Jacobean Scenes for Two Actors: The Duchess of Malfi and Beyond

Your classical scene-study unit says “no Shakespeare this time.” Your teacher wants verse, high stakes, and two people in a room, and somebody says “do something Jacobean.” You both nod. Then you go looking and find list after list of monologues, and not one page that tells you where a two-person scene starts.

Jacobean tragedy is the right place to look. The plays written under James I are full of private rooms where two people say the unsayable: a duchess proposing to her steward, a brother finding out his sister has married, a servant naming what he wants for a murder, a bridegroom told on his wedding night that his bride belongs to the king. The verse is fast and dangerous, and the scenes are built for two.

The short version: below are five two-person scenes from The Duchess of Malfi, The Changeling, and The Maid’s Tragedy, each with its first and last lines, what each character wants, how the words split, about how long it runs, and a shorter cut where you need one. Every quoted line was copied from the Project Gutenberg edition named below. For solo speeches from the same plays, see our Jacobean monologues for auditions.

Get the same free text as your partner

Old plays come in many editions, and editors disagree about spelling, punctuation, and even scene numbers. Pick one text and both learn from it. Three free ones cover everything here: John Addington Symonds’s Mermaid edition of Webster, on Project Gutenberg; Alexander Dyce’s Works of Thomas Middleton, volume 4, with The Changeling, also on Project Gutenberg; and Beaumont and Fletcher’s The Maids Tragedy, which Gutenberg lists as public domain in the USA.

Know what you’re holding. Symonds puts the whole opening of Malfi in one long first scene, so the wooing, which some modern editions print as a separate scene, is the end of Act 1, Scene 1 in his. Dyce prints added or corrected words in square brackets. The Beaumont and Fletcher text keeps old spellings like prethee and I’le. None of it matters as long as you and your partner have the same pages. You can read Malfi scene by scene in our Duchess of Malfi play page.

A note on the times. We counted the spoken words in each scene, stage directions out, and divided by 140 words a minute, the pace our acting scripts to practice page uses. Played well, with real pauses, these run longer. If you’re cutting for competition, the International Thespian Excellence Awards acting rules define a duet as two players and cap it at five minutes, so time your cut out loud.

The Duchess of Malfi: three scenes, three relationships

Webster’s tragedy was first performed in 1613 or 1614 by the King’s Men, at the Blackfriars and later the Globe, according to Wikipedia’s entry on the play. It’s a gift for scene study because the play gives you three very different duets: the Duchess with the man she loves, the Duchess with the brother who wants to control her, and, after her death, Ferdinand and Bosola over her body.

The Duchess and Antonio: the wooing (Act 1)

The young widowed Duchess has decided to marry her steward, Antonio, a man far below her rank, and her brothers have just warned her not to remarry. She calls him in on the pretext of business. It starts on her I sent for you: sit down; and ends on his Would not have savoured flattery., just before her maid Cariola steps out from behind the arras. The full scene is about 916 words, roughly 6 and a half minutes, with the Duchess speaking about 606 of them and Antonio about 310.

What each wants: she wants him to say yes without her having to give an order, and he wants to stay safe, honest, and in his place. Almost every line is a test. She talks about her will, and means a husband. He gives sensible advice about marriage, and she turns it on him. The turn is the ring:

ANTONIO: You have parted with it now.

DUCHESS: Yes, to help your eye-sight.

ANTONIO: You have made me stark blind.

DUCHESS: How?

ANTONIO: There is a saucy and ambitious devil
Is dancing in this circle.

DUCHESS: Remove him.

Source: John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi, Act 1, Mermaid edition (Project Gutenberg eBook 55625).

For a five-minute slot, start on her Fie, fie, what’s all this?, where she gives him the ring, and keep the same ending. That cut is about 575 words, around 4 minutes, and it includes her great speech beginning The misery of us that are born great!, where she admits We are forced to woo, because none dare woo us. Don’t let it become a solo. Antonio is kneeling, then raised, then trembling, and she reads every change in him.

