* non-speaking parts
1 THREE CHILDREN: a small boy and girl and a male infant, perhaps represented by a doll
2 CASTRUCHIO: his name suggests ‘castrated’, providing a motive for Julia’s sexual betrayal
1 GEORGE HARDING: eighth Baron of Berkeley (1601–58), son and grandson to the Lords Hunsdon, who patronized the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, and a prominent literary patron, the dedicatee of Robert Burton’s The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621)
2 poem: fictional work
3 conduct: conductor
4 postilion: escort
1 approved censure: tested judgement
1 In … poetis: ‘To Tragedy’, ‘As light springs from darkness at the stroke of the Thunderer, /May it – ruin to evil! – be life for famous poets’
2 Thomas Middleton: poet and dramatist (1580–1628), who collaborated with Webster, appointed to the post of London Chronologer in 1620
1 answered: defended
2 speak: have spoken
3 so well before: i.e., as in the play
4 William Rowley: (c. 1585–1626) dramatist, actor and playwright, who collaborated with Webster
1 court-gall: a court satirist or malcontent
2 railing: abusive language
3 only the: the only
4 dog-days: a period of oppressively hot weather in which malignant influences were thought to prevail
1 standing: stagnant
2 pies: magpies
3 Tantalus: a mythological figure, punished in Hades with hunger and thirst, while food and drink remained tantalisingly beyond his reach
1 Gaston de Foix: historically, he was a child when Naples was recovered in 1501
2 presence: presence chamber, where a monarch or noble would receive visitors
3 took the ring: a game in which jousters vied to carry a ring on the end of their lance, introduced to the English court by James I
1 jewel: a tournament prize, also anticipates Antonio’s winning of the Duchess and her chastity
2 tents: outdoor shelters, dressings for a wound
1 chirurgeons: surgeons
2 put up: sheathe their weapons
3 Spanish jennet: a light, sporting horse
4 Pliny’s opinion: Pliny claimed that Portuguese mares conceived by means of the West Wind, which made their colts swift
5 ballasted: weighted with
6 reels: swings about, staggers away from
7 tilt: listing of a ship, jousting tournament and also copulation
1 out of compass: immoderately
2 Grecian horse: a wooden horse, filled with Greek soldiers, which was taken inside the besieged city of Troy and led to its destruction
1 form: external appearance
2 The spring … toads: his capacity for tears, usually a sign of humanity, is the slime which breeds toads
3 intelligencers: spies
4 information: private intelligence
1 shrewd turns: injuries
2 Than … her: than you hold it spiritually redemptive
3 galliard: an energetic dance
4 shrifts: confessions
5 dress themselves in her: use her as their mirror, model themselves on her
6 play the wire-drawer: spin out
1 case … up: put the picture away in its case
2 stains: eclipses, but also makes appear tainted
3 provisorship … horse: an important court appointment, given by Elizabeth I to her favourite (and sometime potential husband) the Earl of Leicester
4 leaguer: military camp
1 caroches: luxurious coaches for town use
2 entertain … intelligence: keep Bosola on the payroll as your spy
3 court our furtherance: ask us for reward or promotion
1 cozens: deceives
2 next: nearest
3 showers … them: an allusion to Jupiter, who famously wielded thunderbolts, but visited Danae in a shower of gold
4 rides post: runs ahead
1 familiars: servants, intimate friends, also spirits through whom magic is worked
2 quaint: cunning
3 angels: gold coins, bearing an image of St Michael killing a dragon
1 complemental: a mark of courtly accomplishment
2 politic: cunning
3 dormouse: according to Pliny, the dormouse sleeps all winter and thereby renews its vigour
4 Feed … dish: dine at a lord’s table
1 luxurious: lecherous
2 livers: regarded as the seat of passion, including lust
3 Laban’s sheep: parti-coloured, see Genesis 30:31–3
4 motion: impulse
5 honey-dew: a sweet, sticky substance found on plants
1 Vulcan’s engine: Vulcan used a net to catch the adulterous Venus and Mars
2 Wisdom … end: proverbial, e.g., ‘Think on the end before you begin’
3 studied: rehearsed
1 rusty: because it has first been covered in blood
2 chargeable: expensive
3 lamprey: eel-like fish
4 Fie, sir!: the Duchess’s shock suggests that she is thinking of the penis, an assumption that Ferdinand can take as evidence of her lustfulness
5 tale: also implies ‘tail’, penis
6 low foot-steps: steps up to the altar; there may also be a reference to Marlowe’s Tamburlaine, in which the conqueror uses his enemy king as a footstool
7 winked: closed my eyes, in the sense of ignoring the consequences or the immorality of her actions
1 fame: reputation
2 hearty: heartfelt
3 arras: curtain, perhaps the one at the back of the stage over the discovery space
4 clew: ball of thread, as used by Theseus to find his way through the labyrinth
1 triumphs: court festivities
