The Merchant's Prologue & Tale & The Duchess of Malfi - Summary, Exam Board & Keywords

The Merchant’s Prologue & Tale General Context [1387-1400] -​ Chaucer from mercantile background →same social background -​ Richard II reigning = troubled time [100 Years War + Peasants’ Revolt] -​ The Great Schism →dissatisfaction with Catholic church -​ England = extremely rigid i...

The Merchant’s Prologue & Tale General Context [1387-1400] -​ Chaucer from mercantile background →same social background -​ Richard II reigning = troubled time [100 Years War + Peasants’ Revolt] -​ The Great Schism →dissatisfaction with Catholic church -​ England = extremely rigid in social hierarchy -​ Religion dominated societal action + Catholic church centre of politics/economics/everything -​ 1st Estate [Church]/2nd Estate [Lords/nobles/knights]/3rd Estate [workers/peasants/farmhands] -​ No movement between estates bar marriage → women had more social mobility -​ ‘Merchants’ = new economic group outside 3 Estates → made money from buying/selling goods [early capitalism] →merchants viewed suspiciously -​ Clergy vehemently opposed merchant activities →against God’s will + greedy → blamed for natural catastrophes by public [punishment from God] -​ 13th + 14th centuries merchants’ role = more entrenched in society →peasants purchased goods from them as nobility became richer -​ Noblemen = spendthrifts/merchants = misers -​ Up until late 1300s England = feudal economy -​ Sumptuary laws: Statute Concerning Diet & Apparel →detailed dress style each class ‘allowed’ to wear -​ Medieval audience familiar with 10 Commandments + 7 Deadly Sins -​ Purgatory adopted as official Catholic doctrine →time of suffering to expiate sins shortened →penance [pilgrimage]/paying for sung masses -​ Men had legal/financial/theocratic power -​ ‘The Clerk’s Tale’ Italian marquis marries beautiful Griselda who promises ≠ disobey him, marquis has urge to test faithfulness →takes away 2 babies + says will be murdered →Griselda accepts →pretends marriage = annulled + insists Griselda attends new wedding of young wife →Griselda remains patient →rewarded with 2 children return + eternal faithfulness Marquis -​ ‘TCT’ intention = encourage obedience to husbands -​ Chaucer’s adaptation ‘TCT’ = Clerk compares Griselda to Job [good family man beset with disasters →take away offspring/health/property] →Clerk suggests Griselda’s suffering = undeserved as Job’s + = patient/humble like Old Testament character →Clerk insists story objective ≠ inspire husbands to test wives →Chaucer’s story [unlike Petrarch] shows blunt disapproval of Walter’s behaviour →anti-misogynist message -​ ‘TCT’ → Griselda → perfect wife full of patience →men win ? -​ ‘TWoBT’ [wealthy widow] →successful marriage relies on husband giving wife ‘sovereignty’ → women win ? -​ ‘TMT’ →compromise →women get sovereignty/men must have patience →Pluto & Prosperpina →battle of the sexes  -​ ‘TWoBT’ : 2 good husbands [rich/old/easily controlled] {J} , suggests use God-given gifts →have power over husbands {M = wit}, man King Arthur’s court rapes wife + wife says he may live if finds out what women really want [same sovereignty over husband as lover], man + crone marry →she ca be beautiful/unfaithful / ugly/good wife, man lets her decide →fair + faithful →let women have control →women = pleased when in charge -​ ‘TMT’ forces us to appreciate the flaws in all → playing with our perception altering degree of sympathy throughout poem [May scratched J’s beard/scheming adulterer] →shows ‘general opinions’ e.g. “all women = deceptive” are false ? Fabliau -​ Popular 14th century France -​ Often anti-women/church + bleak/cynical -​ Wordplay + puns -​ Salacious discussion of sexual matters -​ Sometimes considered ‘amoral’ [without moral point] -​ Chaucer offers notion all marriages founded on deception/selfishness →eternal conflict battle of the sexes → bathetic reality of married life →reflected in chaucer’s compromise between fabliau/courtly love genres -​ Chaucer ≠ assign any character morally/binarily good/evil →complex moral landscape →all possess cruel traits -​ Deceit = necessary → preserve functional marriage ? [Merchant] -​ Standard theme = adulterous repressed wife Courtly Love -​ Literary conception of love →emphasised nobility + chivalry -​ Popularised by Dante’s Divine Comedy + Boccaccio’s Decameron -​ Dante & Beatrice = biggest love story 13th century →most popular forbidden fruit couple : D in love with B for 9 years without confessing, tried to make B jealous with attention of other women, B married another man after meeting D 1 last time, D = distraught upon hearing B’s death → Divine Comedy inspired by desire reunite with her in heaven -​ Knights adventuring →devotion to beloved →chases + ‘wins’ woman -​ Experience between erotic desire + spiritual attainment -​ Trope of clandestine love popular in myth/literature -​ Chaucer = satyrical/parody of courtly love →combines courtly love + fabliau -​ “He made a gardyn, walled al with stoon” →becomes increasingly possessive of May + “he that wroot the Romance of the Rose” →Chaucer translated some of medieval French allegory →based on courtly love →poet’s lady = rosebud in garden + unattainable /May →J’s hubris + M&D courtly lovers = comic -​ “Bille…in the pryvee softely it caste” →Chaucer on courtly love →critique →unrealistic genre -​ ‘Morally elevating’ Women -​ Medieval women burdened by Eve’s legacy →responsibility of women for ‘original sin’ reflected in medieval art [female headed serpent] -​ ‘Adam & Eve’ underscored belief women = inferior sex + morally weaker + more prone to deception/temptation/disobedience -​ Medieval epitome of womanhood = Mary →highlights to modern reader resounding expectation of chastity/silence/obedience -​ Virgin-Whore Dichotomy →women presented as evil sinner [Eve]/virtuous + virginal [Mary] →May combines 2 diametrically opposite roles [affair/eyes of J] -​ Women often married very young to older men →Chaucer’s granddaughter Alice married at 11 yrs to Sir John Philips [25 yrs+] -​ Law of coverture → once married woman became one with husband + all property his possession [May reverses →empowerment] -​ Widows might gain modicum of autonomy once husbands died →legally could inherit ⅓ estate /hard to retain in reality →claimed by others -​ January wants “tendre veel” or “young flesh” not “old boef” or “old fish” -​ Medieval society understanding of human body = justification for women’s inferiority →until mid 18th century believed women + men possessed same fundamental reproductive structure -​ Ancient Greek anatomist Galen →same anatomical structures but women = imperfect version of male body [less heat present during conception] -​ Galen believed sexual desire = uncontrollable →wombs = ‘cold’ + needed constant warming by ‘hot’ sperm -​ also argued if women ≠ sex →blood coagulate + suffocate wombs →medical need regular sex →double misogynistic purpose [men believed ‘saving’ women with sex/women = uncontrollably lusty] →serves church purpose men = superior →made up of male priests -​ Galen’s ideas promoted as fact by Catholic church →forced people get married -​ Women categorised by marital status → maiden/wife/nun [‘Bride of Christ’ →metaphor encodes ownership by man to religious identity ] -​ Medieval scholarship shaped by Aristotle [384-322BC, viewed as 1st real scientist] →argued women = “more mischievous…more impulsive…more jealous…more void of shame or self-respect…more deceptive…more difficult to rouse to action” - History of Animals -​ Depictions of ideal women = rare in Medieval literature / ‘The Clerk’s Tale’ [precedes ‘TMT’] →Griselda →mentioned in M’s Prologue →known for “grete pacience” + obedience to husband →highly popular tale Middle Ages→1st appeared Boccaccio’s Decameron [c.1355] + retold by Petrarch [c.1373] -​ Often demonised sexist 14th century literature → Chaucer subtly mocks antifeminist literature like that of Theophrastus -​ Theophrastus stereotype = shrew wife -​ “The tresons whiche that wommen doon to man” -​ “Yit shul we wommen visage it hardily, and wepe, and swerve, and chyde subtilly, so that ye men shul bee as lewed as geese” → Proserpina almost supports view of women as deceptive -​ “Yet hath ther founde may another man wommen ful trewe, ful goode, and vertuous”  -​ May has it all by end : status/money/freedom to have affairs → May wins /women ≠ win →confirms claim all women = deceitful/shallow + all men = sennex amans → all men = foolish [Chaucer ?] -​ The Host’s wife = “shrewish” -​ Misogyny = enabled + tolerated male 13th century audience -​ Only 3 roles titular women are granted in Chaucer’s tales = wife/nun/prioress Biblical Wives -​ Rebecca →deceives blind husband → January goes blind →”love is blind” + “this was his fantasye” -​ Esther →uses beauty to beguile Ahasuerus -​ Judith → never marries but beheads Holofernes -​ Abigail →rose in society after mysterious death of husband + became wife of David -​ Biblical Madonna-whore complex →women mentioned fit both archetypes -​ All have in common deceptiveness/beauty/cunning →prefigure May -​ “Amonges a thousand yet foond I oon, but of wommen alle foond I noon” [Ecclesiastes 7:28] →Pluto cites Bible evidence →infidelity of women Marriage -​ Medieval marriage based on ‘mutual consent’ →simple vow exchange = marriage [‘handfasting’] -​ Late 12th century declared marriage one of the sacraments →tried to introduce more solemn ritual →discourage lack of sincerity in marriage -​ Medieval weddings = joyous/energetic/lots of drinking/eating -​ Marriage as sacrament = destine heaven [sex within marriage →holy procreation act]/hell [wedlock →mortal sin] →”mariage is a ful greet sacrament” -​ “Trewe” wife = loyal [like Abigail] -​ “Trewe knave” = ultimate servant →slavery justified in bible -​ “Fruit of his treasure” + “thy good to kepe, than thyn owene wif” = ultimate piece of property -​ “To kepe him, sik and hool, as is his make” = look after husband in old age -​ Placebo + Justinus →cratylic names →says what one wants to hear + deceives / good + just →reflect popular ‘debate’ genre at time -​ “Heigh fantasie and curious bisyness” →marriage = transaction →beauty for money -​ Parental consent not required →May’s parents never mentioned → May = figment of J’s imagination ? →”fayerye” = fairy-like/not real -​ January + May’s wedding →reference made to Capella’s De nuptiis [5th century prose text describes ideal marriage] →irony + Mercury [reason/logic/intellect] & Philogia [reading/writing] = opposites →irony/foreshadowing →Chaucer seeks to legitimise marriage despite strange circumstances -​ Wives ≠ virtually any rights → ≠ refuse husband sexually/borrow money without husband’s consent/dispose of property [≠ make own will] -​ Marriage seen as solution to ‘problem’ society faced →women’s ‘medical need’ sexual intercourse  -​ Neither man nor wife could deny other ‘repayment’ of ‘conjugal debt’ →law controlled sex life -​ Medieval society forced into marriage →true love must come outside of marriage →courtly love -​ “Wedlock is so esy and so clene, that in this world it is a paradys” →garden represents idealistic views of marriage ? -​ “Made al siker ynough with hoolinesse” →made marriage binding with religion /language suggests insurance policy Anti-misogyny/men -​ Male authority/reliability questioned from outset →Merchant ≠ trusted [“in dette”] -​ Men directly criticised for falling in love →Damyan = “sely” -​ Binding stereotypes about men →J = ‘senex amans’ -​ D = sex object →used for body -​ May given a voice →comedy [not “worth a bene”] = typically male characteristic at time →narrative centralises M -​ Repetition of fire imagery/symbols →destructive nature of desire [“ravysshed”] The Merchant -​ “Forked berd” → very fashionable / deceptive/evil -​ “Flaundrish bever hat”/”he was in dette” -​ “I noot how men him calle” →merchants = name/statusless →don’t belong -​ “Well koude he in eschaunge sheeldes sell” →profits at expense of others →well-versed in deception -​ “This worthy man” → epithet →Chaucer introduces us to his constant irony -​ “I am a rude man” →apologises for crudeness January -​ J’s mirror [spy on marketplace women] shows his shallowness + superficialness → objectification →voyeur + cataphoric reference [foreshadows future mirrors] -​ Religious hypocrite →concerns about not entering heaven as experiencing ‘bliss’ twice [upon seeing May] →Placebo allays fears with reference to ‘Wife of Bath’ + 5 marriages -​ Senex amans [‘aged lover’] stock character classical Greek comedy/medieval lit/drama →old jealous man married young woman + ugly/impotent/puritanical/foolish→usurped by young man [Damyan]→object of mockery -​ J “ravysshed in a traunce” →raped by May’s beauty →has no agency -​ “A man may do no synne with his wyf” →preoccupied about heaven →sympathy 14th century reader -​ “Thikke brussels of his berd unsofte” + “lyk to the skyn of hondfyssh” -​ “Allas! I moot trespace to yow!” -​ ‘Animated Tales’ J crawling + sneaky →lizard like + predatory  -​ J orders May to cheer up Damyan →asserts ownership over her/underscores role of sennex amans →hubris [overconfidence in lovemaking + audience knows D loves May]→dramatic irony -​ “Shoop him to live ful deliciously” + “his housinge, his array…maked as a kinges” -​ “That hadde an hand upon hire everemo” -​ Sexual hubris “al coltish” → bathos “[not] worth a bene” + “wheither hire thoughte it paradys or helle” = litotes →M unimpressed with J’s performance -​ Peripeteia [“for love is blynd alday, and may nat see” = ]“Januarie…is woxen blynd” -​ Anagnorisis “and though that I be jalous, wyte me noght… I may nat …bear to be out of your company” -​ “old , blinde, worthy knight” P of J -​ “This honourable knight..blind and old, his owene man shal make hym cokewold” -​ “Shoop hym to lyve ful deliciously. His housynge, his array…was maked as a kynges” → J references Epicurus → philosophised pleasure = supreme good -​ Comes to love May without attraction [blind] -​ Compares himself to “knave” [servent} when M uses him leverage -​ January = Janus → god of doorways/entrances/exits → often carries key May -​ “Gentilless” + “sadnesse” + “fresshe beautee” -​ Effictio [passage of praise for human body →top-down] → “middel small” + “womanly beringe” -​ “Wise governaunce” →self agency →”sotile clerkes” -​ “Smal degree” = low-status -​ “Feffed in [January’s] lond” having noticed