William Shakespeare 
Merchant of Venice 

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. The Quarto published by Roberts is commonly regarded as the first edition of the play, and the best authority for its text. Probably each was printed, not from the original manuscript but from a transcript of a stage-copy; the variations of the two Quartos representing the mistakes made by the two transcribers 9.