Jacobean England (1603-1625)

Divine Right Monarchy and Absolutism

James I inherited the throne from Elizabeth I in 1603, uniting England and Scotland under one crown. He believed in the divine right of kings -- the doctrine that monarchs derive authority directly from God and are accountable only to divine judgment, not earthly laws or subjects. This created absolute monarchy where the king's will was law. James articulated this in his writings: kings are God's lieutenants on earth, and subjects must obey absolutely. This political theology shapes Webster's depiction of tyrannical brothers who claim absolute authority over the Duchess, treating her autonomy as treason against family hierarchy that mirrors political hierarchy. Ferdinand and the Cardinal exercise sovereign power without accountability -- they order executions, imprison, torture, and face no earthly consequences until Act 5. Webster's play can be read as both endorsing hierarchy (the Duchess's transgression causes chaos; order must be restored violently) and critiquing tyranny (her brothers are monstrous; their absolute power produces injustice).

Political Instability and Succession Anxiety

Despite James's claims to divine authority, his reign was politically unstable. The Gunpowder Plot (1605) -- Catholic conspiracy to blow up Parliament and kill the king -- created paranoia about Catholic threats. Conflicts between Crown and Parliament over taxation and royal prerogative intensified throughout James's reign, eventually leading to Civil War (1642) under his son Charles I. Anxiety about succession, legitimacy, and political order pervades Jacobean drama. Webster's focus on bloodline, inheritance, and legitimate heirs reflects contemporary concerns: the Duchess's secret marriage produces children whose legitimacy is contested; her brothers obsess over "attainted" blood contaminating noble lineage. Political stability depended on clear succession -- ambiguous or contested inheritance threatened chaos. The play's catastrophic ending where nearly everyone dies and succession is uncertain mirrors contemporary anxiety about political order's fragility.

Court Culture and Corruption

James's court was notoriously corrupt -- he sold titles and honors to raise money, distributed patronage to favorites, and surrounded himself with sycophants. Court culture emphasized performance, surveillance, and intrigue. Courtiers competed for royal favor through flattery, fashionable display, and political maneuvering. Spies and informers were common; everyone watched everyone else. Webster's Italian court setting (the play takes place in Amalfi and Rome) allowed English audiences to critique their own court indirectly -- Italy functioned as displaced England, Catholic corruption standing in for Protestant anxieties. Bosola represents the corrupted courtier: intelligent and morally aware but economically desperate, he sells himself as spy and murderer for money and patronage. His cynical commentary exposes court corruption while showing how poverty forces moral compromise.

Catholic vs. Protestant Conflict

England had been officially Protestant since Elizabeth I's reign (1558-1603), having broken from Rome under Henry VIII (1534). However, religious conflict persisted throughout the period. Catholics faced persecution -- fines, imprisonment, execution for practicing their faith -- creating underground Catholic community. Protestants feared Catholic plots to restore papal authority. James I was Protestant but sought moderate religious policy, though he faced pressure from Puritans demanding more radical reform and Catholics seeking toleration. Webster's Italian Catholic setting plays on Protestant prejudices: Catholic Italy represented corruption, violence, sexual immorality, and hypocrisy. The Cardinal (church official keeping mistress, ordering murders) embodies Protestant propaganda about Catholic corruption. Yet Webster's critique may extend beyond anti-Catholic stereotype to question all religious authority that preaches virtue while practicing violence.

Death, Judgment, and Afterlife

Early modern Christianity -- both Protestant and Catholic -- emphasized death's centrality. Life was preparation for death and divine judgment determining eternal salvation or damnation. Ars moriendi (art of dying well) texts taught proper death: confession, faith, composure, forgiveness. Death was moment of ultimate truth revealing character's spiritual state. Webster's play obsesses over death: the Duchess's dignified execution demonstrates virtuous death; Ferdinand's mad death shows spiritual corruption. Christian theology assured believers that earthly suffering was temporary trial; heavenly reward or hellish punishment was eternal. This theological framework makes the Duchess's death meaningful despite its brutality -- her soul ascends while her brothers face damnation. The Cardinal's final line -- "I am puzzled in a question about hell" -- shocks because he should fear divine judgment but doesn't, revealing complete spiritual bankruptcy.

