Key Quotes Flashcards
Act 1 bosola
‘I do haunt you still’
‘He and his brother are like plum-trees that grow crooked over standing pools’
‘I was lured to you’
‘Whose throat must I cut’
‘I am your creature’
He and his brother are like plum-trees that grow crooked over standing pools
Plum - symbolic of preservance and hope - as sign of winter ending - ironic
Crooked - corruption.
Standing - stagnant water - breeding ground for bacteria and parasites
Corruption thoughout state due to corrupt rule - signal to audience
I am your creature
Your - hands himself over - no self worth
Creature - dehumanises self - knows it’s wrong but does it
Whose throat must I cut
Suggest corruption leads to death and suffering
Eager
Right prediction
Suggest he doesn’t like doing it ‘must’
Monosyllabic emphasises simplicity of murder
I was lured to you
Ferdinand called for Bosola to get him to spy on duchess
Lured - temp (a person/animal) to do something - offering some form of reward - corrupt
‘I do haunt you still’
Threat
Conflict
Monosyllabic
Act 1
Ferdinand
Who took the ring oftn’st
A must preserve and turbulent nature;/ what appears in him mirth is merely outside
She’s a young widow,/ I would not have her marry again
You are a widow/ you know already what man is’
‘You life in a rank pasture, here i’the’ court
They are most luxurious/ Will we’d twice
Luxury of widows who remarry
Playing off idea
Widows are lecherous and uncontrollable
You are a widow/ you know already what man is
lil incest - thinks of her sexually
Chastity - have
Sexual - he doesn’t want her to marry
‘She is a young widow I would not hate her marry again’
Young - 21 century - why can’t she marry
Not - control and power - he needs/wants
You live in rank pasture, he i th Court
! Yeah
Who took the ring oftn’st
Ring foreshadows
Game- James introduced
A most preserve and turbulent nature/ what appears in him mirth is merely outside
Turbulent - conflict, disorder
Preserve - unaltered
Mirth - laughter
Outside - appearance v reality
The cardinal act 1
‘This Great fellow were able to posses the greatest devil, and make him worse’
‘He is a melancholy churchman’
‘He strews in his way flatters, panders, Intelligencers, atheists, and a thousand such political monsters’
‘He should have been pope…. bestow bribes’
‘Wisdom begins at the end: remember it’
Wisdom begins at the end Remember it
Foreshadows thoughtless acts
Reference to end of life
He should have been pope … bestow bribes
Church is corrupt
He’s corrupt
He is a melancholy churchman
Pensive sadness (like Bosola) in Italy - infests City
He stews in his way, flatters, panders, intelligencers, atheists, and a thousand such political monsters
Opposite of what a cardinal is to be like
He’s corrupt
Panders - pimp
This great fellow were able to posses the greatest devil, and make him worse
Irony he works in church
Corruption in religion attack in Catholicism and church.
Antonio Act 1
If’t some chance/ cursed example poison’t bear the head/ Death and disease through the whole land spread’
‘His foul melancholy/ will poison all his goodness’
‘You never fix’d your eye on three fair medals/ cast in one figure of so different temper
‘Ambition madam is a great mans madness’
Ambition madam is a great man’s madness
Ambition Antonio Duchess Cardinal Bosola Foreshadows
His hesitancy to be ambitious and his claims that he deserves benefits for being virtuous is not just based on cultural normals
Social conformity- acceptance of his class
This foul melancholy/ will poison all his goodness
Depression
Bosola has good in him - redeemable
Poison - death and disease imagery
Corruption
If’t chance/ some cursed example poison’t near the head/ Death and disease through the whole land spread
Death and disease imagery
Rhyming couplet - speedy rhythm - reflects speed of spread
Structurally important - corrupt rule leads to corruption throughout state
Metaphor expanded when Bosola refers to court as standing pools
You’d never fix’d your eye on three fair medals/ cast in one figure, of so different temper’
All different p
Duchess act 1
‘So divine a continence’
‘Such Noble virtue’
‘She stains the time past, lights the time to come’
‘Diamonds are of most value/ they say, that have passed through most jewellers hands’
‘This is terrible good counsel’
‘This goodly roof of yours is too low built/ I cannot stand upright in’t not discourse/ without I raise it higher
‘Shall this move me’
She stains the time past, lights the time to come
Stain- everlasting
Lights- goodness and hope. Irony - life
This is terrible food council
Advice
So divine a conscience
!
