The Duchess of Malfi
By John Webster
Cover: Portrait of a Lady (c. 1615), oil on canvas by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger (1561/2-1636) · Wikimedia Commons · Public domain (artist died 1636)
The widowed Duchess of Malfi secretly marries her steward Antonio against the wishes of her brothers, the Cardinal and Ferdinand. Their revenge on her and her children is one of the cruellest in English drama and drives the court toward a bloody end.
Summary written with Claude Sonnet 5.5.