This volume documents the full tradition of criticism of The Merchant of Venice ranging from 1775 to 1939. The Merchant of Venice has always been regarded as one of Shakespeare's most interesting plays, though it poses many challenges due to what is seen as its inherent anti-Semitism. Before the 19th century critical reaction is relatively fragmentary, but between then and the late 20th century the critical tradition reveals the power of the play to evoke emotion in the theatre. Since the middle of the 20th century, reactions to the drama have been influenced by the Nazi destruction of European Jewry. An extensive introduction charts the reactions to the play up to the beginning of the 21st century and reflects changing reactions to prejudice in this period. Material by a variety of critics appears here for the first time since initial publication, including from Malone, Hazlitt, Jameson, Heine, Knight, Lewes, Halliwell-Phillips, Furnivall, Irving, Ruskin, Swinburne, Masefield, Gollancz and Quiller-Couch. This revised edition features a new supplementary introduction by Gary Watt surveying and analyzing trends in criticism since the volume was first published in 2005, including a focus on:
* Jewishness and anti-Semitism and the character of Shylock
* mercantile, financial, risk, insurance, usury and credit
* trial, law, rhetoric, equity and justice
* gender, queer themes, cross-dressing and the Antonio-Bassanio relationship
* race and colonialism.

Frequently asked questions

Yes, you can cancel anytime from the Subscription tab in your account settings on the Perlego website. Your subscription will stay active until the end of your current billing period. Learn how to cancel your subscription.

No, books cannot be downloaded as external files, such as PDFs, for use outside of Perlego. However, you can download books within the Perlego app for offline reading on mobile or tablet. Learn more here.

Perlego offers two plans: Essential and Complete

Essential is ideal for learners and professionals who enjoy exploring a wide range of subjects. Access the Essential Library with 800,000+ trusted titles and best-sellers across business, personal growth, and the humanities. Includes unlimited reading time and Standard Read Aloud voice.
Complete: Perfect for advanced learners and researchers needing full, unrestricted access. Unlock 1.4M+ books across hundreds of subjects, including academic and specialized titles. The Complete Plan also includes advanced features like Premium Read Aloud and Research Assistant.

Both plans are available with monthly, semester, or annual billing cycles.

We are an online textbook subscription service, where you can get access to an entire online library for less than the price of a single book per month. With over 1 million books across 1000+ topics, we’ve got you covered! Learn more here.

Look out for the read-aloud symbol on your next book to see if you can listen to it. The read-aloud tool reads text aloud for you, highlighting the text as it is being read. You can pause it, speed it up and slow it down. Learn more here.

Yes! You can use the Perlego app on both iOS or Android devices to read anytime, anywhere — even offline. Perfect for commutes or when you’re on the go.
Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.

Yes, you can access The Merchant of Venice by William Baker,Brian Vickers, Joseph Candido,Brian Vickers in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Literatur & Shakespeare-Drama. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Publisher

