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you love him
Above the world. Come, Iā€™ll love you wisely,
Thatā€™s jealously; since I am very certain
You cannot make me cuckold. Julia

Iā€™ll go home
To my husband.

Cardinal

You may thank me, lady,
I have taken you off your melancholy perch,
Bore you upon my fist, and showā€™d you game,
And let you fly at it.ā ā€”I pray thee, kiss me.ā ā€”
When thou wast with thy husband, thou wast watchā€™d
Like a tame elephant:ā ā€”still you are to thank me:ā ā€”
Thou hadst only kisses from him and high feeding;
But what delight was that? ā€™Twas just like one
That hath a little fingā€™ring on the lute,
Yet cannot tune it:ā ā€”still you are to thank me.

Julia

You told me of a piteous wound iā€™ thā€™ heart,
And a sick liver, when you wooā€™d me first,
And spake like one in physic.57

Cardinal

Whoā€™s that?ā ā€”

Enter Servant.

Rest firm, for my affection to thee,
Lightning moves slow toā€™t.

Servant

Madam, a gentleman,
Thatā€™s come post from Malfi, desires to see you.

Cardinal

Let him enter: Iā€™ll withdraw.

Exit. Servant

He says
Your husband, old Castruccio, is come to Rome,
Most pitifully tirā€™d with riding post.

Exit. Enter Delio. Julia

Aside. Signior Delio! ā€™tis one of my old suitors.

Delio

I was bold to come and see you.

Julia

Sir, you are welcome.

Delio

Do you lie here?

Julia

Sure, your own experience
Will satisfy you no: our Roman prelates
Do not keep lodging for ladies.

Delio

Very well:
I have brought you no commendations from your husband,
For I know none by him.

Julia

I hear heā€™s come to Rome.

Delio

I never knew man and beast, of a horse and a knight,
So weary of each other. If he had had a good back,
He would have undertook to have borne his horse,
His breech was so pitifully sore.

Julia

Your laughter
Is my pity.

Delio

Lady, I know not whether
You want money, but I have brought you some.

Julia

From my husband?

Delio

No, from mine own allowance.

Julia

I must hear the condition, ere I be bound to take it.

Delio

Look onā€™t, ā€™tis gold; hath it not a fine colour?

Julia

I have a bird more beautiful.

Delio

Try the sound onā€™t.

Julia

A lute-string far exceeds it.
It hath no smell, like cassia or civet;
Nor is it physical,58 though some fond doctors
Persuade us seetheā€™t in cullises.59 Iā€™ll tell you,
This is a creature bred byā ā€”

Re-enter Servant. Servant

Your husbandā€™s come,
Hath deliverā€™d a letter to the Duke of Calabria
That, to my thinking, hath put him out of his wits.

Exit. Julia

Sir, you hear:
Pray, let me know your business and your suit
As briefly as can be.

Delio

With good speed: I would wish you,
At such time as you are nonresident
With your husband, my mistress.

Julia

Sir, Iā€™ll go ask my husband if I shall,
And straight return your answer.

Exit. Delio

Very fine!
Is this her wit, or honesty, that speaks thus?
I heard one say the duke was highly movā€™d
With a letter sent from Malfi. I do fear
Antonio is betrayā€™d. How fearfully
Shows his ambition now! Unfortunate fortune!
They pass through whirlpools, and deep woes do shun,
Who the event weigh ere the actionā€™s done.

Exit. Scene V

Another apartment in the same palace.

Enter Cardinal and Ferdinand with a letter. Ferdinand

I have this night diggā€™d up a mandrake.60

Cardinal

Say you?

Ferdinand

And I am grown mad withā€™t.

Cardinal

Whatā€™s the prodigy?

Ferdinand

Read thereā ā€”a sister damnā€™d: sheā€™s loose iā€™ the hilts;61
Grown a notorious strumpet.

Cardinal

Speak lower.

Ferdinand

Lower!
Rogues do not whisperā€™t now, but seek to publishā€™t
(As servants do the bounty of their lords)
Aloud; and with a covetous searching eye,
To mark who note them. O, confusion seize her!
She hath had most cunning bawds to serve her turn,
And more secure conveyances for lust
Than towns of garrison for service.

Cardinal

Isā€™t possible?
Can this be certain?

Ferdinand

Rhubarb, O, for rhubarb
To purge this choler! Hereā€™s the cursed day
To prompt my memory; and hereā€™t shall stick
Till of her bleeding heart I make a sponge
To wipe it out.

Cardinal

Why do you make yourself
So wild a tempest?

Ferdinand

Would I could be one,
That I might toss her palace ā€™bout her ears,
Root up her goodly forests, blast her meads,
And lay her general territory as waste
As she hath done her honours.

Cardinal

Shall our blood,
The royal blood of Arragon and Castile,
Be thus attainted?

Ferdinand

Apply desperate physic:
We must not now use balsamum, but fire,
The smarting cupping-glass, for thatā€™s the mean
To purge infected blood, such blood as hers.
There is a kind of pity in mine eyeā ā€”
Iā€™ll give it to my handkercher; and now ā€™tis here,
Iā€™ll bequeath this to her bastard.

Cardinal

What to do?

Ferdinand

Why, to make soft lint for his motherā€™s wounds,
When I have hewā€™d her to pieces.

Cardinal

Cursā€™d creature!
Unequal nature, to place womenā€™s hearts
So far upon the left side!62

Ferdinand

Foolish men,
That eā€™er will trust their honour in a bark
Made of so slight weak bulrush as is woman,
Apt every minute to sink it!

Cardinal

Thus ignorance, when it hath purchasā€™d honour,
It cannot wield it.

Ferdinand

Methinks I see her laughingā ā€”
Excellent hyena! Talk to me somewhat quickly,
Or my imagination will carry me
To see her in the shameful act of sin.

Cardinal

With whom?

Ferdinand

Happily with some strong-thighā€™d bargeman,
Or one oā€™ thā€™ wood-yard that can quoit the sledge63
Or toss the bar, or else some lovely squire
That carries coals up to her privy lodgings.

Cardinal

You fly beyond your reason.

Ferdinand

Go to, mistress!
ā€™Tis not your whoreā€™s milk that shall quench my wildfire,
But your whoreā€™s blood.

Cardinal

How idly shows this rage, which carries you,
As men conveyā€™d by witches through the air,
On violent whirlwinds! This intemperate noise
Fitly resembles deaf menā€™s shrill discourse,
Who talk aloud, thinking all other men
To have their imperfection.

Ferdinand

Have not you
My palsy?

Cardinal

Yes, [but] I can be angry
Without

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