The 'Albanois' presented to Paridel by Palmio represents William Creichton, a well-known Scottish Jesuit accused of confederacy with William Parry. Paridel tries to induce him to affirm that God's law allows him to kill Titania. The Albanois, however, quotes a ream of Latin tags to show that it is not, in fact, lawful to do such evil, even in order to do good.
AURA
One of Titania's ladies-in-waiting. When Titania charges them to eschew the poisonous enchantments of Babylonian seducers, Aura speaks up on behalf of her fellow ladies to declare their "scorn" for such types.
BEAST
Likely, but not certainly, a "ghost character" (animal). In a clear reference to the Revelation of St. John, the Empress of Babylon describes the "adored beast on which we ride." It is not clear whether or not she actually rides it in the course of the play.
BERIA
A "ghost character." According to Plain Dealing, this baby boy is born in the Fairy camp at Beria and laid in the hollow back of an old, rusty suit of armor. He is named after his birthplace, Beria (Tilbury).
BISHOPS
Clearly Roman Catholic bishops, these follow the hearse of the dead Queen Mariana in the dumb show at the beginning of the play. They join the friars and cardinals in singing in Latin.
BRETANDONA
A "ghost character." According to Como, he leads the Levantines who form the sixth squadron of the Babylonian Armada sent to attack Titania.
BROKER
A "ghost character." According to Plain Dealing, he causes infection in the Fairy camp at Beria (Tilbury) by hawking commodities to the soldiers at inflated prices.
BROKER'S WIFE
A "ghost character." According to Plain Dealing, she abets her husband's gulling of Titania's soldiers by enticing musketeers into her cabin to 'drink' tobacco.
CAMPEGGIO
A papal nuncio in Venice, based on the real-life nuncio of the same name. He supports Paridel in his plot against the life of Titania. He brings Paridel the Empress of Babylon's blessing on his enterprise and a free pass through all Babylonian jurisdictions.
CAMPEIUS
A deeply learned scholar, he represents the English Jesuit Edmund Campion (St. Edmund Campion in the Roman Catholic church). Parthenophil favors him and tries to recommend him to Titania, but she has heard that his brilliance conceals pride and unsteadiness, and refuses to accept him as a servant. Campeius' scornful response confirms the justice of her opinion. His subsequent disaffection and penury opens the way for the Third King, disguised as a scholar, to woo him into the service of the Empress of Babylon. Initially brusque and resistant, Campeius is soon seduced, drawn on by his own greed for money and preferment, and he departs for Babylon. There, he agrees to kill Titania on the Empress' behalf, unaware that the Empress plans to kill him when he has served her purposes. He reappears in England, conjured from the earth by Falsehood, but Titania's counselors discover his plots, and he is condemned to death.
CAPTAINS
Leaders of the Fairy soldiers who follow Florimell in the triumphant battle against the Armada.
CARDINALS
A number of cardinals appear in the dumb show at the beginning of the play, following the hearse of the dead Queen Mariana and singing in Latin. After the accession of Titania, Time and Truth drive them out. At least four of them seem to be the same Cardinals who later appear in attendance on the Empress, reporting Titania's slanders against her. They are so angry at their expulsion from Fairyland that they declare themselves willing to be transformed into dogs if this will allow them to lick Titania's blood. Foremost among them is Como, who evolves a number of cunning plots that he believes will entrap Titania; the other cardinals merely support his Machiavellian schemes. (See "COMO").
CASTINA
One of Titania's ladies-in-waiting.
COMO
The leader among the Cardinals attendant on the Empress, he is referred to openly by his 'real-life' name: that of Galli, Cardinal of Como, chief minister of Pope Gregory XIII. He counsels his fellow Cardinals to retaliate against Titania by tearing down her new church. When subtle means to this end fail, he counsels the Empress of Babylon to employ (and, indeed, to canonize) an assassin willing to kill Titania. Scarcely has she acceded to this counsel before Como goes further, suggesting that she ensure her triumph by destroying not only Titania but the whole of Fairyland with an Armada led by the Third King, Satyran. He describes the Armada and its leaders with great satisfaction, and is utterly confounded by its fall. Nevertheless, he encourages his fellows to remain loyal to their 'mother,' the Empress.
