A COMPARISON BETWEEN JOHN WEBSTER’S THE DUCHESS OF MALFI AND LOPE DE VEGA’S EL MAYORDOMO DE LA DUQUESA DE AMALFI AS A RESULT OF THE VARIOUS HYPOTEXTS OF THE RENAISSANCE NOVELLA

Abstract

The present dissertation has aimed to compare two seventeenth-century European plays, Webster's The Duchess of Malfi (1614) from England and Lope de Vega's El mayordomo de la Duquesa de Amalfi (1618) from Spain, which were written almost at the same time and based upon the same source text originally written by Bandello from Italy and roughly translated into English by Painter. The story concerns Joan of Aragon, Duchess of Amalfi, who was killed by her two brothers as a result of her marrying a gentleman, Antonio, below her social status. Lope's text portrays the female ruler in no positive manner because Lope is more interested in questioning whether “honra” (virtue) should be put before “honor” (bloodline). Lope’s portrayal of Antonio points at a new social order based on merit rather than nobility, although the play ends with a reputational political rule, in compliance with Spanish traditional values supported by Spanish playwrights. Webster also yearns for a new social order based on virtue rather than blood, but his analysis is carried out through the Duchess’s character, issues including the sovereign’s two bodies. The Duchess’s brother Ferdinand exudes incestuous desire for her body as a result of the union of her body natural and her body politic. The Duchess stresses the importance of her body natural over her body politic up to the end of the play. The Duchess's murder guarantees that the audience will be on her side, consequently a new social order is suggested at the end of the play, as the political situation of the early seventeenth century might suggest in England, where Queen Elizabeth had no heirs and Puritanism was oozing in. As for a sensible contact between the two playwrights, no evidence has turned up so far, but the evident points in common in the two plays have been widely highlighted and a critical explanation has been provided in all instances.