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

the country
About them goes to wrack for’t. Silvio

What’s that Bosola?

Delio I knew him in Padua⁠—a fantastical scholar, like such who study to know how many knots was in Hercules’ club, of what colour Achilles’ beard was, or whether Hector were not troubled with the toothache. He hath studied himself half blear-eyed to know the true symmetry of Caesar’s nose by a shoeing-horn; and this he did to gain the name of a speculative man. Pescara

Mark Prince Ferdinand:
A very salamander lives in’s eye,
To mock the eager violence of fire.

Silvio That cardinal hath made more bad faces with his oppression than ever Michaelangelo made good ones. He lifts up’s nose, like a foul porpoise before a storm. Pescara

The Lord Ferdinand laughs.

Delio

Like a deadly cannon
That lightens ere it smokes.

Pescara

These are your true pangs of death,
The pangs of life, that struggle with great statesmen.

Delio

In such a deformed silence witches whisper their charms.

Cardinal

Doth she make religion her riding-hood
To keep her from the sun and tempest?

Ferdinand

That, that damns her. Methinks her fault and beauty,
Blended together, show like leprosy,
The whiter, 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 footbridge.

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 diverse 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!84

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

Near Loretto.

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,85
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 tonight.

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 Bosala 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