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The Duchess of Malfi

3.55 of 5 stars 3.55 · rating details · 3,868 ratings · 77 reviews

More widely studied and more frequently performed than ever before, John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi is here presented in an accessible and thoroughly up-to-date edition. Based on the Revels Plays text, the notes have been augmented to cast further light both on Webster's amazing dialogue and on the stage action. An entirely new introduction sets the tragedy in the cont...more

Paperback, 134 pages

Published April 1st 2001 by W. W. Norton & Company (first published 1623)

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Nov 14, 2008 Buck rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: histrionics

Life is a desperate business carried on by demented apes and ending in a welter of blood and shit. Everybody knows this, more or less, but it doesn't hurt to be reminded now and then. That, as I take it, is one of the modest functions of literature, reassuring us that we're all down here in the hole together, manning the pumps. Then again, I'm just a guy with a laptop and a Starbucks card, so what do I know?

So here's another thing I learned from Webster: I happened to read The Duchess of Malfi i...more

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Nov 28, 2011 Esdaile rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: renaissance-drama, my-library

Webster's language is quite remarkable. All critics, so far as I am aware, feel obliged to comment on the "horror" of Webster's plays but they ignore the obvious humour of his grotesque extravagence. I have a problem with this "horror" as I do with the "horror" of Bosch's paintings. Wasn't the real world of the time more full of horror? Disease, war and torture were far more horrible that Webster or Bosch's portrayals of the same.

Webster seemed to have very little notion of religion and none of...more Webster's language is quite remarkable. All critics, so far as I am aware, feel obliged to comment on the "horror" of Webster's plays but they ignore the obvious humour of his grotesque extravagence. I have a problem with this "horror" as I do with the "horror" of Bosch's paintings. Wasn't the real world of the time more full of horror? Disease, war and torture were far more horrible that Webster or Bosch's portrayals of the same.

Webster seemed to have very little notion of religion and none of salvation. His rich imagery is of a kind completely different to Shakespeare and there is nothing anywhere quite like it.

"He and his brother are like plum trees, that grow crooked
over standing pools, they are rich, and o'erladen with fruit,
but none but crows, pies, and caterpillars feed on them."

What an unforgettable description of the corruption of power and lobbies.

Strangely, critics usually ignore or miss the humour. TS Eliot said nothing about Webster's humour but he writes not only Gothic revenge tragedy but at the same time, slapstick, albeit a dark slapstick.
The play abounds in bawdy humour with references to "apricocks, the first our Spring yields" and a pistol concealed in a great codpiece. Don't lets take Webster too seriously!

This play demonstrates a confrontation between an "innocent" middle class life and the cruel and corrupt yet magnificent world of late Medieval Roman Catholic Europe, especially Spain, a conflict of the natural and the contrived. If Webster had had psychological insight his malcontent Bosola could have become a fascinating character but even as he is portrayed in his perversity, he has the traits of the cruel servant who could have been good if fortune had treated him differently but,
"We are merely the stars' tennis balls, struck and banded which way please them".

It is not for intelligence and insight that anyone performs or reads Webster -his intelligence and insight has a way of parading itself as greater than it is- but for the richness and unforgettable strength, sometimes in perversity, of his poetic language. "The Duchess of Malfi" works better than the "The White Devil" because the plot is not so diffuse but both of them abound with startling images. The cardinal finds a guilty conscience "tedious" (just the right word to describe a guilty conscience for someone who is not fundamentally virtuous but fundamentally vicious) and "When I look into the fish-ponds in my garden,. Methinks I see a thing arm'd with a rake,. That seems to strike at me." That is a superb admixture of gloom and hilarity. There is the old cardinal looking into his fishpond, maybe thinking of a fat carp for supper, in the gloom of which he dimly perceives a devil with a rake poking at him-that is slapstick, come to think of it is he just looking at his own reflection in the pond? Murky fun all this. To be read with good friends out loud and recorded -with candles and wine in a gloomy old room.
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Feb 23, 2011 Henry added it

Shelves: drama-verse

Such imagery in passing statements! With little of Shakespeare's romanticism-- "Fie upon him! / A count! he's a mere stick of sugar-candy" (III.i). The cavalcade of madmen and the echo chamber are wonderful dramatic techniques, and Bosola's death speech is wondrous if but moralistic.

