The Duchess of Malfi

Question 1

Antonio’s quote on what a Prince’s court should be like

Answer 1

Antonio: …a Prince’s court
Is like a common fountain,
Whence should flow
Pure silver drops in general

Question 2

Continuation of his admiration of the positive nature of the French court he visited, explores the dangers of a corrupt Government/Court

Answer 2

Antonio: …. But if’t chance		
Some curs’d example poison’t
near the head,
Death and disease through the
whole land spread

Question 3

Bosola on Ferdinand and the Cardinal, relating to corruption in government/ court

Answer 3

Bosola: He and his brother are like	
plum trees that grow crooked	
over standing pools, they are		
rich, and overladen with fruit,
but none but crows, pies and	
caterpillars feed on them.

Question 4

Ferdinand’s quote which reveals the corrupt nature of a Prince’s court/ Government, links to the context of the corrupt aspects of James I’s court

Answer 4

Ferdinand: Why do you laugh? Methinks
you that are my courtiers	
should be my touchwood…		
laugh when I laugh, were the
subject never so witty.

Question 5

Bosola quote relating to Government, corruption, and deceit

Answer 5

Bosola: Thus the devil candies

All sins o’er

Question 6

Ferdinand’s view on widows and sexuality

Answer 6

Ferdinand: Marry? They are most

luxurious will wed twice.

Question 7

Duchess and deceit quote

Answer 7

Duchess`: Methinks unjust actions
Should wear these masks and
Curtains and not we

Question 8

Cariola’s quote on the Duchess which sets up tension for the audience at the end of Act 1

Answer 8

Cariola: Whether the spirit of 
greatness, or of woman
reign most in her, I know not,
but it shows
a fearful madness. I owe her
much of pity.

Question 9

Bosola on the human condition. Further relates to Appearance vs. reality, death, disease

Answer 9

Bosola: And though we continually
bear about us
a rotten and dead body, we
delight to hide it in rich tissue

Question 10

Bosola on the origins of nobility

Answer 10

Bosola: Search the heads of the
greatest rivers of the world,
you shall find them but
bubbles of water.

Question 11

the Cardinal’s view on Women that links to the Devil

Answer 11

Cardinal: Unequal nature, to place
women’s hearts
so far upon the left side.

Question 12

Duchess’s line during her imprisonment, near her death scene

Answer 12

Duchess: I am Duchess of Malfi still

Question 13

Antonio’s quote on the Cardinal, relating to corruption and deceit.

Answer 13

Antonio: For he strews in his way
flatterers, panders,		
intelligencers, atheists: and a	
thousand such political
monsters

Question 14

Delio quote on Ferdinand which links to the animalistic imagery of parasites and predators. further implications to government, corruption and deceit

Answer 14

Delio: for the law to him is like a
Foul black cobweb to a spider
He makes it his prison to entangle
Those shall feed him.

Question 15

Antonio’s views on the Duchess in act 1, shows genuine admiration for the Duchess

Answer 15

Antonio: Let all sweet ladies break their
flattering glasses, and dress
themselves in her.

Question 16

the quote used to indicate Ferdinand’s ‘subconscious incest’ instead of Lever’s assertion that Ferdinand’s rage at his sister is related to bloodlines and the need to retain the purity of such

Answer 16

Ferdinand: ‘Tis not your whore’s milk
that shall quench my wild fire
by your whore’s blood

Question 17

Indicative of the Duchess’s nobility, similar implications as quote during her imprisonment on a similar topic

Answer 17

Duchess: For know, whether I am
doom’d to live or die,
I can do both like a Prince

Question 18

Quote demonstrating Duchess’s ability to control her own death scene, further demonstrates the significant nobility of the Duchess

Answer 18

Duchess: Pull and pull strongly for your 
able strength must pull down 
heaven upon me;
Yet stay, heaven's gates are not 
so highly arched as princes 
palaces: they that enter there 
must go upon their knees

Question 19

Contrasted with the Duchess’s death scene, the quote from Julia upon her own death further indicates the nobility of the Duchess

Answer 19

Julia: I go I know not wither

Question 20

Pescara quote on the dramatic irony and retribution created in relation to the Cardinal’s death

Answer 20

Pescara: How fatally, it seems, he did

withstand his own rescue