Publisher's Synopsis
The Merchant of Venice is one of Shakespeare's most popular comedies, but it remains deeply controversial. The text may seem anti-Semitic; yet repeatedly, in performance, it has revealed a contrasting nature. Shylock, though vanquished in the law-court, often triumphs in the theatre. In his intensity he can dominate the play, challenging abrasively its romantic and lyrical affirmations. What results is a bitter-sweet drama. Though The Merchant of Venice offers some of the traditional pleasures of romantic comedy, it also exposes the operations of prejudice. Thus Shakespeare remains our contemporary.In sooth, I know not why I am so sad: It wearies me; you say it wearies you;But how I caught it, found it, or came by it, What stuff 'tis made of, whereof it is born, I am to learn;And such a want-wit sadness makes of me, That I have much ado to know myself.SALARINOYour mind is tossing on the ocean;There, where your argosies with portly sail, Like signiors and rich burghers on the flood, Or, as it were, the pageants of the sea, Do overpeer the petty traffickers, That curtsy to them, do them reverence, As they fly by them with their wov
