The Duchess of Malfi

by Frank Kermode

  VEN. I’faith, ’tis a sweet shower, it does much good.

  The fruitful grounds and meadows of her soul

  Have been long dry: pour down, thou blessèd dew!

  Rise, mother; troth, this shower has made you higher!

  GRA. O you Heavens! take this infectious spot out of my soul,

  I’ll rinse it in seven waters of mine eyes!

  Make my tears salt enough to taste of grace.

  To weep is to our sex naturally given:

  But to weep truly, that’s a gift from Heaven.

  VEN. Nay, I’ll kiss you now. Kiss her, brother:

  Let’s marry her to our souls, wherein’s no lust,

  And honorably love her.

  HIP. Let it be.

  VEN. For honest women are so seld and rare,

  ’Tis good to cherish those poor few that are.

  O you of easy wax! do but imagine

  Now the disease has left you, how leprously

  That office would have clinged unto your forehead!

  All mothers that had any graceful hue

  Would have worn masks to hide their face at you:

  It would have grown to this—at your foul name,

  Green-colored maids would have turned red with shame.

  HIP. And then our sister, full of hire and baseness—

  VEN. There had been boiling lead again,

  The duke’s son’s great concubine!

  A drab of state, a cloth-o’-silver slut,

  To have her train borne up, and her soul trail i’ the dirt!

  HIP. Great, to be miserably great; rich, to be eternally wretched.

  VEN. O common madness!

  Ask but the thrivingest harlot in cold blood,

  She’d give the world to make her honor good.

  Perhaps you’ll say, but only to the duke’s son

  In private; why she first begins with one,

  Who afterward to thousands prove a whore:

  “Break ice in one place, it will crack in more.”

  GRA. Most certainly applied!

  HIP. O brother, you forget our business.

  VEN. And well-remembered; joy’s a subtle elf,

  I think man’s happiest when he forgets himself.

  Farewell, once dry, now holy-watered mead;

  Our hearts wear feathers, that before wore lead.

  GRA. I’ll give you this—that one I never knew

  Plead better for and ’gainst the devil than you.

  VEN. You make me proud on’t.

  HIP. Commend us in all virtue to our sister.

  VEN. Ay, for the love of Heaven, to that true maid.

  GRA. With my best words.

  VEN. Why, that was motherly said.

  Exeunt Vendice and Hippolito

  GRA. I wonder now, what fury did transport me!

  I feel good thoughts begin to settle in me.

  O, with what forehead can I look on her,

  Whose honor I’ve so impiously beset?

  And here she comes—

  Enter Castiza

  CAS. Now, mother, you have wrought with me so strongly,

  That what for my advancement, as to calm

  The trouble of your tongue, I am content.

  GRA. Content, to what?

  CAS. TO do as you have wished me;

  To prostitute my breast to the duke’s son;

  And put myself to common usury.

  GRA. I hope you will not so!

  CAS. Hope you I will not?

  That’s not the hope you look to be saved in.

  GRA. Truth, but it is.

  CAS. Do not deceive yourself;

  I am as you, e’en out of marble wrought.

  What would you now? are ye not pleased yet with me?

  You shall not wish me to be more lascivious

  Than I intend to be.

  GRA. Strike not me cold.

  CAS. How often have you charged me on your blessing

  To be a cursèd woman? When you knew

  Your blessing had no force to make me lewd,

  You laid your curse upon me; that did more,

  The mother’s curse is heavy; where that fights,

  Suns set in storm, and daughters lose their lights.

  GRA. Good child, dear maid, if there be any spark

  Of heavenly intellectual fire within thee,

  O, let my breath revive it to a flame!

  Put not all out with woman’s wilful follies.

  I am recovered of that foul disease,

  That haunts too many mothers; kind, forgive me.

  Make me not sick in health! If then

  My words prevailed, when they were wickedness,

  How much more now, when they are just and good?

  CAS. I wonder what you mean! are not you she,

  For whose infect persuasions I could scarce

  Kneel out my prayers, and had much ado

  In three hours’ reading to untwist so much

  Of the black serpent as you wound about me?

