The Revenger’s Tragedy
By Thomas Middleton
[Dramatis Personae in order of appearance
Vindice, the revenger, sometimes disguised as Piato
HIPPOLITO, his brother
GRATIANA, his mother
CASTIZA, his sister
DUKE
Two JUDGES
DUCHESS
LUSSURIOSO, the Duke’s son by a previous marriage
Some of the character names in this play are representative of major personality traits of the characters. Ambitioso is ambitious, for example.AMBITIOSO, the eldest of the Duchess’s three sons by a previous marriage
SPURIO, the Duke’s bastard son
JUNIOR, the Duchess’s youngest son
SUPERVACUO, the Duchess’s middle son
ANTONIO, a virtuous old lord
PIERO, a virtuous lord
DONDOLO, Castiza’s servant
LORDS
Two SERVANTS of Spurio
NOBLES
Four prison OFFICERS
A prison KEEPER
GENTLEMEN
NENCIO }
SORDIDO } Lussurioso’s attendants
A FOURTH MAN in the final masque, Ambitioso’s henchman
Guards]
I.i. [Outside Vindice’s house]
Enter Vindice [with a skull]; the Duke, Duchess, Lussurioso [his] son, Spurio the bastard, with a train pass over the stage with torchlight.
Vindice
In this first soliloquy, the protagonist of the play provides the background for the play, or exposition.Duke, royal lecher, go, gray-hair’d adultery;
And thou his son, as impious steep’d as he;
And thou his bastard, true-begot in evil;
And thou his duchess that will do with [the] devil:
Four ex’lent characters. Oh, that marrowless age
Would stuff the hollow bones with damn’d desires,
And stead of heat kindle infernal fires
Within the spendthrift veins of a dry duke,
A parch’d and juiceless luxur! Oh God, one
That has scarce blood enough to live upon!
And he to riot it like a son and heir?
Oh, the thought of that
His complaints here begin to explain why he—whose name sounds a bit like vengeance—is seeking revenge.Turns my abused heartstrings into fret!
At this point, Vindice turns to the skull that he’s been holding and addresses it. This skull belongs to Gloriana, the woman whom Vindice loved, but who the Duke killed out of spite when she spurned his advances.Thou sallow picture of my poisoned love,
Vindice holds onto this skull as not only a memento mori, but also a reminder of the need to gain revenge against his enemy.My study’s ornament, thou shell of death,
Once the bright face of my betrothed lady,
When life and beauty naturally fill’d out
These ragged imperfections,
When two heaven-pointed diamonds were set
In those unsightly rings: then ’twas a face
So far beyond the artificial shine
Of any woman’s bought complexion
That the uprightest man, if such there be,
That sin but seven times a day, broke custom
And made up eight with looking after her.
Oh, she was able to ha’ made a usurer’s son
Melt all his patrimony in a kiss,
And what his father fifty years told
To have consum’d, and yet his suit been cold!
But oh, accursed palace!
Thee, when thou wert apparel’d in thy flesh,
The old duke poison’d,
Because thy purer part would not consent
Unto his palsy-lust, for old men lustful
Do show like young men angry, eager-violent,
Outbid like their limited performances.
Oh, ’ware an old man hot and vicious!
“Age, as in gold, in lust is covetous.”
Vengeance, thou murder’s quit-rent, and whereby
Thou shouldst thyself tenant to tragedy,
Oh, keep thy day, hour, minute, I beseech,
For those thou hast determin’d! Hum: whoe’er knew
Murder unpaid? Faith, give revenge her due:
Sh’as kept touch hitherto. Be merry, merry;
Advance thee, O thou terror to fat folks,
To have their costly three-pil’d flesh worn of
As bare as this: for banquets, ease, and laughter
Can make great men, as greatness goes by clay,
But wise men little are more great than they.
This soliloquy provides us insight into Vindice’s character (he is someone who walks around holding a skull, so he is clearly melancholic), and insight into his motivation.Enter [his] brother Hippolito.
HIPPOLITO
Still sighing o’er death’s vizard?