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Ant. I admire it ;

In seeking to reduce both state and people
To a fixed order, their judicious king
Begins at home; quits first his royal palace
Of flattering sycophants, of dissolute

And infamous persons, which he sweetly terms
His master's master-piece, the work of Heaven;
Considering duly that a prince's court

Is like a common fountain, whence should flow
Pure silver drops in general, but ift chance
Some cursed example poison 't near the head,
Death and diseases through the whole land spread.
And what is't makes this blessed government
But a most provident council, who dare freely
Inform him the corruption of the times?
Though some o' the court hold it presumption
To instruct princes what they ought to do,
It is a noble duty to inform them

What they ought to foresee.— Here comes Bosola,
The only court-gall; yet I observe his railing

Is not for simple love of piety :

Indeed, he rails at those things which he wants;
Would be as lecherous, covetous, or proud,

Bloody, or envious, as any man,

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If he had means to be so.

Here's the cardinal.

Enter the Cardinal and Bosola.1

Bos. I do haunt you still.

Card. So.

1 When this play was first performed, about 1616, R. Burbadge played the part of Ferdinand, H. Condell that of the Cardinal, and J. Lowin that of Bosola. The Duchess was impersonated by the actor R. Sharpe, as female rôles were not yet taken by women.

Bos. 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!

Card. You enforce your merit too much.

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Bos. 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? Card. Would you could become honest!

Bos. 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.

Ant. He hath denied thee some suit?

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Bos. He and his brother are like plum-trees that grow crooked over standing-pools; they are rich and o'er-laden 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 advanced tomorrow? 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 !

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Bos. 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.

Delio. I knew this fellow seven years in the galleys For a notorious murder; and 'twas thought

[Exit.

The cardinal suborned it: he was released

By the French general, Gaston de Foix,
When he recovered Naples.

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Ant. '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,

It then doth follow want of action

Breeds all black malcontents; and their close rearing,
Like moths in cloth, do hurt for want of wearing.
Delio. The presence 'gins to fill: you promised me

To make me the partaker of the natures

Of some of your great courtiers.

Ant. The lord cardinal's,

And other strangers' that are now in court?

I shall. — Here comes the great Calabrian duke.

So

Enter FERDINAND, CASTRUCCIO, SILVIO, RODERIGO, GRISOLAN, and Attendants.

Ferd. Who took the ring oftenest?1

1 "The allusion is to the sport called Running at the Ring, when the tilter, riding at full speed, endeavoured to thrust the point of his lance through, and to bear away, the ring, which was suspended at a particular height."— Dyce.

Sil. Antonio Bologna, my lord.

Ferd. Our sister duchess' great-master of her household? give him the jewel. - When shall we leave this sportive action, and fall to action indeed?

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Cast. Methinks, my lord, you should not desire to go to war in person.

- why, my lord?

Ferd. Now for some gravity :

Cast. It is fitting a soldier arise to be a prince, but not necessary a prince descend to be a captain.

Ferd. No?

Cast. No, my lord; he were far better do it by a deputy. Ferd. 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.

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Cast. Believe my experience, that realm is never long in quiet where the ruler is a soldier.

Ferd. Thou toldest me thy wife could not endure fighting. Cast. True, my lord.

Ferd. And of a jest she broke of a captain she met full of wounds: I have forgot it.

Cast. She told him, my lord, he was a pitiful fellow, to lie, like the children of Ismael, all in tents.1

Ferd. Why, there's a wit were able to undo all the surgeons 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.

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Cast. That she would, my lord. How do you like my Spanish gennet 2?

1 A play on the word tent, which meant also a roll of lint, or other material, used in searching a wound.

2 A small Spanish horse (written also jennet). The word is of Moorish origin, there being a tribe of Zenata in Barbary noted for its cavalry.

Rod. He is all fire.

Ferd. I am of Pliny's opinion,1 I think he was begot by the wind; he runs as if he were ballassed2 with quicksilver. Silvio. True, my lord, he reels from the tilt often.

Rod. Gris. Ha, ha, ha!

Ferd. Why do you laugh? methinks you that are courtiers should be my touchwood, take fire when I give fire ; that is, laugh but when I laugh, were the subject never so witty.

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Cast. True, my lord: I myself have heard a very good jest, and have scorned to seem to have so silly a wit as to understand it.

Ferd. But I can laugh at your fool, my lord.

Cast. He cannot speak, you know, but he makes faces: my lady cannot abide him.

Ferd. No?

Cast. Nor endure to be in merry company; for she says too much laughing, and too much company, fills her too full of the wrinkle.

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Ferd. I would, then, have a mathematical instrument made for her face, that she might not laugh out of compass. — I shall shortly visit you at Milan, Lord Silvio.

Silvio. Your grace shall arrive most welcome.

Ferd. You are a good horseman, Antonio: you have excellent riders in France: what do you think of good horsemanship?

Ant. Nobly, my lord: as out of the Grecian horse issued many famous princes, so out of brave horsemanship arise

1 See Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii, 67, where he says that in Lusitania there was a breed of fleet horses begotten by the wind Favonius; they never lived more than three years.

2 Ballasted.

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