Hi Raisa!

I was also struck by some moments that struck me as particularly Donnean. I noticed specifically the scene in which the Duchess proposes to Antonio. She claims that he has “left me heartless; mine is in your bosom; / I hope twill multiply love there” (1.3.152-3). I thought that this moment felt like Donne, and to some extent Philips, in placing two “hearts,” or souls, together in order to make something new and more grand, along with taking a common refrain (you have my heart) making it extreme  (I no longer have a heart). Further, the Duchess makes comments that their love can ignore a gross world: “Do not think of them. / All discord without this circumference / Is only to be pitied, and not feared” (1.3.170-2). Their love, like Donne’s, elevates them above the world outside of their domesticity. We know that this is a tragic play, I wonder how to take this language coming from a seemingly empowered woman, or if the play’s tragedy is a larger critique of Donnean themes?