Duchess 3:5 Flashcards
‘Is all our train…’
‘Is all our train/ Shrunk to this poor remainder?’ - Duchess
- emphasising their fall and new lack of luxury
‘These poor men,/ Which have got little…’
‘These poor men,/ Which have got little in your service, vow/ To take your fortune, but your wiser buntings,/ Now they are fledged, are gone.’ - Antonio
- the men left helping them have little to gain but stay and suffer with her
- the ‘wiser’ servants however have gone/abandoned the Duchess
‘This puts me in mind…’
‘This puts me in mind of death.’ - Duchess
‘Right the fashion of…’
‘Right the fashion of the world:/ From decayed fortnes, every flatterer shrinks:/ Men cease to build where the foundation sinks.’ - Antonio
- flatterers abandon when someone can no longer benefit them
- critical of the court, reminiscent of Bosola
‘Methought I wore my coronet…’
‘Methought I wore my coronet of state/ And on a sudden all the diamonds/ Were changed to pearls.’ - Duchess
- recounting a ‘very strange dream’ she had
- symbolising the loss of rank and status
- a ‘coronet’ is a crown-like ornament
‘My interpretation/ Is you’ll…’
‘My interpretation/ Is you’ll weep shortly, for to me the pearls/ Do signify your tears.’ - Antonio
‘The birds that live i’th’field…’
‘The birds that live i’th’field/ […] live/ Happier than we, for they may choose their mates’ - Duchess
- emphasises her lack of freedom
‘Thou dost blanch mischief…’
‘Thou dost blanch mischief;/ Wouldst make it white. See, see! Like to calm weather/ At sea before a tempest, false hearts speak fair/ To those they intend most mischief.’ - Duchess to Bosola when he says he has a letter from Ferdinand (and speaks positively about him/it)
- hiding true intentions, misleading
‘[Reads] ‘Send Antonio to…’
‘[Reads] ‘Send Antonio to me. I want his head in business.’/ A politic equivocation!/ He doth not want your counsel, but your head’ - Duchess (reading Ferdinand’s letter)
- multiple meanings
‘He doth not want your…’
‘He doth not want your counsel, but your head -/ That is, he cannot sleep till you be dead.’ - Duchess (about Ferdinand)
‘[Reads] ‘I stand engaged for your…’
‘[Reads] ‘I stand engaged for your husband for several debts at Naples. Let not that trouble him. I had rather have his heart than his money.’/ - And I believe so, too!’ - Duchess
- Ferdinand uses the Duchess’ lie
- ‘rather his heart’ - rather have Antonio’s love than payment (OR wants his heart AKA him dead)
‘That he so much distrusts…’
‘That he so much distrusts my husbands love,/ He will by no means believe his heart is with him/ Until he sees it.’ - Duchess
- Ferdinand won’t trust Antonio’s loyalty to him until he has physically seen his heart (again alt. meaning of Antonio being dead)
‘Will you reject that noble…’
‘Will you reject that noble and free league/ OF amity and love which I present you?’ - Bosola
- clearly suggesting that Ferdinand’s letter is positive, trying to manipulate the Duchess into sending Antonio to him
‘Their league is like that of some…’
‘Their league is like that of some politic kings -/ Only to make themselves of strength and power/ To be our after-ruin.’ - Duchess
‘Thus, tell him - I…’
Thus, tell him - I will not come.’ - Antonio
‘And what of this…’
‘And what of this? [Gestures to the letter]’ - Bosola
- surprise that the Duchess doesn’t believe Ferdinand’s letter
‘My brothers have dispersed…’
‘My brothers have dispersed/ Bloodhounds abroad, which, till I hear are muzzled […] I’ll not come at them.’ - Antonio
- the Duchess and Antonio are being hunted
‘This proclaims your breeding…’
