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Vindice

Richard Burbage was the first actor to play Vindice in 1606

Vindice is the title character in the play The Revenger’s Tragedy, attributed to Cyril Tourneur or Thomas Middleton. He was first portrayed by Richard Burbage in 1606. Vindice is the son of Gratiana and the brother of Hippolito and Castiza. His former occupation is not mentioned, but during the play he disguises himself as a procurer named Piato. He is motivated by the death of his betrothed Gloriana, and carries her skull with him, speaking to it obsessively. He is frequently compared to Hamlet and other Jacobean revengers as he closely follows the patterns of revenge tragedy heroes, from his initial drive for revenge to his death in the final act. Vindice’s revenge plots are widely considered to be over-the-top and unnecessarily cruel. He is frequently portrayed as insane, sadistic, and overly theatrical.

Etymology of the name

In late 16th century Italian, the word “vindice” was cited in a dictionary by John Florio as a noun meaning a “revenger of wrongs, a redresser of things, and abuses, a defender, one that restoreth and setteth at libertie or out of danger, a punishment of things done amisse”. Vindice actively references his name’s meaning in Act 4 Scene 2 to Lussurioso, who tells him that his name's meaning indicates courageousness. In Latin, “vindice” has many meanings as the ablative case of “vindex.” Among these meanings are protector, avenger, champion, liberator, and champion. It seems as though the author of the play is constantly reminding the audience of Vindice’s purpose and emphasizing the fact that Vindice is the main revenger of the play. E.A. Foakes writes in his introduction that the name defines Vindice’s character and gives the audience a strong basis for interpreting the play.

The word “Piato” is defined by Florio as “a plea, a suite in law, a controversie, a process, a pleading. Also flat, squat, cowred downe, hidden, close to the ground, even, levell, just, razed with the ground”. The first definition could speak to Piato's role as a mechanism for revenge: the "plea" referring to Piato's obsequious demeanor towards Lussurioso, and "process" referring to the way by which Vindice obtains vengeance which is, in his perception, just by the law. The second definition also fits with Piato’s role in the play, as he is a disguise meant to hide Vindice.

In the play

The play opens with Vindice recounting the source of his misfortune to the audience. He describes the characters of the Duke and his family while holding the skull of his lost Gloriana. Vindice swears to murder the Duke who poisoned her for refusing his sexual advances. Vindice’s brother, Hippolito, agrees to aid Vindice in his revenge. In order to infiltrate the Duke’s family, Hippolito introduces a disguised Vindice to the Duke’s eldest son and heir, Lussurioso. Lussurioso, impressed by his boldness, hires Vindice (as Piato) to procure a woman for him. The woman is Castiza, Vindice’s sister. This drives Vindice to further rage and he swears that he will kill Lussurioso.

Vindice, disguised as Piato, decides to attempt to procure Castiza for Lussurioso to test her devotion to chastity. Vindice is relieved that Castiza will not be swayed; however, their mother Gratiana agrees to prostitute her daughter in exchange for wealth. Vindice is distraught at his mother’s willingness to abandon righteousness and accuses women and money of being the only causes of sin in the world. Vindice tells Lussurioso that Gratiana will convince Castiza to have sex with him, and Lussurioso resolves to see her that night. When his back is turned, Vindice contemplates stabbing him, but decides he would rather kill Lussurioso face-to-face. Vindice swears to protect Castiza. To prevent Lussurioso from bedding Castiza, Vindice tells Lussurioso that Lussurioso’s bastard brother is having an affair with his stepmother so that Lussurioso will confront them instead of Castiza. Vindice is wrong, however, and Lussurioso attacks his father lawfully in bed with the Duchess, leading to Lussurioso's arrest.

Vindice is able to set his plan for revenge in motion when he is hired to procure a lady for the Duke. Thrilled, Vindice uses Gloriana’s skull covered in poison to build an artificial woman. The Duke falls for Vindice’s trick, kissing the poisoned skull. As he collapses, Vindice reveals his identity and forces the Duke to watch his bastard son cuckold him. Upon his death, Vindice and Hippolito vow to murder each new duke.

Lussurioso, infuriated by Piato’s misinformation about his brother and the Duchess, hires an undisguised Vindice to kill Piato. Vindice introduces himself to Lussurioso with a false personality, claiming to be a impoverished and depressed lawyer. Outsmarting Lussurioso, Vindice and Hippolito plan to dress the Duke’s corpse in Piato’s disguise and pretend to kill him again. Before doing this, Vindice travels home to accuse his mother of prostituting Castiza. Enraged, he disowns her as his mother and insults her until she kneels and weeps for forgiveness. Her tears redeem her in Vindice’s eyes, and he reaccepts Gratiana as his mother.

