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Alsemero
Vermandero is the most prominent nobleman in Alicante. Though his friends and courtiers like and respect him, he is not always able to see the true natures of the people around him. In addition to being deceived by his beautiful but conniving daughter Beatrice, Vermandero boasts of his trustworthy, loyal servant DeFlores—not knowing that DeFlores is conspiring to commit murder and adultery. Importantly, despite these lapses of judgment, The Changeling treats Vermandero with empathy and some measure of admiration. Though Vermandero is often wrong about the people closest to him, he always does his best to be honest and straightforward, helping Tomazo solve Alonzo’s murder (even when it implicates his courtiers) and doing his best to care for a heartbroken Alsemero. By forgiving himself for his misperceptions, Vermandero embodies the show’s idea that everyone makes errors in judgment—what is important is how they move past these errors.
Vermandero Quotes in The Changeling
The The Changeling quotes below are all either spoken by Vermandero or refer to Vermandero. 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:
).
Act 1, Scene 2
Quotes
LOLLIO: Yes, sir, for every part has his hour: we wake at six and look about us, that’s eye-hour; at seven we should pray, that's knee-hour; at eight walk, that's leg-hour; at nine gather flowers and pluck a rose, that's nose-hour; at ten we drink, that’s mouth-hour; at eleven lay about us for victuals, that’s hand-hour; at twelve go to dinner, that’s belly-hour.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 3, Scene 3
Quotes
LOLLIO: This is easy, sir, I’ll warrant you: you have about you fools and madmen that can dance very well; and ‘tis no wonder, your best dancers are not the wisest men; the reason is, with often jumping they jolt their brains down into their feet, that their wits lie more in their heels than their heads […]
ISABELLA: Y’have a fine trade on’t,
Madmen and fools are a staple commodity.
ALIBIUS: O wife, we must eat, wear clothes, and live;
Just at the lawyer’s haven we arrive,
By madmen and fools we both do thrive.
Act 3, Scene 4
Quotes
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.
Act 4, Scene 2
Quotes
ALSEMERO [Aside.]: Push, modesty’s shrine is set in yonder forehead.
I cannot be too sure though.—My Joanna!
Act 5, Scene 3
Quotes
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.
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.
Get the entire The Changeling LitChart as a printable PDF.
Vermandero Quotes in The Changeling
The The Changeling quotes below are all either spoken by Vermandero or refer to Vermandero. 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:
).
Act 1, Scene 2
Quotes
LOLLIO: Yes, sir, for every part has his hour: we wake at six and look about us, that’s eye-hour; at seven we should pray, that's knee-hour; at eight walk, that's leg-hour; at nine gather flowers and pluck a rose, that's nose-hour; at ten we drink, that’s mouth-hour; at eleven lay about us for victuals, that’s hand-hour; at twelve go to dinner, that’s belly-hour.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 3, Scene 3
Quotes
LOLLIO: This is easy, sir, I’ll warrant you: you have about you fools and madmen that can dance very well; and ‘tis no wonder, your best dancers are not the wisest men; the reason is, with often jumping they jolt their brains down into their feet, that their wits lie more in their heels than their heads […]
ISABELLA: Y’have a fine trade on’t,
Madmen and fools are a staple commodity.
ALIBIUS: O wife, we must eat, wear clothes, and live;
Just at the lawyer’s haven we arrive,
By madmen and fools we both do thrive.
Act 3, Scene 4
Quotes
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.
Act 4, Scene 2
Quotes
ALSEMERO [Aside.]: Push, modesty’s shrine is set in yonder forehead.
I cannot be too sure though.—My Joanna!
Act 5, Scene 3
Quotes
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.
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.
