The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster (books to read for teens .txt) 📕

know what reputation is?
I’ll tell thee⁠—to small purpose, since the instruction
Comes now too late.
Upon a time Reputation, Love, and Death,
Would travel o’er the world; and it was concluded
That they should part, and take three several ways.
Death told them, they should find him in great battles,
Or cities plagu’d with plagues: Love gives them counsel
To inquire for him ’mongst unambitious shepherds,
Where dowries were not talk’d of, and sometimes
’Mongst quiet kindred that had nothing left
By their dead parents: “Stay,” quoth Reputation,
“Do not forsake me; for it is my nature,
If once I part from any man I meet,
I am never found again.” And so for you:
You have shook hands with Reputation,
And made him invisible. So, fare you well:
I will never see you more. Duchess

Why should only I,
Of all the other princes of the world,
Be cas’d up, like a holy relic? I have youth
And a little beauty.

Ferdinand

So you have some virgins
That are witches. I will never see thee more.

Exit. Re-enter Antonio with a pistol, and Cariola. Duchess

You saw this apparition?

Antonio

Yes: we are
Betray’d. How came he hither? I should turn
This to thee, for that.

Cariola

Pray, sir, do; and when
That you have cleft my heart, you shall read there
Mine innocence.

Duchess

That gallery gave him entrance.

Antonio

I would this terrible thing would come again,
That, standing on my guard, I might relate
My warrantable love.⁠—

She shows the poniard.

Ha! what means this?

Duchess

He left this with me.

Antonio

And it seems did wish
You would use it on yourself.

Duchess

His action seem’d
To intend so much.

Antonio

This hath a handle to’t,
As well as a point: turn it towards him, and
So fasten the keen edge in his rank gall.

Knocking within.

How now! who knocks? More earthquakes?

Duchess

I stand
As if a mine beneath my feet were ready
To be blown up.

Cariola

’Tis Bosola.

Duchess

Away!
O misery! methinks unjust actions
Should wear these masks and curtains, and not we.
You must instantly part hence: I have fashion’d it already.

Exit Antonio. Enter Bosala. Bosola

The duke your brother is ta’en up in a whirlwind;
Hath took horse, and’s rid post to Rome.

Duchess

So late?

Bosola

He told me, as he mounted into the saddle,
You were undone.

Duchess

Indeed, I am very near it.

Bosola

What’s the matter?

Duchess

Antonio, the master of our household,
Hath dealt so falsely with me in’s accounts.
My brother stood engag’d with me for money
Ta’en up of certain Neapolitan Jews,
And Antonio lets the bonds be forfeit.

Bosola

Strange!⁠—Aside. This is cunning.

Duchess

And hereupon
My brother’s bills at Naples are protested
Against.⁠—Call up our officers.

Bosola

I shall.

Exit. Re-enter Antonio. Duchess

The place that you must fly to is Ancona:
Hire a house there; I’ll send after you
My treasure and my jewels. Our weak safety
Runs upon enginous wheels:73 short syllables
Must stand for periods. I must now accuse you
Of such a feigned crime as Tasso calls
Magnanima menzogna, a noble lie,
’Cause it must shield our honours.⁠—Hark! they are coming.

Re-enter Bosala and Officers. Antonio

Will your grace hear me?

Duchess

I have got well by you; you have yielded me
A million of loss: I am like to inherit
The people’s curses for your stewardship.
You had the trick in audit-time to be sick,
Till I had sign’d your quietus;74 and that cur’d you
Without help of a doctor.⁠—Gentlemen,
I would have this man be an example to you all;
So shall you hold my favour; I pray, let him;
For h’as done that, alas, you would not think of,
And, because I intend to be rid of him,
I mean not to publish.⁠—Use your fortune elsewhere.

Antonio

I am strongly arm’d to brook my overthrow,
As commonly men bear with a hard year.
I will not blame the cause on’t; but do think
The necessity of my malevolent star
Procures this, not her humour. O, the inconstant
And rotten ground of service! You may see,
’Tis even like him, that in a winter night,
Takes a long slumber o’er a dying fire,
A-loth to part from’t; yet parts thence as cold
As when he first sat down.

Duchess

We do confiscate,
Towards the satisfying of your accounts,
All that you have.

Antonio

I am all yours; and ’tis very fit
All mine should be so.

Duchess

So, sir, you have your pass.

Antonio

You may see, gentlemen, what ’tis to serve
A prince with body and soul.

Exit. Bosola Here’s an example for extortion: what moisture is drawn out of the sea, when foul weather comes, pours down, and runs into the sea again. Duchess

I would know what are your opinions
Of this Antonio.

Second Officer He could not abide to see a pig’s head gaping: I thought your grace would find him a Jew. Third Officer I would you had been his officer, for your own sake. Fourth Officer You would have had more money. First Officer He stopped his ears with black wool, and to those came to him for money said he was thick of hearing. Second Officer Some said he was an hermaphrodite, for he could not abide a woman. Fourth Officer How scurvy proud he would look when the treasury was full! Well, let him go. First Officer Yes, and the chippings of the buttery fly after him, to scour his gold chain.75 Duchess

Leave us.

Exeunt Officers.

What do you think of these?

Bosola

That these are rogues that in’s prosperity,
But to have waited on his fortune, could have wish’d
His dirty stirrup riveted through their noses,
And follow’d after’s mule, like a bear in a ring;
Would have prostituted their daughters to his lust;
Made their firstborn intelligencers;76 thought none happy
But such as were born under his blest planet,
And wore his livery: and do these lice drop off now?
Well, never look to have the like again:
He hath left a sort77 of flattering rogues behind him;
Their doom must follow. Princes pay flatterers
In their own money: flatterers dissemble their vices,
And they dissemble their lies; that’s justice.
Alas, poor gentleman!