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    The Duchess of Malfi
    The Duchess of Malfi
    The Duchess of Malfi
    Ebook192 pages1 hour

    The Duchess of Malfi

    By John Webster

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    The evils of greed and ambition overwhelm love, innocence, and the bonds of kinship in this dark tragedy, first presented circa 1613. John Webster's great Jacobean drama focuses on a secret marriage that strikes the disastrous spark to an inferno of violence. When the Duchess of Malfi marries Antonio, a household steward, her two fiendishly jealous brothers ― hoping to inherit her title and estates ― plant a household spy whose treachery leads to a bloody and horrifying climax.
    Often compared to Shakespeare in terms of his dynamic plots and poetic lyricism, Webster created radical, profoundly original works that feature shifting perspectives and thought-provoking challenges to conventional moral judgments. Required reading for courses in seventeenth-century English literature, this provocative masterpiece from the Golden Age of English drama will not only be welcomed by students and teachers of English literature but also a wide audience of general readers.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDover Publications
    Release dateJun 11, 2012
    ISBN9780486157771

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    Reviews for The Duchess of Malfi

    3.5/5

    179 ratings11 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Women shucking the trappings of social organization, and dukes who might be werewolves? Yes, yes please.
    • 5/5
      Women shucking the trappings of social organization, and dukes who might be werewolves? Yes, yes please.
    • 2/5
      I'm torn over what I think about this play. On the one hand, there are some wonderful characterizations and character development in the play. Bosolo, the Steward of the household of the Duchess, has some wonderfully funny and poetic lines. In fact, he has some of the best lines in the play and is perhaps is one of the best written characters of the play.

      One the other hand, the plot of the play is threadbare in places and has huge gaps in it in other places, which detracts from the character development, the plays on language/words, and the dialogue.
    • 4/5
      Incredible characters, twisted plot and characters, and an admirable female protagonist with some great lines.
    • 4/5
      This review contains spoilers.That John Webster's birth records were quite probably destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666 is a fitting biographical fact in light of reading "The Duchess of Malfi." It perfectly highlights the senseless destruction, both physical and spiritual, that permeates this play. The duplicity, violence, and familial division rival anything that you can find in Shakespeare. While the poetry itself doesn't quite reach the Shakespearean firmament in its baroque floridity, the language is wonderful, and just as full of double entendre and puns as the greatest of Shakespeare's plays are.The action is relatively straightforward. The Duchess of Malfi, whose overbearing brothers Ferdinand and the Cardinal insist that she never re-marry for fear that they might have to share her wealth with someone else, disobeys them and asks Antonio, one of her stewards, to marry her. Several years pass, during which the Duchess has two children by Antonio, while the brothers remain ignorant of the marriage, but they eventually find out. In an attempt to escape Ferdinand's wrath, Antonio flees to Ancona. Bosola, the Cardinal's goon, chases them in hot pursuit. The Duchess, her two younger sons, and her female servant are all killed on Bosola's instruction. Bosola, long upset by the Cardinal's venality, decides to revenge the Duchess and her children. The Cardinal, after murdering his mistress to keep her quiet, plans to kill Bosola, too, but instead kills Antonio who has since returned to Malfi. Just to drive home the idea of complete and utter wanton cruelty, the Cardinal, Ferdinand, and Bosola all die in a final melee. Just when you think all hope is lost, the Duchess' oldest son appears on stage in the final scene to take charge of a court that has destroyed itself because of its singular bloodlust. However, Webster leaves little room for the reader to imagine matters getting any better.While Bosola seems like he might be the least interesting character because he has the least qualms with murder, he shows some interesting moments of moral ambiguity and even clarity, which makes his development interesting to watch. Needless to say, by the end, you're left feeling rent in two by the treachery, deceit, and duplicity of it all. The Duchess' son does not provide the necessary Aristotelian catharsis, and instead of a court being wholly purged of bad seeds, you feel that that he will end up a young victim in further machinations, another courtly pawn.While others seem to not have appreciated the introduction and editorial notes, I rather enjoyed them and thought they shed some light on the production, composition, and historical background (yes, this is based on historical events - can you imagine?) As the footnotes are located at the bottom of the page, you don't have to flip back and forth between pages - one of my bête noirs when it comes to Penguin Classics editions. All in all, I look forward to reading more New Mermaids in the future, and I especially appreciate their effort at trying to revive Elizabethan and Jacobean drama.
    • 5/5
      Reread for a class I am teaching. This is one of my all-time favorite Jacobean tragedies. Forbidden passions, secret marriages, spies, incestuous feelings, political machinations, a malcontent, lycanthropy, torture, and murder--and on top of it all, excellent writing. What more can you ask? I love teaching this play because it touches on all the aspects of the genre and of early modern court society that are so significant to understanding the period. Daniel de Bosola is my second all-time favorite villain (the first being Edmund in King Lear); I had the good chance of seeing him played by Ian McKellan at the National in 1985.Ferdinand: Women like that part that hath not a bone in it.Duchess: Fie, sir!Ferdinand: I mean the tongue.(How can you not love it?)I just wish there was a DVD version. Back in the 1970s I saw a television production starring Vanessa Redgrave, but so far, it is not available. I'm waiting for one of those BBC collections--"Vanessa Redgrave at the BBC"--to come out. They've done them on Helen Mirren, Judi Dench, and Maggie Smith, and the series is wonderful; that's how I've gotten ahold of some of the classic plays that I teach ('Tis Pity She's a Whore, The Country Wife, etc.). But so far, the students have been enjoying reading scenes aloud.
    • 4/5
      This is great example of a Jacobean tragedy. There is the virtuous woman, betrayed by her greedy and malicious brothers. There is the instrument of evil deeds that is redeemed (but not saved from his own untimely death). There are the requisite ending scenes full of dead bodies and profound speeches from said dying persons. There are some famous lines ("Mine eyes dazzle: she di'd too young" is one that jumped out at me). Drama as a genre isn't one I turn to for entertainment, but this was definitely worth the re-read.
    • 4/5
      When the Duchess of Malfi is widowed, her two brothers are insistent that she not remarry, leaving her fortune intact for them. She remarries, but in secret, to a commoner, and they keep their secret long enough for her to bear three children. Eventually, though, they are betrayed, and by a trusted friend, the desperately ambitious Bosola. The play reminded me of Othello, being similar in the sheer quantity of murders and in increasingly overwrought behavior of everyone involved. This was a surprisingly easy play to read. The play jumps forwards in time without explanation and the character development is minimal, but it's certainly entertaining.
    • 4/5
      Other sins only speak, murder shreiks out:
      The element of water moistens the earth,
      But blood flies upwards and bedews the heavens.

