The Duchess of Malfi
Page 56
ANT. Echo, I will not talk with thee,
For thou art a dead thing.
ECHO. “Thou art a dead thing.”
ANT. My duchess is asleep now,
And her little ones, I hope sweetly: O Heaven,
Shall I never see her more?
ECHO. “Never see her more.”
ANT. I marked not one repetition of the echo
But that; and on the sudden a clear light
Presented me a face folded in sorrow.
DEL. Your fancy merely.
ANT. Come, I’ll be out of this ague,
For to live thus is not indeed to live;
It is a mockery and abuse of life:
I will not henceforth save myself by halves;
Lose all, or nothing.
DEL. Your own virtue save you!
I’ll fetch your eldest son, and second you:
It may be that the sight of his own blood
Spread in so sweet a figure may beget
The more compassion. However, fare you well.
Though in our miseries Fortune have a part,
Yet in our noble sufferings she hath none:
Contempt of pain, that we may call our own.
Exeunt
SCENE IV
Enter Cardinal, Pescara, Malateste, Roderigo, and Grisolan
CARD. You shall not watch to-night by the sick prince;
His grace is very well recovered.
MAL. Good my lord, suffer us.
CARD. Oh, by no means;
The noise, and change of object in his eye,
Doth more distract him: I pray, all to bed;
And though you hear him in his violent fit,
Do not rise, I entreat you.
PESC. So, sir; we shall not.
CARD. Nay, I must have you promise upon your honors,
For I was enjoined to’t by himself; and he seemed
To urge it sensibly.
PESC. Let our honors bind
This trifle.
CARD. Nor any of your followers.
MAL. Neither.
CARD. It may be, to make trial of your promise,
When he’s asleep, myself will rise and feign
Some of his mad tricks, and cry out for help,
And feign myself in danger.
MAL. If your throat were cutting,
I’d not come at you, now I have protested against it.
CARD. Why, I thank you.
GRIS. ’Twas a foul storm to-night.
ROD. The Lord Ferdinand’s chamber shook like an osier.
MAL. ’Twas nothing but pure kindness in the devil,
To rock his own child.
Exeunt all except the Cardinal
CARD. The reason why I would not suffer these
About my brother, is, because at midnight
I may with better privacy convey
Julia’s body to her own lodging. Oh, my conscience!
I would pray now; but the devil takes away my heart
For having any confidence in prayer.
About this hour I appointed Bosola
To fetch the body: when he hath served my turn,
He dies.
Exit
Enter Bosola
BOS. Ha! ’twas the Cardinal’s voice; I heard him name
Bosola and my death. Listen; I hear
One’s footing.
Enter Ferdinand
FERD. Strangling is a very quiet death.
BOS. [Aside] Nay, then, I see I must stand upon my guard.
FERD. What say to that? whisper softly; do you agree to’t? So; it must be done i’ th’ dark: the Cardinal would not for a thousand pounds the doctor should see it.
BOS. My death is plotted; here’s the consequence of murder.
We value not desert nor Christian breath,
When we know black deeds must be cured with death.
Enter Antonio and Servant
SERV. Here stay, sir, and be confident, I pray:
I’ll fetch you a dark lantern.
Exit
ANT. Could I take him
At his prayers, there were hope of pardon.
BOS. Fall right, my sword!—
[Stabs him]
I’ll not give thee so much leisure as to pray.
ANT. Oh, I am gone! Thou hast ended a long suit
In a minute.
BOS. What art thou?
ANT. A most wretched thing,
That only have thy benefit in death,
To appear myself.
Re-enter Servant with a lantern
SERV. Where are you, sir?
ANT. Very near my home.—Bosola?
SERV. Oh, misfortune!
BOS. Smother thy pity, thou art dead else.—Antonio?
The man I would have saved ’bove mine own life!
We are merely the stars’ tennis-balls, struck and bandied
Which way please them.—O good Antonio,
I’ll whisper one thing in thy dying ear
Shall make thy heart break quickly! thy fair duchess
And two sweet children—
ANT. Their very names
Kindle a little life in me.
BOS. Are murdered.
ANT. Some men have wished to die
At the hearing of sad tidings; I am glad
That I shall do’t in sadness:108 I would not now
Wish my wounds balmed nor healed, for I have no use
To put my life to. In all our quest of greatness,
Like wanton boys, whose pastime is their care,
We follow after bubbles blown in th’ air.
Pleasure of life, what is’t? only the good
Hours of an ague; merely a preparative
To rest, to endure vexation. I do not ask
The process of my death; only commend me
To Delio.
BOS. Break, heart!
ANT. And let my son
Fly the courts of princes.
Dies
BOS. Thou seem’st
To have loved Antonio?
SERV. I brought him hither,
To have reconciled him to the Cardinal.
BOS. I do not ask thee that.
