Abstract
John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi is a dramatization of the unsanctioned marriage and disappearance of an Italian Duchess approximately one hundred years before the play's 1613 performance in England. Although Webster had numerous sources for his production, he made significant modifications in his version of the story that are reflective of anxieties surrounding the cultural, economic, and political changes in seventeenth-century England. In particular, the playwright augmented the marriage scene between the Duchess and her steward -Antonio -which had been overlooked in other accounts of the Duchess's life. Through Webster's treatment, the Duchess and Antonio invoke growing trends in Protestant philosophy that emphasize companionate marriage over the arrangement of financially motivated nuptials. Furthermore, the loosening of restrictions for gaining entrance into the gentry because of King James's lenient view of preferment led to aristocratic anxiety regarding position. The relaxed standards for preferment combined with the changing perspectives on marriage are reflected in the play, particularly by the Duchess's bold marriage to her steward and her subversion of both her family and the church's authority over her. The consequences of the Duchess's independence and her violation of cultural taboos are brought about by her brothers' vengeful punishment and execution of her. While the historical record does not recount the Duchess's fate, Webster's presentation of the highly ceremonialized emotional torture of the Duchess prior to her murder underscores the social instability brought about by the irregular marriage. Finally, the fact that the son of Antonio and the Duchess ascends to the duchy at the conclusion of the play is another significant alteration by Webster as it reflects the new order that the social changes have established. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My thanks go to Dr. Walker for his enthusiasm and energy as well as his unsurpassed editing skills. I could not have asked for a more INTRODUCTION John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi continues to resonate among modern audiences because of the Duchess's enterprising attempt at denying the authority of social conventions and norms over her will to choose a spouse for love. The play initially appears to resemble a plot familiar to contemporary audiences that is reminiscent of the romance genre: a wealthy individual falls in love with a person from the other side of the tracks and despite the challenges faced by inter-class relationships, the couple marries and maintains their love for each other. However, the story of the Duchess and her steward, Antonio, ends tragically with their murders as punishment for violating social norms. While the source of The Duchess of Malfi is an historical account of an Italian Duchess, the social implications of the plot correlate with the cultural context of Webster's England. There have been numerous portrayals of the Duchess's story in both Italian and English literature. An examination of the historical facts surrounding the Duchess explains the fascination regarding her fate. According to Italian records, the three siblings are based upon wealthy, aristocratic historical figures. They were the children of Enrico d'Aragona, who was the half brother of King Federico. Cardinal Lodovico and Duke Carlo are the older brothers of the historical Duchess, Giovanna d'Aragona. She was married to Alfonso Piccolomini at the age of twelve in 1490 through an arranged marriage facilitated by her family. By 1498, she was widowed and she governed the duchy for her son -also named Alfonso -until she disappeared in 1513 after secretly marrying Antonio Bologna -the former master of her household. The historical record confirms that the play's inter-class marriage between Antonio and the Duchess is an accurate portrayal and that Webster's account of their deaths is something like what actually befell their prototypes. Additionally, very little is known about her execution; thus, the story is intriguing because of its mysterious elements. Boklund indicates "there is almost nothing in contemporary chronicles and diaries to connect Cardinal Lodovico and his brother [Carlo] to these events" (3). However, Antonio and two of his children with the Duchess were murdered as well, which indicates someone's displeasure with her unsanctioned marriage. Furthermore, the Duchess made her way to Ancona to be with Antonio under the pretext of a religious pilgrimage when her brother -Cardinal Lodovico -"was fighting the enemies of the pope near Bologna and thus hardly in a position to take immediate action against an erring sister one hundred and fifty miles away" (Boklund 3 ). This fact, however subtle, is the only evidence that Duchess Giovanna feared her brothers' condemnation of her marriage. After her disappearance