The Merchant of Venice

Abstract

The Merchant of Venice, it must be remembered, is a play. This may need restating for it has been subjected to exhaustive examination as a source of evidence for historical discussion of English society in the 1590s. To insist that it is a play is to insist that material developed in the course of such discussion is essentially subordinate to and subordinated by the play. This essay will concentrate therefore on the means by which Shakespeare organizes his perceptions concerning English and Italian societies in the sixteenth century into an aesthetic experience. At the same time it is important to be aware of the extent to which misperception of various kinds contributes to the play’s possibility. Walter Cohen has closely explored these aspects of the play’s possibility in his essay ‘The Merchant of Venice and the Possibilities of Historical Criticism’.² I am indebted to this essay for a great many insights into the history with which The Merchant of Venice plays. In particular, Walter Cohen grapples convincingly with the nature of usury in the play and with its historical sources and implications for Italian and English capitalism in the sixteenth century. He suggests that, ‘in The Merchant of Venice, English history evokes fears of capitalism, and Italian history allays those fears. One is the problem, the other the solution, the act of incorporation, of transcendence, toward which the play strives.’