Produced by Julie C. Sparks
THE WHITE DEVIL
TO THE READER
In publishing this tragedy, I do but challenge myself that liberty, whichother men have taken before me; not that I affect praise by it, for, noshæc novimus esse nihil, only since it was acted in so dull a time ofwinter, presented in so open and black a theatre, that it wanted (thatwhich is the only grace and setting-out of a tragedy) a full andunderstanding auditory; and that since that time I have noted, most ofthe people that come to that playhouse resemble those ignorant asses(who, visiting stationers' shops, their use is not to inquire for goodbooks, but new books), I present it to the general view with thisconfidence:
Nec rhoncos metues maligniorum,
Nec scombris tunicas dabis molestas.
If it be objected this is no true dramatic poem, I shall easily confessit, 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 presentto such an auditory, the most sententious tragedy that ever was written,observing all the critical laws as height of style, and gravity ofperson, enrich it with the sententious Chorus, and, as it were Life andDeath, in the passionate and weighty Nuntius: yet after all this divinerapture, O dura messorum ilia, the breath that comes from the incapablemultitude is able to poison it; and, ere it be acted, let the authorresolve 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, Iconfess I do not write with a goose-quill winged with two feathers; andif they will need make it my fault, I must answer them with that ofEuripides to Alcestides, a tragic writer: Alcestides objecting thatEuripides had only, in three days composed three verses, whereas himselfhad written three hundred: Thou tallest truth (quoth he), but here 's thedifference, thine shall only be read for three days, whereas mine shallcontinue for three ages.
Detraction is the sworn friend to ignorance: for mine own part, I haveever truly cherished my good opinion of other men's worthy labours,especially of that full and heightened style of Mr. Chapman, the labouredand understanding works of Mr. Johnson, the no less worthy composures ofthe both worthily excellent Mr. Beaumont and Mr. Fletcher; and lastly(without wrong last to be named), the right happy and copious industry ofMr. Shakespeare, Mr. Dekker, and Mr. Heywood, wishing what I write may beread by their light: protesting that, in the strength of mine ownjudgment, I know them so worthy, that though I rest silent in my ownwork, yet to most of theirs I dare (without flattery) fix that ofMartial:
—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 Du