Vindice and Hippolito execute their plan to pretend to kill Piato. When the body is found to be the Duke’s, Lussurioso believes that Piato had fled after killing and disguising the Duke, thus deflecting the blame for the Duke’s death off of Vindice. In the last scene, during a masque celebrating Lussurioso as the new duke, Vindice stabs Lussurioso and triumphantly reveals his identity to him as Lussurioso dies. Lord Antonio becomes the new duke. Vindice confesses his murders to Antonio, expecting reward. Instead, Antonio orders his and Hippolio’s executions. Vindice is content to die, saying that he has successfully defeated all of his enemies.

Perceptions

Role as the revenger

Vindice fills many of the common tropes of revengers from Jacobean era plays and is commonly compared to Hamlet. He is depressed and obsessed with his own tragedy. His madness and theatricality echoes that of Prince Hamlet’s, the most famous Jacobean revenger. Enhancing the comparison between Vindice and Hamlet is Gloriana’s skull. Vindice holds the skull and speaks to it, similar to how Hamlet holds and speaks to the skull of Yorick. Gloriana’s skull also acts as Vindice’s call to action, akin to the ghost of King Hamlet that urges Hamlet to act.

Typically, the revenge tyrant in a Jacobean era play has committed a crime related to a women, especially a family member, but is out of the law’s jurisdiction. Thus, the revenger is forced to take action himself to restore his own sense of justice. Vindice finds himself in this type of situation with the Duke, who kills Gloriana but is in a position of power and untouchable by the law. Despite the employment of murder, Vindice declares, "My revenge is just" in Act 1 Scene 2. To find an opportunity to kill the revenge tyrant, the revenger must infiltrate the tyrant’s court creatively, as Vindice does with his disguise, and devise a performance in which he can murder his target. For Vindice, the performance is the masque, and although he does not plot it, he participates as a dancer. In a revenge tragedy, the performance is generally accepted to mark a role shift between the revenger and his target, as through the play-within-a-play, the revenger has control and the target is immobile in his seat. The other major shift that occurs between the revenger and the revenge tyrant is the revenger’s transformation into a villain and the former villain’s transformation into the victim. The distinction is especially profound in Vindice, who displays excessive and unnecessary violence, even proclaiming himself a villain as he assassinates the Duke in Act 3 Scene 4. Like most revenge tragedy protagonists, Vindice is convinced of his own righteousness. He lies and blames others for his actions, allowing them to be executed without consequence to himself.

Vindice has qualities that are unique to him as a revenger. For example, he is acutely aware of his role, even speaking directly to vengeance in Act 1 Scene 2. The audience is also made explicitly aware of his purpose through the meaning of his name. Additionally, while other revengers of the time period, such as Hamlet and Hieronimo acknowledge a higher power, Vindice is not restricted by thoughts of godly punishment. He acts without restraint, as though he is the highest power. Furthermore, while revengers are frequently known to struggle with identity and their senses of self, Vindice eagerly relinquishes his true self. He disguises himself as Piato and later as a masquerader, asking Hippolito in Act 1 Scene 3, "Am I far enough from myself?" Piato identifies as a bone-setter, meant explicitly in the play to imply the job of a procurer; however, "bone-setter" could have a more meta meaning and implicitly suggest the reformation of identity. Even when he introduces himself to Lussurioso using his true name, Vindice invents a new identity for himself as a lawyer, further burying his true self. The only constant amidst Vindice's multiple identities is his drive for revenge.

It is also worth noting that Vindice is not the only revenger in the play. Spurio, Lussurioso, and the Duchess are all revenge-seekers with him. The name of the play itself can be interpreted differently based on the incorporation and position of the apostrophe in the title, making it difficult to determine who, if any character, is supposed to be the focal revenger. In the “Masque of the Revengers” scene, Vindice, wearing a mask, becomes one with the other revengers in the masque. This could be the author’s way of showing the audience that all revengers are indistinguishable from one another.

As a judge

Vindice frequently breaks the fourth wall and speaks directly towards the audience, establishing him as a commentator and an almost god-like figure who is beyond the play. Vindice provides moral commentary and judges characters, such as the Duke’s family and his own mother, according to his own values. As a commentator and judge, Vindice has over 200 lines of soliloquy and asides, only 19 fewer than those of Hamlet. Vindice has characteristics that make him appear god-like and above the events of the play. Like a force of divine justice, he chooses for his adversaries punishments that fit their crimes exactly. He poisons the Duke with the skull of the woman the Duke had previously poisoned; he murders Lussurioso amidst a display of wealth and power that demonstrates Lussurioso's greed. Vindice is also shown to invoke thunder and lightning. In Act 4 Scene 2, thunder immediately sounds after Vindice asks, "Is there no thunder left, or is 't kept up/ in stock for heavier vengeance?" In Act 5 Scene 3, Vindice speaks directly to the thunder that sounds during the masque. As Pompa Banerjee describes it, Vindice perceives himself as the "sole custodian of the moral universe". Because the justice system will not extract vengeance for Vindice, Vindice acts as a higher power to obtain revenge instead.