his “riche array” -​ ‘Mayus’ →given masculine suffix → “gouvernance” →self-agency →masculine brain/feminine beauty -​ “Fulfild of alle beautee …he gan hire to menace” →Merchant presenting woman’s beauty as dangerous -​ “Eleyne” = female figure blamed for deaths of many -​ ‘Animated Tales’ May = silent + voiceless →lack of agency →multi-dimensional without speech →nuanced character -​ Consistently “fresshe” →epithet →even after May ≠ virgin →Merchant doesn’t want reader to trust her based on physical appearance →tempting reader fall victim to beauty →repetition = foreshadowing + could be argued “fresshe” = vigour/life [/J] →may ≠ believe lost virginity →poor performance + not in love -​ “This purs hath she inwith hir bosom bid” →objectifies May →draws attention to sexuality -​ Vast majority medieval = uneducated + illiterate /May reads letter →transgressive character -​ “In warm wex hath emprented the cliket” → obtains phallic image →emasculate yonic “wiket” →defeminisation →exploiting empowering masculinity →removed from J -​ May = emasculating agent to J -​ Subverts “gardyn”/”wex”/”cliket” -​ “Gentil May” when giving D own letter →given masculine form adjective Damyan -​ Struck by Venus’ “brond” [burning torch] →’theo mania’ typically used refer “lovesick[ness]” →love for May = curse →common Medieval verse romance strongest love = illicit [outside of marriage] →represent ‘forbidden fruit’ [Heloise & Abelard/Tristan & Iseult/Lancelot & Guinevere] -​ “That he should gobiforn with his cliket”/ “this Damyan thanne hath opened the wicket” -​ Ca “no lenger…endure” life without May →sickness -​ “Lyke to the naddre in bosom sly untrewe” →serpent Garden of Eden persuades Eve deceive God -​ “On Damyan a sign made she” →M controls him →madonna/whore complex -​ “The lechour” -​ “Sely” = innocent/sinful →”she wole alwey seye nay” →humiliation →vitim of deceptive females ? -​ “Lykke to the naddre in bosom sly untrewe” -​ Named after St. Damian →'unmercenaries’ →satirising moral hypocrisy + corruption of Christian values within mercantile society → -​ “Wher that she myghte unto is lust suffise” →lust assigned to D →medieval reader too overwhelming non-medicinal lust The Garden & The Gods -​ Deus ex machina = plot device → problem in story [love triangle] abruptly resolved by unexpected/seemingly unlikely occurrence →resolve otherwise irresolvable plot situation/bring happy ending/comedic device -​ J “made a gardyn, walled al with stoon” = Garden of Eden + desire control May → play god-like figure? -​ Sympathy for J -​ Prosperpina abducted by Pluto + taken underworld when married -​ Prosperpina released by Pluto + allowed spend ⅔ year above ground → duality of May → Goddess of Spring/Underworld -​ P = ‘willing prisoner’ of P →14th century constraining marriage → M ≠ choose J -​ “O thou Fortune unstable!” Merchant characterises fate as fickle → woman with beautiful face/sting in tale → May [“sotile clerkis” + “fresshe beautee” -​ J = “ravysshed in a traunce” -​ “So soore hath Venus hurt hym with hire brond” [Damyan] →female gods empowering May -​ “Alle ye go se this Damyan. Dooth him disport he is a gentil man” →Gods supporting M&D’s affair →fabliau -​ “Were it by destynee or by adventure?” →Merchant : why M responds D’s letter →omniscient ? -​ Roman gods function = polytheistic → battle of the sexes /Abrahamic religions = male god/adultery = sin → no Christianity/perpetuate fabliau genre →less well considered →flawed humans →all characters have foibles -​ “Ne Priapus ne myghte nat suffise…to telle the beautee of the gardyn” →Priapus = God of Gardens /14th century reader also knows = God of sexual potency -​ Pyramus & Thisbe Ovid’s Metamorphoses →lovers always find a way to connect  -​ “Love nyl fynde it out in som manere” →M+D = P+T →conspire fulfil desire despite obstacles -​ Pear/trees = symbol of Hera/female form/associated with breasts + male genetalia Medieval times →aphrodisiac/Lydia & Pyrrhus - Boccaccio’s Decameron →convinces master pear tree = enchanted so they can have sex →symmetrical love triangle to M/D/J -​ “Damyan gan pullen up the smok, and in he throng” → most fabliau moment in poem →women always get better of men -​ J’s sight restored by Pluto/M uses Prosperina’s gift of wit -​ “Ther may ful may a sighte yow begile” M hints at future affairs →J basically grats freedom to have affairs -​ J bending over → marriage = social elevation scheme -​ Wedding better than “Philogie and him Mercurie” -​ “Orpheus, ne of Thebes Amphioun, ne maden nevere swich a melodye” →Orpheus’ music →retrieve wife from underworld yet fails secure freedom →disobeys command not to look back at her → foreshadows J’s own “blind[ness]” to M’s actions →shift between courtly love [mythical/biblical realm]/fabliau [underworld] -​ “Joab” trumpet signalled life/death situations -​ “Theodamus…whan the citee was in doute” →marriage ‘under siege’ by D -​ “Bacus” = Roman god →Christian sacrament of marriage →pagan celebration -​ “Venus laugheth upon every wight” AO5 -​ “The walls and gates of the garden are symbols of the ways in which medieval society sought to control women and their sexuality” - Fiona Dunlop -​ “His garden ‘clyket’ is a bid to put a chastity belt on nature. Inevitably he fails. May becomes increasingly active, engineering her own fertilisation as spring advances” Jackie Shead -​ Bronson - “the ironic bitterness which infects the tale is the result of the transmutation which it undergoes when it is ascribed to its disillusioned narrator” -​ “The detailed elaborations of January’s fantasies about marriage…represent his blind pursuit…of the pleasure principle to the neglect of the reality principle” - Robert J. Kloss → Placebo [‘I shall please’] & Justinus [‘rightful, fair’] → represent internal conflict between superego/ego/id in J -​ “‘The Merchant's Tale is... brutal in its attitude towards domestic and narrative violence against women and bitter in its confrontation with the fact that even violence cannot guarantee masculine dominance' Elaine Tuttle Hansen -​ Tree = yonic/phallic image →ambiguous identities of M/J →polysemy + sexual ambiguity →deconstructed gender identities →J = emasculated cuckolded sennex amans/M = defeminized The Tale of Januarie → operatic adaptation → Philips & Plaice -​ Damyan tries to discourage Januarie's interest in May while Proserpina disapproves of the marriage/Pluto refuses to interfere. May, triumphant after reading Damyan's letter, realises she now has a rich husband and a lover, freeing her from Mistress Wellow. When Januarie is struck blind by Proserpina, he becomes fully dependent on May, jealously guarding their pleasure garden. As autumn arrives, Pluto and Proserpina return to the underworld, taking Januarie with them. In the afterlife, he believes May is carrying his child and pleads for more time, but Pluto refuses, allowing him to die thinking he has left an heir. Marxist J exerting power over M = patriarchal microcosm of tyrant ruling state The Duchess of Malfi General Context -​ First staged 1614 -​ Webster’s knowledge = derived from Painter’s ‘Duchess of Malfy’ [Volume III morality tales] →W weaves similar sympathy for D /W’s poeticism sanitises D’s