Providence and Divine Justice

Jacobean Protestants believed divine providence governed all events -- God actively intervened in human affairs, rewarding virtue and punishing vice (eventually, if not immediately). This belief supported revenge tragedy conventions: villains must be punished to demonstrate divine justice operates. Webster provides this moral closure -- Ferdinand, the Cardinal, and Bosola all die in Act 5 -- reassuring audiences that cosmic moral order exists despite temporary injustice. However, Webster also questions this by showing how inadequate delayed justice is: the innocent are already dead; mass slaughter seems excessive; restoration feels empty. The play participates in providential worldview while testing its limits, asking whether divine justice that permits such suffering before intervening is truly just.

Rigid Class Hierarchy

Jacobean society maintained strict class divisions: aristocracy (royalty, nobles, gentry), merchants and professionals, yeomen (farmers), laborers, and the poor. Birth determined status; social mobility was minimal. Aristocrats claimed inherent superiority -- noble blood carried virtues common blood lacked. Sumptuary laws regulated dress by class; only nobles could wear certain fabrics and colors. Marriage across class boundaries was scandalous, threatening the entire social order based on fixed hierarchy. The Duchess marrying Antonio (her steward -- upper servant but definitively not noble) violates this system spectacularly. Her brothers' fury stems from class transgression as much as sexual autonomy -- she "contaminates" royal blood of Aragon and Castile with common blood. Webster questions whether class determines virtue: Antonio is morally superior to the aristocratic brothers, exposing class ideology as self-serving fiction. Yet the play also shows transgression cannot be sustained -- the Duchess is murdered, suggesting society cannot tolerate such boundary crossing.

Patronage Economy

Jacobean economy combined feudal remnants (land-based aristocratic wealth, service relationships) with emerging capitalism (trade, credit, wage labor). Most people depended on patronage -- aristocrats provided positions, salaries, and protection to clients who owed loyalty and service. This created economic dependence enabling exploitation. Bosola represents this: he served Ferdinand's brother in war, was imprisoned, and now desperately seeks employment. Ferdinand hires him as spy, and economic necessity forces Bosola to commit atrocities despite moral knowledge they're wrong. Webster exposes how patronage economy corrupts -- people sell moral integrity for survival, wealthy exploit desperate, and poverty eliminates ethical choice. The play's violence stems partly from this economic structure where people are commodities bought for violent purposes.

Women's Legal and Social Status

Early modern women were legally subordinate to men -- fathers, then husbands, then brothers or sons. Married women were feme covert (covered women), with no independent legal identity; property and income belonged to husbands. Widows had more autonomy (could own property, make contracts) but were expected to remain chaste, mourning, devoted to dead husband's memory. The Duchess's remarriage violates widow expectations; her secret marriage without brothers' consent violates family authority; her choosing social inferior violates class norms. Triple transgression makes her intolerable to patriarchal order. Women's sexuality was family property -- marriages were economic/political alliances, female chastity ensured legitimate heirs for inheritance. The Duchess claiming sexual autonomy threatens male control over reproduction, wealth, and power. Webster shows women's legal subordination produces injustice but cannot imagine society where women's autonomy is accepted -- the Duchess's assertion of rights is heroic but doomed.

Revenge Tragedy Genre

Revenge tragedy dominated Jacobean theater: The Spanish Tragedy (Kyd, 1587), Hamlet (Shakespeare, 1600), The Revenger's Tragedy (Middleton, 1606), The White Devil (Webster, 1612). Genre conventions: murdered innocent, delayed revenge, revenger's moral corruption through violence, spectacular mass death in Act 5, ghost or supernatural elements, madness (real or feigned), play-within-play or theatrical device. Duchess follows many conventions (innocent murdered, Act 5 bloodbath, Ferdinand's madness, Bosola's failed revenge) but subverts others (the Duchess isn't murdered person motivating revenge -- she's victim; no ghost appears to demand vengeance; Bosola's revenge is improvised and accidental, not planned). The genre allowed playwrights to explore violence, moral corruption, and political tyranny while providing cathartic violence and moral closure audiences demanded.

