The Duchess of Malfi | Topics for Further Study

  • Research another influential Renaissance text, Machiavelli's The Prince (1517), which describes the qualities of the ideal ruler. To what extent is the Cardinal an embodiment of these qualities? What are the strengths and weaknesses of such a ruler?
  • Some critics have said that in creating The Duchess of Malfi, Webster was praising Queen Elizabeth I who had died in 1603, ten years before the play was written. In...

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