The Duchess of Malfi Character Notes (includes scholars, context, performance history, quotes, analysis etc)
Characters include:
- Antonio
- Bosola
- The Cardinal
- Ferdinand
- The Duchess
- Cariola
- Delia
- Julia
The Duchess of Malfi (Performed 1613, Published 1623)
Characters
Antonio
- Antonio is “better suited to be an onlooker than an active participant” – Leonora Leet Brodwin
- Noble Actions
o “Antonio is modelled on the ideal of Christian gentility.” – P. B. Murray
o A1S1 – Antonio: “It is a noble duty” to hold leaders accountable.
o A1S1 – Cardinal: “His nature is too honest” to be a spy
o But:
“Antonio can be no model of virtue: he is too like the equivocal Bosola.” – Michael Neill
o Webster promotes him as “both a political analyst and a judge of character” – Philip Allan
- Christian Stoic
o Ellen R. Belton sees Antonio as representing the Christian Stoic – Ellen R. Belton
Man who had realised his potential inner strength to a degree where he was contemptuous of the
rewards of Fortune, ready for death, and therefore able through the strength of his character to
endure any evil.
Stoicism is primarily valuable in Webster when it is seen in direct opposition to extremes of
passion (Ferdinand)
By contrast, Bosola lacks patience – Christian fortitude and Stoic value
- Social Mobility
o A1S1 – Antonio: “Ambition, madam, is a great man’s madness”
o A3S1 – Antonio: “The common rabble do directly say she is a strumpet.” Antonio sees himself as
separate to the common rabble.
o A3S2 – Duchess: “You are a Lord of Misrule.” (A lord of misrule was someone of low degree chosen
to preside over feasts and revels at court reversing the usual hierarchies – a nod to their relationship.)
o A5S1 – Antonio appears foolish, not understanding how much the Duchess’s brothers loathe him,
despite Delio: “I cannot think they mean well to your life that do deprive you of your means of life –
your living.”
- In Love
o A3S5– Antonio: “since we must part Heaven hath a hand in’t”
o “Antonio is increasingly unworthy of the Duchess as the play proceeds. The Duchess allows her heart
to rule her head.” – Stephen Simms
- Bad Fortune
o A2S3– Antonio: “One that were superstitious would count that ominous” after he bleeds onto his
name on the handkerchief. (The handkerchief is an allusion to Othello)
o A5S1 – Antonio plans to confront the Cardinal like how Ferdinand confronted the Duchess.
o A5S3 – Echo: “Thou art a dead thing”
o A5S4 – Dying wish of Antonio: “let my son fly the courts of princes”.
Bosola
- Significance
o “If the Duchess is the play’s heart, Bosola is its sinews and muscle” – John Lennard
o In the original production at the Globe he was played by successful actor John Lowin who had
previously played Shakespeare’s Falstaff
o In modifying William Painter’s Palace of Pleasure, Webster puts greater emphasis on Bosola who is
basically just a thuggish soldier.
He also alters Bosola’s fate to conform to the conventions of the tragic hero (death).
- Role/Narrative function
o “With all his many roles, Bosola is never permitted the luxury of being a self.” – Muriel Bradbrook
o “Bosola plays any part he can in order to survive” – Lucy Webster
o “During the course of The Duchess of Malfi, Bosola plays all the characters from a revenge tragedy.
Alienated intellectual, malcontent, intelligencer, tool-villain, murderer, revenger
o Malcontent
A malcontent character is a common figure on the Jacobean stage that may say what the audience
is feeling. Their role is usually both political and dramatic as they voice dissatisfaction with the
Machiavellian political atmosphere.
, Bosola provides an examination of class relations in a highly stratified society. However,
he is torn between detesting the society and longing to be a part of it.
In 1604 Webster wrote some additional passages for John Marston’s play The Malcontent
indicating that he was well aware of the literary trope.
A1S1 – Antonio: “the only court-gall”
A1S1 – Antonio: “[he] would be as lecherous, covetous, or proud, bloody, or envious, as any
man, if he had means to be so.”
A1S1 – Bosola is a malcontent who talks in prose rather than verse (reserved for lower-status
characters/not saying something noble)
A3S3 – Delio: “a fantastical scholar” from Padua (at the time home to one of Europe’s most
celebrated universities).
Tudor and Stuart England had seen a rapid expansion of education with a larger number of
university graduates than ever before but the offices of church and state did not expand at the
same rate.
This led to a surplus of highly educated but underemployed young men who were seen as
potential instigators of rebellion.
o Mercenary/Intelligencer
Lots of asides – he is a confider
A mercenary was a class of soldier who fought for financial gain rather than for political interests
or loyalty to a country/cause – often involved in the conflicts of early modern Europe before the
existence of professional national armies.
o Revenger (of the Duchess)
o Outsider – like Antonio comes to court from the outside but unlike Antonio who has a place as
steward, he seems to have no place within the society
o Chorus-like role (interpreting events in accordance with his philosophy of life)
This makes him persuasive and “of all the characters perhaps closest to being Webster’s
mouthpiece” – Daniel Weston
- Violence and Treachery
o “Bosola is a twisted misanthrope and cut-throat.” – Christopher Hart
o “Bosola is the character most adept in deploying Machiavelli’s principles” – Daniel Weston
o A1S1 – Bosola: “Whose throat must I cut?” – violent.
o A2S3 – “[Enter Bosola with a dark lantern]” – a lantern that could be shut to hide the light – useful
for sneaking and associated with treachery as they were used in the 1605 Gunpowder Plot.
o A2S3 – Antonio: “this mole” – in an aside, calls Bosola a night creature who sneaks around and spies.
o A3S2 – Bosola: “I would wish your grace to feign a pilgrimage to our Lady of Loreto […] so may you
depart your country with more honour”. (Abuse of religion)
o A4S2 – Bosola: “Some other strangle the children.”
o A4S2 – Cariola: “Oh you are damned perpetually for this!”
o A4S2 – Bosola: “The office of justice is perverted quite when one thief hangs another.” (After
Ferdinand turns on him).
o A5S2 – Bosola: “I am a blunt soldier.”
o A5S2 – When Bosola is complimenting Julia, his language is violent – “Your bright eyes carry a
quiver of darts in them sharper than sun-beams.”
- Attitudes about Social Mobility
o A1S1 – Not careful about how he speaks to authority.
o A2S1 – Bosola: “Search the heads of the rivers in the world, you shall find them but bubbles of
water.” – being descended greatest from someone important doesn’t make you important – Bosola
questions nobility and the Divine Right of Kings – ironic because the catalyst of the play’s action is
Antonio now being related to someone important.
Webster is provoking us to think about birth vs. merit using Bosola as a spokesperson.
o A3S2 – Bosola: “Can this ambitious age have so much goodness in’t as to prefer a man merely for
worth, without these shadows of wealth and painted honours?”
o A3S2 – Bosola: “For Antonio, his fame shall likewise flow from many a pen when heralds shall want
coats to sell to men” – The sale of honours was a subject of much attack by satirists in the early
Jacobean age.
- Misogynistic
o A2S1 – Bosola: “You come from painting now?” – mocking the Old Lady for her make-up
(something considered unholy at the time so this would have been a moment of humour.)
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