The Duchess of Malfi Study Guide

Characters

• Antonio BolognaIs mistakenly stabbed by Bosola, learns that the Duchess and two children have been murdered and dies asking that his son avoid princely courts.First appears: Act 1, Scene 1
• DelioArrives with Antonio's surviving son after the deaths and calls on the company to establish the boy in his mother's right.First appears: Act 1, Scene 1
• The CardinalFinds his cries for rescue dismissed as pretence and dies after being wounded by Bosola and Ferdinand, asking to be forgotten.First appears: Act 1, Scene 1
• Daniel de BosolaKills Antonio's servant, stabs the Cardinal and kills Ferdinand, then dies from Ferdinand's wound after explaining his revenge and admitting his part in the crimes.First appears: Act 1, Scene 1
• LSLord SilvioA visiting lord who names Antonio as the winner of the riding contest and takes leave of the court to go to Milan.First appears: Act 1, Scene 2
• CastruccioJulia's husband, whose arrival in Rome and delivery of a letter to Ferdinand are reported by a servant.First appears: Act 1, Scene 2
• JuliaWoos Bosola and lets him overhear the Cardinal's confession, then dies after the Cardinal makes her kiss a poisoned book.First appears: Act 1, Scene 2
• RRoderigoMistakes the Cardinal's cries for a performance, refuses to help and follows Pescara only to watch what he expects to be a joke.First appears: Act 1, Scene 2
• GGrisolanTreats ignoring the Cardinal's cries as a matter of honour and follows the others into the room where the Cardinal and Bosola are dying.First appears: Act 1, Scene 2
• FerdinandEnters imagining a battle, wounds the Cardinal and Bosola, and dies at Bosola's hand after calling out about his sister.First appears: Act 1, Scene 2
• The DuchessFaces strangling with composure and concern for her children, briefly revives to call for Antonio and dies after Bosola tells her he is alive.First appears: Act 1, Scene 2
• CariolaTries to comfort the Duchess in prison, is forced away before her mistress is strangled and fiercely resists her own killing before the executioners strangle her.First appears: Act 1, Scene 2
• OThe Old LadyTries to hurry away from Bosola and protests that he is always abusing women.First appears: Act 2, Scene 1
• FSThe First ServantRepeats a rumour that an armed Swiss man has been found in the Duchess's bedchamber and blames a French plot.First appears: Act 2, Scene 2
• SSThe Second ServantResponds with alarm and abuse to the First Servant's story of a supposed intruder.First appears: Act 2, Scene 2
• CSThe Cardinal's servantAnnounces Delio's visit to Julia and reports that Castruccio has delivered a letter which has greatly disturbed Ferdinand.First appears: Act 2, Scene 4
• FOThe First OfficerA court officer who mocks Antonio after his apparent dismissal, claiming he pretended deafness when people asked him for money.First appears: Act 3, Scene 2
• SOThe Second OfficerA court officer who repeats hostile gossip about Antonio's religion and body after his apparent dismissal.First appears: Act 3, Scene 2
• TOThe Third OfficerA court officer who joins the mockery of Antonio by suggesting that the Duchess would have benefited from serving under him.First appears: Act 3, Scene 2
• FOThe Fourth OfficerA court officer who suggests that the Duchess would have had more money as Antonio's officer and mocks Antonio's former pride.First appears: Act 3, Scene 2
• CMCount MalatestiDismisses the Cardinal's cries as pretence, then follows Pescara into the room and questions Bosola about Antonio's death.First appears: Act 3, Scene 3
• The Marquis of PescaraRecognises distress in the Cardinal's cries despite the order to ignore them and reaches the room before the Cardinal and Bosola die.First appears: Act 3, Scene 3
• FPThe First PilgrimA visitor to the shrine who witnesses the family's banishment, condemns the Cardinal's cruelty and questions Ancona's authority over the Duchess.First appears: Act 3, Scene 4
• SPThe Second PilgrimA visitor to the shrine who explains the family's banishment and the seizure of the Duchess's territory but doubts that these acts have any justice behind them.First appears: Act 3, Scene 4
• Antonio's eldest sonArrives with Delio, who urges the surviving company to establish him in his mother's right.First appears: Act 3, Scene 4
• AYAntonio's younger sonIs strangled on Bosola's orders and shown dead to Ferdinand with his sister.First appears: Act 3, Scene 4
• ADAntonio's daughterIs strangled on Bosola's orders and shown dead to Ferdinand with her brother.First appears: Act 3, Scene 4
• SAThe Servant at the Duchess's lodgingPresents Ferdinand's entertainment by madmen as a cure for melancholy, describes the performers and leaves after Bosola enters disguised as an old man.First appears: Act 4, Scene 1
• MThe MadmenPerform a mournful song, disordered speeches and a dance of eight men for the imprisoned Duchess as part of Ferdinand's entertainment.First appears: Act 4, Scene 2
• EThe ExecutionersEnter with a coffin, cords and a bell, strangle the Duchess and Cariola, and carry out Bosola's order to strangle the children.First appears: Act 4, Scene 2
• The DoctorDescribes Ferdinand's illness as lycanthropia and claims he can subdue him, only to be thrown down and beaten by his patient.First appears: Act 5, Scene 2
• CAThe Cardinal's attendantsReceive the Cardinal's order to let no one speak with Ferdinand without his knowledge.First appears: Act 5, Scene 2
• EThe EchoSounds from the Duchess's grave, repeats words of death and warning, and seems to Antonio to resemble his wife's voice.First appears: Act 5, Scene 3
• ASAntonio's servantCarries Antonio's body into the Cardinal's room and is killed by Bosola to prevent him opening the door to rescuers.First appears: Act 5, Scene 4

