Editing Venice Preserv'd (section)

===Pierre===
Pierre is the friend of Jaffeir, the lover of Aquilina, and a conspirator against the senate, as well as a soldier for Venice.
[[File:Portrait of Mr. Charles Kemble as Pierre (4671569).jpg|thumb|Pierre as portrayed by [[Charles Kemble]]]]
Pierre discovers that while he has been away (presumably at war) Senator Antonio has been sexually involved with his [[Mistress (lover)|mistress]] Aquilina. Pierre brings this matter before the senate hoping for justice, but the senate excuses Antonio's behaviour as a privilege entitled to the senators (I. i. 206–217). This situation is what causes Pierre to become involved with the conspiracy against the State.

Pierre is the primary voice for the conspirators and delivers many eloquent speeches throughout the play. Pierre has little difficulty in recruiting Jaffeir to the plot against the senate because of his ability to transform Jaffeir's need for revenge against Priuli into a need for revenge against the corrupt senate (3)

Even though Pierre manipulates Jaffeir, Pierre is a loyal and devoted friend to Jaffeir<ref>DePorte, Michael. "Otway and the Straits of Venice." ''Papers on Language & Literatur''e 18.3 (1982): 245</ref> (1). When Pierre presents Jaffeir to the conspirators, he says, “I’ve brought my All into the publick Stock, / I had but one Friend, and him I’ll share amongst you!” (II. 310–11) Not only faithful to Jaffeir, Pierre is also faithful to his cause with the conspirators until the very end.

Because of Pierre's political jargon, several of his speeches have been [[Censorship|censored]] over the years. Bywaters believes that ''Venice Preserv’d'' is an attack on the Whig party and that Pierre's speeches are the primary vehicle for those attacks: “and Pierre’s accusation of a ‘new Tyranny’... turns the Whigs’ rhetoric of tyranny and arbitrary power against them." Pierre’s charismatic speeches encourage such a passionate response from the audience that ''[[The Times]]'' wrote, “the audience seemed enraptured with every development of rebel villainy." After an assassination attempt on [[George III of the United Kingdom|George III]], the performance of ''Venice Preserv’d'' that evening nearly caused a riot which caused the further performances to be cancelled. ''Venice Preserv’d'' was not seen in London for seven years until it returned in 1802; however, Pierre's part was censored and lacking its idealism.

At the Duke's Theatre in 1682, Pierre was performed by Thomas Betterton. In 1802 George Frederick Cooke played the role of Pierre. In London in 1920 at the Lyric Theatre, [[Baliol Holloway]] was Pierre. In 1953, Pierre was played by [[Paul Scofield]]. In the Prospect Production in 1970, [[Julian Glover]] was Pierre. (6) in 1984, [[Ian McKellen]] played Pierre at the Lyttelton Theatre. In 2019, [[Stephen Fewell]] played Pierre at the RSC.