The Changeling

by

Thomas Middleton and William Rowley

DeFlores Character Analysis

DeFlores is Vermandero’s long-time servant and trusted companion. Having been born into nobility, DeFlores blames “hard fate” for his fall from the top of the social hierarchy; similarly, he feels that his uneven skin and unappealing complexion are signs that he is destined to struggle. Yet even as DeFlores frequently uses fate to explain his own unhappiness, he also shows remarkable determination and willpower, especially when it comes to his desperate attempts to seduce Beatrice. On the one hand, DeFlores is the play’s villain: he kills both Alonzo and Diaphanta in an effort to impress Beatrice, and he eagerly amputates Alonzo’s finger in order to snag his diamond ring. But he also challenges the other characters in some important ways. While Beatrice maintains that her actions are out of her control, DeFlores takes responsibility for even his worst behavior; when he takes his own life at the end of the play, he reflects back on his actions with pride. And while figures like Beatrice and Alibius obsess over money, DeFlores resists this commodified view of the world, insisting to Beatrice that all he wants from her is care and companionship. Most of all, DeFlores is the only character who sees through people’s veneers; whereas everyone else assumes Beatrice’s beauty reflects her modesty, DeFlores has no such illusions.

DeFlores Quotes in The Changeling

The The Changeling quotes below are all either spoken by DeFlores or refer to DeFlores. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Appearance vs. Reality Theme Icon
).
Act 2, Scene 1 Quotes

BEATRICE: Methinks I love now with the eyes of judgment
And see the way to merit, clearly see it.
A true deserver like a diamond sparkles,
In darkness you may see him, that’s in absence,
Which is the greatest darkness falls on love;
Ye he is best discern’d then
With intellectual eyesight.

Related Characters: Beatrice (speaker), DeFlores, Alsemero, Alonzo de Piracquo, Jasperino
Related Symbols: Diamonds, Eyes
Page Number: 361
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 3, Scene 4 Quotes

BEATRICE: Look you, sir, here’s three thousand golden florins:
I have not meanly thought upon thy merit.

DEFLORES: What, salary? Now you move me […]
Do you place me in the rank of verminous fellows,
To destroy things for wages? Offer gold?
The life blood of man! Is anything
Valued too precious for my recompense?

BEATRICE: I understand thee not.

DEFLORES: I could ha’ hir’d
A journeyman murder in this rate,
And mine own conscience might have slept at ease
And have had the work brought home.

BEATRICE [Aside]: I’m in a labyrinth;
What will content him? I would be rid of him.—
I’ll double the sum, sir.

Related Characters: Beatrice (speaker), DeFlores (speaker), Alonzo de Piracquo
Page Number: 385
Explanation and Analysis:

DEFLORES: Look but into your conscience, read me there,
‘Tis a true book, you'll find me there your equal.
Push! Fly not to your birth, but settle you
In what the act has made you, y’are no more now;
You must forget your parentage to me:
Y’are the deed’s creature; by that name
You lost your first condition, and I challenge you,
As peace and innocency has turn’d you out, and made you one with me […]
Though thou writ’st made, thou whore in thy affection!
‘Twas changed from thy first love, and that's a kind
Of whoredom in thy heart.

Related Characters: Beatrice (speaker), DeFlores (speaker), Alsemero, Vermandero
Page Number: 387
Explanation and Analysis:

BEATRICE: Vengeance begins;
Murder I see is followed by more sins.
Was my creation in the womb so curs’d,
It must engender with a viper first?

Related Characters: Beatrice (speaker), DeFlores
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 387
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 4, Scene 1 Quotes

DIAPHANTA: Are you serious still? Would you resign
Your first night’s pleasure, and give money too?

BEATRICE: As willingly as live. [Aside.] Alas, the gold
Is but a by-bet to wedge in the honor […]
Y’are too quick, I fear, to be a maid.

DIAPHANTA: How? Not a maid? Nay, then you urge me, madam;
Your honorable self is not a truer
With all your fears upon you—

BEATRICE [Aside.]: Bad enough then.

DIAPHANTA: Than I with all my lightsome joys about me.

Related Characters: Beatrice (speaker), Diaphanta (speaker), DeFlores, Alsemero, Alonzo de Piracquo
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 392
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 4, Scene 2 Quotes

ALSEMERO [Aside.]: Push, modesty’s shrine is set in yonder forehead.
I cannot be too sure though.—My Joanna!

Related Characters: Alsemero (speaker), Beatrice, DeFlores, Vermandero, Jasperino
Page Number: 398
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 5, Scene 1 Quotes

[VOICE] (within): Fire, fire, fire!

