The Duchess of Malfi

“Antonio: Consid’ring duly that 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 disease through the whole land spread.”

Antonio uses the metaphor of a poisoned fountain to explain court corruption. If the head of a fountain is poisoned, the flow of the water will carry the poison all throughout the body of the fountain. Similarly, if the head of state is corrupted, that corruption will filter out into the court and country at large. This early speech foreshadows the issues of corruption and misused power that will drive the action of the play.

“Ferdinand: May be some oblique character in your face

made him suspect you.”

Bosola: “Doth he study physiognomy?

There’s no more credit to be given to the face

then to a sick man’s urine, which some call

the physician’s whore because she cozens him.

He did suspect me wrongfully.”

Ferdinand invokes physiognomy, a debunked racist pseudoscience that claims you can tell something about a person’s characteristics or abilities based on their facial features. Ferdinand uses this as a reason why the Cardinal does not trust Bosola. However, Bosola debunks physiognomy as pseudoscience. He compares it to the science of reading urine: in the medieval and early modern periods, physicians would “read” someone’s urine to diagnose them. In Bosola’s opinion, neither of these practices are sound scientific tools.

“Ferdinand: Fare ye well—

and women like that part which, like the lamprey,

hath ne’er a bone in ‘t.

The Duchess: Fie, sir!

Ferdinand: Nay,

I mean the tongue: variety of courtship.

What cannot a neat nave with a smooth tale

make a woman believe? Farewell, lusty widow.” 

Ferdinand uses sexually-charged innuendo to tease the Duchess. She assumes that “that part” is a reference to a phallus. Ferdinand’s corrective is no less sexual. He says that he was referencing a tongue, but then mentions the “variety of courtship” a tongue can enact, denoting both wooing and sexual activity.