Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

KNIGHTS

in The Jew of Malta — Marlowe, Christopher

Metadata

PlayThe Jew of Malta
AuthorMarlowe, Christopher
Year (catalogued)1633
First performance1589
Decade1630s
GenreTragedy
Play typeAdult Professional
CompanyUnknown
Theaterbefore the Court;Phoenix/Cockpit;Whitehall;Indoor Professional
Speech prefix(es)1 Kni. | 1 Knight. | Kni. | 1 Knight, | 2 Kni. | Kni:
Words225
Characters1212
Typicality0.38 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA06991
BritDrama no.828
ClusterCluster 3 — Citizens, tradesfolk & neighbors

Important excerpts

No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).

Full speech

Tut, Jew, we know thou art no soldier; Thou art a Merchant, and a moneyed man, And it's thy money, Barabas, we seek. Grave Governors, list not to his exclaims: Convert his mansion to a Nunnery, Enter Officers. His house will harbour many holy Nuns. It's true, my Lord, therefore entreat him well. Delbosco, as thou love and honourest us, Persuade our Governor against the Turk ; This truce we have is but in hope of gold, And with that sum he craves might we wage war. Rather then thus to live as Turkish thralls, What will we not adventure? Have you determined what to say to them? From nought at first thou canst to little wealth, From little unto more, from more to most: If your first curse fallen heavy on thy head, And make thee poor and scorn worser of all the world, It's not our fault, but thy inherent sin. And die he shall, for we will never yield. Nay stay, my Lord, 'tmay be he will confess. Found a charge there. A charge, the cable cut, A Caldron discovered. It's necessary that be looked unto: For if we break our day, we break the league, And that will prove but simple policy. Exeunt, Have strangers leave with us to get their wealth? Then let them with us contribute. Farewell graven Governor.

Plot summary

Plot — The Jew of Malta
For ten years, Malta has failed to pay tribute to the Turks; now Séliml(@alymath comes to collect the arrears, but grants Bémeze, the Governor, a month to find the money. Ferneze requires the island’s Jews to contribute half their assets towards the sum, on pain of forcible conversion; but Bafabas, a wealthy merchant with trading links all over the east, refuses either to pay or to become a Christian. His entire estate is seized and his house converted to a nunnery. Unbeknown to the authorities, there is a cache of money and jewels hidden in the house; Barabas has his daughter, Abigail, become a nun in order to get access to it. After retrieving the gold, she leaves the convent, and Barabas buys a new house. The Spanish Vice-Admiral, Martin(§@elgposcs} arrives in Malta after routing the Turkish navy. He is granted permission to sell his prisoners as slaves on the island, even though this will be provocative to the Turks; Ferneze decides to keep the gold he levied to pay the tribute, and count on Spanish aid in the war that will follow. Barabas visits the slave market and buys [fiamiore; they swap stories about their exploits in villainy. A Turkish pasha comes to collect the tribute money, but Ferneze refuses to pay. War looms. Mathias and WEdGwiek both love Abigail. Barabas asks her to encourage Lodowick, even though she prefers Mathias; he doesn’t want her to marry either, but particularly wants to destroy Lodowick to get revenge on Ferneze, his father. He tells Mathias of Lodowick’s interest, and forges a challenge from Lodowick. The two young men fight and kill one another. When Abigail finds out what has happened, she rejoins the nunnery. Barabas adopts Ithamore as his heir and sends the nuns an anonymous gift of poisoned rice. They all die; Abigail’s last act is to confess to Friar Barnardine her 1589 father’s part.in the deaths of Mathias and Lodowick. Barmardine and Friarjacom try to exploit the power this knowledge gives them over Barabas, without explicitly revealing it (which is forbidden under canon law). Barabas sets enmity between them by pretending he wishes to join a religious order and give that order his money; the two friars vie with one another to offer him an easier life, and he promises himself to both. He and Ithamore strangle Barnardine with his own girdle and stand up the body as if alive; it falls down when Jacomo strikes it, and he is hanged for the murder. With fewer visitors coming to Malta, there has been a slackening in trade…