The White Devil (Quotes) Flashcards
Flamineo relishes his role as the machiavel
“We are engag’d to mischief,”
Act 1, Scene 2
Bracciano (seemingly) chivalrous/romantic in his love for Vittoria
“Quite lost, Flamineo”
Act 1, Scene 2
Cornelia and Flamineo argue over how to deal with their difficult social position.
“CORN. What! because we are poor
Shall we be vicious?
FLAM. Pray, what means have you
To keep me from the galleys, or the gallows?”
Analysis of: "CORN. What! because we are poor Shall we be vicious? FLAM. Pray, what means have you To keep me from the galleys, or the gallows?"
Cornelia: Voice of conventional christian morality.
Flamineo 1: Rhythm, enjambement and rhetorical question demonstrate his clarity of thought, persuasiveness and independence.
Flamineo 2: He has no choice. He can either become a slave to great men (galleys, slave ships) or die (gallows, hanging).
Conjurer’s prophetic remark on the power of great men.
“(Exit Bracciano)
Both flowers and weeds spring when the sun is warm,
And great men do great good, or else great harm.
(Exit)”
Marcello and Flamineo are ____ for Camillo’s death (start of Flamineo’s downfall)
“committed”
Evidence of Flamineo fearing for his safety during trial scene. Accidentally gives away information.
Monticelso refers to Vittoria’s “bawd” (pander, usually female) and Flamineo responds “Who, I?”, Monticelso clarifies that he is actually referring to “The Moor” (Zanche).
Vittoria strong/heroic even after being sentenced, pointing out curruption.
"VIT. I must first have vengeance. I fain would know if you have your salvation [...] VIT. A rape, a rape! MONT. How? VIT. Yes, you have ravished justice, Forced her to do your pleasure. MONT. Fie, she's mad." (Act 3, Scene 2)
Flamineo criticised the politics in religion.
“Religion! O how it is commeddled with policy.”
Act 3, Scene 3
Parallel between Flamineo and Lodovico.
MARCELLO. [aside] Mark this strange encounter.
Act 3, Scene 3 - The two meet
Flamineo and Lodovico recognise their similarities (companions in misfortune).
“Shalt thou and I join housekeeping?” (at first sarcastic)
“Precious girn, rogue / We’ll never part.”
Both are hapless victims of “fortune’s wheel”
Lodovico’s further hypocritical comment on Flamineo.
“These rogues that are most weary of their lives
Still scape the greatest dangers.
A pox upon him. […]
[…] I’ll forget him, and go drink some wine.
[exuent]”
Lodovico’s immediate hostility and hypocrisy towards Flamineo, after previously being in agreement.
Immediately after he recieves his “pardon” from the dying pope, at the “ernest suit” of Francisco (having previously mocked “laughing fool[s]”:
“FLAM. Why do you laugh?
There was no such condition in our covenant.
[…]
LOD. Your sister is a damnable whore”
Flamineo comments on evils of society (possible allusion to hell).
“As in this world there are degrees of evils, / So in this world there are degrees of devils”
(Act 4, Scene 2)
Flamineo realises the extent of his decline.
“I am falling to pieces already,”
Act 5, Scene 4
Flamineo comes close to repentance.
“I have a strange thing in me, […]
Compassion.”
“I have lived riotously ill.”
Flamineo’s self-revelation is uncharacteristic of him.
“And sometimes, when my face was full of smiles
Have felt the maze of conscience in my breast.
[…]
We think caged birds sing, when indeed they cry.”
Flamineo doesn’t subscribe to any religion?
“what religion’s best / For a man to die in?”
Flamineo finds some peace in dying.
“there’s some goodness in my death, / My life was a black charnel”
Analysis of:
“there’s some goodness in my death, / My life was a black charnel”
Goodness in Flamineo’s death?
- Cures society of one source of evil
- Allowed him to have a final ‘honest’ vision
- Conventions of revenge tragedy have been fulfilled: dies for transgressing moral laws (meta-theatricality)
- Message to others: Evil not a solution to difficult situations (Cornelia’s words prove true).
