The Merchant of Venice in the context of "Charles Macklin"

Sir John Gilbert RA (21 July 1817 – 5 October 1897) was an English artist, illustrator and engraver.

Shylock (/ˈʃaɪlɒk/ SHY-lok) is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice (c. 1600). A Venetian Jewish moneylender, Shylock is the play's principal villain. His defeat and forced conversion to Christianity form the climax of the story.

Shylock's characterisation is composed of stereotypes, for instance greediness and vengefulness, although there were no legally practising Jews who lived in England during Shakespeare's time. Jews were expelled from the country in 1290 by Edward I in the Edict of Expulsion; this was not reversed until the mid-17th century (the Cromwell Era).

Samuel Phelps (13 February 1804 – 6 November 1878) was an English actor-manager. He is known for reviving the fortunes of the neglected Sadler's Wells Theatre and for his productions of Shakespeare's plays which were presented with attention to period detail and dramatic veracity, and used texts purged of 18th-century alterations and additions.

Stage-struck from an early age, Phelps performed as an amateur before becoming a professional actor in 1826. Working his way up in provincial companies he graduated from small supporting parts to leading roles, making his London début as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice in 1839. From 1844 to 1862 he ran Sadler's Wells, presenting all but four of Shakespeare's plays as well as those of dramatists from the Renaissance to the current period.