Malfi Context Flashcards
“CASTRUCHIO: How do you like my Spanish jennet?
FERDINAND: I am of Pliny’s opinion, I think he was begot by the wind / He runs as if he were ballasted with quicksilver.
SILVIO: True, my lord, he reels from the tilt often.
RODERIGO and GRISOLAN: Ha, ha, ha!
Spanish Jennet - horse symbolises masculinity, status and power
Pliny the elder was an ancient roman author and natural philospher. He wrote about how horse were ‘begot by the wind’ meaning they were so fast and light that it was as if they were born from the wind itself. Ferdinand references Pliny to show his higher status through his education and makes fun of Castruchio to assert his social and intellectual superiority over him.
“FERDINAND: Who took the ring oftenest?
SILVIO: Antonio Bologna, my lord.
refers to a ring game often played at court between the noble class in the 1500s
DUCHESS. Lights to my chamber!—O good Antonio, I fear I am undone!
(Duchess: II, 1)
contextually as women were forced to have a lying in period before and after giving birth