As a satirist

Vindice is established as a satirist in his harsh criticism of women, wealth, and upper-class life. He criticizes women's tendency to wear makeup and take drastic measures to improve their appearances. Vindice says that a women will "grieve her maker/ In sinful baths of milk, when many an infant starves." Vindice also claims in Act 3 Scene 5 that the practices of makeup and artificiality deceive men: "Tut, a lady can,/ At such, all hid, beguile a wiser man." He criticizes the wealthy's tendency to indulge in banquets in Act 1 Scene 1. Although riches make them fat and great in physical volume, the nobility is not in any way wiser or superior internally: "banquets, ease and laughter/ Can make great men, as greatness goes by clay,/ But wise men little are more great than they." Skeletons like that of Gloriana are a "terror to fat folks," as they depict the utter lack of fat and flesh. R. A. Foakes argues that Vindice's comments are a criticism of James I and the king's displays of corruption and extravagance.

Vindice can also be seen as satirical on the genre of revenge tragedy as a whole, with over-the-top violence, meta commentary, and remorselessness. Vindice follows the pattern of other revengers so extremely that it may seem as though the author is mocking the genre.

Misogyny

Vindice is seen as misogynistic in his perception and treatment of women. Misogyny was a common aspect of Jacobean plays leading up to and in the wake of the death of Queen Elizabeth I as her age and weakness became more apparent to the people of England. While revengers such as Hamlet also express disdain towards women during this time, scholars agree that Vindice's misogyny manifests more intensely than other revengers. Steven Mullaney goes so far as to say that Vindice can "easily make Hamlet sound like a proto-feminist". Vindice attributes women to be the source of sin and temptation and claims that their sole purpose is to “go to bed and feed”. He also looks down on women for gossiping. As Piato, Vindice tells Lussurioso that he can keep a secret because he "ne'er had that disease o'th' mother."

Vindice speaks often of his betrothed, claiming his love for her and swearing to procure revenge for her, but he also accuses all women of artificiality: "see, ladies, with with false forms/ You deceive men but cannot deceive worms." As Richard Bruchard writes in his essay, Vindice “seems to like Gloriana better dead than alive,” when she is in her completely natural state and not tempting to men. Despite Vindice's admiration of a woman's natural state, he is the one to apply makeup on her skull in order to deceive the Duke. In their analyses of the Duke’s death scene, several literary critics, such as Christopher Crosbie, interpret Vindice’s use of Gloriana’s skull in assassinating the Duke as a way of prostituting her. Vindice uses her as a weapon, and dismisses her desires by forcing her into a role that she rejected when alive. Vindice objectifies Gloriana. As a skull through the entire play, the audience never sees her as more than a stage prop held by Vindice.

Vindice is also criticized for his choice to test his mother and sister. Brian Walsh describes Vindice’s efforts as “obsessive,” and an attempt to “police a female relative’s sexuality”. In these actions, Vindice shows an obsession with control over women’s bodies. Contrastly, others interpret Vindice’s use of Gloriana’s skull as heroic, praising Vindice for giving Gloriana a purpose past virginity and chastity. 

Portrayal

Below are listed actors who portrayed Vindice throughout the years in chronological order.

• Richard Burbage played Vindice in 1606 as The Revenger’s Tragedy was performed by the King’s Men. Burbage also played Hamlet, increasing the parallel between the two parts.

• William Devlin read for Vindice in BBC’s 1951 radio adaptation of the play.
• Ian Richardson had the role in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 1966 revival of The Revenger’s Tragedy. Richardson was the only famous actor in the cast, and was well-received by critics in The Times and The Guardian. Critics in The Times write that Richardson "meticulously conveys the ambiguous nature of the character's desire for revenge".
• Anthony Sher played Vindice in a 1987 production by Swan Theater.
• Christopher Eccleston portrays Vindici in the 2002 Alex Cox film, Revengers Tragedy. Eccleston’s Vindici does not disguise himself as Piato in this film, but works for Lussurioso as himself. He shows insanity through speaking to and for the skull of Gloriana. Many reviews of the movie note the excellent acting. Eccleston is described as "an absolute joy as Vindici", "superb," and "brilliant" by viewers.
• Stephen Tompkinson was considered an unusual choice for Vindice in the 2008 Royal Exchange production because of his history in naive and likeable roles. He was praised for his emotional and humorous performance by some critics, while others regarded him as uncharismatic and lacking. For example, David Cadderton described Tompkinson as "up to the task" with "perfectly good" emotional moments and "plenty of opportunities to show his skills at performing comedy"; meanwhile, The Telegraph regarded him as uncharismatic and lacking, "almost entirely missing the character's perverse moral fervour and dark wit" . The actors were dressed in modern clothing.
• Rory Kinnear also played Vindice in 2008. He was a part of the performance by the National Theater and portrayed Vindice wearing a red shirt and a sports jacket. Critics are united in their praise for his performance. He is described as an "impassioned satiric scourge and cool prankster" by The Independent and his performance is referred to as superb by The Telegraph. Michael Billington writes in his review that Kinnear could be more emotional at times, but overall performs brilliantly with the "right sadistic relish"