This is a casebook study of bad forensic rhetoric. The lawyer calls the judges "literated" to gain their favor and then asks them to "connive" their judgments. Next he hurls out a mass of absurd inkhorn terms and grotesque sounds in a periphrastic and confused syntax. His eloquence is crowned by the rime of "concatenation" with "consummation." The lawyer's exordium prepares the audience not for his arguments but for Vittoria's abrupt interruption: "What's all this?"
- H. Bruce Franklin, The Trial Scene of Webster's The White Devil Examined in Terms of Renaissance Rhetoric

"Vittoria is a white devil, she may be the white devil of the title. She is not, however, the only cadidate for that office." - ibid.

Webster goes on to use "diversivolent lawyer."