The White Devil

Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1612

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Summary

Background

Act Summaries & Analyses

Act I

Act II

Act III

Act IV

Act V

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

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Act IVChapter Summaries & Analyses

Act IV, Scene 1 Summary

In Rome, Monticelso quizzes Francisco about his plans following Isabella’s death by poisoning. Francisco does not want to go to war with Bracciano because any such war would bring suffering and devastation to his “poor subjects.” Instead, he would rather leave revenge up to God. Monticelso mentions that he has a special book containing a list of every criminal in the city. He offers the book to Francisco so that they might find a criminal ally. Monticelso goes to fetch the “black book,” and in his absence, Francisco admits to himself that he will seek a slow, careful revenge against Bracciano.

Monticelso shows off his black book of criminals. He lists the names and crimes of those in the book, then leaves it with Francisco. Privately, Francisco wonders whether Monticelso uses the book for his own nefarious purposes. He then examines the book to find a murderer, keeping an image of Isabella in his mind to help him focus. Isabella’s ghost suddenly appears before Francisco, and he believes that his imagination is overly active due to his emotional turmoil. He asks the ghost a series of questions but then abandons the interview, causing the ghost to leave.

Francisco turns back to the book and devises a plan. The first part of the plan involves feigning love for Vittoria, so he writes a letter to her. He tells a servant that the letter must be delivered to Vittoria or to the matron at the house of convertites. Most importantly, Bracciano’s men must see the letter being delivered. Francisco admits to himself that he will never be quite sure that Bracciano is truly dead until he “can play at football with [his] head” (IV.i.135). The gods in heaven will not listen to such violent prayers, he says, so he will pray to the gods in hell.

Act IV, Scene 2 Summary

In the house of the convertites, Flaminio talks to the matron, asking that she approve Bracciano as a visitor. He is present when the servant brings Francisco’s letter to Vittoria, and he offers to take the letter to his sister himself. The servant accepts.

Bracciano arrives and demands to read the letter. Flaminio reads the letter aloud, inserting his own mocking commentary as he reads Francisco’s false declarations of love to Vittoria. Believing the love letter to be real, Bracciano now thinks that Francisco is having an affair with Vittoria. He demands to see her, hoping to hurt her. Flaminio is shocked that Bracciano would insult his sister. When Bracciano turns on him, Flaminio points out Bracciano’s role in the murder of Camillo. They exchange insults, with Bracciano dismissing Flaminio as a lowly fool.

Vittoria arrives. Faced with Bracciano’s anger, she insists that she has no lovers other than Bracciano. The letter, she says, is a “treacherous plot” intended to drive them apart. Bracciano rejects this explanation, and just as he did with Isabella, he loudly proclaims that he and Vittoria are now separated. Vittoria angrily refuses to allow her name to be tarnished and vows to make her enemies regret their attempts to slander her. She declares that God will punish Bracciano, then collapses on her bed in tears.

Bracciano is taken aback. His love for Vittoria is rekindled, so he tries to comfort her, but she resists him and blames Flaminio for helping him. Flaminio suggests that she forgive Bracciano and encourages Bracciano to show his love for Vittoria. Bracciano leans down beside Vittoria, who seems to forgive Bracciano. He promises not to insult her again and vows to help her escape from the house of the convertites. He suggests that because the recent death of the Pope has thrown Rome into turmoil, they will be able to slip away to Padua. He will bring Flaminio, Cornelia, and Marcello with them, and he promises that in Padua, Vittoria will be a duchess.

Flaminio tells a story about a crocodile with toothache. A little bird cures the crocodile’s toothache by removing a worm in its teeth, but the crocodile tries to eat the bird. The bird escapes by pecking at the inside of the crocodile’s mouth. Bracciano suspects that this fable is a sign that Flaminio expects to be paid for his services. Flaminio, however, insists that the bird represents Bracciano, while Vittoria is the crocodile. He tells his sister to respect the help that Bracciano offers to her. In a private aside, he acknowledges his habit of “varying” his character and demeanor to satisfy and flatter others.

Act IV, Scene 3 Summary

Lodovico is accompanied by Gasparo and the ambassadors. Francisco appears from a different direction. He sets Lodovico to guard the room where a conclave is taking place to elect the next Pope. People pass across the stage in elaborate costumes, having made their arguments for prospective candidates before the cardinals. Lodovico inspects everything entering the conclave, searching for secret messages or promises of bribes. He tells the ambassadors that the cardinals cannot be petitioned until they elect a Pope. Francisco suggests that he and Lodovico wager on how long the conclave will take. Before they can agree on terms, however, the Cardinal of Aragon appears and announces (in Latin) that a new Pope has been elected. He will be Pope Paul IV.

