The Duchess of Malfi

pain many times is taken away with the apprehension of greater,
as the tooth-ache with the sight of a barber that comes to pull
it out. There 's philosophy for you.
BOSOLA.  Now my revenge is perfect. – Sink, thou main cause
Kills FERDINAND.
Of my undoing! – The last part of my life
Hath done me best service.
FERDINAND.  Give me some wet hay; I am broken-winded.
I do account this world but a dog-kennel:
I will vault credit and affect high pleasures
Beyond death.
BOSOLA.        He seems to come to himself,
Now he 's so near the bottom.
FERDINAND.  My sister, O my sister! there 's the cause on 't.
Whether we fall by ambition, blood, or lust,
Like diamonds, we are cut with our own dust.
[Dies.]
CARDINAL.  Thou hast thy payment too.
BOSOLA.  Yes, I hold my weary soul in my teeth;
'Tis ready to part from me.  I do glory
That thou, which stood'st like a huge pyramid
Begun upon a large and ample base,
Shalt end in a little point, a kind of nothing.

[Enter, below, PESCARA, MALATESTI, RODERIGO, and GRISOLAN]

PESCARA.  How now, my lord!
MALATESTI.                   O sad disaster!
RODERIGO.                                     How comes this?
BOSOLA.  Revenge for the Duchess of Malfi murdered
By the Arragonian brethren; for Antonio
Slain by this hand; for lustful Julia
Poison'd by this man; and lastly for myself,
That was an actor in the main of all
Much 'gainst mine own good nature, yet i' the end
Neglected.
PESCARA.    How now, my lord!
CARDINAL.                      Look to my brother:
He gave us these large wounds, as we were struggling
Here i' th' rushes.  And now, I pray, let me
Be laid by and never thought of.
[Dies.]
PESCARA.  How fatally, it seems, he did withstand
His own rescue!
MALATESTI.       Thou wretched thing of blood,
How came Antonio by his death?
BOSOLA.  In a mist; I know not how:
Such a mistake as I have often seen
In a play.  O, I am gone!
We are only like dead walls or vaulted graves,
That, ruin'd, yield no echo.  Fare you well.
It may be pain, but no harm, to me to die
In so good a quarrel.  O, this gloomy world!
In what a shadow, or deep pit of darkness,
Doth womanish and fearful mankind live!
Let worthy minds ne'er stagger in distrust
To suffer death or shame for what is just:
Mine is another voyage.
[Dies.]
PESCARA.  The noble Delio, as I came to th' palace,
Told me of Antonio's being here, and show'd me
A pretty gentleman, his son and heir.

[Enter DELIO, and ANTONIO'S Son]

MALATESTI.  O sir, you come too late!
DELIO.                                 I heard so, and
Was arm'd for 't, ere I came.  Let us make noble use
Of this great ruin; and join all our force
To establish this young hopeful gentleman
In 's mother's right.  These wretched eminent things
Leave no more fame behind 'em, than should one
Fall in a frost, and leave his print in snow;
As soon as the sun shines, it ever melts,
Both form and matter.  I have ever thought
Nature doth nothing so great for great men
As when she 's pleas'd to make them lords of truth:
Integrity of life is fame's best friend,
Which nobly, beyond death, shall crown the end.

Exeunt.

END OF PLAY

notes

1

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

2

Prevent.

3

The same.

4