Malfi Character Quotes Flashcards
What does the Duchess say about remarrying?
“Diamonds are of most value they say, that have passed through most jewellers’ hands.”
What does the Duchess say to Antonio when she is trying to woo him
“This goodly roof of yours is too low built… without it I raise it higher. Raise yourself.”
What does the Duchess say of her dislike to hierarchy
“The misery of us that are born great, we are forced to woo because non dare woo us.”
“The birds that live i’th’field… live happier than we, for they may choose their mates.”
One of your eyes is bloodshot
Use my ring to’t
Love mixed with fear
Is sweetest
My reputation is
Safe.
And fortune seems to have her eyesight
To behold my tragedy
I am
Duchess of Malfi still
Heaven gates are not so highly arched as princes’ palaces:
They that enter there must go upon their knees.
Begins at home, quits first
His royal palace of flattering sycophants
Ambition, madam,
Is a great man’s madness
You’ll weep shortly, for me,
The pearls do signify your tears.
For to live this is not indeed to live
It is a mockery and abuse of life.”
And my son fly
The court of princes!”
They are most luxurious
Will wed twice
Whores, by that rule,
Are precious
You are my sister. This was my fathers poniard: do you see?
I’d be loath’d to see it look rusty.
Farewell
Lusty widow
Tis not your whore’s blood that shall quench my wild fire
But your whores blood
Methinks her fault and beauty, blended together,
Show like Leprosy
Whether we fall by ambition, blood or lust, like diamonds
We are cut from our own dust
The marriage night is
Some entrance into some prison
That hath a little fingering on the lute
Yet cannot tune it
Yes. I can be angry without this rupture…
Come put yourself in tune.
Oh my conscience! I would pray now but
The devil takes away my heart for having any confidence in prayer
Methinks I see a thing armed with a rake
That seems to strike at me.
Sorrow is held
The eldest child of sin
He and his brothers are like plum trees
That grow crooked over standing pools
You a corrupter, me an
Imprudent traitor
I look no higher than
I can reach
Princes pay flatterers in their own money, flatterers dissemble their vices
And they dissemble their lies: that’s justice.”
Did thou ever see a lark in a cage?
Such is the soul in the body
Return fair soul from darkness
And lead mine out of this sensible he’ll
Shall I go sue
To fortune any longer
When thou killd’st thy sister, thou took’st from Justice
Her most equal balance and left her nought but her sword
A lute string
Far exceeds it
You have concealed for me
As great a sin as adultery
Tis weakness too much to think
What should have been done
I know not but it shows
A fearful madness. I owe her much of pity.”
I do not like this jesting with religion
This feigned pilgrimage
You are deceived sir, I’m not prepared for it!
I will not die!
How do you like
The French court?
How fearfully shows his ambition now:
Unfortunate fortune
Like a deadly cannon that
Lightens ere it smokes
Integrity or life is fame’s best friend
Which nobly beyond death shall crown the end!
