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. Gent. | 2. Gent. | • . Gent.
Words
451
Characters
2687
Typicality
0.23 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A04539
BritDrama no.
1523
Cluster
Cluster 7 — Pedants, satyrs & Latin wit
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
Nay such profane and monstrous Sodomy, Such obscure Incest and Adultery, Such odious Avarice and perfidy, Such vinolence and bruti h gluttony, So barren of sincere integrity. As heavens detest, and men on earth disaster Of all good men such detestation. Apparantfigures of damned reprobation. Time will outstrip us; for the morning star, Portends the mounting of fair Phœbus Car. Fix on your Papers, these for Alexander And his ambitious Caesar: set on yours. Hale reverent Pasquill I doll of verity, As he fixeth on his papers. Accept these sacri ices which we bring. High Muse, which whilom virtues patronized, In whose eternal rolls of memory The famous acts of Princes were comprised By force of everliving History: What shall we do to call thee back again? True Chronicler of all immortal glory, When here with mortal men nought is devised, But how all stories with foul vice to stain: So that alas thy gracious Oratory, Which with mere truth and virtue sympathise, Is silent; and we Poets now with pain, (Which in Castalian Fountains dipped our quills) Are forced of men's impiety to plain; And well thou wot to, wrought against our wills, In rugged verse, vile matters to contain: And herein lurks the worst of mortal ills, That Room (which should be Virtues Paradise) Bore of all good, is wilderness of vice. But chiefly one, that devilish Cardinal, Proud Caesar, farst, with fierce impiety: His Oracle and instrument of shame In all nefarious plots and practises, Is now become as wicked as himself: But hast we now, least any should suspect us. In whom there is no shame nor verity, Faith nor religion, but mere cruelty? Immoderate ambition, guileful treachery, Such profanation and Apostasy And in all falsehood such dexterity. Such impious sacrilege, such adulation: Such Magic skill, such devilish incantation. Hast we, for danger drawn on by delay, Admits no time oh tarry till clear day. These be sin offerings figuring foul vice. O glorious guider of the golden Spheres, And thou that from thy precious lyricke strings Makes Gods and men in heaven and earth to dance With sacred touch of sweetest harmony: Pity these times, by whose malignity, We lose our grace, and thou thy dignity. How luculent and more conspicuous Even then the sun, in clearest Majesty, His vehement and more then hellish thirst Soaring to perch upon the spire of honour Displ es his bastard wings: and in that nest Where princely Falcons, or Jove's kingly Birds, Should hatch their young ones, plants his ravenous Harpies, His graceless , impious, and disastrous sons, Even in the sovereign Chair of domination. Much conference with Pasquill may detect us. As in all thoughts is thought abomination
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…