Malfi Act II lines 21- 108 Bosola now verbally attacks “an old lady”. This was not without precedent in tragedy - Hamlet attacks Polonius, an old man, and Ophelia, his supposed beloved, in much the same way. To a certain extent this scene is also “comic relief” – what was the purpose of this? Why is Bosola so scathing? He seems to compare and Webster is through him, the old lady and Castruchio – that they are putting on false personas either through behaviour or make-up. Is he not faking a persona? “Is not all the world a stage?”

Bosola uses the most foul language to harangue his victim. He moves from prose to blank verse – why? His meditation is delivered to whom? Is he discussing why we are loved or why we disguise our disease-ridden bodies? For the Jacobean audience, even the well-to-do, scars and deformity were much more the norm than they are for us. Smallpox, measles, chicken-pox, VD, rubella, thyroid problems would all leave very visible scars in a way that seems unbelievable now. No picture – look it up yourself – too distressing!! There were no antibiotics – so if you got one of the above you were lucky to survive…

“All our fear is…” - death is the real fear not catching a disease…. Ironically, for a culture that was based on Christianity which believes in the resurrection of the spirit and a life after death, Bosola suggests that we fear and loathe death. Is it the cessation of worldly pleasures we fear or the fear of the unknown? At the end of his soliloquy he suggests that Castruchio and the old lady “couple” and take the cure at Lucca (a spa town). “I have other work on foot.” Which is? Then he describes in detail the Duchess’s appearance – disingenuous? Or just leaving it for the audience to take the hint?

When Antonio and Delio enter, Bosola may overhear them given that his following words are rather barbed. Antonio certainly still wants the marriage kept secret. Do Antonio and Bosola trust each other? Who is of superior status and how do we know? Bosola suggests that a simple personality produces happiness – wisdom/experience only produces melancholy. Is he “simply honest”? Why has Antonio had enough of Bosola’s personality? Does he “look no higher than he can reach?” Or is he still convinced that he has been unjustly served? Why is Antonio truer than he knows when he talks of the “devil”?

Bosola now addresses Antonio as the coming man, “chief man” and there is an element of class envy here as well, although he says it doesn’t matter. In addition, he seems to be pondering what moves Princes as opposed to ordinary people… The same passions but with very different results!