"What of the game called chess-play can be made
To make a stage-play shall this day be played.
First you shall see the men in order set,
States and their pawns, when both the sides are met;
The houses well distinguished; in the game
Some men entrapped and taken, to their shame,
Rewarded in their play; and in the close
You shall see checkmate given to virtue’s foes.
But the fair’st jewel that our hopes can deck
Is so to play our game t’avoid your check."
These are the opening lines of the play, spoken by the Prologue. Here, the Prologue establishes the governing allegory of the performance: the chess game that the audience is about to see is a dramatization of political negotiations between countries (Spain and England). When the Prologue states that the end of of the play will showcase a "checkmate given to virtue's foes," he implies that morality and righteousness will eventually triumph, foreshadowing England's "victory" over Spain.
"I thought they’d spread over the world by this time,
Covered the earth’s face and made dark the land
Like the Egyptian grasshoppers.
Here’s too much light appears shot from the eyes
Of truth and goodness never yet deflow’red."
When Ignatius Loyola (the founder of the Jesuit order) appears on stage at the beginning of the play, he is surprised to discover that his "disciples" are nowhere to be found. Here, he laments the fact that his followers were not able to spread a darkness over England; instead, the country is full of "light," signifying both the majesty of King James I and the primacy of Protestantism over Catholicism.
"I would do anything to rule alone.
It’s rare to have the world reined in by one.’’
The quote is spoken in the opening of the play, during the Induction, when a number of characters watch the chess table being set from afar and the main characters taking their rightful places on the board. Ignatius Loyola speaks to Error about his desire to rule alone. In this context, Loyola is a representative of the Catholic church and therefore the Black side of the chess game. His desire to rule with impunity subtly associates Catholicism (and by extension, the country of Spain) with tyranny and corruption.
"It has been all my glory to be firm In what I have professed."
The first act of the play features the Black Queen's Pawn attempting to corrupt the White Queen's Pawn through deception and rhetoric. Here, the virginal White Queen's Pawn expresses her resilience and commitment to virtue, emphasizing her constancy and commitment to moral rectitude. Within the context of the allegory, this exchange also illustrates how women – especially as they relate to the most powerful chess piece on the board, the Queen – are instrumental when it comes to political negotiations.
"And here again: (reading) ‘it is the daughter’s duty
To obey her confessor’s command in all things.'"
The second act starts with the White Queen’s Pawn reading from the book given to her by the Black Bishop’s Pawn. The White Pawn later notices how everything she reads describes how women are always expected to be obedient, which inspires the White Pawn to strive for this female ideal. This quote emphasizes how corruption and misogyny go hand in hand, associating the black pieces with the philosophy that women are simply meant to obey their male counterparts like fathers and husbands.
"She’s hard upon’t. ’Twas the most modest key
That I could use to open my intents.
What little or no pains goes to some people!"
As the Black Bishop's Pawn attempts to sway the White Queen's Pawn away from virtue, he gives her reading material that emphasizes the importance of female obedience. Here, in an aside, he celebrates how this strategy is "modest" and requires little effort on his part. Here, the Black Bishop's Pawn clearly underestimates the White Queen's Pawn's constancy and commitment, as he assumes she is easily corruptible. The play suggests that, with regard to the chess match, the Black Bishop's Pawn is strategic in some ways but ultimately fails to understand his opponent.
"But where is my advancement all this while I ha’ gaped for’t?
I’d have some round preferment, corpulent dignity
That bears some breadth and compass in the gift on’t."
In this quotation, the Fat Bishop expresses his dissatisfaction with the Black house, saying that he has received no advancement for his services. The Fat Bishop is only interested in titles and self-promotion; he is portrayed as a fat man to emphasize, in Middleton's eyes, his greed and self-interest, and he stands in for a critique of corrupt clergy in the Catholic church.
"And I have a worm
Follows me so that I can follow no game.
The most faint-hearted Pawn (if he could see his play)
Might snap me up at pleasure. I desire, sir,
To be absolved. My conscience being at ease,
I could then with more courage ply my game."
At the beginning of Act Four, the Black Knight's Pawn is feeling guilty for having castrated the White Bishop's Pawn. He seeks out the Black Bishop's Pawn and expresses his desire for absolution. Crucially, however, the Black Knight's Pawn is remorseful only because his own "game" has been affected: he seeks freedom from his guilty conscience so that he may continue to strategize and deceive. This ironic exchange emphasizes the lack of morality inherent to the Black side of the game.
"Obscurity is now the fittest favour
Falsehood can sue for. It well suits perdition.
It’s their best course that so have lost their fame
To put their heads into the bag for shame."
The quote from above appears in the last act of the play. After the White King fooled the rest of the Black pieces into confessing their sins, he decides to punish them by sending them to the bag. The beginning of the quote showcases how for the characters who were punished, obscurity was the harshest punishment one could inflict on them. The end of the play suggests that disappearing from history is a much crueler punishment than death.
"My mistress, the White Queen, hath sent me forth
And bade me bow thus low to all of worth
That are true friends of the White House and cause,
Which she hopes most of this assembly draws.
For any else—by envy’s mark denoted,
To those night glow-worms in the bag devoted—
Where’er they sit, stand, and in corners lurk,
They’ll be soon known by their depraving work.
But she’s assured, what they’d commit to bane
Her White friends’ hands will build up fair again."
In the Epilogue of the play, the White Queen's Pawn appears to announce the victory of the White over the Black. Here, the White Queen's Pawn speaks directly to the audience, entreating them to sympathize with the White (English, Protestant) side of the battle. She also suggests that anyone who does not sympathize with this side will suffer the consequences of another defeat, concluding the play on both a celebratory and somewhat threatening note.
