prepared to condone the taking of life in order to secure her
position. Her ruthless outlook is punished when she is deprived of
her position and forced to return to Italy.

The final scene of the play utilises a dramatic technique that had
played an important part in 'The Shoemakers' Holiday': the banquet
scene. Planned by the King in an attempt to achieve reconciliation
and remove the threat of Onaelia by marrying her off, it represents a
means of bringing almost the entire cast on stage in order to witness
the meeting out of justice. It is ironic that the King's scheme is
undermined, not by his political rivals but by his allies, The Queen
and Malateste, who do not believe that the marriage will provide a
stable settlement and instead seek to pursue a deadlier course of
action. The banquet provides the context for the unwinding of this
plot as vengeance consumes itself, bring about the regime change that
justice demands.

EDITORIAL PRACTICE

The text is based on the 1634 Quarto, as reproduced in Tudor
Facsimile series in 1913. Spelling has been modernised, except in
instances where to do so would change a word's pronunciation.
Punctuation has also been modernised and has been used lightly in an
attempt to reflect contemporary speech patterns. Contractions to
words have been eliminated where this is possible without upsetting
the verse rhythm; for example, 'baked' replaces 'bak'd' in 4.2.

Names have been retained as originally set out except that of the
central character who name was spelt in the original as 'Baltazar';
Balthazar is the modern Anglicised version of the same name. The cast