Annabella Character Analysis

O Giovanni, hast thou left the schools
Of knowledge to converse with Lust and Death?
For Death waits on thy lust. Look through the world,
And thou shalt see a thousand faces shine
More glorious than this idol thou ador’st.

All this I’ll do to free me from the rod
Of vengeance; else I’ll swear my fate’s my god.

I would not, for my wealth, my daughter’s love
Should cause the spilling of one drop of blood.

The rich magnifico that is below with your father, charge, Signor Donado his uncle, for that he means to make this his cousin a golden calf, thinks that you will be a right Israelite and fall down to him presently; but I hope I have tutored you better.

Oh, that it were not in religion sin
To make our love a god and worship it!

On my knees,
Brother, even by our mother’s dust I charge you,
Do not betray me to your mirth or hate:
Love me, or kill me, brother.

Nay, what a paradise of joy have you passed under! Why, now I commend thee, charge. Fear nothing, sweetheart. What, though he be your brother? Your brother’s a man, I hope; and I say still, if a young wench feel the fit upon her, let her take anybody: father or brother, all is one.

Marriage? Why, that’s to damn her; that’s to prove
Her greedy of variety of lust.

These scornful taunts
Neither become your modesty or years.

Yet know –
Thus far I give you comfort – if mine eyes
Could have picked out a man, amongst all those
That sued to me, to make a husband of,
You should have been that man.

RICHARDETTO: Her sickness is a fullness of her blood –
You understand me?
FLORIO: I do – you counsel well –
And once within these few days will so order’t
She shall be married, ere she know the time.

‘Twas well done, Giovanni: thou herein
Hast shown a Christian’s care, a brother’s love.

There stands these wretched things,
Who have dreamt out whole years in lawless sheets
And secret incests, cursing one another.
Then you will wish each kiss your brother gave
Had been a dagger’s point.

Burn, blood, and boil in vengeance. Oh, my heart!
My flame’s intolerable! – May’st thou live
To father bastards; may her womb bring forth
Monsters; and die together in your sins,
Hated, scorned and unpitied!

Yet will I not forget what I should be,
And what I am: a husband. In that name
Is hid divinity. If I do find
That thou wilt yet be true, here I remit
All former faults, and take thee to my bosom.

My conscience now stands up against my lust
With depositions charactered in guilt,
And tells me I am lost.

VASQUEZ: Let not your pity betray you till my coming back:
Think upon incest and cuckoldry.
SORANZO: Revenge is all the ambition I aspire;
To that I’ll climb or fall. My blood’s on fire!

Kiss me. If ever after-times should hear
Of our fast-knit affections, though perhaps
The laws of conscience and of civil use
May justly blame us, yet when they but know
Our loves, that love will wipe away that rigour
which would in other incests be abhorred.

ANNABELLA: What means this?
GIOVANNI: To save thy fame, and kill thee in a kiss.
Stabs her [as they kiss].
Thus die, and die by me, and by my hand.
Revenge is mine, honour doth love command.

We shall have time
To talk at large of all; but never yet
Incest and murder have so strangely met.
Of one so young, so rich in Nature’s store,
Who could not say, ‘’Tis pity she’s a whore’?

O Giovanni, hast thou left the schools
Of knowledge to converse with Lust and Death?
For Death waits on thy lust. Look through the world,
And thou shalt see a thousand faces shine
More glorious than this idol thou ador’st.

All this I’ll do to free me from the rod
Of vengeance; else I’ll swear my fate’s my god.

I would not, for my wealth, my daughter’s love
Should cause the spilling of one drop of blood.

The rich magnifico that is below with your father, charge, Signor Donado his uncle, for that he means to make this his cousin a golden calf, thinks that you will be a right Israelite and fall down to him presently; but I hope I have tutored you better.

Oh, that it were not in religion sin
To make our love a god and worship it!

On my knees,
Brother, even by our mother’s dust I charge you,
Do not betray me to your mirth or hate:
Love me, or kill me, brother.

Nay, what a paradise of joy have you passed under! Why, now I commend thee, charge. Fear nothing, sweetheart. What, though he be your brother? Your brother’s a man, I hope; and I say still, if a young wench feel the fit upon her, let her take anybody: father or brother, all is one.

Marriage? Why, that’s to damn her; that’s to prove
Her greedy of variety of lust.

These scornful taunts
Neither become your modesty or years.

Yet know –
Thus far I give you comfort – if mine eyes
Could have picked out a man, amongst all those
That sued to me, to make a husband of,
You should have been that man.

RICHARDETTO: Her sickness is a fullness of her blood –
You understand me?
FLORIO: I do – you counsel well –
And once within these few days will so order’t
She shall be married, ere she know the time.

‘Twas well done, Giovanni: thou herein
Hast shown a Christian’s care, a brother’s love.

There stands these wretched things,
Who have dreamt out whole years in lawless sheets
And secret incests, cursing one another.
Then you will wish each kiss your brother gave
Had been a dagger’s point.

Burn, blood, and boil in vengeance. Oh, my heart!
My flame’s intolerable! – May’st thou live
To father bastards; may her womb bring forth
Monsters; and die together in your sins,
Hated, scorned and unpitied!

Yet will I not forget what I should be,
And what I am: a husband. In that name
Is hid divinity. If I do find
That thou wilt yet be true, here I remit
All former faults, and take thee to my bosom.

My conscience now stands up against my lust
With depositions charactered in guilt,
And tells me I am lost.

VASQUEZ: Let not your pity betray you till my coming back:
Think upon incest and cuckoldry.
SORANZO: Revenge is all the ambition I aspire;
To that I’ll climb or fall. My blood’s on fire!

Kiss me. If ever after-times should hear
Of our fast-knit affections, though perhaps
The laws of conscience and of civil use
May justly blame us, yet when they but know
Our loves, that love will wipe away that rigour
which would in other incests be abhorred.

ANNABELLA: What means this?
GIOVANNI: To save thy fame, and kill thee in a kiss.
Stabs her [as they kiss].
Thus die, and die by me, and by my hand.
Revenge is mine, honour doth love command.

We shall have time
To talk at large of all; but never yet
Incest and murder have so strangely met.
Of one so young, so rich in Nature’s store,
Who could not say, ‘’Tis pity she’s a whore’?