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Paradox
Definition of Satire
Satire is the use of humor, irony, sarcasm, or ridicule to criticize something or someone. Public figures, such as politicians, are often the subject of satire, but satirists can take... read full definition
Satire is the use of humor, irony, sarcasm, or ridicule to criticize something or someone. Public figures, such as politicians, are often the subject of... read full definition
Satire is the use of humor, irony, sarcasm, or ridicule to criticize something or someone. Public figures, such as politicians... read full definition
Act 1, Scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—Love Poems:
Flamineo satirizes common conventions of romantic poetry from the Renaissance period in a speech to Camillo. Employing yet another tactic to convince Camillo to set aside his suspicions of adultery, Flamineo states:
See, she comes. What reason have you to be jealous of this creature? What an ignorant ass or flattering knave might he be counted that should write sonnets to her eyes, or call her brow the snow of Ida, or ivory of Corinth, or compare her hair to the blackbird’s bill when ’tis liker the blackbird’s feather! This is all. Be wise; I will
make you friends and you shall go to bed together. Marry, look you, it shall not be
your seeking, do you stand upon that by any means. Walk you aloof; I would not
have you seen in’t.
Flamineo's speech here satirically mocks numerous cliches of Renaissance poetry. Only an “ignorant ass or flattering knave,” he claims, would “write sonnets” in praise of Vittoria’s beauty. Parodying these romantic poets, he uses numerous “stock-phrases” that compare the fair or pale nature of a woman to “the snow of Ida” or “the ivory of Corinth.” Though an unoriginal poet would compare her hair “to a blackbird’s bill” (suggesting that she is blonde), Flamineo instead notes that Vittoria more closely resembles the “blackbird’s feather” due to her dark hair. In addition to satirizing these poetic commonplaces, Flamineo’s goal is to present Vittoria, regarded as beautiful by most characters in the play, as a woman too ugly to be the object of other men’s affections.
Act 3, Scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—Undigestible Words:
The lawyer who leads the case against Vittoria in court for the murder of her husband uses highly technical language that is difficult to understand. Vittoria, hoping to gain favor from the jury and onlookers, uses an extended metaphor to describe and satirize the jargon of the legal profession:
LAWYER
Hold your peace!
Exorbitant sins must have exulceration.VITTORIA
Surely, my lords, this lawyer here hath swallowed Some ’pothecary’s bills or proclamations,
And now the hard and undigestable words
Come up like stones we use give hawks for physic. Why, this is Welsh to Latin.
The lawyer, a satirical and stereotypical representation of the legal profession, opts for needlessly complicated language during the trial. Rather than saying “punishment,” for example, he says “exulceration,” which literally means “the removal of an ulcer.” Vittoria mocks his language, hoping to get the audience on her side. In a metaphor, she states that the lawyer has “swallowed” a medical prescription (full of complex scientific language) or otherwise some royal “proclamations,” which typically employed extravagant and lofty language.
Furthering this digestive metaphor, she claims that the lawyer has not been able to digest the “hard” words he has swallowed, and now vomits them up “like stones we use give hawks for physic.” Here, she references the common early modern belief that overheated hawks swallow stones to cool down and then vomit them back out. Last, she metaphorically compares his speech to “Welsh,” the language of Wales, which was often thought of as an incomprehensible language in English literature of the time.
Explanation and Analysis—Lawyers:
Webster offers a biting satire of lawyers and the legal profession in his depiction of Vittoria’s trial for the murder of her husband, Camillo. The unnamed lawyer for the prosecution addresses Vittoria and the court in needlessly complicated language:
LAWYER
Most literated judges, please your lordships So to connive your judgements to the view
Of this debauched and diversivolent woman, Who such a black concatenation
Of mischief hath effected, that to extirp
The memory of’t must be the consummation Of her and her projections.VITTORIA What’s all this?
Lawyers were a common target for satire in Jacobean theater, which typically presents them as greedy, fussy, and uninterested in justice. The lawyer in The White Devil matches the usual stereotype well. Earlier, he began his address in Latin, but Vittoria refuses to respond and insists that he use his own “usual tongue.” Though she understands Latin, she argues that half of the audience might not, which impresses many onlookers.
The lawyer continues in English, though his language is no less easy to understand than his Latin. His vocabulary is highly latinate and technical, satirizing the complex jargon used in the legal profession. Instead of “plot,” for example, he opts for the far less simple “concatenation,” and “diversivolent” is a clear example of a nonce-word, or a word that has been made up for the occasion. Vittoria, and the other observers of the trial, are unable to comprehend the lawyer’s language, a biting satire by Webster of lawyers and their trade.
