The White Devil
The White DevilTO THE READERDRAMATIS PERSONÆACT IACT IIACT IIIACT IVACT VCopyright
The White Devil
John Webster
TO THE READER
In publishing this tragedy, I do but challenge myself that
liberty, which other men have taken before me; not that I affect
praise by it, for, nos hæc novimus esse nihil, only since it was
acted in so dull a time of winter, presented in so open and black a
theatre, that it wanted (that which is the only grace and
setting-out of a tragedy) a full and understanding auditory; and
that since that time I have noted, most of the people that come to
that playhouse resemble those ignorant asses (who, visiting
stationers' shops, their use is not to inquire for good books, but
new books), I present it to the general view with this
confidence:Nec rhoncos metues
maligniorum, Nec scombris tunicas
dabis molestas.If it be objected this is no true dramatic poem, I shall
easily confess it, non potes in nugas dicere plura meas, ipse ego
quam dixi; willingly, and not ignorantly, in this kind have I
faulted: For should a man present to such an auditory, the most
sententious tragedy that ever was written, observing all the
critical laws as height of style, and gravity of person, enrich it
with the sententious Chorus, and, as it were Life and Death, in the
passionate and weighty Nuntius: yet after all this divine rapture,
O dura messorum ilia, the breath that comes from the incapable
multitude is able to poison it; and, ere it be acted, let the
author resolve to fix to every scene this of Horace:
—Hæc hodie porcis comedenda relinques.To those who report I was a long time in finishing this
tragedy, I confess I do not write with a goose-quill winged with
two feathers; and if they will need make it my fault, I must answer
them with that of Euripides to Alcestides, a tragic writer:
Alcestides objecting that Euripides had only, in three days
composed three verses, whereas himself had written three hundred:
Thou tallest truth (quoth he), but here 's the difference, thine
shall only be read for three days, whereas mine shall continue for
three ages.Detraction is the sworn friend to ignorance: for mine own
part, I have ever truly cherished my good opinion of other men's
worthy labours, especially of that full and heightened style of Mr.
Chapman, the laboured and understanding works of Mr. Johnson, the
no less worthy composures of the both worthily excellent Mr.
Beaumont and Mr. Fletcher; and lastly (without wrong last to be
named), the right happy and copious industry of Mr. Shakespeare,
Mr. Dekker, and Mr. Heywood, wishing what I write may be read by
their light: protesting that, in the strength of mine own judgment,
I know them so worthy, that though I rest silent in my own work,
yet to most of theirs I dare (without flattery) fix that of
Martial:
—non norunt hæc monumenta mori.
DRAMATIS PERSONÆ
MONTICELSO, a Cardinal; afterwards Pope PAUL the
Fourth.FRANCISCO DE MEDICIS, Duke of Florence; in the 5th Act
disguised for a Moor, under the name of
MULINASSAR.BRACHIANO, otherwise PAULO GIORDANO URSINI, Duke of
Brachiano, Husband to ISABELLA, and in love with
VITTORIA.GIOVANNI—his Son by ISABELLA.LODOVICO, an Italian Count, but decayed.ANTONELLI, | his Friends, and Dependants of the Duke of
Florence.GASPARO, |CAMILLO, Husband to VITTORIA.HORTENSIO, one of BRACHIANO's Officers.MARCELLO, an Attendant of the Duke of Florence, and Brother
to VITTORIA.FLAMINEO, his Brother; Secretary to BRACHIANO.JACQUES, a Moor, Servant to GIOVANNI.ISABELLA, Sister to FRANCISCO DE MEDICI, and Wife to
BRACHIANO.VITTORIA COROMBONA, a Venetian Lady; first married to
CAMILLO, afterwards to BRACHIANO.CORNELIA, Mother to VITTORIA, FLAMINEO, and
MARCELLO.ZANCHE, a Moor, Servant to VITTORIA.Ambassadors, Courtiers, Lawyers, Officers, Physicians,
Conjurer, Armourer, Attendants.THE
SCENE—ITALY
ACT I
SCENE IEnter Count Lodovico, Antonelli, and GasparoLodo. Banish'd!Ant. It griev'd me much to hear the sentence.Lodo. Ha, ha, O Democritus, thy gods That govern the whole world! courtly
reward And punishment. Fortune 's a right
whore: If she give aught, she deals it in small
parcels, That she may take away all at one
swoop. This 'tis to have great enemies! God 'quite
them. Your wolf no longer seems to be a
wolf Than when she 's hungry.Gas. You term those enemies, Are men of princely rank.Lodo. Oh, I pray for them: The violent thunder is adored by
those Are pasht in pieces by it.Ant. Come, my lord, You are justly doom'd; look but a little
back Into your former life: you have in three
years Ruin'd the noblest earldom.Gas. Your followers Have swallowed you, like mummia, and being