‘This proclaims your breeding!/ Every small thing draws a base mind to fear’ - Bosola
- quick change from 3:2 where he praised Antonio, clearly all fake
- frustrating at the Duchess and Antonio’s rejection
‘Let us not venture all…’
‘Let us not venture all this poor remainder/ In one unlucky bottom.’ - Duchess
- not travel in one group so the don’t all sink
‘Best of my life…’
‘Best of my life, farewell. Since we must part,/ Heaven hath a hand in’t’ - Antonio
‘I know not which is…’
‘I know not which is best -/ To see you dead or part with you.’ - Duchess
‘Thou art happy that thou hast…’
‘Thou art happy that thou hast not understanding/ To know thy misery, for all our wit/ And reading brings us to a truer sense/ Of sorrow.’ - Duchess to her son
- he is lucky to not understand as he doesn’t feel the sorrow that the Duchess does
‘In the eternal church, sir…’
‘In the eternal church, sir,/ I do hope we shall not part thus.’ - Duchess
‘Make patience a noble…’
‘Make patience a noble fortitude/ And think not how unkindly we are used:/ ‘Man, like to cassia, is proved best being bruised’.’ - Antonio
- men are proven as virtuous and good when put through tough time
‘Must I, like to a slave-born…’
‘Must I, like to a slave-born Russian,/ Account it praise to suffer tyranny?’ - Duchess
- take value in/be glad of their torture
‘Heaven fashioned us of nothing and…’
‘Heaven fashioned us of nothing and we strive/ To bring ourselves to nothing.’ - Antonio
- reference to a poem written by John Donne in 1611
‘[To Duchess] If I do never see thee..’
‘[To Duchess] If I do never see thee more,/ Be a good mother to your little ones/ And save them from the tiger. Fare you well.’ - Antonio
- sorrowful ending
‘Let me look upon you…’
‘Let me look upon you once more, for that speech/ Came from a dying father.’ - Duchess
‘[They kiss] Your kiss is colder…’
‘[They kiss] Your kiss is colder/ Than that I have seen an holy anchorite/ Give to a dead man’s skull.’ - Duchess
- sad parallel to: ‘I’ll stop your mouth’ ‘I must have another’ (3:2)
- ‘dead man’s skull’ - it’s as if he is dead already
- this is the last thing she says to him, she now enters a darker phase in which she has no comfort
parallels between 3:5 and 3:2
- the kissing: ‘Your kiss is colder’ vs ‘I’ll stop your mouth’ ‘I must have another’
- starts domestic but is interrupted by Ferdinand (granted by his letter in 3:5 rather than him physically)
- tenser more abrupt convo than most of 3:2
‘My heart is turned to a heavy…’
‘My heart is turned to a heavy lump of lead/ With which I sound my danger. Fare you well.’ - Antonio
- the last words spoken between the couple
‘My laurel is…’
‘My laurel is all withered.’ - Duchess
- just after Antonio exits
- victorious roman generals were crowned with laurel wreaths, an emblem of good fame - it’s withering was supposedly an omen of death/evil
- her recognising her fate, perhaps acceptance
- could also signal the death of a monarch
‘Enter Bosola with a…’
‘Enter Bosola with a guard [of soldiers, all wearing vizards]’ - SD
- menacing, threatening, ideas of secrecy/torment
‘When Fortune’s wheel is overcharged…’
‘When Fortune’s wheel is overcharged with princes,/ The weight makes it move swift. I would have my ruin/ Be sudden.’ - Duchess
- changing, fluctuating fates (high then low and back again)
‘You must see your…’
‘You must see your husband no more.’ - Bosola
- ironic given their recent farewell
- perhaps implies a sense of the Duchess giving in to what the brothers want
‘What devil art thou that…’
‘What devil art thou that counterfeits heaven’s thunder?’ - Duchess to Bosola
- huge numbers of soldiers, false power?