A servant arrives and tells Francisco that Vittoria has left Rome with Bracciano and Giovanni. Francisco sends orders for the matron to be arrested, though he notes quietly to Lodovico that he has arranged for this dramatic escape because it will give him a pretext to exact revenge on Bracciano outside of Rome. Monticelso enters, dressed in the elaborate robes of a Pope. Now Pope, Monticelso issues orders to excommunicate Bracciano and Vittoria. Everyone leaves, save for Lodovico and Francisco, who plot to kill Bracciano.

Monticelso reenters as Francisco leaves. Monticelso quizzes Lodovico, wanting to know why Francisco was so interested in securing a pardon for Lodovico. He wonders whether the two men have entered into some illegal scheme. Lodovico makes excuses, claiming to have been brought back to Rome to deal with a stubborn horse. Monticelso does not believe him. Lodovico switches to confession mode before the new Pope. He admits that he loved Isabella, or at the very least, that he felt “hot lust” for her. He has promised Francisco that he will avenge Isabella’s death by killing Bracciano. Monticelso issues a dire warning that Lodovico will be ruined if he continues to pursue such an evil path. Monticelso leaves. Lodovico admits to himself that he is confused by the Pope’s words, as Monticelso hates Bracciano so much. Francisco brings a gift of 1,000 ducats from Monticelso, and Lodovico realizes that the Pope was feigning his horror; because Monticelso is now Pope, he must disguise his true emotions.

Act IV Analysis

This portion of the play is filled with fraught alliances, for although Francisco and Monticelso may appear to be working together, they do not trust each other. They may be united in their opposition to Bracciano, but Francisco is unwilling to tell Monticelso the exact details of his plan for revenge. In Act 3, Francisco takes control of the trial when he feels that Monticelso is about to make a fool of himself, and the ripples of this moment of distrust continue into Act 4, when he ignores Monticelso’s pleas to hear the full details of the plan. For Francisco, the situation is serious. Horrified by the knowledge that Bracciano arranged Isabella’s murder, Francisco feels guilty for urging her to reconcile with Bracciano. Because he feels responsible for her death, he refuses to allow his revenge to be undermined by a loose cannon like Monticelso. Thus, although both Francisco and Bracciano experience The Dangers of Succumbing to Emotion—Francisco to vengeance and Bracciano to lust—Francisco’s cold, calculated approach reveals that he has an actionable plan, whereas Bracciano does not.

The personal conflict between Francisco and Bracciano has far-reaching social implications. In Act 3, for example, Francisco worries that Vittoria’s public trial will damage Italy’s reputation abroad, and this concern demonstrates his ability to consider matters that extend beyond his own personal relationships. Similarly, when Bracciano ignores Francisco’s insistence that he change his behavior and attend to his duties as a duke, Bracciano ignores his responsibility to protect his subjects. His cavalier attitude contributes to the new tension that arises between him and Francisco, and as a result, their increasingly toxic relationship now threatens to spill over into provincial war. While Bracciano disregards the implications of this scenario, Francisco proves uniquely aware of the fact that his personal issues can have broader social consequences.

As the play unfolds, multiple scenes combine to demonstrate Bracciano’s mercurial nature and hotheaded approach to life, revealing him to be a man who cannot be trusted to maintain a steady course. Afflicted by his own impulsivity, Bracciano proves to be easily manipulated when the false love letter to Vittoria goads him into briefly turning against his illicit lover. In this scene, the mere suggestion that Vittoria may have been unfaithful to him transforms Bracciano’s love into hatred, and he launches a series of invectives against her, callously rejecting the very woman for whom he has stooped to committing murder. Bracciano’s hypocrisy is stark; Vittoria’s infidelity poses no issue when it benefits him, but he sees even the merest hint of her possible disloyalty to him as a mortal offense. While Flaminio manages to soothe Bracciano’s ego through the sly use of rhetoric and flattery, his intervention foreshadows the doomed nature of their partnership, for an alliance built on lies can be just as quickly undone by other lies.

With Monticelso’s elevation to Pope, the political dynamics of the play intensify considerably, once again highlighting the issue of Performative Virtue as a Mask for Vice. Significantly, Monticelso is elected by the college of cardinals despite his apparent failure to secure the desired result in the public spectacle of Vittoria’s trial. In that moment, he was rendered powerless, but as Pope, however, he becomes one of the most powerful people in the world. Imbued with the institutional power of the church, he now holds the authority to cast moral judgements on all of society. The ironic contrast between the powerless, self-absorbed Monticelso and the powerful office of the Holy See therefore becomes an implicit critique of the Catholic Church itself, for despite the veneer of piety that he now wears, Monticelso remains the same man and suffers from the same character flaws. Rather than elevating Monticelso’s inclinations, the power of the papacy only gives him the authority to pursue his unethical desires without restraint. By extension, Webster uses this scenario to suggest that the Pope is a flawed and petty man, not the voice of God.