With close to no Jews in England after the expulsion of Jews in 1290, and some 70 years after Macchiavelli's death, the plot and characters of Marlowe's play were probably taken to be meant allegorically in 1592. As for religious turmoil, the only real clues could be Elizabeth's allowing the protestant Church to prevail and the troubles with the Spaniards. I should take Barabas in disguise of a French lute player, actually, as disguise of the Spanish and their all-too-present strumming of the strings. -- Mathias
"Stuart Walsh" <[email protected]> schrieb: > Barabas, at one point in the play is disguised as a French lute-player. > Is there any significance in the choice of bring French? > > > Stuart To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
