Breakfast illustration of bacon, eggs, and coffee with the silhouetted images of the Duchess' evil brothers, one on each side

The Duchess of Malfi

by John Webster

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Act 3, Scenes 1-2: Questions and Answers

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Last Updated on May 6, 2015, by eNotes Editorial. Word Count: 127

Study Questions
1. What does the Duchess think of Malateste?

2. What is Ferdinand’s opinion of astrology and magic?

3. Why do “hard favour’d ladies” generally keep “worse-favour’d waiting-women,” rather than fair ones?

4. What is Cariola’s opinion of the Duchess’s faked pilgrimage to Loretto?

5. What does Bosola say has raised Antonio?

Answers
1. The Duchess calls him “a mere stick of sugar candy,” and she will not marry him.

2. Astrology and magic are “mere gulleries, horrid things invented by some cheating mountebanks to abuse us,” according to Ferdinand.

3. Doing so keeps the “hard favour'd ladies” from looking bad in comparison to their waiting-women.

4. Cariola opposes “this jesting with religion.”

5. Bosola says that Antonio has been raised by the “curious engine” of the Duchess’s “white hand.”

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