CONJUROR
A magician in the pay of the Third King, he seems to be a composite figure who represents all those accused of using the black arts against Queen Elizabeth. The Conjuror tells the Third King that he has created a wax image of Titania, which he intends to pierce with pins and bury in a putrid dunghill; as it rots, Titania will languish and die. Needless to say, the Third King is pleased with this plan. Scarcely has he left the Conjuror alone, however, when the latter's plot is discovered by Truth, Time, and Titania's trusty counselors, who order his execution and refuse his pleas for mercy.
CONSCIENCE
A "ghost character." Plain Dealing says that Conscience has beaten him to the task of sweeping the abuses from the Fairy camp at Beria (Tilbury).
COUNSELORS
A number of Counselors (who likely include Fideli, Florimell, Parthenophil and Elfiron, but may also include others) appear in the dumb show at the beginning of the play. Initially, they are mourning the dead Queen Mariana, but the fact that their eyes are bandaged with scarves suggests that they are ripe for the enlightenment that soon comes when Time and Truth remove their blindfolds and present them to the new Queen, Titania. They immediately vow allegiance to Titania, Truth, and the holy book that the latter presents to the former. (See "FIDELI", "FLORIMELL", "PARTHENOPHIL", and "ELFIRON").
COUSIN
Paridel's cousin represents William Parry's real-life kinsman, Edmund Nevill. He remonstrates with Paridel when the latter discloses his plans to murder Titania. When Paridel goes on with his plan, his cousin betrays him to Titania's counselors.
DAUGHTERS OF NEIGHBOURING LORDS
These seventeen daughters of the lords of a country near Fairyland represent the Protestant states of the Netherlands. They have vowed to live as vestal virgins, but are besieged by evil agents of the Empress of Babylon who seek to rape them and to seize their dowries. They seek and receive Titania's protection. When the Daughters appear to thank Titania, they are referred to in the stage directions as 'the States of the Countries,' making the allegory explicit.
DRAKE (A)
A "ghost character." Transparently representing Sir Francis Drake, this lusty 'Drake' is said to have goaded the Babylonian fleet into action by besieging the flocks of all Babylon's best and bravest birds. Fideli reports that mere mention of his name hushes naughty Babylonian children.
ELFILINE VII
A "ghost character." Titania's grandfather, winner of a civil war and onetime King of Fairyland, he represents King Henry VII of England. When Paridel tries to stab Titania, his hand is stayed by her resemblance to this august ancestor.
ELFIRON
A fairy, and one of Titania's wise and trustworthy privy counselors. The fact that he is appointed to guard Titania's person suggests that he figures Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon, General for the Queen Person under Queen Elizabeth I. He councils her against marrying any of the foreign Kings, and repeatedly helps to save her when her life is threatened.
EMPRESS OF BABYLON
The Empress, or Whore, of Babylon represents Rome (that is, the Roman Catholic church); at times she appears specifically to stand for Pope Gregory XIII. She first appears in the play almost incoherent with rage because her reign, long prosperous and unchallenged, is now threatened by Titania's blasphemous rejection of her works and her ministers. When Titania rejects all her overtures of peace, including the suit of the three Kings in her pay, she accepts Como's council and resolves to arrange Titania's assassination. To this end, she retains the services of Campeius and Ropus, but tells her ministers that she will kill these hirelings once they have fulfilled her desires. She orders Campeius and Ropus to return to Fairyland and to use all necessary means to work Titania's death. She then approves Como's further plan to vanquish the whole of Fairyland with an Armada led by the Third King, Satyran. When the Armada is assembled, she declares through her herald that none must set off without her blessing, and in a show of hubris declares that "seamen one day sailing by [Titania's] land, / May say, There Fairy kingdom once did stand." The rout and destruction of the Armada leaves her utterly confounded and livid with rage at her various underlings. When some, angry with her, seem ready to leave her service, however, she goes out of her way to make up to them. Titania thus sums her up by commenting that "she never does grow base but when she braves."
