Meet the Cast
The Duchess
The Duchess. She's, well, the Duchess. Probably the most important thing to know about the Duchess when you begin reading this play is her very special snowflake social position. In Renaissance Eur...
Antonio
Antonio is the Duchess's secret hubby-cum-baby-daddy, doomed both by social stigma and the Duchess's crazy brothers. Before that, though, he was her steward. In case you aren't in the early modern...
Bosola
Malcontent, super-spy, social critic, avenger (no, sadly, not that kind). While Bosola's not high on our list of eligible bachelors (we're looking at you, Julia), he's definitely topping the one fo...
Ferdinand
If Ferdinand had a Facebook page, his Basic Info section would probably read something like this:Sex: MaleInterested In: Sister, Radical Purity of Own Aristocratic BloodlineRelationship Status: It'...
The Cardinal
We first see the Cardinal as he walks in with his siblings, and boy has Antonio got some choice words to describe him:He is a melancholy churchman.[…]Where his is jealous of any man he lays worse...
Cariola
Poor Cariola. She's really between a rock and a hard place. Cariola is the Duchess's maid and one of the only two people (the other being Delio) who originally knows about the Duchess's marriage to...
Delio
Delio is Antonio's steadfast BFF, and has the distinction of being the only semi-major character to survive the play. Which is really saying something.Delio's relationship with Antonio parallels Ca...
Julia
Julia is the wife of the aging courtier Castruchio and the mistress of the Cardinal. With regards to plot, Julia doesn't do way too much until the very end, at which point she tries to finagle secr...