Scene + 

III + 

Malfi. Gallery in the Duchess’ palace. + 

Enter Ferdinand, Duchess, Cardinal, and Cariola. + 

Cardinal + 

We are to part from you; and your own discretion + 

Must now be your director. + 

Ferdinand + 

You are a widow: + 

You know already what man is; and therefore + 

Let not youth, high promotion, eloquence⁠— + 

Cardinal + 

No, + 

Nor anything without the addition, honour, + 

Sway your high blood. + 

Ferdinand + 

Marry! they are most luxurious + 

Will wed twice. + 

Cardinal + 

O, fie! + 

Ferdinand + 

Their livers are more spotted + 

Than Laban’s sheep. + 

Duchess + 

Diamonds are of most value, + 

They say, that have pass’d through most jewellers’ hands. + 

Ferdinand + 

Whores by that rule are precious. + 

Duchess + 

Will you hear me? + 

I’ll never marry. + 

Cardinal + 

So most widows say; + 

But commonly that motion lasts no longer + 

Than the turning of an hourglass: the funeral sermon + 

And it end both together. + 

Ferdinand + 

Now hear me: + 

You live in a rank pasture, here, i’ the court; + 

There is a kind of honeydew that’s deadly; + 

’T will poison your fame; look to’t. Be not cunning; + 

For they whose faces do belie their hearts + 

Are witches ere they arrive at twenty years, + 

Ay, and give the devil suck. + 

Duchess + 

This is terrible good counsel. + 

Ferdinand + 

Hypocrisy is woven of a fine small thread, + 

Subtler than Vulcan’s engine: yet, believe’t, + 

Your darkest actions, nay, your privat’st thoughts, + 

Will come to light. + 

Cardinal + 

You may flatter yourself, + 

And take your own choice; privately be married + 

Under the eaves of night⁠— + 

Ferdinand + 

Think’t the best voyage + 

That e’er you made; like the irregular crab, + 

Which, though’t goes backward, thinks that it goes right + 

Because it goes its own way: but observe, + 

Such weddings may more properly be said + 

To be executed than celebrated. + 

Cardinal + 

The marriage night + 

Is the entrance into some prison. + 

Ferdinand + 

And those joys, + 

Those lustful pleasures, are like heavy sleeps + 

Which do fore-run man’s mischief. + 

Cardinal + 

Fare you well. + 

Wisdom begins at the end: remember it. + 

Exit. + 

Duchess + 

I think this speech between you both was studied, + 

It came so roundly off. + 

Ferdinand + 

You are my sister; + 

This was my father’s poniard, do you see? + 

I’d be loth to see’t look rusty, ’cause ’twas his. + 

I would have you give o’er these chargeable revels: + 

A visor and a mask are whispering-rooms + 

That were never built for goodness⁠—fare ye well⁠— + 

And women like variety of courtship. + 

What cannot a neat knave with a smooth tale + 

Make a woman believe? Farewell, lusty widow. + 

Exit. + 

Duchess + 

Shall this move me? If all my royal kindred + 

Lay in my way unto this marriage, + 

I’d make them my low footsteps. And even now, + 

Even in this hate, as men in some great battles, + 

By apprehending danger, have achiev’d + 

Almost impossible actions (I have heard soldiers say so), + 

So I through frights and threatenings will assay + 

This dangerous venture. Let old wives report + 

I wink’d and chose a husband.⁠—Cariola, + 

To thy known secrecy I have given up + 

More than my life⁠—my fame. + 

Cariola + 

Both shall be safe; + 

For I’ll conceal this secret from the world + 

As warily as those that trade in poison + 

Keep poison from their children. + 

Duchess + 

Thy protestation + 

Is ingenious and hearty; I believe it. + 

Is Antonio come? + 

Cariola + 

He attends you. + 

Duchess + 

Good dear soul, + 

Leave me; but place thyself behind the arras, + 

Where thou mayst overhear us. Wish me good speed; + 

For I am going into a wilderness, + 

Where I shall find nor path nor friendly clue + 

To be my guide. + 

