The Bashful Lover - Synopsis

Synopsis

The play is set in an ahistorical version of northern Italy during the High Renaissance. The Duchy of Mantua, ruled by a Gonzaga, is threatened militarily by the ruler of Florence, Duke Lorenzo (suggesting one of the Medicis). The opening scene, however, deals with love rather than war: a love-sick gentleman who calls himself Hortensio is hanging around the Mantuan court, wherever he can catch sight of the princess Matilda. He is the "bashful lover" of the title. Hortensio has bribed Ascanio, the princess's page, to inform him of her movements — and Ascanio is open about this to his mistress, recognizing that Hortensio's infatuation is harmless. Matilda courteously meets with Hortensio, and allows his distant attentions.

But the Mantuan court is preoccupied with the military situation. The Duke receives the Florentine ambassador, Alonzo, but rejects Lorenzo's demands for the city's surrender and Matilda's hand in marriage. (When Ascanio see Alonzo at court, he faints and is carried out.) The play's action swiftly moves to the Mantuan countryside; Hortensio has joined the Mantuan forces to prove his worth to Matilda, and Ascanio has accompanied him. When the two armies engage in combat, the Florentine forces are victorious.

In the process, the Florentine officer Alonzo is seriously wounded, and falls into the care of Octavio, a former Mantuan general and courtier who lives retired in the country after losing the Duke's favor. It turns out that the page Ascanio is Octavio's daughter Maria in disguise; she was previously seduced and abandoned by Alonzo. Octavio nurses Alonzo back to health; after his near death, Alonzo is reflective, and repentant over his treatment of Maria. (Octavio at one point manquerades as a monk to help Alonzo "cure the ulcers of his mind," to overcome his depression and mental distress — a feature typical of Massinger's dramaturgy.)

Hortensio, after fighting bravely and rescuing Gonzaga from capture, is himself captured by Lorenzo's forces — as is Matilda; the two are re-united in captivity. Duke Lorenzo, talking among his officers, admits that his prior demand for Matilda's hand was a feint of ambition, and that he has no real interest in her, or in a marriage of state. He changes his mind, however, when he actually meets her. The princess's beauty and her noble character work a change of heart upon Lorenzo: he renounces his military conquest and returns Mantua to Gonzaga's control. In his new magnanimity, Lorenzo allows Matilda a free choice among her three suitors — himself, Hortensio, and a prince of Parma named Uberti; but in eavesdropping on a conversation between Hortensio and Matilda, Lorenzo and Gonzaga come to recognize Hortensio as her worthiest choice. Uberti is less willing to concede—until it is revealed that Hortensio is actually Galeazzo, a prince of Milan and the new ruler of that city. Alonzo, recovered from his wounds, marries Maria, and Octavio is restored to favor.