THE TRAGEDY OF THE DVTCHESSE As it was Prefented priuatly,at the Black- The perfect and exact Coppy, with diuerse things Printed, that the length of the Play would not beare in the Presentment. VVritten by John Webster. Hora, Si quid---- Candidus Imperti finon bis vtere mecum. LONDON: Printed by NICHOLAS OXES, for I o N The Duchess of Malfi appeared in only two editions before the closing of the theaters, the quartos of 1623 and 1640. There seems reason for placing the writing and performance of this play as early as 1611 or 1612 (see M. W. Sampson ed. of this play in Belles Lettres Series, 1904); and it probably followed The White Devil, which was published in the latter year. The author found the source for The Duchess of Malfi, in all likelihood, in Painter's version of it in his Palace of Pleasure (Book II, Novel 23), although the story is common to such collections and appears in Beard's The Theater of God's Judgments, in Goulart's Histories Admirables; the translation of this by Grimestone in 1600, and perhaps earliest as the twenty-sixth novel of Bandello. Lope de Vega had made a play of it before Webster's time; but the English dramatist seems not to have been acquainted with it. Some of the horrors, strange to say, of Bosola's torture of the duchess have been traced to Sidney's Arcadia. The text is that of the first quarto substantially, with attention to the work of Symonds, Vaughan, Neilson and Sampson. Of John Webster personally, next to nothing is known. He died, it would seem, in 1634, but the date of his birth has not been ascertained nor anything of his extraction except that he was "born free of the Merchant-Taylors' Company." Chambers has recently suggested that he may have been an older man than is commonly supposed and an actor before becoming, in his later years, a playwright; Webster's comedies are inferior and unworthy of his talents. His reputation rests on the two master tragedies, The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi. The last complete edition of Webster is that of W. C. Hazlitt, 4 vols., 1857. The two important tragedies are reprinted by A. H. Thorndike in the Masterpiece Series, 1912, and elsewhere. THE DUCHESS OF MALFI JOHN WEBSTER ACTUS PRIMUS, SCENA PRIMA The Presence-Chamber in the Palace of the Duchess Amalfi [Enter ANTONIO and DELIO] Delio. You are welcome to your country, dear Antonio; You have been long in France, and you return Considering duly, that a prince's court Is like a common fountain, whence should flow Pure silver drops in general, but if't chance Some cursed example poison't near the head, Death and diseases through the whole land spread. And what is't makes this blessèd government, But a most provident council, who dare freely Inform him the corruption of the times? Though some o' th' court hold it presumption To instruct princes what they ought to do, 20 Bosola, Here comes The only court-gall; yet I observe his railing Is not for simple love of piety: Of the corruption. • Prevent. An excrescence on the court. 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 service, 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 40 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 60 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 plumtrees that grow crooked over standingpools; they are rich, and o'erladen with fruit, but none but crows, pies, and caterpillars feed on them. Could I be one of their flattering panders, I would hang on their ears like a horseleech, till I were 00 full, an[d] then drop off. I pray leave me. Who would rely upon these miserable dependencies, in expectation to be advanced |