The Duchess of Malfi - John Webster (books to read now txt) 📗

the fouler. I make it a question

Whether her beggarly brats were ever christ’ned.

 

CARDINAL. I will instantly solicit the state of Ancona

To have them banish’d.

 

FERDINAND. You are for Loretto:

I shall not be at your ceremony; fare you well.—

Write to the Duke of Malfi, my young nephew

She had by her first husband, and acquaint him

With ‘s mother’s honesty.

 

BOSOLA. I will.

 

FERDINAND. Antonio!

A slave that only smell’d of ink and counters,

And never in ‘s life look’d like a gentleman,

But in the audit-time.—Go, go presently,

Draw me out an hundred and fifty of our horse,

And meet me at the foot-bridge.

Exeunt.

 

Scene IV

 

[Enter] Two Pilgrims to the Shrine of our Lady of Loretto

 

FIRST PILGRIM. I have not seen a goodlier shrine than this;

Yet I have visited many.

 

SECOND PILGRIM. The Cardinal of Arragon

Is this day to resign his cardinal’s hat:

His sister duchess likewise is arriv’d

To pay her vow of pilgrimage. I expect

A noble ceremony.

 

FIRST PILGRIM. No question.—They come.

 

[Here the ceremony of the Cardinal’s instalment, in the habit

of a soldier, perform’d in delivering up his cross, hat, robes,

and ring, at the shrine, and investing him with sword, helmet,

shield, and spurs; then ANTONIO, the DUCHESS and their children,

having presented themselves at the shrine, are, by a form

of banishment in dumb-show expressed towards them by the

CARDINAL and the state of Ancona, banished: during all which

ceremony, this ditty is sung, to very solemn music, by divers

churchmen: and then exeunt [all except the] Two Pilgrims.

 

Arms and honours deck thy story,

To thy fame’s eternal glory!

Adverse fortune ever fly thee;

No disastrous fate come nigh thee!

 

I alone will sing thy praises,

Whom to honour virtue raises,

And thy study, that divine is,

Bent to martial discipline is,

Lay aside all those robes lie by thee;

Crown thy arts with arms, they ‘ll beautify thee.

 

O worthy of worthiest name, adorn’d in this manner,

Lead bravely thy forces on under war’s warlike banner!

O, mayst thou prove fortunate in all martial courses!

Guide thou still by skill in arts and forces!

Victory attend thee nigh, whilst fame sings loud thy powers;

Triumphant conquest crown thy head, and blessings pour down

showers!<94>

 

FIRST PILGRIM.

Here ‘s a strange turn of state! who would have thought

So great a lady would have match’d herself

Unto so mean a person? Yet the cardinal

Bears himself much too cruel.

 

SECOND PILGRIM. They are banish’d.

 

FIRST PILGRIM. But I would ask what power hath this state

Of Ancona to determine of a free prince?

 

SECOND PILGRIM. They are a free state, sir, and her brother show’d

How that the Pope, fore-hearing of her looseness,

Hath seiz’d into th’ protection of the church

The dukedom which she held as dowager.

 

FIRST PILGRIM. But by what justice?

 

SECOND PILGRIM. Sure, I think by none,

Only her brother’s instigation.

 

FIRST PILGRIM. What was it with such violence he took

Off from her finger?

 

SECOND PILGRIM. ‘Twas her wedding-ring;

Which he vow’d shortly he would sacrifice

To his revenge.

 

FIRST PILGRIM. Alas, Antonio!

If that a man be thrust into a well,

No matter who sets hand to ‘t, his own weight

Will bring him sooner to th’ bottom. Come, let ‘s hence.

Fortune makes this conclusion general,

All things do help th’ unhappy man to fall.

Exeunt.

 

Scene V<95>

 

[Enter] DUCHESS, ANTONIO, Children, CARIOLA, and Servants

 

DUCHESS. Banish’d Ancona!

 

ANTONIO. Yes, you see what power

Lightens in great men’s breath.

 

DUCHESS. Is all our train

Shrunk to this poor remainder?