sick With such unnatural and horrid
physic, Vomit you up i' th' kennel.Ant. All the damnable degrees Of drinking have you stagger'd through. One
citizen, Is lord of two fair manors, call'd you
master, Only for caviare.Gas. Those noblemen Which were invited to your prodigal
feasts, (Wherein the phnix scarce could 'scape your
throats) Laugh at your misery, as fore-deeming
you An idle meteor, which drawn forth, the
earth Would be soon lost i' the air.Ant. Jest upon you, And say you were begotten in an
earthquake, You have ruin'd such fair lordships.Lodo. Very good. This well goes with two buckets: I must
tend The pouring out of either.Gas. Worse than these. You have acted certain murders here in
Rome, Bloody and full of horror.Lodo. 'Las, they were flea-bitings: Why took they not my head then?Gas. O, my lord! The law doth sometimes mediate, thinks it
good Not ever to steep violent sins in
blood: This gentle penance may both end your
crimes, And in the example better these bad
times.Lodo. So; but I wonder then some great men
'scape This banishment: there 's Paulo Giordano
Ursini, The Duke of Brachiano, now lives in
Rome, And by close panderism seeks to
prostitute The honour of Vittoria Corombona: Vittoria, she that might have got my
pardon For one kiss to the duke.Ant. Have a full man within you: We see that trees bear no such pleasant
fruit There where they grew first, as where they are
new set. Perfumes, the more they are chaf'd, the more they
render Their pleasing scents, and so
affliction Expresseth virtue fully, whether
true, Or else adulterate.Lodo. Leave your painted comforts; I 'll make Italian cut-works in their
guts If ever I return.Gas. Oh, sir.Lodo. I am patient. I have seen some ready to be
executed, Give pleasant looks, and money, and grown
familiar With the knave hangman; so do I; I thank
them, And would account them nobly
merciful, Would they dispatch me quickly.Ant. Fare you well; We shall find time, I doubt not, to
repeal Your banishment.Lodo. I am ever bound to you. This is the world's alms; pray make use of
it. Great men sell sheep, thus to be cut in
pieces, When first they have shorn them bare, and sold
their fleeces. [ExeuntSCENE IIEnter Brachiano, Camillo, Flamineo, VittoriaBrach. Your best of rest.Vit. Unto my lord the duke, The best of welcome. More lights: attend the
duke. [Exeunt
Camillo and Vittoria.Brach. Flamineo.Flam. My lord.Brach. Quite lost, Flamineo.Flam. Pursue your noble wishes, I am prompt As lightning to your service. O my
lord! The fair Vittoria, my happy sister, Shall give you present audience—Gentlemen,
[Whisper. Let the caroch go on—and 'tis his
pleasure You put out all your torches and
depart.Brach. Are we so happy?Flam. Can it be otherwise? Observ'd you not to-night, my honour'd
lord, Which way soe'er you went, she threw her
eyes? I have dealt already with her
chambermaid, Zanche the Moor, and she is wondrous
proud To be the agent for so high a
spirit.Brach. We are happy above thought, because 'bove
merit.Flam. 'Bove merit! we may now talk freely: 'bove merit! what
is 't you doubt? her coyness! that 's but the superficies of lust
most women have; yet why should ladies blush to hear that named,
which they do not fear to handle? Oh, they are politic; they know
our desire is increased by the difficulty of enjoying; whereas
satiety is a blunt, weary, and drowsy passion. If the buttery-hatch
at court stood continually open, there would be nothing so
passionate crowding, nor hot suit after the beverage.Brach. Oh, but her jealous husband——Flam. Hang him; a gilder that hath his brains perished with
quicksilver is not more cold in the liver. The great barriers
moulted not more feathers, than he hath shed hairs, by the
confession of his doctor. An Irish gamester that will play himself naked, and
then wage all downward, at hazard, is not more venturous. So
unable to please a woman, that, like a Dutch doublet, all his back
is shrunk into his breaches. Shroud you within this closet, good my
lord; Some trick now must be thought on to
divide My brother-in-law from his fair
bed-fellow.Brach. Oh, should she fail to come——Flam. I must not have your lordship thus unwisely amorous. I
myself have not loved a lady, and pursued her with a great deal of
under-age protestation, whom some three or four gallants that have
enjoyed would with all their hearts have been glad to have been rid
of. 'Tis just like a summer bird-cage in a garden: the birds that
are without despair to get in, and the birds that are within
despair and are in a consumption for fear they shall never get out.
