The Jew of Malta is a formative and brilliant play which has come to hold an increasingly important position in the Marlowe canon. This edition is based on the only surviving text, the 1633 quarto, which has been carefully examined and is shown to be more authentic and reliable than most earlier scholars were prepared to allow. The fullest available account of the sources of the play is given, with discussion of Marlowe?s knowledge of Mediterranean history, and consideration of Elizabethan Machiavellianism. The play?s theatrical vitality is illuminated by the suggestions about it?s original staging in Bawcutt?s fascinating appendix.