Don Lodowick Character Analysis in The Jew of Malta

Don Lodowick is Ferneze’s son and Mathias’s friend. After Mathias tells Lodowick all about Barabas’s beautiful daughter, Abigail, Lodowick goes behind Mathias’s back and tries to win Abigail’s love, even though he knows his friend is interested in her. Lodowick’s attraction to Abigail creates an opportunity for Barabas, who has sworn revenge against Lodowick for the “sin” of being Ferneze’s son, and Barabas manipulates Lodowick and Mathias’s feelings for his own benefit. Barabas promises both Mathias and Lodowick Abigail’s hand in marriage, and then he tells Mathias that Lodowick has long since been pursuing Abigail and sends Mathias a forged letter as Lodowick, insulting him and challenging him to duel. Lodowick and Mathias ultimately meet and fight, killing each other and further advancing Barabas’s plan to avenge Ferneze’s theft of his gold. Like Barabas, both Lodowick and Mathias are obsessed with revenge, and once they believe that the other has betrayed them, they easily seek their own payback and play right into Barabas’s corrupt scheming.

Don Lodowick Quotes in The Jew of Malta

The The Jew of Malta quotes below are all either spoken by Don Lodowick or refer to Don Lodowick. 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:

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 and Citation: 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 and Citation: 46-47

Explanation and Analysis:

Barabas: Good sir,
Your father has deserved it at my hands,
Who of mere charity and Christian ruth,
To bring me to religious purity,
And as it were in catechizing sort,
To make me mindful of my mortal sins,
Against my will, and whether I would or no,
Seized all I had, and thrust me out-a-doors,
And made my house a place for nuns most chaste.

Lodowick: No doubt your soul shall reap the fruit of it.

Barabas: Ay, but my lord, the harvest is far off:
And yet I know the prayers of those nuns
And holy friars, having money for their pains,
And wondrous; (and indeed do no man good)
And seeing they are not idle, but still doing,
‘Tis likely they in time may reap some fruit,
I mean in fullness of perfection.

Related Characters: Barabas (speaker), Don Lodowick (speaker), Ferneze

Page Number and Citation: 47-48

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 and Citation: 51

Explanation and Analysis:

Oh bravely fought, and yet they thrust not home.
Now Lodowick, now Mathias, so;
So now they have showed themselves to be tall fellows.

Related Characters: Barabas (speaker), Don Lodowick, Don Mathias

Page Number and Citation: 65

Explanation and Analysis:

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 and Citation: 68

Explanation and Analysis:

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 and Citation: 77

Explanation and Analysis:

Ferneze: Should I in pity of thy plaints or thee,
Accursèd Barabas, base Jew, relent?
No, thus I’ll see thy treachery repaid,
But wish thou hadst behaved thee otherwise.

Barabas: You will not help me then?

Ferneze: No, villain, no.

Barabas: And villains, know you cannot help me now.
Then Barabas breathe forth thy latest fate,
And in the fury of thy torments, strive
To end thy life with resolution:
Know, Governor, ‘twas I that slew thy son;
I framed the challenge that did make them meet:
Know, Calymath, I aimed thy overthrow,
And had I but escaped this stratagem,
I would have brought confusion on you all,
Damned Christians, dogs, and Turkish infidels;
But now begins the extremity of heat
To pinch me with intolerable pangs:
Die life, fly soul, tongue curse thy fill and die!

Related Characters: Barabas (speaker), Ferneze (speaker), Don Lodowick, Don Mathias, Selim-Calymath

Page Number and Citation: 129-130

Explanation and Analysis:

Don Lodowick Character Timeline in The Jew of Malta

The timeline below shows where the character Don Lodowick appears in The Jew of Malta. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...Abigail is better suited for a “lover’s arms” than a nunnery, Mathias claims, as Don Lodowick, Ferneze’s son, enters behind him. Lodowick asks Mathias why he looks so upset, and Mathias... (full context)

Barabas swears revenge against Ferneze and his son, Don Lodowick. Barabas is not capable of forgetting the slight of Ferneze’s theft. He says that “Jews... (full context)

Lodowick asks Barabas where he is going, and Barabas answers that he is going nowhere now.... (full context)

