How we cite our quotes: (Act.Scene.Line)
Quote #4
The misery of us that are born great,
We are forced to woo because none dare woo us:
And as a tyrant doubles with his words,
And fearfully equivocates, so we
Are forced to express our violent passions
In riddles and in dreams and leave the path
Of simple virtue which was never made
To seem the thing it is not. (1.1.433-40)
It's hard out here for a Duchess. She's down to mingle, but no guy would dare put the moves on her because of her rank. Even the virtuous Duchess, then, has to resort to deceit to get the wheels turning. Notice that she doesn't once identify herself as a woman here. Her dilemma, as she conceives it, springs solely from her identity as a sovereign, a position that has put her squarely into the role of the man in the courtship process.
Quote #5
I do here put off all vain ceremony
And only do appear to you a young widow
That claims you for her husband; and like a widow,
I use but half a blush in't. (1.1.448-51)
The Duchess, as you may have noticed, is not big on "vain ceremony" in general, and definitely not when she's doing her level best to get Antonio to marry her. Notice here that she's trying to divorce herself from her political and social position as much as possible, and to only embody the identity of "young, available, and, btw, not virginal."
That last bit is developed throughout the play into one of the Duchess's most distinctive characteristics. The Duchess uses her sexual experience as a source of power in kind of the opposite way that Queen Elizabeth used her virginity. This is a lady who's been around the block, which not only adds to her case for Why I Want Antonio, but also authorizes her to choose her husband in a way that wouldn't have been allowed a single virgin.
Quote #6
These words should be mine,
And all the parts you have spoke, if some part of it
Would not have savoured flattery. (1.1.464-66)
Hey, that's my line. Antonio's words are spoken directly in response to the Duchess's promise that he doesn't need to worry about her brothers, but they apply equally to everything that's gone down in the past several hundred lines.
Throughout this scene, the Duchess has been the one doing all of the traditional man's work in the courtship process: she came on to him, she persuaded him, she told him all of the reasons that their marriage was a good idea, and now Antonio's all, "wait, isn't this supposed to be my job?" This idea of the Duchess taking the dominant, conventionally masculine role in their role continues throughout the play, despite her initial pronouncement that she wishes to make Antonio her "overseer."