The Jew of Malta

by

Christopher Marlowe

Abigail is Barabas’s daughter and Mathias’s love. Abigail is incredibly beautiful and young—around 14—and she is first introduced after Ferneze seizes Barabas’s wealth and converts his mansion into a convent. Barabas convinces Abigail to join the convent under false pretenses to retrieve the gold he has hidden under the floorboards, which she agrees to do even though she knows it is immoral and deceitful. Afterward, Barabas again asks for Abigial’s help in his scheming, and he convinces her to pretend to be in love with Don Lodowick, even though she is really in love with Mathias and hopes to marry him. Barabas is secretly plotting his revenge against Ferneze, which includes the death of Ferneze’s son, Lodowick, and Don Mathias. Abigail leads Lodowick on as her father asks her to do, but she is shocked and heartbroken when she learns her dishonesty leads to Lodowick and Mathias’s deaths, so she entreats Friar Jacomo to join the nunnery—this time for real—as penance for her sins. When Barabas learns of Abigail’s conversion to Christianity, he considers it a personal betrayal, and he vows to avenge Abigail as well. With Ithamore’s help, Barabas delivers a pot of poisoned rice to the convent, killing all the nuns, including Abigail. Abigail is arguably the most morally sound character in Marlowe’s play, even though she is easily manipulated by her father’s machinations and refuses to betray him, even when he proves disloyal to her.

Abigail Quotes in The Jew of Malta

The The Jew of Malta quotes below are all either spoken by Abigail or refer to Abigail. 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:
God and Machiavellianism Theme Icon
).
Act 1, Scene 2 Quotes

Barabas: Then Abigail, there must my girl
Entreat the abbess to be entertained.

Abigail: How, as a nun?

Barabas: Ay, daughter, for religion
Hides many mischiefs from suspicion.

Related Characters: Barabas (speaker), Abigail (speaker), Ferneze, Abbess
Related Symbols: Gold
Page Number: 32
Explanation and Analysis:

Abigail: Thus father shall I much dissemble.

Barabas: Tush,
As good dissemble that thou never mean’st
As first mean truth and then dissemble it;
A counterfeit profession is better
Than unseen hypocrisy.

Related Characters: Barabas (speaker), Abigail (speaker)
Related Symbols: Gold
Page Number: 32
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 2, Scene 1 Quotes

Oh my girl,
My gold, my fortune, my felicity;
Strength to my soul, death to mine enemy;
Welcome the first beginner of my bliss:
Oh Abigail, Abigail, that I had thee here too,
Then my desires were fully satisfied.
But I will practise thy enlargement thence:
Oh girl, oh gold, oh beauty, oh my bliss!

Related Characters: Barabas (speaker), Abigail
Related Symbols: Gold
Page Number: 40
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 2, Scene 3 Quotes

In spite of these swine-eating Christians,
Unchosen nation, never circumcised;
Such as, poor villains, were ne’er thought upon
Till Titus and Vespasian conquered us,
Am I become as wealthy as I was:
They hoped my daughter would ha’ been a nun:
But she’s at home, and I have bought a house
As great and fair as is the Governor’s;
And there in spite of Malta will I dwell:
Having Ferneze’s hand, whose heart I’ll have;
Ay, and his son’s too, or it shall go hard.

Related Characters: Barabas (speaker), Ferneze, Abigail, Don Lodowick
Related Symbols: Gold
Page Number: 44
Explanation and Analysis:

Barabas: Oh, sir, your father had my diamonds.
Yet I have one left that will serve your turn:
I mean my daughter. (But ere he shall have her
I’ll sacrifice her on a pile of wood.
I ha’ the poison of the city for him,
And the white leprosy.)

Lodowick: What sparkle does it give without a foil?

Barabas: The diamond that I talk of, ne’er was foiled
(But when he touches it, it will be foiled).
Lord Lodowick, it sparkles bright and fair.

Lodowick: Is it square or pointed? Pray let me know.

Barabas: Pointed it is, good sir (but not for you).

Related Characters: Barabas (speaker), Don Lodowick (speaker), Ferneze, Abigail
Page Number: 46-47
Explanation and Analysis:

Yonder comes Don Mathias, let us stay;
He loves my daughter, and she holds him dear:
But I have sworn to frustrate both their hopes,
And be revenged upon the—(Governor).

Related Characters: Barabas (speaker), Ithamore, Abigail, Don Lodowick, Don Mathias
Page Number: 51
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 3, Scene 3 Quotes

Ithamore: Oh mistress! I have the bravest, gravest, secret, subtle, bottle-nosed knave to my master, that ever gentleman had.

Abigail: Say, knave, why rail’st upon my father thus?

Ithamore: Oh, my master has the bravest policy.

Related Characters: Ithamore (speaker), Abigail (speaker), Barabas, Don Lodowick, Don Mathias
Related Symbols: Barabas’s Nose
Page Number: 68
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 3, Scene 4 Quotes

Stay, first let me stir it Ithamore.
As fatal be it to her as the draught
Of which great Alexander drunk, and died:
And with her let it work like Borgia’s wine,
Whereof his sire, the Pope, was poisonèd.
In a few, the blood of Hydra, Lerna’s bane:
The juice of hebon, and Cocytus’ breath,
And all the poisons of the Stygian pool
Break from the fiery kingdom; and in this
Vomit your venom, and envenom her
That like a fiend hat left her father thus.