expression of sexual desire -​ Webster “why might not I marry? I have not gone about in this to create any new world or custom” = Painter “what Lawes be these, where marriage bed…is pursued wyth lyke seuerity, that Murder, Theft, and Adoutry are?” -​ Painter retelling events Bandello Novelle -​ Webster = proto existentialist →≠ offer audience escape from bleak outlook -​ Original written source =? novella Italian writer Bandello -​ Play alludes to corruption King James’ court →set in Catholic Italy →cleared of treasonous implication [increasingly Protestant Britain] -​ Reflects complex moral ambiguity of epoch →corruption of law/order →serves rich + powerful → Calderwood “articulation of a thoroughly Elizabethan theme…the relationship between individual impulse + societal norms” -​ James I ≠ disguise corruption/luxury at political centre /Elizabeth →sharpened satire + stoicism -​ Common theme relationships in domestic/courtly milieu →awry -​ Webster celebrates theatricality →dumb shows/trickery Revenge Tragedy -​ Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy = credited 1st modern revenge tragedy on stage →for public audience →sensational theatricality = popularity →’Kydian formula’ -​ Play-within-a-play/soliloquies/madness/Ghosts [Senecan revenge plots →less popular Jacobean era] -​ Avengers in revenge tragedy = typically protagonists /Duchess = victim →F + C = perpetrators + antagonists -​ Revenge crime surpassing original crime [Hamlet, Titus Adronikus, Seneca] -​ Revenge tragedy ‘inversion’ →women ≠ avengers, but casualties of avengers’ behaviour →Duchess victim of brothers’ revenge desire →tragic conclusion →pessimistic outlook humanity -​ Bacon “revenge is a kind of wild justice” that “puts the law out of office” -​ Elizabethan wanted to exterminate Medieval ‘private justice’ →replace with court → corrupt current state condition -​ Avengers must act outside of social/legal norms →often nobility -​ Most protagonists begin as morally righteous →implied in corruption seek to avenge /Bosola subverts -​ Often explore both personal + political corruption →devious churchmen →individual corruption of leader infecting entire country “like a common fountain…but if’t chance some cursed example poison’t near the head, death and diseases through the whole land spread” [Antonio]  -​ Niccolo Machiavelli [1469-1527]: “[those] who have achieved great things have been those…who have known how to trick men with their cunning…have overcome those abiding my honest principles” -​ Overwhelming mood of play = cynical + contempt -​ Political + personal instability →tragedy →inclusion of lunatics [Ferdinand →wolf + Duchess tortured by madmen] →challenge degree to which anyone = sane -​ Where Shakespeare’s madness = clearer insight/Webster = increasingly bleak moral outlook →insanity denotes chaos + societal divide -​ Prominence of women →central character/trigger for male protagonist’s revenge →special interest in unruly/non-conformist women ≠ meek/passive femininity →sexual liaison [Antonio] -​ Bushnell : Jacobean revenge tragedy “is a symptom of a society in transition, where traditional forms of authority and the nature of law were being questioned” -​ Emphasis on subversive potential of female defiance of patriarchy / retribution at end of plays = equally misogynistic -​ Hoffman + Hamlet include pathetic image woman distressed by madness →less common Jacobean era →TDoM recast as aspect of revenge itself -​ Hamlet = similar to Bosola ? →conflict of conscience/ethics of revenge -​ Soliloquies →forensic interrogation of justice →poses questions to audience -​ Christian ideals of conscience →Old Testament ideals [‘eye for an eye’]/Christian notions of forgiveness -​ Webster brings courtroom onstage →”tragedy offers a radical critique of the existing political order: the court of Amalfi presents in miniature the court of Whitehall…its heedless and heartless pursuit of privilege” [Callaghan] -​ Absolute boundaries of law →shift from rape →incest [later revenge tragedies] →conflict of moral/civil law -​ Degeneration of once-noble protagonist -​ Jacobean/Caroline RTs →protag more often villain /hero -​ Stock characters: ‘Gall’/Malcontent, Machiavel, Ghost, vengeful lover, corrupt Duke -​ Often evoke Christian moral framework towards end -​ “Such a mistake as i have often seen in a play” [5.5] B The Great Chain of Being -​ Play examines class relations within highly stratified society -​ Feudalism + 3 Estates ≠ exist late 1500s -​ Merchant class ≠ ‘outsiders’ + hugely expanded →bourgeoise/’middle class’ -​ Attraction by new artisanal employment opportunities /country estates + agricultural work →city population expansion + theatre boom market -​ Re/formation CoE removed much power from established church + driven Catholicism underground -​ GCoB = still linear + rigid →more ‘climbable’ -​ Feudal →cash economy →attractive Machiavellian behav -​ “Where are your cubs?” [4.1] →sub-human →A’s social class -​ “My hand to help you” + “this goodly roof of yours is too low built; I cannot stand upright in’t” [1.1] →function of marriage as upward mobility mechanism →Jacobean England  -​ “To help your eyesight” [1.1] →expanding A’s vision →scope of world from aristocratic perspective -​ Rise of meritorious figures →marriage →triggered dynastic anxieties [F + C] -​ “ In Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi, early modern audiences were presented with a hypothesis regarding the forms of potential threats to such a dynastic order, as well as speculation about the meritocratic framework that could have replaced it” [Black] -​ Antonio : “black malcontents” = “like moths in cloth” →socially unfixed →sceptical religious/political orthodoxies →threaten established order -​ Spanish codes family honour →’limpieza de sangre” AO5 -​ Dromgoole production the Duchess ≠ opportunistic sexual predator/concealing Machiavellian mind →pleasant/upright/likeable/moral protagonist -​ Duchess actress 1971 RSC production “retained stoic dignity” [reviewer ‘The Listener’] -​ Henderson ‘Death on Stage, Death of the Stage: the Antitheatricality of The Duchess of Malfi’ - “the Duchess represents emergent bourgeois”/”brothers represents aristocratic values of decadent self-display” →product of ideological transition from court →family -​ RSC production ‘Old Lady’ = cast as young maidservant still present on stage when D enters →highlights misogyny + juxtaposes ‘aging’ Duchess →”grey hair” “do i not grow fat?” [AO4 J ≠ older women] -​ A concept abstruse to the modern reader… -​ Power of beauty, preoccupation with pleasure [AO4 →F sado-masochism/wealth/sexual gratification] -​ “James I…placed the entire control of the state in the hands of his young favourite Robert Carr…honours were openly bought and sold; marriages and divorces were steps to political influence” [Lever] -​ Ray “[D’s pregnancies] naturalise + legitimise female rule” -​ Williams RSC Dench + husband played D + F →highlight incestuous relationship -​ Greenwich Production D strangled arms out →crucified -​ Old Vic Theatre cast enter stage masked → celebration Greek theatre + tragedy -​ Dromgoole mirrors danse macabre at end →all mad →director/playwright makes dance →plays role of fate The Duchess -​ Real DoM = Giovanna d’Aragona →under authority 2 brothers/married /husband died /widowed →own DoM -​ Elizabeth I →powerful women ≠ marriage -​ Lady Arabella Stuart [1575-1615] = English noblewoman + possible successor Elizabeth I →married 2nd DoSomerset secretly →King James imprisoned him/her house arrest →captured + imprisoned Tower of London post-escape attempt [during time of plays’ 1st performances] -​ Lucrezia Borgia [1480-1519] →arranged marriages/dead husbands/incest rumours →incestuous relationship brother Cesare/2 husbands mysteriously died/father = pope →mechanism for poltical gain -​ “Noble virtue” →Webster cynical comment on deception of Church/Catholic values/ “so begnigne” -​ Both praised for beauty → ‘victim’ of male gaze [offers different view of silence? →modern reader]] / D deflects male gaze →Madonna-whore complex/Virgin-whore dichotomy [May = Eve, D = Mary →attributed divine qualities {Mary virgin impregnated}] -​ Both writers ridicule traditional expectations of women → “fresshe”/fabliau/Chaucer’s views on courtly love/irony/raise from dead/ Petrarchan poetry/old-fashioned + ridiculous -​ “She stains the time past, lights the time to come” →christian reading →Virgin -​ Duchess’ body used as clock →3 kids →at least 2 years later [3.1] →≠ conform Aristotle’s unities -​ Engages in ‘exogamy’ with Antonio -​ “A scandalous report is spread/touching mine honour” [3.1] -​ “Whether I am doomed to live or die, i can do both like a prince” [3.2] -​ “I would have you lead your Fortune by the hand/unto your marriage bed” [1.2] →enacts common proverb ‘Fortune is blind’ [AO4] -​ “I am acquainted with misery…and Fortune seems only to have her eyesight to behold my tragedy” [4.2] -​ “This is flesh and blood, sir; ‘tis not the figure cut in alabaster/kneels at my husband’s tomb” -​ “Why should I, of all the other princes of the world, be cased up like a holy relic?” [3.2] →D rejects ‘Virgin’ + “princes” echoes Elizabeth I frequently referred herself as ‘king’/’prince’ -​ “I must now accuse you of…Magnanima mensogna; a noble lie” [3.2] D understands legal language -​ “I have got well by you” [3.2] →double entendre children/ironic monetary loss -​ “Your arm, Antonio” [2.1] →relying on male assistance →reduced back into wife/mother →Chaucer has power manipulate characters →power impregnate/marry women →under male control [mirrors courtly/royal power / mocks lack of control brothers have over D?] -​ “Do i not grow fat?” [2.1] /“I have some youth and a little beauty” -​ Wants to confide in Bosola →still human →”flesh and blood” -​ “Furnish her with beads and prayer books” [4.1] →make D ‘Virgin’ again -​ “More perfect in her tears than in her smiles” [4.1] -​ “I’ll starve myself to death” →preoccupation with D’s body -​ Hands “ring” to “help [his] eyesight” [1.1] →proposes to him ? -​ “Here is a present from your princely brothers” / “let me see it” [4.2] → ≠ afraid death -​ D ≠ materialistic → “have my throat cut with diamonds…shot to death with pearls” [4.2] -​ SD: “the Duchess will remove her jewellery and brush her hair in preparation for bed” [3.2] →jewellery forms part of costume →closely identifies class/position →highly stratified society →performative identity ? -​ Diamonds + pearls frequently traded early 17th century  -​ “Diamonds are most value…that have passed through most jewellers’ hands” [1.2] / “whores, by that rule, are precious” -​ ‘Ring’/’diamond’/‘jewel’ commonly represent chastity in Webster’s play -​ “Lusty widow” [1.1] + “strumpet” [3.1] →unfit to wear “coronet of state” of “diamonds”/”pearls” [3.5] -​ “She wanes i’th’cheeck, and waxes i’th’flank” [2.1] →D = visibly pregnant →underlines centrality of erotic identity -​ “Strangling” [4.2] →echoes dumbshow [mime] →strangling muffles →”discourse…full of rapture” [1.2] -​ “I am Duchess of Malfi still” [4.2] →continuity of identity -​ “The Duchess on…Ferdinand” [2.4/5/] →D = complicit F’s incestuous proclivities →power -​ “Loose i’th’hilts” [2.5] -​ “Infected blood” [2.5] -​ “Feigned pilgramage”→Ingram argues D = Machiavellian /her actions ≠ destroy integrity/essential goodness -​ “Thou art a box of wormseed” [4.1] D’s body = seed container -​ “I am making my will… in perfect memory” -​ “Raise yourself…my hand to help you” -​ “You may discover what a wealthy mine I make you lord of” D+A = lust -​ “Fortune seems only to have her eyesight to behold my tragedy” [4.2] Ferdinand -​ Finds ‘suitable’ husband for D →”Malateste” [Cratylic name = ‘bad head’ →Chaucer] →Duchess : “mere stick of candy” →≠ manly enough [Antonio ?] [3.1] →says ≠ imagine D another man →control sex life -​ “What appears in him mirth is merely outside” [1.2] -​ “He ne’er pays debts unless they be shrewd turns” [1.2] -​ “He speaks with others’ tongues and hears men’s suits with others’ ears” [1.2] →generates others’ identity loss →become more himself -​ “Methinks you courtiers should be my touch-wood…laugh when i laugh” [1.1] -​ F’s courtly appearance = “absolute spectacle” [Brooke] “laugh when i laugh” + “the Lord Ferdinand/is going to bed” [3.1] -​ Fantasises other men w/ D “some strong thigh’d bargeman/or one o’th’wood-yard…or else some lovely squire” →F =? homosexual -​ Desires hold the “key” to D’s body/sex life/access → “i entered you into my heart, before you would vouchsafe to call for the key” [3.2] -​ Seeks to control D →control himself [“twins” → blood] →if Duchess = sexually promiscuous/inter-class relations →F exposed to ‘contamination’ -​ “The howling of a wolf is music to thee, screech owl!” [3.2] -​ “You have shook hands with Reputation and made him invisible” [3.2] →F = incessantly preoccupied by ‘Reputation’ -​ Legitimises D’s 1st son “nephew” /eldest son posed threat both brother’s →Cardinal wants estate/F wants D’s love [competing with son/symbol of other love] -​ Sado-masochistic -​ D’s son = threat to F →replaces him →Freudian  -​ F’s insanity first apparent [2.5] D’s son →Cardinal accuses of “deformed…beastly…rupture” →incestuous desire -​ “Cover her face - mine eyes dazzle” [4.2] → D = twin →staring into face own mortality -​ Lycanthropy →id/physical representation subhuman morality/contrasts D’s continuity of identity -​ “Rhubarb! Oh, for rhubarb to purge this choler!” [2.5] -​ “Till of her bleeding heart i make a sponge” [2.5] -​ “Damn her! That body of hers…my blood ran pure in’t” [4.1] →sado-masochistic →enjoys feeling D’s pain -​ “My sister, oh, my sister - there’s the cause on’t” [5.4] The Cardinal -​ “Melancholy churchman” [1.1] →illustrates division of power/Christian morality -​ Possesses all Machiavellian traits: ruthlessness/manipulativeness/creativity [poisoned bible]/treacherous secrecy -​ Juxtaposes Ferdinand’s passion →”i am weary of her and by any means/would be quit off” [5.2] -​ Acts as foil to F → “infected blood” + “cunning bawds” /”you fly beyond reason…i can be angry without this rupture” -​ “There is not in nature a thing that makes man so deformed, so beastly, as doth intemperate anger” [2.5] →foreshadows F →wolf -​ “Doth she make religion her riding hood to keep her from the sun and tempest?” [3.3] irony as Cardinal used religion as hypocritical protection against misfortune