Kyle’s Reviews > The Duchess of Malfi, The White Devil, The Broken Heart and 'Tis Pity She's a Whore > Status Update
Kyle
is on page 583 of 640
Perhaps a wry rebuke of the frothy family reunions in Shakespearean romances, or the sycophantic Jonsonian masque, Ford rips open the sewer grate of Stuart England and revels in blood and incest to that may have been a sensation in the pre-Puritan party town, perhaps even the reason for the Cromwell revolution. Hard to imagine how audiences back then would have responded but I definitely see how Artaud got its heart.
— Oct 30, 2017 01:09PM
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Kyle
is on page 455 of 640
A challenging read from a heretofore unfamiliar author, made all the more maddening with allegorical names for his characters so unlike anything I might have seen or heard before: every now and then I would have a fix on the relationship between two lovers only to have one address the other as sister or uncle. The same confusion over stabby villains and upstanding Spartans. A few more reads needed to tell who is who.
— Sep 29, 2017 01:17PM
Kyle
is on page 322 of 640
So strange to re-read the same play I had studied over a year ago and to find so many surprises in it: the central role of Antonio that I overlooked the first time around, the banishing of the Duchess and her family as a dumbshow while Churchmen sing, Bosola's shifting attitude to murder and its rewards. All of these threads must have been in the play when I first read it yet became intricately woven into a tapestry.
— Jun 10, 2017 11:05AM
Kyle
is on page 165 of 640
As much as early modern Londoners, post-Gunpowder Plot, had to fear Catholics, very few plays would have gone beyond the stereotypical Machiavel to show how from the family unit to heads of state and church, one evil deed infects each person. Flaminio sides with a duke falling from favour and panders his sister to him, bringing about unfulfilling revenge. Vittoria and Bracciano find love and take leave of conscience.
— Nov 23, 2016 10:23PM
Kyle
is starting
I'm sure there is a country/western or blues song that succinctly covers the emotional variations of falling in love at the wrong time or with the wrong person, but early modern playwrights used the medium of pouring gallons of blood on the stage amidst poignant soliloquies. Each tragedy covers the nastiness of Flaminio, injustice of the Duchess' family, the shocking stoicism of Orgilus and icky incest from Giovanni.
— Mar 16, 2016 12:46PM
