The White Devil

The plot of The White Devil is deeply entrenched in the complexities of marital infidelity, and the idea of the cuckold—a man whose romantic partner has a sexual liaison with another person—recurs often in the theatrical productions of the English Renaissance. Typically, the cuckolded man in such plays was mocked or derided for his apparently shameful status: a form of emasculation that was implicitly understood by contemporary writers, actors, and audiences alike.

In such plays, a cuckold is often signified on stage by wearing a pair of horns on his head. These cuckold’s horns serve as both plot device and visual joke, and they appear in The White Devil mostly through symbolism and allusion. The doddering, naïve Camillo is the main target of these jokes, for he fails to recognize that his wife is having an affair in his own home. The other characters therefore mock him with references to horns and cuckoldry. In particular, Flaminio delights in emasculating Camillo through the use of subtle jibes. He jokes about Camillo having horns or even large ears, but although he revels in this indirect mockery, he carefully avoids making any explicit mention of what is happening between