Duchess 3:1

Question 1

Stanley vs Ferdinand

Answer 1

• both unpredictable (Scene 10 Streetcar)
  > switch between strong emotions
  > stanley seems to have a level of reasoning that Ferdinand doesn’t
• sexual power and intimidation

Question 2

‘Oh, you have been a…’

Answer 2

‘Oh, you have been a stranger long at court./ Cane you along with the Lord Ferdinand?’ - Antonio to Delio
- around a two to three year time gap between the last and this scene
- does this mean that Antonio no longer trusts Delio? Why is he so close with Ferdinand?

Question 3

‘Since you last…’

Answer 3

‘Since you last saw her,/ She hath had two children more: a son and a daughter.’ - Antonio
- does Ferdinand know about them?

Question 4

‘Methinks ‘twas…’

Answer 4

‘Methinks ‘twas yesterday […] It were within this half hour.’ - Delio
- meta-theatre jokes about time illusions (for the audience it literally has been ‘within this half hour’

Question 5

‘The Lord Ferdinand that’s…’

Answer 5

‘The Lord Ferdinand that’s newly come to court/ Doth bear himself right dangerously.’ - Antonio

Question 6

‘He is so quiet that…’

Answer 6

‘He is so quiet that he seems to sleep/ The tempest out as dormice do in winter./ Those houses that are haunted are most still’ - Antonio
- ‘like a politic dormouse’ - F to Bosola

Question 7

‘The common rabble do directly…’

Answer 7

‘The common rabble do directly say/ She is a strumpet.’ - Antonio
- this is also Ferdinand thinks (as we have seen), Antonio doesn’t seem to care

Question 8

‘They do observe I…’

Answer 8

‘They do observe I grow to infinite purchase/ The left-hand way, and all suppose the Duchess/ Would amend it if she could.’ - Antonio
- others think that Antonio is corrupt and that the Duchess doesn’t know

Question 9

‘Of love or…’

Answer 9

‘Of love or marriage between her and me,/ They never dream of.’ - Antonio
- satisfaction? pride? superiority?

Question 10

‘I am to bespeak…’

Answer 10

‘I am to bespeak/ A husband for you. […] The great Count Malateste.’ - F to the Duchess
- change since earlier (the 2-3 year gap)
- dramatic irony because we know she already has a husband and married not ‘for [Ferdinand’s] honour’

Question 11

‘A count? He’s a mere…’

Answer 11

‘A count? He’s a mere stick of sugar candy -/ You may look quite through him! When I choose/ A husband, I will marry for your honour.’ - Duchess
- suggesting that the man is shallow with nothing to him, she is not satisfied by just appearance
- ‘A count?’ feels almost incredulous as if she can’t believe Ferdinand suggested she marry someone beneath her
- ‘I will marry for your honour’ is ironic given she didn’t marry anyone who could add to her family’s status (alternatively she could mean a modern understanding of honour as in a good, honourable person)

Question 12

Ferdinand’s response to the Duchess’ rejection of the husband he proposed for her

Answer 12

‘You shall do well in’t.’ - F
- could be dismissive or respectful, likely to be a cover-up for his real feelings given his later comments in this scene (‘Her guilt treads on/ Hot burning coulters.’)

Question 13

‘But, sir, I am to have private…’

Answer 13

‘But, sir, I am to have private conference with you/ About a scandalous report is spread/ Touching mine honour.’ - Duchess
- ‘Let me be ever deaf to’t-‘ - F

Question 14

‘Let me be…’

Answer 14

‘Let me be ever deaf to’t […] my fixed love/ Would strongly excuse, extenuate - nay, deny -/ Fault were they apparent in you.’ - Ferdinand
- is he pretending not to care about her reputation or has he - in his love for her - genuinely forgotten?

Question 15

‘Go! Be safe…’

Answer 15

‘Go! Be safe/ In your own innocency.’ - Ferdinand
- ironic given she is not safe and he definitely doesn’t think she is innocent

Question 16

‘Oh, blessed…’

Answer 16

‘Oh, blessed comfort./ This deadly air is purged.’ - Duchess
- relief at Ferdinand’s dismissal of her reputation

Question 17

‘Her guilt treads…’

Answer 17

‘Her guilt treads on/ Hot burning coulters.’ - Ferdinand once he is alone with Bosola
- women suspected of adultery were made to walk upon heated ploughshares. If they sustained no injury, they were deemed innocent

Question 18

'’Tis rumoured she hath…’

Answer 18

'’Tis rumoured she hath had three bastards, but/ By whom we may go read i’th’stars.’ - Bosola to F
- they still don’t know who the father of the Duchess’ children is

Question 19

‘I do suspect there hath…’

Answer 19

‘I do suspect that hath been some sorcery/ Used on the Duchess. […] To make her dote on some desertless fellow/ She shames to acknowledge.’ - Bosola
- reasonably accurate, surprising to the audience that Bosola should be the one to believe in witchcraft rather than Ferdinand who may have more reason to deny the Duchess’ faults (maybe Ferdinand does want to blame the Duchess)

Question 20

‘These are mere…’

Answer 20

‘There are mere gulleries, horrid things/ Invented by some cheating mountebanks/ To abuse us.’ - Ferdinand
- interesting that Ferdinand is more rational than Bosola when it comes to ‘sorcery’
- perhaps Ferdinand actively wants to blame the duchess

Question 21

‘The witchcraft…’

Answer 21

‘The witchcraft lies in her rank blood.’ - Ferdinand
- it is her lustful nature rather than magic

Question 22

‘This night/ I will force…’

Answer 22

‘This night/ I will force confession from her. You told me/ You had got […] a false key/ Into her bedchamber.’ - Ferdinand
- frightening notion, what is he going to do?? (won’t tell Bosola)

Question 23

‘He that can compass…’

Answer 23

‘He that can compass me and know my drifts/ May say he hath put a girdle ‘bout the world/ And sounded al her quicksands.’ - Ferdinand
- impossible to know Ferdinand and what he is about to do

Question 24

‘That you are/ Your own…’

Answer 24

‘That you are/ Your own chronicle too much, and grossly/ Flatter yourself.’ - Bosola
- blunt and honest, makes us like him more
- saying that Ferdinand is too interested in himself, weirdly this doesn’t seem to offend F (‘Give me thy hand. I thank thee.’)

Question 25

‘Give me thy hand. I thank thee./ I never gave…’

Answer 25

‘Give me thy hand. I thank thee./ I never gave pension but to flatterers/ Till I entertained thee.’ - Ferdinand in response to Bosola’s comment that Ferdinand ‘grossly’ flatters himself

Question 26

‘That friend a great…’

Answer 26

‘That friend a great man’s ruin strongly checks,/ Who rails into his belief all his defects.’ - Ferdinand
- a friend who is able to convince an important man of his faults can prevent that man’s downfall