Duchess Of Malfi Flashcards
The Duchess
“Diamonds are of most value, they say that have passed through most jewellers hands”
“Let old wives report I winked and chose a husband”
“The misery of us that are born great, we are forced to work because non dare woo us”
“Where I am a man, I’d beat that counterfeit face into thy other”
Bosola Quotes
“Some if you give entertainment for pure love; but more for precious reward”
“I look no higher than I can reach… when a man’s mind rides faster than his horse ca gallop, they both quickly tire”
“We are merely the stars’ tennis balls struck and bounded, which way please them
Ferdinand
“Whether we fall by ambition, blood, or lust, like diamonds we are cut by our own dust”
“Lusty widow”
About Ferdinand: “the law to him is like a foul black cobweb to a spider”
“This was the main cause: her marriage”
Cardinal Quotes
“Tis more easy to tie knots than unloose them”
“Yes I can be angry without this rupture”
“Whores, by rule, are precious”
What did critic P.B Murray say?
“Antonio is modelled on the ideal of Christian gentility”
“The radiant spirit of the duchess cannot be killed”
What did critic R.S White say?
“Webster’s villains meet their deaths in ways that satisfy poetic justice”
“The tragedy of a virtuous woman who achieves heroism”
What did critic Christopher Hart say?
“[Bosola is] a twisted misanthrope and cut-throat”
“The two brothers are not driven by any sense of possessive outrage, however warped, but by a delight in malice itself, a motiveless malignity” even against their own flesh and blood”.
What did critic Irving Ribner say?
“[Bosola is] the most important unifying element in the “Duchess of Malfi”
“The Duchess, not her brothers, stands for ordinary humanity, love and the continuity of life through children”
What does critic Muriel Bradbrook say?
“The Cardinal knows already that he is in hell”
“[Julia is] a foil to the Duchess… who takes a man as she feels the impulse”
“With all his many roles, Bosola is never permitted the luxury of being a self”
What did critic Lee Bliss say?
“The cardinal’s cool, unemotional detachment is more terrifying than Ferdinand’s impassioned raving”
What did critic T.S Eliot say?
“[Webster is] a very great literary and dramatic genius directed towards chaos”
“Webster was much possessed by death, and saw the skull beneath the skin”
