ABSTRACT
At the end of Act IV of The Duchess of Malfi, with the Duchess dead at his feet, Bosola recognises his bad conscience as 'a perspective that shows us hell' (IV, ii, 358-9). 1 The play is full of references to optical instruments . By 'perspective' here the audience might understand a telescope, a topographer's tool for drawing townscapes accurately or a kind of imagedistorting device; and it also referred to a picture so drawn that what appears distorted or jumbled from the normal viewing angle is correct from some other angle. Perspective in its modern sense was a Renaissance invention and Webster's whole dramaturgy is one of perspectives. 2 At the end of the play 'the deep pit of darkness' that Bosola sees has engulfed the entire human condition. He himself is Galilean man, adrift from the old certainties. Amongst his various backgrounds has been a spell at Galileo's university of Padua (Flamineo is another alumnus) where, as a 'fantastical scholar' (III, iii 41) he has pursued his studies to gain the name of 'a speculative man', someone who plumbs the mysteries of things. His name, 'Bozola' in the source-story, is spelled by Webster to pick up 'Bossola', a mariner's compass;3 but his final journey is directionless, away from justice. The Cardinal would borrow Galileo's telescope and turn it to the moon to find a constant woman (II, iv, 16-19); but in a play about the Duchess's spirit of greatness, at the end, mankind in its pit of darkness is 'womanish and fearful', which seems to mean 'womanish because fearful'.
