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 aim24 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.25 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] presenti26 is absolute marriage.[She and ANTONIO kneel.] Bless, heaven, this sacred gordian27 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?28 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 humorous29 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 I30

[Enter] BOSOLA and CASTRUCCIO

BOSOLA. You say you would fain be taken for an eminent courtier? CASTRUCCIO. 'Tis the very main31 of my ambition.BOSOLA. Let me see: you have a reasonable good face for 't already,and your night-cap expresses your ears sufficient largely. I wouldhave 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 threeor four times, or blow your nose till it smart again, to recover yourmemory. When you come to be a president in criminal causes, if yousmile upon a prisoner, hang him; but if you frown upon him andthreaten 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 eat meat seldom, and that makes themso valiant. But how shall I know whether the people take me foran eminent fellow?BOSOLA. I will teach a trick to know it: give out you lie a-dying,and if you hear the common people curse you, be sure you are takenfor one of the prime night-caps.32 [Enter an Old Lady]You come from painting now. OLD LADY. From what?BOSOLA. Why, from your scurvy face-physic. To behold thee notpainted inclines somewhat near a miracle. These in thy face herewere deep ruts and foul sloughs the last progress.33 There wasa lady in France that, having had the small-pox, flayed the skin offher face to make it more level; and whereas before she lookedlike a nutmeg-grater, after she resembled an abortive hedge-hog. OLD LADY. Do you call this painting?BOSOLA. No, no, but you call [it] careening34 of an oldmorphewed35 lady, to make her disembogue36 again:there 's rough-cast phrase to your plastic.37 OLD LADY. It seems you are well acquainted with my closet.BOSOLA. One would suspect it for a shop of witchcraft, to find in itthe fat of serpents, spawn of snakes, Jews' spittle, and their youngchildren's ordure; and all these for the face. I would sooner eata dead pigeon taken from the soles of the feet of one sick of theplague, than kiss one of you fasting. Here are two of you, whose sinof your youth is the very patrimony of the physician; makes him renewhis foot-cloth with the spring, and change his high-pric'd courtezanwith the fall of the leaf. I do wonder you do not loathe yourselves. Observe my meditation now. What thing is in this outward form of man To be belov'd? We account it ominous, If nature do produce a colt, or lamb, A fawn, or goat, in any limb resembling A man, and fly from 't as a prodigy: Man stands amaz'd to see his deformity In any other creature but himself. But in our own flesh though we bear diseases Which have their true names only ta'en from beasts, — As the most ulcerous wolf and swinish measle, — Though we are eaten up of lice and worms, And though continually we bear about us A rotten and dead body, we delight To hide it in rich tissue: all our fear, Nay, all our terror, is, lest our physician Should put us in the ground to be made sweet. —Your wife 's gone to Rome: you two couple, and get you tothe wells at Lucca to recover your aches. I have other work on foot.

[Exeunt CASTRUCCIO and Old Lady]

I observe our duchess Is sick a-days, she pukes, her stomach seethes, The fins of her eye-lids look most teeming blue,38She wanes i' the cheek, and waxes fat i' the flank, And, contrary to our Italian fashion, Wears a loose-bodied gown: there 's somewhat in 't. I have a trick may chance discover it, A pretty one; I have bought some apricocks, The first our spring yields.

[Enter ANTONIO and DELIO, talking together apart]

