"The Jew of Seville, a five-act verse drama first performed in 1844, is the story of Jacob Eliacin, a Jew during the Spanish Inquisition. Eliacin had been humiliated and beaten by the uncle of his Christian lover, Bianca. The couple had fled to Greece, where Bianca had died in childbirth. Eliacin, who amassed great wealth, had assumed the name Diegarias and had raised daughter Ines a Christian.

Twenty years later, as the play opens, Diegarias is now a prominent member of the court at Seville, where Ines encounters and is seduced by Don Juan in a sham marriage. When he discovers Don Juan's treachery, Diegarias demands that the nobleman marry his daughter. But a self-serving Moor reveals the truth of Diegarias's identity to Don Juan, who then publicly refuses to marry a Jew's daughter.

After this humiliation, Diegarias retreats to plot revenge which will have dire consequences for Ines."--BOOK JACKET.