The Merchant of Venice

Written by William Shakespeare

Narrated by LibriVox Community

William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice was probably written between 1596 and 1598, and was printed with the comedies in the First Folio of 1623. Bassanio, an impoverished gentleman, uses the credit of his friend, the merchant Antonio, to borrow money from a wealthy Jew, Shylock. Antonio pledges to pay Shylock a pound of flesh if he defaults on the loan, which Bassanio will use to woo a rich heiress, Portia. A subplot concerns the elopement of Shylock's daughter Jessica with a Christian, Bassanio's friend Lorenzo. In its focus on love and marriage, the play shares certain concerns with Shakespeare's other comedies. Yet its depiction of the tensions between Jews and Christians in early modern Venice - and its highly dramatic trial scene in Act 4 - create darker currents in the play. (Summary by Elizabeth Klett)

Cast:

Duke of Venice: Filippo Gioachin
Prince of Morocco: Mark F. Smith
Prince of Arragon: David Nicol
Antonio: David O'Connell
Bassanio: mb
Salanio: Rosalind Wills
Salarino: Laurie Anne Walden
Gratiano: David Leeson
Lorenzo: Aaron Elliott
Shylock: etk
Tubal: Carolyn Frances
Launcelot Gobbo: L. Lambert Lawson
Old Gobbo: David Lawrence
Leonardo: Laurie Anne Walden
Balthasar: David Lawrence
Stephano: Lucy Perry
Portia: Arielle Lipshaw
Nerissa: Megan Kunkel
Jessica: Elizabeth Klett
Clerk in court: Ernst Pattynama
Portia's servant: Joshua B. Christensen
Narrator: Dennis Sayers

• Language: English
• Publisher: LibriVox
• Release date: Aug 25, 2014

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was born in April 1564 in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, on England’s Avon River. When he was eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway. The couple had three children—an older daughter Susanna and twins, Judith and Hamnet. Hamnet, Shakespeare’s only son, died in childhood. The bulk of Shakespeare’s working life was spent in the theater world of London, where he established himself professionally by the early 1590s. He enjoyed success not only as a playwright and poet, but also as an actor and shareholder in an acting company. Although some think that sometime between 1610 and 1613 Shakespeare retired from the theater and returned home to Stratford, where he died in 1616, others believe that he may have continued to work in London until close to his death.