The Duchess of Malfi

Name: The Duchess of Malfi
Author: John Webster

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To the Rt. Hon. George Harding, Baron Berkeley,1 of Berkeley Castle, and Knight of the Order of the Bath to the illustrious Prince Charles.

My Noble Lord,

That I may present my excuse why, being a stranger to your lordship, I offer this poem to your patronage, I plead this warrant:—men who never saw the sea yet desire to behold that regiment of waters, choose some eminent river to guide them thither, and make that, as it were, their conduct or postilion: by the like ingenious means has your fame arrived at my knowledge, receiving it from some of worth, who both in contemplation and practice owe to your honour their clearest service. I do not altogether look up at your title; the ancientest nobility being but a relic of time past, and the truest honour indeed being for a map to confer honour on himself, which your learning strives to propagate, and shall make you arrive at the dignity of a great example. I am confident this work is not unworthy your honour’s perusal; for by such poems as this poets have kissed the hands of great princes, and drawn their gentle eyes to look down upon their sheets of paper when the poets themselves were bound up in their winding-sheets. The like courtesy from your lordship shall make you live in your grave, and laurel spring out of it, when the ignorant scorners of the Muses, that like worms in libraries seem to live only to destroy learning, shall wither neglected and forgotten. This work and myself I humbly present to your approved censure, it being the utmost of my wishes to have your honourable self my weighty and perspicuous comment; which grace so done me shall ever be acknowledged

Dramatis Personae

Ferdinand Duke of Calabria
Cardinal his brother
Antonio Bologna, Steward of the Household to the Duchess
Delio his friend
Daniel de Bosola, Gentleman of the Horse to the Duchess
Castruccio, an old Lord
Marquis of Pescara
Count Malatesti
Roderigo,
Silvio,
Grisolan, Lords
Doctor
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: Malfi, Rome, Loretto, and Milan.

Act I

Scene I

Malfi. The presence chamber in the palace of the Duchess.

	Enter Antonio* and Delio.*
Delio	You are welcome to your country, dear Antonio; You have been long in France, and you return A very formal Frenchman in your habit: How do you like the French court?
Antonio	I admire it: In seeking to reduce both state and people To a fix’d order, their judicious king Begins at home; quits first his royal palace Of flattering sycophants, of dissolute And infamous persons—which he sweetly terms His master’s masterpiece, the work of heaven; 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 curs’d example poison’t near the head, Death and diseases through the whole land spread. And what is’t makes this blessed government But a most provident council, who dare freely Inform him the corruption of the times? Though some o’ the court hold it presumption To instruct princes what they ought to do, It is a noble duty to inform them What they ought to foresee.2—Here comes Bosola, The only court-gall; yet I observe his railing Is not for simple love of piety: Indeed, he rails at those things which he wants; Would be as lecherous, covetous, or proud, Bloody, or envious, as any man, If he had means to be so.—Here’s the cardinal.
	Enter Cardinal* and Bosala.*
Bosola	I do haunt you still.
Cardinal	So.
Bosola	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!
Cardinal	You enforce your merit too much.
Bosola	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 some way. Blackbirds fatten best in hard weather; why not I in these dog-days?
Cardinal	Would you could become honest!
Bosola	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.
Antonio	He hath denied thee some suit?
Bosola	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. Could I be one of their flattering panders, I would hang on their ears like a horseleech, till I were full, and then drop off. I pray, leave me. Who would rely upon these miserable dependencies, in expectation to be advanc’d tomorrow? What creature ever fed worse than hoping Tantalus? Nor ever died any man more fearfully than he that hoped for a pardon. There are rewards for hawks and dogs when 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?
Bosola	Ay, to hang in a fair pair of slings, take his latter swing in the world upon an honourable 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.
Delio	I knew this fellow seven years in the galleys For a notorious murder; and ’twas thought The cardinal suborn’d it: he was releas’d By the French general, Gaston de Foix, When he recover’d Naples.
Antonio	’Tis great pity He should be thus neglected: I have heard He’s very valiant. This foul melancholy Will poison all his goodness; for, I’ll tell you, If too immoderate sleep be truly said To be an inward rust unto the soul, If then doth follow want of action Breeds all black malcontents; and their close rearing, Like moths in cloth, do hurt for want of wearing.

fetching the rest…

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Dramatis Personae

Ferdinand Duke of Calabria

Cardinal his brother

Antonio Bologna, Steward of the Household to the Duchess

Delio his friend

Daniel de Bosola, Gentleman of the Horse to the Duchess

Castruccio, an old Lord

Marquis of Pescara

Count Malatesti

Roderigo,
Silvio,
Grisolan, Lords

Doctor

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: Malfi, Rome, Loretto, and Milan.

Act I

Scene I

Malfi. The presence chamber in the palace of the Duchess.

	Enter Antonio* and Delio.*
Delio	You are welcome to your country, dear Antonio; You have been long in France, and you return A very formal Frenchman in your habit: How do you like the French court?
Antonio	I admire it: In seeking to reduce both state and people To a fix’d order, their judicious king Begins at home; quits first his royal palace Of flattering sycophants, of dissolute And infamous persons—which he sweetly terms His master’s masterpiece, the work of heaven; 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 curs’d example poison’t near the head, Death and diseases through the whole land spread. And what is’t makes this blessed government But a most provident council, who dare freely Inform him the corruption of the times? Though some o’ the court hold it presumption To instruct princes what they ought to do, It is a noble duty to inform them What they ought to foresee.2—Here comes Bosola, The only court-gall; yet I observe his railing Is not for simple love of piety: Indeed, he rails at those things which he wants; Would be as lecherous, covetous, or proud, Bloody, or envious, as any man, If he had means to be so.—Here’s the cardinal.
	Enter Cardinal* and Bosala.*
Bosola	I do haunt you still.
Cardinal	So.
Bosola	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!
Cardinal	You enforce your merit too much.
Bosola	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 some way. Blackbirds fatten best in hard weather; why not I in these dog-days?
Cardinal	Would you could become honest!
Bosola	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.
Antonio	He hath denied thee some suit?
Bosola	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. Could I be one of their flattering panders, I would hang on their ears like a horseleech, till I were full, and then drop off. I pray, leave me. Who would rely upon these miserable dependencies, in expectation to be advanc’d tomorrow? What creature ever fed worse than hoping Tantalus? Nor ever died any man more fearfully than he that hoped for a pardon. There are rewards for hawks and dogs when 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?
Bosola	Ay, to hang in a fair pair of slings, take his latter swing in the world upon an honourable 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.
Delio	I knew this fellow seven years in the galleys For a notorious murder; and ’twas thought The cardinal suborn’d it: he was releas’d By the French general, Gaston de Foix, When he recover’d Naples.
Antonio	’Tis great pity He should be thus neglected: I have heard He’s very valiant. This foul melancholy Will poison all his goodness; for, I’ll tell you, If too immoderate sleep be truly said To be an inward rust unto the soul, If then doth follow want of action Breeds all black malcontents; and their close rearing, Like moths in cloth, do hurt for want of wearing.