2 husbands: managers of a household, as well as in the marital sense
3 for your sake: thanks to you
4 upright: with a pun on the fact that Antonio is now standing
5 procured: brought about
1 overseer: specifically, a person appointed to assist or oversee the work of the executors of a will
2 couple: bond of wedlock
3 St Winifred: a seventh-century Welsh saint, whose head was struck off by a rejected suitor, but restored by St Bruno
4 affect: feel about
1 my banishment: historically, Antonio followed the deposed King of Naples, Federico, to exile in France
2 wanton: rogue, term of endearment for a child
3 sovereign: effective; gold was believed to cure a stye on the eyelid
1 aim: guess
1 rid bad wares off: get rid of spoiled merchandise
1 Quietus est: written at the end of an account, meaning that all debts are settled, synonymous with paying one’s debt to Death
2 without … circumference: i.e., outside of her arms
3 parts: particulars, with a theatrical sense, i.e., the Duchess is playing the male role
4 Per … presenti: a kind of marriage that involved no more than the couple’s verbal agreement made before a witness
1 this sacred Gordian: i.e., the Duchess’s hand holding Antonio’s; in ancient history an oracle predicted that whoever cut the knot tied by King Gordius would rule Asia; Alexander the Great was successful
2 still: perpetually
3 loving palms: according to Pliny, single palm trees do not bear fruit
4 force: enforce
5 faster: stronger, more lastingly
6 Fortune: the personification of Fortune was often depicted as blind in order to suggest impartiality
1 humorous: ill-humoured, capricious
2 Alexander and Lodowick: in legend, two friends so alike they were mistaken for each other; when Lodowick married a princess in Alexander’s name, he placed a sword between them in bed so as not to betray his friend
3 shroud: hide from view, but also to cover with a death shroud
4 courtier: both in the usual sense and meaning a lawyer or judge
5 night-cap: the sergeant-at-law wore a white skullcap; here it emphasizes Castruccio’s large ears, implying he is an ass
1 president: judge
2 roaring-boys: rowdy youths
3 painting: applying cosmetics
4 sloughs: potholes
5 progress: a spectacular ceremonial tour taken by royalty or nobility
1 careening: cleaning or scraping, usually of the hull of a ship
2 morphewed: having diseased and (specifically) discoloured skin
3 disembogue: put out to sea
4 rough-cast: made of lime and gravel, i.e., putting it in crude terms
5 plastic: a smooth complexion, a more delicate turn of phrase
6 closet: a private room, also a chest for valuables
7 a dead pigeon … the plague: a recognized treatment for plague; Prince Henry had freshly killed pigeons applied to the soles of his feet in 1612
8 fasting: self-starvation, causing bad breath
9 footcloth: a decorative cloth placed over the back of a horse, symbolic of high status
1 wolf: a type of ulcer; in Latin lupus means ulcer
2 measle: a disease in swine as well as humans
3 tissue: delicate fabric
4 Lucca: Italian city, famous as a spa
5 fins: edges
6 loose-bodied: with a pun on morally ‘loose’
1 tetter: a skin disease
2 lord of the ascendant: dominant influence, rising star
3 cousin-german, removed: first cousin, once removed
4 Pippin: Pepin, king of the Franks and father of Charlemagne
1 smells of lemon pills: an extra sensitivity to smells is another symptom of pregnancy
2 the mother: hysteria, with an obvious pun
1 dainties: choice foods, luxuries
2 grafting: gardening method, with an ironic allusion to the Duchess’s breeding with the lower-class Antonio
3 farthingales: hooped petticoats; ‘bawd’ because they hide the evidence of sexual sin
4 apparently: clearly
5 springal: stripling
6 cutting a caper: dancing
1 in haste, sir: the Old Lady may be hurrying to attend the Duchess’s lying-in
2 glass-house: there was a glass factory near the Blackfriars Theatre
3 entertainment: sexual favours
4 If we … receive them: because she had received Jupiter in a shower of gold, Danae became an emblem of the mercenary woman
1 pistol: pronounced without the ‘t’, rendering it more like pizzle, i.e., penis
2 cannibal: a more general term of abuse for a villain
3 fire-lock: a gun or musket
4 French plot: syphilis, its symptoms including a burning sensation, was often called the ‘French disease’
5 cabinet: a private room or box for treasured belongings
1 Gentleman o’th’ wood-yard: Bosola is mocking his low status
2 black-guard: scullions or low kitchen servants
1 mind: remember, think upon
2 throwing … cricket: all bad omens
3 whole man: resolution
4 set … nativity: cast his horoscope
5 dark lantern: designed to conceal its light, indicates to the audience that the scene is night, but also associated with villainy
1 setting a figure: casting a horoscope
2 jewels: astrology was often used in an attempt to find stolen goods
3 how … radical: both ‘question’ and ‘radical’ are astrological terms: is the governing planet also the planet in the ascendant?
