Letters to the editor.(Letter to the Editor)

Dear Editor:

I read with great interest "On Shylock: A Reassessment of Shakespeare's Tragic Jew," by Allen A. Lang (Midstream, February/March 2003). In this context, there is a fascinating recorded historical detail about a real "Shylock," mentioned by British historian Cecil Roth in his 1933 article, (1) described again by Elio Toaff in 1962 for the Paris monthy Evidence, (2) and by Paul Giniewski in Le Monde on February 5, 1976, and in his later book. (3)

It seems that Shakespeare could have drawn his history and his persona from a real event. In relation