49 pages • 1 hour read
Thomas Middleton, William RowleyThe Changeling
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1622A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Acts I-IIChapter Summaries & Analyses
Act I, Scene 1 Summary
The play is set in Alicante, Spain. It opens outside a church, where Alsemero, a nobleman from Valencia, meets Beatrice-Joanna. Alsemero and Beatrice instantly fall in love. Alsemero wants to marry Beatrice and decides to postpone his travels. This surprises Alsemero’s friend Jasperino, who has never known Alsemero to cancel travel plans or be tempted by love.
Beatrice enters, and Alsemero proclaims his love to her. Beatrice warns him not to be impulsive, since “Our eyes are sentinels unto our judgments...But they are rash sometimes, and tell us wonders / Of common things” (1.1.75-78). Beatrice was betrothed to Alonzo de Piraquo only five days earlier, at her father’s command. She now wants to marry Alsemero, although she cannot defy her father.
De Flores arrives, startling Beatrice. De Flores is a servant to Beatrice’s father Vermandero. De Flores is obsessively in love with Beatrice, although Beatrice despises him and compares him to a “basilisk” (1.1.117). Vermandero enters, and Beatrice encourages her father to invite Alsemero to their castle. Vermandero is pleased to meet Alsemero, having known Alsemero’s father as a soldier. Alsemero’s father died in battle against the Hollanders.
Vermandero tells Beatrice her wedding to Alonzo will take place that week, which is too sudden for Beatrice’s liking. Alsemero is devastated that Beatrice is engaged and tries to leave, though Vermandero and Beatrice insist he stay and visit the castle.
As the group exits, Beatrice drops her glove. When De Flores tries to return it to her, Beatrice throws the second glove at him, claiming the gloves are ruined now that he has touched them. Despite Beatrice’s hatred, De Flores “cannot choose but love her” (1.1.238) and vows to continue seeking her out.
Act I, Scene 2 Summary
Elsewhere, the play’s comedic subplot begins with a jealous old doctor named Alibius discussing his young wife with his servant Lollio. Alibius runs a mental asylum for madmen and fools, similar to Bedlam in London. Members of the public visit the asylum for entertainment, and Alibius worries these visitors might tempt his wife Isabella to be unfaithful. Alibius asks Lollio to keep Isabella hidden away.
Two men, named Pedro and Antonio, enter. Antonio’s costume shows he’s a fool, although this is just a disguise. Antonio is only pretending to be a fool to meet Isabella. Antonio’s character description notes him as “the changeling,” coinciding with the play’s title. Here, the term means idiot or fool, though it also marks Antonio’s false and changing identity.
Pedro pays Antonio’s admission to the asylum. Lollio tests Antonio’s intelligence with a series of brainteasers, such as “How many knaves make an honest man” (1.2.171-72), then leads Antonio into the asylum.
Act II, Scene 1 Summary
Act II transitions to Vermandero’s castle. Beatrice gives Jasperino a note to deliver to Alsemero. Jasperino is a loyal friend to Alsemero, and Beatrice believes this friendship is a positive reflection on Alsemero’s judgment. De Flores enters and approaches Beatrice. He schemes up reasons to speak with Beatrice, although he knows Beatrice finds his ugly appearance detestable. De Flores announces the arrival of Alonzo de Piracquo and his brother Tomazo de Piracquo, then leaves. Beatrice is still overcome by De Flores’s appearance: “I never see this fellow but I think / Of some harm towards me: danger’s in my mind still, / I scarce leave trembling of an hour after” (2.1.89-91). She decides to convince her father to fire De Flores.
Alonzo and Tomazo enter with Vermandero. Beatrice convinces Vermandero and Alonzo to postpone the wedding by three days. Tomazo warns Alonzo to be wary of Beatrice, who seems indifferent toward Alonzo. Alonzo rejects Tomazo’s warning and is offended by Tomazo’s suspicion.
Act II, Scene 2 Summary
Beatrice’s waiting-woman, Diaphanta, facilitates a meeting between Beatrice and Alsemero. Beatrice bemoans her betrothal to Alonzo and the pressure to obey her father. Alsemero offers to duel with Alonzo and kill him, but Beatrice believes the plan is too dangerous. A duel risks death, arrest, or exile.