Take him up, if thou tender thine own life,
And bear him where the lady Julia
Was wont to lodge.—Oh, my fate moves swift;
I have this Cardinal in the forge already;
Now I’ll bring him to th’ hammer. O direful misprision!109
I will not imitate things glorious,
No more than base; I’ll be mine own example.—
On, on, and look thou represent, for silence,
The thing thou bear’st.
Exeunt
SCENE V
Enter Cardinal, with a book
CARD. I am puzzled in a question about hell:
He says, in hell there’s one material fire,
And yet it shall not burn all men alike.
Lay him by. How tedious is a guilty conscience!
When I look into the fish-ponds in my garden,
Methinks I see a thing armed with a rake,
That seems to strike at me.
Enter Bosola, and Servant bearing Antonio’s body
Now, art thou come?
Thou lookest ghastly:
There sits in thy face some great determination
Mixed with some fear.
BOS. Thus it lightens into action:
I am come to kill thee.
CARD. Ha!—Help! our guard!
BOS. Thou art deceived; they are out of thy howling.
CARD. Hold; and I will faithfully divide
Revenues with thee.
BOS. Thy prayers and proffers
Are both unseasonable.
CARD. Raise the watch!
We are betrayed!
BOS. I have confined your flight:
I’ll suffer your retreat to Julia’s chamber,
But no further.
CARD. Help! we are betraye
d!
Enter, above, Pescara, Malateste, Roderigo, and Grisolan
MAL. Listen.
CARD. My dukedom for rescue!
ROD. Fie upon
His counterfeiting!
MAL. Why, ’tis not the Cardinal.
ROD. Yes, yes, ’tis he: but I’ll see him hanged
Ere I’ll go down to him.
CARD. Here’s a plot upon me;
I am assaulted! I am lost, unless some rescue.
GRIS. He doth this pretty well; but it will not serve
To laugh me out of mine honor.
CARD. The sword’s at my throat!
ROD. You would not bawl so loud then.
MAL. Come, come,
Let’s go to bed: he told us thus much aforehand.
PESC. He wished you should not come at him; but, believe’t,
The accent of the voice sounds not in jest:
I’ll down to him, howsoever, and with engines
Force ope the doors.
Exit above
ROD. Let’s follow him aloof,
And note how the Cardinal will laugh at him.
Exeunt, above, Malateste, Roderigo, and Grisolan
BOS. There’s for first,
[Kills the Servant]
’Cause you shall not unbarricade the door
To let in rescue.
CARD. What cause hast thou to pursue my life?
BOS. Look there.
CARD. Antonio?
BOS. Slain by my hand unwittingly.
Pray, and be sudden: when thou killed’st thy sister,
Thou took’st from Justice her most equal balance,
And left her naught but her sword.
CARD. Oh, mercy!
BOS. Now, it seems thy greatness was only outward;
For thou fall’st faster of thyself than calamity
Can drive thee. I’ll not waste longer time; there!
[Stabs him]
CARD. Thou hast hurt me.
BOS. Again!
[Stabs him again]
CARD. Shall I die like a leveret,
Without any resistance?—Help, help, help!
I am slain!
Enter Ferdinand
FERD. Th’ alarum? give me a fresh horse;
Rally the vaunt-guard, or the day is lost.
Yield, yield! I give you the honor of arms,
Shake my sword over you; will you yield?
CARD. Help me;
I am your brother!
FERD. The devil! My brother fight
Upon the adverse party?
[He wounds the Cardinal, and, in the scuffle, gives Bosola his death-wound]
There flies your ransom.
CARD. O justice!
I suffer now for what hath former been:
Sorrow is held the eldest child of sin.
FERD. Now you’re brave fellows. Caesar’s fortune was harder than Pompey’s; Caesar died in the arms of prosperity, Pompey at the feet of disgrace. You both died in the field. The pain’s nothing: pain many times is taken away with the apprehension of greater, as the toothache with the sight of a barber that comes to pull it out: there’s philosophy for you.
BOS. Now my revenge is perfect.—Sink, thou main cause
[Kills Ferdinand]
Of my undoing!—The last part of my life
Hath done me best service.
FERD. Give me some wet hay; I am broken-winded. I do account this world but a dog-kennel: I will vault credit110 and affect high pleasures beyond death.
BOS. He seems to come to himself, now he’s so near
The bottom.
FERD. My sister, O my sister! there’s the cause on’t.
Whether we fall by ambition, blood, or lust,
Like diamonds we are cut with our own dust.
Dies
CARD. Thou hast thy payment too.
BOS. Yes, I hold my weary soul in my teeth.
’Tis ready to part from me. I do glory
That thou, which stood’st like a huge pyramid
Begun upon a large and ample base,
Shalt end in a little point, a kind of nothing.
Enter, below, Pescara, Malateste, Roderigo, and Grisolan
PESC. How now, my lord?
MAL. O sad disaster!
ROD. How
Comes this?
BOS. Revenge for the Duchess of Malfi murdered
By th’ Arragonian brethren; for Antonio
Slain by this hand; for lustful Julia
Poisoned by this man; and lastly for myself,
That was an actor in the main of all,
Much ’gainst mine own good nature, yet i’ th’ end
Neglected.