The Duchess and Ferdinand: the bedchamber (Act 3)

Later, after she has had children with Antonio in secret, the Duchess is brushing her hair and chatting to Antonio, who has slipped out of the room as a joke. She doesn’t know her twin brother Ferdinand has come in behind her. Start on her Doth not the colour of my hair ‘gin to change? and end on his I will never see thee more. It’s about 713 words, around 5 minutes, and Ferdinand has about 458 of them to her 255.

What each wants: Ferdinand wants her shamed, and maybe dead. He hands her a dagger with Die, then, quickly! She wants him to accept the marriage, and she won’t apologize for it: Why might not I marry? The trick for the actor playing Ferdinand is that he’s also talking to the husband he can’t see, For I am sure thou hear’st me, so one of his longest speeches is aimed at a man who isn’t on stage. The trick for the Duchess is that her first lines are light and affectionate, to someone who isn’t there.

The full scene sits right at five minutes on paper, so for a timed slot start on the dagger instead: about 589 words, around 4 minutes, though it gives the Duchess only about 131 words.

Ferdinand and Bosola: over her body (Act 4)

This is the strongest choice for two men. Bosola has carried out Ferdinand’s order: the Duchess, her children, and her maid have been strangled. Ferdinand comes in. It starts on Is she dead? and ends with Ferdinand’s exit on ‘Tis a deed of darkness. It’s about 637 words, around 4 and a half minutes, Ferdinand about 371 and Bosola about 266.

What each wants: Bosola wants to be paid. He says so plainly: I will first receive my pension. Ferdinand wants not to have done it, and turns on the man who did. He offers Bosola a pardon / For this murder as his only reward. The famous line, Cover her face; mine eyes dazzle: she died young., comes early, so don’t save everything for it. In a classroom, a chair or a folded coat can stand in for the body; both actors keep looking at it.

The Changeling: Beatrice and De Flores (Act 3, Scene 4)

This is the darkest scene on the list. Thomas Middleton and William Rowley’s play was licensed for performance in May 1622, and the usual division of the writing, summarized in Wikipedia’s entry, gives this scene to Middleton. Beatrice-Joanna has hired De Flores, the servant she can’t stand to look at, to kill the man she’s been promised to, so she can marry the man she wants. She thinks she’s paying him in gold.

He comes in carrying the dead man’s ring, still on the finger: I could not get the ring without the finger. The full duet runs from his My thoughts are at a banquet to the end of the act, about 1,324 words and 9 and a half minutes, with De Flores speaking about 872 of them. The better class-length cut starts on Beatrice’s ’Tis resolv’d then;, where she offers the money, and runs to the end: about 957 words, around 7 minutes.

For a five-minute slot, take only the last stretch, from her Why, ’tis impossible thou canst be so wicked, to the end. That’s about 427 words, around 3 minutes, which leaves room for the silence the scene needs. Its center is De Flores telling her what she is now: You are the deed’s creature.

What each wants: Beatrice wants to pay and be rid of him, then to keep her honour whatever it costs her, and finally just to be let go. De Flores wants her, and nothing else will do: What! salary? now you move me. The power changes hands slowly, then all at once. Play Beatrice’s early lines as a lady giving orders, so the fall to her knees has somewhere to come from.

The Maid’s Tragedy: the wedding night (Act 2)

Beaumont and Fletcher’s tragedy is dated to around 1608 to 1611 and was first published in 1619, says Wikipedia’s entry. It’s less often used in class than Webster or Middleton, which is a good reason to bring it. The young courtier Amintor has married Evadne at the king’s suggestion, and the wedding guests have just left them alone.

She won’t come to bed. He thinks it’s a bride’s shyness. It isn’t. The whole scene runs from his Yonder she is to the end of the duet, about 1,881 words and 13 and a half minutes, so cut it. Start on her I’le not go to bed. and stop on her Why ‘tis the King. That’s about 1,288 words, around 9 minutes, Amintor about 773 and Evadne about 515. For a five-minute slot, use the same start and stop on her Nor sounds it like the coyness of a Bride.: about 514 words, a little under 4 minutes, Evadne about 290 and Amintor about 224.

