The Merchant of Venice

07For this updated edition Charles Edelman has added a substantial new section to the Introduction.16The Merchant of Venice has been performed more often than any other comedy by Shakespeare. Molly Mahood pays special attention to the expectations of the play's first audience, and to our modern experience of seeing and hearing the play. In a substantial new addition to the Introduction, Charles Edelman focuses on the play's sexual politics and recent scholarship devoted to the position of Jews in Shakespeare's time. He surveys the international scope and diversity of theatrical interpretations of The Merchant in the 1980s and 1990s and their different ways of tackling the troubling figure of Shylock. In a substantial new section, Charles Edelman focuses on the play's sexual politics and recent scholarship on the position of Jews in Shakespeare's time. He surveys the international scope of theatrical interpretations of The Merchant in the 1980s and 1990s and different ways of tackling the troubling figure of Shylock.04Introduction, with new section on recent critical and stage interpretations by Charles Edelman; Note on the text; List of characters; The play; Supplementary note; Textual analysis; Appendix: Shakespeare's use of the Bible in The Merchant of Venice; Reading list.01William Shakespeare (1564-1616) gilt als einer der größten Dichter und Dramatiker der Weltgeschichte. Er verfasste zahlreiche Dramen, Tragödien, Komödien und Gedichte, mit denen er schon zu Lebzeiten Anerkennung und Wohlstand errang. Aber erst in den folgenden Jahrhunderten wurde er zum Prototypen des literarischen Genies, ohne den die Entwicklung der neueren Literatur von Goethe über Brecht bis in die Gegenwart hinein undenkbar ist.