Metzger is a Ph.D., specializing in literature and drama at The University of New Mexico, where she is a lecturer in the English Department and an adjunct professor in the University Honors Program Metzger is also a professional writer and the author of several reference texts on literature. In this essay, she discusses the problem of anti-Semitism in The Jew of Malta and the difficulties in staging a modern performance.

Although Marlowe is considered one of the great Elizabethan playwrights to emerge from the Renaissance, only one of his plays, Doctor Faustus, is still produced frequently before modern audiences. Unlike William Shakespeare's plays, which have been very popular in their many film adaptations, Marlowe's plays have not found a home in Hollywood. During the Elizabethan period, however, his plays were very popular, ushering in a great theatrical renaissance in England. The Jew of Malta, in particular...