also -​ D’s son [2.2] threat →inheritance -​ Widower’s love “lasts no longer than the turning of an hour-glass” [1.1] →D = site of dynastic vulnerability -​ “Piteous melancholy” [2.4/5 ] → sense of company in J + C’s relationship -​ “You told me of a piteous wound i’th’heart, and a sick liver when you wooed me first” [2.3] →overused Petrarchan poetry imagery -​ “Shall our blood, the royal blood of Aragon and Castile, be thus attainted?” [2.5, D’s newborn] spaniards particularly insistent ‘limpieza de sangre’ →King Ferdinand + Isabela united blood Aragon + Castile →KF = cousin of grandfather of D + brothers -​ Antonio believes “the devil speaks” in C’s words [1.2] -​ “With such violence he took off her finger?” “twas her wedding ring” [3.4] -​ “Fortune makes this conclusion general ‘all things do help th’unhappy man to fall’” [3.4] -​ “Oh, my conscience! I would pray now but the devil takes away my heart for having any confidence in prayer [5.4] -​ C attempts hide severity F’s madness [5.4] → reputation obsessed →tragic irony -​ “How tedious is a guilty conscience!” [5.4] -​ “It seems thy greatness was only outward” [B, 5.5] illusion of status [J ] Bosola -​ ‘Everyman’ →audience can relate →earliest ‘antihero’ literature/drama ? -​ “I observe his railing is not for simple love of piety” [1.1]  -​ Moral conflict →despises those who thrive in courtly milieu / desires material prosperity enjoyed -​ “I will thrive some way” -​ “Blackbirds fatten best in hard weather, why not I, in these dog days?” [] -​ Once was “fantastical scholar” [3.3] -​ “I look no higher than i can reach” -​ “Black malcontent…foul melancholy will poison all his goodness” -​ “I would hang on their ears like a horse-leech till i were full” →James I sold court titles →fund lavish expenditure →court sycophantism -​ “7 years in the galleys for a notorious murder…the Cardinal suborned it” →Machiavellian -​ “Apricocks” →could have caused miscarriage -​ “Lecherous, covetous, and proud” [A of B] -​ “Who’s throat must I cut ?” -​ Audience made to believe Bosola = stage Machiavel →illusion →Ferdinand ? →commissions all espionage -​ Calls D’s children “three bastards” -​ “Now for this act I am certain to be raised, and men that paint weeds - to the life - are praised” [3.1] →critiques Machiavellian mindset/social climbing →overrides conscience →equally Malcontent/Machiavelli →reflects Virgin-Whore dichotomy -​ Tells of D’s marriage to A ‘sotto voce’ →≠ want snitch →conflict between M/M + Bosola will always fail →big news of war already broken →B = pathetic [3.3] + war = wider reflection internal conflict [insignificance family squabble ?] -​ Ridicules Catruccio [Placebo, cratylic name →castrated] has young/beautiful/adulterous wife →senex amans -​ Ridicules ‘Old Lady’ [2.1] →misogynistic →”scurvy-face physique” = ‘The Ugly Duchess’ Matys + mocks again [2.2] -​ Bosola gains conscience →”come, you must live…remember you are a Christian” + “look you - the stars shine still” /saviour complex ? [saving damsel] -​ A calls B “impudent snake” →claims praying reason for wandering D’s lodgings at night -​ ≠ “go no farther in your cruelty” [4.1] -​ “Some other strangle the children” [4.2] →acts out command F ≠ ask him to -​ “I was distracted of my wits” [4.2] →F ≠ want B kill her →B fails again -​ “Furnish her with beads and prayer books” [4.1] -​ “I would not change my peace of conscience for all the wealth of Europe” [4.2] -​ “Shall i go sue to Fortune any longer? ‘Tis the fool’s pilgrimage” [5.2] →recognises wealth ≠ worth it -​ “Off, my painted honour!” [5.4] B wants to rid of ‘Machiavellian mask’ →D’s revival →Manchester Royal Exchange B takes off mask -​ “Break, heart!” + “‘twas the Cardinal’s voice” + “thy fair Duchess and 2 sweet children…are murdered!” [5.4] B meant to kill A -​ “We are merely the stars’ tennis balls, struck and banded which way please them” [5.4] Antonio -​ “A slave, that only smell’d of ink and counters” [3.3]  -​ “Ambition, madam, is a great man’s madness” [1.1] →A = honest →worked for D long time + risen highest position non-aristocrats [steward] -​ A refuses B’s request turn himself in →cowardly →irony as D rejects Malateste for lack of masculinity [3.5] -​ Returns from Milan cowardly + selfish reason →retrieve money believe rightfully his [5.1] -​ “And what from you?” D speaks on behalf of A →lack of masculinity -​ “Base, low fellow” [3.5] -​ “You are a Lord of Misrule” “indeed, my rule is only in the night” [3.2] →previous editions “Misse-rule” as pun on ‘Mistress’ →ruled by D →”LoM” = temporary ruler often lower status /those he governs -​ “This trophy of a man” [3.2] suggests A = merely ‘trophy’ to D -​ Bloodshot eye [1.2] = nosebleed [2.3] →menstruation →feminised -​ So low GCoB ≠ conceivable could be father →B thinks = “bawd”/middleman [2.3] -​ “You’ll find it impossible to fly your fate” [5.3] impossible avoid fate -​ “Let my son fly the courts of princes” [5.4] -​ “For to live thus is not indeed to live…i will not henceforth save myself by halves; lose all or nothing!” [5.3] A’s most masculine moment -​ 16th century = feudal obligations were increasingly displaced by contractual relations between masters & servants→nature of structures of service = changing→'Steward’ more potent social + political identity→ unstable/subversive -​ Hainsworth - Stewards, Lords and People → “the Stuart era saw [the Steward] rise to far greater prominence” Julia -​ “Now i woo you…we that are great woman of pleasure, use to cut off these uncertain wishes and unquiet longings…i should have courted you” [5.2, moving to Bosola] →mirrors D’s “the misery of us that are born great, we are forced to because none dare woo us” [1.1] -​ Castruccio keeps her like an “elephant” well-fed + kissed /strums the “lute” of her body ≠ playing it →impotence [January] -​ Poel Julia = “designed as a set-off to the Duchess; as an instance of unholy love in contrast to the chaste love of the Duchess” -​ Julia = parody of Duchess →fulfilment of Bosola’s + brothers’ degraded vision of D -​ Julia = D’s foil →National Theatre →Julia makes dramatic entrance 1st scene on D’s cue -​ “Though Lust do mask in ne’er so strange disguise, she’s oft found witty, but is never wise” [2.3] B’s lines introduce J to stage “thou art a witty false one!” [Cardinal →J] -​ Delio = J’s paramour →offers money /rejects →love over marriage ? [2.4] -​ J = D →condemned by C for sexual independence/labelled ‘strumpet’/negating loyalty duty to other man -​ “‘Tis gold. Hath it not a fine colour?”