Venice Preserved - A Tragedy in Five Acts

'Venice Preserved' is an English Restoration play written by Thomas Otway, and the most significant tragedy of the English stage in the 1680s. The book follows Jaffeir, a noble but impoverished Venetian, who secretly married Belvidera, the daughter of a proud senator named Priuli, who has cut off her inheritance. Jaffeir's friend Pierre, a foreign soldier, stokes Jaffeir's resentment and entices him into a plot against the Senate of Venice. Pierre's own reasons for plotting against the Senate revolve around another senator (the corrupt, foolish Antonio) paying for relations with Pierre's mistress, Aquilina.