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Abbess
The knight is one of Ferneze’s Maltese officers, and he serves to personify the widespread anti-Semitism and bigotry present in the play, and, Marlowe thus implies, in 16th-century England as well. When Ferneze seizes half the wealth belonging to all the Jews in Malta to pay the Turkish tribute, the knight tells Barabas that it is because of his “inherent sin,” or Jewish identity. What’s more, it is the knight who suggests Ferneze also seize Barabas’s house and turn it into a convent, a proposal that adds insult to the injury of Barabas’s lost gold.
Knight Quotes in The Jew of Malta
The The Jew of Malta quotes below are all either spoken by Knight or refer to Knight. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Act 1, Scene 2
Quotes
Barabas: Are strangers with your tribute to be taxed?
Knight: Have strangers leave with us to get their wealth?
Then let them with us contribute.
Barabas: How equally?
Ferneze: No, Jew, like infidels,
For through our sufferance of your hateful lives,
Who stand accursèd in the sight of heaven,
These taxes and afflictions are befallen,
And therefore thus we are determinèd;
Read there the articles of our decrees.
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Explanation and Analysis:
What? Bring you scripture to confirm your wrongs?
Preach me not out of my possessions.
Some Jews are wicked, as all Christians are:
But say the tribe that I descended of
Were all in general cast away for sin,
Shall I be tried by their transgression?
The man that dealeth righteously shall live:
And which of you can charge me otherwise?
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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Knight Quotes in The Jew of Malta
The The Jew of Malta quotes below are all either spoken by Knight or refer to Knight. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Act 1, Scene 2
Quotes
Barabas: Are strangers with your tribute to be taxed?
Knight: Have strangers leave with us to get their wealth?
Then let them with us contribute.
Barabas: How equally?
Ferneze: No, Jew, like infidels,
For through our sufferance of your hateful lives,
Who stand accursèd in the sight of heaven,
These taxes and afflictions are befallen,
And therefore thus we are determinèd;
Read there the articles of our decrees.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
What? Bring you scripture to confirm your wrongs?
Preach me not out of my possessions.
Some Jews are wicked, as all Christians are:
But say the tribe that I descended of
Were all in general cast away for sin,
Shall I be tried by their transgression?
The man that dealeth righteously shall live:
And which of you can charge me otherwise?
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