  GRA. ’Tis unfruitful, child, and tedious to repeat

  What’s past; I’m now your present mother.

  CAS. Tush! now ’tis too late.

  GRA. Bethink again: thou know’st not what thou say’st.

  CAS. No! deny advancement? treasure? the duke’s son?

  GRA. O, see! I spoke those words, and now they poison me!

  What will the deed do then?

  Advancement? true; as high as shame can pitch!

  For treasure; who e’er knew a harlot rich?

  Or could build by the purchase of her sin

  An hospital145 to keep her bastards in?

  The duke’s son! O, when women are young courtiers,

  They are sure to be old beggars;

  To know the miseries most harlots taste,

  Thou’dst wish thyself unborn, when thou art unchaste.

  CAS. O mother, let me twine about your neck,

  And kiss you, till my soul melt on your lips!

  I did but this to try you.

  GRA. O, speak truth!

  CAS. Indeed I did but; for no tongue has force

  To alter me from honest.

  If maidens would, men’s words could have no power;

  A virgin’s honor is a crystal tower

  Which (being weak) is guarded with good spirits;

  Until she basely yields, no ill inherits.

  GRA. O happy child! faith, and thy birth hath saved me.

  ’Mong thousand daughters, happiest of all others:

  Be thou a glass for maids, and I for mothers.

  Exeunt

  ACT V, SCENE I

  The Duke’s corpse, dressed in Vendice’s disguise, lying on a couch Enter Vendice and Hippolito

  VEN. So, so, he leans well; take heed you wake him not, brother.

  HIP. I warrant you my life for yours.

  VEN. That’s a good lay, for I must kill myself.

  Brother, that’s I, that sits for me: do you mark it? And I must stand

  ready here to make away myself yonder. I must sit to be killed,

  and stand to kill myself. I could vary it not so little as thrice

  over again; ’t has some eight returns, like Michaelmas term.146

  HIP. That’s enow, o’ conscience.

  VEN. But, sirrah, does the duke’s son come single?

  HIP. NO; there’s the hell on’t: his faith’s too feeble to go alone. He brings flesh-flies147 after him, that will buzz against supper-time, and hum for his coming out.

  VEN. Ah, the fly-flap of vengeance beat ’em to pieces! Here was the sweetest occasion, the fittest hour, to have made my revenge familiar with him; show him the body of the duke his father, and how quaintly he died, like a politician, in hugger-mugger,148 made no man acquainted with it; and in catastrophe slay him over his father’s breast. O, I’m mad to lose such a sweet opportunity!

  HIP. Nay, tush! prithee, be content! there’s no remedy present; may not hereafter times open in as
fair faces as this?

  VEN. They may, if they can paint so well.

  HIP. Come now: to avoid all suspicion, let’s forsake this room, and be going to meet the duke’s son.

  VEN. Content: I’m for any weather. Heart! step close: here he comes.

  Enter Lussurioso

  HIP. My honored lord!

  LUS. O me! you both present?

  VEN. E’en newly, my lord, just as your lordship entered now: about this place we had notice given he should be, but in some loathsome plight or other.

  HIP. Came your honor private?

  LUS. Private enough for this; only a few

  Attend my coming out.

  HIP. [Aside] Death rot those few!

  LUS. Stay, yonder’s the slave.

  VEN. Mass, there’s the slave, indeed, my lord.

  [Aside] ’Tis a good child: he calls his father a slave!

  LUS. Ay, that’s the villain, the damned villain.

  Softly. Tread easy.

  VEN. Pah! I warrant you, my lord, we’ll stifle-in our breaths.

  LUS. That will do well:

  Base rogue, thou sleepest thy last; ’tis policy

  To have him killed in’s sleep; for if he waked,

  He would betray all to them.

  VEN. But, my lord—

  LUS. Ha, what say’st?

  VEN. Shall we kill him now he’s drunk?

  LUS. Ay, best of all.

  VEN. Why, then he will ne’er live to be sober.

  LUS. No matter, let him reel to hell.