Cariola goes behind the arras. + 

Enter Antonio. + 

I sent for you: sit down; + 

Take pen and ink, and write: are you ready? + 

Antonio + 

Yes. + 

Duchess + 

What did I say? + 

Antonio + 

That I should write somewhat. + 

Duchess + 

O, I remember. + 

After these triumphs and this large expense + 

It’s fit, like thrifty husbands, we inquire + 

What’s laid up for tomorrow. + 

Antonio + 

So please your beauteous excellence. + 

Duchess + 

Beauteous! + 

Indeed, I thank you. I look young for your sake; + 

You have ta’en my cares upon you. + 

Antonio + 

I’ll fetch your grace + 

The particulars of your revenue and expense. + 

Duchess + 

O, you are + 

An upright treasurer: but you mistook; + 

For when I said I meant to make inquiry + 

What’s laid up for tomorrow, I did mean + 

What’s laid up yonder for me. + 

Antonio + 

Where? + 

Duchess + 

In heaven. + 

I am making my will (as ’tis fit princes should, + 

In perfect memory), and, I pray, sir, tell me, + 

Were not one better make it smiling, thus, + 

Than in deep groans and terrible ghastly looks, + 

As if the gifts we parted with procur’d + 

That violent distraction? + 

Antonio + 

O, much better. + 

Duchess + 

If I had a husband now, this care were quit: + 

But I intend to make you overseer. + 

What good deed shall we first remember? Say. + 

Antonio + 

Begin with that first good deed began i’ the world + 

After man’s creation, the sacrament of marriage; + 

I’d have you first provide for a good husband; + 

Give him all. + 

Duchess + 

All! + 

Antonio + 

Yes, your excellent self. + 

Duchess + 

In a winding-sheet? + 

Antonio + 

In a couple. + 

Duchess + 

Saint Winifred, that were a strange will! + 

Antonio + 

’Twere stranger if there were no will in you + 

To marry again. + 

Duchess + 

What do you think of marriage? + 

Antonio + 

I take’t, as those that deny purgatory, + 

It locally contains or heaven or hell; + 

There’s no third place in’t. + 

Duchess + 

How do you affect it? + 

Antonio + 

My banishment, feeding my melancholy, + 

Would often reason thus. + 

Duchess + 

Pray, let’s hear it. + 

Antonio + 

Say a man never marry, nor have children, + 

What takes that from him? Only the bare name + 

Of being a father, or the weak delight + 

To see the little wanton ride a-cock-horse + 

Upon a painted stick, or hear him chatter + 

Like a taught starling. + 

Duchess + 

Fie, fie, what’s all this? + 

One of your eyes is bloodshot; use my ring to’t. + 

They say ’tis very sovereign. ’Twas my wedding-ring, + 

And I did vow never to part with it + 

But to my second husband. + 

Antonio + 

You have parted with it now. + 

Duchess + 

Yes, to help your eyesight. + 

Antonio + 

You have made me stark blind. + 

Duchess + 

How? + 

Antonio + 

There is a saucy and ambitious devil + 

Is dancing in this circle. + 

Duchess + 

Remove him. + 

Antonio + 

How? + 

Duchess + 

There needs small conjuration, when your finger + 

May do it: thus. Is it fit? + 

She puts the ring upon his finger: he kneels. + 

Antonio + 

What said you? + 

Duchess + 

Sir, + 

This goodly roof of yours is too low built; + 

I cannot stand upright in’t nor discourse, + 

Without I raise it higher. Raise yourself; + 

Or, if you please, my hand to help you: so. Raises him. + 

Antonio + 

Ambition, madam, is a great man’s madness, + 

That is not kept in chains and close-pent rooms, + 

But in fair lightsome lodgings, and is girt + 

With the wild noise of prattling visitants, + 

Which makes it lunatic beyond all cure. + 

Conceive not I am so stupid but I aim + 

Whereto your favours tend: but he’s a fool + 

That, being a-cold, would thrust his hands i’ the fire + 

To warm them. + 

Duchess + 

So, now the ground’s broke, + 

You may discover what a wealthy mine + 

I make your lord of. + 

