The Duchess of Malfi (New Longman Literature 14-18) [Paperback]

 

 

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Written by one of Shakespeare's contemporaries, many might recognize John Webster as the rat loving boy in "Shakespeare in Love". His strange fascination with taboo subjects comes to the forefront in this play, incest, murder, the character of Bosola seemingly unable to identify where his loyaltyies lie, the Duchess herself under the strain of being a good ruler when all she wants to do is live as she wants. More gutsy one might say than Shakespeare's plays - with the exception of Titus perhaps - and certainly the issues within are still relevant in this day and age. And many still controversial. Webster may not have received the commercial success of Shakespeare, but he certainly deserves some sort of cult status, a sort of Jacobean Martin Scorsese - refusing to accept the conventions of how a revenge tragedy shoud go - killing off the main part an act before the finish, having a murderous assassin with a conscience - and exploring what he wanted to. And not necessarily what the public wanted to see.

My preferred version is the New Mermaids edition of The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster. Elisabeth M. Brennan edits this edition (ISBN: 0393900665.) I mention this, as it does not seem to be readily available. However this version will do.

I bought this after reading snippets of it in other books. I do not recall having to learn this in school. Only now do I intend to read "The White Devil" in anticipation of it being encountered in other works.

Well what do you know? This animal is based on a true story of the Duchess of Amalfi. Evidentially there were several books written on this and he picked one for the outline of the play.

The Elisabeth M. Brennan edition is almost as good as taking a class in its self. The introduction gives you a back ground and the basic story that the play was based on. You get some information on John Webster and some of his other plays. There is even a further Reading List. There are even notes on the text and how to read the notes for the different versions of the play its self. By the time you get to the play you are well prepared to read it.

The play its self has stanzas, line numbers and notes to help you through the difficulty of understanding what the words mean in context. It is almost like reading a bible. You soon pickup speed and then actually get intrigued in the writing and story.

Now I desperately want some local theater to present "The duchess of Malfi"

This is a review of the scholarly textual apparatus of the Arden edition of the play edited by Ms. Leah Marcus. It is not a review of the play itself.

School and university students: this is an edition full of useful notes and information and although irritatingly 'trendy' in parts it is the best current edition for you, as the footnotes are very extensive and the introduction has much that is useful.

Academics, researchers, specialists: a huge amount of work has of course gone into this edition and much of the work - indeed most of it - is useful and thorough. However, the negative aspects are so conspicuous that it is almost shocking that the edition was released without any publisher's final checking. I list below some observations about these faults, some of which are relatively minor and some egregious.

Style: a) LM indicates that writers were reserved about publicising their membership of livery companies (p4) but we have to wait for two pages to be told why;
b) appropriate formal style with sudden descents into bathos: Webster warns readers 'not to expect the play to conform to the classical rules ... because of his need to fit in to the scruffy venue of its performance.' (p7); the real duchess 'avoided the sexual profligacy that characterized the behaviour of some of her close relatives ... until she became front page news in Italy.' (p17)
c) LM draws our attention to 'the images of fragmentation and dismemberment [which] link up with contemporary issues like Protestant fear of engulfment by Catholicism ...' (p9) but then says nothing more about the matter.
d) LM frequently writes two paragraphs as one so that one finds oneself in the middle of the text suddenly being addressed about a completely new topic. The worst example is p44, 'Similarly ...' Judge for yourself.

Anomalies: a) LM tells us that the Duchess is a 'relatively good' person (p15), but on the next page she is 'an exemplar of heroic constancy.'
b) UK readers - this is a British edition from a UK publisher - do not need to be told that a 'pavement' is a 'walkway' (note to 5.ii. 317); in fact they may be confused by such a note. Also, the word 'moot' (t.n. to 1.ii.297) has an opposite meaning in Britain to that prevailing in the US.
c) LM quotes two sententiae (p51) which she describes as 'conflicting moral adages'. They are not. Judge for yourself.
d) the 'they' of t.n. to 5.i.6, ' 'cheat', has no obvious referend. The lands? The letters?

