Venice Preserved

Venice Preserv'd is an English Restoration play written by Thomas Otway, and the most significant tragedy of the English stage in the 1680s. It was first staged in 1682, with Thomas Betterton as Jaffeir and Elizabeth Barry as Belvidera. The play was soon printed and enjoyed many revivals through to the 1830s.

Antonio is a corrupt senator who is sexually involved with the courtesan Aquilina: in the prologue of Venice Preserv’d, Otway describes Antonio as “a Senator that keeps a whore/ In Venice none of a higher office bore. / To lewdness every night the lecher ran;/ Show me, all London, such another man, /”. Otway’s invitation to find a “such another man” has allowed several critics to connect Senator Antonio with Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, who was a Whig politician.

Antonio's key scene in Venice Preserv’d is the "Nicky Nacky" scene where Antonio makes an attempt at foreplay with Aquilina by pretending to be a bull, a toad, and a dog. Including the "Nicky Nacky" scene, Antonio makes five appearances throughout the play: Pierre and Aquilina’s discussion about Antonio in Act II; Antonio and Aquilina’s interaction during the “Nicky Nacky” scene in Act III; Antonio’s involvement with the execution of the conspirators in Act IV, and Antonio and Aquilina’s discussion about Pierre’s execution in Act V.

According to Derek H. Hughes, Antonio’s relationship with Aquilina mirrors other relationships in the play by portraying prostitution, submission, and self-abasement which can be subtly seen in the relationships between Renault and Belvidera, Jaffeir and Pierre, and Jaffeir and Belvidera.

Aquilina is a courtesan who is romantically involved with Pierre, as well as sexually involved with the senator Antonio. Aquilina allows Pierre to meet with the conspirators in her home (II.i.48.) Aquilina appears in the play three times: Act II, Act III, and Act V (8). When the Lyric Theatre performed Venice Preserv’d in 1920, Edith Evans performed as a successful Aquilina. Aquilina was played by Stephanie Beacham at the Lyttelton Theatre in 1984.

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