and presumed execution, Giovanna's son with Duke Piccolomini ascended the duchy . While Giovanna's life and disappearance are an interesting mystery, it hardly explains why a Protestant English dramatist would find the tale of an all but forgotten and inconsequential Italian-Catholic Duchess and her marriage to her treasurer compelling enough to dramatize. In fact, her marriage and murder occurred approximately one hundred years prior to the play's completion and performance in 1613. In part, Webster's interest could be rooted in the fact that the playwrights of the English Renaissance frequently used foreign settings in their plays, and Italy was often the setting of choice for dramatists interested in portraying corruption. English stereotypes encouraged the conclusion that the Italian court was a symbol of viciousness and moral sickness, and the scripted ceremony of the Anglican Church outlined by The First and Second Prayer Books of Edward VI. In fact, even Webster's literary sources for the play come from English contemporaries. Bandello's account of the Duchess of Amalfi is the first literary portrayal of the story; however, Webster likely did not use Bandello's Italian novella as his main source. Rather, the most obvious starting point for Webster's dramatization is Painter's English translation ). Webster's reliance on Painter's translation emphasizes the un-Italian disposition of the play; for example, the "disillusioned attitude to crime and violence [which] is characteristic of Bandello's novella" (Boklund 5 ) and other Italian works of the time, is not maintained in Painter's English translation of the text (Boklund 6) . Furthermore, Webster's consistent borrowing of phrases and situations found in Arcadia, a romance by his fellow countryman, Sir Philip Sidney (Boklund 25) , highlights the British artistic style of the play. An analysis of Webster's sources not only suggests the universal interest in the themes of the Italian Duchess's story but also the significant changes Webster made to the plot in his dramatization. Most notably, Webster is one of the few authors who depicts the lovers in a positive light; a secondary source -Cinthio -is clearly on the side of Antonio and the Duchess while Bandello is neutral and Goulart, Belleforest, and Painter "see only lust and ambition as the motivating sources behind their actions" (Boklund 85) . Often Webster's Duchess comes close to confirming stereotypes regarding lusty women and widows, and yet these labels are undermined by Webster's positive portrayal of the Duchess (Haslem 440) . Another Webster augmentation of the narrative is the couple's wedding ceremony (Boklund 16 ). Unlike his predecessors, Webster infused the ceremonial dialogue into the text in addition to the sponsalia per verba de praesenti, which is a legally binding verbal agreement to marriage at the exact moment that the words are spoken. Webster's modifications to his sources for The Duchess of Malfi suggest a cultural commentary that is broader than British condescension towards Italian corruption. The marriage ceremony's primacy in the play's narrative underscores Webster's attention to social and economic transformations in Jacobean society. The Duchess's marriage to Antonio is at the epicenter of the play, as it contradicts the established practices and wishes of the insular and patriarchal aristocracy. She navigates the feudalistic aspects of aristocratic society by following her own desires privately while publicly pretending to obediently follow her brothers' wishes, as in the play's first scene when she claims to her brothers that she will not marry. The Aragonian brothers are both figures of society's authority: the Cardinal is a high ranking official in the Roman Catholic Church and Ferdinand is a Duke and an established member of the aristocracy. The Duchess's irregular marriage challenges both aspects of society represented by her brothers. Furthermore, her union with Antonio is reminiscent of the Protestant notion of the "companionate marriage," which is "a relatively modern concept of marriage as a partnership of love and mutual helpfulness" (Jankowski 87) . Thus, the union more closely resembles emerging English ideals about the nature of marriage than the more feudalistic quality of Italian-Catholics' arranged marriages. Marrying Antonio represents the Duchess's attempt to authorize her divergence from her brothers' orders and the traditional ideology that they employ. Additionally, the secretive nature of the ceremony and its imitation of the scripted ceremony of the Anglican Church serves to further accentuate economic, religious, and political changes in Webster's England. The Duchess's marriage to an employee underscores anxiety regarding the consequences of the rising status of middle class upstarts in Jacobean England. The ceremony serves to simultaneously defy the authority of her brothers and