      Oh mercy, revenge upon the cursed Vengeful in five sumptuous acts of poetry, racy bits and bloodshed. The initial revengers are a creepy pair of powerful brothers miffed that their sis has moved on from bereavement and is now happily shacking up. They enlist the world's most literate assassin for the wet work. I began this a month ago and made it half way. I started over and completed the piece this evening. Touch your caps to the lyrical wizardry of John Webster. Extra points should be awarded for use of a poisoned book.
    • 4/5
      Read in preparation for an Open University course.Again (just also read 'Othello') lots of plotting, deceit and killing. Fascinating that the work 'puke' (for vomit) has been around for 400 years - who knew?
    • 4/5
      This creep-o macabre drama really appeals to my sick sense of humor. While I hate to admit it, I often have a difficult time getting into literature pre-dating the nineteenth century (blasphemous, I know!) However, this play, like much of Shakespeare's work, is full of poignant observations that remind one of the consistency in human nature over centuries, for better or for worse.

    Book preview

    The Duchess of Malfi - John Webster

    ACT I

    Scene I

    The presence-chamber in the DUCHESS’S palace at Malfi.

    Enter ANTONIO and DELIO.

    DELIO. You are welcome to your country, dear Antonio;

    You have been long in France, and you return

    A very formal Frenchman in your habit.

    How do you like the French court?

    ANTONIO. I admire it;

    In seeking to reduce both state and people

    To a fixed order, their judicious king

    Begins at home; quits first his royal palace

    Of flattering sycophants, of dissolute

    And infamous persons,—which he sweetly terms

    His master’s master-piece, the work of Heaven:

    Considering duly that a prince’s court

    Is like a common fountain, whence should flow

    Pure silver drops in general, but if ’t chance

    Some cursed example poison ’t near the head,

    Death and diseases through the whole land spread.

    And what is ’t makes this blessed government

    But a most provident council, who dare freely

    Inform him the corruption of the times?

    Though some o’ the court hold it presumption

    To instruct princes what they ought to do,

    It is a noble duty to inform them

    What they ought to foresee.—Here comes Bosola,

    The only court-gall; yet I observe his railing

    Is not for simple love of piety:

    Indeed, he rails at those things which he wants;

    Would be as lecherous, covetous, or proud,

    Bloody, or envious, as any man,

    If he had means to be so.—Here’s the cardinal.

    Enter CARDINAL and BOSOLA.

    BOSOLA. I do haunt you still.

    CARDINAL. So.

    BOSOLA. I have done you better service than to be slighted thus. Miserable age, where only the reward of doing well is the doing of it!

    CARDINAL. You enforce your merit too much.

    BOSOLA. I fell into the galleys in your service; where, for two years together, I wore two towels instead of a shirt, with a knot on the shoulder, after the fashion of a Roman mantle. Slighted thus! I will thrive some way: blackbirds fatten best in hard weather; why not I in these dog-days?

    CARDINAL. Would you could become honest!

    BOSOLA. With all your divinity do but direct me the way to it. I have known many travel far for it, and yet return as arrant knaves as they went forth, because they carried themselves always along with them. [Exit CARDINAL] Are you gone? Some fellows, they say, are possessed with the devil, but this great fellow were able to possess the greatest devil, and make him worse.

    ANTONIO. He hath denied thee some suit?

