ABSTRACT
The Jew's name, Gernutus, however, may be significant and inclines me to think that the ballad may be derived from the plot of the old play The Jew. Evidence is scanty, but it is possible that in The Three Ladies of London by R. W. (Robert Wilson?), played by Leicester's men, and printed in 1584, we have, not (as Fleay argued) The Jew itself, but a rival play, indeed an answer to The Jew. The Three Ladies of London, though highly edifying, is unlikely to be the play praised by Gosson, for although it contains a Jew who lends money he has anything but a 'bloody mind'; he is indeed an entirely virtuous moneylender, who behaves better than his Christian debtor. His name is Gerontus.
