’Tell me worldlings, underneath the sun, If greater falsehood ever has been done’The Jew of Malta, written around 1590, can present achallenge for modern audiences. Hugely popular in its day, the playswings wildly and rapidly in genre, from pointed satire, to bloodyrevenge tragedy, to melodrmatic intrigue, to dark farce and grotesquecomedy. Although set in the Mediterranean island of Malta, the playevokes contemporary Elizabethan social tensions, especially the highlycharged issue of London’s much-resented community of resident merchantforeigners. Barabas, the enormously wealthy Jew of the play’s title, appears initially victimized by Malta’s Christian Governor, who quotesscripture to support the demand that Jews cede their wealth to pay Malta’s tribute to the Turks. When he protests, Barabas is deprived ofhis wealth, his means of livelihood, and his house, which is convertedto a nunnery. In response to this hypocritical extortion, Barabaslaunches a horrific (and sometimes hilarious) course of violence thatgoes well beyond revenge, using murderous tactics that includeeverything from deadly soup to poisoned flowers. The play’s sometimescomplex treatment of anti-Semitism and its relationship to Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice remain matters of continuing scholarly reflection.This student edition contains a lengthy Introduction with backgroundon the author, date and sources, theme, critical interpretation andstage history, as well as a fully annotated version of the playtext inmodern spelling.James R. Siemon is Professor of English at Boston University.
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