How we cite our quotes: (Act.Scene.Line)
Quote #7
Whether the spirit of greatness or of woman
Reign most in her, I know not, but it shows
A fearful madness. (1.1.492-94)
While Cariola serves as the sole witness to the Duchess and Antonio's marriage and promises to keep their secret, she thinks this whole thing is cray-cray. She's utterly loyal to the Duchess, but doesn't know what to make of her decision to secretly marry her social inferior.
What do you think Cariola means by the "spirit of greatness or of woman"? A possible interpretation is that Cariola doesn't know whether to impute the Duchess's decision to her role as prince ("I do what I want!") or as a woman ("I want a husband!"). Either way, it definitely freaks her out.
Quote #8
Oh fie upon this single life! Forgo it:
We read how Daphne, for her peevish flight,
Became a fruitless bay-tree, Syrinx turn'd
To the pale empty reed, Anaxarete
Was frozen into marble, whereas those
Which married, or proved kind unto their friends,
Were by a gracious influence transshaped
Into the olive, pomegranate, mulberry,
Became flowers, precious stones or eminent stars. (3.2.23-31)
Antonio's telling Cariola that she shouldn't stay single, citing a bunch of examples from Ovid's The Metamorphoses where women who insisted on chastity were transformed into barren, empty things, while women who chose marriage and sexual union were transformed into things of much greater value.
Something kind of neat about Antonio's particular examples is that married ladies get transformed not only into things which illustrate their value as the bearers of children (olives, pomegranate, and mulberry trees as symbols of fruitfulness and generation), but also "precious stones or eminent stars," which don't correlate with women's reproductive capabilities.
Quote #9
Why should only I
Of all the other princes of the world
Be cased up like a holy relic? I have youth,
And a little beauty. (3.2.136-39)
The Duchess wants to know why Ferdinand's so adamant about harshing her remarriage groove, and she's doing it in an interesting way. First she demands to know how anybody can tell a prince that he/she can't remarry. Then, in a move very characteristic of her interactions with Ferdinand, the Duchess changes tact and approaches the question from a totally different angle: she's a young, single woman, it's only natural that she marry. Both of these appeals to convention fall on deaf ears. Ferdinand doesn't care that she's young or that she's an independent political ruler; first and foremost the Duchess is his sister, and he wants to control her.