![]() Christopher Marlowe was born in 1564 in Canterbury, England. Cellars of wine, and sollars 131 full of wheat, Warehouses stuffd with spices and with drugs, Whole chests. Our Story: Barabas the Jew is the wealthiest man in Malta, but he loses his fortune in a moment when the governor of the island seizes his assets to pay the tribute demanded by the Ottoman Empire. Christopher Marlowe and The Jew of Malta Background. To fast, to pray, and wear a shirt of hair, And on my knees creep to Jerusalem. ![]() The Jew of Malta is also one of the easier reads of the Elizabethan canon, and so is a great starter-play for those who want to learn to understand Shakespeare’s work and language in greater depth. So in The Jew of Malta, in which Barabas, the miserly and misanthropic Jewish anti-hero, can exclaim regularly against Christians, pointing out, for example, that “Some Jews are wicked, as all Christians are.” But the issue is more complicated, and more interesting, because Marlowe, who in his lifetime was accused of disseminating atheistic beliefs, targeted all religions, especially Christianity, with criticism for their hypocrisies. ![]() On its fa ce, Christopher Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta appears to be a shallow adoption of anti-Semitic stereotypes into what is a very entertaining play. Language Difficulty Rating: 3 (not difficult). ![]()
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