In the play’s characteristically treacherous and competitive Italian court, rumor thrives: after the birth of her third child, the Duchess’ subjects regard her as a “strumpet” and her children as bastards. Although the Duchess conceals her marriage to Antonio for many years, her subjection to private surveillance and public scrutiny undermines her political authority, taints her family’s honor, and exposes her husband and children to danger. Citing the Renaissance stereotype of the “lusty widow,” some have found that the play condemns the Duchess for indulging her imprudent passion for a servant.
The rich theatrical legacy Webster weaves into his tragedy contributes to the fascinating complexity of the Duchess’ character. In the Duchess’ bold assertion of will-“If all my royal kindred / Lay in my way unto this marriage, / I’d make them my low footsteps”-Webster even echoes Marlowe’s Tamburlaine, the archetype of aggressive masculine ambition. If Webster is drawing from love tragedy such as Romeo and Juliet and Othello, he is also drawing on the theatrical styles and ideological concerns of violent revenge tragedy such as Hamlet, of sentimental domestic tragedy such as Heywood’s A Woman Killed with Kindness, and of political tragedy such as King Lear.
This is not to claim that The Duchess of Malfi (1614) is concerned with sexuality alone. Webster’s Duchess of Malfi, who secretly marries her steward in defiance of her brothers’ commandments, could be placed in this company, but she also has a unique status as a titular tragic hero, a status she earns through the conviction of her right to act on her erotic desires. In Renaissance tragedy, women who assert their sexual independence often meet a bad end: think of Juliet, Gertrude, Desdemona, and Cleopatra.
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