James Shapiro 
Shakespeare and the Jews 

First published in 1996, James Shapiro’s pathbreaking analysis of the portrayal of Jews in Elizabethan England challenged readers to recognize the significance of Jewish questions in Shakespeare’s day. From accounts of Christians masquerading as Jews to fantasies of settling foreign Jews in Ireland, Shapiro’s work delves deeply into the cultural insecurities of Elizabethans while illuminating Shakespeare’s portrayal of Shylock in
The Merchant of Venice. In a new preface, Shapiro reflects upon what he has learned about intolerance since the first publication of
Shakespeare and the Jews.

Table of Content

Preface to the Twentieth Anniversary Edition
Acknowledgments
A Note on Texts
Introduction
1. False Jews and Counterfeit Christians
2. Myths, Histories, Consequences
3. The Jewish Crime
4. ‘The Pound of Flesh’
5. The Hebrew Will Turn Christian
6. Race, Nation, or Alien?
7. Shakespeare and the Jew Bill of 1753
Conclusion
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index

About the author

James Shapiro is the Larry Miller Professor of English at Columbia University and a governor of the Folger Shakespeare Library. He is the author of several books, including
The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606 (2015) and
1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare (2005).