Chapter summaries

1. Act 1, Scene 1

   In the Duchess's presence chamber, Delio welcomes Antonio home and asks about the French court. Antonio praises a king who removes flatterers and listens to frank counsellors, comparing the court to a fountain whose water can nourish or poison the whole country. The arrival of the Cardinal and Bosola puts questions of service and reward on stage. Bosola complains that he suffered in the galleys for the Cardinal but has gained nothing, presenting powerful patrons as selfish while admitting his own wish to profit from them. After the Cardinal and then Bosola leave, Delio reports that Bosola was punished for murder and that the Cardinal was thought to have arranged it. Antonio sees good qualities in Bosola but argues that lack of useful activity breeds destructive resentment.

2. Act 1, Scene 2

   Courtiers gather in the presence chamber, where Ferdinand awards Antonio a jewel for his riding and insists that the company laugh only when he laughs. After the Cardinal and Duchess enter, Antonio gives Delio sharply opposed accounts of the siblings: he condemns the brothers' methods and praises the Duchess's speech, restraint and virtue. These are Antonio's judgements, and Delio teases him for stretching out his praise of her. Ferdinand persuades the Duchess to give Bosola charge of her horses, then the Cardinal privately recommends employing him as an informer while concealing his own part. Left with Bosola, Ferdinand gives him gold to watch the young widow's behaviour and discover whom she favours for marriage, refusing to explain why he opposes her remarrying. Bosola protests that the money and employment make him a villain, but accepts the work after Ferdinand tells him to use his familiar melancholy manner to gain access to private rooms. Alone at the end, Bosola condemns the shameful bargain he has just made.

3. Act 1, Scene 3

   In the gallery, the Cardinal and Ferdinand warn their widowed sister against another marriage, treating female desire and private choice as threats to honour. Ferdinand's reference to their father's dagger gives the family warning a physical menace. After they leave, the Duchess declares that she will proceed despite them and arranges for Cariola to overhear her meeting with Antonio from behind a hanging. A conversation about accounts and making a will turns into courtship, and the Duchess places her wedding ring on Antonio's finger and raises him from his knees. Antonio fears ambition and her brothers, but she praises his worth and asks to be approached as a living young widow rather than an image at her husband's tomb. With Cariola as witness, the couple kneel, exchange blessings and declare themselves married, leaving together to discuss how to appease her family. Cariola's closing speech questions the Duchess's boldness and expresses pity, giving a troubled response to the couple's confidence.

4. Act 2, Scene 1

   Bosola mocks Castruccio's ambition to be an important courtier and attacks the Old Lady's cosmetics before turning his disgust towards the human body itself. Alone, he describes the Duchess's changing body, sickness and loose gown, and announces a plan to test his suspicions with apricocks. Antonio and Delio enter in private conversation, revealing that Delio has just learnt of the marriage. Bosola claims to want simple honesty and argues that princes share the origins and passions of ordinary people. The Duchess asks Antonio to wear his hat in her presence, questioning the ceremony which marks their unequal rank, but he defends the custom of uncovering before a ruler and refuses. Bosola gives her the fruit and comments in asides on her appetite and appearance, allowing the audience to see the scrutiny behind his apparent kindness. After she becomes ill and leaves, Antonio fears labour has begun, while Delio proposes a false report of poisoning to explain her seclusion.