FALSEHOOD
An allegorical figure that appears in dumb show. She issues from a cave, disguised as Truth, whose voice she counterfeits. It is clear from the first, however, that she is not the real Truth, for while Truth is pure and beautiful, Falsehood's face is hideously spotted by the pox. When she stamps upon the earth, Campeius rises from it, accompanied by a Friar with a box and a number of suspiciously armed Gentlemen. Time allies her with the Empress, calling her the "damned sorceress that keeps the enchanted towers of Babylon," and Plain Dealing recognizes her as "bawd to the Whore of Babylon."
FATHER ANNIBALL A CODRETO
A "ghost character." The priest who confesses Paridel when he arrives in Venice and receives him back into the service of the Empress of Babylon.
FIDELI
A fairy, and one of Titania's privy counselors. Because Titania gives him charge over the seas, he seems to figure Lord Charles Howard, High Admiral of England at the time of the Spanish Armada. He is particularly vociferous in counseling Titania against marrying any of the foreign Kings who court her. He also counsels Titania to kill the Moon (Mary, Queen of Scots) who seeks to eclipse her, and he discloses Ropus' plot against her life.
FLORES DE VALDES
A "ghost character." According to Como, he leads the third squadron of the Babylonian Armada sent to attack Titania.
FLORIMELL
A fairy, and one of Titania's privy counselors. Titania appoints him head of her forces on land, suggesting that he figures Elizabeth I's favorite, Robert, Earl of Leicester, Lord General of her land forces in the war against Spain. Because he claims not to share Fideli's spirit, the foreign Kings who court Titania initially think that he favors their proposals; but in fact it soon becomes clear that he is even more opposed to a Babylonian match for Titania than is Fideli. Titania asks him to stay with her when she hears the suit of Paridel, returned from Venice. He later describes to her in glowing terms the Fairy army assembled to fight the Babylonian Armada, whereupon Titania creates him head of the camp at Beria (Tilbury). He fights bravely at Beria, and takes much of the credit for the eventual rout of the Armada.
FOOTMEN, FOUR
Four footmen are sent in different directions by Titania's counselors to warn the denizens of Fairyland to be on the lookout for invasions by the Empress of Babylon's spies.
FRIARS
Many friars figure in the play:
A number of friars, singing in Latin, follow the hearse of the dead Queen Mariana in the dumb show that begins the play; they clearly signify her Catholicism, and on the accession of Titania are routed by Truth and Time.
In one of the later dumb shows, a Friar with a box appears alongside Campeius and the three Gentlemen, summoned by Falsehood's stamping on the ground. Time tells Truth that the box contains "a wild beast, a mad bull": that is, the papal bull deposing Elizabeth I which was affixed to the Bishop of London's gate by John Felton.
GENTLEMEN
There are several unnamed gentlemen who figure in the play:
In one of the play's dumb shows, three gentlemen appear alongside Campeius and the Friar when Falsehood strikes the earth with her foot. One bears a drawn sword, the second carries rich gloves in a box, and the third carries a bridle. The first may represent the conspirator Barnwell or any armed conspirator against the Queen's life; the second represents Tempest, an English priest who conspired to kill English noblemen with poisoned gloves; the third represents Edward Squier, a horse-courser in the Queen's service who confessed to an attempt to poison the Queen's saddle. Titania confounds the first Gentleman when he appears in her presence with a sword, and the Pensioners thwart his escape.
A fairy abroad in Venice is also known only by the title "Gentleman." He confers with Paridel about the latter's plan to strike at Titania and the fairy peers. He assures Paridel that he will support him in every way possible.
GOMES DE MEDINA
A "ghost character." He leads the seventh squadron of the Babylonian Armada sent to attack Titania. Como likens him to the god of war.
GUARD
The fairy guard is called in to take Ropus to his death after Titania and her counselors discover his treason, and later is ordered to escort Paridel to a similar fate. It does its duty on both occasions.
GUNNERS
A number of Fairy gunners follow Florimell in the battle against the Babylonian Armada.
