Character guide

King Magnus

major

Also known as Magnus, Magnus True, Magnus Smiling, Magnus Gravely, Magnus Perfectly, Magnus Lucky man, Magnus Cutting, Magnus Sweetly, Magnus The rascal, Magnus Blandly, Magnus Sublime, Magnus Henpecked, Magnus Goodness gracious, Magnus Frank, Magnus Quite, Magnus Laughing, Magnus More, Magnus Furious, Magnus No, Magnus Rising

Magnus is the constitutional king whose real power is persuasion, and he treats his ministers like promising amateurs he has personally trained. He stages his Cabinet reception on the terrace, reasoning that open air and evening light will rob Boanerges of his Hyde Park eloquence. His marriage to Jemima is steady and unglamorous; his flirtation with Orinthia is a contest of self-dramatizing equals. His cool handling of each challenge sets the play's central question: can intelligence survive democracy's machinery?

Mr. Bill Boanerges

major

Also known as Mr. Boanerges, Boanerges, Bill Boanerges, Boanerges Beaming, Boanerges Confidently, the great Mr. Boanerges, Boanerges Well, Boanerges Rising, Boanerges Democracy, Boanerges Thank Heaven

Boanerges arrives in the Cabinet as the tribune of the workers, all volume and grievance, convinced that a man who can hold a crowd can hold a government. Magnus has not tamed him, only taught him to spend his strength instead of wasting it, and Boanerges resents the lesson as condescension. His bluster is genuine, but so is his suspicion that he is being managed. He matters because he embodies the play's fear that democratic rhetoric is just another performance.

Mr. Joseph Proteus

major

Also known as Mr. Proteus, Joe, Proteus, To Proteus, Joseph Proteus, Proteus Fiercely crushing, Proteus Rising, Magnus Proteus

Proteus runs the government and intends to run it without royal interference, which makes him Magnus's most patient and dangerous adversary. Where Boanerges shouts, Proteus calculates, converting every clash into a procedural advantage. His ambition is not personal spite but a theory of power: the elected should govern, and the king should sign. He matters because he turns the play's debate about democracy into an actual plot against the throne.

Orinthia

supporting

Orinthia is the king's brilliant, theatrical companion, cheered in the streets and utterly convinced of her own royalty. She presses Magnus to face his destiny and hers, dismissing Queen Jemima with a shrug that is half joke and half threat. Her wit matches his, which is exactly the problem: she wants to be chosen, not amused. She matters because she forces Magnus to weigh private desire against public duty before the political storm even breaks.

Queen Elizabeth

supporting

Also known as Lizzie, old Queen Elizabeth

Jemima sits apart from Magnus on the terrace, knitting while he reads the evening paper, and she is the one who notices when ceremony is being skipped. She bristles at the American ambassador demanding an immediate audience, yet she is practical enough to know why Magnus will be 'crawlingly civil' to him. Her dry asides puncture royal pretension without ever quite breaking it. She matters because she is the domestic, unglamorous counterweight to Orinthia's theatrics and the play's quiet measure of what a real partnership looks like.

Amanda

supporting

Also known as Mandy, Amanda Triumphant, Amanda Splutters, Amanda Steady, Amanda Hear, Amanda Postlethwaite, Amanda Poor darling Lizzie, Queen Amanda, Amanda Joe frank

Amanda moves through the play's private and political circles with an eye for weakness and a taste for mischief, alternately sympathetic to Lizzie and scheming on her own account. She is the kind of woman who says the thing everyone is thinking and then watches the room react. Her energy keeps the drawing-room intrigue alive alongside the Cabinet's maneuvers. She matters because she shows how personal loyalty and political calculation are never cleanly separable in this court.

Sempronius Pamphilius

supporting

Also known as Pamphilius, Sempronius, Pam, Mr. Sempronius

Sempronius sits at one of two facing desks in the palace office, slitting the King's mail while Pamphilius reads the papers across from him. His father manufactured coronations and Lord Mayors' Shows yet believed in them with all his soul, and Sempronius inherits both the theatrical instinct and the clear-eyed detachment that lets him dissect it. His talk with Pamphilius about what a father is and what belief costs sets the play's comic-serious key before any politician enters the room.

Crassus Balbus Pliny

supporting

Also known as Crassus, Balbus, Pliny, Pliny Crassus Balbus, Crassus Sits, Crassus Yes, Crassus Thoughtful, Crassus Things, Crassus Rising, Crassus Breakages, Mr. Pliny, Mike, Pliny Mike

Crassus, Balbus, and Pliny surface as allegorical commentators whose Latin tags and rhetorical habits shadow the modern political squabbles of the palace office. Their function is to measure the present against the antique, exposing how little the machinery of power has changed since the Forum. They matter early because they teach the audience how to read the play: as extravaganza, as debate, as a comedy where the dead still have opinions about the living.

Nicobar

minor

Also known as Balbus Nicobar Hear, Mr. Nicobar, Nicobar Hear, Nicobar Rising

A cabinet minister who participates in the political debates and power struggles.

Alice

minor

Also known as Alice Continuing

A servant or attendant in the royal household, appearing in brief scenes.

Jemima

minor

A maid or household worker with a few lines in the play.

Sir Christopher Wren

minor

Also known as Wren

The famous architect, mentioned in a historical allusion.

Lysistrata

minor

A classical figure referenced as an allegorical symbol of female power.

Mr. Vanhattan

minor

Also known as Vanhattan, Vanhattan Rising, Vanhattan Tea

An American ambassador who represents U.S. interests in the political negotiations.

Demos

minor

Also known as Democracy

A personification of the common people or democratic spirit, briefly referenced.

King Robert

minor

Also known as Robert

A historical king mentioned in passing as a point of comparison.

Dean Inge

minor

Also known as the Dean

A real-life clergyman and writer, referenced as a cultural figure.

Iky Jacobus

minor

Also known as Iky

A minor character or reference, possibly a tradesman or official.

Nick

minor

A brief named character, possibly a servant or minor official.

George Bernard Shaw

minor

Also known as Shaw, Bernard Shaw, George

The author himself, appearing as a self-referential character or narrator.

Alfred Warwick Gattie

minor

Also known as Gattie, the late Alfred Warwick Gattie

A deceased inventor or businessman mentioned in dialogue as a past figure.