The Merchant of Venice is a Shakespeare play featuring a conflict between a merchant and a Jewish moneylender in Venice.
Bibliographic notesThe Merchant of Venice is mentioned in the Stationers' Register for 1598. The first known quarto was published in 1600. The second quarto is also dated 1600 on its title page, but was published in 1619. The play was also included in the First Folio of 1623, published seven years after Shakespeare's death. These early texts are in relatively close harmony compared to the early texts of other Shakespeare plays.
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Shakespeare in Quarto (may be down until sometime in 2025, as British Library recovers from cyberattack), by William Shakespeare (page images at the British Library). Includes the first three quarto editions of The Merchant of Venice, that can be compared side by side.
- The Merchant of Venice (with annotations and scene index), by William Shakespeare, ed. by Philip Weller (HTML at shakespeare-navigators.com)
- The Merchant of Venice, by William Shakespeare (HTML with commentary at folger.edu)
- The Most Excellent Historie of the Merchant of Venice (first quarto; London: Printed by I. R. For T. Heyes, 1600), by William Shakespeare
- The Excellent History of the Merchant of Venice (second quarto, 1600/1619), by William Shakespeare
- The Merchant of Venice (from the First Folio, 1623), by William Shakespeare
- The Most Excellent Historie of the Merchant of Venice: With the Extreame Crueltie of Shylocke the Iewe Towards the Said Merchant, in Cutting a Just Pound of His Flesh, and the Obtaining of Portia by the Choice of Three Chests, As it Hath Beene Divers Times Acted by the Lord Chamberlaine His Servants (third quarto; London: Printed by M.P. for L. Hayes, 1637), by William Shakespeare
- The Jew of Venice: A Comedy As It is Acted in the Theatre in Little-Lincoln-in-the-Fields (1701 adaptation of the Merchant of Venice), by William Shakespeare and George Granville Lansdowne (page images here at Penn)
- The Merchant of Venice: A Comedy, As it is Performed at the Theatres Royal (London: Printed for M. Lister, 1788), by William Shakespeare (multiple formats at archive.org)
- Shakespeare's Play of The Merchant of Venice, Arranged for Representation at the Princess's Theatre, With Historical and Explanatory Notes (ca. 1858), by William Shakespeare, ed. by Charles John Kean (Gutenberg text)
- The Merchant of Venice (Lamb Shakespeare for the Young, based on Lamb's tales, with passages from Shakespeare's play, illustrations by Wright, and music by Hardy; London: Chatto and Windus, 1908), contrib. by Charles Lamb, Mary Lamb, William Shakespeare, and T. Maskell Hardy, illust. by L. E. Wright (page images at HathiTrust; IS access only)
- Le Marchand de Venise (The Merchant of Venice in French), by William Shakespeare, trans. by François Guizot (Gutenberg text)
- Der Kaufmann von Venedig (The Merchant of Venice in German), by William Shakespeare, trans. by August Wilhelm von Schlegel (Gutenberg text)
- The Merchant of Venice (London: Printed for J. Tonson et al., 1734), by William Shakespeare, ed. by Alexander Pope, illust. by Paul Fourdrinier (multiple formats at archive.org)
- The Merchant of Venice (London: Printed for J. and P. Knapton et al., 1745), by William Shakespeare (page images at HathiTrust)
- The Merchant of Venice (London: Oxford University Press, 1914), by William Shakespeare, ed. by W. J. Craig (HTML at Bartleby)
- El Mercader de Venecia (English main text; notes and commentary in Spanish; Boston et al.: D.C. Heath and Co., c1921), by William Shakespeare, trans. by José Padín, contrib. by Henry Livingston Withers and Morris W. Croll
- The Merchant of Venice (Old-Spelling Shakespeare series; London: Chatto and Windus; New York: Duffield and Co., 1908), by William Shakespeare, ed. by Frederick James Furnivall, contrib. by F. W. Clarke (multiple formats at archive.org)
- The Merchant of Venice (based on the 1887 Victoria edition), by William Shakespeare, ed. by William George Clark and William Aldis Wright (multiple formats with commentary at Standard Ebooks)
- Look for editions of this book at your library, or elsewhere.