Duchess 1:1 Flashcards
who is Delio?
- Antonio’s friend and one of only two initial people to be trusted with the secret of the Duchess’ marriage to Antonio
- he remains a faithful friend to the family to the end of the play
who is Antonio?
- steward of the Duchess’ household
- will secretly marry the duchess and have 3 children with her
Antonio’s character
- honest, a good judge of character, a loving husband and father
- passive and largely ineffectual in a crisis (ultimately unable to protect his family)
- unremarkable in comparison to the duchess
‘A very formal…’
‘A very formal Frenchman in your habit.’ - Delio to A
- Antonio has been gone long enough to pick up the French style
‘How do you like the…’
‘How do you like the French court?’ - Delio to A
- opens with a particular model of power and examination of its politics
- theme of power and corruption in Antonio’s reply
‘I admire it…’
‘I admire it./ In seeking to reduce both state and people/ To a fixed order,’ - Antonio
- about French court
- brings the government and population together
- power and corruption
- is about to assess the French court methods
‘their judicious..’
‘their judicious king/ Begins at home, quite first his royal palace/ Of flattering sycophants’ - Antonio
- gets rid of those who blindly agree
- ‘sycophant’ someone who is excessively obedient to those in power to gain advantage
‘Considering duly that a…’
‘Considering duly that a prince’s court/ Is like a common fountain, whence should flow/ Pure silver drops in general, but if’t […]’ - Antonio
- should be clean, precious water everywhere
‘in general, but if’t…’
‘in general, but if’t chance/ Some cursed example poison’t near the head,/ Death and diseases through the whole land spread.’ - Antonio
- if the water is corrupted at its source, the whole of it is
Antonio’s metaphor for corrupting in court
- he compares the system to a ‘common fountain’ through which there should be clean, precious water everywhere (‘pure silver drops in general’)
- if there is ‘poison’ ‘near the head’ then the whole thing becomes corrupted (if the court is corrupt then the whole thing is)
‘But a most…’
‘But a most provident council, who dare freely/ Inform him the corruption of the times?’ - Antonio
- replace the blind followers (‘flattering sycophants’) with those who will be honest and stand up to those in power
how would a Jacobean audience respond to Antonio’s speech vs a modern audience (4-22)? - key points to note
- criticism wouldn’t be so openly received
- monarchy vs government (appointed by God)
- distance between state and people
- religion - corruption and hell
- censoring criticism (advisors and parties)
- fountain metaphor (one person responsible for corruption)
- implied criticism of James I
‘Here comes…’
‘Here comes Bosola,/ The only court-gall.’ - Antonio
- an irritant to the court
- someone who chafes and criticises the court
- he is a malcontent
‘Yet I observe…’
‘Yet I observe his railing/ Is not for simple love of piety’ - Antonio about Bosola
- abusing everyone basically
Machiavellian
- cunningness
- the Cardinal
the Cardinal’s entrance to 1:1
- ‘Here’s the Cardinal’
- dramatic
- he embodies what they have been talking about (corruption)
Malcontent
- Bosola
- often appeared in early modern drama
- discontented with the social structure
- often an outsider who observes and comments on the action
- may even acknowledge they are in a play
- unhappy, unsettled, displeased with the world of the play, eager to change or dispute with it
- also Hamlet
‘I have done you…’
‘I have done you/ Better service than to be slighted thus’ - Bosola to Cardinal
- C is ignoring him after hiring B to kill someone and B serving 2 years in prison
‘Miserable age, where…’
‘Miserable age, where only the reward/ Of doing well is the doing of it.’ - Bosola
- gets ignored for going to the ‘galleys’ in ‘service’ of the Cardinal
‘I fell into the…’
‘I fell into the galleys in your service, where for two years together I wore two towels instead of a shirt’ - Bosola to C
