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These frightful Brachianos and Annabellas and Ferdinands and Corombonas and Vindicis and Pieros of the "White Devil," of the "Duchess of Malfy," of the "Revenger's Tragedy," and of "Antonio and Mellida," are mere fantastic horrors, as false as the Counts Udolpho, the Spalatros, the Zastrozzis, and all their grotesquely ghastly pseudo-Italian brethren of eighty years ago.

Totius Anglioe in Banco Regis per 21 Annos continuos Capitalis Justitiarii Gulielmo Regi Annoequr Reginae Consiliarii perpetui: Libertatis ac Legum Anglicarum Assertoris, Vindicis, Custodis, Vigilis Acris & intrepidi, Rolandus Frater Uncius & Hoeres Optime de se Merito posuit, Die Martis Vto. 1709. Sublatus est ex Oculis nostris Natus 30 Decembris, Anno 1642.

Imaginary monsters were fashioned out of half-a-dozen Neapolitan and Milanese princes, by Ford, by Beaumont and Fletcher, by Middleton, by Marston, even by the light and graceful Philip Massinger: mythical villains, Ferdinands, Lodowicks, and Fernezes, who yet fell short of the frightful realities of men like Sigismondo Malatesta, Alexander VI., and Pier Luigi Farnese; nay, more typical monsters, with no name save their vices, Lussuriosos, Gelosos, Ambitiosos, and Vindicis, like those drawn by the strong and savage hand of Cyril Tourneur.