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)
Gis. | G • s. | 〈◊〉 [Gismond] | 〈◊〉 .
Words
597
Characters
3297
Typicality
0.47 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A04539
BritDrama no.
1523
Cluster
Cluster 5 — Romantic leads (high style)
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
Signior Barbarossa in happy time well encountered, for I have some business this morning with my brother the Duke of Candy, wherein I would both use your counsel and con tenance. Pardon me deer sir no service more then reciprocal, and in endue parity betwixt us, and since we be so near it, let us not pass Pasquill without and Ave: what scandalous hyerogli phickes have we here? A. S. P. M. Avaritiam, Superbiam, Perfidiae, Malitiae, Alexander, Sextus, Pontifex, Maximus. Against my Lord the Popes holiness such blasphemous impu dence, such intolerable bitterness! M. P. S. A. These are the same letters with the first begin ning at the last, Magnum Petrum Sequitur Antichristus. Phy Diabolo, our blessed Alexander (being Saint Peeters successor) this devilish libeler calls Antichrist. Read it good Barbarossa. O most intolerable abomination? By the blessed altar of Saint Peeter this villainy surpasses patience. Read it good Barbarossa : more mischief of my wife nay read it. Nay read out all, it is but of a whore. Malignant aspect of ungracious stars, Why have you pointed at my Misery's? Patienza per forza, but this wounds to quick. O villamies of monstrous people, Fashions and times deformed and unseasonable, Malice perform thy worst least coming late, I with anticipation cross that fate. Read it, toot man. Mortal Misery's? but we are all mortal, Fortune I scorn thy malice, and thy meed, Keep them up safe that I may show them to his holiness, Is this the licence which our city Room Hath given to beastly Bards, and satirists, Ribbaldly Rimesters, and malicious curs, To leave no state of Church nor secular, Free from their ordure, and pollution. Good Barbarossa bear me Company: Exile and Punishment for such base poets, And str pes with wiry scourges were too little. Which breathing here in Room, and taking grace From the fair Sunshine of this hemisphere, Contaminate that air with their vile breath. Obumbrating this light by which they live, If these were truth: this times impiety, May soon sink down under the diety. Exeunt. W at my Lucretia walking alone? That e solitary assions should bewray Some discontentment, and those gracious eyes Seem to be mooned with anger, not with love: Tell me Lucretia, may thy Gismond know? Here in the presence of the powers in Heaven, I do not speak n scorn, but in mere love: And further Lucrese, (of thy clemency, For love, and b autie both are rich in bounty) F rgiue me what is passed, and I will swear, Never to vex thee with more j lousy. to ou my j lous e? may blame thy beauty, And love im soned in those amo ous looks: eam e the ef ect oh S on thy face, Least he more wondering at thy precious eyes, Then any Nymph's wh changed he most hono ed, Shou worser bear thee to some other Paradise, And ob me, silly man, of this world's joy. I ear the winds least amorous Jove in them, (Envying such precious nature among to men) With extreme passion hence should hurry thee. O love is full of fea e all things I fear, By which I m ght be frustrate of thy love. Wh thou didst bestow this Diamond I and a lustre in mine eye: And uva oh virtue, when I vowed To ma ntaine that, which was impossible: B to that time this stone hath had a S awe, within to e ring, his foil grown dim, The we tue vani and the Lust lost. O help I am strangled.
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…