SOURCE: Canfield, John Douglas. “Absurdist Satire.” In Word as Bond in English Literature from the Middle Ages to the Restoration, pp. 300-11. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989.

In the following excerpt, Canfield evaluates the power of words and vows in Venice Preserv'd. He maintains that the characters use language to forge bonds and to define honor, yet notes that words change meaning due to circumstance and motive.

The satire of Otway's Venice Preserved is darker than that of The Knight's Tale or Antony and Cleopatra, its absurdity a vision not of the illusory power of language but of its total breakdown. By the end of the play, the code of the word as bond of loyalty, trust, fidelity, constancy has been destroyed, replaced by meaningless gestures, mad ravings, and nonsense.¹

The conflict in the play is triple sided, and Jaffeir is caught in the middle of the triangle...