The Duchess of Malfi Society and Class Quotes

Ah, yet another quote surrounding the question of Ambition and Antonio. Delio's trying to figure out what's going on with the Duchess's brothers in Rome, and, fearing for Antonio, remarks that Antonio's "ambition" is coming back to bite him. What do you think of the fact that only two people who know about the secret marriage (Delio and Cariola), who are both firmly on the side of Team Antonio and the Duchess, find it really alarming and worrisome?

Sheesh. Here's yet another instance of Bosola Telling It Like It Is. At the news that the Duchess has just fired Antonio, the other Malfi courtiers immediately start talking about what a bad guy he was. Bosola alone sticks up for Antonio, rebuking the Duchess for caring more about rank than merit. There are a lot of people who think that Bosola is just trying to trick the Duchess into revealing something here (which she does), but given that Bosola both relentlessly calls 'em like he sees 'em throughout the play and has a serious chip on his shoulder about the unfairness of the courtly social system, you could definitely read this as genuine.

This is a neat little passage because it provides an outsider's perspective on this whole mess. Some pilgrims are watching the Cardinal banish the Duchess and her family from Ancona, and even though they think it's weird that the Duchess would marry her inferior, they still think that the Cardinal is taking it too far by banishing them. It can be hard to parse how the average 16th-century Joe would have felt about this complicated situation, so this little scene with the pilgrims is pretty useful.