Scholarly and detailed annotations. Provides a thorough sense of the plays background and content. Full and comprehensive introduction.

First performed in 1592, The Jew of Malta was one of the most popular plays of its day and has been a treasure of the Elizabethan Renaissance ever since. Set on the island of Malta when it was a center of Mediterranean trade, it deals with power and power struggles on several levels: between individuals, groups, and empires, and between money, family, and political authority.

The title figure of the play is Barabas, grown wealthy by successful overseas trade. Depicted as the personification of Machiavellian ideas (as Machiavelli was understood in Elizabethan England), Barabas feels...