The Duchess Of Malfi Flashcards
(31 cards)
Bosola describing feeding imagery
“Crows, pies and caterpillars feed on them”
Bird in cage imagery
“The robin redbreast and the nightingale never live long in cages”
“Didst thou ever see a lark in a cage”
Cardinal setting Julia ‘free’
“I have taken you off your melancholy perch - let you fly”
“ you may thank me - you are to thank me - you still are to thank me”
“Like a tame elephant”
Bosola description of the brothers - water
“Plum trees that grow crooked over standing pools”
Antonio describing the cardinal
“The spring in his face is nothing but the engendring of toads
Antonio description of the duchess versus brothers
“Three fair medals cast in one figure, of so different temper”
Antonio describing duchess’ beauty through hyperbole
“ so sweet a look that it were able to raise one to a galliard. That lay in dead palsy”
Antonio describing duchess as beautiful rather than lustful
“Sweet contenance - so divine - cuts off all lascivious and vain hope”
“ let all sweet ladies break their flattering glasses, and dress themselves in her”
Delio describing Ferdinand as predatorial
“Then the law to him is like a foul black cobweb to a spider, - he makes it his dwelling and a prison to entangle those shall feed him”
Antonio describing court as a fountain
“A prince’s court is like a common fountain, whence should flow pure sand silver drops in general”
“Poisn’t near the head, death and diseases through the whole land spread”
Bosola showing growing empathy
“ these tears, I am very certain, never grew in my mother’s milk”
Ferdinand before he dies - diamond similie
“Whether we fall my ambition, blood or lust. Like diamonds we are cut by our own dust”
Cardinal poisoning with bible
“I will swear you to’t upon this book”
Antonio comparing cardinal to devil
“For the devil speaks in them (his lips)”
Duchess proving her value
“Diamonds are of the most value, they say, that have passed through the most jewelers hands”
Brothers description of the duchess as a lust…..
“Lust widow”
Ferdinand’s incestuous jealousy of the duchess
“Notorious strumpet”
“Happily with some strong - thighed bargeman”
Ferdinands violence towards Antonio and the duchess
“To purge infected blood, such blood as hers”
“ I would have their bodies burnt in a coal pit with the vintage stopped, that their cursed smoke might not ascend to heaven”
“Boil their bastard to a cullis”
Duchess positioning herself as a prince in death
“Whether I am doomed to live or die, I can do both like a prince”
The cardinal metaphor with glass and women - more likely to bend glass than have a constant woman
“A man should strive to make glass malleable, ere he should make them fixed”
Antonio describing power of his family’s names
“Their very names kindle a little life in me “
The duchess proposing
“‘Twas my wedding ring, and I did vow never to part with it but to my second husband”
“Stand”
The duchess’ bravery in death with feeding imagery
“Come violent death… when I am laid out, then they may feed in quiet”
The cardinal worried about the bloodline that the duchess with impurify
“Shall our blood, the royal blood of Aragon and Castile, be thus attainted?”
