Shakespeare and the Limits of Cosmopolitanism

The first mention of The Merchant of Venice appears in 1598, when a publisher announces that he is about to publish “a booke of the Marchaunt of Venyce, or otherwise called the Jewe of Venyce.” And the first mention of Othello appears in 1622, when another publisher announced his intention to print “The Tragoedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice.” Shakespeare, thus, writes two plays whose titles seemingly claim something about the inclusiveness of the Venetian Republic: its ability to allow a conspicuous outsider to be “of” the very city that was known as the most sophisticated, commercial, and cosmopolitan community in Italy, indeed in all of Europe. In each, of course, the character discovers how provisional and vulnerable his existence is. The essay, therefore, looks at how Shakespeare understands the possibilities and challenges of cosmopolitanism, in ways that may help us understand something about Shakespeare’s world and perhaps something about our own.