The Duchess of Malfi

[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 presently[49 - At once.]  Go set a figure for 's nativity.[50 - Cast his horoscope.]       Exeunt.

Scene III[51 - The court of the same palace.]

[Enter BOSOLA, 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 figure[52 - Making an astrological calculation.]
For the duchess' jewels.
BOSOLA.                   Ah, and how falls your question?
Do you find it radical?[53 - Going to the root of the matter.]
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 night-walker.
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 to-day:
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 libel[54 - Write.] 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,[55 - i. e., on his handkerchief.]
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.  Antonio hereabout did drop a paper: —
Some of your help, false friend.[56 - Addressing the lantern.]– O, here it is.
What 's here? a child's nativity calculated!

[Reads.]

'The duchess was deliver'd of a son, 'tween the hours
twelve and one in the night, Anno Dom. 1504,' – that 's
this year – 'decimo nono Decembris,' – that 's this night —
'taken according to the meridian of Malfi,' – that 's our
duchess:  happy discovery! – 'The lord of the first house
being combust in the ascendant, signifies short life;
and Mars being in a human sign, joined to the tail of the
Dragon, in the eighth house, doth threaten a violent death.