in The Devil's Charter, or Pope Alexander the Sixth — Barnes, Barnabe
Metadata
Play
The Devil's Charter, or Pope Alexander the Sixth
Author
Barnes, Barnabe
Year (catalogued)
1607
First performance
1606
Decade
1600s
Genre
Tragedy
Play type
Adult Professional
Company
King's Men
Theater
before the Court;
Speech prefix(es)
1. Boy. | 2. Boy. | 2. Boy
Words
157
Characters
814
Typicality
0.33 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A04539
BritDrama no.
1523
Cluster
Cluster 10 — Mourners, mothers & doleful voices
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
Let us entreat our mother noble general, For to deliver up the state of Furly And will you save our lives then. Good mother for my father's sake that's dead, And for mine Uncle sake partly of your bowels And for our own sakes yield your selves and save us. Mother we scorn death in respect of honour Let him perform his worst, we fear him not, Courage sweet brother, think upon my father, I will die first, be not afraid of death. I to die Caesar. Come brother let us bravely die together. Good mother, thank the Captain, we live yet, They gave us spices, wines, and bade us welcome, I pray you thank them. Good Captain do not kill us. Good sweet mother save us. Let me before I die, but kiss my mother. O mother, mother, are you come, we be not dead. Ah deer Mother, sweet mother, good Uncle Inlio save our lives.
Plot summary
Plot — The Devil's Charter, or Pope Alexander the Sixth
During a papal election, Roderigo Borgia both bribes the conclave and sells his soul to the Devil. These actions ensure his election as Pope Alexander VI. He makes his son Caesar a cardinal and his other son, the Duke of Gandy, the general of the papal armies. To nepotism he adds incest with his daughter, Lucretia; among many other crimes, he also poisons cardinals for their money and makes homosexual advances to the vanquished prince, Astor Manfredi. Later, seeking to acquire the lands of Astor and his brother, he has them put to sleep with opium, then kills them with poisonous snakes and gives out that they died from over-exerting themselves at tennis. King Charles of France enters Italy to press his claim to the Neapolitan throne, and is given assistance by Lodowick Sforza. Their army marches on Rome. Alexander has secured a marriage alliance with the current rulers of Naples, and so: favours Ferdinand, Charles’s rival claimant. On Caesar’s advice, he ===== PAGE 344 ===== reluctantly allows Charles to enter Rome and capitulates to his demands. Charles takes Naples, but dies after returning to France, and Ferdinand takes back the throne; Charles’s successor, King Louis, invades again. Frustrated by the restrictions imposed by her jealous husband, Lucretia Borgia traps him in a trick chair which immobilizes him; she agrees to spare his life on condition that he signs a document she has prepared, but afterwards she stabs him to death anyway. The document turns out to be a forged suicide note. Informed by devils of the truth of the affair, Alexander sends her a poisoned perfume, pretending it to be a gift from her lover, Sforza; she uses it when preparing for an assignation with a cardinal, and dies. Despite Alexander’s efforts to foster good relations between his sons, Caesar and Gandy are bitterly jealous of one another. Caesar engages Frescobaldi to help him murder Gandy; the corpse is disposed of in the Tiber, and Caesar throws in Frescobaldi after it. He plans to throw suspicion onto Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, but devils have already revealed his guilt to Alexander. Father and son confront one another with their respective villainies, and are reconciled: Caesar is appointed the papal general in his brother’s place. Caesar leads the armies to conquer Italy. He besieges Forli, but the Countess will not surrender even when shown that Caesar has her sons as hostages. He orders them beheaded, and storms the city; but once the Countess is taken, he reunites…