Flamineo courageous in the face of death (like Vittoria).
“I do dare my fate / To do its worst.”
Flamineo vows to kill Vittoria if she doesnt grant him what he wants.
”. . . All these
Shall with Vittoria’s bounty turn to good,
Or I will drown this weapon in her blood.”
Vittoria’s dream
"A foolish idle dream: [...] . . . a goodly yew-tree [...] Your duchess and my husband [...] They told me my intent was to root up / That well-grown yew, and plant i' the stead of it / A wither'd blackthorn; and for that they vow'd / To bury me alive. [...] When to my rescue arose, methought, / A whirlwind; . . . [...] And both were struck dead by that sacred yew" (Act 1, Scene 2)
Camillo’s stupidity
“Pew wew,”
Act 1, Scene 2
Francisco and Monticelso are willing to sacrifice Vittoria in their plot against Bracciano (Evidence of Francisco’s callousness).
“There’s small pity in’t;”
End of Act 2, Scene 1
Vittoria described as a possession.
“He [Camillo] bought you of your father.”
Vittoria’s response to Bracciano’s accusations (after Francisco’s feigned love letter).
“What have I gained by thee but infamy?
. . . and I do wish
That I could make you full executor
To all my sins. O that I could toss myself
Into a grave as quickly. For all thou art worth,
I’ll not shed one tear more; I’ll burst first.
[She throws herself upon a bed]”
Analysis of:
“. . . and I do wish
That I could make you full executor
To all my sins. O that I could toss myself
Into a grave as quickly. For all thou art worth,
I’ll not shed one tear more; I’ll burst first.
[She throws herself upon a bed]”
“I’ll not shed / one tear more; I’ll burst first.”
- Ulcer imagery. She sees her relationship with Bracciano as like that of an ulcer.
“O that I could toss myself / Into a grave as quickly. […]
[She throws herself upon a bed]
- These two things in conjunction symbolise how the “bed” will inevitably be the same as the “grave”. Woman claiming sexual freedom will only lead to death.
Vittoria and Zanche (supposedly) kill Flamineo.
“[They shoot and run to him and tread upon him]
FLAM. […]
Perform your vows, and bravely follow me.
VITT. Whither? To hell?
ZAN. To most assuréd damnation.”
(Act 5, Scene 6)
Analysis of:
“[They shoot and run to him and tread upon him]
FLAM. […]
Perform your vows, and bravely follow me.
VITT. Whither? To hell?
ZAN. To most assuréd damnation.”
Trampling: A visual image of women getting their revenge for being metaphorically trampled underfoot by men. Only time they can do this is when a man is ‘dead’.
Vittoria and Zanche’s speech: Completing each other’s iambic pentameter. Women working together.
Vittoria dies not loving Bracciano (expressing distain for ‘great men’
She never “knew great men but by report!”
Act 5, Scene 6
Vittoria in difficult situation without Bracciano
“lost forever”
Act 5, Scene 3
Vittoria dies not knowing the destination for her soul.
“like to a ship in a black storm”
Act 5, Scene 6
Monticelso’s vulgar/graphic and misogynistic definition of a whore (evidence of his perverted sexuality).
"Shall I expound whore to you?" "sweet-meats which rot the eater; in man's nostril Poisoned perfumes." "They are the true material fire of hell," ". . . your rich whores Are only treasuries by extortion filled, And emptied by cursed riot." (Act 3, Scene 2)
Bracciano assumes he is above church and state law.
“And this divorce shall be as truly kept, / As if the judge had doomed it”
(Act 2, Scene 1)
Bracciano’s ambitious promises to Vittoria.
Promises her that she is “lodged within his arms who shall protect you” and that he will seat her “above law and above scandal”
Francisco cares only for honour and family name? No genuine love for his sister.
He would rather have “give / Both her white hands to death” than to an adulterous Bracciano.
(Act 2, Scene 1)
Flamineo compares money to rot (amidst feigned madness).