Bloomsbury Publishing

Year

2025

eBook ISBN

9781350398993

Edition

Topic

Literatur

Subtopic

Shakespeare-Drama

Cover
Half Title
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
General Editor’s Preface
General editors’ preface to the revised series
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Gary Watt, ‘Supplementary Introduction’ to William Baker, Brian Vickers and Gary Watt (eds) The Merchant of Venice: Shakespea e: The Critical Tradition Revised Edition
Chapter 1: Georg Lichtenberg, on Macklin’s Shylock: 1775
Chapter 2: Richard Hole, an ‘apology’ for Shylock: 1796
Chapter 3: August Wilhelm von Schlegel, ‘one of Shakespeare’s most perfect works’: 1815
Chapter 4: William Hazlitt, Kean’s debut as Shylock: 1816
Chapter 5: William Hazlitt, sympathy for Shylock, but not for Portia: 1817
Chapter 6: Augustine Skottowe, the major sources: 1824
Chapter 7: George Farren, in defence of Shylock: 1833
Chapter 8: Anna Brownell Jameson, Portia: 1833
Chapter 9: Thomas Campbell, Shylock ‘ill-used’: 1838
Chapter 10: Heinrich Heine, Shakespeare justifies ‘an unfortunate race’: 1838
Chapter 11: Hermann Ulrici, summum jus summa injuria: 1839
Chapter 12: Charles Knight, lessons of charity: 1849
Chapter 13: George Henry Lewes, Shylock’s humanity: 1850
Chapter 14: Henry Norman Hudson, Shakespeare’s evenhandedness: 1851
Chapter 15: James O. Halliwell-Phillipps, human rights and religious belief: 1856
Chapter 16: William Watkiss Lloyd, sympathetic liberality versus murderous avarice: 1856
Chapter 17: Henrietta Palmer, in praise of Portia: 1859
Chapter 18: Friedrich Kreyssig, ‘a just estimate of things’: 1862
Chapter 19: Charles Cowden Clarke, Shakespeare’s love of justice: 1863
Chapter 20: Georg G. Gervinus, ‘the relation of man to property’: 1863
Chapter 21: John Ruskin, Shylock ‘the corrupted merchant’: 1873
Chapter 22: James Spedding, Portia the central character: 1875
Chapter 23: Frederick James Furnivall, Shylock ‘the hero of the piece’: 1877
Chapter 24: Denton Jaques Snider, a Hegelian reading: 1877
Chapter 25: Frederick William Hawkins, a plea for toleration: 1879
Chapter 26: Henry Irving, Shylock: an actor’s view: 1879
Chapter 27: Frederick James Furnivall, not a doctrinal play: 1879
Chapter 28: James Spedding, ‘not about Jewish grievances’: 1879
Chapter 29: Israel Davis, Shylock’s ‘nobility and distinction’: 1879
Chapter 30: David Anderson, Shylock ‘a product of history’: 1879
Chapter 31: Oscar Wilde, a sonnet to Portia: 1879
Chapter 32: Sidney Lee, ‘the Lopez case’ and Shakespeare’s Jew: 1880
Chapter 33: Henry James, a critique of Irving and Terry: 1881
Chapter 34: Charles Kensington Salaman, Shylock from a Jewish point of view: 1882
Chapter 35: Joseph Hatton, an interview with Henry Irving: 1884
Chapter 36: Richard G. Moulton, Shakespeare’s interweaving of plots: 1885
Chapter 37: Helena Faucit, on acting Portia: 1885
Chapter 38: M. Leigh-Noel, Portia’s womanliness: 1885
Chapter 39: El Seyonpi, privileged Christian, proscribed Jew: 1885
Chapter 40: William Poel, staging the play: 1887
Chapter 41: Edwin Booth, Shylock’s ‘revengeful selfishness’: 1888
Chapter 42: Francis A. Marshall, ‘the first of his [Shakespeare’s] great comedies’: 1888
Chapter 43: Sir George Heynes Radford, Shylock’s character determined by the plot: 1894
Chapter 44: Frederick Samuel Boas, Shakespeare’s concession to bigotry: 1896
Chapter 45: Georg Brandes, Shylock ‘a monster of passionate hatred, not avarice’: 1898
Chapter 46: A. W. Verity, Shylock and modern criticism: 1898
Chapter 47: C. H. Herford, ‘two communities which meet but never mingle’: 1900
Chapter 48: Stopford A. Brooke, ‘some faint sympathy’ for Shylock: 1905
Chapter 49: Charles Knox Pooler, Shylock ‘a man of one idea’: 1905
Chapter 50: Otto Jespersen, Shylock’s language: 1905
Chapter 51: Sir Walter Raleigh, Shylock more sinned against than sinning: 1907
Chapter 52: Theodore Watts-Dunton, ‘untrammelled’ as against ‘plot-ridden’ characters: 1907
Chapter 53: E. K. Chambers, the opposing principles of Love and Hate: 1908
Chapter 54: Algernon Swinburne, Shylock less sinned against than sinning: 1909
Chapter 55: William Poel, Shakespeare’s Jew and Marlowe’s Christians: 1909
Chapter 56: E. E. Stoll, Shylock a comic villain: 1911
Chapter 57: William Winter, Shylock and his interpreters: 1911
Chapter 58: Sir Israel Gollancz, ‘man is what man had made him’: 1916
Chapter 59: Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, Shakespeare’s ‘stage-cleverness’ and the story’s ‘monstrous absurdity’: 1916
Chapter 60: Isador Henry Coriat, Shylock’s anal-erotic tendencies: 1921
Chapter 61: Gerald Friedlander, Shylock not an authentic Jew: 1921
Chapter 62: Levin L. Schücking, Shylock’s self-revelation in soliloquy: 1922
Chapter 63: E. E. Stoll, Shakespeare’s intentions and the dynamics of comedy: 1927
Chapter 64: Andrew Tretiak, the ‘alien’ question: 1929
Chapter 65: Harley Granville-Barker, Shakespeare’s attention to character and story: 1930
Chapter 66: Cecil Roth,Shylock the Venetian: 1933
Chapter 67: Thomas Arthur Ross, Antonio a depressive homosexual: 1934
Chapter 68: John W. Draper, Shylock a London usurer: 1935
Chapter 69: Caroline Spurgeon, the distribution of imagery within the play: 1935
Chapter 70: G. Wilson Knight, the idea of riches, true and false: 1936
Chapter 71: John Middleton Murry, Shakespeare’s ‘matter-of-fact fairy tale’: 1936
Chapter 72: H. B. Charlton, the two Shylocks: 1938
Chapter 73: John Dover Wilson, anti-Semitism, ancient and modern: 1938
Chapter 74: Mark Van Doren,no hint ‘where Shakespeare’s sympathies lay’: 1939
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index

About this book

Frequently asked questions

Information

Table of contents