    BOSOLA. He and his brother are like plum-trees that grow crooked over standing-pools; they are rich and o’er-laden with fruit, but none but crows, magpies, and caterpillars feed on them. Could I be one of their flattering panders, I would hang on their ears like a horseleech, till I were full, and then drop off. I pray, leave me. Who would rely upon these miserable dependancies, in expectation to be advanced tomorrow? what creatures ever fed worse than hoping Tantalus?¹ nor ever died any man more fearfully than he had hoped for a pardon. There are rewards for hawks and dogs when they have done us service; but for a soldier that hazards his limbs in a battle, nothing but a kind of geometry is his last supportation.

    DELIO. Geometry!

    BOSOLA. Ay, to hang in a fair pair of slings, take his latter swing in the world upon an honorable pair of crutches, from hospital to hospital. Fare ye well, sir: and yet do not you scorn us; for places in the court are but like beds in the hospital, where this man’s head lies at that man’s foot, and so lower and lower. [Exit.

    DELIO. I knew this fellow seven years in the galleys

    For a notorious murder; and ’twas thought

    The cardinal suborned it: he was released

    By the French general, Gaston de Foix,

    When he recovered Naples.

    ANTONIO. ’Tis great pity

    He should be thus neglected: I have heard

    He’s very valiant. This foul melancholy

    Will poison all his goodness; for, I’ll tell you,

    If too immoderate sleep be truly said

    To be an inward rust into the soul,

    It then doth follow want of action

    Breeds all black malcontents; and their close rearing,

    Like moths in cloth, do hurt for want of wearing.

    DELIO. The presence ’gins to fill: you promised me

    To make me the partaker of the natures

    Of some of your great courtiers.

    ANTONIO. The lord cardinal’s,

    And other strangers’ that are now in court?

    I shall.—Here comes the great Calabrian duke.

    Enter FERDINAND, CASTRUCCIO, SILVIO, RODERIGO, GRISOLAN, and ATTENDANTS.

    FERDINAND. Who took the ring oftenest?

    SILVIO. Antonio Bologna, my lord.

    FERDINAND. Our sister duchess’s great-master of her household? give him the jewel.—When shall we leave this sportive action, and fall to action indeed?

    CASTRUCCIO. Methinks, my lord, you should not desire to go to war in person.

    FERDINAND. Now for some gravity:—why, my lord?

    CASTRUCCIO. It is fitting a soldier arise to be a prince, but not necessary a prince descend to be a captain.

    FERDINAND. No?

    CASTRUCCIO. No, my lord; he were far better do it by a deputy.

    FERDINAND. Why should he not as well sleep or eat by a deputy? This might take idle, offensive, and base office from him, whereas the other deprives him of honor.

    CASTRUCCIO. Believe my experience, that realm is never long in quiet where the ruler is a soldier.

    FERDINAND. Thou toldest me thy wife could not endure fighting.

    CASTRUCCIO. True, my lord.

    FERDINAND. And of a jest she broke of a captain she met full of wounds: I have forgot it.

    CASTRUCCIO. She told him, my lord, he was a pitiful fellow, to lie, like the children of Ismael, all in tents.²

    FERDINAND. Why, there’s a wit were able to undo all the surgeons o’ the city; for although gallants should quarrel, and had drawn their weapons, and were ready to go to it, yet her persuasions would make them put up.

    CASTRUCCIO. That she would, my lord.—How do you like my Spanish jennet?³

    RODERIGO. He is all fire.

    FERDINAND. I am of Pliny’s opinion,⁴ 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!

    FERDINAND. Why do you laugh? methinks you that are courtiers should be my touchwood, take fire when I give fire; that is, laugh but when I laugh, were the subject never so witty.

    CASTRUCCIO. True, my lord: I myself have heard a very good jest, and have scorned to seem to have so silly a wit as to understand it.

    FERDINAND. But I can laugh at your fool, my lord.

    CASTRUCCIO. He cannot speak, you know, but he makes faces: my lady cannot abide him.

    FERDINAND. No?

    CASTRUCCIO. Nor endure to be in merry company; for she says too much laughing, and too much company, fills her too full of the wrinkle.

    FERDINAND. I would, then, have a mathematical instrument made for her face, that she might not laugh out of compass.—I shall shortly visit you at Milan, Lord Silvio.

    SILVIO. Your grace shall arrive most welcome.

    FERDINAND. You are a good horseman, Antonio: you have excellent riders in France: what do you think of good horsemanship?

    ANTONIO. Nobly, my lord: as out of the Grecian horse⁵ issued many famous princes, so out of brave horsemanship arise the first sparks of growing resolution that raise the mind to noble action.

    FERDINAND. You have bespoke it worthily.

    SILVIO. Your brother, the lord cardinal, and sister duchess.

    Scene II

    Re-enter CARDINAL and FERDINAND, with DUCHESS and CARIOLA.

    CARDINAL. Are the galleys come about?

    GRISOLAN. They are, my lord.

    FERDINAND. Here’s the Lord Silvio is come to take his leave.

    DELIO. Now, sir, your promise; what’s that cardinal?

    I mean his temper? they say he’s a brave fellow,

    Will play his five thousand crowns

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