Characters
Simone
The merchant husband
An ageing cloth merchant who returns home to find a prince alone with his wife. He hides behind a flood of humble flattery and sales talk, sets Bianca to spin and talks of faithless wives, all the while watching. He reveals that he once killed a robber without a second thought, challenges Guido to a trial of swords, and strangles him. At the end he sees his wife's beauty for the first time.
Bianca
The neglected wife
Simone's young wife, sharp-witted and bored with a life of spinning and a husband who counts the cost of her clothes. She teases Guido about buying love, then agrees to run away with him, tells him she hates her husband and urges him to kill Simone. When Simone kills the prince instead, she comes to her husband in wonder.
Guido Bardi
The Florentine prince
The only son and heir of Giovanni Bardi, a great lord of Florence. Rich, handsome and used to buying what he wants, he offers a purse for Bianca's favour and then fine speeches, and treats Simone with open contempt. He is disarmed and strangled by the merchant, dying with a plea for a priest and a cry to Bianca, who does not help him.
Maria
The go-between
Bianca's servant, her tire-woman, who carries messages between her mistress and Guido. In the opening scene she describes Guido's palace and his offer of gold, and admits she told him her mistress might like to be loved. She lets Guido into the house and keeps out of the way. She appears only in the scene written by T. Sturge Moore.