The Duchess of Malfi

of your fear, no more:
How superstitiously we mind our evils!
The throwing down salt, or crossing of a hare,
Bleeding at nose, the stumbling of a horse,
Or singing of a cricket, are of power
To daunt whole man in us. Sir, fare you well:
I wish you all the joys of a bless’d father;
And, for my faith, lay this unto your breast⁠—
Old friends, like old swords, still are trusted best. Exit. Enter Cariola. Cariola

Sir, you are the happy father of a son:
Your wife commends him to you.

Antonio

Blessed comfort!⁠—
For heaven’ sake, tend her well: I’ll presently45
Go set a figure for’s nativity.46

Exeunt.

Scene III

The court of the same palace.

	Enter Bosala, with a dark lantern.
Bosola	Sure I did hear a woman shriek: list, ha! And the sound came, if I receiv’d it right, From the duchess’ lodgings. There’s some stratagem In the confining all our courtiers To their several wards: I must have part of it; My intelligence will freeze else. List, again! It may be ’twas the melancholy bird, Best friend of silence and of solitariness, The owl, that screamed so.⁠—Ha! Antonio!
	Enter Antonio with a candle, his sword drawn.
Antonio	I heard some noise.⁠—Who’s there? What art thou? Speak.
Bosola	Antonio, put not your face nor body To such a forc’d expression of fear; I am Bosola, your friend.
Antonio	Bosola!⁠— Aside. This mole does undermine me.⁠—Heard you not A noise even now?
Bosola	From whence?
Antonio	From the duchess’ lodging.
Bosola	Not I: did you?
Antonio	I did, or else I dream’d.
Bosola	Let’s walk towards it.
Antonio	No: it may be ’twas But the rising of the wind.
Bosola	Very likely. Methinks ’tis very cold, and yet you sweat: You look wildly.
Antonio	I have been setting a figure47 For the duchess’ jewels.
Bosola	Ah, and how falls your question? Do you find it radical?48
Antonio	What’s that to you? ’Tis rather to be question’d what design, When all men were commanded to their lodgings, Makes you a nightwalker.
Bosola	In sooth, I’ll tell you: Now all the court’s asleep, I thought the devil Had least to do here; I came to say my prayers; And if it do offend you I do so, You are a fine courtier.
Antonio	Aside. This fellow will undo me.⁠— You gave the duchess apricocks today: Pray heaven they were not poison’d!
Bosola	Poison’d! a Spanish fig For the imputation!
Antonio	Traitors are ever confident Till they are discover’d. There were jewels stol’n too: In my conceit, none are to be suspected More than yourself.
Bosola	You are a false steward.
Antonio	Saucy slave, I’ll pull thee up by the roots.
Bosola	May be the ruin will crush you to pieces.
Antonio	You are an impudent snake indeed, sir: Are you scarce warm, and do you show your sting? You libel49 well, sir?
Bosola	No, sir: copy it out, And I will set my hand to’t.
Antonio	Aside. My nose bleeds. One that were superstitious would count This ominous, when it merely comes by chance. Two letters, that are wrought here for my name,50 Are drown’d in blood! Mere accident.⁠—For you, sir, I’ll take order I’ the morn you shall be safe.⁠—Aside. ’Tis that must colour Her lying-in.⁠—Sir, this door you pass not: I do not hold it fit that you come near The duchess’ lodgings, till you have quit yourself.⁠— Aside. The great are like the base, nay, they are the same, When they seek shameful ways to avoid shame.
	Exit.
Bosola	Antonio hereabout did drop a paper:⁠— Some of your help, false friend.51⁠—O, here it is. What’s here? a child’s nativity calculated! Reads. “The duchess was deliver’d of a son, ’tween the hours twelve and one in the night, Anno Dom. 1504,”⁠—that’s this year⁠—“decimo nono Decembris,”⁠—that’s this night⁠—“taken according to the meridian of Malfi,”⁠—that’s our duchess: happy discovery!⁠—“The lord of the first house being combust in the ascendant, signifies short life; and Mars being in a human sign, joined to the tail of the Dragon, in the eighth house, doth threaten a violent death. Caetera non scrutantur.”52 Why, now ’tis most apparent; this precise fellow Is the duchess’ bawd:⁠—I have it to my wish! This is a parcel of intelligency53 Our courtiers were cas’d up for: it needs must follow That I must be committed on pretence Of poisoning her; which I’ll endure, and laugh at. If one could find the father now! but that Time will discover. Old Castruccio I’ th’ morning posts to Rome: by him I’ll send A letter that shall make her brothers’ galls O’erflow their livers. This was a thrifty54 way! Though lust do mask in ne’er so strange disguise, She’s oft found witty, but is never wise.
	Exit.

Scene IV

Rome. An apartment in the palace of the Cardinal.

	Enter Cardinal and Julia.
Cardinal	Sit: thou art my best of wishes. Prithee, tell me What trick didst thou invent to come to Rome Without thy husband?
Julia	Why, my lord, I told him I came to visit an old anchorite55 Here for devotion.
Cardinal	Thou art a witty false one⁠— I mean, to him.
Julia	You have prevail’d with me Beyond my strongest thoughts; I would not now Find you inconstant.
Cardinal	Do not put thyself To such a voluntary torture, which proceeds Out of your own guilt.
Julia	How, my lord!
Cardinal	You fear My constancy, because you have approv’d56 Those giddy and wild turnings in yourself.
Julia	Did you e’er find them?
Cardinal	Sooth, generally for women, A man might strive to make glass malleable, Ere he should make them fixed.
Julia	So, my lord.
Cardinal	We had need go borrow that fantastic glass Invented by Galileo the Florentine To view another spacious world i’ th’ moon, And look to find a constant woman there.
Julia	This is very well, my lord.
Cardinal	Why do you weep? Are tears your justification? The selfsame tears Will fall into your husband’s bosom, lady, With a loud protestation that