  VEN. But being so full of liquor, I fear he will put out all the fire.

  LUS. Thou art a mad beast.

  VEN. And leave none to warm your lordship’s golls149 withal; for he that dies drunk falls into hell-fire like a bucket of water—qush, qush!

  LUS. Come, be ready: nake150 your swords: think of your wrongs; this slave has injured you.

  VEN. Troth, so he has, and he has paid well for’t.

  LUS. Meet with him now.

  VEN. You’ll bear us out, my lord?

  LUS. Pooh! am I a lord for nothing, think you? quickly now!

  VEN. Sa, sa, sa,151 thump [stabs the Duke’s corpse]—there he lies.

  LUS. Nimbly done.—Ha! O villains! murderers!

  ’Tis the old duke, my father.

  VEN. That’s a jest.

  LUS. What stiff and cold already!

  O, pardon me to call you from your names.152

  ’Tis none of your deed. That villain Piato,

  Whom you thought now to kill, has murdered

  And left him thus disguised.

  HIP. And not unlikely.

  VEN. O rascal! was he not ashamed

  To put the duke into a greasy doublet?

  LUS. He has been stiff and cold—who knows how long?

  VEN. [Aside] Marry, that I do.

  LUS. NO words, I pray, of anything intended.

  VEN. O my lord.

  HIP. I would fain have your lordship think that we have small reason to prate.

  LUS. Faith, thou say’st true; I’ll forthwith send to court

  For all the nobles, bastard, duchess; tell,

  How here by miracle we found him dead,

  And in his raiment that foul villain fled.

  VEN. That will be the best way, my lord,

  To clear us all; let’s cast about to be clear.

  LUS. Ho! Nencio, Sordido, and the rest!

  Enter all of them

  1ST SER. My lord.

  2ND SER. My lord.

  LUS. Be witnesses of a strange spectacle.

  Choosing for private conference that sad room,

  We found the duke my father gealed in blood.

  1ST SER. My lord the duke! run, hie thee, Nencio.

  Startle the court by signifying so much.

  VEN. [Aside] Thus much by wit a deep revenger can,

  When murder’s known, to be the clearest man.

  We’re farthest off, and with as bold an eye

  Survey his body as the standers-by.

  LUS. My royal father, too basely let blood

  By a malevolent slave!

  HIP. [Aside] Hark! he calls thee slave again.

  VEN. [Aside] He has lost: he may.

  LUS. O sight! look hither, see, his lips are gnawn

  With poison.

  VEN. How! his lips? by the mass, they be.

  O villain! O rogue! O slave! O rascal!

  HIP. [Aside] O good deceit! he quits him with like terms.

  AMB. [Within] Where?

  SUP. [Within] Which way?

  Enter Ambitioso and Supervacuo, with Nobles and Gentlemen

  AMB. Over what roof hangs this prodigious153 comet

  In deadly fire?

  LUS. Behold, behold, my lords, the duke my father’s murdered by a vassal that owes154 this habit, and here left disguised.

  Enter Duchess and Spurio

  DUCH. My lord and husband!

  1ST NOBLE. Reverend majesty!

  2ND NOBLE. I have seen these clothes often attending on him.

  VEN. [Aside] That nobleman has been i’ th’ country, for he does not lie.

  SUP. Learn of our mother; let’s dissemble too:

  I am glad he’s vanished; so, I hope, are you.

  AMB. Ay, you may take my word for’t.

  SUP. Old dad dead!

  I, one of his cast sins, will send the Fates

  Most hearty commendations by his own son;

  I’ll tug in the new stream, till strength be done.

  LUS. Where be those two that did affirm to us,

  My lord the duke was privately rid forth?

  1ST GENT. O, pardon us, my lords; he gave that charge—

  Upon our lives, if he were missed at court,

  To answer so; he rode not anywhere;

  We left him private with that fellow here.

  VEN. [Aside] Confirmed.

  LUS. O Heavens! that false charge was his death.

  Impudent beggars! durst you to our face

  Maintain such a false answer? Bear him straight

  To execution.

  1ST GENT. My lord!

