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:
The element of water moistens the earth,

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
Her time to a minute.

Bos. It seems she was born first:

You have bloodily approv'd the ancient truth,
That kindred commonly do worse agree
Than remote strangers.

FERD. Let me see her face

Again. Why didst not thou pity her? what
An excellent honest man might'st thou have been
If thou hadst borne her to some sanctuary;
Or, bold in a good cause, oppos'd thyself,
With thy advanced sword above thy head,
Between her innocence* and my revenge.
I bade thee, when I was distracted of my wits,
Go kill my dearest friend, and thou hast done't.
For let me but examine well the cause;

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
Deliver her conviction up i'th' court?

Where shalt thou find this judgment register'd,
Unless in hell? See, like a bloody fool,

Th' hast forfeited thy life, and thou shalt die for't.
Bos. The office of justice is perverted quite,
When one thief hangs another. Who shall dare
To reveal this?

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
The horrid murther.*

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:
You have a pair of hearts are hollow graves,

The wolf shall find her grave, and scrape it up,
Not to devour the corpse, but to discover

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,
Like two chain'd bullets, still goes arm in arm.
You may be brothers; for treason, like the plague,
Doth take much in a blood. I stand like one
That long hath ta'en a sweet and golden dream :
I am angry with myself, now that I wake.

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,
I serv'd your tyranny, and rather strove,
To satisfy yourself, than all the world:
And though I loath'd the evil, yet I lov❜d
You that did counsel it; and rather sought
To appear a true servant, than an honest man.
FERD. I'll go hunt the badger by owl-light:

'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.