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When Bassanio urges Portia to break the law in order to thwart Shylock— ‘to do a great right, do a little wrong” (4.1.213)— she at first refuses, on the grounds that to do wrong is always immoral; but despite her words, her actions show her ready and willing to do just that. Critics usually explain Portia’s actions with reference to Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics and the principle of equity—an open-handed, individualised approach to justice when hard legal questions exceed the scope of the law; but the misalignment between Portia’s words and her actions indicates that the question of justifying any ‘little wrong’ with ‘the greater right’ is more complex than it may at first seem, particularly if the ‘greater right’ is defined by one’s own interests. This signals the presence in the play of a different, non-Aristotelian ethical framework: that of Nicolò Machiavelli’s post-Epicurean teleological utilitarianism. Shakespeare’s moral considerations in The Merchant of Venice are compelling * E-mail address: danijela.kambaskovic-sawers@uwa.edu.au. ** The paper is based on a lecture given as a part of a senior undergraduate course on Shakespeare on Stage and Screen, University of Western Australia. I dedicate it to my dear teacher, Professor Veselin Kostic, whose lectures gave me the first taste of what I wanted to do. Professor Kostic’s books on Shakespeare and early modern history, his inspired conversation and the unstinting encouragement of my writing and translations of Shakespeare’s sonnets over several decades, continue to act as mainstays of my courage.

‘To Do a Great Right, Do a Little Wrong’: “The Merchant of Venice” and Its Ethical Challenges