“there’s nothing so holy but money will corrupt and putrify it, like victual under the line.”
(Start of Act 3, Scene 3)
Analysis of:
“there’s nothing so holy but money will corrupt and putrify it, like victual under the line.”
Prose: disordered madness.
Truth in madness
Money and rot
Flamineo’s ‘mad’ interpretation of the trial.
“‘Twas corruption. O gold, what a god art thou! And O man, what a devil art thou to be tempted by that cursed mineral!”
Francisco as dangerous
“plots” and eagerness to see Monticelso’s “black book”
“a list of murderers / Agents for any villainy”
(Act 4, Scene 1)
Vittoria interested in worldly gains/pleasures in her relationship with Bracciano
“beauty and gay clothes, a merry heart
And a good stomach to feast,”
(Act 3, Scene 2)
Evidence of Webster creating audience sympathy for Vittoria during arraignment scene.
“ENGLISH AMBASSADOR. She hath a brave spirit.”
Act 3, Scene 2
Francisco dismisses lawyer
“FRAN.
. . . accept / my notion of your learn’d verbosity.”
LAW. I most graduatically thank your lordship.
I shall have use for them elsewhere.
[Exit Lawyer]”
Francisco flatters Lodovico
“Noble friend,”
Act 4, Scene 3
Francisco doesn’t believe in the supernatural (Isabella’s ghost)
“how strong /
Imagination works!”
(Act 4, Scene 1)
Monticelso as immoral.
“For my revenge I’d stake a brother’s life”
Act 2, Scene 1
Flamineo broke a crucifix as a baby
“MARC. He took the crucifix between his hands,
[enter Flamineo]
and broke a limb off.”
(Act 5, Scene 2)
Flamineo kills Marcello unfairly and without warning
“FLAM. I have brought your weapon back.
[Flamineo runs Marcello though]”
Giovanni warns Flamineo to be pious and of his wrongdoings.
“Study your prayers, sir, and be penitent”
Act 5, Scene 4
Flamineo predicts Giovanni will be callous/strong later in life.
his “talons . . . will grow out in time” and “He hath his uncle’s villainous look already”
(Act 5, Scene 4)
Giovanni brutal/stern at end of play.
“Away with them to prison, and to torture”
Act 5, Scene 6
Lodovico flittered away his family’s money.
“in three years / Ruined the noblest earldom,”
Act 1, Scene 1
Lodovico closes first scene with a ‘sententia’ (moral saying) about the ruthlessness of great men.
“Great men sell sheep, thus to be cut into pieces, / When first they have shorn them bare and sold their fleeces”
(End of Act 1, Scene 1)
Lodovico thinks nothing of his murders
“flea-bitings”
Act 1, Scene 1
Monticelso admits his revenge is ____.
“dishonourable”
End of Act 2, Scene 1
Isabella’s anger at Bracciano’s relationship with Vittoria
Calls her a “strumpet” and a “whore”
Act 2, Scene 1
Isabella worships Bracciano
She “kneels down as to prayers” and “does three reverences to it, and kisses it thrice.” (Bracciano’s portrait)
(Act 2, Scene 2)
Contrast between roles of Flamineo and Cornelia in seduction scene.
Flamineo: cynical commentator, reminding the audience that the elevated language doesn’t hide the sexual nature of the events.
Cornelia: Moral commentator, reminding all three (Flam, Vitt, Bracc) of the immorality of what they are doing.
Zanche’s courage and wit before her death.
”. . . I am proud /
Death cannot alter my complexion, /
For I shall ne’er look pale.”
Marcello’s callous love for his sister Vittoria.
He would wish his “dagger’s point had cleft her heart” rather than that she had submitted to Bracciano.
Criticism of Webster as ‘sensationalist’ and fake
“Tussaud laureate” - George Bernard Shaw
Symbolism of imminent revenge
Disguised revengers enter “[. . . bearing their swords and helmets]”
Flamineo speaks to audience of the reason for his ‘madness’
“[Aside]
. . . But this [madness] allows my varying of shapes. /
Knaves do grow great by being great men’s apes.
