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Camillo
Isabella is Brachiano’s wife, Giovanni’s mother, and Francisco’s sister. A Medici by birth, Isabella belongs to one of the most powerful families in all of Renaissance Italy. But as soon as she marries Brachiano, Isabella finds herself reduced to the role of a devoted, ignored wife. Though Isabella is aware of her husband’s wandering eye, she tries to avoid flying into fits of jealous anger; even when Brachiano ends their marriage, she helps protect him from Francisco’s wrath. Isabella dies after kissing a picture of Brachiano she keeps in her bedroom—Brachiano has hired men to poison the picture, and so Isabella is quite literally killed by her love for her husband. Isabella provides a stark contrast to Vittoria: while Vittoria is impure but strong, Isabella is chaste almost to a fault, as her devotion eventually becomes a source of weakness.
Isabella Quotes in The White Devil
The The White Devil quotes below are all either spoken by Isabella or refer to Isabella . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Act 1, Scene 2
Quotes
FLAMINEO:
The duchess come to court! I like not that.
We are engag’d to mischief, and must on;
As rivers to find out the ocean
Flow with crook bendings beneath forced banks,
Or as we see, to aspire some mountain’s top,
The way ascends not straight, but imitates
The subtle foldings of a winter’s snake,
So who knows policy and her true aspect,
Shall find her ways winding and indirect.
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 5, Scene 3
Quotes
Here, the rest being departed, LODOVICO and GASPARO discover themselves.
LODOVICO:
Devil Brachiano, thou art damn’d.
[…]You that were held the famous politician,
Whose art was poison.
GASPARO:
And whose conscience, murder.
LODOVICO:
That would have broke your wife’s neck down the stairs,
Ere she was poison’d.
GASPARO:
That had your villainous sallets.
LODOVICO:
And fine embroider’d bottles, and perfumes,
Equally mortal with a winter plague.
GASPARO:
Now there ’s mercury—
LODOVICO:
And copperas----
GASPARO:
And quicksilver----
LODOVICO:
With other devilish ’pothecary stuff,
A-melting in your politic brains: dost hear? […]
And thou shalt die like a poor rogue […]
And be forgotten
Before the funeral sermon.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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Isabella Quotes in The White Devil
The The White Devil quotes below are all either spoken by Isabella or refer to Isabella . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Act 1, Scene 2
Quotes
FLAMINEO:
The duchess come to court! I like not that.
We are engag’d to mischief, and must on;
As rivers to find out the ocean
Flow with crook bendings beneath forced banks,
Or as we see, to aspire some mountain’s top,
The way ascends not straight, but imitates
The subtle foldings of a winter’s snake,
So who knows policy and her true aspect,
Shall find her ways winding and indirect.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 5, Scene 3
Quotes
Here, the rest being departed, LODOVICO and GASPARO discover themselves.
LODOVICO:
Devil Brachiano, thou art damn’d.
[…]You that were held the famous politician,
Whose art was poison.
GASPARO:
And whose conscience, murder.
LODOVICO:
That would have broke your wife’s neck down the stairs,
Ere she was poison’d.
GASPARO:
That had your villainous sallets.
LODOVICO:
And fine embroider’d bottles, and perfumes,
Equally mortal with a winter plague.
GASPARO:
Now there ’s mercury—
LODOVICO:
And copperas----
GASPARO:
And quicksilver----
LODOVICO:
With other devilish ’pothecary stuff,
A-melting in your politic brains: dost hear? […]
And thou shalt die like a poor rogue […]
And be forgotten
Before the funeral sermon.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
