Duchess 4:1 Flashcards
‘This is a pivotal…’
‘This is a pivotal scene in understanding the Duchess’ psyche’ - Monica Kendall
‘Nobly, I’ll describe her:/ She’s…’
‘Nobly, I’ll describe her:/ She’s sad as one long used to’t, and she seems/ Rather to welcome the end of misery/ Than shun it - a behaviour so noble’ - Bosola
- admiration of her composure, acceptance, and fortitude
how is 4:1 sometimes staged?
some productions place the Duchess in a small box, others imply she has lots of space
‘You may discern the shape of…’
‘You may discern the shape of loveliness/ More perfect in her tears than in her smiles’ - Bosola about the Duchess
- echoes Antonio’s monologue about the Duchess early in the play
‘her silence,/ Methinks…’
‘her silence,/ Methinks, expresseth more than if she spoke.’ - Bosola
‘Her melancholy seems to…’
‘Her melancholy seems to be fortified/ With a strange disdain.’ - Ferdinand
- contrasts with the negative (Bosola refuses to be intimidated, instead referring to her ‘restraint’)
‘why dost thou wrap thy…’
‘why dost thou wrap thy poisoned pills/ In gold and sugar?’ - Duchess
- accusatory - link to Bosola’s inconsistency/divided personality and betrayal
- ‘gold and sugar’ represent wealth, luxury, and status perhaps commenting on her castle being her prison
'’Cause once he rashly made…’
'’Cause once he rashly made a solemn vow/ Never to see you more - he comes i’th’night’ - Bosola to the Duchess
‘He will kiss your hand/ And…’
‘He will kiss your hand/ And reconcile himself, but, for his vow,/ He dares not see you.’ - Bosola
- sticking to his vow but not really the meaning behind it, arguably this action would suggest that he is no longer rejecting her (except for the trick)
‘[Exit Bosola and Servants…’
‘[Exit Bosola and Servants with lights]’
- darkened room
- the indoors Blackfriars theatre was never entirely dark and performances at the Globe took place in daytime so Webster is relying on his audience’s awareness of theatrical props and their conventions
‘This darkness…’
‘This darkness suits you well.’ - Ferdinand
- he’s got her where he wants her
- religious connotation of her sinfulness
‘For I account it the honorablest…’
‘For I account it the honorablest revenge/ Where I may kill, to pardon.’ - Ferdinand
- feels like he has the moral high ground, playing God
- oxymoron of honourable revenge
‘Where are your cubs?’
‘Where are your cubs?’ - Ferdinand
- animalistic, de-humanising suggestion of the Duchess
- implies she is just an animal bearing large litters
‘For though our national…’
‘For though our national law distinguish bastards/ From true legitimate issue, compassionate nature/ Makes them all equal.’ - Ferdinand
- rejecting her children (physical evidence of her sexuality)
‘You violate a sacrament…’
‘You violate a sacrament o’th’church/ Shall make you howl in hell for’t.’ - Duchess
- accusing him of disrespecting her legitimate marriage and in doing so disrespecting God
‘You were too much…’
‘You were too much i’th’light. But no more.’ - Ferdinand
- light-dark symbolism, the public vs private
- jealousy? wants to be more in the light or wants her out of it? (perhaps dislikes how he feels he shares her with the public)
- link to ‘This darkness suits you well.’
‘Here’s a hand/ To which you have…’
‘Here’s a hand/ To which you have vowed much love. The ring upon’t/ You gave.’ - Ferdinand
- double meaning: Antonio and Ferdinand (ambiguity)
- realistically she didn’t give the ring, it was taken
‘Gives her a dead…’
‘Gives her a dead man’s hand’
‘I will leave this ring with…’
‘I will leave this ring with you for a love token,/ And the hand, as sure as the ring.’ - Ferdinand
- the ‘ring’ has been a symbol of love and purity but is now corrupted by Ferdinand
‘do not doubt/ But you shall have…’
‘do not doubt/ But you shall have the heart, too. When you need a friend,/ Send it to him that owned it.’ - Ferdinand
- Antonio or Ferdinand? emphasising the idea that Antonio (if he is dead which he wants her to believe he is) cannot help her anymore
‘[kissing the…] You are…’
‘[kissing the hand] You are very cold./ I fear you are not well after your travel -/ Ha? - Lights! - Oh, horrible!’ - Duchess
- at this point she believes it to be Ferdinand’s hand, once she realises it is not, he wants her to believe it is Antonio’s
- horrifying
‘What witchcraft doth he…’
‘What witchcraft doth he practise that he hath left/ A dead man’s hand here?’ - Duchess
- sounds almost calm still at this point
- severed hands were reputedly used in witchcraft, also known as ‘hands of glory’ or ‘mains de gloire’ which is aurally associated with mandragora or mandrake root which has previously been connected to Ferdinand
- Ferdinand’s increasing obsession with the exhumation of corpses
‘Here is discovered behind a..’