...notes the price of 200 crowns. Barabas wonders if Turks are worth that much, and Lodowick notes a Moor worth 200 silver coins. Barabas asks why the Turk is worth more... (full context)

...Barabas pays 100 crowns and marks Itahamore’s price on his back. Then, Barabas turns to Lodowick and tells him to come and visit soon. They will talk about the “diamond,” Barabas... (full context)

...pretends not to know Barabas. Then, Mathias quietly asks Barabas why he was talking to Lodowick, but Barabas tells him not to worry. They were talking about “diamonds,” Barabas says, “not... (full context)

...his luck. “We are villains both,” he says. “Both circumcisèd, we hate Christians both.” Don Lodowick again enters the market, asking Barabas where the “diamond” is that he promised. Barabas guides... (full context)

...promising Abigail that she will have Mathias. But for now, Barabas needs her to distract Lodowick for a bit. She agrees and exits with Lodowick. Alone, Barabas celebrates his scheming. Lodowick... (full context)

...says, “or else thou wrong’st me much.” Barabas begins to cry and tells Mathias that Lodowick has been pursing Abigail behind Mathias’s back, sending her letters and gifts. Abigail sends them... (full context)

Lodowick and Abigail approach, and Lodowick asks if that was Mathias he saw leaving. Barabas confirms... (full context)

Lodowick assures Barabas that he is interested in Abigail, not Barabas’s money, and needs only Barabas’s... (full context)

Mathias begs Barabas to let him kill Lodowick, but Barabas again tells Mathias to stand down. Mathias can exact his revenge later, Barabas... (full context)

Alone with Barabas and Ithamore, Abigail promises that she will make Mathias and Lodowick friends again, and that she will have Mathias as her love. Barabas ignores her and... (full context)

...letter to Mathias. Now, all that is left to do is wait for Mathias and Lodowick to kill each other. (full context)

Mathias enters, followed by Lodowick, who is reading a letter. Lodowick grows angry as he reads and asks what wicked... (full context)

Ferneze and Katherine rush in, along with a group of citizens, and find Lodowick and Mathias dead. Ferneze and Katherine are distraught, and they both swear to avenge their... (full context)

...is talking about, and Ithamore says he is speaking of the mishap between Mathias and Lodowick. Barabas forged a challenge, Ithamore excitedly tells Abigail. Ithamore delivered that challenge, and now both... (full context)

...Abigail laments Barabas and his “policy.” She admits that Barabas has every right to hate Lodowick for the “sin” of being Ferneze’s son, but Mathias has done nothing to deserve such... (full context)

...him to atone, too. Barabas worries that Abigail knows about his involvement in Mathias and Lodowick’s deaths, for it certainly appears as if she does not love Barabas anymore. Ithamore suddenly... (full context)

Abigail asks Bernardine if he knows Mathias and Lodowick, and Bernardine says he does. She reveals that Barabas promised her to both Mathias and... (full context)

...far away and the woman is long dead. Bernardine next asks Barabas if he remembers Lodowick and Mathias, and when Barabas says he does, Bernardine says they died because of a... (full context)

...plan to kill both Bernardine and Jacomo. Abigail clearly exposed Barabas’s involvement in Mathias and Lodowick’s deaths in her confession to Bernardine, and Jacomo knows all about it. Therefore, Barabas says,... (full context)

...to commit murder. He is, Ithamore confirms. Ithamore admits to helping Barabas kill Mathias and Lodowick without ever touching them, and he further admits to delivering the poisoned rice to Abigail... (full context)

...turns them away, calling Bellamira a lowly prostitute, but Bellamira says she knows who killed Lodowick. It was not Mathias, she says, but the Jew, Barabas. Pilia-Borza confirms Bellamira speaks the... (full context)

...to know what they are talking about. Ithamore immediately confesses to delivering the letter to Lodowick, giving the poisoned rice to the nunnery, and strangling Bernardine, but Barabas demands to sit... (full context)

...the Jew. He explains to Katherine that Barabas’s slave, Ithamore, delivered a forged letter to Lodowick that turned the men against each other. She asks where Barabas is now, and Ferneze... (full context)