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

all this?
One of your eyes is bloodshot; use my ring to’t.
They say ’tis very sovereign. ’Twas my wedding-ring,
And I did vow never to part with it
But to my second husband. Antonio

You have parted with it now.

Duchess

Yes, to help your eyesight.

Antonio

You have made me stark blind.

Duchess

How?

Antonio

There is a saucy and ambitious devil
Is dancing in this circle.

Duchess

Remove him.

Antonio

How?

Duchess

There needs small conjuration, when your finger
May do it: thus. Is it fit?
She puts the ring upon his finger: he kneels.

Antonio

What said you?

Duchess

Sir,
This goodly roof of yours is too low built;
I cannot stand upright in’t nor discourse,
Without I raise it higher. Raise yourself;
Or, if you please, my hand to help you: so. Raises him.

Antonio

Ambition, madam, is a great man’s madness,
That is not kept in chains and close-pent rooms,
But in fair lightsome lodgings, and is girt
With the wild noise of prattling visitants,
Which makes it lunatic beyond all cure.
Conceive not I am so stupid but I aim22
Whereto your favours tend: but he’s a fool
That, being a-cold, would thrust his hands i’ the fire
To warm them.

Duchess

So, now the ground’s broke,
You may discover what a wealthy mine
I make your lord of.

Antonio

O my unworthiness!

Duchess

You were ill to sell yourself:
This dark’ning of your worth is not like that
Which tradesmen use i’ the city; their false lights
Are to rid bad wares off: and I must tell you,
If you will know where breathes a complete man
(I speak it without flattery), turn your eyes,
And progress through yourself.

Antonio

Were there nor heaven nor hell,
I should be honest: I have long serv’d virtue,
And ne’er ta’en wages of her.

Duchess

Now she pays it.
The misery of us that are born great!
We are forc’d to woo, because none dare woo us;
And as a tyrant doubles with his words,
And fearfully equivocates, so we
Are forc’d to express our violent passions
In riddles and in dreams, and leave the path
Of simple virtue, which was never made
To seem the thing it is not. Go, go brag
You have left me heartless; mine is in your bosom:
I hope ’twill multiply love there. You do tremble:
Make not your heart so dead a piece of flesh,
To fear more than to love me. Sir, be confident:
What is’t distracts you? This is flesh and blood, sir;
’Tis not the figure cut in alabaster
Kneels at my husband’s tomb. Awake, awake, man!
I do here put off all vain ceremony,
And only do appear to you a young widow
That claims you for her husband, and, like a widow,
I use but half a blush in’t.

Antonio

Truth speak for me;
I will remain the constant sanctuary
Of your good name.

Duchess

I thank you, gentle love:
And ’cause you shall not come to me in debt,
Being now my steward, here upon your lips
I sign your Quietus est.23 This you should have begg’d now.
I have seen children oft eat sweetmeats thus,
As fearful to devour them too soon.

Antonio

But for your brothers?

Duchess

Do not think of them:
All discord without this circumference
Is only to be pitied, and not fear’d:
Yet, should they know it, time will easily
Scatter the tempest.

Antonio

These words should be mine,
And all the parts you have spoke, if some part of it
Would not have savour’d flattery.

Duchess

Kneel.

Cariola comes from behind the arras. Antonio

Ha!

Duchess

Be not amaz’d; this woman’s of my counsel:
I have heard lawyers say, a contract in a chamber
Per verba [de] presenti24 is absolute marriage.
She and Antonio kneel.

Bless, heaven, this sacred gordian25 which let violence
Never untwine!

Antonio

And may our sweet affections, like the spheres,
Be still in motion!

Duchess

Quickening, and make
The like soft music!

Antonio

That we may imitate the loving palms,
Best emblem of a peaceful marriage,
That never bore fruit, divided!

Duchess

What can the church force more?

Antonio

That fortune may not know an accident,
Either of joy or sorrow, to divide
Our fixed wishes!

Duchess

How can the church build faster?26
We now are man and wife, and ’tis the church
That must but echo this.⁠—Maid, stand apart:
I now am blind.

Antonio

What’s your conceit in this?

Duchess

I would have you lead your fortune by the hand
Unto your marriage-bed:
(You speak in me this, for we now are one:)
We’ll only lie and talk together, and plot
To appease my humorous27 kindred; and if you please,
Like the old tale in Alexander and Lodowick,
Lay a naked sword between us, keep us chaste.
O, let me shrowd my blushes in your bosom,
Since ’tis the treasury of all my secrets!

Exeunt Duchess and Antonio. Cariola

Whether the spirit of greatness or of woman
Reign most in her, I know not; but it shows
A fearful madness. I owe her much of pity.

Exit. Act II Scene I

Malfi. An apartment in the palace of the Duchess.

Enter Bosala and Castruccio. Bosola You say you would fain be taken for an eminent courtier? Castruccio ’Tis the very main28 of my ambition. Bosola Let me see: you have a reasonable good face for’t already, and your nightcap expresses your ears sufficient largely. I would have you learn to twirl the strings of your band with a good grace, and in a set speech, at th’ end of every sentence, to hum three or four times, or blow your nose till it smart again, to recover your memory. When you come to be a president in criminal causes, if you smile upon a prisoner, hang him; but if you frown upon him and threaten him, let him be sure to scape the gallows. Castruccio I would be a very merry president. Bosola Do not sup o’ nights; ’twill beget you an admirable wit. Castruccio Rather it would make me have a good stomach to quarrel; for they say, your roaring boys