PESC. How now, my lord?
CARD. Look to my brother: he gave us these large wounds
As we were struggling here i’ the rushes. And now,
I pray, let me be laid by and never thought of.
Dies
PESC. How fatally, it seems, he did withstand
His own rescue!
MAL. Thou wretched thing of blood,
How came Antonio by his death?
BOS. In a mist;
I know not how: such a mistake as I
Have often seen in a play. Oh, I am gone!
We are only like dead walls or vaulted graves,
That, ruined, yield no echo. Fare you well.
It may be pain, but no harm, to me to die
In so good a quarrel. Oh, this gloomy world!
In what a shadow, or deep pit of darkness,
Doth, womanish and fearful, mankind live!
Let worthy minds ne’er stagger in distrust
To suffer death or shame for what is just:
Mine is another voyage.
Dies
PESC. The noble Delio, as I came to the palace,
Told me of Antonio’s being here, and showed me
A pretty gentleman, his son and heir.
Enter Delio and Antonio’s Son
MAL. O sir,
You come too late!
DEL. I heard so, and was armed for’t,
Ere I came. Let us make noble use
Of this great ruin; and join all our force
To establish this young hopeful gentleman
In ’s mother’s right. These wretched eminent things
Leave no more fame behind ’em, than should one
Fall in a frost, and leave his print in snow;
As soon as the sun shines, it ever melts,
Both form and matter. I have ever thought
Nature doth nothing so great for great men
As when she’s pleased to make them lords of truth:
Integrity of life is fame’s best friend,
Which nobly, beyond death, shall crown the end.
Exeunt
1. Frees.
2. His punishment in hell was to be hungry and thirsty with food and water just out of his reach.
3. He failed to recover Naples.
4. In tilting at the ring.
5. In surgery, tent is a roll of lint or other material placed in a wound. The joke lies in the reference to 2 Kings 13:5—“the children of Israel dwelt in their tents.”
6. Informers.
7. Uncorrupted manners.
8. A lively dance in triple time.
9. Absolutions.
10. i.e., Spin out at tedious length.
11. Military camp.
12. Coaches.
13. Employ.
14. Required by courtesy.
15. Lascivious.
16. Genesis 30.
17. The net in which he caught Mars and Venus.
18. Closed my eyes.
19. Ingenuous.
20. Martyred because of her refusal to marry.
21. Guess.
22. Acquittance, clearance of debt.
23. Knot that cannot be untied.
24. Always.
25. Witty notion.
26. Ill-tempered.
27. The Two Faithf
ul Friends, the Pleasant History of Alexander and Lodwicke, a popular romance.
28. A collar.
29. A cant name for the Mohocks or “roaring boys” of the time.
30. State procession.
31. Leprous.
32. Discharge herself.
33. i.e., Plain language instead of your fine phrases.
34. ornamental covering for a horse.
35. Lupus.
36. A disease to which swine are subject, not the same as the human ailment.
37. Cloth.
38. Get together.
39. Tuscan city, famous for its therapeutic baths.
40. Skin disease.
41. A common exclamation of impatience.
42. Hysteria.
43. This year.
44. Hoops of whalebone.
45. Stripling.
46. Found worthy.
47. Menials.
48. Cast his horoscope.
49. i.e., Capable of solution.
50. i.e., Of blame.
51. December 19.
52. The remainder is not readable.
53. Good for the health.
54. Broths.
55. Means of communication.
56. Often used for “haply”; “perhaps.”
57. Throw the hammer.
58. outburst.
59. What is their judgment?
60. Acquired property, wealth.
61. Lampoons, satires.
62. Soothing.
63. Who forces him to believe in his own faults.
64. Foolish.
65. Orris powder, which was the color of flour.
66. Reptile that kills by sight.
67. i.e., Is rapidly leaving us.
68. i.e., Flatterers pretend that kings have no vices, and kings pretend that flatterers tell no lies.
69. Put for Plutus.
70. Short, hurried runs.
71. Coats of arms.
72. i.e., Muffled.
73. Produces.
74. Plan.
75. Camp.
76. i.e., Being taken.
77. An ornamental horse-cloth.
78. i.e., A student.
79. The Author disclaims this Ditty to be his. (Note in the 1623 quarto.)
80. Judge.
81. Brothers-in-law.
82. Magnetic stone.
83. Determine the depth of.
84. The object of your mission.
85. i.e., The vizard into his real face.
86. Curtain.
87. Portia, wife of Brutus, killed herself by swallowing burning coals.
88. Band.
89. Bellow.
90. Sc. of the Bible, made by English refugees at Geneva and published in 1560 (“the Geneva Bible”).
91. Coach.
92. Ointment box.
93. Curdled.
94. i.e., All you require.
95. A common exclamation of impatience.
96. Probably by drawing a curtain.
97. Escheat, subject to forfeiture on the outlawry of the tenant.