The Devils Charter, A Tragedy: Containing The Life And Death Of Pope Alexander The Sixth

by Barnabe Barnes

The Devils Charter, A Containing The Life And Death Of Pope Alexander The Sixth is a book written by Barnes, Barnabe in 1869. The book is a tragedy that portrays the life and death of Pope Alexander the Sixth. The story revolves around the Pope's rise to power, his corrupt practices, and his eventual downfall. The book is divided into five acts, each depicting a different phase of the Pope's life. The first act portrays his election as Pope, while the second act depicts his immoral behavior and indulgence in sin. The third act shows his downfall and the fourth act portrays his death. The final act is a moral lesson on the dangers of power and corruption. The book is written in a dramatic style, with vivid descriptions of the characters and their actions. It is a gripping tale of power, corruption, and downfall, and provides an insight into the life and times of Pope Alexander the Sixth.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.

98 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 4 out of 5]

Read again: my opinions haven't changed. A riproarer of an unsubtle prefigurer of Macbeth. Clearly Shakey watched this, and thought "I could do something with this."

****

I stand by all the points I made below, eighteen months ago, except it is much more clearly an influence on Shakespeare's Macbeth than I thought at the time, and (apart from the last Act, which is a bit of a dog's breakfast) much more fun. One can quite see why a largely drunk royal family enjoyed this, rather than sat through a complex, morally ambiguous play such as Macbeth. It is ludicrous, but highly enjoyable. I gave it three stars before: I'm adding one.

****

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.