The Duchess of Malfi

DUCHESS.                                   So late?
BOSOLA.  He told me, as he mounted into the saddle,
You were undone.
DUCHESS.          Indeed, I am very near it.
BOSOLA.  What 's the matter?
DUCHESS.  Antonio, the master of our household,
Hath dealt so falsely with me in 's accounts.
My brother stood engag'd with me for money
Ta'en up of certain Neapolitan Jews,
And Antonio lets the bonds be forfeit.
BOSOLA.  Strange! – [Aside.] This is cunning.
DUCHESS.  And hereupon
My brother's bills at Naples are protested
Against. – Call up our officers.
BOSOLA.                          I shall.

Exit.

[Re-enter ANTONIO]

DUCHESS.  The place that you must fly to is Ancona:
Hire a house there; I 'll send after you
My treasure and my jewels.  Our weak safety
Runs upon enginous wheels:[82 - Wheels of craft.] short syllables
Must stand for periods.  I must now accuse you
Of such a feigned crime as Tasso calls
Magnanima menzogna, a noble lie,
'Cause it must shield our honours. – Hark! they are coming.

[Re-enter BOSOLA and Officers]

ANTONIO.  Will your grace hear me?
DUCHESS.  I have got well by you; you have yielded me
A million of loss:  I am like to inherit
The people's curses for your stewardship.
You had the trick in audit-time to be sick,
Till I had sign'd your quietus;[83 - Certificate that the books were found correct.] and that cur'd you
Without help of a doctor. – Gentlemen,
I would have this man be an example to you all;
So shall you hold my favour; I pray, let him;
For h'as done that, alas, you would not think of,
And, because I intend to be rid of him,
I mean not to publish. – Use your fortune elsewhere.
ANTONIO.  I am strongly arm'd to brook my overthrow,
As commonly men bear with a hard year.
I will not blame the cause on 't; but do think
The necessity of my malevolent star
Procures this, not her humour.  O, the inconstant
And rotten ground of service!  You may see,
'Tis even like him, that in a winter night,
Takes a long slumber o'er a dying fire,
A-loth to part from 't; yet parts thence as cold
As when he first sat down.
DUCHESS.                    We do confiscate,
Towards the satisfying of your accounts,
All that you have.
ANTONIO.            I am all yours; and 'tis very fit
All mine should be so.
DUCHESS.                So, sir, you have your pass.
ANTONIO.  You may see, gentlemen, what 'tis to serve
A prince with body and soul.

Exit.

BOSOLA.  Here 's an example for extortion:  what moisture is drawn
out of the sea, when foul weather comes, pours down, and runs into
the sea again.
DUCHESS.  I would know what are your opinions
Of this Antonio.
SECOND OFFICER.  He could not abide to see a pig's head gaping:
I thought your grace would find him a Jew.
THIRD OFFICER.  I would you had been his officer, for your own sake.
FOURTH OFFICER.  You would have had more money.
FIRST OFFICER.  He stopped his ears with black wool, and to those came
to him for money said he was thick of hearing.
SECOND OFFICER.  Some said he was an hermaphrodite, for he could not
abide a woman.
FOURTH OFFICER.  How scurvy proud he would look when the treasury
was full!  Well, let him go.
FIRST OFFICER.  Yes, and the chippings of the buttery fly after him,
to scour his gold chain.[84 - The badge of a steward.]
DUCHESS.  Leave us.

Exeunt [Officers.]

What do you think of these?
BOSOLA.  That these are rogues that in 's prosperity,
But to have waited on his fortune, could have wish'd
His dirty stirrup riveted through their noses,
And follow'd after 's mule, like a bear in a ring;
Would have prostituted their daughters to his lust;
Made their first-born intelligencers;[85 - Spies.] thought none happy
But such as were born under his blest planet,
And wore his livery:  and do these lice drop off now?
Well, never look to have the like again:
He hath left a sort[86 - Lot.] of flattering rogues behind him;
Their doom must follow.  Princes pay flatterers
In their own money:  flatterers dissemble their vices,
And they dissemble their lies; that 's justice.
Alas, poor gentleman!