establish her supremacy over the church to dictate her own behavior. The scene begins with the Duchess ordering Cariola to hide behind the curtain as a witness and, upon Antonio's entrance, she orders him to write her will; the legal aspect of the scene, then, positions the action in a secularized context. The Duchess officiates her own ceremony by dominating the direction of the conversation with Antonio. The Anglican Prayer Book, undoubtedly familiar to Webster, sheds further light on the scene. The common Prayer Book, which provides a script for every event in a Christian's life in England, indicates that the bridegroom does most of the speaking, particularly during the exchange of rings. In fact, the ceremony calls for the groom to place a ring on the bride's finger but does not indicate that the bride must do the same for her groom. In an inversion of this ritual, the Duchess does most of the speaking as she places her ring on Antonio's finger while she, in effect, claims him for herself. Webster appears to have enhanced the prominence of the wedding ceremony in order to suggest the similarity between the historical Duchess's bold marriage to a subordinate and the emerging Protestant ideology surrounding companionate marriages that rejected the practice of marrying for financial and political motives. Thus, James's stance regarding governing, the aristocracy, and economic transformations in England had a significant impact on the cultural context of Webster's world (Peterson 38 ). In the late sixteenth century, approximately 94 percent of the English population worked in agriculture (Lowry 74) . Therefore, to a great extent, the economy and class status in early modern England were based on land cultivation and ownership; in a reflection of the situation, Webster includes the fact that Julia obtains Antonio's landholdings from Pescara after his banishment through the Cardinal's pressure: "He entreats for you / The citadel of Saint Bennet, that belonged / To the banished Bologna" (5. 1.29-31) . The inclusion of this episode demonstrates the important role that land ownership and acquisition played in Jacobean England. Thus, a brief history of land ownership in England is necessary to understanding the cultural context of Webster's England. In 1066, William the Conqueror established a basic feudal system in England in which the land was divided into over 60,000 "Knight's Fees," intended to provide both military and economic support for the crown. In essence, the Knight's Fees were an expression of the military economy of feudalism under which the king or dominant feudal authority organized the land, which was the basis of the economy, into units designed to support military service. Eventually, the military aspect of British land ownership evolved into a manorial economy in which the royal domain was property of the Crown that was allocated to the English aristocracy -dukes, earls, and barons -who held the land in an hierarchical structure with the Knight's Fee as the underlying unit (Lowry 77) . While the military component of land ownership developed into the establishment of the aristocratic landowner, the historical foundations were not far from memory as illustrated in Webster's play; in the second scene of The Duchess of Malfi, Ferdinand is surrounded by courtiers after the conclusion of the courtly contests that effectively mimic war games. Silvio establishes that Antonio has won the sport of riding at the ring, at which point Ferdinand demands to know, "When shall we leave this sportive action, and fall to action indeed?" (1.2.10-11) . Castruchio admonishes Ferdinand for his desire to fight in battle and explains that he should assign a deputy to fight for him because "It is fitting a soldier arise to be a prince, but not necessary a prince descend to be a captain" (1.2.15-16) . The exchange between Ferdinand and the courtiers illustrates the militaristic foundations of landownership, and simultaneously indicates that by Webster's time the aristocracy had progressed beyond the military, as Castruchio suggests by his argument that a nobleman like Ferdinand would be descending in rank by fighting himself rather than sending a subordinate in his stead. In fact, in early modern England, the landed aristocracy had amassed a degree of influence beyond its militaristic origins. The English aristocracy influenced centers of activity in England; specifically, the nobility had power within the central government through their ability to sit on The House of Lords and their prominent presence in the courts of the reigning monarchs (Hart Tudor Times 12) . Additionally, the aristocracy demonstrated their ability to influence daily life in England through sponsorship of projects in business, school, law, and entertainment (Hexter 24) . The power to affect the lives of the lower class is perhaps the clearest demonstration of the aristocracy's authority within Elizabethan and Jacobean society. The significance of land ownership as a symbol of aristocratic position and power is accentuated by Pescara's decision to award Julia the land that has been stripped from Antonio's possession as a result of his surreptitious marriage. When Antonio's friend, Delio, attempts to obtain the land for himself in order to protect it for Antonio, Pescara denies him: It was Antonio's land, not forfeited By course of law, but ravished from his throat By the Cardinal's entreaty. It were not fit I should bestow so main a piece of wrong Upon my friend (5. 