[Exuent]”
(End of Act 4, Scene 2)
Lodovico in a hopeless situation (metaphor)
“An idle meteor”
Act 1, Scene 1
Images of natural phenomena (destructive)
“Whirlwind”, “earthquake”, “thunder”
Men use their power for entertainment
Camillo refers to Bracciano as “an ernest bowler” - sporting imagery
(Act 1, Scene 2)
Camillo as vulgar and diseased
“maggot”
Act 1, Scene 2
Vittoria criticises Catholic church
“O poor charity, / Thou art seldom found in scarlet”
Act 3, Scene 2
Bracciano on Vittoria (after love letter): White devil
“How long have I beheld the devil in crystal!”
Act 4, Scene 2
Bracciano promises even more to Vittoria after love-letter argument (no regard for the consequences).
“Be thou at peace with me, let all the world /
Threaten the cannon.”
(Act 4, Scene 2)
Francisco admits to deviousness in revenge soliloquy.
“He that deals all by strength, his wit is shallow: /
When a man’s head goes through, each limb will follow”
(Act 4, Scene 1)
Critic: wider message of the ‘white devil’.
“broken humanity of Renaissance Europe” - J. W. Lever
Francisco relishes the power of the “black book”.
“in so little paper, / Should lie the undoing of so many men”
(Act 4, Scene 1)
Lodovico = pirate.
“rumoured for a pirate”
Act 2, Scene 1
Lodovico admits murders of Bracciano etc
“I do glory yet, / That I can call this act my own”
Act 5, Scene 6
Vittoria’s openness.
“Sum up my faults I pray,”
Act 3, Scene 2
Only option for Vittoria (and all women) is to _____.
“personate masculine virtue”
Act 3, Scene 2
Isabella condemned by Francisco for her independence.
“You are are a foolish, mad / And jealous woman”
Act 2, Scene 1
Vittoria ‘whore’ insult (linked to WOB)
“rotten teeth” (said by Bracciano)
Giovanni’s speech ironically uses the words ___.
“justice” and “honoured” (debased throughout play)
Presence of death and evil in Webster (critic)
“Webster saw the skull beneath the skin.” - T. S. Eliot (20th century poet)
Flamineo as villainous/evil (self-described)
Able to imitate “The subtle foldings of a winter’s snake,”
Act 1, Scene 2
Analysis of:
She “kneels down as to prayers” and “does three reverences to it, and kisses it thrice.” (Bracciano’s portrait)
Breaking the first commandment (worshipping someone other than God).
Number 3 is important in the bible, symbolising totality (the trinity) (Isabella entirely and unconditionally devoted to Bracciano).
Also, Jesus had 3 favourite disciples (loved them most).
Feminist critic.
Webster chose “to take risks and in so doing they broaden the female horizons of the Jacobean era, while at the same time undermining norms of established behaviour.” - Margaret Loftus Ranald (20th century, feminist)
Critic: Dangerousness Flamineo and Vittoria’s rebellion.
They were “destroyed as much by their rebellion as by that which they rebel against.” - Jonathan Dollimore (20th century, cultural materialist)
Flamineo points out Vittoria’s intent to audience (dream)
“Excellent devil! /
She hath taught him in a dream /
To make away his duchess and her husband.”
Lodovico’s contempt for his fate (and misogyny)
“Fortune ‘s a right whore:
If she give aught, she deals it in small parcels,
That she may take away all at one swoop.”
(Act 1, Scene 1)
Vittoria in trial scene: Blames Bracciano.
VITT.
Condemn me you that the duke did love me?
So may you blame some fair and crystal river,
For that some melancholic distracted man
Hath drown’d himself in’it.
MONT.
Most drown’d indeed.
Vittoria in trial scene: Rational
Grant I was tempted; Temptation to lust proves not the act. Casta est quam nemo rogavit. You read his hot love to me, but you want My frosty answer.
