Othello and The Merchant of Venice — what do they have in common? If it’s been a while since you’ve read any Shakespeare, let me remind you:
- Both take place in Venice
- Desdemona and Portia are both beautiful, of high birth and have controlling fathers
- Othello and Shylock are both outsiders
- Iago and Antonio are both antagonists to the outsiders
- Both include prejudices against minorities – Othello being a Moor and Shylock a Jew
There are other similarities, with some characters interchangeable. So why not combine them into one story, throw in the plot of Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado,” and add a sea serpent? Christopher Moore has just done that with The Serpent of Venice, his latest comedy starring Pocket, the fool from Fool.
If you’re not familiar with Fool, it’s a retelling of King Lear from the point of view of the fool (obviously). While there are characters and dialog from several Shakespeare plays, for the most part, it’s just a spoof of King Lear. The Serpent of Venice picks up at the end of Fool, with Pocket having married Lear’s daughter Cordelia, who is then murdered. Cordelia comes to Pocket in a dream (there’s always a bloody ghost) and asks him to avenge her death and prevent a war in Venice.
In this mash-up of the two plays, Portia and Desdemona are both daughters of Brabantio. Brabantio, Antonio, and Iago conspire to get rid of Pocket by drugging him and chaining him up in water to his chest, then walling him in. Pocket is saved by a creature that arrives with the tides, who he thinks is a mermaid and names Vivian.
Pocket seeks revenge for both Cordelia’s death and his own attempted murder in a plot that gets a bit convoluted but involves the 3 caskets that decide who Portia will marry, a loan from Shylock to Antonio so Brassanio can attempt to open one of those caskets, Shylock’s daughter Jessica pretending to be a pirate, rescuing Fool’s apprentice Drool from prison, and going back for his cellmate, who just happens to be Marco Polo. Vivian turns out to be a sea serpent who Pocket can communicate with telepathically and assists in his revenge plot. Also among the characters is a narrator, known as Chorus, who is not seen only to the audience, as in classic plays, but becomes an annoyance to those whose actions he’s narrating.
If I’ve made The Serpent of Venice sound wacky and a bit confusing, well, I’ve done a good job of describing the book. Fans of Moore’s previous books and anyone who’s ever read Shakespeare will enjoy it, though I wouldn’t suggest it as a first attempt at Moore. He does appeal to a certain audience and not everyone will appreciate his type of humor.
Content warning: while the debauchery is toned down a bit from that in Fool, there’s still foul language, talk of shagging, and ogling of the female body.