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GCSE English Literature · key term
A gold coin used as money in Venice.
Used by AQA, Edexcel, OCR and Eduqas
Paper 1
A Venetian unit of money; Shylock lends 3,000 ducats for Bassanio’s journey to woo Portia.
Revise: Act 1Back in Venice, Bassanio asks Shylock, a Jewish moneylender, for 3,000 ducats for three months, with Antonio responsible for repayment. Shylock begins, “Three thousand ducats; well.” (Act 1 Scene 3).
Keep the bond’s terms precise: 3,000 ducats for three months, with Antonio’s flesh as the penalty for non-payment—not an ordinary interest charge.
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Paper 1
A gold coin used in Venice. In The Merchant of Venice, ducats connect borrowing, wealth and the money Jessica takes from Shylock.
Revise: Act 2Lorenzo wants Jessica to act as his torchbearer, but she fears that the light will expose the appearance she wants to hide. This creates playful tension between concealment and visibility. She then fetches more ducats before leaving with him.
A Venetian coin used to express the value of loans, spending and wealth in the play.
Paper 2
A gold coin used as a unit of money in Venice.
Revise: Act 1Bassanio asks Shylock to lend three thousand ducats for three months, with Antonio guaranteeing repayment. Shylock's opening, “Three thousand ducats; well.” (Act 1 Scene 3), begins a sequence of repeated amounts and conditions.
A gold coin used in Venice; ducats are the money borrowed, protected and stolen in The Merchant of Venice.
A gold coin used as currency in Venice.
Component 1
Revise: Act 2Before joining him, Jessica announces, ‘I will make fast the doors, and gild myself / With some more ducats, and be with you straight.’ To ‘make fast’ means to secure or lock. She follows her father’s instruction to shut the house while defeating its purpose: the wealth and daughter he wanted to protect are leaving it.
A Venetian coin and the unit of money used for the play's loans, spending and financial losses.
