The Duchess of Malfi Quotes

AO2 quotations from John Webster's 'The Duchess of Malfi'

Antonio, 1:1 - “their judicious king…

begins at home, quits first his royal palace of flattering sycophants, of dissolute and infamous persons…”

Antonio, 1:1 - “Some cursed example…

poison’t near the head, death and diseases through the whole land spread”

Bosola, 1:1 - “I will…

thrive some way”

Bosola, 1:1 - “this great fellow…

were able to possess the greatest devil and make him worse”

Bosola, 1:1 - “He and his brother…

are like plum trees that grow crooked over standing pools”

Antonio, 1:1 - “This foul melancholy…

will poison all his goodness”

Ferdinand, 1:1 - “Methinks you that are courtiers…

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

Antonio, 1:2 - “The spring…

in his face is nothing but the engendering of toads”

Antonio, 1:2 - “he strews in his way…

flatterers, panderers, intelligencers, atheists and a thousand such political monsters…”

Antonio, 1:2 - “She stains…

the time past, lights the time to come”

Bosola, 1:2 - “It seems you would…

create me one of your familiars”

Bosola, 1:2 - “These cursed gifts…

would make you a corrupter, me an impudent traitor…”

Bosola, 1:2 - “Sometimes the…

devil doth preach”

The Duchess, 1:2 - “Diamonds are of…

most value, they say, that have past through most jewellers’ hands”

Ferdinand, 1:2 - “Your darkest…

actions - nay, your privatest thoughts - will come to light”

The Duchess, 1:2 - “Let old wives…

report I winked and chose a husband”

The Duchess, 1:2 - “Raise yourself…

or, if you please, my hand to help you…”

Antonio, 1:2 - “Ambition, madam, is…

a great man’s madness…”

The Duchess, 1:2 - “The misery of us that…

are born great; we are forced to woo, because none dare woo us”

The Duchess, 1:2 - “This is flesh and…

blood, sir. ‘Tis not the figure cut in alabaster kneels at my husband’s tomb”

Bosola, 2:1 - “A rotten and…

dead body, we delight to hide it in rich tissue”

Antonio, 2:1 - “You would look…

up to heaven, but I think the devil that rules i’th’air stands in your light”

The Duchess, 2:1 - “Oh, good Antonio, I…

fear I am undone”

Antonio, 2:3 - “This mole…

does undermine me”

The Cardinal, 2:4 - “I have taken you…

off your melancholy perch, bore you upon my fist…”

Ferdinand, 2:5 - “A sister…

damned: she’s loose i’th’hilts': grown a notorious strumpet”

The Cardinal, 2:5 - “Shall our blood - the…

royal blood of Aragon and Castile - be thus attainted?”

Ferdinand, 2:5 - “‘Tis not your whore’s…

milk that shall quench my wild-fire, but your whore’s blood”

The Cardinal, 2:5 - “There is not in nature…

a thing that makes man so deformed, so beastly, as doth intemperate anger”

Ferdinand, 2:5 - “I’ll find scorpions…

to string my whips and fix her in a general eclipse”

Ferdinand, 3:1 - “The witchcraft…

lies in her rank blood”

The Duchess, 3:2 - “whether I am doomed…

to live or die, I can do both like a prince”

Pescara, 3:3 - “A very salamander…

lives in’s eye”

The Duchess, 3:5 - “The devil is…

not cunning enough to circumvent us in riddles”

The Duchess, 3:5 - “My laurel…

is all withered”

The Duchess, 3:5 - “Men oft are valued…

high, when th’are most wretched”

Stage directions, 4:1 - “Gives her a…

dead man’s hand”

The Duchess, 4:1 - “I account this world…

a tedious theatre, for I do play a part in’t ’gainst my will”

Bosola, 4:1 - “End here and…

go no further in your cruelty”

Ferdinand, 4:1 - “That body of…

hers, while that my blood ran pure in’t, was more worth than that which thou wouldst comfort, called a soul”

Cariola, 4:2 - “Your…

tyrant brother”

Madman 2, 4:2 - “devils are continually…

blowing up women’s souls on hollow irons”

The Duchess, 4:2 - “I am…

Duchess of Malfi still”

Bosola, 4:2 - “Other sins only…

speak; murder shrieks out”

Ferdinand, 4:2 - “Cover her…

face. Mine eyes dazzle! She died young"

Ferdinand, 4:2 - “Th’hast forfeited…

thy life and thou shalt die for’t”

Bosola, 4:2 - “You have a…

pair of hearts are hollow graves, rotten and rotting others…”

Bosola, 4:2 - “treason, like…

the plague, doth take much in blood”

Bosola, 4:2 - “I am angry…

with myself now that I wake”

The Doctor, 5:2 - “said he was…

a wolf, only the difference was a wolf’s skin was hairy on the outside, his on the inside”

Bosola, 5:2 - “What a fatal…

judgement hath fallen upon this Ferdinand”

The Cardinal, 5:2 - “thour’t poisoned…

with that book. Because I knew thou couldst not keep my counsel, I have bound thee to’t by death”

Bosola, 5:2 - “I’ll join with…

thee in a most just revenge”

Antonio, 5:3 - “churches and cities, which…

have diseases like to men, must have like death that we have”

The Cardinal, 5:4 - “I would pray…

now, but the devil takes away my heart for having any confidence in prayer”

Bosola, 5:5 - “When thou kill’dst…

thy sister thou took’st from Justice her most equal balance”

Ferdinand, 5:5 - “I will vault credit…

and affect high pleasures beyond death”

Bosola, 5:5 - “In what a shadow…

… doth womanish and fearful mankind live?”

Delio, 5:5 - “Integrity of life is…

fame’s best friend, which nobly, beyond death, shall crown the end”