Note 148 — Chapter XXV · A.D. 1400-1500. THE JEWS IN GERMANY AND ITALY.
Reading edition
Shylock, it should be noted, whether a fair picture or not, of the Jews of Shakspeare’s time, is at least a genuine character—a real man. But the Barabbas of Marlowe’s Jew of Malta and the Fagin of Dickens’s Oliver Twist are simply coarse and gross caricatures, pandering to the vulgar taste of the day.