Nor do the conversations spotlight the speaker solely; in Shakespeare, it's one person speaking to the whole stage or the whole audience. In Webster, there's more subtlety and natural redirection in conversation, mor...more

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Mar 15, 2012 Nicole rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: People who like pointless nonsense and mother-flippin' assholes. JERKS.

Recommended to Nicole by: Survey of English Literature (Class)

Shelves: education

First thoughts: THANK GOD THIS IS OVER WITH! AUGH.

My God. My brain hurts.

MY ANGER HURTS.

**Also just a forerunner: Everything after this will be going full tilt into spoilers. So if you don't want to see them, skip ahead to where the bold asterisks mark the continuation spot please!**

I read this play and I sit there and I'm like:

NOTHING IS HAPPY. NOTHING. ALL OF IT IS BULL.

And no, seriously. It's all bull. The entire story is about a woman who has been recently widowed and her two high ranking br...more

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Jul 19, 2010 Yngvild rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: plays

Everybody’s favourite Jacobean tragedy (other than those by Shakespeare), really the only one that is played today with any regularity, The Duchess of Malfi has it all: a good story, great writing, enough comedy to keep it entertaining, complex characters, quotable lines and superb stagecraft. There is even horror, but not the gratuitous bloodiness of earlier plays. That severed hand with the ring is unbeatable.

There is some problem with our not having a clean copy of the play. Even John Webste...more Everybody’s favourite Jacobean tragedy (other than those by Shakespeare), really the only one that is played today with any regularity, The Duchess of Malfi has it all: a good story, great writing, enough comedy to keep it entertaining, complex characters, quotable lines and superb stagecraft. There is even horror, but not the gratuitous bloodiness of earlier plays. That severed hand with the ring is unbeatable.

There is some problem with our not having a clean copy of the play. Even John Webster complained of other writers inserting their own text. That might explain at least some plot inconsistencies. Was Duke Ferdinand the older brother of the duchess, or her younger twin? Does it matter? It might, if it affects why Ferdinand tried to prevent his widowed sister from remarrying. He could not have been behaving like an older brother if he was her twin. Nor could he have felt they had some kind of mystical blood connection as twins if he was the first-born.

Initially, Ferdinand refuses to explain his reason to trying to keep the duchess celibate, but later says it was to control her wealth. However, by the time he says this, we know that her first husband’s estate went to their son, leaving the duchess only her dower and making nonsense of the idea that she was immensely rich.

Was Ferdinand the puppet of their older brother, the cardinal? Then what was his reason for secretly attempting to control her? If the duchess only owned her dower, she was not likely to be able to marry into the kind of powerful family that the cardinal implies is all he will accept. Some people have suggested an incestuous relationship between the duchess and at least one of her brothers, but my innocent mind can find no justification for that. Perhaps the audience of the day could fill in the gaps from their knowledge of the actual events on which this play was based.

What I find intriguing is the way Webster can switch points of view like few other playwrights. When we see the duchess informing her choice of partner that she intends to marry him, we see a strong person; a prince assuming control of the situation, and treated by all those around her as such. She finds her brothers’ patronizing attitude amusing. When the brothers learn of her marriage, they see only a stereotypically weak woman.

CARDINAL. Curs’d creature!
Unequall nature, to place womens hearts
So farre upon the left-side!

FERDINAND. Foolish men,
That ere will trust their honour in a barke,
Made of so slight, weake bull-rush as is woman,
Apt every minnit to sinke it!

Then, of course, there is Webster’s glorious English. No wonder that it is actor’s play.

BOSCOLA. Doe you not weepe?
Other sinnes onely speake; murther shreikes out:
The element of water moistens the earth,
But blood flies upwards, and bedewes the heavens.

FERDINAND. Cover her face. Mine eyes dazell: she di’d yong.