5. Act 2, Scene 2

   Bosola treats the Duchess's appetite and irritability as evidence of pregnancy and continues insulting women despite the Old Lady's protest. Antonio orders the palace secured, and a servant's cry of treason briefly makes Bosola wonder whether the apricocks were poisoned without his knowledge. The servants then repeat an alarming rumour about an armed intruder in the Duchess's bedchamber. Antonio announces missing valuables as the reason for confining the court officers until morning, using his public authority to protect the Duchess's private labour. Left with Delio, Antonio admits his fear and tells his friend to travel to Rome that night; Delio promises faithful service. Delio dismisses the power people give to bad omens and wishes Antonio the happiness of fatherhood. Cariola brings news of a son, and Antonio's relief turns to a plan to cast the child's horoscope.

6. Act 2, Scene 3

   Bosola enters with a dark lantern, suspects a cry came from the Duchess's rooms and questions the purpose of the courtiers' confinement. Antonio arrives with a drawn sword, and both men conceal their purposes while watching the other's behaviour. Antonio claims that his astrological work concerns missing jewels and accuses Bosola of poisoning and theft, privately admitting that the charge must cover the Duchess's confinement after childbirth. A nosebleed frightens Antonio, although he insists it is chance, and he leaves after forbidding Bosola to approach her lodgings. Bosola finds a paper Antonio has dropped and reads its record of the birth and its horoscope predicting a short life and violent death. The paper confirms the birth but leaves Bosola wrongly convinced that Antonio arranges the Duchess's sexual encounters rather than being the child's father. He plans to send a letter with Castruccio to inflame her brothers, turning an accidental discovery into material for his employers.

7. Act 2, Scene 4

   Julia explains that she came to Rome without her husband by claiming she wanted to visit a religious recluse. When she asks the Cardinal for constancy, he turns her fear into an accusation against her and women generally. His image of carrying her like a hunting bird presents their affair as pleasure which she owes to his direction. The Cardinal withdraws before Delio enters, leaving the audience aware of an affair which makes Julia's claim that Roman prelates do not lodge women ironic. Delio, whom Julia identifies as an old suitor, offers his own money, but a servant interrupts with news that Castruccio's letter has greatly disturbed Ferdinand. Asked to state his business briefly, Delio proposes that Julia become his mistress when away from her husband, and she leaves saying she will ask her husband. Alone, Delio fears Antonio has been betrayed and questions his friend's ambition, ending with advice to weigh consequences before acting.

8. Act 2, Scene 5

   Ferdinand enters with the Cardinal and a letter, comparing his distress to madness caused by uprooting a mandrake. He condemns his sister as sexually dishonourable, while the Cardinal first asks him to lower his voice and then invokes their royal blood. Images of disease and violent medical treatment let Ferdinand present harm to his sister as the cleansing of an infected family. His imagined destruction extends to her territory, her lover and her child, while his guesses about the lover's occupation reveal that he still lacks the man's identity. The Cardinal rebukes this loss of reason but admits to anger himself, so his restraint does not amount to defending the Duchess. Ferdinand's fixation on imagined sexual scenes makes the Duchess's absence from the stage significant: the audience hears her brothers construct their own hostile account of her conduct. He finally declares that he will wait to learn her lover's identity, coupling this delay with another threat of punishment.

9. Act 3, Scene 1

   Antonio welcomes Delio back to court and reveals that the Duchess has borne another son and a daughter since his last visit. He fears Ferdinand's unusual quietness and reports that people condemn the Duchess's sexual conduct while attributing his own wealth to dishonest management. When Ferdinand enters with the Duchess, he proposes Count Malatesti as a husband, whom she dismisses as insubstantial. His assurance that love would excuse even an obvious fault brings her relief, but his private words immediately afterwards show that he still judges her guilty. Bosola suggests sorcery as an explanation for her attachment, while Ferdinand rejects the power of love potions and blames her desire. Ferdinand plans to force a confession using the false key Bosola has obtained, then thanks Bosola for bluntly accusing him of self-flattery.

10. Act 3, Scene 2

    The Duchess, Antonio and Cariola joke together in her bedchamber before Antonio and Cariola slip away, leaving her talking without realising they have gone. Ferdinand enters unseen and turns this playful intimacy into a confrontation, handing her a dagger which she and Antonio later understand as an invitation to kill herself. She defends her marriage and offers to show him her husband, but he refuses to learn the man's name and vows never to see her again. After Ferdinand leaves, Antonio returns armed, and the Duchess arranges his escape to Ancona by publicly accusing him of financial wrongdoing and dismissing him before the court officers. When the officers turn against Antonio, Bosola condemns their flattery and praises his virtue above his ancestry, prompting the Duchess to reveal the marriage and their three children. She tells him to take charge of her money and jewels and accepts his suggestion of a feigned pilgrimage despite Cariola's objection. Alone, Bosola calls informing base but resolves to reveal the secret, expecting advancement.

