Someone once said that on reading T S Eliot's criticism of the Revenge Tragedies they were struck by the beauty of the verse which they had somehow missed in their own reading. Then they reread them and found Eliot had very precisely picked just those few lines which stand out. It is true of The Duchess of Malfi. The verse is only occasionally outstanding. The characters are fascinating with the lead one in many ways Bosola who slides down a moral slope only to start to climb up again at the end though the Duchess commands the stage when she is present. Her brothers lack redemptive features on any level with strong suggestions of incest from Ferdinand. At the end there is a new generation and perhaps new hope. Perhaps.