CARI. Let me but speak with the duke; I'll discover Treason to his person. Bos. Delays:-throttle her. EXECUT. She bites and scratches. I am damn'd; I have not been at confession This two years. Bos. When ?* CARI. I am quick with child. Bos. Why then, Your credit's sav'd.-Bear her into the next room; [They strangle Cariola, and carry out her body. Let this lie still. Enter FERDINAND. FERD. Is she dead? Bos. She is what You'd have her. But here begin your pity: [Shews the children strangled. Alas! how have these offended? FERD. The death Of young wolves is never to be pitied. Bos. Fix your eye here. FERD. Constantly. Bos. Do you not weep? Other sins only speak; murther shrieks out: But blood flies upwards and bedews the heavens. When] Is addressed by Bosola to the Executioners: our old dramatists very often use the word, as here, to express impatience. FERD. Cover her face; mine eyes dazzle: she died young. Bos. I think not so; her infelicity Seem'd to have years too many. FERD. She and I were twins; And should I die this instant, I had liv'd Bos. It seems she was born first: You have bloodily approv'd the ancient truth, FERD. Let me see her face Again. Why didst not thou pity her? what What was the meanness of her match to me? Only I must confess I had a hope, Had she continu'd widow, to have gain'd An infinite mass of treasure by her death; And what was the main cause? her marriage, That drew a stream of gall quite through my heart. For thee, as we observe in tragedies * innocence] The 4to. of 1640, “ innocency.” † what] The 4to. of 1623," that." That a good actor many times is curs'd For playing a villain's part, I hate thee for't, And for my sake say thou hast done much ill, well, Bos. Let me quicken your memory, for I perceive You are falling into ingratitude; I challenge The reward due to my service. FERD. I'll tell thee what I'll give thee. Bos. Do. FERD. I'll give thee a pardon for this murther. Bos. Ha! FERD. Yes, and 'tis The largest bounty I can study to do thee. By what authority didst thou execute This bloody sentence ?* Bos. By yours. FERD. Mine was I her judge? Did any ceremonial form of law, Doom her to not-being? did a complete jury Where shalt thou find this judgment register'd, Th' hast forfeited thy life, and thou shalt die for't. FERD. O, I'll tell thee; The wolf shall find her grave, and scrape it up, *sentence] The 4to. of 1640, "service." Not to devour the corpse, but to discover Bos. You, not I, shall quake for't. FERD. Leave me. Bos. I will first receive my pension. FERD. You are a villain. Bos. When your ingratitude Is judge, I am so. FERD. O horror, That not the fear of him, which binds the devils, Can prescribe man obedience! Never look upon me more. Bos. Why, fare thee well: Your brother and yourself are worthy men: The wolf shall find her grave, and scrape it up, The horrid murther.] A common superstition : "For the same moneth next after that Adrian and Justinian had buried the dead body of De Laurier, behold a huge and ravening Wolf (being lately aroused from the adjacent vast woods) seeking up and down for his prey, came into Adrian's orchard next adjoyning to his house (purposely sent thither by God as a Minister of his sacred justice and revenge) who senting some dead carrion (which indeed was the dead Corps of De Laurier, that was but shallowly buried there in the ground) he fiercely with his paws and nose tears up the earth, and at last pulls and draggs up, and there till an hour after the break of day remains devouring and eating up of the flesh of his Arms, Legs, Thighs and Buttocks. But (as God would have it) he never touched any part of his face, but leaves it fully undisfigured." God's Revenge against Murther, Book VI. Hist. 27, p. 407, ed. 1670. it Rotten, and rotting others; and your vengeance, FERD. Get thee into some unknown part o'th' world, That I may never see thee.† Bos. Let me know Wherefore I should be thus neglected? Sir, 'Tis a deed of darkness. [Exit. Bos. He's much distracted. Off, my painted honour! * Like two chain'd bullets] Perhaps Heywood remembered this passage, when he wrote the following; Like two chain-bullets, side by side, will fly Thorow the jawes of death." A Challenge for Beautie, 1636, Sig. D. †That I may never see thee] In composing this scene, Webster seems to have had an eye to that between John and Hubert in Shakespeare's King John, Act IV. Sc. 2. |