11. Act 3, Scene 3

    The Cardinal, Ferdinand, Malatesti, Pescara, Delio and Silvio gather in Rome, where Malatesti explains that the Cardinal has been appointed to a military commission. Delio and Silvio ridicule Malatesti's military pretensions, distinguishing his display of soldiering from courage in battle. Bosola's arrival shifts attention towards the brothers, whose faces, laughter and silence provoke images of fire, storms and deadly weapons from the observers. The Cardinal condemns the Duchess's use of religion as a disguise and declares that he will ask Ancona to banish the family. Ferdinand orders Bosola to inform the Duchess's son by her first husband about his mother, then scorns Antonio as a clerk whose appearance of gentility depends on handling accounts. His demand for horsemen gives the hostility an immediate military form, while Pescara's comparison of faction to spreading fire presents quarrels among the powerful as a danger to the country.

12. Act 3, Scene 4

    Two pilgrims anticipate an impressive ceremony at the shrine, where the Cardinal is to take up the role of a soldier and the Duchess has arrived on pilgrimage. The stage directions show his cross, hat, robes and ring being exchanged for a sword, helmet, shield and spurs. Antonio, the Duchess and their children then appear at the shrine and are banished by the Cardinal and the state of Ancona through a dumb-show. Churchmen sing of virtue, honour and victory throughout, placing ceremonial praise beside the family's exclusion. Afterwards, the First Pilgrim condemns the Cardinal's cruelty and questions Ancona's authority over the Duchess. The Second Pilgrim reports the Cardinal's claim that the Pope has seized her dukedom into church protection, but thinks the act rests only on her brother's urging rather than justice. They also discuss the Cardinal's violent removal of her wedding ring and his vow to sacrifice it to revenge, before the First Pilgrim reflects on how misfortune compounds itself.

13. Act 3, Scene 5

    The Duchess, Antonio, their children, Cariola and the remaining servants confront banishment and the desertion of followers who had profited from service. Antonio interprets the Duchess's dream of diamonds turning to pearls as a sign of tears, while she envies birds their freedom to choose mates. Bosola brings a letter offering apparent friendship, but she reads its references to Antonio's head and heart as threats, and Antonio refuses to meet Ferdinand. Suspecting an ambush, she urges Antonio to take their eldest son towards Milan, and their farewell tests his consoling account of suffering against her resistance to tyranny. After father and son leave, Bosola returns masked with a guard, forbids her to see her husband again and says she is being taken to her palace. She rejects his assurances of pity and answers his insults about Antonio's birth with a fable in which a salmon's possible higher price at market challenges a dogfish's claim to superior rank. She applies the story to the worth of people in distress, then submits to the forced journey.

14. Act 4, Scene 1

    In the Duchess's palace at Malfi, Bosola praises her dignity in imprisonment, but Ferdinand remains hostile. Bosola announces a visit in darkness, explaining it as Ferdinand's way of reconciling with her without breaking his vow never to see her again. Ferdinand's apparent pardon becomes a cruel performance when he gives her a dead man's hand bearing a ring she gave. Figures resembling Antonio and the children are revealed behind a curtain, and Bosola presents them as proof that her family is dead. Believing him, the Duchess desires death, rejects his consolation and compares life to a theatre in which she must perform against her will. Once she leaves, Ferdinand explains that the figures are wax and that his purpose is to bring her to despair, making explicit the deception already identified in the stage direction. Bosola protests against further cruelty and refuses another visit in his own appearance, while Ferdinand plans to surround her with mad people and send him towards Antonio near Milan.

15. Act 4, Scene 2

    The Duchess tells Cariola that noise and folly help preserve her sanity, then watches the song, disordered speeches and dance of the madmen Ferdinand has sent. Bosola enters disguised as an old man, calls himself a tomb-maker and then a bellman, and stages her preparation for death with executioners, a coffin, cords and a bell. She asserts that she remains Duchess of Malfi, asks Cariola to care for the children, forgives her executioners and kneels to meet death. After she is strangled, Bosola orders the children's deaths and has Cariola killed despite her demands to know her offence and her desperate attempts to delay. Confronted with the bodies, Ferdinand calls his sister his twin, admits that he hoped to inherit her wealth if she remained a widow and blames Bosola for obeying orders which had no legal authority. Bosola demands his reward, condemns the brothers and, left alone, regrets exchanging a clear conscience for promised wealth. When the Duchess briefly revives, he tells her that Antonio lives and the earlier figures were artificial, claims that the Pope has reconciled Antonio with her brothers, then mourns her final death and resolves to deliver her body to women as she requested before going to Milan.