‘Whether is that note worse that…’
‘Whether is that note worse that frights the silly birds/ Out of the corn, or that which doth allure them/ To the nets? You have harkened to the last too much.’ - Bosola
- ‘silly birds’ - defenceless (the Duchess)
‘Come - to what…’
‘To…’
‘Whither…’
‘To…’
‘Come - to what prison?’ - Duchess
‘To none.’ - Bosola
‘Whither, then?’ - D
‘To your palace.’ - B
‘I have heard that Charon’s…’
‘I have heard that Charon’s boat serves to convey/ All o’er the dismal lake, but brings none back again.’ - Duchess
- ‘Charon’ (in Greek mythology) was the ferryman of the River Styx in the Underworld
- suggesting that if she goes with Bosola ‘To [her] palace’, she will not return
‘Your brothers mean you…’
‘Pity? With such a pity…’
‘Your brothers mean you safety and pity.’ - Bosola
‘Pity? With such a pity men preserve alive/ Pheasants and quails when they are not fat enough to be eaten.’ - Duchess
- death still hangs over them (and her)
- will kill these birds when the benefits are greater (likewise with the Duchess?)
‘But I intend, since they were…’
‘But I intend, since they were born accursed,/ Curses shall be their first language.’ - Duchess (about her kids)
‘Forget this base…’
‘Were I a…’
‘Forget this base, low fellow -‘ - Bosola
‘Were I a man,/ I’d beat that counterfeit face into thy other!’ - Duchess
- her physical limitations
- expression of her love and protectiveness
‘Man is most happy when’s…’
‘A barren…’
‘Man is most happy when’s own actions/ Be arguments and examples of his virtue.’ - Duchess
‘A barren, beggerly virtue.’ - Bosola
‘Why art thou so bold…’
‘Why art thou so bold/ To mix thyself with our high state of floods,/ Being no eminent courtier’ - the dog-fish
(the Duchess’ parable)
‘Our value can never be truly…’
‘Our value can never be truly known/ Till in the fisher’s basket we be shown./ I’th’market, then, my price may be the higher,/ Even when I am nearest to the cook and fire’ - Salmon
(The Duchess’ parable)
- value isn’t always obvious
- reference to Antonio’s judgement in the afterlife
'’Men are oft valued…’
'’Men are oft valued high, when th’are most wretched.’’ - Duchess
- value isn’t always what is seems eg. the Duchess’ brothers are valued due to their class
‘There’s no deep…’
‘There’s no deep valley, but near some great hill.’ - Duchess
the Duchess’ parable at the end of 3:5
- a ‘salmon’ and ‘dog-fish’
- theme of social class: the salmon is lowly when travelling from river to ocean but may be valued more at market
- ‘Why art thou so bold/ To mix thyself with our high state of floods,/ Being no eminent courtier’ - the dog-fish
- ‘Our value can never be truly known/ Till in the fisher’s basket we be shown./ I’th’market, then, my price may be the higher,/ Even when I am nearest to the cook and fire’ - Salmon
- '’Men are oft valued high, when th’are most wretched.’’
- value is not always what it seems eg. Ferdinand and the Cardinal being valued due to their class
‘The Duchess mars the end of a lovely and terrible..’
‘The Duchess mars the end of a lovely and terrible scene with a would-be funny moral tale […] there is a sort of pathetic suitability in the Duchess, half broken with sorrow, almost unconsciously babbling childish tales to her enemy’ - Rupert Brooke (1916)
- the parallel to Ferdinand
The Duchess’ parable ‘implies that good…’
The Duchess’ parable ‘implies that good fame cannot be discerned til death’ - Muriel Bradbrook, 1980
‘Her clear insult to Bosola in implying that…’
‘Her clear insult to Bosola in implying that he is a mere dogfish with temporary power […] os her last wry joke before the darkness of Act 4’ - Kathleen McLuskie, 1985
‘though offered as a defence of Antonio’s low…’
‘though offered as a defence of Antonio’s low birth [this parable] looks forward to her own death as the master day by which her life will be judged’ - Michael Niell (1997)
> explains her composure ahead of her death
> her and Antonio will be valued more in heaven
possible reasons for the Duchess’ parable at the end of 3:5?
- to send a message about social class and bring Bosola back down to earth
- to comfort her children who are still present for this part of the scene
- to criticise society’s emphasis on class and therefore on the valuing of her corrupt brothers
