Duchess 4:2 Flashcards
‘What hideous…’
‘What hideous noise was that?’ - Duchess
- noise becomes a key motif in the scene, just as the ‘inhuman voices’ and sounds of the ‘jungle’ are in Blanche’s last few scenes
- ‘rapid, feverish polka’
- ‘What noise is that?’ later
‘Nothing but noise and…’
‘Nothing but noise and folly/ Can keep me in my right wits, whereas reason. And silence make me stark mad.’ - Duchess
‘Yes, but you shall…’
‘The robin redbreast…’
‘Yes, but you shall live/ To shake this durance off.’ - Cariola
‘The robin redbreast and the nightingale/ Never live long in cages.’ - Duchess
- Cariola is positive and supportive in contrast to the Duchess’ negative outlook
- the Duchess compares herself with caged birds, a symbol of lost freedom
‘Dost thou think we shall know…’
‘Dost thou think we shall know one another/ In th’other world?’ - Duchess
‘Yes, out of question.’ - Cariola
- they clearly have a close friendship, enduring together
- Cariola helps the Duchess maintain her hold on reality whereas Mitch - in scene 9 - tries to destroy Blanche’s
‘I am not…’
‘I am not mad yet, to my cause of sorrow.’ - Duchess
‘I am not…’
‘I am not mad yet, to my cause of sorrow.’ - Duchess
- awareness knows people thinks she’s mad - unlike Blanche who doesn’t even consider it
‘Th’heaven o’er my head seems…’
‘Th’heaven o’er my head seems made of molten brass,/ The earth of flaming sulphur, yet I am not mad.’ - Duchess
- repetition that she is ‘not mad’
- seems calm and controlled, contemplative
- reference to biblical curses against those who disobey God
‘Who do I look…’
‘Who do I look like now?’ - Duchess
- echoes Blanche’ focus on her appearance and maintaining her facade
‘when the Pope was sick/ Of…’
‘when the Pope was sick/ Of a deep melancholy, presented him/ With several sorts of madmen, which […] forced him to laught,/ And so th’impostume broke.’ - Servant
- we can’t imagine someone so powerful and religious relying on mad people to cure him rather than God/prayer
- mad people have connotations of hell
The mad people are made up of…
- ‘a mad lawyer’, ‘priest’, ‘doctor’, ‘astrologian’, ‘tailor’, ‘a gentleman usher’, a ‘farmer’, and ‘broker’
- ‘You’d think the devil were among them.’ - servant
‘Let them loose when you…’
‘Let them loose when you please,/ For I am chained to endure all your tyranny.’ - Duchess
- recognises her loss of agency
- just like Blanche is trapped in Stanley’s house in scene 10, both are powerless
context for the madmen
- ‘madman’ were seen as suitable entertainment for the wealthy
- visitors to ‘bedlam’ (Bethlehem hospital) could pay to watch the patients chained in their cells
> the madmen would probably have been played by the other actors who weren’t currently on stage (antonio, cardinal, julia, ferdinand), allowing the audience to draw parallels
noise in the madmen’s song
- ‘dismal kind of music’
- ‘howl’
- ‘beasts’ ‘fowl ‘ravens’ ‘screech owl’ ‘bulls ‘bears’
- echoes the Streetcar jungle noises
- ‘Till irksome noise have cloyed your ears,/ And corrosived your hearts.’ - a Madman
- ‘We’ll sing like swans to welcome death,/ And die in love and rest.’ - A Madman
‘Till irksome…’
‘Till irksome noise have cloyed your ears,/ And corrosived your hearts.’ - a Madman
- madmen song to a ‘dismal kind of music’
- designed to irritate and reduce the Duchess down to nothing
‘We’ll sing like swans…’
‘We’ll sing like swans to welcome death,/ And die in love and rest.’ - A Madman
the madmen’s conversation
- a theme of death and judgement, ‘doomsday’
- misogyny
- seem reasonably composed and even scripted
‘Hell is a mere… where the devils are…’
‘Hell is a mere glass-house, where the devils are continually blowing up women’s souls’ - 2 Madman
- echoes Bosola’s comparison of a glassblower’s pipe to a penis and the swelling of glass to a swelling (pregnant) belly
