[CASTRUCCIO, an old Lord.] MARQUIS OF PESCARA [COUNT] MALATESTI. RODERIGO, SILVIO, GRISOLAN, DOCTOR. [Lords.] The Several Madmen. DUCHESS [OF MALFI]. CARIOLA [her woman]. [JULIA, Castruccio's wife, and] the Cardinal's mistress [Old Lady.] Ladies, Three Young Children, Two Pilgrims, Executioners, Court Officers, and Attendants. [SCENE. - Amalfi, Rome, Loretto, Milan. TIME. — Early Sixteenth Century.] Bos. I have done you better service than to be slighted thus. Miserable age, where only the reward of doing well is the doing of it! Card. You enforce your merit too much. Bos. I fell into the galleys in your serv- (≈ ice; where, for two years together, I wore two towels instead of a shirt, with a knot on the shoulder, after the fashion of a Roman mantle. Slighted thus! I will thrive some way. Blackbirds fatten best in hard weather; why not I in these dog-days? Card. Would you could become honest! Bos. With all your divinity do but direct me the way to it. I have known many travel far for it, and yet return as arrant knaves as (* they went forth, because they carried themselves always along with them. [Exit CARDINAL.] Are you gone? Some fellows, they say, are possessed with the devil, but this great fellow were able to possess the greatest devil, and make him worse. Ant. He hath denied thee some suit? Bos. He and his brother are like plum-trees that grow crooked over standing-pools; they are rich and o'erladen with fruit, but none but crows, pies, and caterpillars feed on them. [5 Could I be one of their flatt'ring panders, I would hang on their ears like a horseleech, till I were full, and then drop off. I pray, leave me. Who would rey upon these miserable depend encies. in expectation to be advanc'd to j morrow? What creature ever fed worse than hoping Tantalus? Nor ever died any man more fearfully than he that hop'd for a pardon. There are rewards for hawks and dogs when [65 they have done us service; but for a soldier that hazards his limbs in a battle, nothing but a kind of geometry is his last supportation. Delio. Geometry? Bos. Ay, to hang in a fair pair of slings, take his latter swing in the world upon an hon- [\\ ourable pair of crutches, from hospital to hospital. Fare ye well, sir: and yet do not you scorn us; for places in the court are but like beds in the hospital, where this man's head lies at that man's foot, and so lower and lower. [Exit.] 76 Del. I knew this fellow seven years in the galleys For à notorious murder; and 't was thought Ant. 80 85 Sil. True, my lord, he reels from the tilt often. Rod. Gris. Ha, ha, ha! Ferd. Why do you laugh? Methinks you that are courtiers should be my touch-wood, [51 take fire when I give fire; that is, laugh when I laugh, were the subject never so witty. Cast. True, my lord: I myself have heard a very good jest, and have scorn'd to seem to have so silly a wit as to understand it. Ferd. But I can laugh at your fool, my lord. Cast. He cannot speak, you know, but he makes faces; my lady cannot abide him. Ferd. No? 60 Cast. Nor endure to be in merry company; for she says too full laughing, and too much company, fills her too much of the wrinkle. Ferd. I would, then, have a mathematical instrument made for her face, that she might not laugh out of compass. - I shall shortly visit [68 you at Milan, Lord Silvio. Sil. Your grace shall arrive most welcome. Ferd. You are a good horseman, Antonio: you have excellent riders in France; what do you think of good horsemanship? 71 Ant. Nobly, my lord: as out of the Grecian horse issued many famous princes, so out of brave horsemanship arise the first sparks of growing resolution, that raise the mind to noble action. 76 Ferd. You have bespoke it worthily. Sil. Your brother, the lord cardinal, and sister duchess. [Enter CARDINAL, with DUCHESS, and CARIOLA.] Card. Are the galleys come about? They are, my lord. 80 Ferd. Here's the Lord Silvio is come to take his leave. At the expense of. 6 A small horse. 1 Rolls of lint used to dress wounds. 6 Surgeons. not 7 Ballasted холе Delio. Now, sir, your promise: what's that cardinal? I mean his temper. They say he's a brave fellow, Will play his five thousand crowns at tennis, dance, Court ladies, and one that hath fought single combats. 85 Ant. Some such flashes superficially hang on him for form; but observe his inward character: he is a melancholy churchman. The spring in his face is nothing but the engend'ring of toads; where he is jealous of any man, se lays worse plots for them than ever was im- [91 pos'd on Hercules, for he strews in his way Hatterers, panders, intelligencers, atheists, and a thousand such political monsters. He should have been Pope; but instead of coming to it by the primitive decency of the church, he did (90 bestow bribes so largely and so impudently as if he would have carried it away without heaven's knowledge. Some good he hath done Delio. You have given too much of him. What's his brother? 100 Ant. The duke there? A most perverse and turbulent nature. What appears in him mirth is merely outside; Delio. Ant. Twins? In quality. He speaks with others' tongues, and hears men's suits 105 With others' ears; will seem to sleep o' th' bench Sir, I shall. You are for Milan? We'll bring Duch. Bring the caroches. To the haven, [Exeunt DUCHESS, SILVIO, CASTRUCCIO, RODERIGO, GRISOLAN, CARIOLA, JULIA, and Attendants.] Card. Be sure you entertain that Bosola For your intelligence. I would not be seen in 't, And therefore many times I have slighted him When he did court our furtherance, as this morning. Ferd. Antonio, the great master of her household, Had been far fitter. Card.You are deceiv'd in him. His nature is too honest for such business. He comes: I'll leave you. Bos. [Erit.] [Re-enter Bosola.] I was lur'd to you. Ferd. My brother, here, the cardinal could never Abide you. Bos. Never since he was in my debt. Ferd. May be some oblique character in your face Made him suspect you. I'll never marry. Card. 10 Will you hear me? So most widows say; But commonly that motion 7 lasts no longer Than the turning of an hour-glass: the funeral sermon And it end both together. 15 Ferd. Now hear me: You live in a rank pasture, here, i' th' court; There is a kind of honey-dew that 's deadly; 'T will poison your fame; look to 't. Be not cunning; For they whose faces do belie their hearts Duch. This is terrible good counsel. 4 Amalfi. Gallery in the Duchess's palace. Lustful. • Genesis Xxx. 31-42. + A not 1 Imp |