Short note on Marks of decadence/evil in Webstar's The Duchess of Malfi

Webster's Decadent Drama-The Duchess of Malfi.

A number of Jacobean tragedies are set in the sixteenth century Italian courts. Epitomizing political, religious and sexual corruption, they fascinated the English audience of the early seventeenth century. The decadence in The Duchess of Malfi is unfolded through exchanges between court characters in the very opening scenes. The court is introduced through two initially choric figures, Antonio and Bosola. Although cast as opponents for the action of the play, they share similar satirical viewpoints and expose the decay beneath aristocratic decorum. Antonio starts as something of a political idealist. Newly returned from his travels, he talks of the French administration, and compares the court to a fountain. In an ideal state, where the ruler uses his power and privilege for the good of the people, this fountain dispenses "pure silver-drops in general." This makes an implicit contrast with the present decadence of Italian courts the audience is about to discover. Nevertheless,  he also warns that

"… if't chance

Some cursed example poison't near the head,

Death and diseases through the whole land spread."

                                                                                                      This immediately follows the exchange between the Cardinal and Bosola. Their verbal ambiguity highlights their clandestine relationship, and Bosola explicitly demands political rewards for past illegal services. It thus foreshadows that political ambition and corruption prevailing all over the plot.Webster sharpens this decadence by the advocacy of the ideal state by Antonio and Delio, and their discussion of the leaders.

Images of disease abound Bosola's description of the court. All the twelve metaphors he uses in forty lines describe a world where the natural becomes inverted and base creatures like leech, pies and caterpillars hover all around. They present the courtly life as diseased, rotting, crowded, animalistic, disordered and corrupt. We are reminded of the opening act of The White Devil, where Webster compares great men to she-wolves, and political patronage to butchering sheep. The White Devil depicts the transition in politics as one of the courtiers is legally banished for corruption. In The Duchess of Malfi, it prevails right through. 

According to Kate Aughersten, Bosola is a man of bitter resentment and eager willingness, and this lends credibility to his political criticisms. His metaphor of a crowded hospital simultaneously conveys putrefaction as well as his own distaste and bitterness at politics. Bosola thematically bridges the good and bad people in two distant poles. He shares Antonio's disgust at political corruption, as the audience visualizes the corruption through his imagery. On the other hand, he is also a part of it. He blackmails the Cardinal effectively by reminding him of his previous service. Thus the tripartite structure of the opening scenes destabilizes the accepted glory of the political world.

The decadent Aragonian brothers are best portrayed in Bosola's comparison to "plum trees that grow crooked over standing pools; they are rich, and o'erladden with fruit, but none but crows, pies and caterpillars feed on them." The decay of the Catholic Church in The Duchess of Malfi was perhaps well received by the predominantly Protestant English playgoers. It is manifested through the Cardinal, further symbolized by his exchange of ecclesiastical robes for the armour. An inveterate manipulator, the Cardinal has even attempted to bribe his way to the papal power. No wonder hence like the Machiavellian model of Cesare Borgia, he poisons Julia at the end of the play. 

Duke Ferdinand is contrasting and complementary to the Cardinal at the same time. Delio sums up how cleverly he uses his power and privilege:

"…the law to him

Is like a foul black cobweb to a spider,

He makes it his dwelling, and a prison

To entangle those shall feed him."

Ferdinand is introduced to the audience as the typical Renaissance nobleman, conversing on horsemanship and war with his courtiers. Shortly, a sexual innuendo shatters his mask. Combined with despotic power, his dark inverted sexuality is often devastating. His relationship with the Duchess is contaminated by an incestuous attraction at the unconscious level. It goads him unto using bawdy images while talking over his sister, which becomes more obvious as the mad Ferdinand gibbers at the end. 

Poisoned by the brothers' cursed example, the minor court characters are also decadent, ranging from the cowardly and foppish Count Malateste to the sycophantic impotent Castruchio. Only the Marquis of Pescara seems untainted. All over the play, the business of the court is low, and conversations are rude and feebly cynical. According to Catherine Belsey, the play suggests no way of reaching the ideal of the French court from the present decadence. Bosola's solution is to submit to its values, and he is finally neglected. The Duchess goes he own way and is murdered at the end. Service to Ferdinand is deadly, opposition vain. Most of the critics hence find Webster as a nihilist and morally anarchic. Not surprisingly, Antonio's final advice for his only surviving son is to "fly the courts of princes."