Stuff that happens in the play
- Barabas, the rich Jew of Malta, joyfully counts his money as he waits for news about the return of his ships from the east.
- To his horror, Barabas learns that all the Jews in Malta must forfeit half of their estates to help the government pay the Turks.
- Barabas protests and Ferneze, the governor of Malta, confiscates all of Barabas’s wealth and turns Barabas's house into a convent.
- Abigail, Barabas’s daughter, pretends to convert to Christianity in order to smuggle her father’s gold out of the convent at night.
- Ferneze meets with Del Bosco, the Spanish Vice-Admiral, who convinces Ferneze to break his alliance with the Turks in return for Spanish protection.
- Barabas dupes Ferneze’s son, Lodowick, into thinking Abigail will marry him.
- Barabas buys Ithamore, a slave who hates Christians as much as his new master does.
- Barabas orders Abigail to get betrothed to Lodowick, in spite of her relationship with another man, Mathias.
- Barabas tricks Lodowick and Mathias into a duel.
- Ithamore falls in love with prostitute Bellamira, who, with her pimp Pilia-Borza, is scheming to steal Barabas’s money.
- Abigail learns of her father’s treachery against Mathias and returns to the convent.
- Barabas cooks a special dish for the nuns.
- Ferneze tells the Turks he will not pay them and they threaten to attack the island.
- False conversions, deaths, and deep-frying ensue.
