This post is taken from an essay I wrote at university about the restrictions on love and marriage in Early Modern England and the how they were explored on the stage. This essay looks at two Jacobean plays, Tis’ Pity She’s a Whore by John Ford and The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster, and recounts how their heroines crafted relationships that defied social expectations and served purposes other than to augment familial wealth and preserve primogeniture.
Playwrights Webster and Ford bring up intriguing questions about the nature and purpose of marriage in Early Modern England by depicting intimate relationships that would have been illegal in their time; neither Annabella’s love for her brother, Giovanni, nor the Duchess’ secret union with Antonio conform to the patriarchal concept of marriage, and therefore, they threaten the predominant social order. Certainly, these radical female characters, who defy social norms of the Renaissance, comment on the way Early Modern England treated love and desire as commodities to be governed by the religious institution of marriage.
‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore surprised audiences with its intentional focus on incestuous love. While incest was no stranger to the Elizabethan stage, it never took center; playwrights often used incest as a side plot, but it was almost always the result of partners not knowing their blood relation. John Ford had other ideas: the play’s central characters, Giovanni and Annabella, knowingly commit incest, aware of the consequences that could follow. Consensual incest as a central plot device came as a surprise to Renaissance audiences; by framing incest within an intensely passionate yet deeply understanding relationship, Ford writes a love story that exists outside of the grasp of institutional power. Since their desires do not exist within the acceptable definitions of love and union, the twins harbor an uncontrolled passion that leads to their tragic ends.
“On my knees,
Brother, even by our mother’s dust, I charge you,
Do not betray me to your mirth or hate.
Love me or kill me, brother.”
‘Tis pity She’s a Whore, Act I, Scene 2, Lines 254-9
The persistence and intensity of Annabella and Giovanni’s passion is exemplified by their secret union at the beginning of the play. Once Giovanni and Annabella confess their love to each other, they exchange vows in a manner that closely resembles a traditional marriage ceremony, kneeling on the ground and reciting mirrored vows to each other. “Love me, or kill me” they declare to each other before they “learn to court in smiles, to kiss, and sleep” (‘Tis Pity 1.2.256, 259, 264). Once they secretly become one flesh through their vows and sexual relations, their passion spirals out of control despite Friar Bonaventura’s efforts to persuade them to cease their relationship. His attempts to “cure” the twins of their excessive passions exhibit a need to relinquish power back to the institutions that typically control love in order to avoid the destruction that accompanies unchecked passions.
In his attempt to “cure” Annabella of her excess desire, the Friar encourages her to pair with Soranzo:
“’Tis thus agreed:
First, for your honor’s safety that you marry
The lord Soranzo; next, to save your soul, /
Leave off this life, and henceforth live to him”
‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore, Act III, Scene 6, Lines 35-8
Friar Bonaventura seems to believe that a marriage to Soranzo will repair Annabella’s wrongs and prevent her from committing further sin with Giovanni. Despite the Friar’s direction, Annabella continues her affair with Giovanni even after her marriage to Soranzo. As Kibrina Davey points out, “Not only does this once again undermine the power of Catholic rites, but it also demonstrates that religious meditation and entreaties of forgiveness have failed at removing Annabella’s passion” (Davey). Thus, Annabella’s passions are portrayed as completely ungovernable by institutions of power.
“We shall have time
To talk at large of all; but never yet
Incest and murder have so strangely met.
Of one so young, so rich in nature’s store,
Who could not say, ‘Tis pity she’s a whore?”
‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore, Act V, Scene 6, Lines 159-61.
Since Annabella and Giovanni exchanged their vows in secret, there was no state or religious authority to witness their union; thus, their relationship passes under the radar of any patriarchal institution that might try to oversee or inhibit it. Their unwillingness to turn away from each other and their secret union eventually leads to their demise. As Catherine Silverstone points out, “death and desire are fused together in the stage picture of Giovanni’s murder of Annabella” and in “killing Annabella, Giovanni activates his own death wish” (Silverstone 90). Once Annabella, Giovanni, Soranzo, and Florio are all dead, the Cardinal comes in to take possession of their belongings to dedicate “to the Pope’s proper use” (‘Tis Pity 5.6.152). This repossession of the victims’ riches can be considered “an attempt to regain authority after the Catholic Church has failed to prevent the tragic events” (Davey) that have fallen upon the young couple. The Cardinal downplays Annabella’s death by proclaiming, “’Tis pity she’s a whore,” (5.6.16) thus blaming Annabella’s tragic death on her ungovernability as a woman.
