The Duchess of Malfi

Scene IV¹³⁴

[Enter] CARDINAL, PESCARA, MALATESTI, RODERIGO, and GRISOLAN

 
  CARDINAL.  You shall not watch to-night by the sick prince;
  His grace is very well recover'd.
  MALATESTI.  Good my lord, suffer us.
  CARDINAL.                             O, by no means;
  The noise, and change of object in his eye,
  Doth more distract him.  I pray, all to bed;
  And though you hear him in his violent fit,
  Do not rise, I entreat you.
  PESCARA.  So, sir; we shall not.
  CARDINAL.                         Nay, I must have you promise
  Upon your honours, for I was enjoin'd to 't
  By himself; and he seem'd to urge it sensibly.
  PESCARA.  Let our honours bind this trifle.
  CARDINAL.  Nor any of your followers.
  MALATESTI.  Neither.
  CARDINAL.  It may be, to make trial of your promise,
  When he 's asleep, myself will rise and feign
  Some of his mad tricks, and cry out for help,
  And feign myself in danger.
  MALATESTI.  If your throat were cutting,
  I 'd not come at you, now I have protested against it.
  CARDINAL.  Why, I thank you.
  GRISOLAN.                     'Twas a foul storm to-night.
  RODERIGO.  The Lord Ferdinand's chamber shook like an osier.
  MALATESTI.  'Twas nothing put pure kindness in the devil
  To rock his own child.
 

Exeunt [all except the CARDINAL].

 
  CARDINAL.  The reason why I would not suffer these
  About my brother, is, because at midnight
  I may with better privacy convey
  Julia's body to her own lodging.  O, my conscience!
  I would pray now; but the devil takes away my heart
  For having any confidence in prayer.
  About this hour I appointed Bosola
  To fetch the body.  When he hath serv'd my turn,
  He dies.
 

Exit.

[Enter BOSOLA]

 
  BOSOLA.  Ha! 'twas the cardinal's voice; I heard him name
  Bosola and my death.  Listen; I hear one's footing.
 

[Enter FERDINAND]

 
  FERDINAND.  Strangling is a very quiet death.
  BOSOLA.  [Aside.] Nay, then, I see I must stand upon my guard.
FERDINAND. What say to that? Whisper softly: do you agree to 't?
So; it must be done i' th' dark; the cardinal would not for
a thousand pounds the doctor should see it.
 

Exit.

 
  BOSOLA.  My death is plotted; here 's the consequence of murder.
  We value not desert nor Christian breath,
  When we know black deeds must be cur'd with death.
 

[Enter ANTONIO and Servant]

 
  SERVANT.  Here stay, sir, and be confident, I pray;
  I 'll fetch you a dark lantern.
 

Exit.

 
  ANTONIO.  Could I take him at his prayers,
  There were hope of pardon.
  BOSOLA.  Fall right, my sword! —
[Stabs him.]
  I 'll not give thee so much leisure as to pray.
  ANTONIO.  O, I am gone!  Thou hast ended a long suit
  In a minute.
  BOSOLA.       What art thou?
  ANTONIO.                      A most wretched thing,
  That only have thy benefit in death,
  To appear myself.
 

[Re-enter Servant with a lantern]

 
  SERVANT.  Where are you, sir?
  ANTONIO.  Very near my home. – Bosola!
  SERVANT.  O, misfortune!
  BOSOLA.  Smother thy pity, thou art dead else. – Antonio!
  The man I would have sav'd 'bove mine own life!
  We are merely the stars' tennis-balls, struck and banded
  Which way please them. – O good Antonio,
  I 'll whisper one thing in thy dying ear
  Shall make thy heart break quickly!  Thy fair duchess
  And two sweet children —
  ANTONIO.                    Their very names
  Kindle a little life in me.
  BOSOLA.                      Are murder'd.
  ANTONIO.  Some men have wish'd to die
  At the hearing of sad tidings; I am glad
  That I shall do 't in sadness.¹³⁵ I would not now
  Wish my wounds balm'd nor heal'd, for I have no use
  To put my life to.  In all our quest of greatness,
  Like wanton boys whose pastime is their care,
  We follow after bubbles blown in th' air.
  Pleasure of life, what is 't?  Only the good hours
  Of an ague; merely a preparative to rest,
  To endure vexation.  I do not ask
  The process of my death; only commend me
  To Delio.
  BOSOLA.     Break, heart!
  ANTONIO.  And let my son fly the courts to princes.
[Dies.]
  BOSOLA.  Thou seem'st to have lov'd Antonio.
  SERVANT.  I brought him hither,
  To have reconcil'd him to the cardinal.
  BOSOLA.  I do not ask thee that.
  Take him up, if thou tender thine own life,
  And bear him where the lady Julia
  Was wont to lodge. – O, my fate moves swift!
  I have this cardinal in the forge already;
  Now I 'll bring him to th' hammer.  O direful misprision!¹³⁶  I will not imitate things glorious.
  No more than base; I 'll be mine own example. —
  On, on, and look thou represent, for silence,
  The thing thou bear'st.¹³⁷       Exeunt.
 

