| Summary: | In this article I wish to explore how the pervading references to games in William Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice pave the way for a reflection on the respective roles of chance, providence and human agency in shaping the characters’ destiny. The gaming metaphors that are found throughout the play tend to emphasise the skill of the players rather than their luck, and therefore underline their merit in the happy outcome of the play. They draw our attention to the calculations and strategies that allow the protagonists to minimise the risks they take in their different enterprises in a way that is strongly reminiscent of the then budding probability theory. These ludic strategies strongly undermine the idea that any form of divine power is at the source of the characters’ success. Portia’s role in Antonio’s trial in particular shows how her actions and her dexterous role-playing are masqueraded and construed as a manifestation of divine providence. Games therefore lead us to qualify readings of the play presenting its happy resolution as a miraculous and even “irrational” ending. Instead, The Merchant of Venice appears to be a profoundly pragmatic play in which the very existence of luck, or providence, is questioned.
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