Playhouse and Performance

Duchess was performed at Blackfriars Theatre (indoor private theater) and Globe (outdoor public theater). Indoor theaters used candlelight, enabling darkness effects (Act 4's sensory deprivation torture requires controllable lighting). All roles were played by male actors -- boy actors played women, requiring stylized femininity audiences understood as convention. The Duchess's death was performed by boy actor strangled on stage (probably with stage blood/effects), creating visual spectacle. Theater was popular entertainment across classes: groundlings (standing in yard for penny) and nobles (sitting in galleries for more). Plays competed with bear-baiting, public executions, and sermons for audiences. Theater was simultaneously low culture (popular entertainment, violent spectacle) and high art (poetic language, classical references, moral instruction). Webster writes for both registers -- spectacular violence pleases groundlings; complex poetry satisfies educated audiences.

Humoral Theory and Melancholy

Early modern medicine explained personality and illness through four humours: blood (sanguine -- optimistic, social), phlegm (phlegmatic -- calm, unemotional), yellow bile/choler (choleric -- angry, quick-tempered), black bile (melancholic -- depressed, introspective). Imbalance caused physical illness and personality extremes. Excess black bile produced melancholy -- depression, paranoia, obsession, violence. Robert Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy (1621, contemporary with Duchess) extensively catalogued melancholic conditions including lycanthropy (believing oneself a wolf). Ferdinand's rage, obsession with the Duchess, and eventual lycanthropy fit melancholic profile -- his excessive black bile creates psychological disorder. Jacobean audiences would recognize this as medical condition with moral dimensions (melancholy could result from sin/vice or be inherited). Webster uses contemporary medical theory to psychologize Ferdinand's violence while maintaining moral judgment -- he's both sick (melancholic) and evil (murderer).

Italian Setting and Machiavelli

Webster sets the play in Catholic Italy (Amalfi, Rome), allowing English Protestant audiences to displace anxieties onto foreign Catholic corruption while recognizing parallels to English court. Italy represented passion, violence, sexual license, political intrigue, and Machiavellian amorality in English imagination. Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince (1532) had taught realpolitik -- gaining and maintaining power through any means, separating politics from Christian morality. English Protestants condemned this as atheistic Italian immorality, yet Machiavelli's ideas influenced actual political practice. Webster's villains are Machiavellian: they pursue power ruthlessly, murder without remorse, manipulate appearances. The Cardinal especially embodies this -- religious authority concealing pure political calculation. Yet Webster complicates simple condemnation: Bosola is forced into Machiavellianism by poverty; Ferdinand's Machiavellianism seems driven by psychological disorder more than rational calculation. The play both confirms Protestant stereotypes about Catholic Italy and uses them to critique political violence more broadly.

"Shall our blood, / The royal blood of Aragon and Castile, / Be thus attainted?"

Ferdinand, Act 2, Scene 5

Reflects Jacobean class anxiety -- noble blood contaminated by common blood threatens aristocratic identity and social hierarchy.

"I am Duchess of Malfi still"

The Duchess, Act 4, Scene 2

Exemplifies ars moriendi tradition -- dying with Christian dignity and maintained identity despite torture.

"Other sins only speak; murder shrieks out"

Bosola, Act 4, Scene 2

Reflects Catholic moral theology's sin hierarchy -- murder is loudest sin demanding divine justice.

"I am puzzled in a question about hell"

The Cardinal, Act 5, Scene 5

Religious hypocrisy -- Catholic official should fear divine judgment but doesn't, confirming Protestant stereotypes about Catholic corruption.