Throughout 365 years The Merchant of Venice has attracted leading actors for a role which, with the exception of Hamlet, is Shakespeare’s most controversial character. This is a study of the many interpretations of Shylock by leading actors of the British and American theatre, from Shakespeare’s time to the present. Drawing on prompt-books, memoirs of players, records of theatre managers, diaries of spectators and the evaluations of drama critics, Dr. Lelyveld presents Shylock in all his forms from the earliest portrayals as a stage-villain and the commonly-accepted stereotype of a Jew to the varied, highly individualized characterizations on the contemporary stage. THE AUTHOR Toby Lelyveld, B.S., M.A., Ph.D., is an American citizen. She has served on the faculties of Teachers College (Columbia University); University of Omaha, Nebraska; and Hillsdale School, Cincinnati; and as Director of Hunter College Hillel Foundation, New York City. She has acted with Columbia Laboratory Players and Cincinnati Actors Guild and has lectured extensively in the United States on literature and the theatre. At present she is lecturer in English at Western Reserve University.

Lelyveld T.

Shylock on the stage