Key Quotations - Bosola

Question 1

Bosola on the Aragonian Brothers

Answer 1

-‘He and his brother are like plum trees that grow over standing pools’
-‘They are rich and overladen, stagnant with fruit, but none the crows, pies, and caterpillars feed on them’

Question 2

Seeing the irony in his nobility

Answer 2

‘Which makes men truly noble, e’er should make me a villain’

Question 3

Bosola accepting his corrupt role from Ferdinand

Answer 3

‘The provisorship of the horse? Say then my corruption grew out of horse dung. I am your creature.’

Question 4

Bosola on makeup

Answer 4

‘To behold thee not painted inclines somewhat near a miracle’

Question 5

Bosola on the Duchess eating the apricot

Answer 5

‘How greedily she eats them!’

Question 6

Bosola on fear of female sexuality

Answer 6

‘Monstrous desire’

Question 7

Hatred of sycophants

Answer 7

‘And do these lice drop off now?’

Question 8

How the Duchess deals with her imprisonment

Answer 8

‘Nobly’

Question 9

How Bosola wants to see the Duchess after the guilt he feels

Answer 9

‘Never in mine own shape’

Question 10

Dressed as an old man, coming to kill the Duchess

Answer 10

‘I am some to make thy tomb’

Question 11

Ferdinand’s judgement

Answer 11

‘Mercy upon me, what a fatal judgement hath fall upon this Ferdinand!’

Question 12

Cardinal after the Duchess’s murder

Answer 12

‘The Cardinal is grown wondrous melancholy’

Question 13

Haunted by guilt, wanting to save Antonio

Answer 13

‘The weakest arm is strong enough that strikes with the sword of justice’

Question 14

Fate and Calvinism as he kills Antonio

Answer 14

‘We are merely that star’s tennis balls, struck and banded which way please them’

Question 15

Anger towards the Cardinal for the Duchess’s death

Answer 15

‘Thou took’st from Justice her most equal balance and left her naught but her sword’

Question 16

Last line, going on another journey

Answer 16

‘To suffer death or shame for what is just, mine is another voyage’