/ “I have a bird more beautiful” →Delio tries ‘buying’ J back -​ Pescara gives land + money of D & A → J →becomes interim D →successfully weaponises sexuality →financial rewards /irony →D has land/title/money stripped -​ Bosola & Julia → mirrors D’s choice lower status character → economic freedom + power / both malcontents → J = unhappy marriage/B = “court gall”  -​ “For if i see, and steal a diamond, the fault is not i’th’stone but in me the thief that purloins it” [5.2] -​ ‘Enter J, aiming pistol at B’ [5.2] →phallic symbol of modern technology Delio & Pescara -​ Speaks 1st + last words of play →role of Chorus →moral ‘meta-voice’ -​ Substitutes for audience →new to Malfi court →he + A shape all initial perceptions of court -​ P = Justinus [AO4] → “this land, ta’en from the owner by such a wrong, returns again unto so foul an use” [5.1] -​ Delio = one ‘true’ friend of A →wise + reasonable [AO4 Justinus], takes the role of Duchess in living form →she affirms his advice [“I would not have you go to th’Cardinal’s tonight. Do not.”] -​ “Establish this young hopeful gentleman in’s mother’s right” [5.5] D accidentally repeating cycle Cariola -​ Fears decision to spend night together [D + A] = “madness” →like Justinus -​ “I will die with her” [4.2] →loyal to D /”she bites and scratches” + “I will not die!” [4.2] Women -​ ‘Inconstant’ women -​ Women = body/nature/irrationality →material replaces spiritual focus of Elizabethan revenge tragedies -​ RT Women = constructed as objects of male desire /when act on own desires →objects of male disgust →male sexual anxieties/patriarchal assumption fissures [Ferdinard] -​ Jacobean reinstatement central female figures in revenge narrative ≠ consciously empowering →perpetuate sexist ideologies Renaissance England -​ Femininity = “politically unstable” in the prism of dynasticism →social mobility of marriage [Black] -​ Jacobean widow = “wild card who was not obliged to play by the sexual and social rules” [Bate] + in Jacobean/Elizabethan drama = “free agent” + “she acts instead of being acted on; she delights in setting a plot” -​ Widower’s love “lasts no longer than the turning of an hour-glass” [1.1] →D = site of dynastic vulnerability →husband death = socio-political instability birth [in D] -​ Danger of female sexuality to aristocracy = cuckold trope -​ Renaissance dynastic marriage →woman becomes commerce object passed from father →husband →lack of chastity/illegitimate children →decrease value as trade article for family -​ Webster applies “traditionally masculine… conceptions of heroism to this heroine” [Pachecho & Johnson]  -​ “I pray thee look thou giv’st my little boy some syrup for his cold, and let the girl say her prayers ere she sleep” [4.2] →maternal tenderness →Webster exploits orthodox notions of female virtue -​ Onstage deaths ≠ common female characters -​ Dusinberre → important for men to keep wives submissive →”the household was the microcosm of the State, and women’s subjection a happy paradigm of civil order” -​ ‘An Homily of the State of Matrimony’ →”wife’s duty” + “perform subjugation” →women need husbands → ≠ make own rational decisions [AO4 Galen] -​ “Would he not [the Cardinal] count me a villain?” B / “no, he might count me a wanton, not lay a scruple of offence on you” J [5.2] →weaponises sexuality -​ Protofeminism: D active role courting A/defiance of brothers [“I’ll never marry”]/’heroine’ despite material advantages/demands control over love/sex life -​ Not protofeminist: D views marriage →means to independence/reliance on beauty + wealth + power/plays into female stereotypes →women = ‘lusty’ + ‘deceptive’ [“diamonds are of most value…that have been passed through most jeweller’s hands” -​ Uterus thought to be independent organ →if woman = too passionate →hysteria Men -​ “This was my father’s poniard…i’d be loath to see’t look rusty” →F trying to oppress woman liberated from patriarchal social system with symbol of matriarchal power -​ “The duchess becomes a symbol…of his own radical purity” [Whigham] -​ “Ferdinand as a threatened aristocrat, frightened by the contamination of his ascriptive social rank and obsessively preoccupied with its defense” [Whigham] -​ ‘Ferdinand [shows himself and] gives her a poniard’ →competing with A’s masculinity -​ Peake ”double gendered body on stage” → fluid gender identity → pair share intrinsic connection ≠ only physically [twins] + sexual experience/incestuous impulse → audience = presented with 'shared body' →flattens out gender differences →F inserts himself into D’s body + experience The Malcontent -​ Popular character Jacobean stage →critics attribute large no. middle class men leaving uni good degree →few meaningful job prospects -​ Typically young man unhappy with immoral/corrupt world -​ Often experienced something dreadful/deem unfair →reveals inherent inequality -​ Malcontent = key archetype revenge tragedy →often dispossessed + educated [Bosola = “fantastical scholar”] →Jacobean era scholars = dangerous outsiders →interrogate/undermine consensus -​ Malcontent = character consumed with disgust at corruption + stupidity of courtly society → “only court-gall” The Machiavel -​ Niccolo Machiavelli [1469-1527] = moral relativist  -​ Most famous for treatise ‘The Prince’ →to be powerful one must forgo objective morality -​ Only un/successful actions →all tactics = justifiable →success achievement -​ For self-discipline + distancing from enemy -​ “Wiser buntings” all left by 3.5 →servants all left now D ≠ money → societal commentary →no real friends ≠ ulterior motive →influence of Machiavellian mindset -​ “By what authority didst thou execute this bloody sentence?” [4.2] →C = real M Religion & The Reformation -​ Henry VIII separated English Church from Rome →CofE -​ Protestant reformation sought to challenge Catholic Church + Pope authority →led by Martin Luther →disseminated across Europe -​ CC perceived as corrupt + guilty withholding economic progress →siphoning money for own purpose -​ 3 Estates denouement → less loyalty to old institution →CC + countries ruled = English enemies →corrupt cardinals/wanton nuns = popular caricatures Elizabethan/Jacobean stage -​ Protestantism = less salience of Patriarchs [cardinals]/greater emphasis on learning + reading →God -​ Revenge = base/barbarous/animalistic →Catholic construct →human /divine justice [changing attitudes revenge Jacobean, Bacon {1625}] -​ “This fortification grew from the ruins of an ancient abbey” [5.3] english audience would have evoked ecclesiastical ruins left scattered in landscape post Henry VIII monastery dissolution →many became 16-century noble houses →mirrors C’s change from religious man →military -​ “Loved the church so well…they thought it should have canopied their bones till doomsday” [5.3] →viewed church as so stable →bones safely sheltered until Judgement Day -​ Religious doctrine called for complete obedience on every level of social ladder →State-authorised Homily ‘Concerning Good Order & Obedience to Rulers & Magistrate’ →no “house” can endure social change Death/murder/mortality -​ Not 1 main character survives play -​ References to graves →”you have a pair of hearts are hollow graves, rotten and rotting others” [IV] →”make not your heart so dead a piece of flesh/To fear more than to love me” [I] →irony →Antonio seals death-warrant →marrying Duchess -​ “Your Bosom will be a grave dark and obscure enough…?” [V] -​ “What would it pleasure me to have my throat cut with diamonds, or to be smothered with cassia, or to be shot to death with pearls?” [IV] -​ Juxtaposition between deaths of Cariola/Duchess →social standing →Webster: death = inevitable →levels social playing field -​ “Pull, and pull strongly, for your able strength/Must pull down heaven upon me” [IV] →death as release →heaven [juxtaposed Act I →”heaven”] →stoicism -​ “Nobly…seems rather to welcome the end of misery” [4.1]  -​ “All comfort to your grace” / “I will have none” -​ “Whether we fall by ambition, blood, or lust/Like diamonds we are cut with our own dust” [Ferdinand, V] →moral epiphany -​ Cardinal “die[s] like a leveret” + “help! Help!” →juxtaposes Machiavellian exterior -​ ‘Ars moriendi’ [art of dying] = Christian body of literature →how to die ‘good death’ →ensure salvation →assures audience hope for D’s soul outside corrupt world -​ “But all things have their end; churches and cities, which have diseases like to men, must have like death that we have” [5.3] -​ “I go i know not whither” [5.2] J’s last words Stoicism -​ D has phlegmatic approach to death →stoicism →Webster influenced -​ School of Hellenistic philosophy [3rd century BC] →personal ethics →happiness = accepting moment as presents itself ≠ controlled by pleasure desire/pain fear -​ External [health/wealth/pleasure] = good/bad [adiaphora] -​ “Though in our miseries Fortune have a part, yet in our noble sufferings she hath none” [5.3] Delio -​ “Contempt of pain - that we may call our own” Humorism -​ 17th century medical knowledge still bore imprint of pre-diagnostic thinking →≠ believe in theory →Italy = backwards society →Italian character dictated by 4 humours -​ “Rank gall” [3.2] [B] -​ Post-reformation anti-catholicism →atavism -​ All 4 perfect harmony = healthy/surfeit = predominance certain trait -​ Ancient Greeks/Romans →human body = 4 ‘humors’: 1.​ Blood →sanguine→Antonio 2.​ Yellow bile →choleric→Ferdinand 3.​ Black bile→melancholic→Cardinal/Bosola/Julia 4.​ Phlegm →phlegmatic→Duchess [male characteristic Dumb shows & Masque -​ Device commonly used Jacobean drama = play-within-a-play →distances audience from events →Webster creates double narrative →on stage/relayed by pilgrims →audience = more objective →engage with/make judgements of characters + actions -​ Dumb show = turning point for C →soldier -​ Luckyj “[dumb shows =] site where women and men alike were exposed as performers, dissemblers, hypocrites” →C = religious hypocrisy -​ F commands “masque of common courtesans” [4.2] /more like anti-masque →characters = caricatures + like pantomime stock characters + speak muddled prose  -​ Anti-masque = physical manifestation of madness →visually/mentally absurd →irony →F goes mad /D -​ Death ritual + D’s funeral dirge follows /masque-like ceremony celebrating marriage →Webster inverts conventional theatrical devices -​ Madmen masque = likely inspired by Campion’s The Lords’ Masque [1613 →Princess Elizabeth Stuart’s wedding [to protestant prince] /King James [pacifist] used The Lords’ Masque →redefine wedding as peace symbol /Protestant ambition →Webster critiques Kings’ suppression of reform →growing pessimism -​ Ekeblad: “[4.2 =] a scene which [...] gathers together all the chief themes of the play” -​ D imprisoned own marital chamber [4.2] →site for darkness/death -​ Dismembered hand + ring = severement sacramental marriage bond -​ Aristocracy absent from madmen →reflect aristocratic view of lower stratum →driven to insanity by over-exertion professional faculties -​ According to masque tradition madmen’s performance =? ‘charivari’ →piece performed for women marrying immediately after husband’s death -​ “Don her shrouds” [4.2] →epithalamia [get dressed for wedding] Deception -​ B gives F key to D’s bedchamber →uses ‘agents’ for deception /himself -​ “These presentations are but flawed in wax” [4.1] -​ A announces D = robbed + all household members must stay in room [2.2] →hide birth -​ B appears in disguise [4.2] →intentional →’Old Man’ -​ Renaissance concept of casuistry →moral justification for deception →D = forced adopt brothers’ Machiavellian qualities →protect marriage/children/honour →virtuous machiavel ? -​ “Oh misery, methinks unjust actions should wear these masks and curtains, and not we” [3.2] -​ “Noble lie” [3.2] Corruption & Morality -​ “The law to him is like a foul black cobweb to a spider…a prison to entangle those shall feed him” [1.2, D of F] -​ “The master was actually dependent on the slave for his status as master” [Poster] -​ Antonio King of France = “judicious” [1.1] →everybody = ‘Justinus’ in France -​ Prince’s court = “common fountain…cursed poison near the head, death and diseases through the whole land spread” [1.1] →foreshadows death all characters -​ “A-many hungry guests have fed upon me” [4.2] -​ “Said he was a wolf, only the difference was, a wolf’s skin was hairy on the outside, his was on the inside” [5.2] Doctor Fruit -​ “He [Cardinal] and his brother are like plum trees that grow crooked…they are rich, and o’erladen with fruit” -​ “Apricocks” [2.1] →pregnant women craving/induce labour/cause miscarriage -​ “Daphne, for her peevish slight, became a fruitless bay tree” [3.2] →Ovid Daphne refused Apollo’s advances + fled from him →transformed into laurel [“bay”] tree → D “my laurel is all withered” →disintegration of crown →A ‘flees’/D chooses A over riches [regrets choice ?] →subversion of Ovid/D ‘flees’ from family + rejects proposed control over life Comparisons: Julia & May [promiscuous]​ ​ Cardinal & May [deceptive]​ Delio & Host [frame] January & Castruccio​[cuckolded]​ Duchess & May [female]​ ​ Ferdinand & May [deceptive]​​ January & Brothers [control] Antonio & Damyan [class]​ ​ January & Duchess [religion] What does the echo symbolize in this scene, and how does it reflect Antonio's emotional state? ​ How does Antonio's view of ruins parallel his own situation in life? ​ What role does Delio play in the scene, and what is his advice to Antonio? ​ What does Antonio mean by saying 'to live thus is not indeed to live'? 1.​ Echo symbolises multitude of things: -​ D’s life extends beyond death /villains -​ Liminality -​ Narcissus & Echo →Antonio [Webster’s view] =ambition/arrogance hamartia / D = cursed ≠ enter meaningful relationship with A →cursed by social position/brothers’ attitudes -​ Underscores A’s naivety + obliviousness →Echo warns him -​ Shows real love →hears voice after death -​ Foreshadows A’s death -​ A’s attachment to past + deep sorrow 2.​ “Here in this open court, which now lies naked to the injuries of stormy weather” [5.3] →echoes how unprotected A is -​ Stoic approach to death →”must have death like we have” [5.3] -​ Inevitable decay reflects tragedy of own once vibrant life 3.​ ” / “Do not.”] -​ Perhaps also ensures audience ≠ think A = mad as well →grounding 4.​ Echoes “for better fall once, than be ever falling” [5.1] -​ Life marked by suffering ≠ true living →most ‘masculine’ moment for A →confronts circumstances -​ May + Duchess defying societal expectations →smart + educated →D = praised/M = presented as transgressive [‘Animated Tales’ May = silent + voiceless] →Marxist perspective argue due to class -​ Both praised for beauty → ‘victim’ of male gaze [offers different view of silence? →modern reader]] / D deflects male gaze →Madonna-whore complex/Virgin-whore dichotomy [May = Eve, D = Mary →attributed divine qualities {Mary virgin impregnated}] -​ Both writers ridicule traditional expectations of women → “fresshe”/fabliau/Chaucer’s views on courtly love/irony/raise from dead/ Petrarchan poetry/old-fashioned + ridiculous -​ Promulgate , fictive, panoply