BEATRICE: Already? How rare is that man’s speed!
How heartily he serves me! His face loathes one,
But look upon his care, who would not love him?
The east is not more beauteous than his service.

[VOICE] (within): Fire, fire, fire!

Related Characters: Beatrice (speaker), DeFlores, Alsemero, Diaphanta
Page Number: 408
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 5, Scene 2 Quotes

TOMAZO: I cannot taste the benefits of life
With the same relish I was wont to do.
Man I grow weary of, and hold his fellowship
A treacherous bloody friendship; and because
I am ignorant in whom my wrath should settle,
I must think all men villains, and the next
I meet, whoe’er he be, the murderer
Of my most worthy brother. –Ha! Who’s he?
Enter DeFlores, passes over the stage.
O the fellow that some call honest DeFlores;
But methinks honesty was hard bested
To come there for a lodging, as if a queen
Should make her palace of a pest-house.

Related Characters: Tomazo de Piracquo (speaker), DeFlores, Alonzo de Piracquo
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 411
Explanation and Analysis:
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: DeFlores (speaker), Alsemero (speaker), Beatrice, Alonzo de Piracquo
Page Number: 417
Explanation and Analysis:

VERMANDERO: A host of enemies enter’d my citadel
Could not amaze like this: Joanna! Beatrice-Joanna!

BEATRICE: O come not near me, sir, I shall defile you:
I am that of your blood was taken from you
For your better health; look no more upon’t,
But cast it to the ground regardlessly,
Let the common sewer take it from distinction.
Beneath the stars, upon yon meteor,
Ever hung my fate, ‘mongst things corruptible;
I ne’er could pluck it from him.

Related Characters: Beatrice (speaker), Vermandero (speaker), DeFlores, Alsemero
Page Number: 419
Explanation and Analysis:

ALSEMERO: Here’s beauty chang’d
To ugly whoredom; here, servant obedience
Changed to a master sin, imperious murder;
I, a suppos’d husband, chang’d embraces
With wantonness, but that was paid before;
Your change is come too, from an ignorant wrath
To a knowing friendship. Are there any more on’s?

ANTONIO: Yes, sir; I was chang’d too, from a little ass as I was to a great fool as I am […]

FRANCISCUS: I was chang’d from a little wit to be stark mad,
Always for the same purpose.

Related Characters: Alsemero (speaker), Antonio (speaker), Franciscus (speaker), Beatrice, DeFlores, Tomazo de Piracquo
Page Number: 419
Explanation and Analysis:
Epilogue Quotes

ALSEMERO: All we can do to comfort one another,
To stay a brother’s sorrow for a brother,
To dry a child from a kind father’s eyes,
Is to no purpose, it rather multiplies:
Your only smiles have power to cause relive
The dead again, or in their rooms to give
Brother a new brother, father a child;
If these appear, all griefs are reconcil’d.

Related Characters: Alsemero (speaker), Beatrice, DeFlores, Vermandero, Tomazo de Piracquo
Page Number: 421
Explanation and Analysis:
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DeFlores Quotes in The Changeling

The The Changeling quotes below are all either spoken by DeFlores or refer to DeFlores. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Appearance vs. Reality Theme Icon
).
Act 2, Scene 1 Quotes

BEATRICE: Methinks I love now with the eyes of judgment
And see the way to merit, clearly see it.
A true deserver like a diamond sparkles,
In darkness you may see him, that’s in absence,
Which is the greatest darkness falls on love;
Ye he is best discern’d then
With intellectual eyesight.

Related Characters: Beatrice (speaker), DeFlores, Alsemero, Alonzo de Piracquo, Jasperino
Related Symbols: Diamonds, Eyes
Page Number: 361
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 3, Scene 4 Quotes

BEATRICE: Look you, sir, here’s three thousand golden florins:
I have not meanly thought upon thy merit.

DEFLORES: What, salary? Now you move me […]
Do you place me in the rank of verminous fellows,
To destroy things for wages? Offer gold?
The life blood of man! Is anything
Valued too precious for my recompense?

BEATRICE: I understand thee not.

DEFLORES: I could ha’ hir’d
A journeyman murder in this rate,
And mine own conscience might have slept at ease
And have had the work brought home.

BEATRICE [Aside]: I’m in a labyrinth;
What will content him? I would be rid of him.—
I’ll double the sum, sir.

Related Characters: Beatrice (speaker), DeFlores (speaker), Alonzo de Piracquo
Page Number: 385
Explanation and Analysis:

DEFLORES: Look but into your conscience, read me there,
‘Tis a true book, you'll find me there your equal.
Push! Fly not to your birth, but settle you
In what the act has made you, y’are no more now;
You must forget your parentage to me:
Y’are the deed’s creature; by that name
You lost your first condition, and I challenge you,
As peace and innocency has turn’d you out, and made you one with me […]
Though thou writ’st made, thou whore in thy affection!
‘Twas changed from thy first love, and that's a kind
Of whoredom in thy heart.