Related Characters: Barabas (speaker), Ithamore, Abigail, Don Lodowick, Don Mathias
Page Number: 77
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 3, Scene 6 Quotes

Bernardine: Know that confession must not be revealed,
The canon law forbids it, and the priest
That makes it known, being degraded first,
Shall be condemned, and then sent to the fire.

Abigail: So I have heard; pray therefore keep it close,
Death seizeth on my heart, ah gentle friar
Convert my father that he may be saved,
And witness that I die a Christian.

Bernardine: Ay, and a virgin too, that grieves me most:
But I must to the Jew and exclaim on him,
And make him stand in fear of me.

Related Characters: Abigail (speaker), Friar Bernardine (speaker), Barabas
Page Number: 82-83
Explanation and Analysis:
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Abigail Quotes in The Jew of Malta

The The Jew of Malta quotes below are all either spoken by Abigail or refer to Abigail. 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:
God and Machiavellianism Theme Icon
).
Act 1, Scene 2 Quotes

Barabas: Then Abigail, there must my girl
Entreat the abbess to be entertained.

Abigail: How, as a nun?

Barabas: Ay, daughter, for religion
Hides many mischiefs from suspicion.

Related Characters: Barabas (speaker), Abigail (speaker), Ferneze, Abbess
Related Symbols: Gold
Page Number: 32
Explanation and Analysis:

Abigail: Thus father shall I much dissemble.

Barabas: Tush,
As good dissemble that thou never mean’st
As first mean truth and then dissemble it;
A counterfeit profession is better
Than unseen hypocrisy.

Related Characters: Barabas (speaker), Abigail (speaker)
Related Symbols: Gold
Page Number: 32
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 2, Scene 1 Quotes

Oh my girl,
My gold, my fortune, my felicity;
Strength to my soul, death to mine enemy;
Welcome the first beginner of my bliss:
Oh Abigail, Abigail, that I had thee here too,
Then my desires were fully satisfied.
But I will practise thy enlargement thence:
Oh girl, oh gold, oh beauty, oh my bliss!

Related Characters: Barabas (speaker), Abigail
Related Symbols: Gold
Page Number: 40
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 2, Scene 3 Quotes

In spite of these swine-eating Christians,
Unchosen nation, never circumcised;
Such as, poor villains, were ne’er thought upon
Till Titus and Vespasian conquered us,
Am I become as wealthy as I was:
They hoped my daughter would ha’ been a nun:
But she’s at home, and I have bought a house
As great and fair as is the Governor’s;
And there in spite of Malta will I dwell:
Having Ferneze’s hand, whose heart I’ll have;
Ay, and his son’s too, or it shall go hard.

Related Characters: Barabas (speaker), Ferneze, Abigail, Don Lodowick
Related Symbols: Gold
Page Number: 44
Explanation and Analysis:

Barabas: Oh, sir, your father had my diamonds.
Yet I have one left that will serve your turn:
I mean my daughter. (But ere he shall have her
I’ll sacrifice her on a pile of wood.
I ha’ the poison of the city for him,
And the white leprosy.)

Lodowick: What sparkle does it give without a foil?

Barabas: The diamond that I talk of, ne’er was foiled
(But when he touches it, it will be foiled).
Lord Lodowick, it sparkles bright and fair.

Lodowick: Is it square or pointed? Pray let me know.

Barabas: Pointed it is, good sir (but not for you).

Related Characters: Barabas (speaker), Don Lodowick (speaker), Ferneze, Abigail
Page Number: 46-47
Explanation and Analysis:

Yonder comes Don Mathias, let us stay;
He loves my daughter, and she holds him dear:
But I have sworn to frustrate both their hopes,
And be revenged upon the—(Governor).

Related Characters: Barabas (speaker), Ithamore, Abigail, Don Lodowick, Don Mathias
Page Number: 51
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 3, Scene 3 Quotes

Ithamore: Oh mistress! I have the bravest, gravest, secret, subtle, bottle-nosed knave to my master, that ever gentleman had.

Abigail: Say, knave, why rail’st upon my father thus?

Ithamore: Oh, my master has the bravest policy.

Related Characters: Ithamore (speaker), Abigail (speaker), Barabas, Don Lodowick, Don Mathias
Related Symbols: Barabas’s Nose
Page Number: 68
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 3, Scene 4 Quotes

Stay, first let me stir it Ithamore.
As fatal be it to her as the draught
Of which great Alexander drunk, and died:
And with her let it work like Borgia’s wine,
Whereof his sire, the Pope, was poisonèd.
In a few, the blood of Hydra, Lerna’s bane:
The juice of hebon, and Cocytus’ breath,
And all the poisons of the Stygian pool
Break from the fiery kingdom; and in this
Vomit your venom, and envenom her
That like a fiend hat left her father thus.

Related Characters: Barabas (speaker), Ithamore, Abigail, Don Lodowick, Don Mathias
Page Number: 77
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 3, Scene 6 Quotes

Bernardine: Know that confession must not be revealed,
The canon law forbids it, and the priest
That makes it known, being degraded first,
Shall be condemned, and then sent to the fire.

Abigail: So I have heard; pray therefore keep it close,
Death seizeth on my heart, ah gentle friar
Convert my father that he may be saved,
And witness that I die a Christian.

Bernardine: Ay, and a virgin too, that grieves me most:
But I must to the Jew and exclaim on him,
And make him stand in fear of me.

Related Characters: Abigail (speaker), Friar Bernardine (speaker), Barabas
Page Number: 82-83
Explanation and Analysis: