Summary
The Prologue announces to the audience that the play they are about to see is a dramatization of a chess match.
In the Induction, Ignatius Loyola enters and is discouraged to see that none of his disciples are anywhere to be found. Speaking with Error, he resolves to spread the Jesuit order through his "children" in the chess game – the Black Queen's Pawn and Black Bishop's Pawn.
The Black Queen's Pawn enters, hoping to corrupt the Virgin White Queen's Pawn. She pretends to cry, saying that the White Queen's Pawn will be lost to history because she is too loyal to the White side. The Black Bishop's Pawn enters, and encourages the White Queen's Pawn to confess her sins to him. The White Queen's pawn admits that she had wanted a relationship with the White Bishop's Pawn, but he was castrated by the Black Knight's Pawn. The Black Bishop's Pawn gives the White Queen's Pawn a book to read.
Meanwhile, the Black Knight's Pawn and the castrated White Bishop's Pawn insult one another. The Black Knight enters, happy that his plans for a "universal monarchy" (the Catholic Church) seem to be working. He attributes his success to his ability to deceive others and strategize well. The White King's Pawn, who is actually a spy for the Black House, enters and provides a report of the goings-on in the White House. The Black Knight insults the White King's Pawn, calling him a fool before exiting.
Analysis
A Game at Chess is an endlessly unique play, evidenced early on in the performance by the fact that the play's central structure deviates from the conventions of early modern theater. Rather than follow named characters through discernible, entertaining plots, A Game at Chess features characters who exist only by title: the Black Knight, the White Queen's Pawn, the Black Bishop's Pawn, etc. Furthermore, these "characters" interact with one another as if they are truly chess pieces on a board, speaking vaguely about wanting to corrupt one another without necessarily providing the details as to what "corruption" means. Instead, the play remains committed to the Prologue's introductory announcement, in which he says that the play is a chess game, not a play. Thus, when characters are sparring, it is important for readers to remember that within the context of this chess game structure, the only motivation characters have is winning the game by capturing the other side's players. Thus, when the Black Queen's Pawn and Black Bishop's Pawn attempt to gain the trust of the White Queen's Pawn, they are simply attempting to get close enough to her to eliminate her from the game altogether.
That said, the chess game structure is also an allegory for more consequential events. This would not have been lost on early modern English audiences, who were more than familiar with conflict both between England and Spain and between Protestants and Catholics. The play dispels with subtlety by arranging the chess match as an allegorical battle between English Protestantism and Spanish Catholicism: the Black House represents Spain and the White House represents England. By having Ignatius Loyola – the founder of the Jesuit order, an order of the Catholic church – Middleton establishes that the central tension of the chess match will be religious and political. Loyola (long dead at this point) is dismayed to find that, in England, the dark influence he had hoped to have is no more. Instead, there is nothing but boundless light – a metaphor to describe English Protestantism but also the reign of King James I, who sat on the throne at the time. As such, these introductory sections of the play help thrust audiences out of the traditional theatrical experience by creating an elaborate allegory of "players" who will represent their real-life political counterparts in a game of strategy and deception.
