Shakespeare's Play of the Merchant of Venice: Arranged for Representation at the Princess's Theatre, with Historical and Explanatory Notes by Charles Kean, F.S.A.
1600
Shakespeare's Play of the Merchant of Venice: Arranged for Representation at the Princess's Theatre, with Historical and Explanatory Notes by Charles Kean, F.S.A.
1600
Shakespeare's most unsettling comedy confronts us with a question it refuses to answer: when the law demands a pound of flesh, what does mercy really cost? The Merchant of Venice traps its characters in a web of bonds, loans, and impossible choices: the melancholy Antonio who stakes his life on a friend's fortune, the brilliant Portia who must marry whichever suitor solves her father's casket riddle, and Shylock, the Jewish moneylender who has been spat upon, mocked, and excluded from Venetian society for years, finally offered a chance at the justice he has never received. What unfolds is neither simple comedy nor straightforward tragedy, but something far more disturbing: a play that seems to mock the outsider while simultaneously exposing the cruelty of those who mock. Charles Kean's nineteenth-century theatrical edition, prepared for performance at the Princess's Theatre, includes historical and explanatory notes that illuminate the play's Elizabethan context, making this essential reading for anyone who wants to understand why this work remains as uncomfortable and necessary as it was four centuries ago.
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“You speak an infinite deal of nothing.””
— William Shakespeare
“With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.””
— William Shakespeare
“All that glisters is not gold;Often have you heard that told:Many a man his life hath soldBut my outside to behold:Gilded tombs do worms enfold.””
— William Shakespeare
“How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a weary world.””
— William Shakespeare
“If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?””
— William Shakespeare
“I am not bound to please thee with my answers.””
— William Shakespeare
“The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.An evil soul producing holy witnessIs like a villain with a smiling cheek,A goodly apple rotten at the heart.O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!””
— William Shakespeare
“The quality of mercy is not strained.It droppeth as the gentle rain from heavenUpon the place beneath. It is twice blessed:It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.'Tis mightiest in the mightiest. It becomesThe thronèd monarch better than his crown.His scepter shows the force of temporal power,The attribute to awe and majestyWherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings,But mercy is above this sceptered sway.It is enthronèd in the hearts of kings.It is an attribute to God himself.And earthly power doth then show likest God’sWhen mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew, Though justice be thy plea, consider this-That in the course of justice none of usShould see salvation. We do pray for mercy,And that same prayer doth teach us all to renderThe deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus muchTo mitigate the justice of thy plea,Which if thou follow, this strict court of VeniceMust needs give sentence 'gainst the merchant there.””
— William Shakespeare
“love is blindand lovers cannot see the pretty follies that themselves commit””
— William Shakespeare
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Shakespeare, William. Shakespeare's Play of the Merchant of Venice: Arranged for Representation at the Princess's Theatre, with Historical and Explanatory Notes by Charles Kean, F.S.A.. Lex, lex-books.com/book/shakespeare-s-play-of-the-merchant-of-venice-arranged-for-representation-at-the--808fe277-c736-4540-91ca-6820cb79e4eb.Shakespeare, W. (1600). Shakespeare's Play of the Merchant of Venice: Arranged for Representation at the Princess's Theatre, with Historical and Explanatory Notes by Charles Kean, F.S.A.. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/shakespeare-s-play-of-the-merchant-of-venice-arranged-for-representation-at-the--808fe277-c736-4540-91ca-6820cb79e4ebShakespeare, William. Shakespeare's Play of the Merchant of Venice: Arranged for Representation at the Princess's Theatre, with Historical and Explanatory Notes by Charles Kean, F.S.A.. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/shakespeare-s-play-of-the-merchant-of-venice-arranged-for-representation-at-the--808fe277-c736-4540-91ca-6820cb79e4eb.
