The Merchant of Venice is a Shakespeare play featuring a conflict between a merchant and a Jewish moneylender in Venice.
Bibliographic notes
The 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.
Related titles
- Shakespeare in Quarto, 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.
See also
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Student editions
Early source editions
- 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
Historic staged versions
Juvenile adaptations
- 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)
Other online editions and versions
- The Merchant of Venice, by William Shakespeare (HTML with commentary at folger.edu)
- 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)
Editions in libraries
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