THE DUCHESS OF MALFI BY JOHN WEBSTER - Contextual Questions 3
Comment on the dramatic effectiveness of the following passage from the play. (In your answer you should consider staging methods, relation to the play as a whole, character development, language and handling of themes.)
[Exit SERVANTS with lights, enter FERDINAND]
FERDINAND. Where are you?
DUCHESS. Here sir.
FERDINAND This darkness suits you well.
DUCHESS. I would ask your pardon.
FERDINAND You have it;
For I account it the honorabl’st revenge
Where I may kill, to pardon: where are your cubs?
DUCHESS. Whom?
FERDINAND. Call them your children;
For though our national law distinguish bastards
From true legitimate issue, compassionate nature
Makes them all equal.
DUCHESS. Do you visit me for this?
You violate a sacrament o’th’ Church
Shall make you howl in hell for’t.
FERDINAND. It had been well.
Could you have liv’d thus always: for indeed
You were too much i’th’ light. But no more;
I come to seal my peace with you: here’s a hand,
[gives her a dead man’s hand]
To which you have vow’d much love: the ring upon’t
You gave.
DUCHESS. I affectionately kiss it.
FERDINAND. Pray do: and bury the print of it in your heart.
I will leave this ring with you, for a love-token:
And the hand, as sure as the ring: and do not doubt
But you shall have the heart too.
When you need a friend
Send it to him that ow’d it: you shall see
Whether he can aid you.
DUCHESS. You are very cold.
I fear you are not well after your travel:
Ha! Lights: Oh horrible!
FERDINAND. Let her have lights enough.
[Enter SERVANTS with lights]
[Exit]
DUCHESS. What witchcraft doth he practise, that he hath left
A dead man’s hand here-
[Here is discover’d, behind a traverse, the artificial figures of ANTONIO and his children; appearing as if they were dead.]