Absurdity: a) LM's commitment to a feminist reading of the play leads her in strange directions. Evoking parallels between the eponymous heroine and Chaucer's Griselda, she argues that allowing her brothers to abuse and vilify and ultimately murder her, far from being any kind of weakness, is triumphantly assertive. Thus, she says of Griselda that 'she never says no to him and therefore never allows him to override her own wishes. Griselda therefore deconstructs the power of the tyrant by showing it to be without limits. Similarly, paradoxically, the Duchess preserves her identity and self-mastery precisely through her constancy and her acquiescence in her brothers' long list of torments.' (p38) By what grostesque intellectual contortions, initiated by the necessity to follow the latest academic fad, however lunatic, can a university teacher allow herself to pen such fatuous statements? We do not, in the real world, in a lawcourt for example, argue that a murderer has been worsted by her victim.
But it gets even worse, for the paragraph ends with the view that the tormenting brothers are actually themselves the victims: 'they vicariously punish their own unacknowledged appetites by tormenting her.' (p38) [Actually, they are indulging those appetites ...] This is bad even by the standards of American anti-intellectual christo-fascist ideology.

b) Webster's play reflects details about the 'real' duchess' story which he could not easily have known. LM suggests this explanation: 'perhaps he was so preternaturally attuned to the Duchess' story that he "invented" circumstances that were, unbeknownst to him, supported by the historical record.' This is shocking drivel, even for someone living in a supernaturalist theocracy.

Textual: a) the discussion of Q2's deviation from Q1, the base text, involves farcical over-reading of the differences. See p85 ff.
b) Q4's emendation of 'they'd take me hell' (1.ii.183) to insert a 'to' is ignored by LM; her reasons are flimsy.

Errors: a) a 'roaring boy' (t.n. to 2.1.18) does not mean someone 'foppish' - quite the reverse, it's much closer to British English 'yob'
b) LM's paraphrase of 5.ii.96-7 is wrong. 'For, though I counselled it,/ The full of all th'engagement seemed to grow/ From Ferdinand. ' does not mean that the Cardinal is 'disclaiming responsibility for the precise method employed in the Duchess' death' (t.n.) but that Ferdinand was more energetic and forceful it putting the plan into operation.

Plagiarism; scores of notes are borrowed from the 1964 Revels edition of J R Brown, without acknowledgement. Many are almost verbatim. See, for example, LM's t.n. on 'Switzer' (2.ii.37) which is almost identical. LM mentions Brown's edition at the start of her lengthy acknowledgements (xvi-xviii) but does not indicate that she has received any help, guidance or information from it. This is the worst, and most outrageous aspect, of LM's edition.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Very pleased
Quick enough delivery and item arrived well packaged.
Very pleased with this purchase & would definitely recommend as a buy!

Published 3 months ago by Neque

5.0 out of 5 stars 'Like New'
This book was is excellent condition and at a great price. I tried looking for a while for this book but because a lot of A Level students need it, prices had gone up. Read more

Published 7 months ago by Lizzie

5.0 out of 5 stars Dark and blood-soaked
Malfi is Webster's masterpiece, a dark tragedy set in a world that is brooding, bloody and corrupt. None of the characters come off well: not the incestuous and mad Ferdinand who... Read more

Published 7 months ago by Roman Clodia

5.0 out of 5 stars Duchess of Malfi
This product arrived in great condition but since Amazon's appalling behaviour in the Wikileaks events, I will be boycotting them outright.

Published 14 months ago by James

5.0 out of 5 stars prompt delivery, excellent condition, good price!
Ordered on the 8th and received on the 9th - prompt delivery, excellent condition, good price! Can't fault this.

Published 17 months ago by cm63

4.0 out of 5 stars revision aid
Duchess of Malfi (New Mermaids)
I bought this for my granddaughter to revise for her English A Level. It is one of the set texts. Read more

Published on 6 July 2009 by Teresa Gamble

5.0 out of 5 stars Webster the Wonderful.
Webster is scarcely known outside university departments and some enlightened secondary schools who have used him on A-level syllabuses. This is a pity...and a scandal. Read more

Published on 10 Sep 2007 by C. Sturgess

4.0 out of 5 stars Clear and concise - good for students.
Clear layout with interesting insights from previous performances. It did feel a little as though it was being sponsored by one or two of them however, they were referenced so... Read more

Published on 26 Jan 2006 by Jackie Williams

5.0 out of 5 stars Learn to love tragedies!!!!
As a teenager English Literature is one of the most mind-numbing subjects to study - or so I thought until I was introduced to this book. Read more

Published on 10 Feb 2002 by Laura

4.0 out of 5 stars A witty and tearjerking tragicomedy- an Elizabethan must
This play is excitingly suprising in many respects. It couples hysterical comedie noire with many truly tragic moments in such a way that it leaves you wanting more. Read more

Published on 22 April 2001 by lindsaymcgarvey@hotmail.com

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