HERALD
A herald appears to read the edict of the Empress of Babylon, which states that no one, high or low, should dare to depart for the war on Fairyland before the Empress has blessed him on the forehead.
KINGS, THREE
Three Kings attend on the Empress of Babylon. They seem to represent the monarchies loyal to Roman Catholicism at the time of Queen Elizabeth I:
France,
the Holy Roman Empire, and
Spain
respectively. All three are horrified to hear of Titania's blasphemies against the Empress, and vow to avenge their mistress' wrongs. They appear at Titania's court under the guise of suitors for her hand, and present a masque in which they dance with her ladies. After each tries to entice Titania into marriage by praising his own country, all three declare that they will be pleased with her choice as long as she chooses one of them. However, they are vehemently rejected, first by Titania's counselors and then by herself.
An agent of the Empress of Babylon, the First King represents the King of France. After behaving as a unit with the other two Kings in their quest to gain the hand of Titania, he reacts to her rejection by returning to the Empress of Babylon with the Second King.
The Second King represents the Holy Roman Emperor. After acting as a unit with the other two Kings in their quest for Titania's hand, he joins the First King in returning to Babylon after Titania rejects them. When the Empress is rude to him after the defeat of the Armada, he threatens to leave her service and to call in Electors to make her a mere servant of his Empire, whereupon she quickly changes her tune and begins flattering him.
Sometimes called 'Satyran,' the Third King represents King Philip of Spain. Unlike his confreres, he reacts to Titania's rejection of their suit not by returning to the Empress of Babylon's embrace but by "lurking" in Fairyland and fomenting rebellion among its fairy population. He does this by disguising himself—as a soldier, a farmer, a courtier, and so on—and mingling with various elements of the population in order to slander Titania and her ministers. While disguised as a scholar, he lures the proud and disgruntled Campeius into the service of the Empress of Babylon. He returns to Babylon to lead the Armada against the Fairies, but is routed with the rest of his confederates, reports the defeat to the Empress, and is shocked by her violent response.
The three Kings are reunited in Babylon during the formation of the Armada and are present at the decisive sea battle with the Fairies; all finally choose to flee in order to save their skins from the Fairy onslaught.
LADIES
Apparently the ladies-in-waiting of the dead Queen Mariana, they appear in her funeral cortege during the dumb show at the beginning of the play with their eyes covered by scarves. Once Time and Truth remove the veils from their eyes, they pledge allegiance to Titania. They may include Agathe, Aura, Castina and Philaema, who later appear as Titania's ladies-in-waiting. (See "AGATHE," "AURA," "CASTINA," and "PHILAEMA").
LITTLE CAPTAIN
A "ghost character." Fideli describes this little captain as "he that plays the fiend at sea" and as one who "swears Fleming-like" that the Babylonian Armada is advancing on Fairyland. He represents Captain Fleming, who reported the sighting of the Spanish Armada off the coast of England.
MARINERS
A number of Fairy mariners follow Florimell in the battle against the Babylonian Armada.
MEDINA
A "ghost character." According to Como, he is Captain General of the Babylonian Armada sent to attack Titania. When the Armada is attacked by Fairy fire, he hides under hatches and dares not show his head.
MENDOZA
A "ghost character." According to Como, he leads the eighth squadron of the Babylonian Armada sent to attack Titania.
MONCADA
A "ghost character." One of the leaders of the Babylonian Armada, he is either drowned or slain during the Fairy attack.
MOON
A "ghost character." Dekker refers to Mary, Queen of Scots, by this allegorical name. Titania's peers declare that she must pull this moon from the firmament since it has tried to eclipse her sun. Declaring her love for the Moon, Titania is initially unwilling, but eventually consents to sign the death warrants of the Moon and her supporters. Como, perhaps ignorant of the Moon's fall, later claims that her "host of stars" will join the Armada against Titania.
OBERON
A "ghost character." King of Fairyland; son of Elfiline; and father of Mariana, Titania and an unnamed son, he represents Henry VIII of England.
OQUENDO
A "ghost character." According to Como, he leads the fifth squadron of the Babylonian Armada sent to attack Titania. The Fairy fleet burns him and his ships.