- bullies Cardinal, makes him face it
- went to prison for doing a job (murder) for C
- honest about his past
‘slighted thus’
repeated by Bosola, he is indignated and bitter
‘Would you could…’
‘Would you could become honest.’ - C to B
- “i’ll only deal with you if you polish up your image”
- wants to keep a clean image
‘With all your…’
‘With all your divinity, do but direct me the way to it.’ - Bosola to C
- sarcasm, no respect for the Cardinal
- calling him out on his corruption
‘I have known too many…’
‘I have known too many travel far for it and yet return as arrant knaves as they went forth because they carried themselves always along with them.’ - B to C
- some don’t change through divinity
‘this great fellow were able to…’
‘this great fellow were able to possess the greatest devil and make him worse.’ - Bosola about the Cardinal
- ties to Antonio later when he says ‘the devil speaks in [the Cardinal’s lips]’
‘I knew this fellow…’
‘I knew this fellow seven years in the galleys/ For a notorious murder, and ‘twas thought/ The Cardinal suborned it.’ - Delio about Bosola
- hints of corruption, is aware of the Cardinal
- the ‘seven years’ does not necessarily contradict Bosola’s ‘for two years’ (perhaps B only served 2 of a 7 year sentence)
'’Tis great…’
'’Tis great pity/ He should be thus neglected. I have heard/ He’s very valiant.’ - Antonio about Bosola
- ironic, they are overlooking the corruption they just spoke about
- A is positive about Bosola (‘very valiant’ ‘his goodness’)
‘This foul…’
‘This foul melancholy/ Will poison all his goodness’ - A about B
- Bosola has ‘goodness’
- overlooks his actions (murder, prison)
‘It then doth follow…’
‘It then doth follow want of action/ Breeds all black malcontents’ - A about B
- modern idea that society has made him this way
‘He and his brother are…’
‘He and his brother are like plum trees that grow crooked over standing pools.’ - Bosola
- talking about Ferdinand and the Cardinal
- ‘plum trees’ - resentment, sourness, richness, privilege and wealth - purple = royalty and the church
- ‘crooked’ - something “wrong”
- ‘standing pools’ - links to Tantalus later
‘They are rich and…’
‘They are rich and o’erladen with fruit, but none but crows, pies and caterpillars feed on them.’ - Bosola
- idea of waste and disparity
- ‘rich and o’erladen’ links to the ‘plum tree’ metaphor
- ‘crows, pies and caterpillars’ crows and magpies are scavengers so this is a negative portrayal (links to the ‘flattering’ courtiers)
‘Could I be one of…’
‘Could I be one of their flattering panders, I would hang on their ears like a horse leech till I were full, and then drop off.’ - Bosola
- ‘flattering panders’ refers to the ‘flattering sycophants’ aka courtiers that Antonio talks about earlier
- ‘horse leech’ ties to the ‘crows, pies and caterpillars’ and begs the questions what is their transaction? Are they using him (like it appears to be) or is he using them like ‘leech’ suggests
‘Who would rely upon these…’
‘Who would rely on these miserable dependencies in expectation to be advanced tomorrow?’ - Bosola
- no point expecting reward (resentment of the Cardinal)
‘What creature ever fed…’
‘What creature ever fed worse than hoping Tantalus?’ - Bosola
- Tantalus was punished by being placed in a pool with a fruit tree just out of reach (he could neither eat or drink)
= so good but out of reach
= ‘plum trees’ ‘standing pool’
= tantalising
‘There are rewards for…’
‘There are rewards for hawks and dogs when they have done us service, but, for a soldier that hazards his limbs in a battle, nothing’ - Bosola
- ‘rewards’ - is stuck on the Cardinal thing
- sees himself as this wounded war hero
‘but, for a soldier that… nothing but a kind of…’
‘but, for a soldier that hazards his limbs in battle, nothing but a kind of geometry is his last supportation.’ - Bosola
- all he can hope for is a crutch ‘(honourable pair of crutches’ or sling ‘fair pair of slings’)
