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The White Devil, or Vittoria Corombona is a revenge tragedy
Revenge play

The revenge play or revenge tragedy is a form of tragedy which was extremely popular in the Elizabethan era and Jacobean eras. The best-known of these are Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy and William Shakespeare's Hamlet....
 from 1612 by English playwright
Playwright

A playwright, also known as a dramatist, is a person who writes dramatic literature or drama. These works may be written specifically to be performed by actors or they may be closet dramas or literary works written using dramatic forms but not meant for performance....
 John Webster
John Webster

John Webster was an England Literature in English#Jacobean literature dramatist best known for his tragedies The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi, often regarded as masterpieces of the early 17th-century English stage....
 (1580-1625). A notorious failure when it premiered onstage, Webster complained the play was acted in the dead of winter before an unreceptive audience. And indeed the play's complexity, sophistication, and satire made it a poor fit with the repertory of Queen Anne's Men
Queen Anne's Men

Queen Anne's Men was a playing company, or troupe of actors, in Jacobean era London. ...
 at the Red Bull Theatre
Red Bull Theatre

The Red Bull was a playhouse in London during the 17th century. For more than four decades, it entertained audiences drawn primarily from the northern suburbs, developing a reputation for rowdy, often disruptive audiences....
, where it was first performed. It was successfully revived in 1630 by Queen Henrietta's Men
Queen Henrietta's Men

Queen Henrietta's Men was an important playing company or troupe of actors in Caroline era London. At their peak of popularity, Queen Henrietta's Men were the second leading troupe of the day, after only the King's Men ....
 at the Cockpit Theatre
Cockpit Theatre

The Cockpit was a theatre in London, operating from 1616 to around 1665. It was the first theatre to be located on Drury Lane. After damage in 1617, it was christened The Phoenix....
, and published again in 1631.






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The White Devil, or Vittoria Corombona is a revenge tragedy
Revenge play

The revenge play or revenge tragedy is a form of tragedy which was extremely popular in the Elizabethan era and Jacobean eras. The best-known of these are Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy and William Shakespeare's Hamlet....
 from 1612 by English playwright
Playwright

A playwright, also known as a dramatist, is a person who writes dramatic literature or drama. These works may be written specifically to be performed by actors or they may be closet dramas or literary works written using dramatic forms but not meant for performance....
 John Webster
John Webster

John Webster was an England Literature in English#Jacobean literature dramatist best known for his tragedies The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi, often regarded as masterpieces of the early 17th-century English stage....
 (1580-1625). A notorious failure when it premiered onstage, Webster complained the play was acted in the dead of winter before an unreceptive audience. And indeed the play's complexity, sophistication, and satire made it a poor fit with the repertory of Queen Anne's Men
Queen Anne's Men

Queen Anne's Men was a playing company, or troupe of actors, in Jacobean era London. ...
 at the Red Bull Theatre
Red Bull Theatre

The Red Bull was a playhouse in London during the 17th century. For more than four decades, it entertained audiences drawn primarily from the northern suburbs, developing a reputation for rowdy, often disruptive audiences....
, where it was first performed. It was successfully revived in 1630 by Queen Henrietta's Men
Queen Henrietta's Men

Queen Henrietta's Men was an important playing company or troupe of actors in Caroline era London. At their peak of popularity, Queen Henrietta's Men were the second leading troupe of the day, after only the King's Men ....
 at the Cockpit Theatre
Cockpit Theatre

The Cockpit was a theatre in London, operating from 1616 to around 1665. It was the first theatre to be located on Drury Lane. After damage in 1617, it was christened The Phoenix....
, and published again in 1631. In 1707 Nahum Tate
Nahum Tate

Nahum Tate was an Irish poet, hymnist, and lyricist, who became England's poet laureate in 1692....
 published an adaptation of Webster's play titled Injured Love.

Background

The story itself is loosely based on a real event that occurred in Italy thirty years prior to the play's composition: the murder of Vittoria Accoramboni
Vittoria Accoramboni

Vittoria Accoramboni was an Italy lady famous for her great beauty and accomplishments and for her untimely end, a story that was later the basis for a play and a novel....
 in Padua
Padua

Padua is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 ....
 on 22 December, 1585. Webster's dramatization of this event turned Italian corruption into a vehicle for depicting "the political and moral state of England in his own day," particularly the corruption at the royal court.