Scene V¹³⁸

[Enter] CARDINAL, with a book

 
  CARDINAL.  I am puzzl'd in a question about hell;
  He says, in hell there 's one material fire,
  And yet it shall not burn all men alike.
  Lay him by.  How tedious is a guilty conscience!
  When I look into the fish-ponds in my garden,
  Methinks I see a thing arm'd with a rake,
  That seems to strike at me.
 

[Enter BOSOLA, and Servant bearing ANTONIO'S body]

 
                               Now, art thou come?
  Thou look'st ghastly;
  There sits in thy face some great determination
  Mix'd with some fear.
  BOSOLA.                Thus it lightens into action:
  I am come to kill thee.
  CARDINAL.                Ha! – Help! our guard!
  BOSOLA.  Thou art deceiv'd; they are out of thy howling.
  CARDINAL.  Hold; and I will faithfully divide
  Revenues with thee.
  BOSOLA.              Thy prayers and proffers
  Are both unseasonable.
  CARDINAL.               Raise the watch!
  We are betray'd!
  BOSOLA.           I have confin'd your flight:
  I 'll suffer your retreat to Julia's chamber,
  But no further.
  CARDINAL.        Help! we are betray'd!
 

[Enter, above, PESCARA, MALATESTI, RODERIGO, and GRISOLAN]

 
  MALATESTI.  Listen.
  CARDINAL.  My dukedom for rescue!
  RODERIGO.  Fie upon his counterfeiting!
  MALATESTI.  Why, 'tis not the cardinal.
  RODERIGO.  Yes, yes, 'tis he:
  But, I 'll see him hang'd ere I 'll go down to him.
  CARDINAL.  Here 's a plot upon me; I am assaulted!  I am lost,
  Unless some rescue!
  GRISOLAN.            He doth this pretty well;
  But it will not serve to laugh me out of mine honour.
  CARDINAL.  The sword's at my throat!
  RODERIGO.                             You would not bawl so loud then.
  MALATESTI.
  Come, come, let 's go to bed:  he told us this much aforehand.
  PESCARA.  He wish'd you should not come at him; but, believe 't,
  The accent of the voice sounds not in jest:
  I 'll down to him, howsoever, and with engines
  Force ope the doors.
 

[Exit above.]

 
  RODERIGO.             Let 's follow him aloof,
  And note how the cardinal will laugh at him.
 

[Exeunt, above, MALATESTI, RODERIGO, and GRISOLAN.]

 

 
  BOSOLA.  There 's for you first,
  'Cause you shall not unbarricade the door
  To let in rescue.
       Kills the Servant.
  CARDINAL.  What cause hast thou to pursue my life?
  BOSOLA.                                             Look there.
  CARDINAL.  Antonio!
  BOSOLA.              Slain by my hand unwittingly.
  Pray, and be sudden.  When thou kill'd'st thy sister,
  Thou took'st from Justice her most equal balance,
  And left her naught but her sword.
  CARDINAL.                           O, mercy!
  BOSOLA.  Now it seems thy greatness was only outward;
  For thou fall'st faster of thyself than calamity
  Can drive thee.  I 'll not waste longer time; there!
[Stabs him.]
  CARDINAL.  Thou hast hurt me.
  BOSOLA.                        Again!
  CARDINAL.                              Shall I die like a leveret,
  Without any resistance? – Help, help, help!
  I am slain!
 

