In the first scene of the play, Gasparo uses a simile and an allusion while criticizing Lodovico, a rich and powerful count who has been exiled from Rome due to his flagrant criminal behavior. Urging Lodovico to accept the terms of his exile, Gasparo states:
Your followers
Have swallowed you like mummia, and being sick
With such unnatural and horrid physic
Vomit you up i’the kennel.
In a simile, Gasparo compares Lodovico’s former followers, who have since abandoned him, to people suffering from illness who have swallowed “mummia” and vomited it. Here, he alludes to “mummia,” a substance that was prized in Renaissance Europe as a valuable remedy with mystical properties. The exact composition of mummia varied, but it was typically made from the powdered remains of mummies, which were imported from Egypt and other parts of the world. Mummia was thought to possess magical or curative properties, and it played a role in both medical treatments and alchemical experiments. Mummia was used in various forms, including powders, ointments, and elixirs. It was employed to treat a multitude of health issues, including wounds, infections, digestive problems, and even as a general panacea.
Gasparo’s simile suggests that Lodovico’s former entourage turned to him to fix their problems, but ultimately grew sick and disgusted with the “horrid” methods he employed. Just as a patient might “vomit” a disgusting remedy, so too have his followers abandoned him as a result of his intolerable behavior.
After Brachiano and Vittoria carry out their plot to murder Isabella by poison, Isabella’s brother, Francisco, is enraged and desires to avenge her swiftly. Monticelso uses a series of metaphors and similes, primarily drawing from the animal kingdom, in order to persuade Francisco to carry out his revenge slowly and carefully:
That’s not the course I’d wish you. Pray, observe me:
We see that undermining more prevails
Than doth the cannon. Bear your wrongs concealed,
And, patient as the tortoise, let this camel
Stalk o’er your back unbruised. Sleep with the lion,
And let this brood of secure, foolish mice
Play with your nostrils, till the time be ripe
For th’bloody audit and the fatal gripe.
Aim like a cunning fowler: close one eye,
That you the better may your game espy.
Francisco, Monticelso claims, must remember that “undermining,” or the digging of tunnels underneath enemy lines, is more effective in war than more direct means such as “the cannon.” He urges Francisco to be “patient as the tortoise,” and to patiently permit himself to be stepped on, with the knowledge that he will ultimately be “unbruised.” Next, he argues that Francesco should sleep in the manner of a lion, who allows “foolish mice” to “play” with his whiskers until they let their guard down and can be killed in a final “bloody audit.” Last, he reminds Francisco of the figure of the “fowler,” or a hunter of birds, who closes “one eye” in order to see his prey more clearly. Monticelso’s various metaphors and similes all stress the same point: Francisco will be more effective in carrying out his revenge if he is patient.
In Act 4, Scene 3, Lodovico presents his plan to don a disguise and murder Brachiano to Monticelso, a Catholic Cardinal, who condemns him despite also opposing Brachiano. Monticelso storms off, but later, he secretly provides money to fund Lodovico’s scheme. The surprised Lodovico uses a simile that compares the Cardinal to a “bride” at her wedding dinner:
Why, now ’tis come about. He railed upon me, And yet these crowns were told out and laid ready,
Before he knew my voyage. Oh, the art,
The modest form of greatness, that do sit
Like brides at wedding-dinners, with their looks turned
From the least wanton jests, their puling stomach
Sick of the modesty, when their thoughts are loose,
Even acting of those hot and lustful sports
Are to ensue about midnight – such his cunning! He sounds my depth thus with a golden plummet.
Lodovico notes with shock that the Cardinal had “laid ready” money to fund the scheme despite expressing his disapproval. To Lodovico, this suggests hypocrisy, as Monticelso only pretended to oppose the plan to protect himself and preserve his pious image. In a lengthy simile, Lodovico compares Monticelso to a bride at the dinner following her wedding, who pretends to be chaste and prim when people make sexual jokes but nevertheless eagerly anticipates the “hot and lustful sports” she will enjoy with her husband on their wedding night.
