ABSTRACT
Venice, the crossing-point between east and west, was the most cosmopolitan city in the Renaissance world, with a large population of foreigners temporarily or permanently enjoying the climate, the culture, and the opportunities for international trade. As a world power, Venice by 1605 was on the decline, but it still dominated the realms of commerce and high finance. Venice monopolised the European market in such luxuries as silk and spices from the near and far east, brought by merchant-ships from the Levant, whose ruler, the Grand Turk, amazed and terrified the rest of the world. The decadent splendour of the Ottoman Empire seemed to spill over into Venice, with its wealth, its political intrigues, its reputation for sophisticated sexual practices, and its architectural beauty. The English fascination with the degeneracy and perversion they assumed dominated Venetian life animates the whole play, particularly in the figures of the English tourists and their references to the famous courtesans. The casting of the plots and characters into the general shape of a scenario from the commedia dell'arte, Venice's indigenous dramatic tradition, also injects a strong foreign flavour (see General Introduction, p. 10).
