In Act 4 Scene 1, I was reminded of many of Donne’s poems, particularly A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning. The idea that love lives on despite physical distance and death is one that both Webster and Donne explore. Bosola cruelly tricks the Duchess into believing Antonio and their children are dead:  “That, now you know directly they are dead, Hereafter you may wisely cease to grieve For that which cannot be recovered” (1479). Although Bosola states that they “cannot be recovered,” the Duchess seems to take a different stance, for she believes, like Donne, that souls never really cease to exist. Rather, her love for Antonio will live on forever through their souls and cannot die even in death: “That’s the greatest torture souls feel in hell, In hell: that they must live, and cannot die.”