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paper 2 - drama > Duchess 4:2 > Flashcards

Duchess 4:2 Flashcards

1
Q

‘What hideous…’

A

‘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

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1
Q

‘Nothing but noise and…’

A

‘Nothing but noise and folly/ Can keep me in my right wits, whereas reason. And silence make me stark mad.’ - Duchess

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2
Q

‘Yes, but you shall…’
‘The robin redbreast…’

A

‘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

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3
Q

‘Dost thou think we shall know…’

A

‘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

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4
Q

‘I am not…’

A

‘I am not mad yet, to my cause of sorrow.’ - Duchess

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5
Q

‘I am not…’

A

‘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

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6
Q

‘Th’heaven o’er my head seems…’

A

‘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

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7
Q

‘Who do I look…’

A

‘Who do I look like now?’ - Duchess
- echoes Blanche’ focus on her appearance and maintaining her facade

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8
Q

‘when the Pope was sick/ Of…’

A

‘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

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9
Q

The mad people are made up of…

A
  • ‘a mad lawyer’, ‘priest’, ‘doctor’, ‘astrologian’, ‘tailor’, ‘a gentleman usher’, a ‘farmer’, and ‘broker’
  • ‘You’d think the devil were among them.’ - servant
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10
Q

‘Let them loose when you…’

A

‘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

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11
Q

context for the madmen

A
  • ‘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
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12
Q

noise in the madmen’s song

A
  • ‘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
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13
Q

‘Till irksome…’

A

‘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

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14
Q

‘We’ll sing like swans…’

A

‘We’ll sing like swans to welcome death,/ And die in love and rest.’ - A Madman

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15
Q

the madmen’s conversation

A
  • a theme of death and judgement, ‘doomsday’
  • misogyny
  • seem reasonably composed and even scripted
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16
Q

‘Hell is a mere… where the devils are…’

A

‘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

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17
Q

‘I will lie with every woman…’

A

‘I will lie with every woman in my parish the tenth night’ - 3 Madman
- says he will have sex as ‘tithe’ (church tax - 10%)

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18
Q

‘We are only to be saved by…’

A

‘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

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19
Q

‘What’s he - a…’

A

‘What’s he - a rope-maker?’ - 1 Madman
- associated with execution by hanging, the Duchess’ death

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20
Q

‘Woe to the caroche that…’

A

‘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

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21
Q

‘Bosola, like an…’

A

‘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

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22
Q

‘Thou speak’st as if I lay…’

A

‘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

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23
Q

‘the more dangerously…’

A

‘[The Duchess is sick] the more dangerously since thy sickness is insensible.’ - Bosola (as an old man)
- she cannot see her madness

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24
Q

‘Thou art a box of…’

A

‘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’)

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25
Q

‘Didst thou ever see a lark..’

A

‘Didst thou ever see a lark in a cage?’ - Bosola
- picks up on her comparison of herself to a caged ‘nightingale’ or ‘robin’

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26
Q

‘Am I not thy…’

A

‘Am I not thy Duchess?’ - Duchess

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27
Q

‘I am Duchess…’

A

‘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

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28
Q

‘My trade is to…’

A

‘My trade is to flatter the dead, not the living. I am a tomb-maker.’ - Bosola

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29
Q

‘Let me be a little…’

A

‘Let me be a little merry - of what stuff wilt thou make it?’ - Duchess
- knows whats coming?

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30
Q

‘[Enter Executioners with…’

A

‘[Enter Executioners with] a coffin, cords, and a bell’ - SD

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31
Q

‘Here is a present from your…’

A

‘Here is a present from your princely brothers,/ And may it arrive welcome for it brings/ Last benefit, last sorrow.’ - Bosola

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32
Q

‘This is your last…’

A

‘This is your last presence chamber.’ - Bosola
- her final resting place

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33
Q

‘Oh, my sweet…’
‘Peace! It…’

A

‘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

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34
Q

‘I am the common…’

A

‘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

35
Q

‘The screech owl and…’

A

‘The screech owl and the whistler shrill/ Call upon our dame’ - Bosola
- the ‘whistler’ was thought to herald death

36
Q

‘Your length in…’

A

‘Your length in clay’s now competent.’ - Bosola
- her grave is all she needs

37
Q

‘Strew your hair with powders…’

A

‘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)

38
Q

‘Hence villains, tyrants…’
‘To whom? To our…’

A

‘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?

39
Q

‘Remove that…’

A

‘Remove that noise. [Executioners seize Cariola]’ - Bosola

40
Q

‘I will die with…’

A

‘I will die with her!’ - Cariola

41
Q

‘I pray thee, look thou giv’st…’

A

‘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?

