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The Duchess Of Malfi
''The Duchess of Malfi'' (originally published as ''The Tragedy of the Dutchesse of Malfy'') is a Jacobean revenge tragedy written by English dramatist John Webster in 1612–1613. It was first performed privately at the Blackfriars Theatre, then later to a larger audience at The Globe, in 1613–1614. Published in 1623, the play is loosely based on events that occurred between 1508 and 1513 surrounding Giovanna d'Aragona, Duchess of Amalfi (d. 1511), whose father, Enrico d'Aragona, Marquis of Gerace, was an illegitimate son of Ferdinand I of Naples. As in the play, she secretly married Antonio Beccadelli di Bologna after the death of her first husband Alfonso I Piccolomini, Duke of Amalfi. The play begins as a love story, when the Duchess marries beneath her class, and ends as a nightmarish tragedy as her two brothers undertake their revenge, destroying themselves in the process. Jacobean drama continued the trend of stage violence and horror set by Elizabethan tragedy, u ...
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Title Page
The title page of a book, thesis or other written work is the page at or near the front which displays its title (publishing), title, subtitle, author, publisher, and edition, often artistically decorated. (A half title, by contrast, displays only the title of a work.) The title page is one of the most important parts of the "front matter" or "preliminaries" of a book, as the data on it and its verso (together known as the "title leaf") are used to establish the "title proper and usually, though not necessarily, the statement of responsibility and the data relating to publication". This determines the way the book is cited in library catalogs and academic references. The title page often shows the title of the work, the person or body responsible for its intellectual content, and the imprint, which contains the name and address of the book's publisher and its date of publication. Particularly in paperback editions it may contain a shorter title than the cover or lack a descriptiv ...
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Antonio Beccadelli Di Bologna
Antonio Beccadelli of Bologna (c.1475-1513) was an Italian aristocrat, whose tragic love affair and secret marriage with Giovanna d'Aragona, Duchess of Amalfi, inspired several works of literature, most notably John Webster's ''The Duchess of Malfi'' and Lope de Vega's ''El mayordomo de la Duquesa Amalfi''. Sources Information about the life of Antonio Beccadelli is mostly derived from Matteo Bandello's account of the events. Bandello probably knew Beccadelli personally when the latter was living in Milan. Despite some elements of poetic licence (including portraying himself under the name Delio), Bandello's basic account is supported by contemporary literature such as Camillo Tutini's Chronicle,Giacomo Della Morte, Cronica di Napoli di Notar Giacomo; pubblicata per cura di Paolo Garzilli, Napoli: Stamperia Reale, 1845, pp. 331 and the genealogical works of Scipione Ammirato. Life Beccadelli was the son of Antonino Beccadelli and Giulia di Sangro, and grandson of the famous humanist ...
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Castrated
Castration is any action, surgical, chemical, or otherwise, by which an individual loses use of the testicles: the male gonad. Surgical castration is bilateral orchiectomy (excision of both testicles), while chemical castration uses pharmaceutical drugs to deactivate the testes. Castration causes sterilization (preventing the castrated person or animal from reproducing); it also greatly reduces the production of hormones, such as testosterone and estrogen. Surgical castration in animals is often called neutering. The term ''castration'' is sometimes also used to refer to the removal of the ovaries in the female, otherwise known as an oophorectomy, or the removal of internal testes, otherwise known as gonadectomy. The equivalent of castration for female animals is spaying. Estrogen levels drop following oophorectomy, and long-term effects of the reduction of sex hormones are significant throughout the body. Castration of animals is intended to favor a desired development of ...
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Lycanthropia
In folklore, a werewolf (), or occasionally lycanthrope (; ; uk, Вовкулака, Vovkulaka), is an individual that can shapeshift into a wolf (or, especially in modern film, a therianthropic hybrid wolf-like creature), either purposely or after being placed under a curse or affliction (often a bite or the occasional scratch from another werewolf) with the transformations occurring on the night of a full moon. Early sources for belief in this ability or affliction, called lycanthropy (), are Petronius (27–66) and Gervase of Tilbury (1150–1228). The werewolf is a widespread concept in European folklore, existing in many variants, which are related by a common development of a Christian interpretation of underlying European folklore developed during the medieval period. From the early modern period, werewolf beliefs also spread to the New World with colonialism. Belief in werewolves developed in parallel to the belief in witches, in the course of the Late Middle Ages and ...
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Duke Of Calabria
Duke of Calabria was the traditional title of the heir apparent of the Kingdom of Naples after the accession of Robert of Naples. It was also adopted by the heads of certain Houses that had once claimed the Kingdom of Naples in lieu of the royal title. There are at present two claimants to the title of Duke of Calabria. In the Spanish context, it is the title for the head of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, and in the French context it is the title for the heir to the Duke of Castro, the head of the Royal House. List of past dukes * bef. 1297–1309: Robert, son of Charles II * 1309–1328: Charles, son of Robert * 1333–1343: Joanna, daughter of Charles, jointly with her husband Andrew of Hungary * 1343-1345: Andrew of Hungary, as husband of Queen Joanna I * 1345-1348: Charles Martel, son of Andrew and Joanna I House of Anjou * 1381–1382 Louis I of Naples * 1382–1384 Louis II of Naples * 1403–1417 Louis III of Naples * 1426–1434 Louis III of Naples * 1434–1435 ...
