The Duchess of Malfi

a pretty way on’t to discover

Your longing. Come, come, I’ll disarm you,

And arm you thus: yet this is wondrous strange.

Julia

Compare thy form and my eyes together,

You’ll find my love no such great miracle.

Now you’ll say

I am wanton: this nice modesty in ladies

Is but a troublesome familiar

That haunts them.



Bosola

Know you me, I am a blunt soldier.



Julia

The better:

Sure, there wants fire where there are no lively sparks

Of roughness.



Bosola

And I want compliment.



Julia

Why, ignorance

In courtship cannot make you do amiss,

If you have a heart to do well.



Bosola

You are very fair.



Julia

Nay, if you lay beauty to my charge,

I must plead unguilty.



Bosola

Your bright eyes

Carry a quiver of darts in them sharper

Than sunbeams.



Julia

You will mar me with commendation,

Put yourself to the charge of courting me,

Whereas now I woo you.



Bosola

Aside. I have it, I will work upon this creature.⁠—

Let us grow most amorously familiar:

If the great cardinal now should see me thus,

Would he not count me a villain?



Julia

No; he might count me a wanton,

Not lay a scruple of offence on you;

For if I see and steal a diamond,

The fault is not i’ th’ stone, but in me the thief

That purloins it. I am sudden with you.

We that are great women of pleasure use to cut off

These uncertain wishes and unquiet longings,

And in an instant join the sweet delight

And the pretty excuse together. Had you been i’ th’ street,

Under my chamber-window, even there

I should have courted you.



Bosola

O, you are an excellent lady!



Julia

Bid me do somewhat for you presently

To express I love you.



Bosola

I will; and if you love me,

Fail not to effect it.

The cardinal is grown wondrous melancholy;

Demand the cause, let him not put you off

With feign’d excuse; discover the main ground on’t.



Julia

Why would you know this?



Bosola

I have depended on him,

And I hear that he is fall’n in some disgrace

With the emperor: if he be, like the mice

That forsake falling houses, I would shift

To other dependance.



Julia

You shall not need

Follow the wars: I’ll be your maintenance.



Bosola

And I your loyal servant: but I cannot

Leave my calling.



Julia

Not leave an ungrateful

General for the love of a sweet lady!

You are like some cannot sleep in featherbeds,

But must have blocks for their pillows.



Bosola

Will you do this?



Julia

Cunningly.



Bosola

Tomorrow I’ll expect th’ intelligence.



Julia

Tomorrow! get you into my cabinet;

You shall have it with you. Do not delay me,

No more than I do you: I am like one

That is condemn’d; I have my pardon promis’d,

But I would see it seal’d. Go, get you in:

You shall see my wind my tongue about his heart

Like a skein of silk.




Exit Bosala.



Re-enter Cardinal.


Cardinal

Where are you?




Enter Servants.


Servants

Here.



Cardinal

Let none, upon your lives, have conference

With the Prince Ferdinand, unless I know it.⁠—

Aside. In this distraction he may reveal

The murder.




Exeunt Servants.




Yond’s my lingering consumption:

I am weary of her, and by any means

Would be quit of.



Julia

How now, my lord! what ails you?



Cardinal

Nothing.



Julia

O, you are much alter’d:

Come, I must be your secretary, and remove

This lead from off your bosom: what’s the matter?



Cardinal

I may not tell you.



Julia

Are you so far in love with sorrow

You cannot part with part of it? Or think you

I cannot love your grace when you are sad

As well as merry? Or do you suspect

I, that have been a secret to your heart

These many winters, cannot be the same

Unto your tongue?



Cardinal

Satisfy thy longing⁠—

The only way to make thee keep my counsel

Is, not to tell thee.



Julia

Tell your echo this,

Or flatterers, that like echoes still report

What they hear though most imperfect, and not me;

For if that you be true unto yourself,

I’ll know.



Cardinal

Will you rack me?



Julia

No, judgment shall

Draw it from you: it is an equal fault,

To tell one’s secrets unto all or none.



Cardinal

The first argues folly.



Julia

But the last tyranny.



Cardinal

Very well: why, imagine I have committed

Some secret deed which I desire the world

May never hear of.



Julia

Therefore may not I know it?

You have conceal’d for me as great a sin

As adultery. Sir, never was occasion

For perfect trial of my constancy

Till now: sir, I beseech you⁠—



Cardinal

You’ll repent it.



Julia

Never.



Cardinal

It hurries thee to ruin: I’ll not tell thee.

Be well advis’d, and think what danger ’tis

To receive a prince’s secrets. They that do,

Had need have their breasts hoop’d with adamant

To contain them. I pray thee, yet be satisfi’d;

Examine thine own frailty; ’tis more easy

To tie knots than unloose them. ’Tis a secret

That, like a ling’ring poison, may chance lie

Spread in thy veins, and kill thee seven year hence.



Julia

Now you dally with me.



Cardinal

No more; thou shalt know it.

By my appointment the great Duchess of Malfi

And two of her young children, four nights since,

Were strangl’d.



Julia

O heaven! sir, what have you done!



Cardinal

How now? How settles this? Think you your bosom

Will be a grave dark and obscure enough

For such a secret?



Julia

You have undone yourself, sir.



Cardinal

Why?



Julia

It lies not in me to conceal it.



Cardinal

No?

Come, I will swear you to’t upon this book.



Julia

Most religiously.



Cardinal

Kiss it. She kisses the book.





Now you shall never utter it; thy curiosity

Hath undone thee; thou ’rt poison’d with that book.

Because I knew thou couldst not keep my counsel,

I have bound thee to’t by death.




Re-enter Bosala.


Bosola

For pity-sake, hold!



Cardinal

Ha, Bosola!



Julia

I forgive you

This equal piece of justice you have done;

For I betray’d your counsel to that fellow.

He overheard it; that was the cause I said

It lay not in me to conceal it.



Bosola

O foolish woman,

Couldst not thou have poison’d