The Duchess of Malfi
Page 22
Pinned on thy breast, to the Berlina165—
CORV. Yes,
And have mine eyes beat out with stinking fish,
Bruised fruit, and rotten eggs—’Tis well. I am glad
I shall not see my shame yet.
1 AVOC. And to expiate
Thy wrongs done to thy wife, thou art to send her
Home to her father, with her dowry trebled:
And these are all your judgments.
ALL. Honored fathers.—
1 AVOC. Which may not be revoked. Now you begin,
When crimes are done, and past, and to be punished,
To think what your crimes are: away with them.
Let all that see these vices thus rewarded,
Take heart and love to study ’em! Mischiefs feed
Like beasts, till they be fat, and then they bleed.
Exeunt
Enter Volpone
The seasoning of a play, is the applause.
Now, though the Fox be punished by the laws,
He yet doth hope, there is no suffering due,
For any fact166 which he hath done ’gainst you;
If there be, censure him; here he doubtful stands:
If not, fare jovially, and clap your hands.
Exit
1. Everyone fears for himself, even though untouched, and hates [you].
2. Irritable race (poets).
3. The crowd.
4. Bedlam, hospital for the insane.
5. Of the earth (and so of the universe).
6. Greek wines.
7. Italian wine.
8. Menelaus.
9. Badger.
10. Equilateral triangle (trigon).
11. Puritan.
12. Carrion crow.
13. Ornamental cloth placed on the back of a horse.
14. i.e., In Venice.
15. Gold coin.
16. Naps.
17. Dizziness.
18. Get ahead of.
19. Touchable, if not drinkable.
20. Restored to youthful health by the witch Medea.
21. Twenty-four carats.
22. Cannon.
23. Cesspool.
24. Title.
25. Devious, cunning.
26. Wanton.
27. Latitude.
28. Merchant adventurers based in a German port.
29. Unequaled.
30. Inn.
31. Message.
32. Slaves who seized power in thirteenth-century Egypt.
33. Noble.
34. The word mountebank derives from the Italian meaning “to mount a bank.”
35. Prisoner.
36. Low charlatans.
37. Obstructions.
38. Mob.
39. Venice, beyond the lagoon.
40. Ointment.
41. Massage.
42. Epilepsy.
43. Hugh Broughton, a Puritan divine despised by Jonson.
44. Lull, medieval alchemist.
45. Tried by experience.
46. Herbs.
47. Ball games.
48. Good friend.
49. Smallest Venetian coins.
50. Small Venetian coin.
51. Small coin.
52. Large Spanish coin.
53. Got in before you.
54. Adulterated.
55. They pluck the strings of a harpsichord (or “virginals”).
56. Stock character in commedia dell’arte.
57. Old man in the commedia.
58. Cuckold.
59. Massage for hysteria.
60. Guitar.
61. Tavern.
62. Stewed.
63. Anticipate.
64. Loose girl.
65. Trade, craft.
66. Revenue.
67. Contemptible fellow.
68. Servility
69. Service.
70. Filius Terrae—a Roman term for a child with no known father.
71. Which.
72. i.e., Celia.
73. Makeup.
74. Golden mean.
75. Heartburn.
76. Harmony.
77. Sophocles.
78. Pastoral play by G. B. Guarini.
79. His pornographic poems were famous.
80. Of the same age.
81. Card game.
82. Winning card.
83. Your scheme.
84. Reputation.
85. Joke.
86. Pornographic illustrations.
87. A fish.
88. Acquit.
89. Buyer.
90. Henri III of France.
91. The favorite of the emperor Hadrian.
92. Mist.
93. Cleopatra.
94. Jewel, usually a ruby.
95. Wife of a Roman governor, who had many jewels.
96. Venus.
97. Shah’s.
98. Sultan of Turkey’s.
99. Count.
100. Depressed, envious.
101. Nestor was the oldest of the Greeks at Troy
102. Police.
103. Law court.
104. Raw.
105. Not be obliged to lend them money.
106. French philosopher.
107. Still not used in England.
108. Writer on Venetian government.
109. Small boat.
110. Lower the price.
111. Grades in Venetian government.
112. Armament store.
113. Quarantine.
114. Thought to be effective against plague.
115. Reason of state.
116. Bargained for.
117. Lover of Nero’s.
118. Red-light district.
119. Shame.
120. Whore.
121. Discipline with a whip.
122. i.e., Voltore’s.
