Part of: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (The Oxford Shakespeare) The Merchant of Venice

The late Paul Cantor gives a series of three lectures on The Merchant of Venice. Lecture number one. Lecture number two. Lecture number three.

Al Pacino’s performance as Shylock in this 2004 film of the play has been widely praised.

In 1594 Queen Elizabeth I’s physician, Roderigo Lopez, a Portuguese Jew, was tried and executed for allegedly trying to poison the Queen. This collection of sources from the British Library provides a look at the case. Rumors of treachery were common about Jews at the time, and would have been some…

Debates over law and justice form a key part of the plot of The Merchant of Venice. No matter where Shakespeare’s plays are set, it is the English Common Law which forms his thinking about matters of law and justice.

The Jew of Malta, by Shakespeare’s rival playwright, Christopher Marlowe, provides a more traditional representation of a Jewish stage villain than does Shakespeare’s Shylock.