The White Devil

“Women are more willingly and more gloriously

chaste when they are least restrained of their liberty.”

Flaminio’s conversation with Camillo shows his talent for manipulation. Having orchestrated an affair between Bracciano and Camillo’s wife, Vittoria, Flamino slyly flatters Camillo with lies about Vittoria’s chastity. By leaving Vittoria alone, Flaminio suggests, Camillo will make Vittoria desire him even more. In reality, however, Camillo’s absence will allow the cheating couple to consummate their affair at Camillo’s expense. Flaminio does not just lie to Camillo in this scene; instead, he presents a more flattering version of reality that Camillo is all too ready to believe.

“I did nothing to displease him; I carved to him at supper-time.”

Defending herself, Vittoria assures her brother that she has done nothing to “displease” Camillo. Her choice of words hints at the state of her marriage, for she clearly does not love Camillo and is not concerned with his happiness. Instead, her aim is merely not to displease him, for the act of feigning service to him allows her to go on conducting her secret affair. Vittoria’s marriage is not a happy one, and she feels free enough in her conversation with her brother to admit as much.

“Fie, fie, the woman’s mad!”

In this scene, Cornelia condemns her daughter, Vittoria, for having an affair with Bracciano, but Bracciano responds with a dismissive attitude. His comments speak to the disparity between the roles of men and women in this patriarchal society, for Bracciano can easily dismiss any criticism by calling Cornelia “mad.” The comment also foreshadows Cornelia’s fate, as she will undergo an acute mental health crisis when the full consequences of this affair reach their tragic nadir.

“My father proved himself a gentleman:

Sold all’s land, and, like a fortunate fellow,

Died ere the money was spent.”

Flaminio embraces a voraciously ambitious approach to life because he is keen to make up for his fathers’ crucial errors in judgment. His father squandered his wealth and left the family impoverished, and Flaminio blames the man for reducing the family’s circumstances in such a manner. The bitter tone of this passage serves to explain the intensity of Flaminio’s ambition. Flaminio says that he is helping his family, but he also believes that he is correcting his father’s mistakes.

“See, a good habit makes a child a man,

Whereas a bad one makes a man a beast.”

While Franciso makes puns about how to raise a son properly, Bracciano uses the opportunity to reaffirm his rivalry with Francisco. He talks about broken bones, whereas Francisco offers up jokes about nuns’ habits and parental duties. Francisco is portrayed as the godly man, whereas Bracciano is only concerned with raw emotion and petty rivalry.

“Oh, that I were a man, or that I had power

To execute my apprehended wishes,

I would whip some with scorpions.”

Isabella is the injured party in her marriage to Bracciano. While Bracciano is free to carry out affairs with impunity, she is left to reflect on the marginalization of women. She shares her concerns with her brother, Francisco, bemoaning her lack of power. If she had equal power, she would take revenge against the men who have wronged her. Given the patriarchal status quo, however, all she can do is conjure up violent images with her words and take what little pleasure she can from her empty threats.

“Unkindness, do thy office: poor heart, break.

Those are the killing griefs which dare not speak.”

In a private aside to the audience, Isabella reveals her emotional fragility. In public, she performs the role of a dutiful and virtuous wife because she cannot bring herself to openly accuse her husband of having an affair. This situation, she confesses, hurts her on a deeply personal level. These little “killing griefs” characterize the emotional punishments inflicted on women who must endure the injustices of a patriarchal society.

“Her issue, should not providence prevent it,

Would make both nature, time, and man repent it.”

Francisco’s story about the god of light is a subtle way to warn Camillo about his wife’s affair without directly accusing Vittoria. The speech ends with an allusion to the laws of nature, time and man, all of which are being undermined or insulted by the affair. The complexity of Francisco’s speech hints at the complex social demands of trying to warn Camillo that his wife is having an affair without explicitly declaring as much.

“Both flowers and weeds spring when the sun is warm,

And great men do great good or else great harm.”

After meeting with Bracciano, the conjurer undergoes a brief moment of reflection. Bracciano has used the conjuror’s magic because he wishes to witness the two murders that he has callously arranged from a distance. The conjuror reflects in this passage that great men—the rich and powerful of Rome—are capable of both good and bad deeds, just as the sun can bring forth flowers and weeds alike. He needs to reassure himself that Bracciano is capable of great deeds because he has just witnessed the “great harm” firsthand. This aside is meant to soothe his fears that he has become complicit in something truly evil.

“I do put on this feignéd garb of mirth

To gull suspicion.”

While Flaminio is duplicitous and deceitful with others, he is at least honest with himself. He is feigning his mirth, he says in an aside, to assuage the suspicion of other people. By performing the role of a happy person, he can distract people from his true role in the affair. With himself, at least, Flaminio is honest about his dishonesty.

“I will not have my accusation clouded

In a strange tongue.”

Monticelso loses control of the trial from its opening moments. Vittoria may be a woman and she may be marginalized by society, but she asserts herself well and articulately defies her accuser. She demands that he conduct the trial in a legible language, setting the parameters for how she will be prosecuted. Vittoria’s small victory over the language of the court foreshadows Monticelso’s failure to prosecute her to any meaningful extent.

“What are whores?”

