Full Description
The Merchant of Venice is best known for its complex and ambiguous portrait of the Jewish moneylender Shylock—and of European anti-Semitism. Fascinating in its engagement with prejudice, the play is also a comedy of cross-dressing and disguise, and a dramatic exploration of justice, mercy, and vengeance.
This volume contains the full text of the play with explanatory footnotes and marginal glosses for contemporary readers. An extensive introduction and well-rounded selection of background materials not only illuminate anti-Semitism in early modern England but also provide context for other facets of the play, including its comic plot of love and marriage, its examination of commerce and international trade, and its themes of revenge and the law.
Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
The Merchant of Venice
Appendix A: Sources and Context
From Cursor Mundi (14th century)
From Giovanni Fiorentino, The Simpleton (Il Pecorone) (1378)
From Christopher Marlowe, The Jew of Malta (c. 1590)
Appendix B: Jews, Christians, and the Religion of Revenge
Jews and Christians
1. The Geneva Bible on Jews
2. From Edward I's Edict of Expulsion (1290)
3. Anonymous, Desecration of the Host (c. 1500)
4. From Richard Morrison, A Remedy for Sedition (1536)
5. From Thomas Coryate, Coryat's Crudities (1611)
6. From Edward Coke, The Second Part of the Institutes of the Laws of England (1642)
Revenge
1.The Geneva Bible on Lex Talionis
2.Francis Bacon, ""Of Revenge,"" The Essays (1625)
Appendix C: Commercial Life: Of Venice, Merchants, Usurers, and Debtors
The Geneva Bible on Usury and Generosity
Hieronymo Feruffino, Letter Regarding Expelling the Marranos from Venice (1550)
From Zuane di Andrea Zane and Brothers, "The Activities and Misfortunes of a Merchant Family, The Zane" (1550)
Pieter Brueghel, The Storm at Sea (1568)
From Thomas Wilson, A Discourse upon Usury by way of Dialogue and Orations (1572)
From Thomas Lupton, The Second Part and Knitting Up of the Book Entitled Too Good to Be True (1581)
From Anthony Copley, Witts Fittes and Fancies (1595)
From Thomas Lodge, Wit's Misery, and the World's Madness (1596)
From Giovanni Botero, Relations, of the Most Famous Kingdoms and Common-weales Through the World (1611)
Case 11: Courtney against Glanvil (1615; report printed 1791)
From Francis Bacon, "Of Usury" (1625)
Appendix D: Love and Family
Friendship and Love
1.From Cicero, Of Friendship (44 BCE)
2.From Christopher Marlowe, Edward II (1594)
3.Richard Barnfield, Sonnet 8, Cynthia, with Certain Sonnets, and the Legend of Cassandra (1595)
4.From Michel de Montaigne, "Of Friendship," Essays (1580)
Family and Obedience
1.From Juan Luis Vives, The Instruction of a Christian Woman (1524)
2.From Baldassare Castiglione, The Courtier (1528)
3.From Thomas Becon, The Catechism (c. 1550)
4.From Elizabeth Cary, The Tragedy of Mariam (1613)
Works Cited and Recommended Reading
