The creative work of W. Shakespeare is well known in Georgian society. The new Georgian school of translation was developed on the translations of plays by Shakespeare. These translations were followed by staging them in the Georgian renaissance theatre since the 70s of the XIX century.
Translation of creative work of W. Shakespeare began in the 40s of the XIX century. The translator was a well-known writer and public man Dimitri Kipiani. The translations of three plays (“Romeo and Juliet”, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona” and “The Merchant of Venice”) belong to him. D. Kipiani knew Russian, French and English. “The Merchant of Venice” was translated in 1872 from English, namely from Routledge and H. Stanton’s edition of 1857 and it was published in the magazine “Mnatobi” #3. The researchers (M. Orlovskaia, M.Odzeli) note that these translations belong to the first period of translation and it can be evaluated from historical point.
Unfortunately the critical letters published in the newspapers of that period give low evaluation to these performances and the reasons of that can be traced back to the translation.
This version of translation was assumed as a basis of a performance named as “Shylock” presented in the repertoire of Georgian theatre in 1870-1879. In 1882 the actor Kote Kipiani chose “The Merchant of Venice” for his benefice. On the next year of the translation the cast of amateurs staged “The Merchant of Venice” in Bandza.
“The Merchant of Venice” was translated for the second time by a well-known translator Vakhtang Chelidze in 1946 and it was published in the collection of works “William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, the Merchant of Venice”. The performances of the following period were done by these translations and had a great success.