Duchess of Malfi (Playscripts S.) (New Mermaids) (Revels Plays Companion Library)

by John Webster

The best-known of the Jacobean tragedies; an exemplary model of the -tragedy of blood.-

• ISBN10: 0393900916
• ISBN13: 9780393900910
• Publish Date: 2 December 2005 (first published December 1921)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 12 November 2014
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: W. W. Norton & Company
• Edition: 4th ed.
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 134
• Language: English

Reviews

[brokentune]

BOSOLA. Break, heart!

Which pretty much sums up my reaction to this play. That and the recurring question of “Why have I not read or seen this before now?”.

As much as I am sure that I will never truly love Jacobean revenge tragedies, and as much as I am sure that I will always be grossed out by Titus Andronicus, I loved The Duchess of Malfi. It may have helped that unlike Titus A., The Duchess has a clear message…but also, there was “method to the madness” (which Will S. may not have mastered yet when he wrote Titus. He did master it later on, of course. ).

In The Duchess of Malfi we have complexity and human frailty and grand character scenes and greed and treachery and mischief and repentance.

Oh, and as an added bonus, I found a radio production of the play starring Roger Allam as Bosola and Fiona Shaw as the Duchess. (I may have actually squeed when I found this.)

Yup, it’s gory and horrible … and absolutely brilliant.