The Duchess of Malfi

this rupture. There is not in nature
A thing that makes man so deform’d, so beastly,
As doth intemperate anger. Chide yourself.
You have diverse men who never yet express’d
Their strong desire of rest but by unrest,
By vexing of themselves. Come, put yourself
In tune. Ferdinand

So I will only study to seem
The thing I am not. I could kill her now,
In you, or in myself; for I do think
It is some sin in us heaven doth revenge
By her.

Cardinal

Are you stark mad?

Ferdinand

I would have their bodies
Burnt in a coal-pit with the ventage stopp’d,
That their curs’d smoke might not ascend to heaven;
Or dip the sheets they lie in in pitch or sulphur,
Wrap them in’t, and then light them like a match;
Or else to-boil64 their bastard to a cullis,
And give’t his lecherous father to renew
The sin of his back.

Cardinal

I’ll leave you.

Ferdinand

Nay, I have done.
I am confident, had I been damn’d in hell,
And should have heard of this, it would have put me
Into a cold sweat. In, in; I’ll go sleep.
Till I know who [loves] my sister, I’ll not stir:
That known, I’ll find scorpions to string my whips,
And fix her in a general eclipse.

Exeunt.

Act III

Scene I

Malfi. An apartment in the palace of the Duchess.

	Enter Antonio and Delio.
Antonio	Our noble friend, my most beloved Delio! O, you have been a stranger long at court: Came you along with the Lord Ferdinand?
Delio	I did, sir: and how fares your noble duchess?
Antonio	Right fortunately well: she’s an excellent Feeder of pedigrees; since you last saw her, She hath had two children more, a son and daughter.
Delio	Methinks ’twas yesterday. Let me but wink, And not behold your face, which to mine eye Is somewhat leaner, verily I should dream It were within this half hour.
Antonio	You have not been in law, friend Delio, Nor in prison, nor a suitor at the court, Nor begg’d the reversion of some great man’s place, Nor troubled with an old wife, which doth make Your time so insensibly hasten.
Delio	Pray, sir, tell me, Hath not this news arriv’d yet to the ear Of the lord cardinal?
Antonio	I fear it hath: The Lord Ferdinand, that’s newly come to court, Doth bear himself right dangerously.
Delio	Pray, why?
Antonio	He is so quiet that he seems to sleep The tempest out, as dormice do in winter. Those houses that are haunted are most still Till the devil be up.
Delio	What say the common people?
Antonio	The common rabble do directly say She is a strumpet.
Delio	And your graver heads Which would be politic, what censure they?
Antonio	They do observe I grow to infinite purchase,65 The left hand way; and all suppose the duchess Would amend it, if she could; for, say they, Great princes, though they grudge their officers Should have such large and unconfined means To get wealth under them, will not complain, Lest thereby they should make them odious Unto the people. For other obligation Of love or marriage between her and me They never dream of.
Delio	The Lord Ferdinand Is going to bed.
	Enter Duchess, Ferdinand, and Attendants.
Ferdinand	I’ll instantly to bed, For I am weary.⁠—I am to bespeak A husband for you.
Duchess	For me, sir! Pray, who is’t?
Ferdinand	The great Count Malatesti.
Duchess	Fie upon him! A count! He’s a mere stick of sugar-candy; You may look quite through him. When I choose A husband, I will marry for your honour.
Ferdinand	You shall do well in’t.⁠—How is’t, worthy Antonio?
Duchess	But, sir, I am to have private conference with you About a scandalous report is spread Touching mine honour.
Ferdinand	Let me be ever deaf to’t: One of Pasquil’s paper-bullets,66 court-calumny, A pestilent air, which princes’ palaces Are seldom purg’d of. Yet, say that it were true, I pour it in your bosom, my fix’d love Would strongly excuse, extenuate, nay, deny Faults, were they apparent in you. Go, be safe In your own innocency.
Duchess	Aside. O bless’d comfort! This deadly air is purg’d.
	Exeunt Duchess, Antonio, Delio, and Attendants.
Ferdinand	Her guilt treads on Hot-burning coulters.67
	Enter Bosala.
	Now, Bosola, How thrives our intelligence?68
Bosola	Sir, uncertainly: ’Tis rumour’d she hath had three bastards, but By whom we may go read i’ the stars.
Ferdinand	Why, some Hold opinion all things are written there.
Bosola	Yes, if we could find spectacles to read them. I do suspect there hath been some sorcery Us’d on the duchess.
Ferdinand	Sorcery! to what purpose?
Bosola	To make her dote on some desertless fellow She shames to acknowledge.
Ferdinand	Can your faith give way To think there’s power in potions or in charms, To make us love whether we will or no?
Bosola	Most certainly.
Ferdinand	Away! these are mere gulleries,69 horrid things, Invented by some cheating mountebanks To abuse us. Do you think that herbs or charms Can force the will? Some trials have been made In this foolish practice, but the ingredients Were lenitive70 poisons, such as are of force To make the patient mad; and straight the witch Swears by equivocation they are in love. The witchcraft lies in her rank blood. This night I will force confession from her. You told me You had got, within these two days, a false key Into her bedchamber.
Bosola	I have.
Ferdinand	As I would wish.
Bosola	What do you intend to do?
Ferdinand	Can you guess?
Bosola	No.
Ferdinand	Do not ask, then: He that can compass me, and know my drifts, May say he hath put a girdle ’bout the world, And sounded all her quicksands.
Bosola	I do not Think so.
Ferdinand	What do you think, then, pray?
Bosola	That you Are your own chronicle too much, and grossly Flatter yourself.
Ferdinand	Give me thy hand; I thank thee: I never gave pension but to flatterers, Till I entertained thee. Farewell. That friend a great man’s ruin strongly checks, Who rails into his belief all his defects.
	Exeunt.

Scene