The Duchess of Malfi | Page 9

not amaz'd; this woman 's of my counsel: I have heard
lawyers say, a contract in a chamber Per verba [de] presenti<26> is
absolute marriage. [She and ANTONIO kneel.] Bless, heaven, this
sacred gordian<27> which let violence Never untwine!
ANTONIO. And may our sweet affections, like the spheres, Be still in

motion!
DUCHESS. Quickening, and make The like soft music!
ANTONIO. That we may imitate the loving palms, Best emblem of a
peaceful marriage, That never bore fruit, divided!
DUCHESS. What can the church force more?
ANTONIO. That fortune may not know an accident, Either of joy or
sorrow, to divide Our fixed wishes!
DUCHESS. How can the church build faster?<28> We now are man
and wife, and 'tis the church That must but echo this.--Maid, stand apart:
I now am blind.
ANTONIO. What 's your conceit in this?
DUCHESS. I would have you lead your fortune by the hand Unto your
marriage-bed: (You speak in me this, for we now are one:) We 'll only
lie and talk together, and plot To appease my humorous<29> kindred;
and if you please, Like the old tale in ALEXANDER AND
LODOWICK, Lay a naked sword between us, keep us chaste. O, let me
shrowd my blushes in your bosom, Since 'tis the treasury of all my
secrets! [Exeunt DUCHESS and ANTONIO.]
CARIOLA. Whether the spirit of greatness or of woman Reign most in
her, I know not; but it shows A fearful madness. I owe her much of pity.
[Exit.]

Act II
Scene I<30>
[Enter] BOSOLA and CASTRUCCIO
BOSOLA. You say you would fain be taken for an eminent courtier?
CASTRUCCIO. 'Tis the very main<31> of my ambition.
BOSOLA. Let me see: you have a reasonable good face for 't already,
and your night-cap expresses your ears sufficient largely. I would have
you learn to twirl the strings of your band with a good grace, and in a
set speech, at th' end of every sentence, to hum three or four times, or
blow your nose till it smart again, to recover your memory. When you
come to be a president in criminal causes, if you smile upon a prisoner,
hang him; but if you frown upon him and threaten him, let him be sure
to scape the gallows.
CASTRUCCIO. I would be a very merry president.
BOSOLA. Do not sup o' nights; 'twill beget you an admirable wit.

CASTRUCCIO. Rather it would make me have a good stomach to
quarrel; for they say, your roaring boys eat meat seldom, and that
makes them so valiant. But how shall I know whether the people take
me for an eminent fellow?
BOSOLA. I will teach a trick to know it: give out you lie a-dying, and
if you hear the common people curse you, be sure you are taken for one
of the prime night-caps.<32> [Enter an Old Lady] You come from
painting now.
OLD LADY. From what?
BOSOLA. Why, from your scurvy face-physic. To behold thee not
painted inclines somewhat near a miracle. These in thy face here were
deep ruts and foul sloughs the last progress.<33> There was a lady in
France that, having had the small-pox, flayed the skin off her face to
make it more level; and whereas before she looked like a nutmeg-grater,
after she resembled an abortive hedge-hog.
OLD LADY. Do you call this painting?
BOSOLA. No, no, but you call [it] careening<34> of an old
morphewed<35> lady, to make her disembogue<36> again: there 's
rough-cast phrase to your plastic.<37>
OLD LADY. It seems you are well acquainted with my closet.
BOSOLA. One would suspect it for a shop of witchcraft, to find in it
the fat of serpents, spawn of snakes, Jews' spittle, and their young
children's ordure; and all these for the face. I would sooner eat a dead
pigeon taken from the soles of the feet of one sick of the plague, than
kiss one of you fasting. Here are two of you, whose sin of your youth is
the very patrimony of the physician; makes him renew his foot-cloth
with the spring, and change his high-pric'd courtezan with the fall of
the leaf. I do wonder you do not loathe yourselves. Observe my
meditation now. What thing is in this outward form of man To be
belov'd? We account it ominous, If nature do produce a colt, or lamb, A
fawn, or goat, in any limb resembling A man, and fly from 't as a
prodigy: Man stands amaz'd to see his deformity In any other creature
but himself. But in our own flesh though we bear diseases Which have
their true names only ta'en from beasts,-- As the most ulcerous wolf
and swinish measle,-- Though we are eaten up of lice and worms, And
though continually we bear about us A rotten and