The Merchant of Venice
Texts and ContextsFirst Edition| ©2002 William Shakespeare; Edited by M. Lindsay Kaplan
ISBN:9780312256241
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This edition of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice reprints the Bevington edition of the play along with documents and illustrations thematically arranged to offer a richly textured understanding of early modern culture and Shakespeare’s work within that culture. The texts include maps, woodcuts, sermons, statutes, early modern documents reflecting Christian attitudes toward Jews and Jewish reactions to these attitudes, excerpts from the Bible on moneylending as well as contemporary discourses on usury and commerce, anti-Catholic tracts, travel accounts, diplomatic reports, scenes from a morality play about the corrupting effects of treatment of aliens, conduct literature, and contemporary treatises on the role of women. The documents illuminate religious controversy at the time of Shakespeare’s play, some of his sources, the place of Venice in the early modern English imagination, merchant culture, and marriage, sexuality, and friendship in the period. Editorial features designed to help readers relate the play to historical documents include an engaging general introduction, an introduction to each thematic group of documents, headnotes and glosses for the primary documents (presented in modern spelling), and an extensive bibliography.
Features
New to This Edition
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The Merchant of Venice
First Edition| ©2002
William Shakespeare; Edited by M. Lindsay Kaplan
Digital Options
![Cover: The Merchant of Venice, 1st Edition by William Shakespeare; Edited by M. Lindsay Kaplan](http://prod-cat-files.macmillan.cloud/MediaResources/Jackets/258W/9780312256241.jpg)
The Merchant of Venice
First Edition| 2002
William Shakespeare; Edited by M. Lindsay Kaplan
Table of Contents
William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice
(Edited by David Bevington)
Cultural Contexts
Nation, Race, and Religion
Thomas Coryate, From Coryates Crudities
Dudley Carleton, The English Ambassador’s Notes
William Bedell, Letter to Adam Newton
A Discovery of the Great Subtlety and Wonderful Wisdom of the Italians
Robert Wilson, From The Three Ladies of London
Sir Edward Coke, From The Reports
Fynes Moryson, From An Itinerary
John Leo, From A Geographical History of Africa
George Best, From A True Discourse of the Late Voyages of Discovery, for the Finding
of a Passage to Cathaya
John Leo, From A Geographical History of Africa
Sebastian Munster, From The Messiah of the Christians and the Jews
Andrew Willet, From Concerning the Universal and Final Vocation of the Jews
Jews
Merchants
Biblical Laws
Thomas Wilson, From A Discourse upon Usury by Way of Dialogue and Orations
Debate on the Usury Bill
Usury Bill
Francis Bacon, Of Usury
Sir Edward Coke, From The Institutes of the Laws of England
Yehiel Nissim da Pisa, From The Eternal Life
David de Pomis, From De Medico Hebraeo
Leon Modena, From The History of Rites, Customs, and Manners of Life, of the Present
Sir Thomas Sherley, The Profit That May Be Raised to Your Majesty out of the Jews
The Levant Company’s Charter
John Wheeler, From A Treatise of Commerce
Daniel Price, The Merchant: A Sermon Preached at Paul’s Cross
Jews as Other
Conversion
Jews in England
John Foxe, From Acts and Monuments
William Allen, From A True, Sincere, and Modest Defense of English Catholics
Robert Parsons, From A Brief Discourse Containing Certain Reasons Why Catholics
Refuse to go to Church
Queen Elizabeth I, Proclamations on Priests
St. Paul, On Law and Grace
Andrew Willet, From Tetrastylon Papisticum
Richard Bristow, From Demands to be Proponed of Catholics to the Heretics
William Perkins, From A Faithful and Plain Exposition upon the To First Verses of the
Gregory Martin, From Roma Sancta
Thomas Draxe, From The World’s Resurrection
Samuel Usque, From Consolation for the Tribulations of Israel
John Foxe, From Acts and Monuments
Raphael Holinshed, From Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland
John Foxe, From Acts and Monuments
From Fleta
Examination of Roderigo Lopez
William Camden, From The History of Elizabeth, Queen of England
Friendship and Homosociality
Juan Luis Vives, From The Instruction of a Christian Woman
Thomas Becon, From The Catechism
Cornelius Agrippa, From Of the Nobility and Excellency of Womankind
Phillip Stubbes, From The Anatomy of Abuses
Alexander Niccholes, From A Discourse of Marriage and Wiving
Sir Thomas Smith, From De Republica Anglorum
Sir Thomas Elyot, From The Book Named the Governor
Philemon Holland, From Plutarch’s Morals
INDEX
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The Merchant of Venice
First Edition| 2002
William Shakespeare; Edited by M. Lindsay Kaplan
Authors
![Headshot of William Shakespeare](http://prod-cat-files.macmillan.cloud/MediaResources/Authors/207W/451388.jpg)
William Shakespeare
![Headshot of M. Lindsay Kaplan](http://prod-cat-files.macmillan.cloud/MediaResources/Authors/207W/4467.jpg)
M. Lindsay Kaplan
![Cover: The Merchant of Venice, 1st Edition by William Shakespeare; Edited by M. Lindsay Kaplan](http://prod-cat-files.macmillan.cloud/MediaResources/Jackets/258W/9780312256241.jpg)
The Merchant of Venice
First Edition| 2002
William Shakespeare; Edited by M. Lindsay Kaplan
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