Struggle In Duchess Of Malfi

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“Struggle is common to all mankind”. Consider the ways Webster explores this view in the Duchess of Malfi. In 1603 James I came down from Scotland and claimed the English throne to nearly universal applause and a collective sigh of relief. After the final years of the reign of Elizabeth I, which had seen widespread famine, war with Spain, and an increase in the perenial anxieties over the childless Virgin Queen’s refusal to name a successor and thereby secure the nation’s religious status as Protestant rather than Catholic. As is the nature of sudden bursts of political euphoria, the enthusiasm quickly began to fade. James delivered a mixed message on Protestantism, appearing to favour a broader tolerance of Catholicism, albeit before uncovering the Gunpowder plot, which forced him to retrench. To critics, he appeared to continue to show undue preference to pro-Catholic factions at court. He developed a reputation for bounty, generosity towards his favourites (commonly aristocrats), and seemingly endless spending at court – that gradually soured his relationship with London and Parliament. His tolerance for drunkenness and debauchery at court also helped alienate the more strait-laced among his subjects. Nevertheless, nostalgia for Elizabeth became evermore prevalent during the Jacobean era, and such anxiety over court is reflected in Webster’s Duchess of Malfi. It is fitting that the play opens with Antonio returning from France, and telling Delio “I admire it” speaking of his admiration for the French court. Antonio goes on to describe it, “in seeking to reduce both state and people to a fixed order, their judicious king begins at home”, which is soon contrasted with his description of Malfi’s court as “poison’t near the head”. In other words, the French court possesses an equality between “both state and people” as their “judicious King” quits his court of
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