The Duchess of Malfi

JULIA.                   I hear he '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 on 't, 'tis gold; hath it not a fine colour?
JULIA.  I have a bird more beautiful.
DELIO.                                 Try the sound on 't.
JULIA.  A lute-string far exceeds it.
It hath no smell, like cassia or civet;
Nor is it physical,[64 - Medicinal.] though some fond doctors
Persuade us seethe 't in cullises.[65 - Strong broth.] I 'll tell you,
This is a creature bred by —

[Re-enter Servant]

SERVANT.                         Your husband 's come,
Hath deliver'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 non-resident
With your husband, my mistress.
JULIA.  Sir, I '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 mov'd
With a letter sent from Malfi.  I do fear
Antonio is betray'd.  How fearfully
Shows his ambition now!  Unfortunate fortune!
They pass through whirl-pools, and deep woes do shun,
Who the event weigh ere the action 's done.

Exit.

Scene V[66 - Another apartment in the same palace.]

[Enter] CARDINAL and FERDINAND with a letter

FERDINAND.  I have this night digg'd up a mandrake.[67 - The mandrake was supposed to give forth shrieks when uprooted, which drove the hearer mad.]
CARDINAL.                                            Say you?
FERDINAND.  And I am grown mad with 't.
CARDINAL.                                What 's the prodigy[?]
FERDINAND.
Read there, – a sister damn'd:  she 's loose i' the hilts;[68 - Unchaste.]
Grown a notorious strumpet.
CARDINAL.                    Speak lower.
FERDINAND.                                 Lower!
Rogues do not whisper 't now, but seek to publish '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.                            Is 't possible?
Can this be certain?
FERDINAND.            Rhubarb, O, for rhubarb
To purge this choler!  Here 's the cursed day
To prompt my memory; and here '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 '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 that 's the mean
To purge infected blood, such blood as hers.
There is a kind of pity in mine eye, —
I 'll give it to my handkercher; and now 'tis here,
I 'll bequeath this to her bastard.
CARDINAL.                            What to do?
FERDINAND.  Why, to make soft lint for his mother's wounds,
When I have hew'd her to pieces.
CARDINAL.                         Curs'd creature!
Unequal nature, to place women's hearts