Duchess 2:4 Flashcards
relevance of Rome/Catholicism in 2:4
- the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church
- the Cardinal, as a Catholic priest, should be celibate and unmarried
- Protestant England audiences enjoyed depictions of Catholic priests as immoral monsters, particularly after the 1605 Gunpowder Plot (Fawkes was Catholic)
‘Prithee tell me/ What…’
‘Prithee tell me/ What trick didst thou invent to come to Rome/ Without thy husband?’ - Cardinal
- theme of deceit continues, corruption everywhere (‘witty, false one’)
‘Why, my lord, I told him…’
‘Why, my lord, I told him/ I cam to visit an old anchorite/ Here, for devotion.’ - Julia
- first time we have heard her speak
- told her husband she came to see a nun so that he would let her go alone
‘Thou art a witty…’
‘Thou art a witty, false one -/ I mean, to him!’ - Cardinal
‘You have prevailed with me/ Beyond…’
‘You have prevailed with me/ Beyond my strongest thoughts. I would not now/ Find you inconstant.’ - Julia
- in the past she thought he wouldn’t stick around, tentative criticism
‘Do not put thyself/ To such a…’
‘Do not put thyself/ To such a voluntary torture, which proceeds/ Out of your own guilt.’ - Cardinal
‘You fear my constancy because you have approved/ Those giddy and wild turnings in yourself.’ - C
- worried about him being unfaithful and ‘inconstant’ because she isn’t
- her responses get shorter from these accusations: ‘How, my lord?’ ‘So, my lord!’ (Cardinal controls convo, she is sort of an object - falconry metaphor)
‘Sooth, generally for…’
‘Sooth, generally for women/ A man might strive to make glass maleable/ Ere he should make them fixed.’ - Cardinal
- misogyny
- more likely to bend glass than find a constant woman, goes on to say you need a telescope to find one (‘go borrow that fantastic glass’)
- Julia barely replies: ‘So, my lord!’
‘We had need go borrow that…’
‘We had need go borrow that fantastic glass/ Invented by Galileo, the Florentine,/ To view another spacious world i’th’moon,/ And look to find a constant woman there.’ - Cardinal
- need a telescope to look to another world to find a constant woman
critic assessment of Julia-Cardinal relationship
- contrasts the Duchess and Antonio (inverted dynamic)
- A and D can challenge each other
- C and J are much less balanced
what is Julia’s reaction to the Cardinal’s misogynistic comments?
- her sentences get shorter: ‘How, my lord?’ ‘So, my lord!’
- she cries: ‘[Weeping] This is very well, my lord.’
‘Why do you weep?/ Are…’
‘Why do you weep?/ Are tears your justification?’ - Cardinal
- suggesting she hopes to be forgiven because of her tears not action
- protestant ideas of ‘justification by faith alone’ ie. that a sinner can be redeemed by faith not good words or actions
‘The self-same tears/ Will…’
‘The self-same tears/ Will fall into your husband’s bosom, lady,/ With a loud protestation that you love him/ Above the world.’ - Cardinal
‘You cannot me…’
‘You cannot me make cuckhold.’ - Cardinal to Julia
‘You may thank me, lady…’
‘You may thank me, lady./ I have taken you off your melancholy perch,/ Bore you upon my fist, and showed you game,/ And let you fly at it.’ - Cardinal
- controlling
- falconry imagery (the idea of her as an object)
- ‘showed you game’ - opened opportunities for her
‘I pray thee…’
‘I pray thee, kiss me.’ - Cardinal
- ordering Julia around
‘When you east with thy…’
‘When you wast with thy husband, thou wast watched/ Like a tame elephant.’ - Cardinal
- she was an accessory (arguably the idea of her as the Cardinal’s falcon has a similar suggestion
‘Thou hadst only kisses…’
‘Thou hadst only kisses from him and high feeding/ But what delight was that? ‘Twas just like one/ That hath a little fingering on the lute,/ Yet cannot tune it.’ - Cardinal
- Castruccio has stimulated Julia’s appetites bu cannot satisfty them
what phrase does the Cardinal repeat in his interaction with Julia in 2:4?
‘You may thank me’ ‘Still, you are to thank me’ ‘Still, you are to thank me’
- he seems to feel that he has done julia a favour of sorts
‘Rest firm - for my…’
‘Rest firm - for my affection to thee,/ Lightning moves slow to’t.’ - Cardinal
- saying his passion for julia is great, a sort of half-hearted reassurance now someone else has arrived
‘Your husband, old…’
‘Your husband, old Castruccio, is come to Rome’ - Servant
‘Signior Delio…’
‘Signior Delio? [Aside] ‘Tis one of my old suitors.’ - Julia
- slight explains his following behaviour (asking her to be his mistress) however we still see a very different side to Delio to the confidant
‘Do you…’
‘Do you lie here?’ - Delio
- asking Julia either whether she is lodging there or whether she lies in saying that he is ‘welcome’
‘Our Roman prelates…’
‘Our Roman prelates/ Do not keep lodging for ladies.’ - Julia
- explaining her presence in the Cardinal’s palace
‘I never knew man and…’
‘I never knew man and beast, of a horse and a knight,/ So weary of each other.’ - Delio
- presenting this humorous image of Castruccio