DELIO. And so long since married? You amaze me. ANTONIO. Let me seal your lips for ever: For, did I think that anything but th' air Could carry these words from you, I should wish You had no breath at all. – Now, sir, in your contemplation? You are studying to become a great wise fellow.BOSOLA. O, sir, the opinion of wisdom is a foul tetter39 that runs all over a man's body: if simplicity direct us to haveno evil, it directs us to a happy being; for the subtlest follyproceeds from the subtlest wisdom: let me be simply honest. ANTONIO. I do understand your inside. BOSOLA. Do you so? ANTONIO. Because you would not seem to appear to th' world Puff'd up with your preferment, you continue This out-of-fashion melancholy: leave it, leave it.BOSOLA. Give me leave to be honest in any phrase, in any complimentwhatsoever. Shall I confess myself to you? I look no higher thanI can reach: they are the gods that must ride on winged horses.A lawyer's mule of a slow pace will both suit my disposition andbusiness; for, mark me, when a man's mind rides faster than his horsecan gallop, they quickly both tire. ANTONIO. You would look up to heaven, but I think The devil, that rules i' th' air, stands in your light.BOSOLA. O, sir, you are lord of the ascendant,40 chief man withthe duchess: a duke was your cousin-german remov'd. Say you werelineally descended from King Pepin, or he himself, what of this?Search the heads of the greatest rivers in the world, you shall findthem but bubbles of water. Some would think the souls of princeswere brought forth by some more weighty cause than those of meanerpersons: they are deceiv'd, there 's the same hand to them; the likepassions sway them; the same reason that makes a vicar go to law fora tithe-pig, and undo his neighbours, makes them spoil a wholeprovince, and batter down goodly cities with the cannon.

[Enter DUCHESS and Ladies]

DUCHESS. Your arm, Antonio: do I not grow fat? I am exceeding short-winded. – Bosola, I would have you, sir, provide for me a litter; Such a one as the Duchess of Florence rode in. BOSOLA. The duchess us'd one when she was great with child. DUCHESS. I think she did. – Come hither, mend my ruff: Here, when? thou art such a tedious lady; and Thy breath smells of lemon-pills: would thou hadst done! Shall I swoon under thy fingers? I am So troubled with the mother!41 BOSOLA. [Aside.] I fear too much. DUCHESS. I have heard you say that the French courtiers Wear their hats on 'fore that king. ANTONIO. I have seen it. DUCHESS. In the presence? ANTONIO. Yes. DUCHESS. Why should not we bring up that fashion? 'Tis ceremony more than duty that consists In the removing of a piece of felt. Be you the example to the rest o' th' court; Put on your hat first. ANTONIO. You must pardon me: I have seen, in colder countries than in France, Nobles stand bare to th' prince; and the distinction Methought show'd reverently. BOSOLA. I have a present for your grace. DUCHESS. For me, sir? BOSOLA. Apricocks, madam. DUCHESS. O, sir, where are they? I have heard of none to-year42 BOSOLA. [Aside.] Good; her colour rises. DUCHESS. Indeed, I thank you: they are wondrous fair ones. What an unskilful fellow is our gardener! We shall have none this month. BOSOLA. Will not your grace pare them? DUCHESS. No: they taste of musk, methinks; indeed they do. BOSOLA. I know not: yet I wish your grace had par'd 'em. DUCHESS. Why? BOSOLA. I forgot to tell you, the knave gardener, Only to raise his profit by them the sooner, Did ripen them in horse-dung. DUCHESS. O, you jest. — You shall judge: pray, taste one. ANTONIO. Indeed, madam, I do not love the fruit. DUCHESS. Sir, you are loth To rob us of our dainties. 'Tis a delicate fruit; They say they are restorative. BOSOLA. 'Tis a pretty art, This grafting. DUCHESS. 'Tis so; a bettering of nature. BOSOLA. To make a pippin grow upon a crab, A damson on a black-thorn. – [Aside.] How greedily she eats them! A whirlwind strike off these bawd farthingales! For, but for that and the loose-bodied gown, I should have discover'd apparently43The young springal44 cutting a caper in her belly. DUCHESS. I thank you, Bosola: they were right good ones, If they do not make me sick. ANTONIO. How now, madam! DUCHESS. This green fruit and my stomach are not friends: How they swell me! BOSOLA. [Aside.] Nay, you are too much swell'd already. DUCHESS. O, I am in an extreme cold sweat! BOSOLA. I am very sorry.

[Exit.]

DUCHESS. Lights to my chamber! – O good Antonio, I fear I am undone! DELIO. Lights there, lights!

Exeunt DUCHESS [and Ladies.]

