Download Malfi-Act-V-Scene-ii..

Malfi Act V scene iii
Delio and Antonio meet under the Cardinal’s window….
Webster has set this in the ruins of an “ancient abbey” - there would
have been many more obvious ones around after the depredations of
the previous seventy years – The Dissolution of the Monasteries.
Ironically, the Blackfriars Playhouse, where the play was first performed,
had been created from the chapel or refectory of the Black Friars
Monastery.
There is a sense here of temporal instability – Rome would have been
filled with classical ruins, Britain with religious ones. All things pass….
Delio warns of the echo – a way of getting her back into the play as a
spirit. Where we have had parallels and mirrors – now there is a literal
echo underlying the melancholic tone and emphasising the words said.
Webster also uses the echo ironically – sometimes it commands –
sometimes it comments.
Like a ghost in the “cellarage” it seems left over from a previous
time. Like most of the individuals in the play it has no control –
no power.
There is little real here – a poignant reminder of a lost world and
happiness.
Antonio seems now (like Hamlet) resolved to lose all, or nothing
– living with regret is only half a life.