Possible Clues:

• Villain in Shakespeare's 'The Tempest'
• A weird notion for merchant threatened by weight loss
• San ___ (Texas city)
• The Merchant of Venice
• One contracted for a pound to supply a book, short tear-jerker
• Merchant of Venice affecting one at noon
• Against carrying on, old Italian chap
• Merchant who was in debt for a pound
• The gardener in 'The Marriage of Figaro'
• Deity's dual existence at Oxford