Character guide

Barabas

major

Also known as Barabas Ay, poor Barabas, great Barabas, Barabas Governor, Barabas Marry, Barabas Tush, Barabas Hum, Barabas Belike, Barabas Peace, Merchant Barabas, Master Barabas, Poor Barabas, Barabas Yonder, Barabas Daughter, Barabas Christians

Barabas begins as Malta's wealthiest Jew, then loses everything when the governor seizes his estate to pay Turkish tribute, and the play's engine becomes his elaborate revenge. He hides gold beneath his own floor, feigns death, and recruits the slave Ithamore as a partner in villainy, speaking to the audience in asides that expose his delight in cruelty. His grievance is real, but his methods are so extravagantly wicked that the audience is forced to watch a victim become a monster.

Ithamore

major

Also known as Barabas Ithamore, gentle Ithamore

Ithamore is bought in the slave market for a hundred crowns and immediately trades villainous résumés with his new master, each claiming worse crimes than the other. He carries poison to the nuns, delivers forged challenges, and boasts of his work with a servant's pride, but his weakness is desire: one glimpse of Bellamira and he starts dreaming of buying her with the Jew's gold. His drift from accomplice to liability is the fault line that eventually cracks Barabas's whole scheme.

Abigail

major

Also known as Abigail Father, fair Abigail, gentle Abigail

Abigail is the one person Barabas genuinely loves, and she loves him back, offering to storm the senate-house and tear her hair over his losses. When her father uses her as bait in his revenge, she is caught between Lodowick and Mathias, then converts to Christianity and enters a nunnery, seeking a life her father cannot touch. Her choices expose the human cost of Barabas's schemes and give the play its sharpest measure of what his vengeance destroys.

Ferneze

major

Also known as Ferneze Soft, Ferneze Dead, Ferneze Wonder, Ferneze Thou, Ferneze Captain, Ferneze O Lodowick, Ferneze Thine, Wretched Ferneze

Ferneze rules Malta under Turkish tribute and solves the crisis by seizing the wealth of its Jewish residents, telling Barabas his goods are forfeit for the common good. He grieves his son Lodowick's death with genuine anguish, but his grief hardens into a feud with Katharine and a determination to see the Jew punished, even when the evidence is thin. He is Barabas's mirror: a man who calls his own cruelty providence and who will do whatever the siege demands.

Lodowick

supporting

Also known as Don Lodowick, noble Lodowick, sweet Lodowick, Lord Lodowick, Lodowick Barabas, Lodowick Yond

Lodowick is a young nobleman who wants the diamond Barabas dangles and, more dangerously, wants Abigail. He accepts the Jew's invitation into the house and the daughter's company without asking why a grieving father would suddenly play matchmaker. His rivalry with Mathias over Abigail is exactly what Barabas has engineered, and his death becomes the wound that turns Ferneze's grief into a hunt for the truth.

Mathias

supporting

Also known as Don Mathias, poor Mathias, Sirrah Mathias, Mathias Whither

Mathias loves Abigail and believes she loves him, a hope Barabas privately vows to destroy as part of his revenge on the governor. He is warned by his mother Katharine to stay away from the Jew, but he keeps returning, first to borrow a book, then to answer a challenge he believes came from Lodowick. His death in the street, watched from a balcony by the man who arranged it, is the play's first proof of how cheaply Barabas spends other people's lives.

Pilia-Borza

supporting

Also known as Pilia, Borza, Pilia - Borza Jew, Pilia - Borza Knavely

Pilia-Borza runs errands between Bellamira's house and Barabas's, delivering threats and collecting crowns with a rogue's relish. His mangled face and hacked hands mark him as a man of the cross-biting trade, yet he serves Ithamore with a strange, mocking loyalty. When he carries the courtesan's letter demanding gold, his nerve and greed push Barabas toward the desperate violence that will undo him.

Bellamira

supporting

Also known as Madam Bellamira, Bellamira Whither, Bellamira Prithee, Bellamira Pilia

Bellamira writes to Ithamore before she has even met him, drawn by reputation and the promise of profit. She weighs gold lightly and men heavily, kissing Ithamore while tossing his money aside, and her charm makes him eager to confess every crime he knows. Her scheme to bleed Barabas dry sets the trap that exposes the Jew's murders to Ferneze.

Friar Jacomo

supporting

Also known as Jacomo, Friar Jacomo Abigail, Friar Jacomo O, Friar Jacomo Villains, Friar Jacomo Sisters

Jacomo competes with Barnadine for the honor of converting the wealthy Barabas, each friar claiming the greater house and stricter rule. He shrives Abigail and learns her secrets, a knowledge that makes him dangerous to Barabas and doomed by it. His quarrel with Barnadine over whose order deserves the Jew's fortune hands Barabas the opening he needs to destroy them both.

Friar Barnadine

supporting

Also known as Barnardine, Friar Barnardine, Friar Barnadine Barabas, Friar Barnadine Ay

Barnadine receives Abigail's confession and learns of the forged challenge and the poisoned broth, but the seal of the shrift forbids him to reveal it. He tries to use the knowledge to frighten Barabas into repentance, unaware that he is walking into a trap. His scruple about the confessional makes him both a threat and a victim, and his strangling in Barabas's house is the murder that finally damns the Jew in the eyes of Malta.

Selim Calymath

supporting

Also known as Calymath, great Selim Calymath, young Selim Calymath, mighty Selim Calymath

Calymath arrives with the Ottoman fleet to demand Malta's tribute, and his power reshapes every alliance on the island. He is proud, cautious, and willing to be courted, especially by a Barabas who promises pearls and banquets. His decision to accept the Jew's invitation to feast in the citadel sets the stage for the play's last great reversal, where the besieger becomes the besieged.

Martin del Bosco

minor

Also known as Bosco, Del Bosco, Knight Del Bosco, First Knight Del Bosco

A Spanish knight who advises Ferneze against paying tribute to the Turks.

Katharine

minor

Also known as Katharine O, Katharine This Moor

Mathias's mother, who mourns her son's death and seeks justice.

Abbess

minor

The head of the nunnery where Abigail takes refuge.

Basso

minor

Also known as Ferneze Basso, Bassoes

A Turkish officer who delivers Calymath's demands to Malta.

Machiavel

minor

The prologue speaker, representing the spirit of Machiavelli.

First Officer

minor

Also known as Officers

A Maltese officer who arrests Barabas and carries out orders.

Messenger

minor

Also known as Messenger Selim

A messenger who brings news from the Turkish camp.

First Knight

minor

Also known as Knights, First Knight Tut

A knight of Malta who participates in council decisions.