42
Q

‘Strangling. Here are…’
‘I…’

A

‘Strangling. Here are your executioners.’ - Bosola
‘I forgive them.’ - Duchess

43
Q

Bosola trying to evoke fear from the Duchess

A
  • 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.’
44
Q

‘Doth not…’

A

‘Doth not death fright you?’ - Bosola
- trying to evoke fear in the face of her stoicism (‘Who would be afraid on’t’)

45
Q

‘methinks,/ The manner of your…’

A

‘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

46
Q

‘What would it pleasure…’

A

‘What would it pleasure me to have my throat cut/ With diamonds […] or to be shot to death with pearls?’ - Duchess

47
Q

‘Dispose my…’

A

‘Dispose my breath how please you’ - Duchess

48
Q

‘Heaven’s gates are not…’

A

‘Heaven’s gates are not so highly arched/ As princes’ palaces. They that enter there/ Must go upon their knees. [Kneels]’ - Duchess

49
Q

‘[Kneels] Come…’

A

‘[Kneels] Come, violent death,/ Serve for mandragora to make me sleep.’ - Duchess
- accepting her fate, calm
- recurring image of the mandrake root

50
Q

‘Go tell my brothers…’

A

‘Go tell my brothers when I am laid out -/ Then they may feed in quiet.’ - Duchess
- fully aware of what they’ve done

51
Q

‘They strangle her’

A

‘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

52
Q

‘Some other strangle…’

A

‘Some other strangle the children.’ - Bosola
- they are an afterthought, happens off stage (‘One goes to strangle the children’)

53
Q

‘Yes, and I am glad…’
‘You are…’

A

‘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

54
Q

what is Cariola’s death seen like? what reasons does she give that she should not be killed?

A
  • ‘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)
55
Q

‘I am contracted…’
‘[Shows a…] Here’s your…’

A

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

56
Q

‘If you kill me now…’

A

‘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

57
Q

‘I am quick with…’

A

‘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

58
Q

‘She is what…’
‘[Opens the…’
‘Alas, how…’

A

‘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

59
Q

‘The death/ Of young…’

A

‘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

60
Q

‘Cover her…’

A

‘Cover her face. Mine eyes dazzle! She died young.’ - Ferdinand

61
Q

‘Why didst not…’

A

‘Why didst not thou pity her? What an excellent/ Honest man might’st thou have been’ - Ferdinand

62
Q

‘my dearest friend’

A

‘my dearest friend’ - Ferdinand about the Duchess ( a turn from ‘lusty widow’)

63
Q

‘Between her innocence and…’

A

‘Between her innocence and my revenge!’ - Ferdinand

64
Q

‘I had a hope,/ Had…’

A

‘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’

65
Q

‘I hate thee…’

A

‘I hate thee for’t’ - Ferdinand to Bosola for killing D.

66
Q

‘You are falling…’

A

‘You are falling into ingratitude.’ - Bosola to F

67
Q

‘I’ll give thee a…’

A

‘I’ll give thee a pardon/ For this murder.’ - Ferdinand

68
Q

‘By what authority did’st…’
‘By…’

A

‘By what authority did’st thou execute/ THis bloody sentence?’ - Ferdinand
‘By yours.’ - Bosola

69
Q

Ferdinand’s law language after the Duchess’ death

A
  • ‘execute’ ‘sentence’ ‘judge’ ‘law’ ‘jury’ ‘conviction’ ‘court’ ‘judgment’
70
Q

‘Did any ceremonial…’

A

‘Did any ceremonial form of law/ Doom her to not-being?’ - Ferdinand

71
Q

‘The office of justice is…’

A

‘The office of justice is perverted quite/ When one thief hangs another.’ - Bosola

72
Q

‘The wolf shall…’

A

‘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)

73
Q

‘I will first receive…’
‘You are…’

A

‘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

74
Q

‘Your brother and…’

A

‘Your brother and yourself are […] Rotten and rotting others’ - Bosola to F

75
Q

‘You may be brothers, for…’

A

‘You may be brothers, for treason, like the plague,/ Doth take much in a blood.’ - Bosola

76
Q

‘You may be brothers, for…’

A

‘You may be brothers, for treason, like the plague,/ Doth take much in a blood.’ - Bosola
- clearly brothers since they are equally corrupt

77
Q

‘I am angry with…’

A

‘I am angry with myself now that I wake.’ - Bosola
- character development

78
Q

‘rather sought/ To appear…’

A

‘rather sought/ To appear a true servant than an honest man.’ - Bosola

79
Q

‘I’ll go hunt the badger…’

A

‘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)

80
Q

‘She stirs! Here’s…’

A

‘She stirs! Here’s life!/ Return, fair soul, from darkness and lead mine/ Out of this sensible hell.’ - Bosola

81
Q

‘The dead bodies you…’

A

‘The dead bodies you saw were but feigned statues.’ - Bosola

82
Q

‘There the cords of…’

A

‘There the cords of life broke!’ - Bosola, definitive ending for the Duchess

83
Q

‘This is manly…’

A

‘This is manly sorrow!’ - Bosola after the Duchess’ (second) death

84
Q

‘Where were/ These…’

A

‘Where were/ These penitent fountains while she was living?’ - Bosola
- suprised himself, previously emotionless

85
Q

‘Exit [with…’

A

‘Exit [with the Duchess’ body]’
- the only force for good in the play is removed

paper 2 - drama (49 decks)

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