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Luigi D'Aragona
Luigi d'Aragona (1474–1519) (called the Cardinal of Aragón) was an Italian Roman Catholic cardinal. He had a highly successful career in the church, but his memory is affected by the allegation that he ordered the murder of his own sister and two of her children. Early life Luigi d'Aragona was born in Naples on 7 September 1474, the son of Arrigo d'Aragona and Polissena de Centellas. His sister was Giovanna d'Aragona, Duchess of Amalfi, and he was the natural grandson of Ferdinand I of Naples. He held the title of marquis of Gerace. On 3 June 1492 he married Battistina Cibo Usodimare, granddaughter of Pope Innocent VIII, at the Vatican in the presence of the pope. When Battistina died, Luigi ceded his title of marquis to his brother Carlo and determined to enter the ecclesiastical state. Ecclesiastical career He received the tonsure on 6 May 1494 from Alessandro Carafa, Archbishop of Naples, in the Archbishop's Palace. He then became a protonotary apostolic. Pope Alexa ...
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Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a prominent role in the history and development of Western civilization.O'Collins, p. v (preface). The church consists of 24 ''sui iuris'' churches, including the Latin Church and 23 Eastern Catholic Churches, which comprise almost 3,500 dioceses and eparchies located around the world. The pope, who is the bishop of Rome, is the chief pastor of the church. The bishopric of Rome, known as the Holy See, is the central governing authority of the church. The administrative body of the Holy See, the Roman Curia, has its principal offices in Vatican City, a small enclave of the Italian city of Rome, of which the pope is head of state. The core beliefs of Catholicism are found in the Nicene Creed. The Catholic Church teaches that it is th ...
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Cardinal (Catholic Church)
A cardinal ( la, Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae cardinalis, literally 'cardinal of the Holy Roman Church') is a senior member of the clergy of the Catholic Church. Cardinals are created by the ruling pope and typically hold the title for life. Collectively, they constitute the College of Cardinals. Their most solemn responsibility is to elect a new pope in a conclave, almost always from among themselves (with a few historical exceptions), when the Holy See is vacant. During the period between a pope's death or resignation and the election of his successor, the day-to-day governance of the Holy See is in the hands of the College of Cardinals. The right to participate in a conclave is limited to cardinals who have not reached the age of 80 years by the day the vacancy occurs. In addition, cardinals collectively participate in papal consistories (which generally take place annually), in which matters of importance to the Church are considered and new cardinals may be created. Cardina ...
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Malcontent
The malcontent is a character type that often appeared in early modern drama. The character is discontented with the social structure and other characters in the play, and is often an outsider who observes and comments on the action, and may even acknowledge they are in a play. Shakespeare's Richard III, Iago in ''Othello'', and Jaques in ''As You Like It'' are typical malcontents. The role is usually both political and dramatic, with the malcontent voicing dissatisfaction with the usually Machiavellian political atmosphere and often using asides to build up a kind of self-consciousness and awareness of the text itself that other characters in the play lack. Important malcontents include Bosola in Webster's ''The Duchess of Malfi'', Vindice in Middleton's ''The Revenger's Tragedy'', Malevole in Marston's ''The Malcontent'', and Hamlet in Shakespeare's ''Hamlet''. The morality and sympathy of the malcontent is highly variable, as in the examples above. Sometimes, as in ''Hamlet' ...
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Matteo Bandello
Matteo Bandello ( 1480 – 1562) was an Italian writer, soldier, monk, and, later, a Bishop mostly known for his novellas. His collection of 214 novellas made him the most popular short-story writer of his day. Biography Matteo Bandello was born at Castelnuovo Scrivia, near Tortona (current Piedmont), 1480. He received a good education, and entered the church, but does not seem to have been very interested in theology. For many years he lived at Mantua and Castel Goffredo, and superintended the education of the celebrated Lucrezia Gonzaga, in whose honour he composed a long poem. The decisive Battle of Pavia, as a result of which Lombardy was taken by the emperor, compelled Bandello to flee; his house at Milan was burnt and his property confiscated. He took refuge with Cesare Fregoso, an Italian general in the French service, whom he accompanied into France. He was later raised to the bishopric of Agen, a town in which he resided for many years before his death in 1562. B ...
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English Renaissance Theatre
English Renaissance theatre, also known as Renaissance English theatre and Elizabethan theatre, refers to the theatre of England between 1558 and 1642. This is the style of the plays of William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson. Background The term ''English Renaissance theatre'' encompasses the period between 1562—following a performance of ''Gorboduc'', the first English play using blank verse, at the Inner Temple during the Christmas season of 1561—and the ban on theatrical plays enacted by the English Parliament in 1642. In a strict sense "Elizabethan" only refers to the period of Queen Elizabeth's reign (1558–1603). ''English Renaissance theatre'' may be said to encompass ''Elizabethan theatre'' from 1562 to 1603, '' Jacobean theatre'' from 1603 to 1625, and '' Caroline theatre'' from 1625 to 1642. Along with the economics of the profession, the character of the drama changed towards the end of the period. Under Elizabeth, the drama was a unified ...
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Seneca The Younger
Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger (; 65 AD), usually known mononymously as Seneca, was a Stoic philosopher of Ancient Rome, a statesman, dramatist, and, in one work, satirist, from the post-Augustan age of Latin literature. Seneca was born in Córdoba in Hispania, and raised in Rome, where he was trained in rhetoric and philosophy. His father was Seneca the Elder, his elder brother was Lucius Junius Gallio Annaeanus, and his nephew was the poet Lucan. In AD 41, Seneca was exiled to the island of Corsica under emperor Claudius, but was allowed to return in 49 to become a tutor to Nero. When Nero became emperor in 54, Seneca became his advisor and, together with the praetorian prefect Sextus Afranius Burrus, provided competent government for the first five years of Nero's reign. Seneca's influence over Nero declined with time, and in 65 Seneca was forced to take his own life for alleged complicity in the Pisonian conspiracy to assassinate Nero, in which he was probably innocen ...
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