Third Paragraph Flashcards
Where is it set?
‘Ruins of an ancient abbey’
- ruined abbeys reflect the times in England, as a result of the dissolution of the monasteries after the reformation in Henry v111’s reign
- English landscape feature, not an Italian one
What might the abbey act as a symbol of
A symbol of demolished power, reflecting Antonio’s impoverished state
- may also be emblematic of aristocratic heritage, affirming Antonio’s noble status and virtue
Who was Webster an admirer of?
Prince Henry, James oldest son
What happened to Henry?
He died at 18 due to typhoid fever
- Webster write an elegy
- ‘a monumental column’ - echoed in DOM
What is the quote about Henry?
‘Stain the time past, and light the time to come’
Quote about duchess grave
‘From the duchesses grave’ - sound to Antonio ‘like my wife’s voice’ and then ‘on the sudden a clear light [shows him] a face folded in sorrow’
Striking in performance
Middleton’s ‘the lady’s tragedy’
- play licences a week before Henry’s deaths- unusual stage effect that inspired Webster’s own vision of light of fame bursting from the Princes death tomb
Why is the duchess’s grave placed in a prospect of ruins?
To show how Henry’s death reduces the architecture of worldly pride to collapse
duchesss persistence ‘beyond death’
Represented by an echo and the mysterious ‘clear light’ from her grave - set against Bosola’s ‘deep out of darkness’ and the grim silence of the burial place to which he sees himself consigned