1.44-48) . According to Pescara, it would reflect poorly on Delio's reputation to acquire Antonio's property under such unfavorable circumstances; therefore, it is far more appropriate to give the acreage to Julia because "'tis a gratification / Only due to a strumpet, for it is injustice" (5. 1.48-49) . Thus, the manner in which the aristocracy acquired and managed their land during Webster's era influenced their reputation and, by extension, their ability to impact society. During the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, the aristocracy's management of their land and tenures began to shift significantly, which highlighted inter-class conflict. The relationship between aristocratic landowners and peasants is traced back to the feudal economic system in which the peasant farmed the land, while the noble landowner acted as a ruler over his land tenure; thus, feudal society maintained the idea that there were a number of small governments within the nation. Before the late sixteenth century, land tenures, which were heritable stewardships, underscored civic responsibility within the aristocratic class . Landowners were responsible for the care and well being of the peasantry dwelling on the land. Prior to the mid-sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, English peasants farmed land under low rent while landholders made extra money by opening free land to sheep raising, which was a lucrative endeavor (Lowry 78) . However, a shifting self-image among the aristocracy (Hexter 24 ) led to a change in outlook in agrarian thought from moral to rational (Lowry 78) . The "clerically endorsed idealization of paternalistic stewardship over the land" (Lowry 79) that elicited feelings of civic duty among the aristocracy was replaced by a production-focused attitude (Lowry 80 ). This transition also became possible with the legalization of personal wills, which allowed large land holders to bequeath land according to their own desires. After the authorization of personal wills took effect, land tenures came more increasingly to resemble absolute power rights over the peasantry and the devastating consequences of private land tenure without social or civic responsibility becomes apparent . Expectations of the integrity of the aristocracy and the dissatisfaction with their greed and corruption is evident in Webster's The Duchess of Malfi as the Aragonian brothers are depicted as corrupt and greedy. At the beginning of the play, Antonio relates the importance of a ruler's court being just and reputable through his experiences at the French monarchy's court: "And what is't makes this blessed government / But a most provident council, who dare freely / Inform him the corruption of the times" (1.1.16-18) . On the contrary, Antonio bemoans the "flatt'ring sycophants, of dissolute / And infamous persons" (1.1.8-9) who, as courtiers and advisors, pollute the monarch and cause corruption to spread: "Some cursed example poison't near the head, / Death and diseases through the whole land spread" (1.1.14-15) . Ferdinand and the Cardinal are depicted by Antonio as the type of corrupt and greedy land-owning aristocrats who feel no responsibility for those in their stewardship as evidenced by Antonio's assessment of the Cardinal's ambition and avarice: "Where he is jealous of any man, he lays worse plots for them than ever was imposed on Hercules, for he strews in his way flatterers, panders, intelligencers, atheists, and a thousand such political monsters" (1.1.160-163) . Furthermore, Antonio's appraisal of Ferdinand's character is not any more generous as he points out Ferdinand's imbalanced behavior as a judge: He speaks with others' tongues and hears men's suits With others' ears; will seem to sleep o'th'bench Only to trap offenders in their answers; Dooms men to death by information, Rewards hearsay (1.1.173-177) . Thus, the iniquity of Ferdinand's justice and the Cardinal's greed is not behavior consistent with the idealized view of paternal stewardship of the aristocracy. As a judge, Ferdinand has a responsibility to be just with his constituents whereas the Cardinal's position as a man of the church involves his care and responsibility to his parishioners. However, the corruption of both brothers underscores the dangers of extreme self-interest among such a powerful