‘I will lie with every woman…’
‘I will lie with every woman in my parish the tenth night’ - 3 Madman
- says he will have sex as ‘tithe’ (church tax - 10%)
‘We are only to be saved by…’
‘We are only to be saved by the Helvetian translation.’ - 3 Madman
- a strong Calvinist interpretation of the Bible, detested by King James I and replaced with the King James Bible in 1611
‘What’s he - a…’
‘What’s he - a rope-maker?’ - 1 Madman
- associated with execution by hanging, the Duchess’ death
‘Woe to the caroche that…’
‘Woe to the caroche that brought home my wife from the masque at three o’clock in the morning! It had a large featherbed in it!’ - 3 madman
- idea that she’s been having sex
‘Bosola, like an…’
‘Bosola, like an old man, enters’ - SD
- allegorical nature
- enters almost as a new person, keeping his vow of ‘never in mine own shape’
- the Duchess (as the incarnation of youth and beauty) confronts a vision of time/death (Bosola), heralding her death
‘Thou speak’st as if I lay…’
‘Thou speak’st as if I lay upon my death bed, gasping for breath. Dost thou perceive me sick?’ - Duchess
- ironic given her impending death
‘the more dangerously…’
‘[The Duchess is sick] the more dangerously since thy sickness is insensible.’ - Bosola (as an old man)
- she cannot see her madness
‘Thou art a box of…’
‘Thou art a box of wormseed - at best, but a salvatory of green mummy.’ - Bosola
- she is a body that will die and feed the worms/a freshly mummified corpse
- everyone will be reduced to the same level in death (she ignores this - ‘I am Duchess of Malfi still’)
‘Didst thou ever see a lark..’
‘Didst thou ever see a lark in a cage?’ - Bosola
- picks up on her comparison of herself to a caged ‘nightingale’ or ‘robin’
‘Am I not thy…’
‘Am I not thy Duchess?’ - Duchess
‘I am Duchess…’
‘I am Duchess of malfi still.’ - Duchess
- desperation, trying to hold onto her power and identity but realistically she has lost it?
- holds onto her role and past, as does Blanche - not giving in to Ferdinand’s plan
- rejecting Bosola’s view that everyone ends up the same in death
‘My trade is to…’
‘My trade is to flatter the dead, not the living. I am a tomb-maker.’ - Bosola
‘Let me be a little…’
‘Let me be a little merry - of what stuff wilt thou make it?’ - Duchess
- knows whats coming?
‘[Enter Executioners with…’
‘[Enter Executioners with] a coffin, cords, and a bell’ - SD
‘Here is a present from your…’
‘Here is a present from your princely brothers,/ And may it arrive welcome for it brings/ Last benefit, last sorrow.’ - Bosola
‘This is your last…’
‘This is your last presence chamber.’ - Bosola
- her final resting place
‘Oh, my sweet…’
‘Peace! It…’
‘Oh, my sweet lady!’ - Cariola
‘Peace! It affrights not me.’ - Duchess
- Cariola’s emotion acts to emphasise the Duchess’ composure, she remains composed and rational in the face of her death
‘I am the common…’
‘I am the common bellman/ That usually is sent to condemned persons/ The night before they suffer.’ - Bosola
- even when pretending to be another character, Bosola changes and deceives
‘The screech owl and…’
‘The screech owl and the whistler shrill/ Call upon our dame’ - Bosola
- the ‘whistler’ was thought to herald death
‘Your length in…’
‘Your length in clay’s now competent.’ - Bosola
- her grave is all she needs
‘Strew your hair with powders…’
‘Strew your hair with powders sweet,/ Don clean linen, bathe your feet’ - Bosola
- prepare for her death as she would for a wedding, equally Bosola’s rhyming couplets have been described as the opposite of an epithalamion (marriage song)
‘Hence villains, tyrants…’
‘To whom? To our…’
‘Hence villains, tyrants, murderers! Alas!/ What will you do with my lady? Call for help!’ - Cariola
‘To whom? To our next neighbours? They are mad folks.’ - Duchess
- again distress vs calm, is the Duchess resigned to her fate here?