Related Characters: Beatrice (speaker), DeFlores (speaker), Alsemero, Vermandero
Page Number: 387
Explanation and Analysis:

BEATRICE: Vengeance begins;
Murder I see is followed by more sins.
Was my creation in the womb so curs’d,
It must engender with a viper first?

Related Characters: Beatrice (speaker), DeFlores
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 387
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 4, Scene 1 Quotes

DIAPHANTA: Are you serious still? Would you resign
Your first night’s pleasure, and give money too?

BEATRICE: As willingly as live. [Aside.] Alas, the gold
Is but a by-bet to wedge in the honor […]
Y’are too quick, I fear, to be a maid.

DIAPHANTA: How? Not a maid? Nay, then you urge me, madam;
Your honorable self is not a truer
With all your fears upon you—

BEATRICE [Aside.]: Bad enough then.

DIAPHANTA: Than I with all my lightsome joys about me.

Related Characters: Beatrice (speaker), Diaphanta (speaker), DeFlores, Alsemero, Alonzo de Piracquo
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 392
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 4, Scene 2 Quotes

ALSEMERO [Aside.]: Push, modesty’s shrine is set in yonder forehead.
I cannot be too sure though.—My Joanna!

Related Characters: Alsemero (speaker), Beatrice, DeFlores, Vermandero, Jasperino
Page Number: 398
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 5, Scene 1 Quotes

[VOICE] (within): Fire, fire, fire!

BEATRICE: Already? How rare is that man’s speed!
How heartily he serves me! His face loathes one,
But look upon his care, who would not love him?
The east is not more beauteous than his service.

[VOICE] (within): Fire, fire, fire!

Related Characters: Beatrice (speaker), DeFlores, Alsemero, Diaphanta
Page Number: 408
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 5, Scene 2 Quotes

TOMAZO: I cannot taste the benefits of life
With the same relish I was wont to do.
Man I grow weary of, and hold his fellowship
A treacherous bloody friendship; and because
I am ignorant in whom my wrath should settle,
I must think all men villains, and the next
I meet, whoe’er he be, the murderer
Of my most worthy brother. –Ha! Who’s he?
Enter DeFlores, passes over the stage.
O the fellow that some call honest DeFlores;
But methinks honesty was hard bested
To come there for a lodging, as if a queen
Should make her palace of a pest-house.

Related Characters: Tomazo de Piracquo (speaker), DeFlores, Alonzo de Piracquo
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 411
Explanation and Analysis:
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: DeFlores (speaker), Alsemero (speaker), Beatrice, Alonzo de Piracquo
Page Number: 417
Explanation and Analysis:

VERMANDERO: A host of enemies enter’d my citadel
Could not amaze like this: Joanna! Beatrice-Joanna!

BEATRICE: O come not near me, sir, I shall defile you:
I am that of your blood was taken from you
For your better health; look no more upon’t,
But cast it to the ground regardlessly,
Let the common sewer take it from distinction.
Beneath the stars, upon yon meteor,
Ever hung my fate, ‘mongst things corruptible;
I ne’er could pluck it from him.

Related Characters: Beatrice (speaker), Vermandero (speaker), DeFlores, Alsemero
Page Number: 419
Explanation and Analysis:

ALSEMERO: Here’s beauty chang’d
To ugly whoredom; here, servant obedience
Changed to a master sin, imperious murder;
I, a suppos’d husband, chang’d embraces
With wantonness, but that was paid before;
Your change is come too, from an ignorant wrath
To a knowing friendship. Are there any more on’s?

ANTONIO: Yes, sir; I was chang’d too, from a little ass as I was to a great fool as I am […]

FRANCISCUS: I was chang’d from a little wit to be stark mad,
Always for the same purpose.

Related Characters: Alsemero (speaker), Antonio (speaker), Franciscus (speaker), Beatrice, DeFlores, Tomazo de Piracquo
Page Number: 419
Explanation and Analysis:
Epilogue Quotes

ALSEMERO: All we can do to comfort one another,
To stay a brother’s sorrow for a brother,
To dry a child from a kind father’s eyes,
Is to no purpose, it rather multiplies:
Your only smiles have power to cause relive
The dead again, or in their rooms to give
Brother a new brother, father a child;
If these appear, all griefs are reconcil’d.

Related Characters: Alsemero (speaker), Beatrice, DeFlores, Vermandero, Tomazo de Piracquo
Page Number: 421
Explanation and Analysis: