Curs'd Example: The Duchess of Malfi and Commonweal Tragedy

Although John Webster's powerful drama, The Duchess of Malfi (ca.1612), has had an uneven critical history, there has been general agreement about Webster's admiration for his heroine. Taking a new approach, Joyce E. Peterson argues that the genre and context in which it was written would have reinforced perspective and invited Jacobeans to see the Duchess primarily as a ruler whose private desires are at odds with her political responsibility. By defining the genre of commonweal tragedy and tracing its development, Peterson demonstrated that conventions reflect the assumption of contemporary political theory that a ruler must place public trust above such personal desires. In the context of James I's corrupt court, Webster's use of the genre gives the play a satiric dimension further underlining its negative judgment of the Duchess, especially in light of the striking similarities between her character, actions, and fate, and those of Jame's mother, Mary Queen of Scots. Peterson belie