The Duchess of Malfi: Act 1

by John Webster
Money, power, and love destroy a noble family in this semi-historical tragedy by John Webster. Learn these words that first shook The Globe Theater in 1614. Read the full text here.

Here are links to our lists for the play: Act 1, Act 2, Act 3, Act 4, Act 5
35 words 35 learners

Learn words with Flashcards and other activities

Definition First
Print Flashcards

Other learning activities

Answer a few questions about each word. Use this to prep for your next quiz! Compete with other teams in real time to see who answers the most questions correctly! Test your spelling acumen. Read the definition, listen to the word and try spelling it!

Teaching tools

Create and assign quizzes to your students to test their vocabulary. Assign learning activities including Practice, Vocabulary Jams and Spelling Bees to your students, and monitor their progress in real-time.

Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. corruption
    moral perversion; impairment of virtue and moral principles
    And what is 't makes this blessed government
    But a most provident council, who dare freely
    Inform him the corruption of the times?
  2. envious
    painfully desirous of another's advantages
    Indeed, he rails at those things which he wants;
    Would be as lecherous, covetous, or proud,
    Bloody, or envious, as any man,
    If he had means to be so.
  3. notorious
    known widely and usually unfavorably
    I knew this fellow seven years in the galleys
    For a notorious murder; and 'twas thought
    The cardinal suborn'd it
  4. malcontent
    a person who is unsatisfied or disgusted
    If too immoderate sleep be truly said
    To be an inward rust unto the soul,
    If then doth follow want of action
    Breeds all black malcontents
  5. sportive
    given to merry frolicking
    When shall we leave this sportive action, and fall to action indeed?
  6. descend
    do something that one considers to be below one's dignity
    It is fitting a soldier arise to be a prince, but not necessary a prince descend to be a captain.
  7. deprive
    take away
    This might take idle, offensive, and base office from him, whereas the other deprives him of honour.
  8. superficial
    only concerned with what is apparent or obvious
    Some such flashes superficially hang on him for form; but observe his inward character: he is a melancholy churchman.
  9. bribe
    payment made to corrupt a person in a position of trust
    He should have been Pope; but instead of coming to it by the primitive decency of the church, he did bestow bribes so largely and so impudently as if he would have carried it away without heaven's knowledge.
  10. turbulent
    characterized by unrest or disorder or insubordination
    The duke there? A most perverse and turbulent nature.
  11. mirth
    great merriment
    What appears in him mirth is merely outside;
    If he laught heartily, it is to laugh
    All honesty out of fashion.
  12. hearsay
    gossip passed around by word of mouth
    He speaks with others' tongues, and hears men's suits
    With others' ears; will seem to sleep o' the bench
    Only to entrap offenders in their answers;
    Dooms men to death by information;
    Rewards by hearsay.
  13. shrewd
    good at tricking people to get something
    He never pays debts unless they be shrewd turns,
    And those he will confess that he doth owe.
  14. oracle
    a prophecy revealed by a priest or priestess
    Last, for this brother there, the cardinal,
    They that do flatter him most say oracles
    Hang at his lips; and verily I believe them,
    For the devil speaks in them.
  15. noble
    having high or elevated character
    But for their sister, the right noble duchess,
    You never fix'd your eye on three fair medals
    Cast in one figure, of so different temper.
  16. vainglory
    outspoken conceit
    For her discourse, it is so full of rapture,
    You only will begin then to be sorry
    When she doth end her speech, and wish, in wonder,
    She held it less vainglory to talk much,
    Than your penance to hear her.
  17. oblique
    not direct, explicit, or straightforward
    May be some oblique character in your face
    Made him suspect you.
  18. suspect
    regard as untrustworthy
    For to suspect a friend unworthily
    Instructs him the next way to suspect you,
    And prompts him to deceive you.
  19. suitor
    a man who courts a woman
    I give you that
    To live i' the court here, and observe the duchess;
    To note all the particulars of her haviour,
    What suitors do solicit her for marriage,
    And whom she best affects.
  20. rogue
    a deceitful and unreliable scoundrel
    As I have seen some
    Feed in a lord's dish, half asleep, not seeming
    To listen to any talk; and yet these rogues
    Have cut his throat in a dream.
  21. covet
    wish, long, or crave for
    Let good men, for good deeds, covet good fame,
    Since place and riches oft are bribes of shame.
  22. discretion
    knowing how to avoid embarrassment or distress
    We are to part from you; and your own discretion
    Must now be your director.
  23. belie
    be in contradiction with
    Be not cunning;
    For they whose faces do belie their hearts
    Are witches ere they arrive at twenty years,
    Ay, and give the devil suck.
  24. hypocrisy
    pretending to have qualities or beliefs that you do not have
    Hypocrisy is woven of a fine small thread,
    Subtler than Vulcan's engine: yet, believe 't,
    Your darkest actions, nay, your privat'st thoughts,
    Will come to light.
  25. kindred
    group of people related by blood or marriage
    If all my royal kindred
    Lay in my way unto this marriage,
    I'd make them my low footsteps.
  26. assay
    make an effort or attempt
    Even in this hate, as men in some great battles,
    By apprehending danger, have achiev'd
    Almost impossible actions (I have heard soldiers say so),
    So I through frights and threatenings will assay
    This dangerous venture.
  27. warily
    in a manner marked by keen caution and watchful prudence
    For I'll conceal this secret from the world
    As warily as those that trade in poison
    Keep poison from their children.
  28. sacrament
    a formal religious ceremony conferring a specific grace
    Begin with that first good deed began i' the world
    After man's creation, the sacrament of marriage;
    I'd have you first provide for a good husband;
    Give him all.
  29. ambition
    a strong drive for success
    Ambition, madam, is a great man's madness,
    That is not kept in chains and close-pent rooms,
    But in fair lightsome lodgings, and is girt
    With the wild noise of prattling visitants,
    Which makes it lunatic beyond all cure.
  30. favor
    a feeling of positive regard
    Conceive not I am so stupid but I aim
    Whereto your favours tend: but he's a fool
    That, being a-cold, would thrust his hands i' the fire
    To warm them.
  31. virtue
    the quality of doing what is right
    Were there nor heaven nor hell,
    I should be honest: I have long serv'd virtue,
    And ne'er ta'en wages of her.
  32. equivocate
    be deliberately ambiguous or unclear
    And as a tyrant doubles with his words,
    And fearfully equivocates, so we
    Are forc'd to express our violent passions
    In riddles and in dreams, and leave the path
    Of simple virtue, which was never made
    To seem the thing it is not.
  33. ceremony
    the proper or conventional behavior on some solemn occasion
    I do here put off all vain ceremony,
    And only do appear to you a young widow
    That claims you for her husband, and, like a widow,
    I use but half a blush in 't.
  34. discord
    lack of agreement or harmony
    Do not think of them:
    All discord without this circumference
    Is only to be pitied, and not fear'd:
    Yet, should they know it, time will easily
    Scatter the tempest.
  35. appease
    cause to be more favorably inclined; gain the good will of
    We'll only lie and talk together, and plot
    To appease my humorous kindred
Created on Mon Apr 10 14:17:50 EDT 2017 (updated Tue Apr 09 13:11:17 EDT 2019)

Sign up now (it’s free!)

Whether you’re a teacher or a learner, Vocabulary.com can put you or your class on the path to systematic vocabulary improvement.