Bosola shows genuine sadness when she dies. In Act Four, Bosola tells Ferdinand that the Duchess is bearing her imprisonment nobly, which angers him. All are killed except for the eldest son of the duchess and Antonio, who is named ruler of Malfi. The Duchess of Malfi has been produced by the great post-Shakespearean play-wright John Webster and the character of the Duchess stands supreme among all the other characters in the play. Updates? Immediately after they part, Bosola and a group of soldiers take the Duchess and her two remaining children captive and bring them back to her palace. "The Duchess of Malfi" was published in 1623, but the date of writing may have been as early as 1611. The courtiers finally enter in time to see the Cardinal and Bosola die, but not before the latter has confessed the particulars of the situation. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Julia, the Cardinal’s mistress, approaches Bosola, declaring her love for him, and Bosola uses her to get the Cardinal to admit his involvement in the Duchess's murder. There is no evidence that Webster had read or seen the play that Spanish dramatist Lope de Vega had written about the duchess. The real Duchess, Giovanna d'Aragona, married Antonio Beccadelli in secret and bore him three children. Before leaving the Duchess, Ferdinand engages Bosola, previously used by the Cardinal as a hit man, to ostensibly manage the Duchess’s horses, but in reality to spy on her for the brothers so they can be sure she remains chaste and does not remarry. In Webster’s Jacobean revenge tragedy The Duchess of Malfi, and Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, written in 1947, both men consider the themes of chastity and the effect chastity has on the main female characters’ reputation within society. The Duchess is pregnant and Bosola, suspecting her condition, hatches a plan to prove it to himself by giving her apricots, thought to induce labor. The Duchess of Malfi are from The Revels Plays volume edited by John Russell Brown (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1964) and are subsequently documented paren-thetically. The author showed gender hierarchical system where women take the lower position. Read the Study Guide for The Duchess of Malfi…, The Duchess of Malfi and a Certain Fish Story, Webster's "The Duchess of Malfi": Mad, Mad Ferdinand, Explore and analyse Webster's treatment of women and their status in society as presented in The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi, Flying of Fate: the Echoes of “The Duchess of Malfi”, View our essays for The Duchess of Malfi…, Read the E-Text for The Duchess of Malfi…, View Wikipedia Entries for The Duchess of Malfi…. Eventually betrayed by Bosola, a spy, the duchess and her family flee but are intercepted; Antonio and the oldest child, a boy, escape. Widowed young, the Duchess secretly remarries the manager of her household and bears three children with him. Cariola pleads for her life, to no avail. Bosola kills Ferdinand. ed. Bosola next orders her children and Cariola killed. Ferd. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Antonio and the Duchess marry, and the Duchess reassures Antonio that they will find a way to appease her brothers. Like Bellamont, the Duchess is shut up with mad people, but for … In an effort to make her insane with despair, he presents her with wax corpses of her family to convince her they have died. For tickets, please visit the RSC website here. Act I, Scene 2 3. The Duchess of Malfi tells the story of the spirited duchess and her love for her trustworthy steward Antonio. About “The Duchess of Malfi” This tragedy was first presented privately in the 1613-1614 theatrical season, then to a larger audience at the Globe that same season. Antonio, the manager of her household, has just returned from France. Bosola arrives and the Cardinal pretends that he has no idea about the Duchess's death. Here you will find the complete text of the play with links in each scene to notes and commentary. In The Duchess of Malfi, Webster uses many of the techniques of the revenge play--a form that was starting to fall out of fashion at the time of the play’s first staging--but for different and usually more complex purpose. Ferdinand is an immensely disturbed man who has been driven to insanity by his inability to control his sister, and his resultant inability to control his own life. From the Blackfriars' theatre in London, Andrew Marr presents a unique television premiere - a new production of John Webster's bloody revenge tragedy The Duchess of Malfi performed in a perfect recreation of an early Jacobean theatre. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. Antonio and the Duchess have had two more children in the meantime. Perhaps this was the germ of the madhouse scene in The Duchess of Malfi, as the trial of Lady Jane Grey in Sir Thomas Wyatt may have given Webster the cue for the arraignment of Vittoria. Because of the Cardinal’s warning, his courtiers at first ignore his cries for help. #MeToo activism duchess of malfi gender roles John Webster play representation sexism The Royal Shakespeare Company Time's Up toxic masculinity victim-blaming violence. Bosola is the tool through which the Cardinal and Ferdinand perpetrate most of their evil in The Duchess of Malfi. 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