Antonio
(Matt Wilson), the Cardinal (Cameron Rhodes), Pescara
(Peter Daube), a servant (Jonathan Hodge), Duchess (Sophia
Hawthorne), Roderigo (Nigel Collins), Cariola (Robyn
Malcolm)
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| The
company stands "off stage" behind the plastic
"curtain". |
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Ferdinand
(Benjamin Farry), the Duchess, and the Cardinal
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| The
Duchess and her brothers in a family vignette behind the
curtain. |
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Ferdinand coerces Bosola (Michael Hurst) to spy
on the Duchess.
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Bosola
responds
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Bosola:
So:
What follows? Never rained such show'rs as these
Without thunderbolts in the tail of them.
Whose throat must I cut?
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The Duchess'
brothers warn her not to marry again.
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Ferdinand:
You are a widow:
You know already what man is, and therefore
Let not youth, high promotion, eloquence--
Cardinal:
No, nor anything without the addition, honour,
Sway your high blood. |
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The Duchess
responds.
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Duchess:
Will you hear me? I'll never marry.
Cardinal:
So most widows say;
But commonly that notion lasts no longer
Than the turning of an hour-glass; the funeral sermon
And it end both together. |
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 But
the Duchess wants to marry Antonio.
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Duchess:
I sent for you. Sit down.
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 Antonio
accuses Bosola of poisoning the Duchess to account
for the sickness that is actually caused by her secret
pregnancy.
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Antonio:
Saucy slave! I'll pull thee up by the roots.
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 But
Bosola finds evidence that the Duchess has had a child.
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Bosola:
A child's nativity calculated!
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 The
Cardinal has an interlude with Julia, his paramour.
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 Antonio
expects to spend the night with his secret wife.
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Antonio:
I must lie here.
Duchess:
Must? You are a lord of mis-rule.
Antonio:
Indeed, my rule is only in the night. |
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 Ferdinand
confronts his sister when he learns that she has secretly
married and had children.
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Ferdinand:
The howling of a wolf
Is music to thee, screech-owl. Prithee, peace!
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 Bosola
lights candles along both sides of the stage during
interval to prepare the Duchess' torture room.
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Bosola arrives
to carry out Ferdinand's order to bring the Duchess
to be tortured.
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Duchess:
I am your adventure, am I not?
Bosola:
You are. |
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 Bosola
puts the Duchess in chains.
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Bosola:
Now, by my life, I pity you.
Duchess:
Thou are a fool, then,
To waste thy pity on a thing so wretched
As cannot pity itself.--I'll go pray. No,
I'll go curse. I could curse the stars--
And those three smiling seasons of the year
Into a Russian winter, nay, the world to its first chaos.
Bosola:
Look, you, the stars shine still. |
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 Ferdinand
surrounds the Duchess with madmen to drive her mad.
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Duchess:
What hideous noise was that?
Cariola:
'Tis the wild consort
Of madmen, lady, which your tyrant brother
Hath placed about your lodging. This tyranny,
I think, was never practised till this hour.
Duchess:
Indeed, I thank him: nothing but noise and folly
Can keep me in my right wits, whereas reason
And silence make me stark mad.
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Ferdinand orders
Bosola to kill the Duchess; Bosola puts the rope around
her neck.
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Duchess:
Pull, and pull strongly, for your able strength
Must pull down heaven upon me.
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Despite
his growing admiration for the Duchess' courage in the
face of death, Bosola obeys Ferdinand's order.
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Duchess:
Come, violent death,
Serve for mandragora to make me sleep!
Go tell my brothers when I'm laid out,
They then may feed in quiet.
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Bosola
kills the Duchess.
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Ferdinand comes
to see the Duchess' body
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Ferdinand:
Is she dead?
Bosola:
She is what
You'd have her.
Other sins only speak; murder shrieks out;
The element of water moistens the earth,
But blood flies upwards and bedews the heavens.
Ferdinand:
Cover her face; mine eyes dazzle.
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Ferdinand:
Let me see her face again.--
Why dids't thou not pity her? What an excellent
Honest man mightst thou have been
If thou hadst borne her to some sanctuary!
Or, bold in a good cause, opposed thyself
With thy advanced sword above thy head
Between her innocence and my revenge!
I bade thee, when I was distracted of my wits,
Go kill my dearest friend, and thou hast done 't.
Ferdinand:
By what authority didst thou execute
This bloody sentence?
Bosola:
By yours--
Ferdinand:
Mine? Was I her judge?
Did any ceremonial form of law
Doom her to not-being? Did a complete jury
Deliver her conviction up i' th' court?
Where shalt thou find this judgement registered
Unless in hell? See, like a bloody fool,
Th' hast forfeited thy life, and thou shalt die for
't.
Bosola:
Let me know
Wherefore I should be thus neglected. Sir,
I served your tyranny, and rather strove
To satisfy yourself than all the world;
And though I loathed the evil, yet I loved
You that did counsel it, and rather sought
To appear a true servant than an honest man.
Bosola:
What would I do, were this to do again?
I would not change my peace of conscience
For all the wealth of Europe.
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Bosola goes
to the Cardinal's lodging to begin his plot of revenge
on the brothers; the Cardinal is working his own plots.
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Cardinal:
This fellow must not know
By any means I had intelligence
In our Duchess' death; for, though I councilled it
The full of all th' engagement seemed to grow
From Ferdinand.
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 Julia
comes on to Bosola after observing his "excellent
shape".
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Julia:
I have already suffered for thee so much pain,
The only remedy to do me good is to kill my longing.
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In an effort
to get information from her, Bosola returns the favor.
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Bosola:
Let us grow most amorously familiar.
If the great Cardinal now should see me thus,
Would he not count me a villain?
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Bosola gets
Julia to question the Cardinal.
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Bosola:
The Cardinal is grown wondrous melancholy;
Demand the cause. Let him not put you off
With feigned excuse; discover the main ground on 't.
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Bosola
has killed Antonio by mistake.
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Bosola:
Antonio!
The man I would have saved 'bove mine own life!
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Bosola vows
revenge on the Arogonian brothers; he threatens the
Cardinal.
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Bosola:
I am come to kill thee.
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Bosola kills
Ferdinand by knifing him in the groin.
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Bosola:
Now my revenge is perfect: Sink thou main cause
Of my undoing!
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 But
Ferdinand has delivered Bosola a death wound as well.
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Cardinal:
Thou hast thy payment too.
Bosola:
Yes, I hold my weary soul in my teeth;
'Tis ready to part from me.--I do glory
That thou, which stood'st like a huge pyramid
Begun upon a large and ample base,
Shalt end in a little point, a kind of nothing. |
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Malateste (Ora
Simpson) with dead Ferdinand, Pescara, dying Bosola,
dying Cardinal; the spirit of the Duchess at center
back.
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Bosola:
O, I am gone!
We are only like dead walls, or vaulted graves,
That, ruined, yields no echo. Fare you well.
It may be pain, but no harm to me to die
In so good a quarrel. O, this gloomy world!
In what a shadow, or deep pit of darkness,
Doth womanish and fearful mankind live!
Let worthy minds ne'er stagger in distrust
To suffer death or shame for that is just--
Mine is another voyage. |
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