16. Act 5, Scene 1

    Antonio hopes to make peace with the brothers, but Delio argues that taking away his income gives little reason to trust their promises of safety. Antonio withdraws while Delio tests Pescara by requesting part of his friend's land. Pescara refuses Delio and then grants the same property to Julia on the strength of the Cardinal's letter. His explanation exposes the seizure as unlawful and presents the land as payment for the Cardinal's sexual desires, though he still carries out the transfer. After Pescara leaves to visit the reportedly sick Ferdinand, Antonio proposes entering the Cardinal's chamber at midnight without disguise. He hopes that a frightening entrance followed by an offer of love and duty will produce reconciliation, but accepts that the attempt may end his life. Delio's pledge to share his danger sets loyal friendship beside the court's use of another man's ruin as a reward.

17. Act 5, Scene 2

    In the gallery, the Doctor describes Ferdinand's night-time grave-robbing and belief that he has a wolf's skin inside his body, before Ferdinand tries to strangle his shadow and beats him. The Cardinal invents a story about an apparition to explain the illness, then pretends to Bosola that the Duchess is alive while commissioning Antonio's murder. Julia approaches Bosola with a pistol and declares her desire for him, which he uses to persuade her to discover the cause of the Cardinal's melancholy. Hidden in her cabinet, Bosola overhears the Cardinal confess that the Duchess and two children were strangled by his appointment. The Cardinal makes Julia kiss a poisoned book as an oath of secrecy, and she dies after revealing that Bosola has heard everything. He then secures Bosola's apparent agreement to kill Antonio and help remove Julia's body, proposing a false report of plague to prevent investigation. Alone, Bosola resolves to protect Antonio, considers revenge and asks for true repentance, though his use of Julia has also exposed her to death.

18. Act 5, Scene 3

    At a fortification built from an abbey's ruins, Delio points out the Cardinal's window and explains the remarkable echo from a surviving cloister wall. Antonio reflects that even churches and cities die, and the echo repeats his words about death. Its replies increasingly resemble warnings, while Antonio recognises a likeness to his wife's voice without knowing that she is dead. The stage direction locates the echo at the Duchess's grave, giving the audience knowledge denied to him. Delio urges delay, but Antonio argues that fate cannot be escaped and refuses to go on living in fear. When he hopes that his wife and children are asleep, the echo answers his question about seeing her again with a refusal. Delio leaves to fetch the eldest son as a possible appeal to the Cardinal's compassion, ending with a claim that noble endurance remains their own even in misfortune.

19. Act 5, Scene 4

    The Cardinal dismisses the courtiers from attending Ferdinand and binds them by their honour to ignore disturbances, even if he appears to cry for rescue himself. Alone, he explains that he wants privacy to remove Julia's body and intends to kill Bosola once the task is done, while admitting that his conscience obstructs prayer. Bosola overhears the threat, and Ferdinand's disordered talk of strangling makes him more watchful. Antonio enters with a servant, hoping to approach the Cardinal at prayer and obtain pardon. Bosola stabs Antonio in the darkness; when the servant returns with a lantern, he recognises the man he meant to save and compares people to balls struck by the stars. Told that the Duchess and two children have been murdered, Antonio says he no longer wants his wounds healed, dismisses the pursuit of greatness and dies asking that his son avoid princely courts. Bosola threatens the servant into carrying Antonio's body away and declares his intention to turn against the Cardinal.

20. Act 5, Scene 5

    Reading about hell, the Cardinal admits his guilty conscience before Bosola enters with the servant carrying Antonio's body and declares his intention to kill him. The courtiers initially honour their promise to ignore his cries, but Pescara recognises genuine distress and goes to force the doors. Bosola kills the servant to prevent rescue and stabs the Cardinal, accusing him of destroying justice's balance while leaving its sword. Ferdinand enters imagining a battle, wounds his brother and Bosola, then receives a fatal blow from Bosola and cries out about his sister before dying. When the courtiers reach them, Bosola explains his revenge for the Duchess, Antonio, Julia and himself, acknowledging his participation while claiming to have acted against his good nature. The Cardinal asks to be forgotten and dies; Bosola follows, comparing Antonio's accidental death to a mistake in a play and describing humanity as living in darkness. Delio brings Antonio's son into the room and calls for restoration of his mother's rights, closing with a claim that lasting honour depends on integrity of life.

Key quotes