--The Duchess of Malfi, John Webster (circa 1613)

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May 30, 2011 Vasha7 added it · review of another edition

I read this in high school, reread it recently, and finally appreciated just why it was truly radical in its day. It scathingly questions convention, morality, and hypocrisy. Clearly, Webster suggests that the title character is the only person in the play who didn't do anything wrong, even though other characters think she is a bad woman for marrying for love (below her station), and actually proposing marriage to the man she wants. Compare this with the treachery, venality, and violence of the...more

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Feb 22, 2011 Amy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, classics

The Duchess of Malfi was one of the texts I read for AS English Literature, and I loved it.
The plot is slightly crazy; with The Duchess' husband having just died and her brothers the Cardinal and Ferdinand both petitioning her to re-marry a certain type of man. However, the Duchess is in love with Antonio, one her servants. Ferdinand, the Duchess' twin (who has some *complicated* feelings towards his sister) hires Bosola to spy on the Duchess; and he discovers that not only has the Duchess secre...more

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Sep 06, 2011 Stephen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: england, 17th-century

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Aug 23, 2012 June Louise rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: plays, academic, classics, tragedy

"We are merely the stars' tennis balls, struck and bandied
Which way please them".

Hmmmm. This is an interesting play, and I have to admit, not my favourite. I have to study The Duchess as part of my Uni English course, and having read Othello immediately before it, I'm afraid I prefer the latter.

I'm not sure what it is about old-fashioned playwrights, but in both Othello and Duchess, women seem to die twice. In Othello, Desdemona miraculously survives a smothering, only to say a few words and d...more

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Mar 14, 2013 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars

This play, based on a true story, reveals the reality of the saying, "kindred commonly do worse than remote strangers." Indeed. A brother hires executioners to kill his twin sister for marrying outside of their class. Imagine Darcy's sister killing lizzie! How times have changed. Needless to say, this play is rich in moral depth and insight into the darkness of human nature. (disclaimer: i'm acting in part of this play as the Cardinal--appropriate given the new Pope)

"Did any ceremonial form of l...more

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Nov 08, 2011 Mandy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Five stars not because it's perfect - it's not - but because I am just so fascinated by this play. It has both one of the most loving and affective marriages in early modern drama and one of the most horrific and haunting climaxes I've encountered (though I haven't read a lot of the truly gruesome and horrific examples of Jacobean drama). The Duchess is a magnificent character, and her attempts to create a female space within the patriarchal order point toward proto-feminism, making Webster a...more

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Dec 08, 2008 Peter rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: everyone

A terrific play, I reread this one yearly. Mary and I saw a great production at the Guthrie Theater back in the nineties. Others have been strong but none so powerful as that incredible production.

The play afforded me a great moment in life, when on a train from Paris to Amsterdam, I met Claude Duneton, a Dutch writer who had finished his translation of Webster's "Duchess" into French and was returning home from his meeting with the publisher. Several months, perhaps a year, later, a copy of the...more

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Jun 25, 2012 Cecilia W Yu rated it 3 of 5 stars

Had to read it at university.....it was okay. I don't remember why I remember it...possibly because my tutor was using the last chapter of it to slut onto some "mature-aged" student called Carl, whom the rest of us thought was a total boring knob with entirely the wrong wardrobe choice, prattles on about boring stuff like "having to work AND study" and had a chip on his shoulder because he came from the wrong side of the city and did not go to a grammar school....so decided we were unappreciativ...more

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Oct 11, 2011 Rachel Hirstwood rated it 5 of 5 stars

Didn't expect to give this three stars when I started it but it was quite good. Harder to read than Shakespeare, perhaps because Shakespeare is more familiar, even if you've not read a play of his, you're bound to come across references to it. This also had quite a few bits where I didn't know who was talking to who - in one scene someone got killed and I've no idea when who how that happened. I'm waiting for a dvd of it to arrive - maybe that will clear up those bits I'm not sure of!

I wouldn't...more

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Aug 21, 2011 John David rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: drama

This review contains spoilers.

That John Webster’s birth records were quite probably destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666 is a fitting biographical fact in light of reading “The Duchess of Malfi.” It perfectly highlights the senseless destruction, both physical and spiritual, that permeates this play. The duplicity, violence, and familial division rival anything that you can find in Shakespeare. While the poetry itself doesn’t quite reach the Shakespearean firmament in its baroque florid...more This review contains spoilers.

