The Merchant of Venice

In The Merchant of Venice, one of William Shakespeare's plays, the path to marriage is hazardous. To win Portia, Bassanio must pass a test prescribed by her father's will, choosing correctly among three caskets or chests. If he fails, he may never marry at all.

Bassanio and Portria also face a magnificent villain, the moneylender Shylock. In creating Shylock, Shakespeare seems to have shared in a widespread prejudice against Jews. Shylock would have been regarded as a villain because he was a Jew. Yet he gives powerful expression to his alienation due to the hatred around him that, in many productions, he emerges as the hero.

Portia is most remembered for her disguise as a lawyer, Balthazar, especially the speech in which she urges Shylock to show mercy that "droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven".

Shakespeare is believed to have written The Merchant of Venice in 1596-97. It was published in 1600 as a quarto. He drew on several works as sources, but chiefly on a story from Ser Giovanni Fiorentino's Il Pecorone (The Dunce).

Productions at the Folger

• The Merchant of Venice (Source Theatre Company, 1995)

Early editions

First Folio

LUNA: First Folio: O4r - Q2v

Hamnet: STC 22273 Fo.1 no.68

Second Folio

LUNA: Second Folio: o4r - Q2v

Hamnet: STC 22274 Fo.2 no.07

First Quarto

LUNA: First Quarto

Hamnet: STC 22296 Copy 1

Second Quarto

LUNA: Second Quarto

Hamnet: STC 22297 Copy 1

Third Quarto

LUNA: Third Quarto

Hamnet: STC 22298 Copy 1

Modern editions

The Merchant of Venice can be read online with Folger Digital Texts and purchased from Simon and Schuster.

Hamnet link to Folger Edition: PR2753 .M6 2002 copy 2 v.23

Notes

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