Duchess 1:2 Flashcards
Delio and Antonio talking vs when Ferdinand joins
- Delio and Antonio speak in blank verse
- When Ferdinand enters it switches to prose
- Antonio has an innate stature that F doesn’t
double entendre
a word or phrase with two interpretations (one is often indecent)
- Ferdinand’s conversation in 1:2
‘Who took the ring oftenest?’
‘Who took the ring oftenest?’ - Ferdinand
- jousting
- female genitalia
- duchess gives Antonio her ring
- the duchess is strangled with a “ring” of rope
‘Our sister Duchess’s great…’
‘Our sister Duchess’s great master of her household? Give him the jewel.’ - Ferdinand about Antonio
- ‘the jewel’ - prize for jousting but also symbolises the Duchess
‘When shall we leave this sportive…’
‘When shall we leave this sportive action and fall to action indeed?’ - Ferdinand
- ‘fall to action’ = sex
Castruccio
- his name means ‘castrated’
- he is an older man, he doesn’t get their double entendre jokes so they are able to make fun of him
- married to Julia (who they all know is sleeping with the Cardinal)
- gives serious advice (‘Methinks, my lord, you should not desire to go to war in person.’)
‘Thou toldst me thy…’
‘Thou toldst me thy wife could not endure fighting.’ - Ferdinand to Castruccio
- ‘thy wife’ is Julia
- ‘fighting’ refers to sexual encounters
‘all the surgeons o’ the city’
‘all the surgeons o’ the city’ - Ferdinand
- Julia is well known
‘and had drawn their…’
‘and had drawn their weapons and were ready to go to it, yet her persuasions would make them put up.’ - Ferdinand about Julia
- implying she is promiscuous (‘persuasions’)
- ‘make them put up’ refers to sex
‘That she would, my lord.’
‘That she would, my lord.’ - Castruccio (completely unaware of what they were insinuating about his wife)
‘How do you like my…’
‘How do you like my Spanish Jennet?’ - don’t know whether this was said by Ferdinand or Castruccio, needs to be checked with exam board
‘Why do you laugh? Methinks you that…’
‘Why do you laugh? Methinks you that are courtiers should be my touchwood, take fire when I give fire, that is, laugh when I laugh were the subject never so witty.’ - Ferdinand
- control, intimidation, hierarchy
- suddenly stops the joke
- his sexual awareness seems more private and dangerous
‘True, my lord. I myself have heard a very good jest’
‘True, my lord. I myself have heard a very good jest’ - Castruccio
- smooths over and diffuses the situation with Ferdinand
- experienced courtier
Antonio when addressed by Ferdinand
- doesn’t say what F wants
- isn’t trying to flatter like the others
- doesn’t play himself down
- ‘so, out of brave horsemanship, arise the first sparks of growing resolution that raise the mind to noble action.’ - Antonio
‘so, out of brave horsemanship…’
‘so, out of brave horsemanship, arise the first sparks of growing resolution that raise the mind to noble action.’ - Antonio
- doesn’t say what F wants or play himself down
- “being good at riding is the first step to becoming noble”
Duchess’ entrance in 1:2
- silent for 60 lines (just stands on stage observing)
- watchful
- it makes what she says more noticeable
- gives A and D time to introduce the characters she enters with (chaperoned
- fulfils her role as a woman in a man’s world - even though she is powerful
- says very little (mundane after A’s monologue, meek)
What do Delio and Antonio say about the Cardinal?
- ‘will play his five thousand crowns at tennis, dance,/ Court ladies’ - Delio
- ‘melancholy churchman’ - A
- ‘The spring in his face is nothing but the engendering of toads’ - A
- ‘bestow bribes so largely and so impudently as if he would have carried it away without heaven’s knowledge’ - A
- ‘He speaks with others’ tongues and hears men’s suits/ With others’ ears’ - A
- ‘Then the law to him/ Is like a foul black cobweb to a spider./ He makes it his dwelling and a prison/ To entangle those shall field him.’ - D
- ‘oracles/ Hang at his lips’ ‘For the devil speaks in them’ - A
‘Will play his five…’
‘Will play his five thousand crowns at tennis, dance,/ Court ladies’ - Delio about the Cardinal
- not very religious things
- outward appearance/social demeanour
‘but observe his inward…’
‘but observe his inward character. He is a melancholy churchman.’ - Antonio about the Cardinal
‘The spring in his face…’
‘The spring in his face is nothing but the engendering of toads.’ - Antonio about the Cardinal
- the Cardinals appearance is a cover for his underhand plots and deception
‘He should have been…’
‘He should have been Pope, but instead of coming to it by the primitive decency of the church he did bestow bribes so largely and so impudently as if he would have carried it away without heaven’s knowledge.’ - A about the Cardinal
- instead of adhering to the Church’s original moral tenets, he corrupted the process by giving out such preposterous bribes that is seemed he thought God had no say in the matter
- thought he could get away with it
‘He speaks with…’
‘He speaks with others’ tongues and hears men’s suits/ With others’ ears’ - Antonio about the Cardinal
‘Then the law to him..’
