Includes bibliographical references (p. 175-188).

Shakespeare: Overview: Biographical sketch -- Note on anti-Stratfordians, especially Baconians and Oxfordians -- Shakespeare Canon --Shakespeare's english -- Shakespeare's theater -- Note on the use of boy actors in female roles -- Shakespeare's dramatic language: Costumes, gestures, and silences; prose and poetry -- Play text as a collaboration -- Editing texts -- Shakespeare on stage -- Introduction: Merchant of Venice -- Textual note -- Note on the sources of the Merchant of Venice -- Commentaries: From the works of Mr. William Shakespeare / Nicholas Rowe -- From characters of Shakespeare's plays / William Hazlitt -- EHrn yrlivgns'S yholkc -- From Shylock / Elmer Edgar Stoll -- Avoidance of choice: Woman's privilege / Linda Bamber -- Fourth and fifth acts -- Alexander Leggatt -- End of the merchant of Venice: Four versions / Robert Smallwood -- Merchant of Venice on stage and screen / Sylvan Barnet -- Suggested references.

Unique features include an extensive overview of Shakespeare's life, world, and theater by the general editor of Signet Classic Shakespeare series, plus a special introduction to the play by the editor Sylvan Barnet, Tufts University. Another feature of this series includes dramatic criticism from the past and present: Commentaries by Nicholas Rowe, William Hazlitt, Edgar Elmer Stoll, Linda Bamber, Alexander Leggart, and Robert Smallwood. Special introduction by Kenneth Myrick, Tufts University.