The title of The White Devil refers to a popular contemporary proverb which held that "the white devil is worse than the black." The play itself explores the differences between the reality of people and the way they depict themselves as good, "white" or pure.

Characters

  • Monticelso – A Cardinal, later Pope Paul IV.
  • Francisco De Medici – Duke of Florence; in Act V disguised as the Moor, Mulinassar.
  • Brachiano – Otherwise Paulo Giordano Orsini, The Duke of Brachiano, husband of Isabella, and in love with Vittoria.
  • Giovanni – Brachiano's son by Isabella.
  • Lodovico – Sometimes Lodowick, an Italian Count in love with Isabella.
  • Antonelli – Ludovico's friend and conspirator.
  • Gasparo - Ludovico's friend and conspirator.
  • Camillo – Vittoria's husband, nephew of Monticelso.
  • Carlo - Attendant of Brachiano, in league with Francisco.
  • Pedro - Attendant of Brachiano, in league with Francisco.
  • Hortensio – One of Brachiano's officers.
  • Marcello – An attendant to the Duke of Florence; Vittoria's younger brother.
  • Flamineo – Vittoria's brother. Brachiano's secretary.
  • Arragon - A Cardinal.
  • Julio - A Doctor
  • Jacques – A Moor; servant to Giovanni.
  • Isabella – Francisco De Medici's sister; first wife of Brachiano
  • Vittoria Corombona – a Venetian lady. first married to Camillo – afterwards to Brachiano
  • Cornelia – Mother to Vittoria, Flamineo, and Marcello
  • Zanche – Moor servant to Vittoria; in love with Flamineo, then Francisco
  • Ambassadors, Courtiers, Officers and Guards, Attendants, Conjurer, Chancellor, Register and Lawyers, Conclavist, Armourer, Physicians, Page, Matron of the House of Convertites, Ladies.


Basis

Webster based The White Devil on newsletter versions of the real life story of the killing of Vittoria Accoramboni. Such recollections detailed how Vittoria, of a proud but poor family, married the nephew of Cardinal Motalto. In 1580, she met Paolo Giordano Orsini, Duke of Bracciano, previously married to Isabella Medici of the famous Medici
Medici

The M?dici family was a powerful and influential Florence family from the 14th to 18th century. The family had three popes , numerous rulers of Florence and later members of the French and English royalty....
 family. Four years earlier Isabella had been murdered, most probably by her husband due to her infidelity.

Upon meeting Vittoria, the Duke fell desperately in love with her, and arranged for the Cardinal's nephew to be killed in order that he might secretly marry Vittoria. The Pope Gregory soon found out and ordered Vittoria and the Duke to part, and even resorted to having Vittoria imprisoned in Castel Angelo under the suspicion of having killed her husband.

However, in 1585 a new pope was elected and amid the confusion of change Vittoria and Bracciano married and left Rome. In the play the Pope is misnamed Paul IV. In fact, he was Sixtus V, Paul IV having died in 1559. Eight months later the Duke died and the Medici family, wishing to protect their family interests, challenged his will which dictated Vittoria to be in charge of his fortune. When Vittoria refused to cooperate, the Medicis arranged for her to be killed. She was stabbed to death in Padua by Ludovico Orsini.

Plot summary

Count Lodovico is banished from Rome for debauchery and murder: his friends promise to work for the repeal of his sentence. The Duke of Brachiano has conceived a violent passion for Vittoria Corombona, daughter of a noble but impoverished Venetian family, despite the fact they are both already married. Vittoria's brother Flamineo, employed as a secretary to Brachiano, has been scheming to bring his sister and the Duke together in the hope of advancing his own career. The plan is foiled by the arrival of Brachiano's wife Isabella, escorted by her brother and Cardinal Monticelso. They are both outraged by the rumours of Brachiano's infidelity and set out to encourage him to make the affair open, but before that happens Brachiano and Vittoria's brother arrange to have both Camillo (Vittoria's husband) and Isabella murdered.

Vittoria is put on trial for the murder of her husband and although there is no real evidence against her, she is condemned by the Cardinal to imprisonment in a convent for penitent whores. Flamineo pretends madness in order to protect himself from awkward suggestions. The banished Count Lodovico is pardoned and returns to Rome: confessing he had been secretly in love with Isabella, he vows to avenge her death. Isabella's brother Francisco also plots revenge. He pens a love letter to Vittoria, which falls into the hands of Brachiano. It fuels his jealousy and forces him to elope with Vittoria. Cardinal Monticelso is elected Pope and as his first act he excommunicates Vittoria and Brachiano.

