Text of the Play

Christina Hart

Ferdinand, the Duchess of Malfi=s twin brother, suffers from the unusual disease of Lycanthropy. This is where an individual believ es himself to be a werewolf. To understand his condition, this page will trace Ferdinand=s obsessions through the play. One ought to note Ferdinand=s consistent manner of transferring his faults upon another. He cannot accept his own personality, and foists it upon those around him. The allusions to lycanthropy begin after Ferdinand suspects his si ster had married against his express wishes. Here, in Act 3 Scene 1, he feverishly discusses the possibility that his sister may be capable of witchcraft, since the precise use of herbs was reputed to aid a person=s transformation to a werewolf.

 

. . . Do you think that herbs or charms

Can force the will? Some trials have been made

In this foolish practice; but the ingredients

Were lenitive poisons, such as are of force

To make the patient mad; and straight the witch

Swears, by equivocation, they are in love.

The witchcraft lies in her rank blood.

 

When Ferdinand confronts his sister next, he first mentions a wolf. Notice again how he accuses her of being possessed by an entity which is the source of his violence.

 

FERDINAND The howling of a wolf

Is music to thee, screech-owl; prithee peace.

Whate=er thou art, that hast enjoyed my sister

(For I am sure thou hear=st me), for thine own sake

Let me not know thee. I came hither prepared

To work thy discovery, yet am now persuaded

It would beget such violent effects

As would damn us both.

 

Ferdinand has his sister imprisoned, and he plays bizarre tricks upon her. One, involving the use of a dead man=s hand, shows that Ferdinand is anticipating the Adeath@ of himself; he asks her to kiss it as a sign of his peace.

 

DUCHESS I affectionately kiss it.

FERDINAND Pray do, and bury the print of it in your heart.

I will leave this ring with you for a love-token;

And the hand, as sure as the ring; and do not doubt

But you shall have the heart too. When you need a friend

Send it to him that owed it; you shall see

Whether he can aid you.

 

After this, in Act 4 Scene 2, Ferdinand imports a whole madhouse to anguish his sister, once again enacting a precursor to his own madness. Ferdinand then urges Bosola to murder the Duchess. His changing responses to the news that she is truly d ead begin with another invocation to wolves.

 

The death

Of young wolves is never to be pitied.

 

He then remembers how she is his twin, and love for her overwhelms his speech. Ferdinand cannot accept responsibility that he gave the order for her execution, blaming it wholly on Bosola. Ferdinand grudgingly gives pardon to Bosola, who finds t his trend bewildering. Full of vehemence, Ferdinand threatens him, provinding the reader with an insight into the method within his madness.

 

O, I=ll tell thee:

The wolf shall find her grave, and scrape it up;

Not to devour the corpse, but to discover

The horrid murder.

 

An act later, the Doctor reveals Ferdinand=s illness and provides a description of the symptoms.

 

I=ll tell you:

In those that are possesed with=t there o=erflows

Such melancholy humor, they imagine

Themselves to be transformed into wolves,

Steal forth to churchyards in the dead of the night,

And dig dead bodies up; as two nights since

One met the Duke, >bout midnight in a lane

Behind Saint Mark=s church, with the leg of a man

Upon his shoulder; and he howled fearfully;

Said he was a wolf, only the difference

Was a wolf=s skin was hairy on the outside,

His on the inside; bade them take their swords,

Rip up his flesh, and try.

 

Ferdinand enters, suitably incoherent as to be recognized as mad. He attacks his shadow, a symbol for the crime he has commited which will never leave him. As Ferdinand is highly agitated, the doctor discourses upon the cures he will use.

 

I have brought your grace a salamander=s skin, to keep you from sun-burning. . . .The white of a cockatrice=s egg is present remedy. . . .Let me have forty urinals filled with rose water: he and I=ll go pelt one another with them, now he begins to fear me.

 

These cures must have done well, for the next mention of Ferdinand is in Act 5 Scene 4 where the Cardinal assures Malateste that Ferdinand is recovered.

 

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Last Updated May 15, 1997 by Christina Hart