Synopsis
The play opens on a night scene in a Venice street. Two young friends, Fabritio and Piso, discuss Fabritio's problematic personal situation. Two wealthy Venetian senators, Pantaloni and Guadagni, have arranged a socially advantageous marriage for their respective son and daughter, Fabritio and Flavia. Unfortunately, both young people are already in love with other choices: Fabritio loves Victoria, a young woman of Rome, while Flavia loves the poor but noble Francisco. Fabritio would like to escape Venice, and the looming arranged marriage, for Rome and Victoria — if he can figure out how to do so without sacrificing his inheritance.
As the two friends discuss the matter (and deliver the plot's backstory), "diverse gentlemen" pass over the stage. Many of these are going to view a young beauty who has recently arrived in the city; she is the "novella" of the title. (Brome employs the term "novella" to mean "novelty" or "innovation.") The young woman in question is the newest recruit among the twenty thousand courtesans of Venice; she has offered her virginity to any man who will pay the enormous sum of two thousand ducats. Piso thinks he sees Fabritio's father Pantaloni among the curiosity seekers going to meet the Novella (the "dogs" seeking to "unkennel the handsomest she fox / In Venice"), though Fabritio is doubtful. There is no doubt when the two young men meet Francisco and his friend Horatio; what is at first a tense encounter mellows when Fabritio and Francisco realize that they have the same goal — to frustrate the arranged marriage of Fabritio and Flavia.
The second scene portrays the senator Guadagni in his element, among his books and records and bags of gold. The man is revealed as irascible and dictatorial — though his daughter Flavia is adept at manipulating his tempestuous emotions. Away from her father, Flavia conspires with her servant Asutta to escape her father's control and the arranged marriage, and to elope with Francisco.
Piso turns out to have been correct: he did see Fabritio's father Pantaloni on his way to meet the Novella. But Pantaloni made the mistake of trying to bargain with the woman for her virginity at a lower price; and when he went in to receive his reward, he met a young African servant woman in bed instead. Pantaloni has planned a revenge on the Novella for this trick: he will lure her into a public encounter with the city's executioner, which will disgrace her socially and cause her to be scorned and isolated. To bring this about, he equips his witty servant Nicolo with the uniform of a Zaffi, the common law officer of Venice. The arrogant Pantaloni has alienated Nicolo, however, by frequently dwelling on the fact that Nicolo's father is a prisoner in the galleys; and Nicolo is easily swayed to defect to the side of Fabritio and his friends.
The Novella is introduced in her quarters, with her "bravo" (bodyguard/thug/manservant) Borgio and her African serving maid Jaconetta (she of Pantaloni's bed trick). The Novella is shown manipulating and putting off the men who circle around her; at one point she comes close to being raped by an ardent Spanish gentleman, though she is saved by Borgio and a German named Swartzenburgh. (The play confuses the Germans, "Deutsch," with the Dutch — a confusion common among the English at the time.) The Novella proves to be Victoria, come from Rome in search of Fabritio; she has adopted her courtesan disguise as a means of finding her love in the strange city.
Francisco disguises himself as a peddler woman, who is let in to Guadagni's home to show "her" wares to the bride to be. After comic business of hiding in closets and similar doings, Francisco and Flavia manage to escape the house and head for refuge...with Victoria. Guadagni's pursuit of the eloping couple leads to the grand confused agglomeration of the play's climax, which sees the senators, the lovers, the servants, the Spaniard, Nicolo in Zaffi disguise plus a real Zaffi, Swartzenburgh the Dutch/German plus Fabritio disguised as him, all jumbled together. Fabritio and Victoria discover each other through their disguises, and are happily re-united. Borgio the bravo turns out to be Paulo, Victoria's brother and a priest; he has been watching over his sister and her honor during her risky courtesan disguise. Jaconetta the black serving maid is revealed to be Jacomo the eunuch, a fact that the embarrassed Pantaloni is eager to conceal. Father Paulo's moral authority succeeds in quelling everyone's resentment and outraged pride, and the two young couples are blissfully united in matrimony.
Read more about this topic: The Novella