith movie "Seven Pounds" In the Shakespeare play the pound of flesh is the penalty for defaulting on a loan. You default on your mortgage and the bank gets your arm. The Will Smith movie is not about defaulting on a loan, but about making up for your mistakes. In the film Smith's character must help seven people to make up for the seven people he accidentally killed.
The Merchant of Venice- Shylock and Antonio are both moneylenders, one is an usurer (Shylock) and the other is not, but ends up defaulting on his debt, for which Shylock wants a pound of his flesh.
The Quality of Mercy is a famous speech by Portia, in disguise as a young lawyer, in Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice. She pleads for mercy from the Jewish moneylender, Shylock, who holds all of Antonio's loans and demands a pound of flesh for the default. She hopes to persuade Shylock to accept twice the amount of the loan in lieu of the contracted fee of flesh.
A:This is not from the Bible, but from a play written by Shakespeare and is entirely fictional.
Actually, there is no play by Shakespeare called "A Pound of Flesh". The phrase is an important phrase in Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice. Originally the main characters in this play were Bassanio and Portia, but as time went on, more and more big name actors wanted to play the main character in the subplot, Shylock, to the extent that Shylock is now considered to be the main character (along with Portia). The "Merchant of Venice" himself, a character called Antonio, is not the main character of the play.
Wrong play. The expression "pound of flesh" comes not from Macbeth but from The Merchant of Venice.
The saying "a pound of flesh" is another term for a debt that needs to be paid, except that 'pound of flesh' refers to an onerous debt, one that is either unable to be paid (but demanded), or one that is far in excess of the amount owed, or one in which the payment is set to adamantly exacting standards. It comes from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, if you'll recall.As regards the movie Seven Pounds, the result of this interpretation of the title would put some interesting fillips on the entire narrative of the film. Use the link below to review that question and its answer.
There actually is no such phrase. People using it are confusing the phrase "a pound of flesh" from the Shakespeare play The Merchant of Venice with the title of the 2008 Will Smith movie "Seven Pounds" In the Shakespeare play the pound of flesh is the penalty for defaulting on a loan. You default on your mortgage and the bank gets your arm. The Will Smith movie is not about defaulting on a loan, but about making up for your mistakes. In the film Smith's character must help seven people to make up for the seven people he accidentally killed.
The Merchant of Venice- Shylock and Antonio are both moneylenders, one is an usurer (Shylock) and the other is not, but ends up defaulting on his debt, for which Shylock wants a pound of his flesh.
The Quality of Mercy is a famous speech by Portia, in disguise as a young lawyer, in Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice. She pleads for mercy from the Jewish moneylender, Shylock, who holds all of Antonio's loans and demands a pound of flesh for the default. She hopes to persuade Shylock to accept twice the amount of the loan in lieu of the contracted fee of flesh.
He didn't. He did write a play in which the phrase "a pound of flesh" occurs, and is in fact important to the plot. This play is called The Merchant of Venice. In this play the merchant, Antonio, borrows money from a moneylender, Shylock, on the condition that if the loan is not paid in time, Shylock can cut a pound of flesh from Antonio's body. Antonio finds himself unable to pay, and Shylock (who hates Antonio) is about to kill him by taking his heart, when he is foiled by the legal argument that he cannot take anything more than exactly a pound of flesh. If he takes more and Antonio dies, it is murder. Certainly taking seven pounds would be out of bounds! But the number seven does not appear together with the pound of flesh anywhere in the play.
The title "7 pounds" is derived from the expression "pound of flesh" which in its original meaning refers to a terrible burden or debt which has to be repaid by whatever mean. Originated in Shakespeare's play Merchant of Venice, 1596. In this case Will Smith's character feels that he has to pay a pound of flesh for each of the seven lifes lost in the car accident for which he felt that he caused.
The expression "pound of flesh" comes from Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice where a literal pound of human flesh was the penalty to be paid for defaulting on a loan. Obviously it was considered an excessive penalty. Sometimes it is used nowadays to refer to any excessive or onerous penalty clause in a contract, or a usurious rate of interest. Sometimes, however, it is used, particularly by those who do not understand its origin, to refer to a contractual obligation of any kind which one does not want to honour, such as, "Well, he sold me this guitar for a hundred dollars and he now wants his hundred dollars. I suppose he must have his pound of flesh." Such uses are unfortunate as they considerably dilute the force of the original expression.
The phrase "pound of flesh" appears in the Bible in 1 Corinthians 6:7, where Paul writes, "Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?" Paul is trying to combat the idea of demanding one's "pound of flesh" and instead argues that love "keeps no record of wrongs". He also says that it's better to be cheated than to be unloving, and that Jesus Christ's death on the cross is an example of this type of love.
The title "7 pounds" is derived from the expression "pound of flesh" which in its original meaning refers to a terrible burden or debt which has to be repaid by whatever mean. Originated in Shakespeare's play Merchant of Venice, 1596. In this case Will Smith's character feels that he has to pay a pound of flesh for each of the seven lifes lost in the car accident for which he felt that he caused. I could be wrong on this matter but I do believe that maximum amount of weight human organs could be donated is around 7 pound.