why does Portia say that Neapolitan prince's mother had an affair with a blacksmith
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Portia tells Nerissa that she does not want to marry the Neapolitan prince because she claims that he only thinks about his horse. Naples was famous at the time for horsemanship, and the prince embodies the stereotype of a Neapolitan man, who is interested in the growing sport of horsemanship. Portia says of the prince, "he makes it a great appropriation/ to his own good parts that he can shoe him himself" (Act I, scene 2, lines 38-39). In other words, the prince's major accomplishment is that he can shoe a horse. Portia also says, "I am much afeard my lady his mother played false/with a smith" (I.2.40-41). She alleges that the prince's mother had an adulterous affair with a blacksmith, maligning his mother as an adulteress (which was a serious offense at the time). When choosing her future husband, Portia exercises more independence than her father had anticipated, and she is not swayed by the suitors' high positions in society.