Portia

Portia, wealthy heiress from Belmont in William Shakespeare’s comedy The Merchant of Venice, written about 1596–97 and printed in a quarto edition in 1600 from an authorial manuscript or a copy of one. In attempting to find a worthy husband, she sets in motion the action of the play. She is one of Shakespeare’s classic cross-dressing heroines, and, dressed as a male lawyer (a redundant phrase in Shakespeare’s time), she delivers an eloquent speech, “The quality of mercy is not strained” (Act IV, scene 1), in an attempt to reason with the moneylender Shylock.