PALMIO
This character is referred to directly by the name of his 'real-life' model, Don Benedetto Palmio, an Italian Jesuit who helped in William Parry's plot against Queen Elizabeth. He meets Paridel in Venice and encourages him to aid Fairyland's suffering Babylonians by "letting one vein blood": that is, by killing Titania. He introduces Paridel to Ragazzoni, who also lends his support.
PARIDEL
A doctor who stand for the notorious Elizabethan traitor, Dr. William Parry. When he first appears he has been condemned to death for planning a murder, but Titania spares his life on the grounds that his plan was never put in practice. Contrary to expectation, her mercy doesn't please him; he complains that it leaves him bound in "servile fear" to Titania and traps him under the oppressive thumbs of the Fairy peers. He therefore asks Titania for permission to travel, which she grants. Having confessed himself to Father Anniball, he joins the allies of the Empress of Babylon and determines to aid her suffering servants in Fairyland by assassinating Titania. Palmio, Ragazzoni, and Campeggio, who bring Paridel the Empress' blessing, support him in this enterprise. He asks the Albanois to back up their support by affirming the justice of his cause. When the Albanois declines to do so, Paridel leaves for Fairyland. He presents himself to Titania as one who can give her intelligence of Babylonian plots against her life, but when she leaves him coldly he worries that she has seen through his lies. His animus against her is increased by her refusal to give him the mastership of Santa Caterina (i.e., Saint Katherine's at Greenwich). He tries to convince his shocked cousin to second him in his determination to stab her as she walks in Saint Iago's (Saint James') Park. Left alone with Titania in her garden, he repeatedly breaks down and fails to carry through with his plan. Bolstered by the memory of the Papal Pardon granted him by Como in return for the murder, he is finally on the verge of assassinating Titania when her counselors burst in, led by Paridel's cousin, who has betrayed his plot. He throws himself on Titania's mercy, but she refuses him and he accepts the fact that his black life will end in black fame.
PARTHENOPHIL
A "fairy peer," and one of Titania's privy counselors. Although there is no indisputable evidence in the text about his 'real-life' model, his role as a supremely wise counselor suggests that he likely represents William Cecil, Lord Burghley. He supports Campeius when the latter first appears before Titania, but later bitterly regrets his support on realizing that Campeius is a traitor. He helps to discover many of the plots against Titania's life, and is present at her triumph at Beria.
PEDRO DE VALDES
A "ghost character." According to Como, he is a "haughty" aristocrat who leads the fourth squadron of the Babylonian Armada sent to attack Titania. He is taken prisoner without resistance when the Armada is attacked.
PENSIONERS
Blindfolded by scarves, these follow the cortege of the dead Queen Mariana in the dumb show that begins the play. They are presumably among those who, liberated from their blindfolds by Truth and Time, pay tribute to Titania and pledge to defend Truth hereafter. Later they support Titania by pursuing the armed Gentleman who tried to kill her.
PHILAEMA
One of Titania's ladies-in-waiting.
PIEMENTELLI
A "ghost character." One of the leaders of the Babylonian Armada, he and his ships are sunk by the Fairy fleet.
PLAIN DEALING
Well described by his name, this consistent truth-speaker seems to represent the decent English Common Man. He is sent by Como to Fairyland to spy on the Fairy Queen, Titania. True to form, however, he goes over to her side and abandons Rome; from his speech he seems in any case to have been born a fairy (that is, an Englishman). He introduces comic relief into the highly serious court of Titania by describing to her "your ship of fools, your hospital of incurable madmen" an ordinary tavern. His satirical remarks touch on many aspects of contemporary fairy life; they include what sound like glancing references to the theatres of the day, and indeed he functions in the play rather like the voice of a satirical playwright who vows to "give the copy of the city's countenance" with all its wrinkles intact. Pleased by his plainness, Titania sends him to live with Truth, to learn from her and support her. Time and Truth show him the plottings of Falsehood and her confederates, whereupon he admits that he once took Falsehood for Truth, but declares that she who once seemed so beautiful to him now strikes him as hideously ugly. He thus joins Truth in leading the soldiers against the Babylonian army, tells Titania about the birth of the boy Beria, and finally enjoys the triumph of the Fairy army.
