duchess of malfi

• Bosola (1.1)

  "He and his brother are like plum-trees that grow crooked over standing pools; they are rich, and o'erladen with fruit, but none but crows, pies, and caterpillars feed on them. Could I be one of their flattering panders, I would hang on their ears like a horse-leech till I were full, and then drop off." Power
• The Duchess (4.2)

  "I am Duchess of Malfi still" Power
• The Duchess (1.1)

  "All discord, without this circumference,/Is only to be pitied, and not feared" Family
• Bosola (4.2)


  "Let me know

  Wherefore I should be thus neglected. Sir,

  I served your tyranny, and rather strove

  To satisfy yourself, than all the world;

  And though I loathed the evil, yet I loved

  You that did counsel it, and rather sought

  To appear a true servant than an honest man."
• Ferdinand (4.2)

  "Cover her face: mine eyes dazzle: she died young."

  Guilt
• Delio (5.5)

  "Let us make noble use

  Of this great ruin; and join all our force

  To establish this young, hopeful gentleman

  In's mother's right. These wretched eminent things

  Leave no more fame behind 'em than should one

  Fall in a frost, and leave his print in snow;

  As soon as the sun shines, it ever melts,

  Both form and matter." Morality & Ethics / Suffering
• The Duchess (3.2)

  "For know, whether I am doomed to live, or die,

  I can do both like a prince." Power
• Ferdinand (4.1)

  "Damn her, that body of hers,

  While that my blood ran pure in't, was more worth

  Than that which thou wouldst comfort, called a soul."

  Family
• The Duchess (1.1)

  "Diamonds are of most value,

  They say, that have passed through most jewellers' hands." Marriage
• The Duchess (1.1)

  "The misery of us that are born great,

  We are forced to woo because none dare woo us:

  And as a tyrant doubles with his words,

  And fearfully equivocates, so we

  Are forced to express our violent passions

  In riddles and in dreams and leave the path

  Of simple virtue which was never made

  To seem the thing it is not." Power / Marriage
• Antonio (1.1)

  "These words should be mine,

  And all the parts you have spoke, if some part of it

  Would not have savoured flattery."

  Marriage / Power
• Cariola (1.1)

  "Whether the spirit of greatness or of woman

  Reign most in her, I know not, but it shows

  A fearful madness."

  Society & Class / Women
• Antonio (3.2)

  "Oh fie upon this single life! Forgo it:

  We read how Daphne, for her peevish flight,

  Became a fruitless bay-tree, Syrinx turn'd

  To the pale empty reed, Anaxarete

  Was frozen into marble, whereas those

  Which married, or proved kind unto their friends,

  Were by a gracious influence transshaped

  Into the olive, pomegranate, mulberry,

  Became flowers, precious stones or eminent stars."

  Marriage
• Duchess (4.1)

  "You violate a sacrament o'th'Church

  Shall make you howl in hell for't"

  Society & Ethics / Marriage
• Ferdinand (3.2)

  "Do not ask, then.

  He that can compass me and know my drifts

  May say that he hath put a girdle 'bout the world

  And sounded all her quicksands."

  Secrets & Lies
• Bosola (3.2)

  "What rests, but I reveal

  All to my lord? Oh, this base quality

  Of intelligencer!"

  Guilt
• Bosola (4.1)

  "Never in mine own shape,

  That's forfeited by my intelligence

  And this last cruel lie. When you send me next

  The business shall be comfort."
• The Cardinal (5.2)

  "[...] think what danger 'tis

  To receive a prince's secrets: they that do

  Had need have their breasts hooped with adamant

  To contain them."

  Secrets & Lies
• The Cardinal (5.2)

  "Think you, your

  Bosom will be a grave dark and obscure enough for such a secret?"

  Secrets & Lies
• The Duchess (1.1)

  "This is flesh and blood, sir,

  'Tis not the figure cut in alabaster

  Kneels at my husband's tomb."
• The Duchess (2.1)

  "I have heard you say that the French

  courtiers wear their hats on 'fore the King.

  [...]

  Why should we not bring up that fashion?

  'Tis ceremony more than duty that consists

  In the removing of a piece of felt.

  Be you the example to the rest o'th'court,

  Put on your hat first."

  Custom
• Antonio (3.5)

  "Right the fashion of the world:

  From decayed fortunes every flatterer shrinks,

  Men cease to build where the foundation sinks" Duty
• Bosola (5.2)

  "I'll join with thee [Antonio] in a most just revenge:

  The weakest arm is strong enough that strikes

  With the swords of justice." Duty
• Antonio (2.1)

  "[...] I look no

  higher than I can reach [...] when a man's

  mind rides faster than his horse can gallop, they quickly

  both tire." Society & Class
• Antonio (2.3)

  "Saucy slave I'll pull thee up by the roots!"

  Society & Class
• Bosola (3.2)

  "Will you make yourself a mercenary herald,

  Rather to examine men's pedigrees than virtues?

  You shall want him [...]" Society & Class
• Pilgrim (3.4)

  "Here's a strange turn of state: who would have thought

  So great a lady would have matched herself

  Unto so mean a person? Yet the Cardinal

  Bears himself much too cruel." Society & Class
• Ferdinand (1.1)

  "Methinks you that are courtiers should

  be my touchwood, take fire when I give fire, that is, laugh

  when I laugh, were the subject never so witty.'' Society & Class / Power
• Antonio (1.1)

  "Where he is jealous of any man he lays worse plots

  for them than ever was imposed on Hercules, for he strews

  in his way flatterers, panders, intelligencers, atheists, and a

  thousand such political monsters." Society & Class / Power
• Bosola (1.1)

  "Miserable age, where only the reward

  Of doing well is the doing of it." Morality & Ethics
• Ferdinand (4.2)

  "Why didst not thou pity her? What an excellent

  Honest man might'st thou have been

  If thou hadst borne her to some sanctuary

  Or bold in a good cause, opposed thyself

  With thy advanced sword above thy head

  Between her innocence and my revenge!"

  Morality & Ethics
• Bosola (4.2)

  "Your brother and yourself are worthy men,

  You have a pair of hearts are hollow graves,

  Rotten, and rotting others; and your vengeance,

  Like to chained bullets, still goes arm in arm.

  You may be brothers: for treason, like the plague,

  Doth take much in a blood. I stand like one

  That long hath ta'en a sweet and golden dream:

  I am angry with myself now that I wake."

  Morality & Ethics
• Bosola (5.2)

  "There are a many ways that conduct to seeming

  Honour, and some of them very dirty ones."

  Morality & Ethics
• The Cardinal (5.5)

  "How tedious is a guilty conscience!" Morality & Ethics
• Ferdinand (5.5)

  "My sister! Oh my sister, there's the cause on't!

  "Whether we fall by ambition, blood, or lust,

  Like diamonds we are cut with our own dust."
• Antonio

  "Their judicious king...quits first his royal palace of flatt'ring sycophants"
• Antonio

  "A Prince's court is like a common fountain...if't chance some cursed example poison't near the head, death and diseases through the whole land spread"
• Antonio

  "Here comes Bosola, the only court-gall"
• Bosola

  "Blackbirds fatten best in hard weather, why not I, in these dog days?"
• Bosola

  "this great fellow were able to possess the greatest devil and make him worse"