1. The figure of the malcontent in The Duchess of Malfi

2. Malcontent Old Fr mal (bad, ill) and content (contained, pleased)
Character type
Discontent with social structure and other characters
Often observes or offers commentary
Sometimes show an awareness they are in a play
Displeased, unsettled, unhappy
Presence of too much black bile

3. The four humours Black bile (melancholia) Yellow bile (cholera)
Phlegm (phlegma)
Blood (sanguis)

4. A literary tradition Cross-genre An outsider Jaques in As You Like It
Malvolio in Twelfth Night
Antonio in Merchant of Venice
Richard in Richard III
Edmund in Lear
Iago in Othello
Hamlet in Hamlet
Wants to change or argue with the world
Can be irritating (the spoil-sport)

5. Audience and the malcontent
An outsider – close to the audience
Can soliloquise
RIII
Hamlet
Edmund
Iago
Audience becomes accomplice
Sometimes shows theatrical awareness (ie. “Was ever a woman won!” – RIII)

6. Bosola as a malcontent Complains right from the start
Exchange with Cardinal = awkward
Complains about court in general
Anger from honour or envy?
I observe his railing Is not for simple love of piety: Indeed he rails at those things which he wants (1.1)
Cannot be a true critic; lacks subjectivity (much like Richard, Edmund and Iago)

7. Antonio: wary of melancholy
Antonio: wary of melancholy. Like the bad behaviours of court, it is toxic; This foul melancholy Will poison all his goodness. (1.1)
For him, melancholy is linked to inaction (think about current depression campaigns “get up, get out of the house”): want of action Breeds all black malcontents, and their close rearing, Like moths in cloth, do hurt for want of wearing. (1.1)
Melancholy is identified as a mask in the Cardinal and Ferdinand, then in Bosola
Webster gives the malcontent a purpose.