 

ANTONIO. These poor men

Which have got little in your service, vow

To take your fortune: but your wiser buntings,<96>

Now they are fledg’d, are gone.

 

DUCHESS. They have done wisely.

This puts me in mind of death: physicians thus,

With their hands full of money, use to give o’er

Their patients.

 

ANTONIO. Right the fashion of the world:

>From decay’d fortunes every flatterer shrinks;

Men cease to build where the foundation sinks.

 

DUCHESS. I had a very strange dream to-night.

 

ANTONIO. What was ‘t?

 

DUCHESS. Methought I wore my coronet of state,

And on a sudden all the diamonds

Were chang’d to pearls.

 

ANTONIO. My interpretation

Is, you ‘ll weep shortly; for to me the pearls

Do signify your tears.

 

DUCHESS. The birds that live i’ th’ field

On the wild benefit of nature live

Happier than we; for they may choose their mates,

And carol their sweet pleasures to the spring.

 

[Enter BOSOLA with a letter]

 

BOSOLA. You are happily o’erta’en.

 

DUCHESS. From my brother?

 

BOSOLA. Yes, from the Lord Ferdinand your brother

All love and safety.

 

DUCHESS. Thou dost blanch mischief,

Would’st make it white. See, see, like to calm weather

At sea before a tempest, false hearts speak fair

To those they intend most mischief.

[Reads.] ‘Send Antonio to me; I want his head in a business.’

A politic equivocation!

He doth not want your counsel, but your head;

That is, he cannot sleep till you be dead.

And here ‘s another pitfall that ‘s strew’d o’er

With roses; mark it, ‘tis a cunning one:

[Reads.]

‘I stand engaged for your husband for several debts at Naples:

let not that trouble him; I had rather have his heart than his

money’:—

And I believe so too.

 

BOSOLA. What do you believe?

 

DUCHESS. That he so much distrusts my husband’s love,

He will by no means believe his heart is with him

Until he see it: the devil is not cunning enough

To circumvent us In riddles.

 

BOSOLA. Will you reject that noble and free league

Of amity and love which I present you?

 

DUCHESS. Their league is like that of some politic kings,

Only to make themselves of strength and power

To be our after-ruin; tell them so.

 

BOSOLA. And what from you?

 

ANTONIO. Thus tell him; I will not come.

 

BOSOLA. And what of this?

 

ANTONIO. My brothers have dispers’d

Bloodhounds abroad; which till I hear are muzzl’d,

No truce, though hatch’d with ne’er such politic skill,

Is safe, that hangs upon our enemies’ will.

I ‘ll not come at them.

 

BOSOLA. This proclaims your breeding.

Every small thing draws a base mind to fear,

As the adamant draws iron. Fare you well, sir;

You shall shortly hear from ‘s.

Exit.

 

DUCHESS. I suspect some ambush;

Therefore by all my love I do conjure you

To take your eldest son, and fly towards Milan.

Let us not venture all this poor remainder

In one unlucky bottom.

 

ANTONIO. You counsel safely.

Best of my life, farewell. Since we must part,

Heaven hath a hand in ‘t; but no otherwise

Than as some curious artist takes in sunder

A clock or watch, when it is out of frame,

To bring ‘t in better order.

 

DUCHESS. I know not which is best,

To see you dead, or part with you.—Farewell, boy:

Thou art happy that thou hast not understanding

To know thy misery; for all our wit

And reading brings us to a truer sense

Of sorrow.—In the eternal church, sir,

I do hope we shall not part thus.

 

ANTONIO. O, be of comfort!

Make patience a noble fortitude,

And think not how unkindly we are us’d:

Man, like to cassia, is prov’d best, being bruis’d.

 

DUCHESS. Must I, like to slave-born Russian,

Account it praise to suffer tyranny?

And yet, O heaven, thy heavy hand is in ‘t!

I have seen my little boy oft scourge his top,

And compar’d myself to ‘t: naught made me e’er

Go right but heaven’s scourge-stick.

