Duchess of Malfi

Question 1

Cardinal, Family, Blood

Answer 1

Shall our blood, / The royal blood of Aragon and Castile, / Be thus attainted?

Question 2

Ferdinand, Family, Blood

Answer 2

To purge infected blood, such blood as hers

Question 3

Duchess, Power, Marriage

Answer 3

When I choose / A husband, I will marry for your honour.

Question 4

Duchess, description, animal imagery (pedigree)

Answer 4

She’s an excellent / Feeder of pedigrees

Question 5

Duchess, Death, Gender

Answer 5

For know, whether I am doomed to live, or die, / I can do both like a prince.

Question 6

Ferdinand, Confession, Marriage

Answer 6

Thou are undone;/ And thou hast ta’en that massy sheet of lead / That hid thy husband’s bones, and folded it / About my heart.

Question 7

Ferdinand, lineage

Answer 7

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.

Question 8

Duchess, marriage

Answer 8

Diamonds are of most value, / They say, that have passed through most jewellers’ hands

Question 9

Ferdinand and Cardinal, Marriage

Answer 9

Ferdinand: Let not youth, high promotion, eloquence—
Cardinal: No, nor any thing without the addition, honour,
Sway your high blood.
Ferdinand: Marry? They are most luxurious / Will wed twice.

Question 10

Duchess, Marriage, Gender, Power

Answer 10

So I, through frights and threat’nings will assay / This dangerous venture. Let old wives report / I winked and chose a husband

Question 11

Duchess dating woes

Answer 11

The misery of us that are born great, / We are forced to woo because none dare woo us:

Question 12

Antonio, Marriage, Brother problems, Gender

Answer 12

These words should be mine, / And all the parts you have spoke, if some part of it / Would not have savoured flattery

Question 13

Duchess, Marriage, @Ferdinand

Answer 13

Why should only I / Of all the other princes of the world / Be cased up like a holy relic? I have youth, / And a little beauty

Question 14

Duchess using religion against Fernando, Also maybe cursing him?

Answer 14

You violate a sacrament o’th’Church / Shall make you howl in hell for’t

Question 15

Cardinal @ Fernando, jealousy can make you monstrous

Answer 15

I can be angry / Without this rupture; there is not in nature / A thing that makes man so deformed, so beastly, / As doth intemperate anger.

Question 16

Bosola, two faced, Duchess

Answer 16

Where I am a man / I’d beat that counterfeit face into thy other

Question 17

Duchess, Im a real person yo

Answer 17

This is flesh and blood, sir, / ‘Tis not the figure cut in alabaster / Kneels at my husband’s tomb

Question 18

Ferdinand turns on Bosola- bit deep, should have been nice

Answer 18

as we observe in tragedies / That a good actor many times is cursed / For playing a villain’s part—I hate thee for’t;

Question 19

Bosola realises he should probably help the good lads

Answer 19

I’ll join with thee [Antonio] in a most just revenge: / The weakest arm is strong enough that strikes / With the swords of justice.

Question 20

Bosola complains about society, pandering etc

Answer 20

Could I be one of their flatt’ring panders, I would hang on
their ears like a horse-leech till I were full, and then drop
off. […] Who would rely upon these miserable
dependences, in expectation to be advanced tomorrow?

Question 21

Submissive Bosola

Answer 21

I am your creature.

Question 22

Marriage, Antonio and Duchess, Class

Answer 22

This goodly roof of yours is too low built, / I cannot stand upright in’t, nor discourse, / Without I raise it higher. Raise yourself, / Or if you please, my hand to help you

Question 23

Bosola being realistic about social climbing

Answer 23

I look no / higher than I can reach […] when a man’s
mind rides faster than his horse can gallop, they quickly
both tire.

Question 24

Imagery to explain opinions on social mixing

Answer 24

Bosola: ‘Tis a pretty art, this grafting.
Duchess: ‘Tis so: a bett’ring of nature.
Bosola: To make a pippin grow upon a crab / A damson on a blackthorn.

Question 25

Fernando the asshole, Power, Court

Answer 25

Methinks you that are courtiers should / be my touchwood, take fire when I give fire, that is, laugh / when I laugh, were the subject never so witty.

Question 26

Duchess is strong. Gal power.

Answer 26

I am Duchess of Malfi still