The Duchess of Malfi

John Webster

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN:
  9780486406602
• eBook ISBN:
  9780486157771
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

The evils of greed and ambition overwhelm love, innocence, and the bonds of kinship in this dark tragedy, first presented circa 1613. John Webster's great Jacobean drama focuses on a secret marriage that strikes the disastrous spark to an inferno of violence. When the Duchess of Malfi marries Antonio, a household steward, her two fiendishly jealous brothers ― hoping to inherit her title and estates ― plant a household spy whose treachery leads to a bloody and horrifying climax.
Often compared to Shakespeare in terms of his dynamic plots and poetic lyricism, Webster created radical, profoundly original works that feature shifting perspectives and thought-provoking challenges to conventional moral judgments. Required reading for courses in seventeenth-century English literature, this provocative masterpiece from the Golden Age of English drama will not only be welcomed by students and teachers of English literature but also a wide audience of general readers.

ACT V

Scene I

A public place in Milan.

Enter ANTONIO and DELIO.

ANTONIO. What think you of my hope of reconcilement

To the Aragonian brethren?

DELIO. I misdoubt it;

For though they have sent their letters of safe-conduct
For your repair to Milan, they appear
But nets to entrap you. The Marquis of Pescara,
Under whom you hold certain land in cheat,⁵²
Much ’gainst his noble nature hath been moved
To seize those lands; and some of his dependents
Are at this instant making it their suit
To be invested in your revenues.
I cannot think they mean well to your life
That do deprive you of your means of life,
Your living.

ANTONIO. You are still an heretic

To any safety I can shape myself.

DELIO. Here comes the marquis: I will make myself

Petitioner for some part of your land,
To know whither it is flying.

ANTONIO. I pray do.

Enter PESCARA.

DELIO. Sir, I have a suit to you.

PESCARA. To me?

DELIO. An easy one:

There is the citadel of Saint Bennet,
With some demesnes, of late in the possession
Of Antonio Bologna,—please you bestow them on me.

PESCARA. You are my friend; but this is such a suit,

Nor fit for me to give, nor you to take.

DELIO. No, sir?

PESCARA. I will give you ample reason for ’t

Soon in private:—here’s the cardinal’s mistress.

Enter JULIA.

JULIA. My lord, I am grown your poor petitioner,

And should be an ill beggar, had I not
A great man’s letter here, the cardinal’s,
To court you in my favor.

[Gives a letter

PESCARA. He entreats for you

The citadel of Saint Bennet, that belonged
To the banished Bologna.

JULIA. Yes.

PESCARA. I could not have thought of a friend I could rather

Pleasure with it: ’tis yours.

JULIA. Sir, I thank you;

And he shall know how doubly I am engaged
Both in your gift, and speediness of giving
Which makes your grant the greater.

[Exit

ANTONIO. How they fortify

Themselves with my ruin!

DELIO. Sir, I am

Little bound to you.

PESCARA. Why?

DELIO. Because you denied this suit to me, and gave ’t

To such a creature.

PESCARA. Do you know what it was?

It was Antonio’s land; not forfeited
By course of law, but ravished from his throat
By the cardinal’s entreaty: it were not fit
I should bestow so main a piece of wrong
Upon my friend; ‘tis a gratification
Only due to a strumpet, for it is injustice.
Shall I sprinkle the pure blood of innocents
To make those followers I call my friends
Look ruddier upon me? I am glad
This land, ta’en from the owner by such wrong,
Returns again unto so foul an use
As salary for his lust. Learn, good Delio,
To ask noble things of me, and you shall find
I’ll be a noble giver.

DELIO. You instruct me well.

ANTONIO. Why, here’s a man who would fright impudence

From sauciest beggars.

PESCARA. Prince Ferdinand’s come to Milan,

Sick, as they give out, of an apoplexy;
But some say ’tis a frenzy: I am going
To visit him.

[Exit

ANTONIO. ’Tis a noble old fellow.

DELIO. What course do you mean to take, Antonio?

ANTONIO. This night I mean to venture all my fortune,

Which is no more than a poor lingering life,
To the cardinal’s worst of malice: I have got
Private access to his chamber; and intend
To visit him about the mid of night,
As once his brother did our noble duchess.
It may be that the sudden apprehension
Of danger,—for I’ll go in mine own shape,—
When he shall see it fraight with love and duty,
May draw the poison out of him, and work
A friendly reconcilement: if it fail,
Yet it shall rid me of this infamous calling;
For better fall once than be ever falling.

DELIO. I’ll second you in all danger; and, howe’er,

My life keeps rank with yours.

ANTONIO. You are still my loved and best friend.

[Exeunt

Scene II

A gallery in the CARDINAL’s palace at Milan.

Enter PESCARA and DOCTOR.

PESCARA. Now, doctor, may I visit your patient?

DOCTOR. If ’t please your lordship: but he’s instantly

To take the air here in the gallery
By my direction.

PESCARA. Pray thee, what’s his disease?

DOCTOR. A very pestilent disease, my lord,

They call lycanthropia.

PESCARA. What’s that?

I need a dictionary to ’t.

DOCTOR. I’ll tell you.

In those that are possessed with ’t there o’erflows
Such melancholy humor they imagine
Themselves to be transformed into wolves;
Steal forth to churchyards in the dead of night,
And dig dead bodies up...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• DOVER THRIFT EDITIONS
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Note
• Dramatis Personae
• ACT I
• ACT II
• ACT III
• ACT IV
• ACT V