“Sonic Violence in Webster's The Duchess of Malfi”
Abstract
“O Let Us Howle Some Heavy Note” sing the madmen in John Webster’s violent tragedy, The Duchess of Malfi , performed sometime around 1613 by the King’s Men. At this point in the drama, the eponymous Duchess has been imprisoned for marrying against her brothers’ wishes, and one sibling, Ferdinand, sends musical madmen to torment her. In the Jacobean-era production, these madmen would have sung Robert Johnson’s remarkable tune, which musicalizes the unruly howling of the madmen in discordant and unsettling ways, in keeping with the 1623 stage direction from the folio: “ this song is sung, to a dismall kind of Musique .” 1
Fields of Study & Subjects
Renaissance Literature and Culture
Musicology and Musical Analysis
Shakespeare
Adaptation
and Literary Criticism
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Routledge eBooks
- Pages
- 77–93
- Publication date
- 4 February 2026
- Language
- EN
- Document type
- Book chapter