Monticelso begins to grandstand during the trial, using his platform as the judge and prosecutor in the courtroom to share his moral view of the world. Rather than making any legitimate accusations against Vittoria, he would rather deliver rhetorical questions that widen the discussion to a broader, near-voyeuristic contemplation of the very sins he claims to abhor. In doing so, he reveals that his true interest lies in savoring the scandalous details of Vittoria’s affair rather than in addressing the moral outrages that she is said to have committed.

“Such a corrupted trial have you made,

Both of your life and beauty.”

At the end of the trial, as he is about to deliver his verdict, Monticelso blames Vittoria for squandering the resources given to her by God, claiming that she has sacrificed her life and her beauty for immorality. Notably absent from any of Monticelso’s accusations are any mentions of Bracciano. Everyone knows the identity of Vittoria’s romantic partner, yet Bracciano is not accused of corruption; instead, he remains protected by his status as a rich, powerful man.

“If you will not be melancholy, be angry.”

The relationship between Flaminio begins to disintegrate as Flaminio veers further and further from his brother’s understanding of morality. Flaminio justifies his immoral acts by encouraging his brother to be sad or even outraged by their family’s fall from grace. When he cannot goad his brother into being angry and thereby condoning Flaminio’s actions as a wronged party, Flaminio takes offense at his brother’s calm. His verbal strike against Marcello in this moment foreshadows the greater violence to come.

“To fashion my revenge more seriously,

Let me remember my dead sister’s face.”

As he prosecutes Bracciano, Francisco reminds himself of the personal stakes at play. Isabella was his sister, and he is outraged that Bracciano’s murder of her has gone largely unnoticed by the people of Rome. As he contemplates his revenge, he fixes her image so strongly in his mind that she appears before him as a ghost. If no one will stand up for Isabella, then Francisco will make his prosecution of Bracciano intensely personal in her honor.

“What have I gained by thee but infamy?

Thou hast stained the spotless honor of my house,

And frighted thence noble society.”

Over the course of the play, Vittoria and Flaminio have been closely allied in the execution of their plans. While Flaminio has escaped any repercussions, Vittoria has been publicly tried and shamed for the affair that Flaminio orchestrated. Their alliance begins to fray when Vittoria points out that she is enduring far greater punishment than her brother, even though he insists that they are working together. 

“I come not to you as an intelligencer,

But as a penitent sinner.”

At the beginning of the play, Lodovico complains that he was the only sinner to be punished in the entire sinful city of Rome. By the end of the play, however, he has had a chance to reflect. His earlier outrage and fury has transformed him, and he is no longer angry at the hypocrisy; instead, he wants to atone for his sins. He comes to Monticelso as a “penitent sinner,” and although there are many sinners in the play, Lodovico stands out as an example of how a man can change for the better.

“There’s but three Furies found in spacious hell,

But in a great man’s breast three thousand dwell.”

As Lodovico prepares for his confrontation with Flaminio, he reflects on the emotional turmoil inside the great men whom he serves. Francisco may present himself as a cool, calculating figure, but Lodovico understands the outrage that Francisco feels for the death of Isabella. However, Francisco focuses upon disguising his intense emotions rather than letting himself be entirely ruled by them, presenting a stark contrast to the emotional, uninhibited Bracciano.

“That is my countryman, a goodly person.

When he’s at leisure, I’ll discourse with him

In our own language.”

Francisco arrives at Bracciano’s court in disguise as a Moor. Spotting his disguise, Zanche feels immediately drawn to him. As one of the few non-Italians at the court, she desires compatriotism in any form. Ironically, this positive desire for empathy threatens to undermine Francisco’s plan by revealing that he cannot speak the Moorish language. Intent upon the pursuit of justice, Francisco is almost undone by empathy.

“For they that sleep with dogs shall rise with fleas.”

Flaminio’s use of this Latin idiom is one of the first recorded in the English language. In particular, Flaminio shows his eloquence by translating the traditional phrase into a perfectly metered example of blank verse. The iambic pentameter of the line adds a convincing rhythm to his words, illustrating how he might seduce women like Zanche with his banter.

“He took the crucifix between his hands

And broke a limb off.”

When Flaminio remembers his father, all he can muster is anger toward the man who squandered the family’s fortunes. By contrast, Marcello’s memories of his father are much more personal. He recalls when his father snapped a limb from a crucifix, and this sacrilegious act hinted at the stress and difficulties that the man may have been enduring. Whereas Flaminio can only be angry, Marcello tries to understand the nuance and significance of his father’s actions.

“Oh, you abuse me, you abuse me, you abuse me!”

Of all the characters in the play, few suffer more than Cornelia. She witnesses her son Flaminio murder her other son, Marcello, and she also experiences a mental health crisis when she tries to explain the inexplicable. To Cornelia, this moment is a profound and terrifying abuse upon her character. She denies that Marcello is dead because she is unable to accept reality, then accuses anyone who tells her the truth of abusing her. She repeats this three times, almost willing her wishes to manifest. Cornelia’s crisis is caused by Flaminio and Vittoria, who betray their mother by revealing their lack of morality.

“How miserable a thing it is to die

’Mongst women howling!”

Bracciano faces his imminent death with the horror of a man facing consequences for the first time. When he talks about the misery of his situation, however, he points to the presence of women around him. The woman he refers to is Vittoria, whom he lusted after and with whom he began such a destructive affair. Bracciano complains that he is dying surrounded by the woman he seduced, a reflection of how little he values women in general and Vittoria in particular.