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The Merchant of Venice
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Roger Wreford as Shylock raises his arms in anguish during a scene from The Merchant of Venice, with two other actors in period costume on stage at the Theatre Royal, Bristol.
Watch a scene between Shylock and Portia from Shakespeare's “The Merchant of Venice”
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Facsimile of one of William Henry Ireland's forgeries, a primitive self-portrait of William Shakespeare(tinted engraving). Published for Samuel Ireland, Norfolk Street, Strand, December 1, 1795. (W.H. Ireland, forgery)
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Roger Wreford as Shylock raises his arms in anguish during a scene from The Merchant of Venice, with two other actors in period costume on stage at the Theatre Royal, Bristol.
The Merchant of Venice Edgar Wreford (right) performing as Shylock during a 1955 production of The Merchant of Venice at the Theatre Royal, Bristol, England.

The Merchant of Venice

work by Shakespeare
Written by
David Bevington
Phyllis Fay Horton Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in the Humanities and Chair of Theatre and Performance Studies, University of Chicago. World authority on Shakespeare. Editor of The Complete...
David Bevington
Fact-checked by
Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
Britannica Editors
Last updated
•History

The Merchant of Venice, comedy in five acts by William Shakespeare, written about 1596–97 and printed in a quarto edition in 1600 from an authorial manuscript or a copy of one. The play revolves around a moneylending plot in which a Christian merchant named Antonio gets embroiled in a legal battle with a Jewish moneylender, Shylock, whom he detests. Scholars debate whether Shakespeare displays antisemitism in his portrayal of Shylock and Shylock’s treatment by the...

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