Such noble virtue
Virtue - high moral standards
Diamonds are of most value/ They say, that have passed through most jewellers hands’
Does not conform to society’s role
Contextually women value is in Chasity
She still has value
She says very little in this section when her brothers tell her not to marry - she’s witty
Bosola Act 2
What thing is this outward form of man/ to be beloved?
I have a trick may chance discoed it
You are a false steward
Why, now this most apparent. It’s precise fellow/ is the Duchess’ bawd
‘I’ll send/ a letter that shall make her brothers’ galls/ O’erfloe their livers
I’ll send
A letter that shall make her brothers galls
O’er flow their livers
Pride - lucifer
Hobris - comes before fall
I have a trick may chance discover it
Apricot trick
Why not tia most apparent. Tis precise fellow/ Is the Duchess’ bawd
Antonio is caught
I look no higher than I can reach
Ironic - challenges Duchess
What is this outward form of man to be belovd
!
You are a false steward
After accused of poisoning apricots by Antonio
Ferdinand Act 2
I have this night digg’d up a mandrake
Grow a notorious strumpet
Apply desperate physic
Excellent hyena
I would have their bodies Burnt in a coal-pit
I’ll find scorpions to string my whips/and fix her in a general eclipse
Excellent hyena
F calls Duchess
I’ll find scorpions to string my whips
And fix her in a general eclipse
Act 2 scene 5 last lines after F reveals he won’t do or say anything till he knows the father
Boil their bastards
Plosives alliteration
Grow a notorious strumpet
When he discovers duchess is pregnant
I have this night digg’d up a mandrake
Plants that can make you mad
Antonio Act 2
O my most trusted Delio, we are lost
I am lost in amazement: I know not what to think on’t
[Aside] this fellow will undo me
How i do play the fool with mine own danger
You are an impudent snake indeed sir
O my most trusted Delio we are lost
We are lost
Monosyllabic
Do what going
I am lost in amazement
I know not what to think on’t
Unprepared
X leading
How do I play the fool with mine own danger
.
You are an impudent snake indeed sir
Bosola after he accuses him of poisoning
[aside] this fellow will undo me
A about B who claims he’s come to pray but really is spying
‘They are like the base, nay they are the same
When they seek shameful ways to avoid shame
Appearance v reality
sententiae - rounds of speech before exit of character to leave audience with short time to digest
Webster highlights Antonio’s discomfort - hide Union - shameful to defy class boundaries and to love and marry
Duchess Act 2
Your arm Antonio: do I not grow fat
[Aside.] good her colour rises
She’s exposed/ unto the worst of torture, pain and fear
She’s exposed/ unto the worst of torture pain and fear
List of 3
He is weak - can’t handle
[aside] Good her colour rises
Confidence in plan
Your arm Antonio
Do I not grow fat
Command as you would a steward but also wants his comfort
She’s in control
She thinks she’s being subtle but Bosola already suspects so catches the double meaning
Act 2
The cardinal
You fly beyond your reason
Why do you make yourself/ so wild a tempest
I have taken you off your melancholy perch/ bore you upon my fist…and let you fly at it’
‘Curs’d creature/ unequal nature to place women’s hearts/ So far upon the left side’
‘Shall our blood/ the royal blood of Aragan and Castile/ Be thus attained
Are you stark mad
Why do you make your self so wild a tempest
cardinal reply to Ferdinands anger at duchess pregnancy
Calm
You fly beyond your reason
After Ferdinand dreams of duchess with men in Bed even Bosola
CALM
Are you stark mad
Cardinal is calm
I have taken you off your melanchoky perch/ bore you upon my fist …let you fly at it’
Falcon imagery like taming of the shrew - animal
Cur’d creature
Unequal nature to place women’s hearts so far upon the left side
!
Shall our blood/
The royal blood of Aragan and Castile
Be this attained
Depth of outrage - Jacobean audience would realise socially issue
Reputation
Contrast with ‘infected blood’ of Ferdinand
Cardinal is corrupt
