Women Beware Women

Thomas Middleton, William C. Carroll

• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9780713666632
• eBook ISBN: 9781408144602
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

One of the great Renaissance playwrights, Middleton wrote tragedies essentially different from either Marlowe's or Shakespeare's, being wittier than the former and more grittily ironic than the latter. The genre of 'citizen tragedy' came into its own in the eighteenth century, but Middleton can claim to have created it: Bianca, wife of a middling commercial agent, arouses the lust of the Duke of Florence and becomes his mistress, first secretly, then openly and finally, after her husband has been seduced by the scheming Lady Livia and stabbed by Livia's brother, the Duke's wife. Livia plots her revenge, and the play ends with a banquet and a masque that are a triumph of black farce. Middleton's powerful, psychologically complex female characters and his clear-sighted analysis of misogyny are bound to impress today's audiences, but it is the pervasive irony - cynicism, even - with which he dissects the motivations of both oppressor and victim that makes him so eerily modern.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

DUKE OF FLORENCE
LORD CARDINAL, brother to the DUKE
TWO CARDINALS more
A LORD
FABRITIO, father to ISABELLA [and brother to LIVIA and HIPPOLITO]	5
HIPPOLITO, brother to FABRITIO [and LIVIA, uncle to ISABELLA]
GUARDIANO, uncle to the foolish WARD
THE WARD, a rich young heir	10
LEANTIO, a factor, husband to BIANCA
SORDIDO, the ward’s man
LIVIA, sister to FABRITIO [and HIPPOLITO, aunt to ISABELLA]
ISABELLA, niece to LIVIA [and HIPPOLITO, daughter of FABRITIO]	15
BIANCA, LEANTIO’S wife
WIDOW, his [LEANTIO’S] mother
STATES of FLORENCE
CITIZENS
A ‘PRENTICE	20
BOYS
MESSENGER
SERVANTS
[Two LADIES, LORDS, PAGES, GUARD]
[Figures in the Masque: HYMEN, GANYMEDE, HEBE, NYMPHS, CUPIDS]	25

The Scene:
FLORENCE

WOMEN BEWARE WOMEN

Act I, Scene i

Enter LEANTIO with BIANCA and MOTHER
[Bianca stands apart]

MOTHER
Thy sight was never yet more precious to me;
Welcome with all the affection of a mother,
That comfort can express from natural love.
Since thy birth-joy – a mother’s chiefest gladness,
After sh’as undergone her curse of sorrows –	5
Thou wast not more dear to me than this hour
Presents thee to my heart. Welcome again.
LEANTIO
[Aside] ’Las poor affectionate soul, how her joys speak to me!
I have observed i...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Further Reading
• Women Beware Women
• Notes
• Footnotes
• Imprint Page