The Duchess of Malfi, John Webster [famous ebook reader .TXT] 📗

The Duchess of Malfi

By John Webster.

Table of Contents Titlepage Imprint Dedication Dramatis Personae The Duchess of Malfi Act I Scene I Scene II Scene III Act II Scene I Scene II Scene III Scene IV Scene V Act III Scene I Scene II Scene III Scene IV Scene V Act IV Scene I Scene II Act V Scene I Scene II Scene III Scene IV Scene V Endnotes Colophon Uncopyright Imprint

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To the Rt. Hon. George Harding, Baron Berkeley,1 of Berkeley Castle, and Knight of the Order of the Bath to the illustrious Prince Charles.

My Noble Lord,

That I may present my excuse why, being a stranger to your lordship, I offer this poem to your patronage, I plead this warrant:⁠—men who never saw the sea yet desire to behold that regiment of waters, choose some eminent river to guide them thither, and make that, as it were, their conduct or postilion: by the like ingenious means has your fame arrived at my knowledge, receiving it from some of worth, who both in contemplation and practice owe to your honour their clearest service. I do not altogether look up at your title; the ancientest nobility being but a relic of time past, and the truest honour indeed being for a map to confer honour on himself, which your learning strives to propagate, and shall make you arrive at the dignity of a great example. I am confident this work is not unworthy your honour’s perusal; for by such poems as this poets have kissed the hands of great princes, and drawn their gentle eyes to look down upon their sheets of paper when the poets themselves were bound up in their winding-sheets. The like courtesy from your lordship shall make you live in your grave, and laurel spring out of it, when the ignorant scorners of the Muses, that like worms in libraries seem to live only to destroy learning, shall wither neglected and forgotten. This work and myself I humbly present to your approved censure, it being the utmost of my wishes to have your honourable self my weighty and perspicuous comment; which grace so done me shall ever be acknowledged

By your lordship’s in all duty and observance,

John Webster.

Dramatis Personae

Ferdinand Duke of Calabria

Cardinal his brother

Antonio Bologna, Steward of the Household to the Duchess

Delio his friend

Daniel de Bosola, Gentleman of the Horse to the Duchess

Castruccio, an old Lord

Marquis of Pescara

Count Malatesti

Roderigo,
Silvio,
Grisolan, Lords

Doctor

The Several Madmen

Duchess of Malfi

Cariola her woman

Julia, Castruccio’s wife, and the Cardinal’s mistress

Old Lady

Ladies, Three Young Children, Two Pilgrims, Executioners, Court Officers, and Attendants

Scene: Malfi, Rome, Loretto, and Milan.

The Duchess of Malfi Act I Scene I

Malfi. The presence chamber in the palace of the Duchess.

Enter Antonio and Delio. Delio

You are welcome to your country, dear Antonio;
You have been long in France, and you return
A very formal Frenchman in your habit:
How do you like the French court?

Antonio

I admire it:
In seeking to reduce both state and people
To a fix’d order, their judicious king
Begins at home; quits first his royal palace
Of flattering sycophants, of dissolute
And infamous persons⁠—which he sweetly terms
His master’s masterpiece, the work of heaven;
Considering duly that a prince’s court
Is like a common fountain, whence should flow
Pure silver drops in general, but if’t chance
Some curs’d example poison’t near the head,
Death and diseases through the whole land spread.
And what is’t makes this blessed government
But a most provident council, who dare freely
Inform him the corruption of the times?
Though some o’ the court hold it presumption
To instruct princes what they ought to do,
It is a noble duty to inform them
What they ought to foresee.2⁠—Here comes Bosola,
The only court-gall; yet I observe his railing
Is not for simple love of piety:
Indeed, he rails at those things which he wants;
Would be as lecherous, covetous, or proud,
Bloody, or envious, as any man,
If he had means to be so.⁠—Here’s the cardinal.

Enter Cardinal and Bosala. Bosola I do haunt you still. Cardinal So. Bosola I have done you better service than to be slighted thus. Miserable age, where only the reward of doing well is the doing of it! Cardinal You enforce your merit too much. Bosola I fell into the galleys in your service: where, for two years together, I wore two towels instead of a shirt, with a knot on the shoulder, after the fashion of a Roman mantle. Slighted thus! I will thrive some way. Blackbirds fatten best in hard weather; why not I in these dog-days? Cardinal Would you could become honest! Bosola With all your divinity do but direct me the way to it. I have known many travel far for it, and yet return as arrant knaves as they went forth, because they carried themselves always along with them. Exit Cardinal. Are you gone?