The Duchess of Malfi John Webster (intellectual books to read TXT) 📖

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