The Duchess of Malfi Context Flashcards
What was Jacobean England like at the time Webster was writing?
Tension from England’s recent transition to Protestantism during the reign of Henry VIII and the subsequent Protestant policies of Edward Vi and Elizbeth. Division inflamed by Catholic resistance, including the Gunpowder Plot in 1605
What was James VI like and how is he similar to Richard II?
didn’t like parliament having a restriciton on his power, falmboyantly bi-sexual (didn’t impress protestants) robert carr and george villiers- secret passgae from each bedroom
richard 2 did not listen to the advice of others
used religion to have more power ‘divine right of kings’ and got rid of marriage through per verba de presenti marragiers (legal since 12th century)
Within Revenge Tragedies, what is a Malcontent? What is a Machivellian?
unhappy with social structure, an outside- played in 2024 wanamaker as bosola emerges from the pit
What was the tension in religion between Catholicism and Protestantism?
burning issue. catholicism characterised by corruptive intensity which Protestantism and its ideas on marriage eschewed
Who is the Duchess based on?
Giovanna D’aragona widowed at age of 19 in 1498 and killed in 1510. real hierarchies of catholic and patriarchal oppression.
One of Webster’s source texts, how does William Painter present the Duchess in ‘The Palace of Pleasure’?
1567
“ticklish instigations of her wanton flesh”
“in the Nyght, when the secrete silence and darkenesse of the same presented before the eyes of hir mind, the image of the pleasure which she felt”
How is Webster described by T.S. Elliot?
saw the “skull beneath the skin”
and the “whispers of immortality”
Who was Arbella Stuart and how is she relevant to the figure of the Duchess under masculine oppression?
her marriage led her to be imprisioned in a tower
James denied permission to marry William Syemour because together they had a stronger claim to the throne.
Married in the middle of the night in Arbella’s apartments - both imprisioned -fled in 1611
dies of suicide by starvation in 1615
d performed in 1613- 1614
bishop of durham say she “had etne of the forbidne trie,” righteously comparing himseld to God and her sin of disobedience to Eve’s original sin
per verba di presenti legal since 12th century (1604 james changes this)
What were the ideas of widowhood and remarriage, in terms of both youth and religion?
Younger widows could retain their own property and head their own households. young widows were more likely to be considered lecherous and desiring to remarry for sexual reasons only. “young people were to be tamed and regulated.” Richard Allestree writing of youth in ‘The Ladies Calling,’ cautions that this stage of life is “for the most part flexible and easily warps into a crookedness, and therefore on never set itself too far from a temptation.”
Catholicism sees remarriage as better than burning in hell but a product of lust and sexual appetite. Protestantism sees remarriage as good, equal as the 1st marriage. it is also good for controlling women’s independence. Protestantism’s rise from Catholicism,- departure through rejection. Engages protestant British audience’s sympathy by setting Duchess in a catholic landscape.
What is the debate on the body politic vs the body natural that leads us to see a tragic flaw in the duchess as both a ruler and a woman?
Renaissance dynastic marriage served almost totally to objectify the woman. The woman’s “biological life […] becomes as much a possession of her male owners as her physical body itself.”
Women in the 16th and 17th century were shifting into and out of pregnancy, The female body- in contrast to the male- is a body in constant flux (unless virgin). “women’s bodies are threatening because they are ever-changing and cannot be confined to a single shape.”
What is the Great Chain of Being and why is it relevant?
Hierarchal belief system. James actively enforced this concept, viewing it as crucial to maintaining social and political order, emphasizing obedience to authority and discouraging social mobility. He also used his religious authority to reinforce the concept, portraying rebellion as a sin against God and a disruption of the natural order. Articulated in ‘The trew law of free monarchies’ and ‘basilikon Doron’
How is Catholicism corrupted in the Duchess of Malfi?
(Hirsch)
“For a Jacobean audience, the werewolf and the Catholic were similar beasts: both were essentially ‘wolves dressed as men.’ otherwise indistinguishable from society […] and both as depraved, bloody, and ruthless as each other.”
At the time Webster was writing, whose reign was Jacobean society nostalgic for? How does this impact gender in the play?
nostalgic for the animating spirit of Elizabeth. Powerful emotions governed James in contrast to Elizabeth (bi sexual vs chaste)
Winston- contributes to the “longing for a forceful queen….”
Circulating theories that the queen was actually a man. She was known for wearing heavy makeup, ruffs, big clothing,a ll of which could be used to hide masculine features: similar to Bosola’s commentaries on the Old woman and the Duchess. Elizabeth was also the ‘virgin queen’ who never had children or married- otherwise it’d be discovered that she was in fact a man. A female ruler is able to adopt the body politic through complete rejection of her body natural. The Duchess hides her pregnancy to hide her body natural which gives her some power as body politic.
What is ‘La Danse Macabre’ and how does it link to other contexts such as the great chain of being, body politic, and Rota fortuna?
summon the dead from all walks of life to dance to the grave- a symbol of the fragility of human life
“the mirror of death that here is following; thus death takes us all; that is cerain” Mirror of society
What is the dogfish and salmon metaphor and how does it link back to the Merchant’s Tale with Januarie’s houndfish-like skin?
“Our value can never be truly known till in the fisher’s basket we be shown.”
conceit in the metaphysical poems of the 17th century.
What is the ‘art of dying’ and does the Duchess achieve it? Does Cariola?
Ars Moriendi (written in the 15th century)
advised christians on how to die well and avoid the 5 temptations in dying
What is the Revenge Tragedy genre and who is a tragic hero?
- hamartia
- peripeteia
- anagnorisis
- hubris
- character’s fate is greater than deserved
revenge tragedy re-emergence of classical literature
potency of ancient texts: progressive, highlighted reason, logic, and revolutionary learning. Villains would lack these characteristics and be driven by powerful emotions
Fears generated by interiority
and the need to penetrate the recesses of interiority to stabilize subjectivity and alleviate a sense of uncertainty around privacy
Prusko
link to medieval houses= 1 hall
The nature of Renaissance
dynastic marriage served almost totally to objectify the woman. She became an object of commerce [passed from father to husband]. Thus, the woman’s biological life […] becomes as much a possession of her male owners as her physical body itself.
Jankowski
Skimmington Rides
Public shaming rituals. The practice was a form of social control and was particularly relevant to the patriarchal structures of the era.
Echo and Narcissus
Juno curses Echo by making her unable to initiate a spoken sentence on her own- must only finish a sentence started by someone else. Echo falls in love with narcissus. Though she is immortal, she begins to waste away until her bones turned to stone and all that remained was her voice (links to the duchess as alabaster body politic vs body natural, stones in the hierarchy, reverberating male narratives, death through loving a man.)
French court idealism
Presents a “judicious” king with an inquisitorial approach rather than the passive one, contrasting to the corrupt courts of Amalfi
Cymbeline
Written in 1610, Shakespeare. Imogen secretly marries the low born Post humus in a civil marriage. they become separates, Imogen is mistaken for a dead boy and left with the beheaded body of the cruel man who would have married her, she mistakes the body for her husband’s- who is actually still alive.