EVADNE: I’le not go to bed.

AMINTOR: I prethee do.

EVADNE: I will not for the world.

AMINTOR: Why my dear Love?

EVADNE: Why? I have sworn I will not.

Source: Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, The Maids Tragedy, Act 2 (Project Gutenberg eBook 10847).

What each wants: Evadne wants him to understand, without her having to say the name, that the marriage is a cover. Amintor wants it to be a joke, then a fever, then anything but the truth. The comedy at the top of the cut is real, so play it. His disbelief is what makes A Maidenhead Amintor at my years? land like a slap. The longer cut adds the name; the short one stops on her refusal, before he knows who it is.

How to play Jacobean tragedy without melodrama

These plays have poison, strangling, and a severed finger, and the danger is to play the horror instead of the people. The scenes above all work the same way: two people who need something from each other, talking fast and saying less than they mean. Our guide on how to learn lines in verse covers the basics; here is what matters most in these rooms.

• Pick up shared lines at once. When one verse line is split between two speakers, Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s text guide says the second actor picks up the energy by immediately speaking their line. The wooing and the wedding night are full of them, and a gap kills the tension.
• Play the want, not the genre. The Duchess is proposing, not foreshadowing her death. De Flores is negotiating, not being a villain. Nobody in these scenes knows they’re in a tragedy.
• Let repeated words change. The same guide advises giving each repetition a different emphasis. Evadne’s sworn comes back again and again; each time, it means something harder.
• Save the volume. Ferdinand can be most frightening when he’s quiet with the dagger, and Beatrice’s De Flores! cuts deeper if nobody has shouted yet.
• Check the split before you agree. De Flores, Ferdinand, and Amintor each speak far more than their partners, so if both actors are graded, give the shorter part the most important turn.

Our free script line counter shows who has how many lines in a pasted scene, and the cue script maker turns your part into lines with their cues.

Rehearse it before you meet your partner

Verse scenes punish you for learning your lines alone. You’ll know every word of your speech and still be late on every short cue, because you never heard the line that ends in the middle of yours.

In Offbook, upload the scene from your Gutenberg text and pick your part, and realistic voices read the other one, then wait while you say your line before cueing the next. As the video below shows, you can set how fast your partner’s voice talks and add a pause before any line, so you can drill shared lines at full speed and still give Ferdinand his silence before Cover her face. When you’re close, hide your own lines and run the scene from memory.

For a free warm-up with no account, our run lines online tool rehearses classic scenes and waits for your line. For a week-by-week plan, see our guide on how to prepare a scene for acting class, and for more classical duets, our Shakespeare scenes for two actors.

Questions actors ask

What is the best Jacobean scene for a man and a woman?

For a first try, the Duchess and Antonio wooing scene in The Duchess of Malfi: it’s warm, funny, and dangerous at once, and the ring cut fits in about 4 minutes. For something darker, Beatrice and De Flores in Act 3, Scene 4 of The Changeling.

Is there a good Jacobean scene for two men?

Yes. Ferdinand and Bosola over the Duchess’s body in Act 4 of Malfi is about 4 and a half minutes and splits fairly evenly. Any of these scenes can also be played across genders if your teacher allows it.

Is The Duchess of Malfi Jacobean?

Yes. It was first performed in 1613 or 1614, during the reign of James I (1603 to 1625). The Changeling (1622) and The Maid’s Tragedy (around 1608 to 1611) are Jacobean too. John Ford’s ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore comes just after, in the Caroline era, as our Jacobean monologues guide explains.

Can I rehearse a Jacobean scene without my partner?

Yes. Rehearse on your laptop with the full script on a big screen, and Offbook’s voices read your partner’s lines and wait for yours. You can also listen to your scenes on your phone anywhere, which helps fix the cues in your ear.