‘Here is discovered behind a traverse the artificial figures of Antonio and his children, appearing as if they were dead.’ - SD
> wax figures that - at this point - both the Duchess and the audience believe to be real
‘now you know directly they are…’
‘now you know directly they are dead,/ Hereafter you may wisely cease to grieve/ For that which cannot be recovered.’ - Bosola
- Ferdinand’s attempt to disconnect Antonio and the Duchess
‘There is not between heaven and…’
‘There is not between heaven and earth one wish/ I stay for after this.’ - Duchess
- she’s now emotional, becoming more and more extreme in her speech from here onwards
- complete despair
‘If they would bind me to that…’
‘Come. You…’
‘If they would bind me to that lifeless trunk/ And let me freeze to death.’ - Duchess
‘Come. You must live.’ - Bosola (they probs didn’t expect this reaction from her)
- the image of a young woman tied to the prostrate body of a dead man was commonly used in to depict an unnatural marriage
- the duchess turns that image on its head to underline her deep love for Antonio
‘Come. You…’
‘That’s the greatest…’
‘Come. You must live.’ - Bosola
‘That’s the greatest torture souls feel in hell -/ In hell! - that they must live and cannot die.’ - Duchess
‘Portia, I’ll new-kindle thy…’
‘Portia, I’ll new-kindle thy coals again/ And revive the rare and almost-dead example/ Of a loving wife.’ - Duchess
- ‘Portia’ killed herself by eating hot coals after hearing of her husband’s death
‘Oh, fie! Despair?..’
‘Oh, fie! Despair? Remember/ You are a Christian.’ - Bosola
- a) she’s Christian so cannot kill herself and b) in Christian theology, despair could lead one to damnation since it implied a rejection of God’s salvific grace
‘Persuade a wretch that’s…’
‘Persuade a wretch that’s broke upon the wheel/ To have all his bones new set, entreat him live/ To be executed again.’ - Duchess
- keeping someone alive to torture them more
- an accusation of Bosola’s intentions but also a comment on ideas of hell and damnation (neverending torture, no relief of death)
‘Who must dispatch me?/ I account this…’
‘Who must dispatch me?/ I account this world a tedious theatre,/ For I do play a part in’t ‘gainst my will.’ - Duchess
- ‘must’ implies inevitability and a lack of denial
- she never had a choice - tragedy
- irony given she is just a character on a stage, metatheatre
- parallel between her and Bosola
Come, be of…’
‘Come, be of comfort; I will save your life.’ - Bosola
- genuine pity and care
- ultimately a lie since he kills her (however it could be argued that he saves her soul, as she was going to kill herself)
‘I am full of..’
‘I am full of daggers!/ Puff! Let me blow these vipers from me.’ - Duchess
- she is full of painful, poisonous feelings (her depth of emotion is almost suprising)
‘One that wishes…’
‘I would thou wert hanged…’
‘One that wishes you long life.’ - Servant
‘I would thou wert hanged for the horrible curse/ Thou hast given me!’ - Duchess
‘Let them, like tyrants..’
‘Let them, like tyrants,/ Never be remembered but for the ill they have done./ Let all the zealous prayers of mortified/ Churchmen forget them -‘ - Duchess
- deep hatred for her brothers
Go! Howl them…’
‘Go! Howl them this and say I long to bleed:/ ‘It is some mercy when men kill with speed’.’ - Duchess
‘Excellent! As I would…’
‘Excellent! As I would wish, she’s plagued in art.’ - Ferdinand
- stark contrast from the horrible exclamations of desperation for death from the Duchess, we get the impression he was watching all along
- in 1612, the son of King James died, and on his coffin for the state funeral was a wax figure of the son (maybe where he got the idea)
‘These presentations are but…’
‘These presentations are but framed in wax […] and she takes them/ For true substantial bodies.’ - Ferdinand
- first point the audience is aware of the falsehood, horrifying
- pride?
‘Why do you…’
‘To bring her…’
‘Why do you do this?’ - Bosola
‘To bring her to despair.’ - Ferdinand
- the plan isn’t to kill her
‘Faith! End here…’
‘Faith! End here/ And go no further in your cruelty.’ - Bosola
‘Damn her! That body of…’
‘Damn her! That body of hers,/ While that my blood ran pure in’t, was more worth/ Than that which thou wouldst comfort, called a soul.’ - Ferdinand
- very focused on her anatomy, v sexual ‘That body of hers’
‘remove forth the common…’
‘remove forth the common hospital/ All the mad folk and place them near her lodging’ - Ferdinand
‘Must I see…’
‘Yes.’
‘Never.’
‘You…’
‘Never in…’
‘Must I see her again?’ - Bosola
‘Yes.’ - Ferdinand
‘Never.’ - B
‘You must.’ - F
‘Never in mine own shape.’ - B
- Bosola previously had a very comfortable in the Duchess’ court for about 3 years
‘this last…’
‘this last cruel lie’ - Bosola
‘When you send me next…’
‘When you send me next,/ The business shall be comfort.’ - Bosola
- he means to comfort/relieve the Duchess’ distress
- but Ferdinand interprets it as meaning death - ‘Ver likely.’ and orders Antonio to kill him
- ultimately, Bosola will kill the Duchess (however it is arguably the comfort she desires)
‘Thy pity is nothing…’
‘Thy pity is nothing of kin to thee.’ - Ferdinand
- he doesn’t recognise pity as being like Bosola
‘And, ‘cause she’ll needs…’
‘And, ‘cause she’ll needs be mad’ - Ferdinand
- could mean: 1) she must be driven mad or 2) she insists on being mad (because she will not repent her marriage)
- ‘Ferdinand continues to conflate himself with his sister: if he is going insane, then he must also drive her insane’ - Marcus (2009)
'’Intemperate agues make…’
‘Intemperate agues make physicians cruel’.’ - Ferdinand
- a desperate disease must have a desperate cure, justifying himself?