That John Webster’s birth records were quite probably destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666 is a fitting biographical fact in light of reading “The Duchess of Malfi.” It perfectly highlights the senseless destruction, both physical and spiritual, that permeates this play. The duplicity, violence, and familial division rival anything that you can find in Shakespeare. While the poetry itself doesn’t quite reach the Shakespearean firmament in its baroque floridity, the language is wonderful, and just as full of double entendre and puns as the greatest of Shakespeare’s plays are.

The action is relatively straightforward. The Duchess of Malfi, whose overbearing brothers Ferdinand and the Cardinal insist that she never re-marry for fear that they might have to share her wealth with someone else, disobeys them and asks Antonio, one of her stewards, to marry her. Several years pass, during which the Duchess has two children by Antonio, while the brothers remain ignorant of the marriage, but they eventually find out. In an attempt to escape Ferdinand’s wrath, Antonio flees to Ancona. Bosola, the Cardinal’s goon, chases them in hot pursuit. The Duchess, her two younger sons, and her female servant are all killed on Bosola’s instruction. Bosola, long upset by the Cardinal’s venality, decides to revenge the Duchess and her children. The Cardinal, after murdering his mistress to keep her quiet, plans to kill Bosola, too, but instead kills Antonio who has since returned to Malfi. Just to drive home the idea of complete and utter wanton cruelty, the Cardinal, Ferdinand, and Bosola all die in a final melee. Just when you think all hope is lost, the Duchess’ oldest son appears on stage in the final scene to take charge of a court that has destroyed itself because of its singular bloodlust. However, Webster leaves little room for the reader to imagine matters getting any better.

While Bosola seems like he might be the least interesting character because he has the least qualms with murder, he shows some interesting moments of moral ambiguity and even clarity, which makes his development interesting to watch. Needless to say, by the end, you’re left feeling rent in two by the treachery, deceit, and duplicity of it all. The Duchess’ son does not provide the necessary Aristotelian catharsis, and instead of a court being wholly purged of bad seeds, you feel that that he will end up a young victim in further machinations, another courtly pawn.

While others seem to not have appreciated the introduction and editorial notes, I rather enjoyed them and thought they shed some light on the production, composition, and historical background (yes, this is based on historical events – can you imagine?) As the footnotes are located at the bottom of the page, you don’t have to flip back and forth between pages - one of my bête noirs when it comes to Penguin Classics editions. All in all, I look forward to reading more New Mermaids in the future, and I especially appreciate their effort at trying to revive Elizabethan and Jacobean drama.
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Jun 13, 2010 Bettie rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fraudio, jacobean, play-dramatisation, italy, revenge, published-1612

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. BBC Radio 3: Sunday Play

Broadcast: Sunday 8th November 1992 @ 7:30 p.m.

Blurb. The evils of greed and ambition overwhelm love, innocence, and the bonds of kinship in this dark tragedy concerning the secret marriage of a noblewoman and a commoner. John Webster's great Jacobean drama detailing the fiendish schemes of two brothers who desire their wealthy sister's title and estates ends with a bloody and horrifying climax.

"The Duchess of Malfi" is a meditation on power--political, religious, and sex...more

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Jan 03, 2009 Paul Dinger rated it 3 of 5 stars

It is lot more depraved that the White Devil and much less successful. It is one of those rare Jacobian tragedies where the women aren't the worst things ever. It works because of the title character who makes you believe why she would do something like marry beneath her station. Then literally all hell breaks loose, and we do mean hell. Her killer ironically becomes her avenger as depravity rules the stage. Why Webster is rarely staged amazes me, he would fit in with our modern films.

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Jul 12, 2010 Stephanie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: college

I always remember being one of the few people dying of laughter during the film Shakespeare in Love when the little street urchin reveals his name is John Webster. Of course he also declared that his favorite part in the play was when when the lady stabbed herself.

I really don't know why I loved this play so much since it was so dark and morbid and filled with murder. But it was also pretty funny. I couldn't help but love every word.