‘Remove that…’
‘Remove that noise. [Executioners seize Cariola]’ - Bosola
‘I will die with…’
‘I will die with her!’ - Cariola
‘I pray thee, look thou giv’st…’
‘I pray thee, look thou giv’st my little boy/ Some syrup for his cold, and let the girl/ Say her prayers ere she sleep.’ - Duchess to Cariola before she dies
- her priority is her children, she is a mother before she is a Duchess
- ‘ere she sleeps’ - euphemism for death?
- trying to comfort herself that her children will be looked after? Or madness given the wax works?
‘Strangling. Here are…’
‘I…’
‘Strangling. Here are your executioners.’ - Bosola
‘I forgive them.’ - Duchess
Bosola trying to evoke fear from the Duchess
- introducing her to her executioners and saying she will die by ‘strangling’
- ‘Doth not death fright you?’
- ‘methinks,/ The manner of your death should much afflict you.’
- ‘This cord should terrify you.’
‘Doth not…’
‘Doth not death fright you?’ - Bosola
- trying to evoke fear in the face of her stoicism (‘Who would be afraid on’t’)
‘methinks,/ The manner of your…’
‘methinks,/ The manner of your death should much afflict you./ This cord should terrify you.’ - Bosola
‘Not a whit.’ - Duchess
- she refused to be scared, no hesitation (finishing his lines)
- undermining her brothers
‘What would it pleasure…’
‘What would it pleasure me to have my throat cut/ With diamonds […] or to be shot to death with pearls?’ - Duchess
‘Dispose my…’
‘Dispose my breath how please you’ - Duchess
‘Heaven’s gates are not…’
‘Heaven’s gates are not so highly arched/ As princes’ palaces. They that enter there/ Must go upon their knees. [Kneels]’ - Duchess
‘[Kneels] Come…’
‘[Kneels] Come, violent death,/ Serve for mandragora to make me sleep.’ - Duchess
- accepting her fate, calm
- recurring image of the mandrake root
‘Go tell my brothers…’
‘Go tell my brothers when I am laid out -/ Then they may feed in quiet.’ - Duchess
- fully aware of what they’ve done
‘They strangle her’
‘They strangle her’
- in some productions, she places the noose around her own neck
- a death without blood (virtue?)
- Jacobean audience would view such a death as not honourable
‘Some other strangle…’
‘Some other strangle the children.’ - Bosola
- they are an afterthought, happens off stage (‘One goes to strangle the children’)
‘Yes, and I am glad…’
‘You are…’
‘Yes, and I am glad/ You are so well prepared for’t.’ - Bosola
‘You are deceived, sir./ I am not prepared for’t. I will not die!’ - Cariola
- INVERSION (Bosola expected/wanted the Duchess to protest but she didnt whereas he expects Cariola not to but she does)
- Cariola’s death parallels and emphasises the Duchess’ - she protests and does not die elegantly like the Duchess
what is Cariola’s death seen like? what reasons does she give that she should not be killed?
