A rapier is a thin sword with a sharp, light-weight blade; rapiers were usually used for thrusting at a close distance, meaning that anyone who wanted to kill someone with a rapier would have to get close to their target. By having DeFlores use a rapier to murder Alonzo de Piracquo, therefore, The Changeling emphasizes DeFlores’s trickery—only by feigning intimacy with Alonzo could he kill him in such a way.
Rapier Quotes in The Changeling
The The Changeling quotes below are all either spoken by Rapier or refer to Rapier. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Act 5, Scene 3
Quotes
ALSEMERO: I ask you, sir;
My wife’s behindhand with you, she tells me,
For a brave bloody blow you gave for her sake
Upon Piracquo.
DEFLORES: Upon? ‘Twas quite through him, sure;
Has she confess’d it?
ALSEMERO: As sure as death to both of you,
And much more than that.
DEFLORES: It could not be much more;
‘Twas but one thing, and that—she’s a whore.
ALSEMERO: It could not choose but follow. O cunning devils!
How should blind men know you from fair-fac’d saints?
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Changeling LitChart as a printable PDF.
Rapier Term Timeline in The Changeling
The timeline below shows where the term Rapier appears in The Changeling. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Act 3, Scene 1
As Alonzo enters a narrow hallway, DeFlores follows behind him, hiding a rapier in his clothes. He then instructs Alonzo to hang up his own weapons, explaining that...
(full context)
Act 3, Scene 2
...are still to come. While Alonzo admires the castle’s store of ammunition, DeFlores draws his rapier, stabbing Alonzo several times. Alonzo cries out in pain, then dies. As Alonzo collapses, DeFlores...
(full context)