Vittoria and Brachiano, now married, hold court in Padua. Three mysterious strangers have arrived to enter Brachiano's service. These are Francisco, disguised as Mulinassar a Moor, and Lodovico and Gasparo, disguised as Capuchin monks, all conspiring to avenge Isabella's death. They begin their revenge with poisoning Brachiano. As he is dying, Lodovico and Gasparo reveal themselves to him. Next Zanche, Vittoria's Moorish maid, who has fallen in love with her supposed countryman Mulinassar, reveals to him the murders of Isabella and Camillo and Flamineo's part in them.

Flamineo is banished from court, and sensing that his crimes are catching up with him he goes to see Vittoria. He tries to persuade her and Zanche to shoot each other. However, Vittoria and Zanche only shoot Flamineo, and thinking him dead, exult in his death and their escape. Much to their surprise Flamineo rises from the 'dead' and reveals to them the pistols were not loaded. While trying to exact his own revenge on Vittoria, Lodovico and Gasparo then enter the scene and complete their revenge by killing both of them. Giovanni and officers run to the scene, and, thinking that Giovanni is in danger, the officers shoot Lodovico.

Productions

The play was written for and first performed by Queen Anne's Men
Queen Anne's Men

Queen Anne's Men was a playing company, or troupe of actors, in Jacobean era London. ...
 at the Red Bull Theatre
Red Bull Theatre

The Red Bull was a playhouse in London during the 17th century. For more than four decades, it entertained audiences drawn primarily from the northern suburbs, developing a reputation for rowdy, often disruptive audiences....
 in Clerkenwell
Clerkenwell

Clerkenwell is an area of central London in the London Borough of Islington. Clerkenwell was once known as London's "Little Italy" due to its extensive Italian population from the 1850s to the 1960s....
 in the early months of 1612. The troupe usually offered simpler and more optimistic plays of the type written by their in-house dramatist, Thomas Heywood
Thomas Heywood

Thomas Heywood was a prominent England playwright, actor, and author whose peak period of activity falls between late Elizabethan theatre and early Jacobean theatre....
. The play staged immediately prior to Webster's seems to have been If This Be Not a Good Play, a tragicomedy
Tragicomedy

Tragicomedy is fictional work that blends aspects of the genres of tragedy and comedy. In English literature, from Shakespeare's time to the nineteenth century, tragicomedy referred to a serious Play with a happy ending....
 by Thomas Dekker. Webster's play failed at its debut performance. In the prefatory epistle to the quarto, Webster praised the actors, mentioning Richard Perkins
Richard Perkins (17th-century actor)

Richard Perkins was a prominent early seventeenth-century actor, most famous for his performance in the role of Barabas in Christopher Marlowe's The Jew of Malta....
 by name, but complains of the winter weather and, above all, of the audience, whose intellect he compares to that of donkeys.

In 1925 the Renaissance Theatre mounted a heavily cut version featuring Viola Tree and Cedric Hardwicke
Cedric Hardwicke

Sir Cedric Webster Hardwicke Order of the British Empire was a notable England actor....
. The production was not well reviewed, perhaps mainly because of a failure to understand the special requirements of Renaissance dramaturgy. Webster scholar F. L. Lucas
F. L. Lucas

Frank Laurence Lucas was an English literary critic, essayist, poet, novelist, and Fellow of King's College, Cambridge.He is now best remembered for his scathing attacks on the poetry of T....
 asked in the New Statesman
New Statesman

The New Statesman is a United Kingdom left-wing politics magazine published weekly in London. The current editor is Jason Cowley, whose appointment was announced on 16 May 2008....
 (17 Oct. 1925), "Who can hope to speak passionate verse lying on one elbow on the floor?"

Further reading

  • The short story A Christmas in Padua in F. L. Lucas
    F. L. Lucas

    Frank Laurence Lucas was an English literary critic, essayist, poet, novelist, and Fellow of King's College, Cambridge.He is now best remembered for his scathing attacks on the poetry of T....
    ’s The Woman Clothed with the Sun (1937) retells the final hours of Vittoria Accoramboni (the original of Webster’s White Devil) in December 1585, slanting the narrative from her perspective.


External links