123. Shameless.
124. Decoy
125. Deductions.
126. Mare.
127. He points to his cuckold’s horns.
128. Horn was the transparent cover of children’s first readers.
129. Beware.
130. Of rhetoric.
131. I was expecting him to have to change his shirt.
132. Hoax.
133. Curl up on you.
134. Wood louse.
135. Of Venus.
136. He locked up his daughter, but Jove reached her.
137. Skilled worker, artist.
138. Linen.
139. Salt cellar.
140. A willing cuckold.
141. Supernumerary.
142. Scoundrel.
143. Counting his cane.
144. Marvel.
145. Constipated.
146. Aristocrat.
147. Cursed, bad-tempered.
148. Zákynthos (Greek island).
149. Demand.
150. Whore.
151. Fruit basket.
152. Puppet show.
153. Newsletters.
154. Inns.
155. Clothes.
156. Exchange.
157. Bow.
158. Repair.
159. Fish market.
160. Which kills with a glance.
161. Skullcap.
162. Set up the legal codes of the Empire.
163. Deceit.
164. Alive.
165. Pillory.
166. Act.
THE REVENGER’S
TRAGEDY
CYRIL TOURNEUR
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
THE DUKE
LUSSURIOSO, the Duke’s son
SPURIO, a bastard
AMBITIOSO, the Duchess’ eldest son
SUPERVACUO, the Duchess’ second son
The Duchess’ Youngest Son
DONDOLO
Judges, Nobles, Gentlemen, Officers, Keeper, Servants, Lords
THE DUCHESS
CASTIZA
GRATIANA, Mother of CASTIZA
THE REVENGER’S
TRAGEDY
ACT I, SCENE I
Enter Vendice.1 The Duke, Duchess, Lussurioso, Spurio, with a train, pass over the stage with torchlight
VEN. Duke! royal lecher! go, grey-haired adultery!
And thou his son, as impious steeped as he:
And thou his bastard, true begot with devil, in evil:
And thou his duchess, that will do2 with devil!
Four excellent characters! O, that marrowless age
Should stuff the hollow bones with damned desires!
And, ’stead of heat, kindle infernal fires
Within the spendthrift veins of a dry duke,
A parched and juiceless luxur.3 O God! one,
That has scarce blood enough to live upon;
And he to riot it, like a son and heir!
O, the thought of that
Turns my abusèd heart-strings into fret.
Thou sallow picture of my poisoned love,
[Views the skull in his hand]
My study’s ornament, thou shell of death,
Once the bright face of my betrothèd lady,
When life and beauty naturally filled out
These ragged imperfections;
When two heaven-pointed diamonds were set
In those unsightly rings—then ’twas a face
So far beyond the artificial shine
Of any woman’s bought complexion,
That the uprightest man (if such there be,
That sin but seven times a day) broke custom,
And made up eight with looking after her.
O, she was able to ha’ made a usurer’s son
Melt all his patrimony in a kiss;
And what his father fifty years told,4
To have consumed, and yet his suit been cold.
But, O accursèd palace!
Thee, when thou wert apparelled in thy flesh,
The old duke poisoned,
Because thy purer part would not consent
Unto his palsied lust; for old men lustful
Do show like young men angry, eager, violent,
Outbidden like their limited performance.
O, ’ware an old man hot and vicious!
“Age, as in gold, in lust is covetous.”
Vengeance, thou murder’s quit-rent,5 and whereby
Thou show’st thyself tenant to tragedy;
O keep thy day, hour, minute, I beseech,
For those thou hast determined. Hum! who e’er knew
Murder unpaid? faith, give Revenge her due,
She has kept touch hitherto: be merry, merry,
Advance thee, O thou terror to fat folks,
To have their costly three-piled flesh worn off
As bare as this; for banquets, ease, and laughter
Can make great men, as greatness goes by clay;
But wise men little are more than they.
Enter Hippolito
HIP. Still sighing o’er death’s vizard?
VEN. Brother, welcome!
What comfort bring’st thou? how go things at court?
HIP. In silk and silver, brother: never braver.
VEN. Pooh!
Thou play’st upon my meaning. Prythee, say,
Has that bald madam, Opportunity,6
Yet thought upon’s? speak, are we happy yet?
Thy wrongs and mine are for one scabbard fit.
HIP. It may prove happiness.
VEN. What is’t may prove?
Give me to taste.
HIP. Give me your hearing, then.
You know my place at court?
VEN. Ay, the duke’s chamber!
But ’tis a marvel thou’rt not turned out yet!
HIP. Faith, I’ve been shoved at; but ’twas still my hap
To hold by the duchess’ skirt: you guess at that:
Whom such a coat keeps up, can ne’er fall flat.
But to the purpose—
Last evening, predecessor unto this,
The duke’s son warily inquired for me,
Whose pleasure I attended: he began
By policy to open and unhusk me
About the time and common rumor:
But I had so much wit to keep my thoughts
Up in their built houses; yet afforded him
An idle satisfaction without danger.
But the whole aim and scope of his intent
Ended in this: conjuring me in private
To seek some strange-digested fellow forth,
Of ill-contented nature; either disgraced
In former times, or by new grooms displaced,
Since his step-mother’s nutpials; such a blood,
A man that were for evil only good—
To give you the true word, some base-coined pander.