Beatrice secretly plans to employ De Flores to murder Alonzo, believing De Flores’s ugly face makes him destined for crime. Alsemero leaves, and De Flores enters, having overheard Beatrice and Alsemero. De Flores believes Beatrice is now sexually available since she’s planning to break her marriage to Alonzo. He vows to vie for her affection.
Beatrice compliments De Flores, hiding her contempt to persuade him to murder Alonzo. Beatrice’s attention surprises and delights De Flores. Beatrice laments not being born a man, with the freedom and power to oppose her marriage to Alonzo, and “remove ’em / For ever from my sight” (2.2.112-13). De Flores eagerly tells Beatrice to “Claim so much man in me” (2.2.116), offering to do her bidding. Beatrice will arrange for De Flores to leave after committing the murder, allowing her to get rid of both De Flores and Alonzo. Beatrice believes De Flores wants money and ensures his reward will be “precious” (2.2.129). De Flores believes this “precious” reward is Beatrice’s virginity. Beatrice leaves, and Alonzo enters. Alonzo requests De Flores show him around the castle, creating a ripe opportunity for the murder.
Acts I-II Analysis
Romantic tensions and secret desires mount throughout the first two acts, tangling the characters’ fates. These entanglements are set against the backdrop of Catholic Spain, and images of purity and pollution emphasize religious themes.
Many English Renaissance tragedies are set in Catholic Europe, such as Thomas Kidd’s The Spanish Tragedy or Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. These tragedies often feature gruesome scenes and questionable morals; the foreign setting creates distance between these events and English society. Renaissance playwrights also use these settings for political critique. Protestant and Catholic divides were strong in Europe at the time, with Protestantism the dominant religion in England under King James I. These tragedies paint lurid pictures of Catholic Europe with tales of moral corruption and confining religious and sexual politics. In The Changeling Beatrice’s virtuosity gives way to corruption, dragging everyone into sin.
The play’s opening monologue, spoken by Alsemero, makes heavy use of religious symbolism to highlight Beatrice’s purity:
’Twas in the temple where I first beheld her […]
The place is holy, so is my intent:
I love her beauties to the holy purpose,
And that, methinks, admits comparison
With man’s first creation, the place blest […]
The church hath begun our first interview
And that’s the place must join us into one
So there’s beginning, and perfection too (1.1.1-12).
Alsemero introduces Beatrice to the audience as a figure of perfect beauty and religious ideals, which is compounded by their meeting in a church and Alsemero’s comparison of Beatrice to “man’s first creation.” This characterization is further supported by Beatrice’s virginal status. When Vermandero suggests moving forward Beatrice’s wedding to Alonzo, Beatrice blames her disappointment on modest sentiment around losing her virginity too quickly:
with speed
I cannot render satisfaction
Unto the dear companion of my soul
Virginity, whom I thus long have lived with,
And part with it so rude and suddenly.
Can such friends divide, never to meet again,
Without a solemn farewell? (1.1.194-200).
Beatrice’s attachment to her premarital virginity is a strong theme in the play, representing her commitment to religious and social expectations of the time. However, this modesty also covers up Beatrice’s more deceitful intentions. Beatrice’s desire to postpone the wedding is due less to modesty and more to her aspiration to marry Alsemero instead of Alonzo. Beatrice hopes that with more time, she can scheme a way to defy her father’s wishes and follow her heart. This moment of subtle dishonesty foreshadows Beatrice’s descent from purity into passion, secrecy, and corruption as the tragedy unfolds.
Beatrice’s beauty contrasts with De Flores’s ugly appearance and ominous presence. De Flores—symbolic of “deflower”—represents moral pollution and sexual obsession. Beatrice describes De Flores as a serpent and dangerous entity, comparing him to “deadly poison” and a “basilisk” (1.1.114-17). She finds De Flores disturbing every time he confronts her. However, when Beatrice’s desperation to marry Alsemero turns her thoughts toward murdering Alonzo, she believes De Flores’s ugly appearance makes him the perfect murderer, remarking, “the ugliest creature / Creation framed for some use” (2.2.43-44), and planning to use “one [poison] to expel another” (2.2.46), referring to using De Flores to murder and thus expel Alonzo. The references to poison and religious symbolism paint De Flores as a poisonous entity, threatening to tempt the pure and virtuous Beatrice toward murderous sin.
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