The Jew of Malta Characters

When you're named after the guy who doesn't get crucified, you pretty much know that life isn't going to work out.Meet Barabas. He's named after Barabbas, the Biblical thief who the crowd of Jews d...

Ferneze is the Christian Governor of Malta, and father to the ill-fated Lodowick.In big picture terms, he bookends the main action of play: he's both the guy who gets the ball rolling (his confisca...

Hey: if you can't make friends, buy them. That's what Barabas does, at least. And he buys a friend—well, slave—who just happens to be his ideal companion. Evil SidekickBarabas couldn't have pic...

Abigail is Barabas's 14-year-old daughter, and may very well have been the only character in this play you actually liked. Early on, Barabas claims that the only things in the world that he cares a...

Calymath, the son of the Turkish Sultan, is the leader of the Turkish army that first demands the tribute from Ferneze and later invades Malta. Even though the Turks (a.k.a. the Ottoman Empire) wer...

Like lots of people in The Jew of Malta, Bellamira is just trying to turn a profit. With her body. She's the local prostitute, but don't look for a heart of gold here. While everybody else is freak...

Pilia-Borza is Bellamira's pimp. True to pimp form, he's all about the stealing, lying and cheating. For a while, it seems like his plot with Bellamira to blackmail Barabas will work out: Pilia-Bor...

Jacomo is the friar who converts Barabas's daughter Abigail into a nun. Twice. And that's his high point: later, he and Friar Bernadine both get caught up in one of Barabas's murder plots after the...

Bernadine is another ill-fated friar. (You'd almost think that Marlowe has a grudge against the Catholic Church.) He's all buddy-buddy with fellow man of God Jacomo—until, of course, money comes...

Lodowick makes the really bad move of being the son of Barabas's arch-nemesis, Governor Ferneze. After recovering some of his gold, Barabas's first order of business is to kill Lodowick, on account...

Mathias is a Maltese Christian who's in l-o-v-e with Abigail. Even though his mother, Katherine, isn't keen on having her son marry a Jewish girl, Mathias is still dead set on marrying his daughter...

Katherine is Mathias's mom. Her main role is to warn her son to stay away from Barabas (should have listened to your mom, Matty) and, after his death, be distraught all over the place while vowing...

You only really see these guys in the very beginning when they come to tell Barabas that Ferneze's rounding up all the Jews at the Senate House. Unlike Barabas, when Ferneze offers them the opportu...