The Duchess of Malfi

Ferdinand’s doctor tells Pescara that Ferdinand is diagnosed with lycanthropy: two days earlier, they found him in a graveyard with a corpse’s leg. He howled and claimed he was a wolf, with hair on the inside rather than outside. The Doctor says he has tended to Ferdinand, who is much improved.

Ferdinand, Malateste, and the Cardinal approach, with Bosola at a distance. Ferdinand does not recognize his own shadow and attacks it. The Doctor checks on Ferdinand’s wellbeing but Ferdinand acts erratically and violently. When the Doctor lists the remedies he has brought, Ferdinand becomes afraid and starts undressing. He threatens the Doctor and then leaves. Pescara asks the others why Ferdinand is acting this way; the Cardinal lies and says that Ferdinand was visited by an apparition that haunts him. Pescara and the Doctor exit, leaving the Cardinal and Bosola alone.

In an aside, the Cardinal says that he does not want Bosola to know he had a hand in the Duchess’s murder. He inquires with Bosola about how the Duchess is doing and then asks him why he has such a wild expression. Julia enters, briefly asking the Cardinal to come to supper. He dismisses her. As she leaves, she makes an aside complimenting Bosola. The Cardinal asks Bosola to find and kill Antonio so that the Cardinal can arrange a good match for the Duchess. The Cardinal leaves and Bosola remarks that though the Cardinal is murderous, he does not seem to know of the Duchess’s death.

Julia enters, pointing a gun at Bosola. She interrogates him about how and when he gave her a love potion, which she thinks is the reason she has immediately fallen in love with him. Bosola lowers her gun and embraces her. They exchange a series of flirtatious compliments. He asks her if the Cardinal will be angry at them if they are caught, but Julia says he would only blame her. Bosola asks Julia to find out why the Cardinal has been “melancholy.” She tells him to hide in her closet while she manipulates the Cardinal into confessing.

Bosola hides and the Cardinal enters. Julia tells the Cardinal she has noticed a change in his demeanor. She tries several strategies to get him to admit this; finally, he admits he has done something he does not want people to know about. The Cardinal warns her that knowing would hasten her toward death, but she continues to inquire. He tells her that the Duchess and her children were strangled four days ago on his orders. Julia is horrified and says she cannot keep this secret. He asks her to kiss a book. Once she has, he reveals that he poisoned the cover, knowing she would not be able to keep the secret.

Bosola emerges from the closet too late to stop the Cardinal, and Julia dies. The Cardinal promises Bosola honor if he goes through with killing Antonio. In a show of trust, the Cardinal gives Bosola the master key to his lodgings so he can help him move Julia’s body that night. Now alone, Bosola soliloquizes about his pity for Antonio. Instead of killing him, he plans to find him and help him to safety. Bosola wonders if he is being haunted by the Duchess: in some versions, the Duchess’s ghost is on stage and in others, Bosola merely acts as if he has seen it. Regardless, he blames it on his melancholy.

Antonio and Delio approach the Cardinal’s lodgings. They do not know that they are near the Duchess’s grave but begin to hear an echo, which Antonio says sounds like his wife’s voice.

Delio asks Antonio not to go to the Cardinal. Antonio wants to see his plan through, but the echo warns him against it. Antonio wants to confront the Cardinal so that he can “lose all, or nothing” (V.3.51). Delio says he will fetch Antonio’s eldest son in hopes that the sight of him will sway the Cardinal.

The Cardinal and Pescara enter with Malateste, Roderigo, and Grisolan. The Cardinal says that their presence distracts Ferdinand while he should be healing. He makes them promise not to enter the room no matter what they hear. Before they leave, he says that he might test them in the night by making a racket and seeing if they break their promise. 

In actuality, the Cardinal told them not to enter so he can hide Julia’s body with Bosola. After that, he wants to kill Bosola too. Bosola enters, unseen, and overhears the Cardinal’s plan. Ferdinand enters, talking to himself about strangling, and Bosola hides.

Antonio and a servant enter; the latter leaves to get a lantern. Antonio says that he hopes to find the Cardinal at his prayers. Bosola mistakes Antonio for the Cardinal and stabs him. When the servant returns with the light, the two recognize one another. Bosola laments fate, which has made him stab the man he wanted to save. 

He tells Antonio that the Duchess and his children were murdered. Antonio tells Bosola to commend his body to Delio and help his son “fly the courts of princes” (V.4.73). Bosola tells the servant to take Antonio’s body to Julia’s lodgings. He now wants only to kill the Cardinal.

The Cardinal feels increasingly guilty and wonders what Hell will be like. Bosola and the servant enter with Antonio’s body. Bosola says he has come to kill the Cardinal. The Cardinal cries out for help. Outside, Malateste, Pescara, Roderigo, and Grisolan hear the Cardinal’s cries but think that he is testing them, as he said he would. Inside, Bosola kills the servant so he does not go for help. He tells the Cardinal to pray quickly and stabs him twice.

Ferdinand enters, speaking nonsense. He does not seem to recognize the Cardinal. He stabs him and Bosola in the ensuing confusion. Ferdinand suddenly seems more lucid, satisfied by what he has done. Bosola stabs him, wanting revenge for the Duchess. In his final moments, Ferdinand grieves his sister.

The courtiers finally enter and see the grisly scene. Bosola explains how he has avenged the Duchess, Antonio, Julia, and himself. The Cardinal tells them that Ferdinand dealt them their final blows; he then dies. Bosola tells the courtiers how he mistakenly killed Antonio before he also dies. 

Pescara says that Delio found him and told him Antonio had gone to the Cardinal’s rooms. Delio himself enters with Antonio’s son and finds that he is too late. He tells the others that they should establish Antonio and the Duchess’s son “in ‘s mother’s right” (V.5.113). He hopes the events that have come to pass will fade away quickly. He says that nature does nothing so great for great men as to make them truthful and famed only for their integrity, which is the only thing that will see them crowned eternally.