 

ANTONIO. Do not weep:

Heaven fashion’d us of nothing; and we strive

To bring ourselves to nothing.—Farewell, Cariola,

And thy sweet armful.—If I do never see thee more,

Be a good mother to your little ones,

And save them from the tiger: fare you well.

 

DUCHESS. Let me look upon you once more, for that speech

Came from a dying father. Your kiss is colder

Than that I have seen an holy anchorite

Give to a dead man’s skull.

 

ANTONIO. My heart is turn’d to a heavy lump of lead,

With which I sound my danger: fare you well.

Exeunt [ANTONIO and his son.]

 

DUCHESS. My laurel is all withered.

 

CARIOLA. Look, madam, what a troop of armed men

Make toward us!

 

Re-enter BOSOLA [visarded,] with a Guard

 

DUCHESS. O, they are very welcome:

When Fortune’s wheel is over-charg’d with princes,

The weight makes it move swift: I would have my ruin

Be sudden.—I am your adventure, am I not?

 

BOSOLA. You are: you must see your husband no more.

 

DUCHESS. What devil art thou that counterfeit’st heaven’s thunder?

 

BOSOLA. Is that terrible? I would have you tell me whether

Is that note worse that frights the silly birds

Out of the corn, or that which doth allure them

To the nets? You have heark’ned to the last too much.

 

DUCHESS. O misery! like to a rusty o’ercharg’d cannon,

Shall I never fly in pieces?—Come, to what prison?

 

BOSOLA. To none.

 

DUCHESS. Whither, then?

 

BOSOLA. To your palace.

 

DUCHESS. I have heard

That Charon’s boat serves to convey all o’er

The dismal lake, but brings none back again.

 

BOSOLA. Your brothers mean you safety and pity.

 

DUCHESS. Pity!

With such a pity men preserve alive

Pheasants and quails, when they are not fat enough

To be eaten.

 

BOSOLA. These are your children?

 

DUCHESS. Yes.

 

BOSOLA. Can they prattle?

 

DUCHESS. No:

But I intend, since they were born accurs’d,

Curses shall be their first language.

 

BOSOLA. Fie, madam!

Forget this base, low fellow–-

 

DUCHESS. Were I a man,

I ‘d beat that counterfeit face<97> into thy other.

 

BOSOLA. One of no birth.

 

DUCHESS. Say that he was born mean,

Man is most happy when ‘s own actions

Be arguments and examples of his virtue.

 

BOSOLA. A barren, beggarly virtue.

 

DUCHESS. I prithee, who is greatest? Can you tell?

Sad tales befit my woe: I ‘ll tell you one.

A salmon, as she swam unto the sea.

Met with a dog-fish, who encounters her

With this rough language; ‘Why art thou so bold

To mix thyself with our high state of floods,

Being no eminent courtier, but one

That for the calmest and fresh time o’ th’ year

Dost live in shallow rivers, rank’st thyself

With silly smelts and shrimps? And darest thou

Pass by our dog-ship without reverence?’

‘O,’ quoth the salmon, ‘sister, be at peace:

Thank Jupiter we both have pass’d the net!

Our value never can be truly known,

Till in the fisher’s basket we be shown:

I’ th’ market then my price may be the higher,

Even when I am nearest to the cook and fire.’

So to great men the moral may be stretched;

Men oft are valu’d high, when they’re most wretched.—

But come, whither you please. I am arm’d ‘gainst misery;

Bent to all sways of the oppressor’s will:

There ‘s no deep valley but near some great hill.

Exeunt.

 

Act IV

 

Scene I<98>

 

[Enter] FERDINAND and BOSOLA

 

FERDINAND. How doth our sister duchess bear herself

In her imprisonment?

 

BOSOLA. Nobly: I ‘ll describe her.

She ‘s sad as one long us’d to ‘t, and she seems

Rather to welcome the end of misery

Than shun it; a behaviour so noble

As gives a majesty to adversity:

You may discern the shape of loveliness

More perfect in her tears than in her smiles:

She will muse for hours together; and