Cover: The Merchant of Venice, 1st Edition by William Shakespeare; Edited by M. Lindsay Kaplan

The Merchant of Venice

First  Edition©2002  William Shakespeare; Edited by M. Lindsay Kaplan

ISBN:9780312256241

About

Featuring maps, woodcuts, sermons, statutes, early modern documents reflecting Christian attitudes toward Jews and Jewish reactions to these attitudes and more, the primary documents and illustrations accompanying this edition of The Merchant of Venice are extremely extensive. The companion resources to the Bevington edition of the play illuminate the religious controversy at the time of Shakespeares play.

Table of Contents

ABOUT THE SERIES
ABOUT THIS VOLUME
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Introduction
 
PART ONE
William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice
(Edited by David Bevington)
 
PART TWO
Cultural Contexts
 
1. Venice 
 
English Ideas of Venice and Italians
Nation, Race, and Religion
 
     William Thomas, From The History of Italy
     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
     Queen Elizabeth I, Proclamation Ordering Peace Kept in 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
 
2. Finance                                                                                                                                        
 
     Usury
     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   
     Jews, throughout the World
     Sir Thomas Sherley, The Profit That May Be Raised to Your Majesty out of the Jews
     Nicolas de Nicolay, From The Navigations, Peregrinations, and Voyages made into    
     Turkey
     The Levant Company’s Charter
     John Wheeler, From A Treatise of Commerce
     Daniel Price, The Merchant: A Sermon Preached at Paul’s Cross
 
3. Religion                                                                                                                                          
     Catholics versus Protestants
     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    
     Second Chapter of Zephaniah
     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
 
4. Love and Gender                                                                                                                        
 
     Women and Marriage
     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
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was an English dramatist and poet. He is regarded as the greatest writer in the English language.

M. Lindsay Kaplan