Duchess of Malfi quotes

Duchess’ masculine personality

“So I, through frights and thereat’nings, will assay this dangerous venture.”

Duchess’ recklessness

“Let old wives report / I winked and chose a husband”

“Do not think of them” (in context to her brothers)

The Duchess about her position

“Oh the misery of us that are born great”

“We are forced to woo because none dare woo us”

Duchess’ declaration of love towards Antonio

“This is flesh, and blood, ‘tis not the figure cut in alabaster kneels at my husband’s tomb”

The Duchess’ hubris as she wants to uplift Antonio’s reputation

“This goodly roof of yours is too low built.”

The Duchess’ vulnerability when pregnant

“I am So troubled with the mother”

“O good Antonio, I fear I am undone”

What the courts say about the Duchess

“The common rabble do directly say she is a strumpet”

The Duchess’ bawdy personality

“Alas, what pleasure can two lovers find in sleep?”

Duchess’ folly towards Cariola

“Thou art a superstitious fool”

Duchess accepting defeat

“My laurel is all withered”

Duchess lying to her brothers

“I will marry for your honour."

Duchess’ defiance

“But I intend, since they were born accurs’d; curses shall be their first language.” “I could curse the stars”

Duchess’ complaint about not being allowed to marry

“Why should only I be cased up like a holy relic?”

Duchess as a mother

“I pray thee, look thou giv’st my little boy some syrup for his cold”

Duchess’ want to happen to her body

“Bind me to that lifeless trunk and let me freeze to death”

Duchess’ stoicism and image as a christian

“I forgive them”

Final line of the Duchess

“I am duchess of malfi still”

Cariola about The Duchess

“Whether the spirit of greatness, or of woman reign most in her, I known not, but it shows a fearful madness.” “I owe her much pity.”

Cariola again being a warner

“I do not like this jesting with religion, this feigned pilgrimage”

Bosola about the brothers

“Like plum trees that grow crooked over standing pools.”

Ferdinand’s controlling nature

“laugh when I laugh.”

Ferdinand’s concern for heritage

"Shall our blood, / The royal blood of Aragon and Castille, / Be thus attainted?"

Ferdinand breaking boundaries

“The witchcraft lies in her rank blood: this night I will force confession from her.”

Ferdinand’s anger

“A very salamander lives in ‘s eye”

Ferdinand’s concern with Reputation

“You have shook hands with Reputation, and made him invisible.”

Ferdinand’s emphasis on honour and family

“This was my father’s poniard. Do you see?”

Ferdinand’s disapproving perspective on Antonio

“Antonio! A slave, that only smell’d of ink and counters.”

Beginning of Ferdinand’s lycanthropia

“Where are your cubs?”

Ferdinand’s regret

“Why didst not thou pity her?” ‘Was i her judge?”

Ferdinand about widows

“Lusty widow”

Bosola about the Cardinal

This great fellow were able to possess the greatest devil, and make him worse.”

Antonio about the Cardinal

“he is a melancholy churchman”

He lays worse plots for them, than ever was impos’d on Hercules”

The Cardinal’s concern for lineage

“High blood”

The Cardinal’s lack of sympathy

“Are your tears justification? The self-same tears Will fall into your husband’s bosom, lady”

The Cardinal’s lust

“I pray thee, kiss me”

Cardinal towards Julia

“I have taken you off your melancholy perch” “You cannot make me a cuckold.”

The Cardinal’s hypocrisy

“Doth she make religion her riding hood?”

Symbolism of the Cardinal’s power in the Dumb Show

“cross, hat, robes and ring” “sword, helmet, shield and spurs”

Bosola’s introduction

“Here comes Bosola, the only court gall”

“Indeed he rails at those things which he wants”

Bosola self dehumanisation

“I am your creature”

Bosola’s derogatory language about the pregnant Duchess

“Before she look’d like a nutmeg grater, after she resembled an abortive hedgehog.”

Bosola’s distaste for humanity

“A rotten and dead body, we delight to hide it in rich tissue.”

Bosola’s ironic truth about Antonio

“You are a false steward""

Bosola’s sudden admiration for the Duchess

“Nobly” “I pity you”

Antonio about courts

“A Prince’s court is like a common fountain, whence should flow pure silver-drops in general.”

“If’t chance some curs’d example poison’t near the head, death and diseases through the whole land spread.”

Antonio about the Duchess

“She throws upon a man so sweet a look that it were able raise one to a galliard that lay in a dead palsy”

Antonio about ambition

“Ambition madam is a great mans madness.”

Antonio’s stoic advice to the Duchess

“Man, like to cassia, is proved best beign bruised”