‘Then the law to him/ Is like a foul black cobweb to a spider./ He makes it his dwelling and a prison/ To entangle those shall feed him.’ - Delio about the Cardinal
- this spider idea will become a continued association
- uses the law to trap others
‘They that do flatter him…’
‘They that do flatter him most say oracles/ Hang at his lips and, verily, I believed them,/ For the devil speaks in them.’ - Antonio about the Cardinal
- A’s suggestion that the Cardinal’s oracular ability is demonic therefore doubly underlines the churchman’s fall away from Christian values
- ties to earlier where Bosola says C ‘were able to possess the greatest devil and make him worse’
‘But for their sister…’
‘But for their sister, the right noble Duchess,/ You never fixed your eye on three fair medals/ Cast in one figure of so different temper.’ - Antonio
- three coins cast from the same original with such different characters
‘For her discourse…’
‘For her discourse, it is so full of rapture’ - Antonio
- utterly besotted with the Duchess
‘You only will begin to be…’
‘You only will begin then to be sorry/ When she doth end her speech, and wish in wonder/ She held it less vainglory to talk much/ Than your penance to hear her.’ - Antonio about the Duchess
- You will only begin to be sorry when she ends her speech and you wish she held talking too much as less vain
‘She throws upon a man…’
‘She throws upon a man so sweet a look/ That it were able raise one to a galliard/ That lay in a dead palsy’ - Antonio about the Duchess
‘But in that look…’
‘But in that look/ There speaketh so divine a continence/ As cuts off all lascivious and vain hope.’ - Antonio about Duchess
- there is something so inherently divine about her that you can’t woo her
- you worship her not court her
‘Her days are so practiced…’
‘Her days are so practiced in such noble virtue/ That sure her nights - nay more, her very sleeps -/ Are more in heaven that other ladies’ shrifts.’ - Antonio about the Duchess
- more virtuous when she is asleep than other women when they are confessing
‘Let all sweet…’
‘Let all sweet ladies break their flattering glasses/ And dress themselves in her.’ - Antonio about the Duchess
- let them look to her rather than a mirror
- imitate her
‘You play the…’
‘You play the wire-drawer with her commendations!’ - Delio to A about Duchess
- drawing out his praise of the Duchess
‘A gentleman here…’
‘A gentleman here, Daniel de Bosola -/ One that was in the galleys -‘ - F to Duchess
- Duchess neglects this to employ him on F’s recommendation (noble, forgiving or meek, overrides her own morality)
‘A worthy fellow he…’
‘A worthy fellow he is. Pray, let me entreat for/ The provisorship of your horse.’ - F to D about Bosola
- give him this job (to look after her horse) - a job normally given to the queen’s favourite
‘Be sure you entertain that…’
‘Be sure you entertain that Bosola/ For your intelligence. I would not be seen in’t’ - Cardinal to F
- “employ Bosola as a spy and keep my name out of it”
- effectively admits to trying to keep his name clean
- corruption (‘entertain’ ‘for your intelligence’)
‘Antonio, the great…’
‘Antonio, the great master of her household, Had been far fitter.’ - Ferdinand
- more appropriate a spy
- dramatic irony (could not be more wrong given the monologue we have just heard)
‘I was… you’ - Bosola
‘I was lured to you’ - Bosola to Ferdinand
- falconry
- summoned like a trained hawk
- dependence, obedience, will be controlled by F
what is Bosola’s reply after F gives him the money
- F gives B the money BEFORE telling him what he has to do
- ‘What follows?’ ‘Whose throat must I cut?’
- automatic assumption, recognition of who he is
‘Your inclination to…’
‘Your inclination to shed blood rides post/ Before my occasion to use you.’ - Ferdinand to Bosola after his ‘Whose throat must I cut?’ comment
- makes fun of Bosola’s assumption
- note the ‘use you’
‘I give you that/ To…’
‘I give you that/ To live i’ th’ court here and observe the Duchess’ - F to B
- wants him to act as a spy (corruption)