It is a successful piece of dramaturgy The King's Men performed The Duchess of Malfi at the Globe as well as the Blackfriars, but the effects would have been very different On the Globe stage, darkness would be figurative, something to be played by the characters through their lines, movements and reactions, equally effective and convincing. Andrew Marr presents a new production of John Websters bloody revenge tragedy The Duchess of Malfi (1614) performed in a perfect recreation of an early Jacobean theatre. DANIEL DE BOSOLA Gentleman of the Horse to the Duchess. ANTONIO BOLOGNA, Steward of the Household to the Duchess. The Duchess is imprisoned by her brother, Ferdinand, and Bosola has been instructed to enact a widely macabre performance designed to frighten her The Duchess is plunged into darkness, as Bosola tells her that Ferdinand wants to see he 'He comes i'th' night / And prays you gently neither torch nor taper / Shine in your chamber.' Bosola exits with the lights, at which point Ferdinand is to enter (Act IV) When the lights are taken away, it will seem even darker momentarily while the Duchess's eyes adjust Ferdinand gives the Duchess 'a dead man's hand' This horrific and terrifying illusion is enabled by darkness, the unreliability of sight and the deceptive intentions of Ferdinand Once Bosola renters with a light, the Duchess is shown, behind a traverse, the figures of her family, as if dead The light will enable her to see this, but would still be low enough to confuse her, to make her think what she sees are the lifeless bodies of her family. The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster Dramatis Personae: FERDINAND Duke of Calabria. Required reading for courses in seventeenth-century English literature, this provocative masterpiece from the Golden Age of English drama will not only be welcomed by students and teachers of English literature but also a wide audience of general readers.Act 4, Ferdinand gives the Duchess a 'dead man's hand' For early moderns, this would have connotations of witchcraft and criminality. That's rightthe Duchess and Antonio were real people, whose marriage ended up going about as well as it does in Webster's play (which is to say, not well at all). Often compared to Shakespeare in terms of his dynamic plots and poetic lyricism, Webster created radical, profoundly original works that feature shifting perspectives and thought-provoking challenges to conventional moral judgments. The Duchess of Malfi, which he wrote around 1612, is about an actual historical couple who'd lived about a hundred years before. When the Duchess of Malfi marries Antonio, a household steward, her two fiendishly jealous brothers ― hoping to inherit her title and estates ― plant a household spy whose treachery leads to a bloody and horrifying climax.

John Webster's great Jacobean drama focuses on a secret marriage that strikes the disastrous spark to an inferno of violence. The evils of greed and ambition overwhelm love, innocence, and the bonds of kinship in this dark tragedy, first presented circa 1613. An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

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