In John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi, the Duchess also enters into a secret marriage with her lover, Antonio, despite the wishes of her older brother, Ferdinand. As a widow under the authority of her brother, she is expected to obey his wishes and marry a man of her brother’s choosing. In the first scene, John Webster sets up his exploration of passion in secrecy. The Duchess, though administered counsel as well as threats by her brother and the Cardinal, decides to proceed with her marriage to Antonio, prioritizing her desires above the will of family and religious institutions. Though faced with life-threatening opposition, both Anabella and the Duchess choose to act on their passions rather than obey social rules. As Sara Jayne Steen mentions in her article “The Crime of Marriage: Arbella Stuart and The Duchess of Malfi”, early-modern England saw “an elevation of marriage and family over the traditional ideal of celibacy…was becoming joined with romantic love for wedded love” (Steen 72). This rise in appreciation for wedded love is explored in both plays, although The Duchess of Malfi lacked incestuous love and, therefore, probably garnered more sympathy from Renaissance audiences.
Even so, the Duchess’ secret marriage still manages to cause issues in the way of ungovernable unions. Though her marriage to Antonio is not as scandalous as incest, their secret marriage still defies the expectations from partners in early-modern England: “it was widely accepted that marriages should be advertised in advance by the calling of banns three times, solemnized in open church by a minister, and recorded in the parish register” (Dolan). Any marriage enacted outside of these terms was subject to punishment by excommunication. By getting married in secret with Cariola as their only witness, the Duchess and Antonio prevent the imposition of religious and lawful authority into their relationship; thus, they become the only authorities in their status as a married couple. Furthermore, the Duchess purposefully separates her marriage from the hypocritical institution of the church:
“What can the church build faster?
We now are man and wife, and ‘tis the church
That must echo this.”
The Duchess of Malfi Act I, Scene 1, Lines 493-5
The Duchess rejects the Church’s authority over her marriage, and thus protects the relationship from the its hypocritical leaders. By the end of the first scene, the Duchess crafts for herself a marriage based off of passion that is free from the limitations of patriarchal authority and institution; her secret marriage is sanctioned on love rather than religion.
When Ferdinand finds out about the Duchess’ latest pregnancy, she becomes vulnerable to accusations of producing illegitimate children, as secret children were more suspicious, and more severely punished, than a secret marriage. Dolan notes that “the problem is no longer the fact that she is married but rather that her success in keeping her marriage a secret has helped to make the open secret of her pregnancies scandalous” (Dolan). Her ungovernable love for Antonio, like Annabella’s for her brother, grew exponentially into a situation that could no longer be hidden from institutions of power made to control love between two people. Now that her “darkest actions” have “come to light,” the Duchess faces the wrath of her brother, who subjects her to horrifying torture and eventually strangulation. Much like Annabella, the Duchess’s pursuit of desire leads to her murder at the hand of her brother.
“Hypocrisy is woven of a fine small thread,
Subtler than Vulcan’s engine; yet, believe’t,
Your darkest actions—nay, your privat’st thoughts—
Will come to light.
The Duchess of Malfi, Act I, Scene 1, Lines 315-8
The leading female characters of ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore and The Duchess of Malfi are ambitious, brave, and creative women in their pursuit of freedom from patriarchal authority. Neither of their relationships served to bring two rich families together, nor did they produce viable heirs. Both unions are sanctioned by desire rather than the state or the church; thus, both are not governed under the same rules as a traditional marriage. In this sense, Webster and Ford echo the growing value placed on wedded love that was becoming popular during the time that these two plays were written (Steen). While the increasing popularity around love-based relationships allows Annabella and the Duchess to pursue their passions, Webster and Ford demonstrate the limitations (however gruesomely) to the consequent idea of “romantic love – and the ability to inspire and maintain that love in marriage – as the sole reason for a woman’s existence” (Steen); after all, neither Annabelle nor the Duchess’ relationship can exists outside of secrecy, as illustrated by their tragic deaths. Thus, these two plays leave audiences questioning whether or not it is possible for renaissance women to love without the external pressure to conform to the powers that rule over such matters.
for further reading…
- Davey, Kibrina. “Ungovernable Passion in John Ford’s ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore.” Early Modern Literary Studies, vol. 26, 2017. ProQuest, https://search.proquest.com/docview/2152852780?pq-origsite=summon.
- Dolan, Frances. “‘Can This Be Certain?’: The Duchess of Malfi’s Secrets.” The Duchess of Malfi: A Critical Guide, Continuum, 2011.
- Silverstone, Catherine. “Fatal Attraction: Desire, Anatomy, and Death in ‘’Tis Pity She’s a Whore.’” “Tis Pit She”s a Whore: A Critical Guide, 2010.
- Steen, Sara Jayne. “The Crime of Marriage: Arbella Stuart and The Duchess of Malfi.” The Sixteenth Century Journal, vol. 22, no. 1, 1991, pp. 61–76. JSTOR, JSTOR, doi:10.2307/2542016.