4 night-walker: nocturnal criminal
5 Spanish fig: a rude gesture made by thrusting the thumb between two fingers, also poison
1 combust: burnt up, losing influence
2 human sign: i.e., Aquarius, Gemini, Virgo or Sagittarius
3 tail of the Dragon: where the moon crosses the sun’s orbit as it descends
4 eighth house: associated with death
5 Caetera … scrutantur: ‘The rest is not examined’
6 precise: strict, puritanical
7 thrifty: successful, prosperous
1 anchorite: religious recluse or hermit
1 glass: Galileo’s telescope, built in 1609
2 I have … fly at it: imagining Julia as a falcon
3 tame elephant: a real elephant had been put on display in London in 1594; tame could also mean sexually frustrated
1 in physic: undergoing medical treatment
1 cullisses: healthful broths
1 mandrake: a medicinal plant that supposedly shrieked when it was pulled from the earth, the sound inducing madness in the hearer
2 prodigy: surprising news
3 loose i’th’ hilts: unchaste
1 Rhubarb: customarily used to treat anger
2 cursèd day: the horoscope that Bosola has included in his letter
3 attainted: a legal term for a familial line being tainted, also diseased
4 balsamum: balm
1 left: the Latin ‘sinistra’ means left, but also unlucky
2 bark: ship
3 quoit the sledge: throw the hammer
4 carries coals: proverbial for any menial work
5 privy lodgings: a private apartment, with a bawdy meaning
1 sin of his back: sexual intercourse
2 leaps: has sex with, usually used of animals
3 scorpions: knotted or barbed scourges, see 1 Kings 12:11
4 general: total
1 Pasquil’s paper bullets: satires or lampoons; Pasquillo was the name of a statue to which lampoons were traditionally attached in sixteenth-century France
1 coulters: the blades in front of a ploughshare; to walk on hot coulters was a trial of chastity in Old English law
1 lord of misrule: a person of low social status chosen to preside over feasts and revels, representing a temporary reversal of hierarchy
1 Daphne … Syrinx … Anaxarete: figures from Ovid’s Metamorphoses; unlike Daphne and Syrinx, whose metamorphoses preserved their chastity, Anaxarete’s refusal of love was punished by her transformation into a stone statue
2 friends: lovers
3 motion: show
4 face-making: portrait-painting
1 Happily: perhaps
2 basilisk: mythical serpent whose gaze was supposed to be fatal
3 to: compared to
1 stood engaged: acted as security
2 lets the bonds be forfeit: i.e., by falling behind in the payments
3 bills … Against: promissory notes are not accepted
4 enginous wheels: as in a clock, where small movements produce the larger motion of the hands
1 periods: in oratory, the peroration or summing-up
2 Tasso: (1544–95) Italian poet, author of Gerusalemme Liberata, in which a character called Soprina falsely accuses herself of a crime to save the lives of many Christians
3 got well: with a pun on begot well, referring to their children
4 Quietus: agreement that the account was settled, a receipt
5 let him: let him go free
1 Jew: conventionally greedy and financially untrustworthy
1 chippings of the buttery: parings of bread crust
2 gold chain: the steward’s chain of office
3 bear in a ring: performing bears were a popular London entertainment
4 Pluto: this should be Plutus, god of wealth; Pluto was lord of the underworld
5 rides post: post-haste, i.e., speedily
6 scuttles: short, hurried runs
7 unvalued: priceless, but with a pun on unappreciated
1 herald: the Heralds’ Office determined people’s ancestry and sold the right to bear a coat of arms and call oneself a gentleman
2 Bermudas: islands notoriously associated with tempests and shipwrecks
1 unbeneficed: without an ecclesiastical post
2 curious: delicate
3 want coats: lack a coats of arms
1 quality: profession
2 Prefers: facilitates
3 reverend garment: the robes of a cardinal
4 Lannoy: Charles de Lannoy (1487–1527) defeated Francis I at the Battle of Pavia in 1525
1 muster-book: military register
2 leaguer: army camp
3 service: military action
4 by the book: according to the rules, but also in theory only
1 break his pate: hit him over the head
2 ‘pot-gun’: a child’s toy gun
3 bore: hole
4 touch-hole: a hole in the breech for igniting the charge
5 sumpter-cloth: cloth covering a mule or packhorse, with ornamental trimmings (‘guarded’)
6 Foxes … tails: in Judges 15:4 Samson tied pairs of foxes together, attached firebrands to their tails and used them to burn down the Philistines’ crops
