William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice: A Routledge Study Guide and Sourcebook / Edition 1

by S.P. Cerasano

Overview

With Shylock's pound of flesh and Portia's golden ring,The Merchant of Venice is one of Shakespeare's most controversial, disturbing and unforgettable plays.
Combining accessible commentary with a range of reprinted materials, S. P. Cerasano:
*explores the contexts of the play, including early modern images of Venice, the commercialism of the play, Shakespeare's theatre and London, and images of Jewishness
*samples modern criticism of Shakespeare's Merchant, grouped into sections on The Economic Framework, Choosing and Risking, and Shylock and Other Strangers
*offers an invaluable discussion of the play in performance, considering crucial staging issues and changing interpretations of the roles of Portia and Shylock
*closely examines key passages of the work, providing both commentary and extensively annotated sections of play text
*prepares readers for additional study of the play with a useful guide to further reading.
Assuming no prior knowledge of the play, this sourcebook is the essential guide to one of the most haunting works of English drama.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415240529
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	12/18/2003
Series:	Routledge Guides to Literature
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.44(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

S. P. Cerasano is the Edgar W. B. Fairchild Professor of Literature at Colgate University, Hamilton NY

Table of Contents

	List of Illustrations	ix
	Series Editor's Preface	x
	Acknowledgements	xi
	Introduction	1
1	Contexts
	Contextual Overview	7
	Introduction	7
	Venice: Myth and Reality	7
	Mercantile Culture	12
	Jews in Venice and London	15
	The Commercial Playhouse	17
	Shakespeare's Play and the Theatre: Risking, Venturing and Exchanging	19
	Chronology	22
	Historical Contexts	27
	The Commercial Playhouse	27
	From Philip Henslowe, Rose Playhouse Receipts (1591)	27
	From Philip Henslowe, Players' Bonds (1598)	29
	Venice and Venetian Life	32
	From Jan Morris, 'Islanders' (1993)	32
	From W. D. Howells, 'The Ghetto and the Jews of Venice' (1866)	35
	From Peter Berek, 'The Jew as Renaissance Man' (1998)	36
	Merchants, Capitalism and the Controversy over Usury	38
	From Daniel Price, 'The Merchant: A Sermon Preached at Paul's Cross on Sunday the 24th of August Being the Day before Bartholomew Fair. 1607' (1608)	38
	From Alberto Tenenti, 'The Merchant and the Banker' (1991)	40
	From Thomas Wilson, A Discourse upon Usury (1572)	42
	From Francis Bacon, 'Of Usury' (1625)	44
	Virtuous Women and Learned Ladies	46
	From Edwin Sandys, 'Sermon Sixteen: A Sermon Preached at a Marriage in Strausborough' (1585)	46
	From Juan Luis Vives, The Instruction of a Christen Woman (1529)	49
2	Interpretations
	Critical History	55
	Introduction	55
	The Early Critical Tradition	56
	Modern Criticism	58
	Early Critical Reception	64
	From Nicholas Rowe, Some Account of the Life, &c. of Mr. William Shakespear (1709)	64
	From Samuel Johnson, The Plays of William Shakespeare (1765)	65
	From John Potter, The Theatrical Review; or, New Companion to the Play-House (1772)	69
	From George Colman, Prose on Several Occasions (1787)	70
	From Nathan Drake, Shakespeare and His Times (1817)	71
	From William Hazlitt, The Round Table; Characters of Shakespear's Plays (1817)	73
	From Elmer Edgar Stoll, 'Shylock' (1927)	75
	From Harley Granville-Barker, Prefaces to Shakespeare (1948)	76
	Modern Criticism	79
	The Economic Framework	79
	From Walter Cohen, 'The Merchant of Venice and the Possibilities of Historical Criticism' (1982)	79
	From Kim Hall, 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? Colonisation and Miscegenation in The Merchant of Venice' (1992)	80
	From Leonard Tennenhouse, 'The Counterfeit Order of The Merchant of Venice' (1991)	82
	From Karen Newman, 'Portia's Ring: Unruly Women and Structures of Exchange in The Merchant of Venice' (1987)	84
	From Lynda E. Boose, 'The Comic Contract and Portia's Golden Ring' (1988)	86
	Choosing and Risking	88
	From Joan Ozark Holmer, The Merchant of Venice: Choice, Hazard and Consequence (1995)	88
	From Catherine Belsey, 'Love in Venice' (1992)	90
	Shylock and Other Strangers	91
	From John Drakakis, 'Historical Difference and Venetian Patriarchy' (1996)	91
	From James Shapiro, 'Shakespeare and the Jews' (1992)	93
	From Alan Sinfield, 'How to Read The Merchant of Venice Without Being Heterosexist' (1996)	95
	The Work in Performance	97
	Introduction	97
	Shakespeare's Theatre	97
	Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-century Productions	99
	The Merchant in the Nineteenth Century	100
	Twentieth-century Trends	101
	The Merchant in Germany	103
	The Merchant in Japan	108
	The Yiddish Theatre Production (1901)	110
	Elements of Design/Elements of Meaning	110
	Key Moments	114
	Differing Portias and Varied Venetians	116
	The Merchant of Venice on Film	117
	The Debate about Portia	119
	Mervyn Rothstein, Portia: Loved and Hated (1990)	119
	Sinead Cusack, Love and Mercy on Trial: Playing Portia (1985)	120
	Three Shylocks	122
	Ian McDiarmid, Preparing to Perform: Shylock via Venice and Israel (1988)	122
	Patrick Stewart, Shylock as 'Homo Economicus' (1985)	123
	James C. Bulman, Antony Sher's Offensive Shylock: 1987 (1991)	125
	Staging Issues	126
	Gregory Doran, A Director Defines his Production (1987)	126
	Miriam Gilbert, Presenting the Venetians: Antonio and Bassanio (2002)	127
	Robert Smallwood, Exiting the Stage (1996)	128
3	Key Passages
	Introduction	133
	List of Key Passages	135
	Abbreviations	137
	Key Passages	139
	Dramatis Personae	139
	Act 1, Scene 1, lines 1-57 and 118-84	140
	Act 1, Scene 2, lines 19-110	146
	Act 1, Scene 3, lines 32-174	150
	Act 2, Scene 1, lines 1-31	157
	Act 2, Scene 7, lines 1-79	159
	Act 2, Scene 9, lines 30-83	164
	Act 3, Scene 1, lines 40-103	167
	Act 3, Scene 2, lines 40-214	170
	Act 4, Scene 1, lines 169-396	177
	Act 5, Scene 1, lines 161-307	188
4	Further Reading
	Recommended Editions	199
	Historical Background	200
	Literary Criticism	201
	Production History	202
	Adaptations	203
	Films	204
	Sound Recordings	204
	Index	206