This grid provides points of interesting and relevant context to John Webster and his play/novel 'The Duchess of Malfi' whilst using quotes from the text to support it (ao1 and ao3). The contextual points and followed by a detailed description of impact and controversy it may have had or gained fro...
Context Explanation Supporting Quote
Queen Elizabeth 1 Was an independent woman in “We are forced to express our
power, claimed she would violent passions in riddles, and
rather be poor and unmarried in dreams, and leave the path of
than a Queen with a King. simple virtue.”
Queen Elizabeth 1 at Tilbury: "I -Duchess about women 1.1
know I have the body but of a
weak and feeble woman; but I
have the heart and stomach of a
King.” Opposes the desires of
the Duchess, but because they
both exert independence men
disregard both women.
Lady Arabella Stuart King James 1 imprisoned Lady “Let not the sun shine on him,
Arabella Stuart for marrying till he’s dead. Let only dogs and
without his permission. She was monkeys converse with him,
locked up but dressed as a man and such dumb things to whom
to escape. Her boat was nature denies use to sound its
overthrown before she reached name.”
France and was imprisoned in -Ferdinand to Duchess about
the Tower of London, where she Antonio 3.2
died refusing to eat.
Mary Queen of Scots Held captive for 19 years by “No, nor anything without the
governing men as she had a addition, honour, sway your
right to the throne and men did high blood.”
not want a Queen leaving her a -Cardinal to Duchess 1.1
political prisoner as a young
widow much like The Duchess. “You are a widow, you already
Many assassinations attempt know what man is and
against her took place until she therefore let not youth, high
was finally executed publicly for promotion, eloquence-”
treason. -Ferdinand to Duchess 1.1
Queen Mary 1 Otherwise known as ‘Bloody “There is not a thing in nature
Mary’ for her tyrannical reign that makes man so deformed,
causing the bloody beheadings so beastly.”
of many innocents. She would - Cardinal to Ferdinand
be head and burn heretics at
the stake to deter protestants “To purge infected blood, such
rebelling from the church. Her blood as hers.”
cruelty led to outrage and her -Ferdinand about the Duchess
own beheading. She embodied
fear of a Queen into society
leading to an unfortunate
dislike for Queen Elizabeth
taking the crown.
King James 1 Wrote 'Daemonologie', an “I would have their bodies burnt
examination of necromancy and in a coal-pit, with the ventage
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