1 salamander: a lizard supposed to live in fire, symbol of passion
1 my young nephew … first husband: this is the only reference to this other child. Since he would inherit the Duchess’s property, rather than Ferdinand, it seems likely that Webster changed his mind, but forgot to delete this reference
2 counters: small discs used in accounting
1 CHILDREN: these are a girl old enough to say her prayers, a small boy and an infant, probably represented by a doll
2 courses: encounters
1 benefit: gift
1 brothers: brothers-in-law
1 adamant: magnet
2 venture … bottom: proverbial: ‘Venture not all in one bottom’
3 eternal Church: among the saved in heaven
4 cassia: a kind of cinnamon, the scent released when the bark is rubbed
1 scourge his top: refers to the child’s spinning top, made to turn by whipping it with a ‘scourge-stick’
2 sweet armful: Cariola is carrying their youngest child
3 never see thee more: this phrase echoes throughout the play – see 3.2, 4.1 and 5.3
4 anchorite: hermit
5 heavy … danger: like a plummet that measures the depth of water
6 laurel … withered: laurel proverbially withered at the death of a king
7 GUARD: plural here
1 adventure: target, what you seek
2 silly: weak, defenceless
3 Charon … lake: in classical mythology, Charon conveyed the dead across the river Styx into Hades
1 torches: indicating that the scene takes place at night
1 elder brother: since Ferdinand is supposed to be the Duchess’s twin, Webster may have made a mistake here; in the source, Ferdinand is the elder brother
1 i’th’ light: in the public eye, but also ‘light’ meaning wanton
2 dead man’s hand: thought to cure madness
1 traverse: a curtain over the discovery space
2 dead: if the waxworks were performed by the actors, the audience’s first reaction would be that of the Duchess, believing them really to be dead
3 property: device
1 bind me to that lifeless trunk: the image of a living person bound to a corpse was traditionally meant to symbolize ill-matched unions; this line may have inspired the final act of Ford’s The Broken Heart
2 Portia … wife: Brutus’ wife, who committed suicide by swallowing burning coals on hearing of her husband’s defeat and death
3 comfortable: offering comfort, supportive
4 wheel: a method of torture
1 daggers: sharp pains
2 vipers: poisonous thoughts
3 make lanes: like a cannonball through troops in a battle
1 in art: by artifice
2 curious: ingenious
3 Vincentio Lauriola: since no reference to him remains, he may be Webster’s invention
1 intelligence: spying
1 consort: company, often used of a group of musicians
1 molten brass … flaming sulphur: from Deuteronomy 28:23 and 29:23
2 in show: in appearance
3 Fortune … eyesight: Fortune was proverbially blind
1 impostume: abscess
2 secular priest: one not living in monastic seclusion
3 knave in grain: both a crooked dealer in grain and one whose villainy is engrained
4 transportation: export; in 1613 there had been a prohibition on exporting grain
5 broker: dealer, retailer
1 bill: utter through the beak
2 corrosived: corroded
3 swans … death: swans were thought to sing sweetly only at the moment before death
4 perspective: telescope
5 glass: magnifying glass
6 glass-house: glass factory
1 alum: a white mineral salt used in medicine
2 woodcock: a proverbially stupid bird
3 picked out: removed, also embroidered
4 Greek is turned Turk: holy language turned heathen
5 Helvetian translation: the Genevan Bible of 1560, favoured by Puritans but condemned by James I in 1603 as ‘partial’ and ‘seditious’
6 lay: explain, apply as a medicine
1 placket: slit at the top of the skirt
2 possets: hot milk with spiced wine or ale
3 throw … me: a gesture to acknowledge superiority
4 costive: constipated. Soap-makers traditionally suffered from diarrhoea
5 insensible: unfelt
1 worm-seed: a general term for plants whose dried flower heads were used to treat intestinal worms; also food for worms
2 salvatory: ointment box
3 mummy: medicine from mummified corpses
4 crudded: curdled, congealed; also allusion to Job 10:10
5 puff-paste: puff pastry
6 riot: riotous, extravagant living
7 Glories … light: this couplet also appears in The White Devil, 5.1
1 bellman: paid to make speeches urging repentance under the prison window of condemned criminals
2 mortification: a spiritual process, leading to the rejection of worldly existence and repentance