  LUS. Urge me no more in this!

  The excuse may be called half the murder.

  VEN. [Aside] You’ve sentenced well.

  LUS. Away; see it be done.

  VEN. [Aside] Could you not stick? See what confession doth!

  Who would not lie, when men are hanged for truth?

  HIP. [Aside] Brother, how happy is our vengeance!

  VEN. [Aside] Why, it hits past the apprehension of

  Indifferent wits.

  LUS. My lord, let post-horses be sent

  Into all places to entrap the villain.

  VEN. [Aside] Post-horses, ha, ha!

  1ST NOBLE. My lord, we’re something bold to know our duty.

  Your father’s accidentally departed;

  The titles that were due to him meet you.

  LUS. Meet me! I’m not at leisure, my good lord.

  I’ve many griefs to despatch out o’ the way.

  [Aside] Welcome, sweet titles!—

  Talk to me, my lords,

  Of sepulchres and mighty emperors’ bones;

  That’s thought for me.

  VEN. [Aside] So one may see by this

  How foreign markets go;155

  Courtiers have feet o’ the nines, and tongues o’ the twelves;156

  They flatter dukes, and dukes flatter themselves.

  2ND NOBLE. My lord, it is your shine must comfort us.

  LUS. Alas! I shine in tears, like the sun in April.

  1ST NOBLE. You’re now my lord’s grace.

  LUS. My lord’s grace! I perceive you’ll have it so.

  2ND NOBLE. ’Tis but your own.

  LUS. Then, Heavens, give me grace to be so!

  VEN. [Aside] He prays well for himself.

  1ST NOBLE. Madam, all sorrows

  Must run their circles into joys. No doubt but time

  Will make
the murderer bring forth himself.

  VEN. [Aside] He were an ass then, i’faith.

  1ST NOBLE. In the mean season,

  Let us bethink the latest funeral honors

  Due to the duke’s cold body. And withal,

  Calling to memory our new happiness

  Speed in his royal son: lords, gentlemen,

  Prepare for revels.

  VEN. [Aside] Revels!

  1ST NOBLE. Time hath several falls.157

  Grief lift up joys: feasts put down funerals.

  LUS. Come then, my lords, my favor’s to you all.

  [Aside] The duchess is suspected foully bent;

  I’ll begin dukedom with her banishment.

  Exeunt Lussurioso, Duchess, and Nobles

  HIP. Revels!

  VEN. Ay, that’s the word: we are firm158 yet;

  Strike one strain more, and then we crown our wit.

  Exeunt Vendice and Hippolito

  SPU. Well, have at the fairest mark159—so said the duke when he begot me;

  And if I miss his heart, or near about,

  Then have at any; a bastard scorns to be out.160Exit

  SUP. Notest thou that Spurio, brother?

  AMB. Yes, I note him to our shame.

  SUP. He shall not live: his hair shall not grow much longer. In this time of revels, tricks may be set afoot. Seest thou yon new moon? it shall outlive the new duke by much; this hand shall dispossess him. Then we’re mighty.

  A masque is treason’s licence, that build upon:

  ’Tis murder’s best face, when a vizard’s on.

  Exit

  AMB. Is’t so? ’tis very good!

  And do you think to be duke then, kind brother?

  I’ll see fair play; drop one, and there lies t’other.

  Exit

  SCENE II

  Enter Vendice and Hippolito, with Piero and other Lords

  VEN. My lords, be all of music, strike old griefs into other countries

  That flow in too much milk,161 and have faint livers,

  Not daring to stab home their discontents.

  Let our hid flames break out as fire, as lightning,

  To blast this villainous dukedom, vexed with sin;

  Wind up your souls to their full height again.

  PIERO. HOW?

  1ST LORD. Which way?

  2ND LORD. Any way: our wrongs are such,

  We cannot justly be revenged too much.

  VEN. You shall have all enough. Revels are toward,

  And those few nobles that have long suppressed you,

  Are busied to the furnishing of a masque,

  And do affect to make a pleasant tale on’t:

  The masquing suits are fashioning: now comes in