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

epub:type="z3998:persona">Cariola

You are deceiv’d, sir,
I am not prepar’d for’t, I will not die;
I will first come to my answer,105 and know
How I have offended.

Bosola

Come, despatch her.⁠—
You kept her counsel; now you shall keep ours.

Cariola

I will not die, I must not; I am contracted
To a young gentleman.

First Executioner

Here’s your wedding-ring.

Cariola

Let me but speak with the duke. I’ll discover
Treason to his person.

Bosola

Delays:⁠—throttle her.

First Executioner

She bites and scratches.

Cariola

If you kill me now,
I am damn’d; I have not been at confession
This two years.

Bosola

To Executioners. When?106

Cariola

I am quick with child.

Bosola

Why, then,
Your credit’s saved.

Executioners strangle Cariola.

Bear her into the next room;
Let these lie still.

Exeunt the Executioners with the body of Cariola. Enter Ferdinand. Ferdinand

Is she dead?

Bosola

She is what
You’d have her. But here begin your pity:
Shows the Children strangled.
Alas, how have these offended?

Ferdinand

The death
Of young wolves is never to be pitied.

Bosola

Fix your eye here.

Ferdinand

Constantly.

Bosola

Do you not weep?
Other sins only speak; murder shrieks out.
The element of water moistens the earth,
But blood flies upwards and bedews the heavens.

Ferdinand

Cover her face; mine eyes dazzle: she died young.

Bosola

I think not so; her infelicity
Seem’d to have years too many.

Ferdinand

She and I were twins;
And should I die this instant, I had liv’d
Her time to a minute.

Bosola

It seems she was born first:
You have bloodily approv’d the ancient truth,
That kindred commonly do worse agree
Than remote strangers.

Ferdinand

Let me see her face
Again. Why didst thou not pity her? What
An excellent honest man mightst thou have been,
If thou hadst borne her to some sanctuary!
Or, bold in a good cause, oppos’d thyself,
With thy advanced sword above thy head,
Between her innocence and my revenge!
I bade thee, when I was distracted of my wits,
Go kill my dearest friend, and thou hast done’t.
For let me but examine well the cause:
What was the meanness of her match to me?
Only I must confess I had a hope,
Had she continu’d widow, to have gain’d
An infinite mass of treasure by her death:
And that was the main cause⁠—her marriage,
That drew a stream of gall quite through my heart.
For thee, as we observe in tragedies
That a good actor many times is curs’d
For playing a villain’s part, I hate thee for’t,
And, for my sake, say, thou hast done much ill well.

Bosola

Let me quicken your memory, for I perceive
You are falling into ingratitude: I challenge
The reward due to my service.

Ferdinand

I’ll tell thee
What I’ll give thee.

Bosola

Do.

Ferdinand

I’ll give thee a pardon
For this murder.

Bosola

Ha!

Ferdinand

Yes, and ’tis
The largest bounty I can study to do thee.
By what authority didst thou execute
This bloody sentence?

Bosola

By yours.

Ferdinand

Mine! was I her judge?
Did any ceremonial form of law
Doom her to not-being? Did a complete jury
Deliver her conviction up i’ the court?
Where shalt thou find this judgment register’d,
Unless in hell? See, like a bloody fool,
Thou ’st forfeited thy life, and thou shalt die for’t.

Bosola

The office of justice is perverted quite
When one thief hangs another. Who shall dare
To reveal this?

Ferdinand

O, I’ll tell thee;
The wolf shall find her grave, and scrape it up,
Not to devour the corpse, but to discover
The horrid murder.

Bosola

You, not I, shall quake for’t.

Ferdinand

Leave me.

Bosola

I will first receive my pension.

Ferdinand

You are a villain.

Bosola

When your ingratitude
Is judge, I am so.

Ferdinand

O horror,
That not the fear of him which binds the devils
Can prescribe man obedience!⁠—
Never look upon me more.

Bosola

Why, fare thee well.
Your brother and yourself are worthy men!
You have a pair of hearts are hollow graves,
Rotten, and rotting others; and your vengeance,
Like two chain’d-bullets, still goes arm in arm:
You may be brothers; for treason, like the plague,
Doth take much in a blood. I stand like one
That long hath ta’en a sweet and golden dream:
I am angry with myself, now that I wake.

Ferdinand

Get thee into some unknown part o’ the world,
That I may never see thee.

Bosola

Let me know
Wherefore I should be thus neglected. Sir,
I serv’d your tyranny, and rather strove
To satisfy yourself than all the world:
And though I loath’d the evil, yet I lov’d
You that did counsel it; and rather sought
To appear a true servant than an honest man.

Ferdinand

I’ll go hunt the badger by owl-light:
’Tis a deed of darkness.

Exit. Bosola

He’s much distracted. Off, my painted honour!
While with vain hopes our faculties we tire,
We seem to sweat in ice and freeze in fire.
What would I do, were this to do again?
I would not change my peace of conscience
For all the wealth of Europe.⁠—She stirs; here’s life:⁠—
Return, fair soul, from darkness, and lead mine
Out of this sensible hell:⁠—she’s warm, she breathes:⁠—
Upon thy pale lips I will melt my heart,
To store them with fresh colour.⁠—Who’s there?
Some cordial drink!⁠—Alas! I dare not call:
So pity would destroy pity.⁠—Her eye opes,
And heaven in it seems to ope, that late was shut,
To take me up to mercy.

Duchess

Antonio!

Bosola

Yes, madam, he is living;
The dead bodies you saw were but feign’d statues.
He’s reconcil’d to your brothers; the Pope hath wrought
The atonement.

Duchess

Mercy! Dies.

Bosola

O, she’s gone again! there the cords of life broke.
O sacred innocence, that sweetly sleeps
On turtles’ feathers, whilst a guilty conscience
Is a black register wherein is writ
All our good deeds and bad, a perspective
That shows us hell! That we cannot be suffer’d
To do good when we have a mind to it!
This is manly sorrow;
These tears, I am very certain, never grew
In my mother’s milk. My estate is sunk
Below the degree of fear: where were
These penitent fountains while she was living?
O, they were frozen up! Here is a sight
As direful to my soul as is the sword
Unto a