The Duchess of Malfi | Page 4

he rails at those things which he wants; Would be as lecherous, covetous, or proud, Bloody, or envious, as any man, If he had means to be so.--Here's the cardinal.
[Enter CARDINAL and BOSOLA]
BOSOLA. I do haunt you still.
CARDINAL. So.
BOSOLA. I have done you better service than to be slighted thus. Miserable age, where only the reward of doing well is the doing of it!
CARDINAL. You enforce your merit too much.
BOSOLA. I fell into the galleys in your service: where, for two years together, I wore two towels instead of a shirt, with a knot on the shoulder, after the fashion of a Roman mantle. Slighted thus! I will thrive some way. Black-birds fatten best in hard weather; why not I in these dog-days?
CARDINAL. Would you could become honest!
BOSOLA. With all your divinity do but direct me the way to it. I have known many travel far for it, and yet return as arrant knaves as they went forth, because they carried themselves always along with them. [Exit CARDINAL.] Are you gone? Some fellows, they say, are possessed with the devil, but this great fellow were able to possess the greatest devil, and make him worse.
ANTONIO. He hath denied thee some suit?
BOSOLA. He and his brother are like plum-trees that grow crooked over standing-pools; they are rich and o'erladen with fruit, but none but crows, pies, and caterpillars feed on them. Could I be one of their flattering panders, I would hang on their ears like a horseleech, till I were full, and then drop off. I pray, leave me. Who would rely upon these miserable dependencies, in expectation to be advanc'd to-morrow? What creature ever fed worse than hoping Tantalus? Nor ever died any man more fearfully than he that hoped for a pardon. There are rewards for hawks and dogs when they have done us service; but for a soldier that hazards his limbs in a battle, nothing but a kind of geometry is his last supportation.
DELIO. Geometry?
BOSOLA. Ay, to hang in a fair pair of slings, take his latter swing in the world upon an honourable pair of crutches, from hospital to hospital. Fare ye well, sir: and yet do not you scorn us; for places in the court are but like beds in the hospital, where this man's head lies at that man's foot, and so lower and lower. [Exit.]
DELIO. I knew this fellow seven years in the galleys For a notorious murder; and 'twas thought The cardinal suborn'd it: he was releas'd By the French general, Gaston de Foix, When he recover'd Naples.
ANTONIO. 'Tis great pity He should be thus neglected: I have heard He 's very valiant. This foul melancholy Will poison all his goodness; for, I 'll tell you, If too immoderate sleep be truly said To be an inward rust unto the soul, If then doth follow want of action Breeds all black malcontents; and their close rearing, Like moths in cloth, do hurt for want of wearing.
Scene II<3>
ANTONIO, DELIO, [Enter SILVIO, CASTRUCCIO, JULIA, RODERIGO and GRISOLAN]
DELIO. The presence 'gins to fill: you promis'd me To make me the partaker of the natures Of some of your great courtiers.
ANTONIO. The lord cardinal's And other strangers' that are now in court? I shall.--Here comes the great Calabrian duke.
[Enter FERDINAND and Attendants]
FERDINAND. Who took the ring oftenest?<4>
SILVIO. Antonio Bologna, my lord.
FERDINAND. Our sister duchess' great-master of her household? Give him the jewel.--When shall we leave this sportive action, and fall to action indeed?
CASTRUCCIO. Methinks, my lord, you should not desire to go to war in person.
FERDINAND. Now for some gravity.--Why, my lord?
CASTRUCCIO. It is fitting a soldier arise to be a prince, but not necessary a prince descend to be a captain.
FERDINAND. No?
CASTRUCCIO. No, my lord; he were far better do it by a deputy.
FERDINAND. Why should he not as well sleep or eat by a deputy? This might take idle, offensive, and base office from him, whereas the other deprives him of honour.
CASTRUCCIO. Believe my experience, that realm is never long in quiet where the ruler is a soldier.
FERDINAND. Thou toldest me thy wife could not endure fighting.
CASTRUCCIO. True, my lord.
FERDINAND. And of a jest she broke of<5> a captain she met full of wounds: I have forgot it.
CASTRUCCIO. She told him, my lord, he was a pitiful fellow, to lie, like the children of Ismael, all in tents.<6>
FERDINAND. Why, there's a wit were able to undo all the chirurgeons<7> o' the city; for although gallants should quarrel, and had drawn their weapons, and were ready to go to it, yet her persuasions would make them put up.
CASTRUCCIO. That she would, my lord.--How do you like my Spanish gennet?<8>
RODERIGO. He is all fire.
FERDINAND. I am of Pliny's opinion, I think he was begot by the wind; he runs as if he were ballass'd<9> with