- ‘I am contracted/ To a young gentleman!’ - C
- ‘If you kill me now/ I am damned. I have not been at confession/ This two years’ - C
- ‘I am quick with child.’ - C
- the scene is fast paced, suggesting her desperation (and elevating the Duchess’ death)
- ‘[They strangle her]’ (undermines norms as normally they wouldn’t kill an unrepented or pregnant person)
‘I am contracted…’
‘[Shows a…] Here’s your…’
I am contracted/ To a young gentleman!’ - Cariola
‘[Shows a noose] Here’s your wedding ring.’ - Bosola
- the ring motif, stained the representation of love
‘If you kill me now…’
‘If you kill me now/ I am damned. I have not been at confession/ This two years’ - Cariola
> people to be executed would have been given an opportunity to repent before they were killed
‘I am quick with…’
‘I am quick with child.’ - Cariola
‘Why then,/ Your credit’s saved.’ - Bosola
> to avoid killing the innocent soul of a child, pregnant women were not executed until after their babies were born
- B suggests that she will be spared the ruin of reputation since she will die before anyone knows she is pregnant
‘She is what…’
‘[Opens the…’
‘Alas, how…’
‘She is what/ You’d have her. But here begin your pity.’ - Bosola
‘[Opens the traverse and] shows the children strangled’
‘Alas, how have these offended?’ - Bosola
‘The death/ Of young…’
‘The death/Of young wolves id never to be pitied.’ - Ferdinand
- Bosola is more distressed by the children (‘here begin your pity’) whereas Ferdinand is flippant about them
‘Cover her…’
‘Cover her face. Mine eyes dazzle! She died young.’ - Ferdinand
‘Why didst not…’
‘Why didst not thou pity her? What an excellent/ Honest man might’st thou have been’ - Ferdinand
‘my dearest friend’
‘my dearest friend’ - Ferdinand about the Duchess ( a turn from ‘lusty widow’)
‘Between her innocence and…’
‘Between her innocence and my revenge!’ - Ferdinand
‘I had a hope,/ Had…’
‘I had a hope,/ Had she continued widow, to have gained/ An infinite mass of treasure by her death’ - Ferdinand
- ‘tell my brothers […] they then may feed in quiet’
‘I hate thee…’
‘I hate thee for’t’ - Ferdinand to Bosola for killing D.
‘You are falling…’
‘You are falling into ingratitude.’ - Bosola to F
‘I’ll give thee a…’
‘I’ll give thee a pardon/ For this murder.’ - Ferdinand
‘By what authority did’st…’
‘By…’
‘By what authority did’st thou execute/ THis bloody sentence?’ - Ferdinand
‘By yours.’ - Bosola
Ferdinand’s law language after the Duchess’ death
- ‘execute’ ‘sentence’ ‘judge’ ‘law’ ‘jury’ ‘conviction’ ‘court’ ‘judgment’
‘Did any ceremonial…’
‘Did any ceremonial form of law/ Doom her to not-being?’ - Ferdinand
‘The office of justice is…’
‘The office of justice is perverted quite/ When one thief hangs another.’ - Bosola
‘The wolf shall…’
‘The wolf shall find her grave and scrape it up,/ Not to devour the corpse, but to discover/ The horrid murder.’ - Ferdinand
- Ferdinand imagines his crime being revealed by wolves (ironic given his lycanthropy)
‘I will first receive…’
‘You are…’
‘I will first receive my pension.’ - Bosola
‘You are a villain.’ - Ferdinand
- fixated on his ‘pension’, aware that it is slipping from him - it will also act as evidence that he was hired to kill by F
‘Your brother and…’
‘Your brother and yourself are […] Rotten and rotting others’ - Bosola to F
‘You may be brothers, for…’
‘You may be brothers, for treason, like the plague,/ Doth take much in a blood.’ - Bosola
‘You may be brothers, for…’
‘You may be brothers, for treason, like the plague,/ Doth take much in a blood.’ - Bosola
- clearly brothers since they are equally corrupt
‘I am angry with…’
‘I am angry with myself now that I wake.’ - Bosola
- character development
‘rather sought/ To appear…’
‘rather sought/ To appear a true servant than an honest man.’ - Bosola
‘I’ll go hunt the badger…’
‘I’ll go hunt the badger by owl-light:/ ‘Tis a deed of darkness.’ - Ferdinand
- wolf theme, sees himself as one (sets up act 5)
‘She stirs! Here’s…’
‘She stirs! Here’s life!/ Return, fair soul, from darkness and lead mine/ Out of this sensible hell.’ - Bosola
‘The dead bodies you…’
‘The dead bodies you saw were but feigned statues.’ - Bosola
‘There the cords of…’
‘There the cords of life broke!’ - Bosola, definitive ending for the Duchess
‘This is manly…’
‘This is manly sorrow!’ - Bosola after the Duchess’ (second) death
‘Where were/ These…’
‘Where were/ These penitent fountains while she was living?’ - Bosola
- suprised himself, previously emotionless
‘Exit [with…’
‘Exit [with the Duchess’ body]’
- the only force for good in the play is removed
