Conext Flashcards
John Webster
Life and death unknown, not much known about his life
Real duchess
Giovanni d’ Aragona and Antonio beccadelli
- murdered by brothers, one was a cardinal in 1510
- brothers never killed
Painter
Plot linked to ‘the palace of pleasure’ which links to novelle
Bandello knew Antonio Beccadelli who was murdered by bozzolo- Webster adapts him to be conflicted character
Stoic
Endurance of pain without complaint
Hippocrates
4 humours- explain human behaviour
- excess of blood or life is duchess
- excess of phlegm or lack of emotion is cardinal
- excess black bile or cynicism is bosola
- excess yellow bile or anger is Ferdinand
Malcontent
Bosola- Jacobean revenge tragedy, consumed with disgust at corruption of court, vents anger by railing against it
Madness in royal blood
Philip of Spain’s heir strangled in prison
Womb
Causes hysteria l, Hippocrates I
Public access to bedlam’s
Ended 1770
Marriage fro alliances
Catherine duchess of Suffolk and Richard Bertie a member of her household
Elizabeth I
Considered illegitimate when Boleyn killed
- virgin queen
- she chooses the throne, duchess chooses love
Mary I
Considered a king
Ontological mobility
Shift nature of own existence
The fall
Dympna claghan ‘the justification and the cause of women’s subjugation’
James I
Fascinated with witchcraft
- ‘daemonologie’- examines black magic 1597
Henry V
Died leaving Catherine widowed and she secretly married her steward and had children.
Discovered by high council and imprisoned
Other malcontents
Fowler’s de Flores
Aristotle
Plot over character
Webster is interested in how character copes with distress
Revenge tragedy history
Developed from Senecan model, final disaster, revenge and madness
first performance
Blackfriars- darkened, lit by candles
9 years after guy fawkes
White devil
Set in court
Focus on heroine
Renaissance
Focus on learning and curiosity
Mary queen of Scots
Killed for treason, as a catholic
