Victorian director Henry Irving’s use of a Black page in his production of ‘The Merchant of Venice’ shows how forms of race-thinking had been sustained and intensified in the English theatrical imagination.
Posts Tagged: The Merchant of Venice
Actor Edmund Kean’s more sympathetic portrayal of Shylock onstage in the early 19th century connected with the Jewish boxer Daniel Mendoza’s merciful defeat of an English champion.
What are the connections between traditional folktales and Shakespeare’s plays? Charlotte Artese, an English professor at Agnes Scott College in Georgia, sets out to explore these folktale sources in a new anthology of stories, Shakespeare and the Folktale, published October 22. “Both folktales and Shakespeare’s plays are cultural survivors, thriving in scores of languages and… Continue Reading »
Paul Glenshaw draws “The Merchant of Venice” bas-relief from the series by sculptor John Gregory at the Folger Shakespeare Library — and finds depictions of the same scene with some similar elements in the Folger collection.
The playwright and dramaturg who worked on translating ‘The Merchant of Venice’ share insights into the play and the translation process.
This excerpt from “London’s Triumph” by Stephen Alford looks at the Elizabethan understanding of usury, seen through Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice.”
Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice ends badly for Shylock, with the court ruling against him and his claim on Antonio’s “pound of flesh.” He loses half his property to Antonio and agrees to convert to Christianity to avoid losing the other half to the state. The play may be a comedy, but there’s nothing funny about Shylock’s… Continue Reading »
As you’ll hear in this episode of the Folger’s Shakespeare Unlimited podcast, Shakespeare and his plays are woven deeply into the culture of the British Caribbean. Even after centuries of British colonial rule came to an end, Shakespeare endured—in fascinating ways that come out in conversation with two scholars.
