Blackfriars;Globe;Indoor Professional;Outdoor Professional
Speech prefix(es)
Seruant. | Seru. | Ser.
Words
335
Characters
1867
Typicality
0.25 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A14872
BritDrama no.
1726
Cluster
Cluster 20 — Conjurers, witches & physicians
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
O, Gentlemen, o'th' Court, the foulest treason. I am come to tell you, Your brother hath intended you some sport: A great Physician, when the Pope was sick Of a deep melancholy, presented him With several sorts of madmen, which wild object (Being full of change, and sport,) forced him to laugh, And so th'impost-hume broke: the self same cure, The Duke intends on you. There was taken even now a Switzer In the Duchess Bedchamber. With a Pistol in his great codpiece. The codpiece was the case for't. True, if he had kept out of the Ladies chambers: And all the mowldes of his buttons, were leaden bullets. 'Twas a French plot upon my life. We are: By this hand 'twas creadably reported by one o'th' Blackguard. Here. Yes. (Madam) a Gentleman That's come post from Malfy, desires to see you. He says, Your husband (old Castruchio ) is come to Room, M st pitifully tired with riding post. Your husband's come, Hath delivered a letter to the Duke of Calabria, that, To my thinking hath put him out of his wits. One that wishes you long life. There's a mad Lawyer, and a secular Priest, A Doctor that hath forfeited his wits By jealousy: and Astrologian, That in his works, said such a day o'th'moneth, Should be the day of doom; and failing of't, Ran mad: and English Taylor, crais'd i'th'braine, With the study of new fashion: a gentleman usher Quite beside himself, with care to keep in mind, The number of his Ladies salutations; Or how do you, she employed him in each morning: A Farmer too, (and excellent knave in grain) Mad, because he was hindered transportation, And let one Broaker, (that's mad) lose to these, you'd think the devil were among them. pray question him: I'll leave you. Here stay Sir, and be confident, I pray: I'll fetch you a dark Lanthorn. Exit. Where are you Sir? O misfortune. I brought him hither, To have reconciled him to the Cardinal.
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.