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| The Jew of Malta | |
|---|---|
| Name | The Jew of Malta |
| Caption | Title page of the 1633 quarto |
| Writer | Christopher Marlowe (attributed) |
| Premiere | c. 1590s |
| Place | London |
| Original language | Early Modern English |
| Genre | Tragedy, Revenge Drama |
The Jew of Malta is an Elizabethan tragedy attributed to Christopher Marlowe that dramatizes religious conflict, commercial rivalry, and vengeance on the Mediterranean island of Malta. Set amid tensions between Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, the play centers on a merchant, his fall from civic favor, and a ruthless quest for retribution that implicates rulers and merchants across Europe and the Ottoman Empire. Its provocative portrayal of religion, commerce, and political hypocrisy has generated debate among scholars of Renaissance literature, Elizabethan drama, and early modern antisemitism.
Written in the late sixteenth century, the play engages with contemporary concerns about trade networks linking Venice, Genoa, Carthage (ancient resonance), and the rising power of the Ottoman Empire. It intersects with theatrical institutions such as the Rose Theatre, the Curtain Theatre, and companies like the Lord Admiral's Men and the Lord Chamberlain's Men. The text interacts with legal contexts like the Edict of Expulsion in England and public controversies involving figures such as Sir Rowland Hill and debates in the Star Chamber. It also resonates with continental events including the Spanish Armada, the Italian Wars, and the geopolitics of Habsburg Spain and Republic of Venice.
Composed in the wake of encounters among Mediterranean polities, the play reflects influences from classical sources and continental drama, drawing on works associated with Plautus, Seneca, and medieval mystery traditions. Its depiction of mercantile life echoes pamphlets and tracts circulated by merchants in London, Antwerp, and Lisbon, while its religious polemics engage polemicists such as Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Catholic apologists tied to Counter-Reformation controversies. Theatrically, innovations in characterization and blank verse link the play to contemporaries like William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Thomas Kyd, John Webster, and George Chapman. Debates over tone and genre invoke classifications used by critics from A. C. Bradley to E. M. W. Tillyard and modern scholars in New Historicism and Cultural Materialism.
Set in Malta under the rule of the Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller, the narrative follows a wealthy merchant who falls from favor after being dispossessed by magistrates allied with rival merchants from Seville, Naples, and Ragusa. Betrayed by civic authorities and embroiled with conspirators linked to Istanbul and the Barbary Coast, he adopts Machiavellian stratagems involving poison, false piety, and alliance-making with Barbarossa-like corsairs. The plot advances through scenes of bargaining in port warehouses referencing Alexandria trade, trial scenes reminiscent of Roman law dramas, and final tableaux of massacre and city ransacking akin to chronicles of Constantinople. Subplots involve seduction, political assassination, and double-crosses among nobles, courtesans, and mercantile agents from Florence, Lyon, and Amsterdam.
- Barabas: a wealthy Maltese merchant whose trajectory recalls figures from Seneca and proto-Machiavellian protagonists found in works by Niccolò Machiavelli and Thomas More critics. - Ithamore: an enslaved servant associated with North African corsairs and narratives of captivity like those involving John Foxe's accounts. - Malta’s Governor: aligned with orders such as the Knights Hospitaller and comparable to magistrates in civic dramas by Thomas Dekker. - Abigail and Bellamira: women linked to courtesan tropes explored by John Marston and Philip Massinger. - Lodowick and Ferneze: noble figures whose political maneuvering evokes personages from the courts of Elizabeth I, Henry IV of France, and Philip II of Spain.
Key themes include religious hypocrisy as debated in treatises by William Tyndale and polemics involving Martin Luther; the ethics of commerce reflected in mercantile controversies in Antwerp and Venice; revenge narratives drawing on Senecan tragedy and chronicles such as those by Gildas-era historiography; and racialized portrayals shaped by Mediterranean encounters involving Algiers, Tripoli (Libya), and Cairo. Motifs include poisoned chalices and tomb-like coffers that echo stagecraft innovations at the Globe Theatre and the Swan Theatre, as well as rhetorical displays reminiscent of Humanist disputations at universities such as Cambridge and Oxford. The play interrogates sovereignty and law via references to legal institutions like the Inquisition and diplomatic practices of the Habsburg Netherlands.
Attribution studies cite stylistic affinities with works by Christopher Marlowe and contested passages compared with texts by Thomas Kyd, George Peele, and Robert Greene. Documentary evidence includes entry in the Stationers' Register and quarto editions printed in the early seventeenth century. Chronology debates situate composition in the mid-1590s, contemporaneous with plays such as Doctor Faustus and early works by William Shakespeare like Romeo and Juliet or Titus Andronicus. Intertextual echoes point to sources in medieval travel narratives, Hakluyt-style collections, and continental tragedies translated from Italian and French exemplars.
Early performances likely occurred at private and public venues including the Rose Theatre, the Curtain Theatre, and later revivals in the seventeenth century tied to companies like the King's Men. Restoration adaptations engaged dramatists such as Nahum Tate and critics from the Augustan period. Nineteenth- and twentieth-century receptions involved readings by scholars like A. C. Bradley, productions linked to the Royal Shakespeare Company, and controversies over staging in relation to modern debates in postcolonial studies and Jewish studies. Contemporary productions have been mounted in repertory theatres of London, New York City, and university stages at Harvard University and University of Oxford, provoking discussion in journals such as Modern Philology and Shakespeare Quarterly.
Category:Elizabethan plays