aristocracy. Greed among the landholding aristocracy of sixteenth and seventeenth-century England led to a great deal of suffering among the lower classes. The emergent focus on the standards of a market culture was based on the economic needs of landholders, as inflation in the sixteenth century caused all of the classes to suffer (Hart Tudor Times 20) . The price increases caused the landowners to reconsider the use of their land; inevitably, this led landowners to engage in a number of tactics to increase profit margins. For example, landholders participated in enclosures, rent increases, and manipulation of grain prices for profit (Berg 213) . Enclosures were the result of the formation of permanent hedges that enclosed land for the purposes of sheep raising or improved farming techniques. Enclosing land was a practice that, until the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, had occurred for hundreds of years with few problems. However, during the Elizabethan and Jacobean age, the practice intensified due to noblemen who were anxious to increase profit and protect their land stakes; many landowners had little compunction about eliminating smaller or weaker peasant tenants from their lands. Clearly, the peasant tenants suffered the most as homelessness and starvation were often a result of this increasing practice . While the peasantry suffered at the hands of the aristocracy's budding market driven practices, the middle class on the whole seemed to prosper. The "yeoman" class were independent farmers who were able to come into great wealth through hard work (Hart Seventeenth Century 24) . Further, yeoman farmers appear to have spearheaded improved farming techniques that emphasized making better use of the farmland (Lowry 74) . In effect, the yeomen were nascent agricultural capitalists who helped to revolutionize farming practices (Lowry 88) while earning enough profit either to send their sons to university or bequeath enough land to allow them to avoid manual labor (Hart Seventeenth Century 24) . Significantly, in The Duchess of Malfi Webster has situated two prominent characters in the social class of sons of either yeomen or merchants who are seeking an improved class status. However, these economic doubles have quite divergent strategies. Webster's fictional Bosola is the combination of two historical figures in the original Italian account of the story. Historically, there were two would-be assassins; one assassin was hired by the Aragonian brothers and instead of murdering Antonio, warned him of the plot against him. However, in October 1513, Antonio was stabbed on the roadside by four men led by a military captain -Daniel de Bozolo (Ranald John Webster 49) . Thus, the foregrounding of Bosola and his ambitions as well as his ill-fated revenge against his patrons, the Aragonian brothers, seems to be a Websterian augmentation intended to emphasize the social unrest created by the patronage seeking of the middle class. Bosola appears to seek preferment through whatever means possible as evidenced by the sheer desperation of his attitude: "I will thrive in some way" (1.1.33) . As the scene progresses, it is explained that Bosola is a soldier as Antonio discusses Bosola's service record: "I have heard / He's very valiant" (1.1.74-75) . Thus, Castruchio's commentary on the social mobility of brave soldiers is relevant in light of Bosola's failed attempts to attain patronage through courageous military service. Furthermore, Bosola has studied at university as evidenced by Delio's familiarity with him: "I knew him in Padua -a fantastical scholar" (3.3.41). Attending university was a way to legitimize middle class offspring of yeomen and merchants. Finally, Bosola's failed attempts to attain preferment by carrying out the devious plans of Ferdinand and the Cardinal illustrate the challenges in navigating routes to social mobility in a hierarchical, class conscious society. Antonio's role as a steward as well as his relationship to land indicate that he is also a middle class upstart. Antonio owns land through Pescara, "The Marquis of Pescara, / Under whom you hold certain lands in cheat" (5. 1.5-6) , and because his lands are subject to escheat, he may bestow the land on his heirs as long as he does not die prior to making a will and is not convicted of treason or a serious felony. The possession of heritable land demonstrates that Antonio achieved some sort of social legitimacy. The depiction of both Bosola and Antonio as ambitious middle class upstarts underscores the social context of Webster's England. While the two engage in different strategies to achieve social standing, their ambitious striving for preferment destroys both of them; the outcome of the two characters' aspirations highlights apprehension surrounding social advancement in a nation of strict hierarchical class.
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