PRIESTS
These priests, referred to in the dramatis personae by their Latin title of "sacerdotes" and clearly representative of the English Jesuits, are sent to Fairyland by Como and bid to rescue Truth and her sons from the domination of Titania. They eagerly accept the assignment.
PRINCE OF PORTUGAL
The Prince of Portugal represents Don Antonio, Prior of Crato, an illegitimate scion of the Portuguese royal family who begged Elizabeth's support in his pretensions to the throne and his struggle against King Philip of Spain, who had conquered Portugal in 1580. In Dekker's play he implores Titania's help, which she grants, calling him a "great tree" that has been bested by a "shrub."
QUEEN MARIANA
A "ghost character." Although she is never seen in propria persona, her hearse is brought on during the dumb show at the beginning of the play. The attendance of friars and cardinals at her funeral shows that she was a Catholic, and the fact that Titania immediately replaces her shows that she represents Mary Tudor. Time and Truth are overjoyed by her death, which results in the rout of the friars and cardinals. In later discussions between Titania and her counselors, the dead queen is referred to as 'Mariana.'
RAGAZZONI
A papal nuncio, based on the real-life nuncio of the same name, who supports Paridel in his plot against Titania.
RICALDE
A "ghost character." According to Como, he leads the second squadron of the Babylonian Armada sent to attack Titania. When the Fairies attack the Armada, he shows typical Babylonian bravery by taking to his bed.
ROPUS
A doctor and sometime resident of Fairyland, now in the service of the Empress of Babylon. He represents the famous Jewish doctor, Lopez, who ministered to Francis Walsingham, Leicester, and even Queen Elizabeth herself. Employed by the Empress to assassinate Titania, he vows to use physic to do so; he is unaware that the Empress intends to kill him once he has served her purpose. He makes his way into Titania's service and is on the verge of killing her with a poisoned draught when Fideli discovers his treason. Presented with proof of his crimes, he confesses and is condemned to death.
SACERDOTES
The Latin term for priests, sometimes used by Dekker to designate the Jesuit Priests sent back to Fairyland (England) by Como.
SAILOR
The Third King's Man appears disguised as a Sailor to conduct Campeius on his voyage to Babylon, and returns in the same guise to help the Third King into his disguise as a courtier.
SATYRAN
A name sometimes given the Machiavellian Third King by his nefarious Babylonian associates. (See under "KINGS, THREE").
SOLDIERS OF BABYLON
The soldiers of the Empress of Babylon march across the stage on their way to fill the fleet of the Third King and to swell the attack on Fairyland. The Second King calls the sound of their drums the "music of heaven."
SOLDIERS OF FAIRYLAND
Many soldiers of Fairyland follow Truth, Plain Dealing, Florimell and other Fairy leaders in the battle against the Armada; they are present to greet Titania when she arrives at Beria.
STAR
A "ghost character." An allegorical figure that tries to help the Moon to eclipse Titania's sun, this star appears to represent the Duke of Norfolk, who plotted to free the imprisoned Mary, Queen of Scots, and to set her on Elizabeth's throne. Titania unwillingly orders the deaths of both the Moon and the Star.
THIRD KING'S MAN
The third King's servant, he helps his master by finding and bringing him the many and varied suits of clothes that help the King to function as a Master of Disguise haunting Fairyland as an agent for the Empress of Babylon. (See also under "SAILOR").
TIME
An allegorical figure in the usual form of an old man, he appears in the dumb show with which the play begins dressed in mourning; even his iconographic properties (scythe, hourglass and wings) are black. In dumb show, he tries desperately to awaken his daughter, Truth, but cannot do so and instead sits down beside her to mourn. At the sight of the funeral of a queen (by implication, Queen Mary), he and his daughter cheer up considerably and exit to change their garments for lighter, more regal ones. They greet Titania, present her with a holy book, and drive out the noxious "cardinals, friars, &c" that had attended on the dead Queen Mariana. Later, he arrives at Truth's lodgings to command her and Plain Dealing to help him confound the works of Falsehood. He fights on Titania's side against the Babylonian Armada by cutting down Babylonian princes and destroying their ships. After the Fairy forces defeat the Babylonians, Time conducts Titania and her counselors to witness the anger of the Empress.
