The White Devil is a tragedy by the English playwright John Webster. According to Webster's own preface to the 1612 Quarto Edition, the play's first performance in that year was a notorious failure; he complained that the play was acted in the dead of winter before an unreceptive audience. The play's complexity, sophistication, and satire made it a poor fit with the repertory of Queen Anne's Men at the Red Bull Theatre, where it was first performed. It was successfully revived in 1630 by Queen Henrietta's Men at the Cockpit Theatre and published again in 1631.
Contents
Background
The story is loosely based on an event in Italy twenty-seven years prior to the play's composition: the murder of Vittoria Accoramboni in Padua on 22 December 1585. Webster's dramatisation of this event turned Italian corruption into a vehicle for depicting "the political and moral state of England in his own day", particularly the corruption in the royal court.
The play explores the differences between the reality of people and the way they depict themselves as good, "white", or pure.
Characters
Monticelso – a cardinal, later Pope Paul IV.
Francisco De Medici – Duke of Florence; in Act V disguised as the Moor "Mulinassar".
Brachiano – otherwise Paulo Giordano Orsini, The Duke of Brachiano, husband of Isabella, and in love with Vittoria.
Giovanni – Brachiano's son by Isabella.
Lodovico – sometimes Lodowick, an Italian count in love with Isabella.
Antonelli – Ludovico's friend and conspirator.
Gasparo – Ludovico's friend and conspirator.
Camillo – Vittoria's husband, nephew of Monticelso.
Carlo – attendant of Brachiano, in league with Francisco.
Pedro – attendant of Brachiano, in league with Francisco.
Hortensio – one of Brachiano's officers.
Marcello – an attendant to the Duke of Florence; Vittoria's younger brother.
Flamineo – Vittoria's brother. Brachiano's secretary.
Isabella – Francisco De Medici's sister; first wife of Brachiano
Vittoria Corombona – a Venetian lady, sister of Flamineo. first married to Camillo – afterwards to Brachiano. Based on Vittoria Accoramboni.
Cornelia – mother of Vittoria, Flamineo, and Marcello.
Zanche – Moor servant to Vittoria; in love with Flamineo, then Francisco.
Ambassadors, courtiers, lawyers, officers, physicians, conjurer, armourer, attendants, matron of the House of Convertites, ladies.
Doctor Julio.
Christophero – one of the line-less "ghost" characters, who helps Doctor Julio murder Isabella.