The White Devil by John Webster

Plot Summary:

Written by English playwright John Webster in 1612, The White Devil, a tragedy in five acts, tells a story of adultery, corruption, murder, and revenge among the wealthy and privileged “great men” and women of the Italian nobility. Webster based The White Devil on the sensational murder of a young Italian noblewoman, Vittoria Accoramboni, in 1585. When first performed at the Red Bull Theater, The White Devil was not a success. Webster blamed both the cold weather and the audience of “ignorant asses” for the play’s failure. The White Devil later enjoyed great acclaim, and along with Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi, is regarded as a masterpiece.

Considered a revenge play, The White Devil demonstrates many of the conventions of the genre, including a theme of vengeance, use of the supernatural, a dumb show, characters in disguise, madness, and many violent murders. In addition to its focus on retribution, The White Devil also explores themes of misogyny, double-standards, and the deceptive nature of appearances.

The play opens as Count Lodovico, a murderous villain who has been banished from Rome for his crimes, talks to his two henchmen, Gasparo and Antonelli. Accepting Lodovico’s money, they promise to get his banishment revoked.

In the next scene, the Duke of Bracciano visits the home of the beautiful Vittoria Corombona and her husband, Camillo. Passionately in love with Vittoria, Bracciano plans to seduce her, even though both are separately married. Flamineo, Bracciano’s cynical, misogynistic secretary and Vittoria’s brother, offers to help the two get together, believing this will further his own career. He and his girlfriend, the Moorish ladies’ maid, Zanche, arrange for Bracciano and Vittoria to meet secretly. The two express their love for each other, and Vittoria shares a recent bad dream in which Camillo and Bracciano’s wife, Isabella, try to bury her alive. Bracciano vows to protect Vittoria by killing their inconvenient spouses. Vittoria’s mother, Cornelia, overhears their discussion, accuses them of adultery, and curses them.

Isabella arrives with her brother, Francisco de Medici, and Cardinal Monticelso. Isabella asks her brother to be kind to Bracciano when the two men upbraid him about his infidelity. After Francisco and Monticelso depart, Bracciano tells Isabella he will never sleep with her again, essentially divorcing her. Flamineo and Bracciano plot to murder both Isabella and Camillo. Bracciano meets with a Conjurer who magically shows Bracciano the two murders as they happen. Before retiring for the evening, Isabella routinely kisses her portrait of Bracciano. This time, however, the unscrupulous Doctor Julio and his assistant have painted poison on the picture’s lips: Isabella kisses it and dies. Meanwhile, Camillo and Flamineo, out drinking with some companions, have a gymnastics competition. When Camillo and Flamineo are alone in the room, Flamineo breaks Camillo’s neck and arranges the body to look as though his death was a vaulting accident.

Cardinal Monticelso and Francisco believe Vittoria killed her husband. Since they don’t have any hard evidence, they plan to get her convicted by assassinating her character. Monticelso acts as prosecutor and judge, defaming Vittoria and calling her a “whore.” Vittoria bravely defends herself, saying “Grant I was tempted, / Temptation to lust proves not the act.” Vittoria argues that they are condemning her because Bracciano loved her, which she compares to blaming a river for the death of someone who drowned themselves in it. Despite her logical arguments, Monticelso sentences her to prison in a convent for reformed prostitutes. Flamineo feigns insanity to avoid answering questions about his part in the murders.

Now pardoned, Lodovico returns to Rome. He reveals that he loved Isabella and vows to avenge her death. Francisco plots his own revenge, writing an anonymous love letter to Vittoria with the intent of making Bracciano jealous. Francisco’s plan works: Bracciano angrily calls Vittoria a “whore.” Vittoria convinces him that she loves him, and he promises to break her out of prison. Bracciano, Vittoria, Flamineo, and Giovanni take advantage of the confusion in Rome and flee to Padua where they get married and hold court. Monticelso is named the next Pope and promptly excommunicates the lovers. Francisco hires Lodovico to kill them.

In disguise and out for vengeance, Francisco, Lodovico, and Gasparo present themselves for work in Bracciano’s court. Francisco takes the identity of a Moor, calling himself Mulinassar. Lodovico and Gaspar pretend to be monks.

Flamineo fights with his younger brother, Marcello, over his relationship with Zanche and stabs him to death. Before a staged fight, Lodovico puts poison on Bracciano’s helmet. As Bracciano dies, Lodovico and Gasparo reveal themselves and strangle him. Meanwhile, Zanche has transferred her affections to Mulinassar, unaware he’s really Francisco. She discloses the truth about Camillo and Isabella’s murders. At Lodovico’s urging, Francisco departs, leaving Lodovico to finish exacting their revenge. Giovanni takes over his father’s title, and as the new Duke, banishes Flamineo. Bracciano’s ghost appears to Flamineo, offering him a bowl filled with lilies and a skull. When the ghost throws dirt on him, Flamineo believes it is an omen of his death.

Flamineo visits Vittoria and Zanche, announcing that he promised Bracciano he would kill Vittoria if Bracciano died. He convinces the two women to participate in a murder/suicide plot, first shooting him, then killing themselves. Vittoria and Zanche shoot Flamineo and rejoice in his death, disclosing that they never intended to go along with his scheme. Flamineo, however, stands up and reveals that the pistols were not loaded. Lodovico, Gasparo, and two of their henchmen, Carlo and Pedro, burst in and stab the three to death. Giovanni enters and captures the avengers. Lodovico admits to the slaughter, saying he was acting under Francisco’s orders and is content now that he has avenged Isabella. Giovanni sends Lodovico off to be tortured, concluding with a warning to evildoers: “Let guilty men remember their blacke deedes, / Do leane on crutches, made of slender reedes.”