ANTONIO. O my most trusty Delio, we are lost! I fear she 's fall'n in labour; and there 's left No time for her remove. DELIO. Have you prepar'd Those ladies to attend her; and procur'd That politic safe conveyance for the midwife Your duchess plotted? ANTONIO. I have. DELIO. Make use, then, of this forc'd occasion. Give out that Bosola hath poison'd her With these apricocks; that will give some colour For her keeping close. ANTONIO. Fie, fie, the physicians Will then flock to her. DELIO. For that you may pretend She'll use some prepar'd antidote of her own, Lest the physicians should re-poison her. ANTONIO. I am lost in amazement: I know not what to think on 't.

Exeunt.

Scene II45

[Enter] BOSOLA and Old Lady

BOSOLA. So, so, there 's no question but her techiness46 and most vulturous eating of the apricocks are apparent signsof breeding, now? OLD LADY. I am in haste, sir.BOSOLA. There was a young waiting-woman had a monstrous desireto see the glass-house — OLD LADY. Nay, pray, let me go. I will hear no more of the glass-house. You are still47 abusing women!BOSOLA. Who, I? No; only, by the way now and then, mention yourfrailties. The orange-tree bears ripe and green fruit and blossomsall together; and some of you give entertainment for pure love,but more for more precious reward. The lusty spring smells well;but drooping autumn tastes well. If we have the same golden showersthat rained in the time of Jupiter the thunderer, you have the sameDanaes still, to hold up their laps to receive them. Didst thounever study the mathematics? OLD LADY. What 's that, sir?BOSOLA. Why, to know the trick how to make a many lines meet in onecentre. Go, go, give your foster-daughters good counsel: tell them,that the devil takes delight to hang at a woman's girdle, likea false rusty watch, that she cannot discern how the time passes.

[Exit Old Lady.]

[Enter ANTONIO, RODERIGO, and GRISOLAN]

ANTONIO. Shut up the court-gates. RODERIGO. Why, sir? What 's the danger? ANTONIO. Shut up the posterns presently, and call All the officers o' th' court. GRISOLAN. I shall instantly.

[Exit.]

ANTONIO. Who keeps the key o' th' park-gate? RODERIGO. Forobosco. ANTONIO. Let him bring 't presently.

[Re-enter GRISOLAN with Servants]

FIRST SERVANT. O, gentleman o' th' court, the foulest treason! BOSOLA. [Aside.] If that these apricocks should be poison'd now, Without my knowledge? FIRST SERVANT. There was taken even now a Switzer in the duchess' bed-chamber — SECOND SERVANT. A Switzer! FIRST SERVANT. With a pistol — SECOND SERVANT. There was a cunning traitor! FIRST SERVANT. And all the moulds of his buttons were leaden bullets. SECOND SERVANT. O wicked cannibal! FIRST SERVANT. 'Twas a French plot, upon my life.

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

Prevent.

The same.

The reference is to the knightly sport of riding at the ring.

At the expense of.

Rolls of lint used to dress wounds.

Surgeons.

A small horse.

Ballasted.

A lively dance.

Throws into the shade.

At the point of.

Coaches.

Spy.

Cheats.

Spy.

Malfi. Gallery in the Duchess' palace.

Lustful.

Genesis xxxi., 31-42.

The net in which he caught Venus and Mars.

Housekeepers.

Produced.

Qq. read STRANGE.

Guess.

The phrase used to indicate that accounts had been examined and found correct.

Using words of present time; i.e., "I take," not "I will take."

Knot.

More firmly.

Of difficult disposition.

Malfi. An apartment in the palace of the Duchess.

Chief part.

Bullies (Hazlitt); lawyers (Vaughan).

Royal journey.

Turning a boat on its side for repairs.

Scabbed.

Empty.

Face-modeling (Sampson). "There's a plain statement of your practises."

Blue like those of a woman with child.

Scurf.

Person of highest influence.

Hysteria.

This year.

Clearly.

Youngster.

A hall in the same palace.

Crossness.

Always.

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