The Duchess of Malfi: Act 4, Scene 1 Summary & Analysis

In Amalfi, Ferdinand asks Bosola how the Duchess is bearing herself during her imprisonment. Bosola responds that she is doing it so nobly as to give majesty to adversity. Bosola seems to pity her. Ferdinand expresses frustration with himself since he is not making her more miserable, and he instructs Bosola to tell the Duchess his message. Ferdinand then exits.

The Duchess enters, and Bosola greets her kindly, to which she responds that he is wrapping poison in gold and sugar. Bosola relays Ferdinand’s message: Ferdinand is going to visit her, but since Ferdinand vowed never to see her again, he’ll come at night. She is therefore not to use any candles or torches in her chamber so that he won’t be able to see her. When he visits, he’ll kiss her hand and they will reconcile.

The two of them put out the lights, and Ferdinand enters. He comments that the darkness suits her well. The Duchess asks for his pardon, and he says that he grants it, since it is the most honorable revenge to pardon when he could kill. Then he calls her children bastards and her a slut, and puts a hand into hers. She kisses it, thinking the hand is Ferdinand’s, but soon comments that his hand seems very cold and unhealthy. Ferdinand then asks for the lights to come on, but quickly exits before they come on. In the light, the Duchess sees that she has been holding a dead man’s hand.

Suddenly a curtain is illuminated, upon which appear the silhouettes of Antonio and their children, looking as if they were dead. Bosola states that the hand came from Antonio, that her family members are all dead, and that she should stop grieving for that which she can never recover. The Duchess replies that this knowledge consumes her like a disease, and she asks to be tied to the dead body so she can freeze to death. Bosola says she must live, to which the Duchess replies that living when you want to die is the greatest torture souls feel in hell. He reminds her that she is a Christian, which prompts her to say that she’ll starve herself to death.

Bosola tries to comfort her, saying that things get better when they are at their worst, but she equates this to a kind of torture and says again that she wants to die, calling the world a “tedious theater” in which she plays a part against her will. A servant enters and wishes her long life. She curses him for it, before going on to curse the stars, the seasons, and the whole world. She calls for plague and disease to consume families, and for those families to be remembered only for the bad things they have done while heaven punishes them. She concludes by saying that she longs to bleed, and it would be a mercy to die quickly.

The Duchess then leaves the room (though probably not the palace, as she’s imprisoned), and Ferdinand reenters, excited that she finally seems to be experiencing despair. Bosola urges Ferdinand to cease his cruelty, but Ferdinand yells “Damn her!” and says that her body was once worth more than her soul, back when her blood was pure. He then outlines a plan to relocate a group of madmen from the asylum and lodge them next-door to the Duchess. The plan is that their mad howling will torture her by preventing her from sleeping. Bosola tries to refuse to see the Duchess again, but Ferdinand says that Bosola must. Bosola replies that he will only ever visit her when in disguise. Ferdinand responds that Bosola’s pity doesn’t suit him well, and then begins to plan his revenge on Antonio, who he knows is in Milan.