The Duchess of Malfi Quotes Flashcards
#learn these quotes gunni! ✨✨✨
Corruption/Class/Status - The Cardinal and Ferdinand
‘He and his brother are like plum trees that grow crooked over standing pools.’
Madness - Ferdinand’s controlling behaviour - Laughter
‘laugh when I laugh’
‘I would then have a mathematical instrument made for her face, that she might not laugh out of compass.’
‘A most perverse and turbulent nature.’
Female power - the Duchess’s influence
‘She stains the time past, lights the time to come.’
Espionage - Ferdinand and his sister
‘observe the Duchess To note all the particulars of her ‘haviour’
Espionage - Bosola’s role as an informant
‘devil in flesh. An intelligencer.’
Corruption - Bosola’s position in relation to Ferdinand
‘I am your creature.’
Misogyny - the Duchess’s killer response to Ferdinand
‘Diamonds are of most value, They say, that have past through most jeweller’s hands.’
Misogyny - towards widows
‘Farewell, lusty widow!’
Female power - imperatives
‘Take pen and ink and write.’
‘Are you ready?’
‘What did I say?’
Corruption - Antonio’s view on ambition
‘Ambition, madam is a great man’s madness.’
Female power - the Duchess and what she has to do in response to inadequacy of men
‘We are forced to woo, because none dare woo us.’
Loyalty/Friendship - Delio and Antonio
‘Old friends, like old swords, still are trusted best.’
Misogyny/Corruption - Cardinal’s behaviour towards Julia
Cardinal’s use of imperatives with Julia - ‘Sit’
‘Though art a witty, false one.’
Misogyny - Ferdinand’s words for his sister (tricolon!)
‘A sister damned: she’s loose i’ th’ hilts; Grown a notorious strumpet.’
‘vile woman’
Madness/Sickness - Ferdinand’s graphic imagery regarding the Duchess’s heart
‘her bleeding heart I make a sponge To wipe it out.’
Madness/Paranoia - Ferdinand about imagining the Duchess in the act
‘Methinks I see her laughing… To see her in the shameful act of sin.’
Madness - Ferdinand about the Duchess’s child
‘to boil their bastard to a cullis And giv’t his lecherous father to renew The sin of his back.’
Role of women - how is the Duchess doing?
‘She’s an excellent Feeder of pedigrees.’
- her maternal role as a bearer of children, Antonio reinforces her role.
Madness/Status/Women - The Duchess’s position in the eyes of Ferdinand
‘The witchcraft lies in her rank blood.’
rank - double entendre
Vulnerability - the Duchess and her looks
‘When I wax grey I shall have all the court Powder their hair arras to be like me.’
- powerful vanity, awareness, flaw
Female power - the Duchess’s stoicism
‘I can do both like a prince.’
Female power - why is the Duchess being treated like a holy relic?
‘Why should only I, Of all the other princes of the world, Be cased up like a holy relic?’
Female power - the Duchess creating a plan and putting herself forward
‘I have fashioned it already.’
Vulnerability - the Duchess confides in Bosola and falls into his trap
‘Oh, you render me excellent music!’
- when Bosola flatters Antonio
