The Duchess of Malfi

So far upon the left side![69 - Supposed to be a sign of folly.]
FERDINAND.                  Foolish men,
That e'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 purchas'd honour,
It cannot wield it.
FERDINAND.           Methinks I see her laughing, —
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-thigh'd bargeman,
Or one o' th' wood-yard that can quoit the sledge[70 - Throw the hammer.]
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!
'Tis not your whore's milk that shall quench my wild-fire,
But your whore's blood.
CARDINAL.  How idly shows this rage, which carries you,
As men convey'd by witches through the air,
On violent whirlwinds!  This intemperate noise
Fitly resembles deaf men'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 this rupture.  There is not in nature
A thing that makes man so deform'd, so beastly,
As doth intemperate anger.  Chide yourself.
You have divers men who never yet express'd
Their strong desire of rest but by unrest,
By vexing of themselves.  Come, put yourself
In tune.
FERDINAND.  So I will only study to seem
The thing I am not.  I could kill her now,
In you, or in myself; for I do think
It is some sin in us heaven doth revenge
By her.
CARDINAL.  Are you stark mad?
FERDINAND.                     I would have their bodies
Burnt in a coal-pit with the ventage stopp'd,
That their curs'd smoke might not ascend to heaven;
Or dip the sheets they lie in in pitch or sulphur,
Wrap them in 't, and then light them like a match;
Or else to-boil[71 - Boil to shreds. (Dyce.) Qq, TO BOIL.] their bastard to a cullis,
And give 't his lecherous father to renew
The sin of his back.
CARDINAL.             I 'll leave you.
FERDINAND.                              Nay, I have done.
I am confident, had I been damn'd in hell,
And should have heard of this, it would have put me
Into a cold sweat.  In, in; I 'll go sleep.
Till I know who [loves] my sister, I 'll not stir:
That known, I 'll find scorpions to string my whips,
And fix her in a general eclipse.

Exeunt.

Act III

Scene I[72 - Malfi. An apartment in the palace of the Duchess.]

[Enter] ANTONIO and DELIO

ANTONIO.  Our noble friend, my most beloved Delio!
O, you have been a stranger long at court:
Came you along with the Lord Ferdinand?
DELIO.  I did, sir:  and how fares your noble duchess?
ANTONIO.  Right fortunately well:  she 's an excellent
Feeder of pedigrees; since you last saw her,
She hath had two children more, a son and daughter.
DELIO.  Methinks 'twas yesterday.  Let me but wink,
And not behold your face, which to mine eye
Is somewhat leaner, verily I should dream
It were within this half hour.
ANTONIO.  You have not been in law, friend Delio,
Nor in prison, nor a suitor at the court,
Nor begg'd the reversion of some great man's place,
Nor troubled with an old wife, which doth make
Your time so insensibly hasten.
DELIO.                           Pray, sir, tell me,
Hath not this news arriv'd yet to the ear
Of the lord cardinal?
ANTONIO.               I fear it hath:
The Lord Ferdinand, that 's newly come to court,
Doth bear himself right dangerously.
DELIO.                                Pray, why?
ANTONIO.  He is so quiet that he seems to sleep
The tempest out, as dormice do in winter.
Those houses that are haunted are most still
Till the devil be up.
DELIO.                 What say the common people?
ANTONIO.  The common rabble do directly say
She is a strumpet.
DELIO.              And your graver heads
Which would be politic, what censure they?
ANTONIO.  They do observe I grow to infinite purchase,[73 - Wealth.]