VEN. I reach you; for I know his heat is such,
Were there as many concubines as ladies,
He would not be contained; he must fly out.
I wonder how ill-featured, vile-proportioned,
That one should be, if she were made for woman,
Whom, at the insurrection of his lust,
He would refuse for once. Heart! I think none.
Next to a skull, though more unsound than one,
Each face he meets he strongly dotes upon.
HIP. Brother, y’ have truly spoke him.
He knows not you, but I will swear you know him.
VEN. And therefore I’ll put on that knave for once,
And be a right man then, a man o’ the time;
For to be honest is not to be i’ the world.
Brother, I’ll be that strange-composèd fellow.
HIP. And I’ll prefer you, brother.
VEN. Go to, then:
The smallest advantage fattens wrongèd men:
It may point out occasion; if I meet her,
I’ll hold her by the foretop fast enough;
Or, like the French mole,7 heave up hair and all.
I have a habit8 that will fit it quaintly.
Here comes our mother.
HIP. And sister.
VEN. We must quoyne:9
Women are apt, you know, to take false money;
But I dare stake my soul for these two creatures;
Only excuse excepted, that they’ll swallow,
Because their sex is easy in belief.
Enter Gratiana and Castiza
GRA. What news from court, son Carlo?
HIP. Faith, mother,
’Tis whispered there the duchess’ youngest son
Has played a rape on Lord Antonio’s wife.
GRA. On that religious lady!
CAS. Royal blood monster! he deserves to die,
If Italy had no more hopes but he.
VEN. Sister, y’ have sentenced most direct and true,
The law’s a woman, and would she were you.
Mother, I must take leave of you.
GRA. Leave for what?
VEN. I intend speedy travel.
HIP. That he does, madam.
GRA. Speedy indeed!
VEN. For since my worthy father’s funeral,
My life’s unnaturally to me, e’en compelled;
As if I lived now, when I should be dead.
GRA. Indeed, he was a worthy gentleman,
Had his estate been fellow to his mind.
VEN. The duke did much deject him.
GRA. Much?
VEN. Too much:
And though disgrace oft smothered in his spirit,
When it would mount, surely I think he died
Of discontent, the noble man’s consumption.
GRA. Most sure he did.
VEN. Did he, ’lack? you know all:—
You were his midnight secretary.10
GRA. NO,
He was too wise to trust me with his thoughts.
VEN. I’faith, then, father, thou wast wise indeed;
“Wives are but made to go to bed and feed.”
Come, mother, sister: you�
�ll bring me onward, brother?
HIP. I will.
VEN. I’ll quickly turn into another.
Exeunt
SCENE II
Enter the Old Duke; Lussurioso, his son; the Duchess; Spurio, the bastard; the Duchess’s two sons, Ambitioso and Supervacuo, the third, her youngest, brought in with Officers for the rape; two Judges
DUKE. Duchess, it is your youngest son, we’re sorry
His violent act has e’en drawn blood of honor,
And stained our honors;
Thrown ink upon the forehead of our state;
Which envious spirits will dip their pens into
After our death; and blot us in our tombs:
For that which would seem treason in our lives
Is laughter, when we’re dead. Who dares now whisper,
That dares not then speak out, and e’en proclaim
With loud words and broad pens our closest11 shame?
1ST JUDGE. Your grace hath spoke like to your silver years,
Full of confirmed gravity; for what is it to have
A flattering false insculption on a tomb,
And in men’s hearts reproach? the bowelled12 corpse
May be cered in,13 but (with free tongue I speak)
The faults of great men through their cere-cloths break.
DUKE. They do; we’re sorry for’t: it is our fate
To live in fear, and die to live in hate.
I leave him to your sentence; doom him, lords—
The fact is great—whilst I sit by and sigh.
DUCH. My gracious lord, I pray be merciful:
Although his trespass far exceed his years,
Think him to be your own, as I am yours;
Call him not son-in-law;14 the law, I fear,
Will fall too soon upon his name and him:
Temper his fault with pity.
LUS. Good my lord,
Then ’twill not taste so bitter and unpleasant
Upon the judges’ palate; for offences,
Gilt o’er with mercy, show like fairest women,
Good only for their beauties, which wash off,
No sin is uglier.
AMB. I beseech your grace,
Be soft and mild; let not relentless law
Look with an iron forehead on our brother.
SPU. [Aside] He yields small comfort yet; hope he shall die;
And if a bastard’s wish might stand in force,
Would all the court were turned into a corse!
DUCH. No pity yet? must I rise fruitless then?
A wonder in a woman! are my knees
Of such low metal, that without respect—
1ST JUDGE. Let the offender stand forth:
’Tis the duke’s pleasure that impartial doom
Shall take fast hold of his unclean attempt.
A rape! why ’tis the very core of lust—
Double adultery.
Y. SON. So, sir.
2ND JUDGE. And which was worse,