Blackfriars;Globe;Indoor Professional;Outdoor Professional
Speech prefix(es)
Cast.
Words
215
Characters
1078
Typicality
0.37 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A14872
BritDrama no.
1726
Cluster
Cluster 3 — Citizens, tradesfolk & neighbors
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
Me thinks (my Lord) You should not desire to go to war, in person. It is fitting a Soldier arise to be a Prince, but not necessary A Prince descend to be a Captain? No, (my Lord) He were far better do it by a Deputy. Believe my experience: that Realm is never long in quiet, Where the Ruler, is a Soldier. True (my Lord.) She told him (my Lord) he was a pitiful fellow, to lie, Like the Children of Ishmael all in Tents. That she would (my Lord) How do you Like my Spanish Gennit? True (my Lord) I my self have herd a very good jest, And have scorned to seem to have so silly a wit, as to understand it. He cannot speak (you know) but he makes faces, My Lady cannot abide him. Nor endure to be in merry Company: for she says Too much laughing, and too much Company, fills her Too full of the wrinkle. It's the very main of my ambition. I would be a very merry president, Rather it would make me have a good stomach to quarrel, For they say, you roaring-bois eat meat seldom, And that makes them so valiant: But how shall I know whither the people take me For and eminent fellow.
Plot summary
Plot — The Duchess of Malfi
There are two new arrivals at the Duchess of Malfi’s court. One is Antonio, her steward, who has returned from an extended visit to France. The other is Bosola, an ex-convict who committed a murder for the Cardinal, and who is now placed at court by the Duchess’s brother Ferdinand, with instructions to supply information. Ferdinand and the Cardinal leave the court, enjoining their sister not to marry again, but she defies them and secretly woos and marries Antonio. She clandestinely gives birth to a son, which Bosola discovers after Antonio accidentally drops the baby’s horoscope. The news is duly reported to the infuriated Ferdinand. The Duchess has two more children. Ferdinand visits Malfi, planning to marry her to Count Malateste. He visits her private chamber and catches her talking to Antonio, whose identity remains unknown because he has hidden as part of a practical joke. She banishes Antonio as a pretext to get him out of court, and follows him on a feigned pilgrimage to the state of Ancona. Bosola wins her confidence by speaking well of Antonio, unlike the other court flatterers; she entrusts him with the secret of their marriage, which he duly reports to his paymaster. The Cardinal is commissioned to fight in the war, and ceremonially puts off his ecclesiastical office. By papal decree, the Duchess and Antonio are banished ===== PAGE 347 ===== 1613 from Ancona and the Duchy of Malfi is seized by the Holy See; Antonio flees to Milan with his eldest son, and Bosola arrests the Duchess. Acting on Ferdinand’s orders, he imprisons and torments her, shows her the dead bodies of Antonio and her son (which turn out to be waxworks), and finally supervises her and her younger children’s murder. Ferdinand disowms him, then goes mad with lycanthropic delusions. The Cardinal schemes to have Antonio’s lands confiscated, poisons his mistress, and inadvertently reveals to Bosola his part in the Duchess’s death. Seeking revenge, Bosola mistakenly kills Antonio in the dark. In his madness, Ferdinand kills the Cardinal and Bosola, who kills him in turn. Delio decides to advance the rights of Antonio’s surviving son.