The Cloven Viscount

The Good ’Un visits Master Pietrochiodo each night with demands to build complex machines for charitable purposes. Despite efforts, Pietrochiodo finds that these virtuous contraptions always fail, while he effortlessly creates the ingenious torture devices commissioned by the Bad ’Un. The narrator observes Pietrochiodo constructing a gibbet for hanging in profile, realizing that the Bad ’Un intends to execute his good counterpart.

The Bad ’Un orders his constables to execute his virtuous half. The constables, secretly plotting to install a new ruler, offer the throne to the Good ’Un instead. He refuses their violent proposal and gives them healing unguent for the Bad ’Un. When the Bad ’Un receives this gift, he condemns the constables to death and suppresses their revolt. Meanwhile, the Good ’Un’s excessive virtue becomes oppressive to townspeople. With Dr. Trelawney, he ministers to the residents of Pratofungo, but his moralizing makes even these unfortunates miserable. The Huguenots guard against his interference, while Sebastiana constantly confuses the two halves. Terralba feels trapped between two extremes, and public admiration for the Good ’Un steadily diminishes.