Away, away, my lord. [Exit Brachiano as Camillo
enters.See here he comes. This fellow by his
apparel Some men would judge a politician; But call his wit in question, you shall find
it Merely an ass in 's foot-cloth. How now,
brother? What, travelling to bed with your kind
wife?Cam. I assure you, brother, no. My voyage lies More northerly, in a far colder
clime. I do not well remember, I protest, When I last lay with her.Flam. Strange you should lose your count.Cam. We never lay together, but ere morning There grew a flaw between us.Flam. 'T had been your part To have made up that flaw.Cam. True, but she loathes I should be seen in
't.Flam. Why, sir, what 's the matter?Cam. The duke your master visits me, I thank
him; And I perceive how, like an earnest
bowler, He very passionately leans that way he should have his bowl run.Flam. I hope you do not think——Cam. That nobleman bowl booty? faith, his cheek Hath a most excellent bias: it would
fain Jump with my mistress.Flam. Will you be an ass, Despite your Aristotle? or a
cuckold, Contrary to your Ephemerides, Which shows you under what a smiling
planet You were first swaddled?Cam. Pew wew, sir; tell me not Of planets nor of Ephemerides. A man may be made cuckold in the
day-time, When the stars' eyes are out.Flam. Sir, good-bye you; I do commit you to your pitiful
pillow Stuffed with horn-shavings.Cam. Brother!Flam. God refuse me. Might I advise you now, your only
course Were to lock up your wife.Cam. 'Twere very good.Flam. Bar her the sight of revels.Cam. Excellent.Flam. Let her not go to church, but, like a
hound In leon, at your heels.Cam. 'Twere for her honour.Flam. And so you should be certain in one
fortnight, Despite her chastity or innocence, To be cuckolded, which yet is in
suspense: This is my counsel, and I ask no fee for
't.Cam. Come, you know not where my nightcap wrings
me.Flam. Wear it a' th' old fashion; let your large ears come
through, it will be more easy—nay, I will be bitter—bar your wife
of her entertainment: women are more willingly and more gloriously
chaste, when they are least restrained of their liberty. It seems
you would be a fine capricious, mathematically jealous coxcomb;
take the height of your own horns with a Jacob's staff, afore they
are up. These politic enclosures for paltry mutton, makes more
rebellion in the flesh, than all the provocative electuaries
doctors have uttered since last jubilee.Cam. This doth not physic me——Flam. It seems you are jealous: I 'll show you the error of
it by a familiar example: I have seen a pair of spectacles
fashioned with such perspective art, that lay down but one twelve
pence a' th' board, 'twill appear as if there were twenty; now
should you wear a pair of these spectacles, and see your wife tying
her shoe, you would imagine twenty hands were taking up of your
wife's clothes, and this would put you into a horrible causeless
fury.Cam. The fault there, sir, is not in the
eyesight.Flam. True, but they that have the yellow jaundice think all
objects they look on to be yellow. Jealousy is worse; her fits
present to a man, like so many bubbles in a basin of water, twenty
several crabbed faces, many times makes his own shadow his
cuckold-maker. [Enter Vittoria Corombona.] See, she comes; what
reason have you to be jealous of this creature? what an ignorant
ass or flattering knave might be counted, that should write sonnets
to her eyes, or call her brow the snow of Ida, or ivory of Corinth;
or compare her hair to the blackbird's bill, when 'tis liker the
blackbird's feather? This is all. Be wise; I will make you friends,
and you shall go to bed together. Marry, look you, it shall not be
your seeking. Do you stand upon that, by any means: walk you aloof;
I would not have you seen in 't.—Sister [my lord attend you in the
banqueting-house,] your husband is wondrous
discontented.Vit. I did nothing to displease him; I carved to him at
supper-time.Flam. [You need not have carved him, in faith; they say he is
a capon already. I must now seemingly fall out with you.] Shall a
gentleman so well descended as Camillo [a lousy slave, that within
this twenty years rode with the black guard in the duke's carriage,
'mongst spits and dripping-pans!]—Cam. Now he begins to tickle her.Flam. An excellent scholar [one that hath a head fill'd with
calves' brains without any sage in them,] come crouching in the
hams to you for a night's lodging? [that hath an itch in 's hams,
which like the fire at the glass-house hath not gone out this seven
years] Is he not a courtly gentleman? [when he wears white satin,
one would take him by his black muzzle to be no other creature than
a maggot] You are a goodly foil, I confess, well set out [but
cover'd with a false stone— yon counterfeit diamond].Cam. He will make her know what is in me.Flam. Come, my lord attends you; thou shalt go to bed to my
lord.Cam. Now he comes to 't.Flam. [With a relish as curious as a vintner going to taste
new wine.] [To Camillo.] I am opening your case
hard.Cam. A virtuous brother, o' my credit!Flam. He will give thee a ring with a philosopher's stone in
it.Cam. Indeed, I am studying alchemy.Flam. Thou shalt lie in a bed stuffed with turtle's feathers;
swoon in perfumed linen, like the fellow was smothered in roses. So
perfect shall be thy happiness, that as men at sea think land, and
trees, and ships, go that way they go; so both heaven and earth
shall seem to go your voyage. Shalt meet him; 'tis fix'd, with
nails of diamonds to inevitable necessity.Vit. How shalt rid him hence?Flam. [I will put brize in 's tail, set him gadding
presently.] I have almost wrought her to it; I find her coming:
but, might I advise you now, for this night I would not lie with
her, I would cross her humour to make her more humble.Cam. Shall I, shall I?Flam. It will show in you a supremacy of
judgment.Cam. True, and a mind differing from the tumultuary opinion;
for, quæ negata, grata.Flam. Right: you are the adamant shall draw her to you,
though you keep distance off.Cam. A philosophical reason.Flam. Walk by her a' th' nobleman's fashion, and tell her you
will lie with her at the end of the progress.Cam. Vittoria, I cannot be induc'd, or as a man would say,
incited——Vit. To do what, sir?