The Devil's Charter

by Barnabe Barnes

First Published in 1999. 'Our subject is of blood and tragedy, Murther, foul incest and hypocrisy'. In the sensational history of Borgias, Barnabe Barnes found a theme tailor-made for the dark and lurid imaginings of the Jacobean stage. And then he spiced it up a little. This vigorous play was first performed by Shakespeare's company in 1607 and revived 390 years later in a semi-stage reading by Globe Education.

140 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

1571-1609

Barnabe Barnes was an English poet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnabe...

Reviews

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderfully bloody and twisted, this early Jacobean retelling of the story of the Borgia's rise and fall from power is a very fun read. The concept is that Roderigo Borgia signs a contract (charter) with the Devil to become Pope Alexander VI. The scene itself is complete with a contract signed in blood and demons dancing around the stage. If you can get through a few excessively long (and mostly unnecessary) monologues towards the beginning, the play settles into a fast-paced series of intrigues (and intrigues-within-intrigues), murders, incest, and sodomy which culminates in Roderigo being dragged down to Hell kicking and screaming by a pack of demons. The play certainly has its flaws (mostly being too long, as well as the aforementioned monologues), but it is genuinely funny and, above all, vastly entertaining. Does it cater a bit to the low brow blood and guts, nasty drama aspects of the crowd? Sure. But honestly, that's not always a bad thing. This is an easy crowd-pleaser which can help make Shakespeare-era drama accessible to a much wider audience. Plus, it's just a hell of a lot of fun.

[M.L. Rio · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is worth reading for the stage directions alone. Classic early modern tragedy in the same style as Doctor Faustus or Philaster. Incest, poisonings, devilish contracts, fratricide, inconvenient ghosts, Barnes has it all.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Barnabe Barnes famously was criticised for not being as good as his contemporaries, and yet the quarto of this play claims that it was played before King James. God knows what he made of it.

A mash up of Dr Faustus, it also seems to be prefiguring Macbeth in so many ways, with the death of Banquo a shortened (and better) version of the murder of Candy, Lucrezia a forerunner of Lady Macbeth, the murder of Kate's children a version of the Lady MacDuff scene, and ghosts appearing to Pope Alexander much like they do to Macbeth, etc etc.

And then the last act goes all (sub) Doctor Faustus. Indeed, one gets the feeling Barnabe Barnes had been reading Marlowe (there is lots of "mighty line" in this play) but decided to cut all the subtlety and ambiguity.

So, this is not very good, but it is great fun, and it rattles along like the billy-o.

[Gill · Rating 3 out of 5]

So memorable I forgot I'd read it a year ago! This is a strange play - very strong anti-Catholic agenda (written less than two years after the Gunpowder Plot) but strangly broken-backed, with two acts dedicated to the French invasion of Italy, the rest to family affairs (literally) and murders amongst the Borgia family, guest-starring the Devil.

Read as part of the Shakespeare Institute's "Extra Mile" online readathon in the lockdown summer of 2020.

[Gill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Justifiably little-known, though it does have its moments.

Read as part of the Shakespeare Institute's 2019 reading marathon, #websterthon

Re-read as part of the REP complete read-through of the entire King's Men repertoire. You can really see what Webster got from it, and where Barnes nicked some of his best bits.