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May 11, 2013 Sheena rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, fiction, plays

Excellent multi-dimensional characterisation of the Duchess, Bosola and Ferdinand; a lot of exploration can be done on just these three alone. I just don't think it flows very smoothly--there are many questions unanswered, like Antonio's disappointing role and the point of creating Julia and Delio--and like other Jacobean plays (see: Volpone), I find it doesn't know where to stop.

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Sep 22, 2010 Erin Kelley rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

One of my favorite, non-Shakespearean, 17th century dramas. Just read it again for the 2nd time around. Complete with Freudian and feminist literary criticism issues (among others), Machiavellian villians, corrupt Catholicism, insanity, death, love, and an extremely dysfunctional family to boot! Renaissance "soap opera" at its finest!

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Apr 28, 2012 Charles rated it 4 of 5 stars

Pretty good. It was a fun tale of power, lust, evil Italians, a corrupt cardinal and not a really innocent person among them. Even the Duchess and her lover betrayed the class system by their secret love. I suppose the children killed by their uncle were innocent, come to think of it, but they had no lines.

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Sep 14, 2010 Heather rated it 3 of 5 stars

Funny stuff! Plenty of great insults (some so cutting I was actually shocked), constant action, morbid jokes and quick dialogue. I reckon a stage performance would be amazing.

I only gave it 3 stars though, because the Duchess of Malfi and Daniel de Bosola were so interesting that the other characters fell flat and also because I wanted for puns.

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Jun 20, 2012 Sammy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: theatre

I don't know what John Webster was on, but I want some of it. His plotting is so much more populist than Shakespeare, which ordinarily I would count as a mark against him, yet 'The Duchess' has a rare, guttural power that elevates it above the rest of Webster's output. A joy.

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Jul 28, 2011 Amanda rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: standalone, european-classics

A classic play featuring the typical tragedy storyline with the slight twist that the Duchess is widowed at a young age and must remarry in secret due to her brother's completely insane objections and desire for her to remain single. I found it neither unjoyable nor enjoyable, just a typical tragedy play with a heavy undertone of Catholicism.

Check out my full review.

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Apr 20, 2012 Kat rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 16th-17th-century-lit

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jan 27, 2010 Bill Kerwin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 16th-17th-c-brit, stuart-drama

This play, the finest Jacobean drama outside the Shakespeare canon, is not only a gem of poetry and wit, but also a meditation on the vanity of public life and the inevitability of death. The satiric prose is filled with such poetic imagery and the subtle verse is so sharp in its commentary that each individual use of language complements all the others. The reader is surprised to find in such a merciless play so much goodness and such tender love scenes. Perhaps that is part of the reason why,...more

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Mar 05, 2013 Nina Waterman rated it 4 of 5 stars

Such a wonderful play of emotions; the love story that subverts class expectations and gender roles, the stark horror and brutality of emotions, and the tragic character arc of Bosolo. This easily one of my favourite tragedies.

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Jul 16, 2008 Adam Floridia rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Reading this really made me appreciate Shakespeare's plays that much more. This is one of the only other Elizabethan (or, technically Jacobean) plays I've read not by The Bard, and it is not nearly as good. Although there are a few interesting characters, I don't think they are developed quite enough. Julia, for example, comes in and out at the most random times simply to move the plot along. Also, Webster clearly preceded the neoclassical stress on unity of time. At times, this actually read li...more

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Jul 14, 2012 Shamela rated it 5 of 5 stars

Still just about my favorite play in the world. That speaks volumes about my psyche, I'm sure. It saddens me to admit that yes, I am pretty sure I am officially too old to ever play the Duchess.

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Aug 20, 2010 Sophie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-read-in-education

Just loved this book! I have a great English teacher in my second year of college, her passion really translated to strongly to me and encouraged me to understand and feel the book. And I really did!

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About John Webster

John Webster (c.1580 – c.1634) was an English Jacobean dramatist best known for his tragedies The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi, which are often regarded as masterpieces of the early 17th-century English stage. He was a contemporary of William Shakespeare.

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Books by John Webster

The Duchess of Malfi and Other Plays: The White Devil; The Duchess of Malfi; The Devil's Law-Case; A Cure for a Cuckold

Three Plays: The White Devil; The Duchess of Malfi; The Devil's Law-Case

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