3 whistler: a bird of ill-omen
4 competent: sufficient
1 both ways: i.e., by pulling or pushing; by suicide or murder
2 woman’s fault: i.e., being talkative
1 mandragora: mandrake root, having narcotic properties
2 laid out: prepared for burial, waiting in bed as a bride
1 When?: i.e., when will I be obeyed?
2 credit: reputation, i.e., death will prevent the social disgrace of an illegitimate child
1 dazzle: the Duchess is consistently associated with light, Ferdinand with darkness; his eyes may also be dazzled because they are filled with tears
1 friend: companion or lover
2 I had a hope … by her death: this motive would be contradicted by the existence of a son by her dead husband, perhaps an oversight on Webster’s part
3 challenge: demand
1 The wolf … horrid murder: echoes The White Devil, 5.4
1 chained bullets: cannonballs linked by chains, mainly used in naval warfare
2 take much in a blood: takes hold in families
3 owl-light: dusk
1 painted: false, superficial
2 sensible: palpable, living
3 cordial: reviving
4 cords of life: heartstrings
1 dejection: abasement, also despair
2 ’cheat: an escheat, i.e., the property reverts to another if the owner is convicted of a felony or treason
1 calling: position
2 howe’er: whatever happens
3 gallery: a long room designed for walking
4 pestilent: deadly
1 haunt me: the image of a man afraid of his own shadow was used as an emblem for guilt in Whitney’s Choice of Emblemes (1586)
2 goad: pointed stick used for driving cattle
3 sheep-biter: dog that worries sheep
4 What … nothing: recalls Iago at the end of Othello, 5.2.309–10
1 Let me … more civil: if the Doctor and Cariola were played by the same boy actor, he may have worn an exaggerated beard and eyebrows to make the distinction
2 salamander: a lizard believed to live in fire
3 cockatrice’s egg: thought to be deadly
1 fetch a frisk: dance
2 cullis: meat broth
3 anatomies: skeletons, displayed in the entrance to Barber-Surgeons’ Hall, where dissections were performed for medical students
1 engagement: employment (of Bosola)
2 Though … bones: even if the consequence were his death
3 expedition: progress
1 style … advancement: name me as a means for your preferment
2 school-name: invention of Church fathers
3 taking up: borrowing
4 Happily: by chance, fortunately
1 kissing comfits: sweets used to freshen the breath
1 presently: immediately
1 cabinet: private chamber
1 if … yourself: because Julia is his second self
2 rack: torture instrument to elicit confession
3 adamant: very hard rock or mineral
1 How settles this? What do you mean by this?
1 remember: reward
1 fair marble colours: i.e., a good appearance; wood was often painted to resemble marble
2 graves … in’t: i.e., they kill their accomplices
3 A greater smother: more stifling smoke
4 bier: a stretcher used to carry corpses to the grave
1 frost-nailed: given hobnailed boots
2 Bears up in blood: keeps up his courage
3 Security: suggesting not enough concern for the state of the soul and its vocation after death
4 dead: continuous
1 Some … already: i.e., his children
2 melancholy: remorse
3 ECHO: presumably a reminder to the actor speaking the lines offstage, rather than implying an entrance
4 dismal: boding ill
5 reverend: venerable
1 diseases: disturbances
1 footing: footsteps
1 engines: devices, perhaps a battering ram
2 equal balance: Justice was usually depicted holding scales as well as a sword
1 alarum: call to arms on the battlefield
2 vanguard: foremost division of the army
3 Give … lost: the echoes of Shakespeare’s Richard III (‘My kingdom for a horse’) would have been reinforced by the fact that the actor playing Ferdinand, Richard Burbage, had also played that king
4 brave: splendid