2025 - M/J - 9695/11 | Q3
0/8
0 correct · 0 wrong
(a) In what ways and with what effects does Webster portray different attitudes to marriage in the play The Duchess of Malfi?
(b) Comment closely on Webster’s dramatic presentation of Bosola’s attitude to Ferdinand in the following extract.
| FERDINAND: | My brother here, the Cardinal, could never Abide you. |
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| BOSOLA: | Never since he was in my debt. | |
| FERDINAND: | Maybe some oblique character in your face Made him suspect you? |
5 |
| BOSOLA: | Doth he study physiognomy? There’s no more credit to be given to th’face Than to a sick man’s urine, which some call The physician’s whore, because she cozens him. He did suspect me wrongfully. |
10 |
| FERDINAND: | For that You must give great men leave to take their times. Distrust doth cause us seldom be deceived; You see, the oft shaking of the cedar-tree Fastens it more at root. |
15 |
| BOSOLA: | Yet take heed: For to suspect a friend unworthily Instructs him the next way to suspect you, And prompts him to deceive you. |
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| FERDINAND: | There’s gold. | 20 |
| BOSOLA: | So: What follows? Never rained such show’rs as these Without thunderbolts in the tail of them. Whose throat must I cut? |
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| FERDINAND: | Your inclination to shed blood rides post Before my occasion to use you. I give you that To live i’th’ court, here, and observe the Duchess: To note all the particulars of her ’haviour, What suitors do solicit her for marriage And whom she best affects: she’s a young widow, I would not have her marry again. |
25 30 |
| BOSOLA: | No, sir? | |
| FERDINAND: | Do not you ask the reason, but be satisfied I say I would not. |
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| BOSOLA: | It seems you would create me One of your familiars. |
35 |
| FERDINAND: | Familiar! What’s that? | |
| BOSOLA: | Why, a very quaint invisible devil, in flesh: An intelligencer. |
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| FERDINAND: | Such a kind of thriving thing I would wish thee, and ere long thou may’st arrive At a higher place by’t. |
40 |
| BOSOLA: | Take your devils Which hell calls angels. These cursed gifts would make You a corrupter, me an impudent traitor, And should I take these they’d take me to hell. |
45 |
| FERDINAND: | Sir, I’ll take nothing from you that I have given. There is a place that I procured for you This morning, the provisorship o’th’ horse; Have you heard on’t? |
50 |
| BOSOLA: | No. | |
| FERDINAND: | ’Tis yours. Is’t not worth thanks? | |
| BOSOLA: | I would have you curse yourself now, that your bounty, Which makes men truly noble, e’er should make Me a villain. O, that to avoid ingratitude For the good deed you have done me, I must do All the ill man can invent. Thus the devil Candies all sins o’er; and what heaven terms vile, That names he complimental. |
55 60 |
| FERDINAND: | Be yourself: Keep your old garb of melancholy; ’twill express You envy those that stand above your reach, Yet strive not to come near ’em. This will gain Access to private lodgings, where yourself May, like a politic dormouse – |
65 |
| BOSOLA: | As I have seen some Feed in a lord’s dish, half asleep, not seeming To listen to any talk; and yet these rogues Have cut his throat in a dream. What’s my place? The provisorship o’th’ horse? Say then my corruption Grew out of horse-dung. I am your creature. |
70 |