[Enter FERDINAND]

 
  FERDINAND.    Th' alarum!  Give me a fresh horse;
  Rally the vaunt-guard, or the day is lost,
  Yield, yield!  I give you the honour of arms
  Shake my sword over you; will you yield?
  CARDINAL.  Help me; I am your brother!
FERDINAND. The devil!
My brother fight upon the adverse party!
He wounds the CARDINAL, and, in the scuffle, gives BOSOLA
his death-wound.
There flies your ransom.
  CARDINAL.  O justice!
  I suffer now for what hath former bin:
  Sorrow is held the eldest child of sin.
FERDINAND. Now you 're brave fellows. Caesar's fortune was harder
than Pompey's; Caesar died in the arms of prosperity, Pompey at the
feet of disgrace. You both died in the field. The pain 's nothing;
pain many times is taken away with the apprehension of greater,
as the tooth-ache with the sight of a barber that comes to pull
it out. There 's philosophy for you.
  BOSOLA.  Now my revenge is perfect. – Sink, thou main cause
       Kills FERDINAND.
  Of my undoing! – The last part of my life
  Hath done me best service.
  FERDINAND.  Give me some wet hay; I am broken-winded.
  I do account this world but a dog-kennel:
  I will vault credit and affect high pleasures
  Beyond death.
  BOSOLA.        He seems to come to himself,
  Now he 's so near the bottom.
  FERDINAND.  My sister, O my sister! there 's the cause on 't.
  Whether we fall by ambition, blood, or lust,
  Like diamonds, we are cut with our own dust.
[Dies.]
  CARDINAL.  Thou hast thy payment too.
  BOSOLA.  Yes, I hold my weary soul in my teeth;
  'Tis ready to part from me.  I do glory
  That thou, which stood'st like a huge pyramid
  Begun upon a large and ample base,
  Shalt end in a little point, a kind of nothing.
 

[Enter, below, PESCARA, MALATESTI, RODERIGO, and GRISOLAN]

 
  PESCARA.  How now, my lord!
  MALATESTI.                   O sad disaster!
  RODERIGO.                                     How comes this?
  BOSOLA.  Revenge for the Duchess of Malfi murdered
  By the Arragonian brethren; for Antonio
  Slain by this hand; for lustful Julia
  Poison'd by this man; and lastly for myself,
  That was an actor in the main of all
  Much 'gainst mine own good nature, yet i' the end
  Neglected.
  PESCARA.    How now, my lord!
  CARDINAL.                      Look to my brother:
  He gave us these large wounds, as we were struggling
  Here i' th' rushes.  And now, I pray, let me
  Be laid by and never thought of.
[Dies.]
  PESCARA.  How fatally, it seems, he did withstand
  His own rescue!
  MALATESTI.       Thou wretched thing of blood,
  How came Antonio by his death?
  BOSOLA.  In a mist; I know not how:
  Such a mistake as I have often seen
  In a play.  O, I am gone!
  We are only like dead walls or vaulted graves,
  That, ruin'd, yield no echo.  Fare you well.
  It may be pain, but no harm, to me to die
  In so good a quarrel.  O, this gloomy world!
  In what a shadow, or deep pit of darkness,
  Doth womanish and fearful mankind live!
  Let worthy minds ne'er stagger in distrust
  To suffer death or shame for what is just:
  Mine is another voyage.
[Dies.]
  PESCARA.  The noble Delio, as I came to th' palace,
  Told me of Antonio's being here, and show'd me
  A pretty gentleman, his son and heir.
 

[Enter DELIO, and ANTONIO'S Son]

 
  MALATESTI.  O sir, you come too late!
  DELIO.                                 I heard so, and
  Was arm'd for 't, ere I came.  Let us make noble use
  Of this great ruin; and join all our force
  To establish this young hopeful gentleman
  In 's mother's right.  These wretched eminent things
  Leave no more fame behind 'em, than should one
  Fall in a frost, and leave his print in snow;
  As soon as the sun shines, it ever melts,
  Both form and matter.  I have ever thought
  Nature doth nothing so great for great men
  As when she 's pleas'd to make them lords of truth:
  Integrity of life is fame's best friend,
  Which nobly, beyond death, shall crown the end.
 

Exeunt.

END OF PLAY