Antonio + 

O my unworthiness! + 

Duchess + 

You were ill to sell yourself: + 

This dark’ning of your worth is not like that + 

Which tradesmen use i’ the city; their false lights + 

Are to rid bad wares off: and I must tell you, + 

If you will know where breathes a complete man + 

(I speak it without flattery), turn your eyes, + 

And progress through yourself. + 

Antonio + 

Were there nor heaven nor hell, + 

I should be honest: I have long serv’d virtue, + 

And ne’er ta’en wages of her. + 

Duchess + 

Now she pays it. + 

The misery of us that are born great! + 

We are forc’d to woo, because none dare woo us; + 

And as a tyrant doubles with his words, + 

And fearfully equivocates, so we + 

Are forc’d to express our violent passions + 

In riddles and in dreams, and leave the path + 

Of simple virtue, which was never made + 

To seem the thing it is not. Go, go brag + 

You have left me heartless; mine is in your bosom: + 

I hope ’twill multiply love there. You do tremble: + 

Make not your heart so dead a piece of flesh, + 

To fear more than to love me. Sir, be confident: + 

What is’t distracts you? This is flesh and blood, sir; + 

’Tis not the figure cut in alabaster + 

Kneels at my husband’s tomb. Awake, awake, man! + 

I do here put off all vain ceremony, + 

And only do appear to you a young widow + 

That claims you for her husband, and, like a widow, + 

I use but half a blush in’t. + 

Antonio + 

Truth speak for me; + 

I will remain the constant sanctuary + 

Of your good name. + 

Duchess + 

I thank you, gentle love: + 

And ’cause you shall not come to me in debt, + 

Being now my steward, here upon your lips + 

I sign your Quietus est. This you should have begg’d now. + 

I have seen children oft eat sweetmeats thus, + 

As fearful to devour them too soon. + 

Antonio + 

But for your brothers? + 

Duchess + 

Do not think of them: + 

All discord without this circumference + 

Is only to be pitied, and not fear’d: + 

Yet, should they know it, time will easily + 

Scatter the tempest. + 

Antonio + 

These words should be mine, + 

And all the parts you have spoke, if some part of it + 

Would not have savour’d flattery. + 

Duchess + 

Kneel. + 

Cariola comes from behind the arras. + 

Antonio + 

Ha! + 

Duchess + 

Be not amaz’d; this woman’s of my counsel: + 

I have heard lawyers say, a contract in a chamber + 

Per verba [de] presenti is absolute marriage. + 

She and Antonio kneel. + 

Bless, heaven, this sacred gordian which let violence + 

Never untwine! + 

Antonio + 

And may our sweet affections, like the spheres, + 

Be still in motion! + 

Duchess + 

Quickening, and make + 

The like soft music! + 

Antonio + 

That we may imitate the loving palms, + 

Best emblem of a peaceful marriage, + 

That never bore fruit, divided! + 

Duchess + 

What can the church force more? + 

Antonio + 

That fortune may not know an accident, + 

Either of joy or sorrow, to divide + 

Our fixed wishes! + 

Duchess + 

How can the church build faster? + 

We now are man and wife, and ’tis the church + 

That must but echo this.⁠—Maid, stand apart: + 

I now am blind. + 

Antonio + 

What’s your conceit in this? + 

Duchess + 

I would have you lead your fortune by the hand + 

Unto your marriage-bed: + 

(You speak in me this, for we now are one:) + 

We’ll only lie and talk together, and plot + 

To appease my humorous kindred; and if you please, + 

Like the old tale in Alexander and Lodowick, + 

Lay a naked sword between us, keep us chaste. + 

O, let me shrowd my blushes in your bosom, + 

Since ’tis the treasury of all my secrets! + 

Exeunt Duchess and Antonio. + 

Cariola + 

Whether the spirit of greatness or of woman + 

Reign most in her, I know not; but it shows + 

A fearful madness. I owe her much of pity. + 

Exit. + 