TITANIA
The Fairy Queen, in whom Dekker figures the late and much-lamented Queen Elizabeth I. She first appears in the wake of the dead Queen Mariana's funeral during the dumb show that begins the play, attended by counselors and others fitting her status as a queen. Truth and Time, who present her with a book that she kisses, greet her with great joy. She welcomes both the counselors who previously served Queen Mariana and "certain grave learned men that had been banished." In the play proper, the Empress of Babylon angrily describes her as a "strumpet enchantress" who has stolen the affections of the Empress' subjects and defamed the Empress as a Whore. Nevertheless, Titania refuses to respond to the Empress' attempts on her life with similar violence. She even seems briefly interested in the proposals of the three foreign Kings against whom her counselors so vehemently protest, but she soon shows that this was a ruse by declaring that she will accept them only when Catholic rituals prove efficacious and "lawyers swear to take fees—and that I hope will never, never be." Her refusal of the Empress' overtures leads to a number of plots against her life, all of which she must punish. She reluctantly condemns her kinswoman, the Moon (Mary, Queen of Scots) to death; Campeius and Ropus, their treasons discovered, are similarly doomed. Her wisdom, clemency and resemblance to her grandfather, Elfiline VII, so impress the embittered Paridel that he falters repeatedly in his determination to kill her; just as he finally gets up his nerve to do so, he is betrayed by his cousin and apprehended by Titania's counselors. Having vanquished this threat, Titania organizes her forces to fight against the encroaching Babylonian Armada. She appears in person at their camp at Beria (Tilbury) and declares her love for soldiers and the martial life. In the end, she exults in her final triumph and thanks Time for granting her the opportunity to witness the ruin of the great Whore of Babylon.
TRUMPETER
A Trumpeter appears with the Herald and sounds once to direct public attention to the Empress of Babylon's proclamation.
TRUTH
An allegorical figure, Time's daughter, she symbolizes the Protestant Religion enslaved by the reign of Mary Tudor. She appears in the dumb show that opens the play as a kind of Andromeda: clothed in black and asleep on a rock with disheveled hair. She is transformed by the funeral of the dead Queen Mariana, wakes up, and reappears crowned and robed to tear the veils from the eyes of the Counselors and to greet the new Fairy Queen, Titania. She and Time present Titania with a book that inspires all those around her to vow to defend Truth forever. She and her father then enjoy driving out the dead Queen Mariana's cardinals and friars, along with their "images, crozier staves, &c." The irate Empress of Babylon later accuses Titania of having stolen Truth's voice and attire. When Titania sends Plain Dealing to dwell with Truth, she proves that she is the real Truth by underlining her own simplicity and wholesomeness; her point is amply proven by the appearance of Falsehood, whose poxy visage cannot be concealed even by Truth's clothing. When the Babylonian Armada advances on Fairyland, Truth and Plain Dealing lead soldiers to Beria against them and help to ensure the final Fairy victory.
TYRANT
A "ghost character." As Paridel is deliberating about killing her, Titania receives a letter describing the death of a tyrant who, unable to sleep, ran mad and died, a death Titania views as very just. Since all of the three Kings reappear after she receives this report, this Tyrant's identity remains unclear.
UGO DE MONCADA
A "ghost character." According to Como, he leads the ninth squadron of the Babylonian Armada sent to attack Titania.
VOLUNTEER
One of the soldiers who marches to Beria under Truth's colors, he declares that he scorns to run from the Babylonian enemy. He is probably the same Volunteer who later tells Titania that her soldiers will fight "to the last least man's little finger."
WOMAN
A "ghost character." Plain Dealing reports that this woman has borne a son in the Fairy camp at Beria; he is named Beria after his birthplace.