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Poison
References to disease, both figurative and literal, are made throughout the play. In an early speech, Bosola seems to indicate that disfigurement and disease signify a perversion and animalization of humanity. Two clear examples of the way disease is used are the Duchess’s pregnancy and Ferdinand’s Lycanthopia. When the Duchess is pregnant, it’s her morning sickness that alerts Bosola to her pregnancy. And when the Duke is driven insane by his guilt, it manifests in what the Doctor diagnoses as Lycanthropia (werewolf syndrome). In both cases, disease is an outward manifestation of some inward guilt, sin, or secret.
Disease Quotes in The Duchess of Malfi
The The Duchess of Malfi quotes below all refer to the symbol of Disease. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Act 1, Scene 1
Quotes
A prince's court
Is like a common fountain, whence should flow
Pure silver drops in general; but if't chance
Some cursed example poison't near the head,
Death and diseases through the whole land spread.
And what is't makes this blessèd government
But a most provident council, who dare freely
Inform him the corruption of the times.
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Act 2, Scene 1
Quotes
What thing is in this outward form of man
To be beloved? We account it ominous
If nature do produce a colt or lamb,
A fawn or goat, in any limb resembling
A man, and fly from't as a prodigy.
Man stands amazed to see his deformity
In any other creature but himself.
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Disease Symbol Timeline in The Duchess of Malfi
The timeline below shows where the symbol Disease appears in The Duchess of Malfi. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Act 1, Scene 1
...it is properly functioning, but if the fountain is poisoned near the head, death and disease flow to the country. The king is also surrounded by council and people who are...
(full context)
Act 2, Scene 1
...closet must be filled with items used for witchcraft, and that he’d rather eat a plague-ridden pigeon than kiss a woman who was fasting.
(full context)
...we see anything resembling humans in other animals, but in our own bodies we have diseases that are named for animals. Even though we are covered in a rotten and dead...
(full context)
...ask him if he’s trying to become wise. Bosola then compares wisdom to a skin disease running all over a body. Simplicity, he says makes happiness, and even the slightest wisdom...
(full context)
Act 4, Scene 1
...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...
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...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...
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Act 4, Scene 2
...and he responds that he does, and that it’s all the more dangerous since the disease is unfelt and therefore undetectable to her. She asks if he knows her, and he...
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Act 5, Scene 2
...a Doctor discuss the condition of the Duke. The doctor says that Ferdinand has the disease lycanthropia, which causes people to imagine that they are transformed into wolves and to dig...
(full context)
