Act 1

Scene II

The same.

	Antonio, Delio. Enter Silvio, Castruccio, Julia, Roderigo and Grisolan.
Delio	The presence ’gins to fill: you promis’d me To make me the partaker of the natures Of some of your great courtiers.
Antonio	The lord cardinal’s And other strangers’ that are now in court? I shall.⁠—Here comes the great Calabrian duke.
	Enter Ferdinand* and Attendants.*
Ferdinand	Who took the ring oftenest?3
Silvio	Antonio Bologna, my lord.
Ferdinand	Our sister duchess’ great-master of her household? Give him the jewel.⁠—When shall we leave this sportive action, and fall to action indeed?
Castruccio	Methinks, my lord, you should not desire to go to war in person.
Ferdinand	Now for some gravity.⁠—Why, my lord?
Castruccio	It is fitting a soldier arise to be a prince, but not necessary a prince descend to be a captain.
Ferdinand	No?
Castruccio	No, my lord; he were far better do it by a deputy.
Ferdinand	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.
Castruccio	Believe my experience, that realm is never long in quiet where the ruler is a soldier.
Ferdinand	Thou toldest me thy wife could not endure fighting.
Castruccio	True, my lord.
Ferdinand	And of a jest she broke of4 a captain she met full of wounds: I have forgot it.
Castruccio	She told him, my lord, he was a pitiful fellow, to lie, like the children of Ismael, all in tents.5
Ferdinand	Why, there’s a wit were able to undo all the chirurgeons6 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.
Castruccio	That she would, my lord.⁠—How do you like my Spanish gennet?7
Roderigo	He is all fire.
Ferdinand	I am of Pliny’s opinion, I think he was begot by the wind; he runs as if he were ballass’d8 with quicksilver.
Silvio	True, my lord, he reels from the tilt often.
Roderigo	Ha, ha, ha!
Grisolan
Ferdinand	Why do you laugh? Methinks you that are courtiers should be my touchwood, take fire when I give fire; that is, laugh when I laugh, were the subject never so witty.
Castruccio	True, my lord: I myself have heard a very good jest, and have scorn’d to seem to have so silly a wit as to understand it.
Ferdinand	But I can laugh at your fool, my lord.
Castruccio	He cannot speak, you know, but he makes faces; my lady cannot abide him.
Ferdinand	No?
Castruccio	Nor endure to be in merry company; for she says too much laughing, and too much company, fills her too full of the wrinkle.
Ferdinand	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.
Ferdinand	You are a good horseman, Antonio; you have excellent riders in France: what do you think of good horsemanship?
Antonio	Nobly, my lord: as out of the Grecian horse issued many famous princes, so out of brave horsemanship arise the first sparks of growing resolution, that raise the mind to noble action.
Ferdinand	You have bespoke it worthily.
Silvio	Your brother, the lord cardinal, and sister duchess.
	Enter Cardinal, with Duchess* and Cariola.*
Cardinal	Are the galleys come about?
Grisolan	They are, my lord.
Ferdinand	Here’s the Lord Silvio is come to take his leave.
Delio	Now, sir, your promise: what’s that cardinal? I mean his temper? They say he’s a brave fellow, Will play his five thousand crowns at tennis, dance, Court ladies, and one that hath fought single combats.
Antonio	Some such flashes superficially hang on him for form; but observe his inward character: he is a melancholy churchman. The spring in his face is nothing but the engend’ring of toads; where he is jealous of any man, he lays worse plots for them than ever was impos’d on Hercules, for he strews in his way flatterers, panders, intelligencers, atheists, and a thousand such political monsters. He should have been Pope; but instead of coming to it by the primitive decency of the church, he did bestow bribes so largely and so impudently as if he would have carried it away without heaven’s knowledge. Some good he hath done⁠—
Delio	You have given too much of him. What’s his brother?
Antonio	The duke there? A most perverse and turbulent nature. What appears in him mirth is merely outside; If he laught heartily, it is to laugh All honesty out of fashion.
Delio	Twins?
Antonio	In quality. He speaks with others’ tongues, and hears men’s suits With others’ ears; will seem to sleep o’ the bench Only to entrap offenders in their answers; Dooms men to death by information; Rewards by hearsay.
Delio	Then the law to him Is like a foul, black cobweb to a spider⁠— He makes it his dwelling and a prison To entangle those shall feed him.
Antonio	Most true: He never pays debts unless they be shrewd turns, And those he will confess that he doth owe. Last, for this brother there, the cardinal, They that do flatter him most say oracles Hang at his lips; and verily I believe them, For the devil speaks in them. But for their sister, the right noble duchess, You never fix’d your eye on three fair medals Cast in one figure, of so different temper. For her discourse, it is so full of rapture, You only will begin then to be sorry When she doth end her speech, and wish, in wonder, She held it less vainglory to talk much, Than your penance to hear her. Whilst she speaks, She throws upon a man so sweet a look That it were able to raise one to a galliard.9 That lay in a dead palsy, and to dote On that sweet countenance; but in that look There speaketh so divine a continence As cuts off all lascivious and vain hope. Her days are practis’d in such noble virtue, That sure her nights, nay, more, her very sleeps, Are more in heaven than other ladies’ shrifts. Let all sweet ladies break their flatt’ring glasses, And dress themselves in her.
Delio	Fie, Antonio, You play the wire-drawer with her commendations.
Antonio	I’ll case the picture up: only thus much; All her particular worth grows to this sum⁠— She stains10 the time past, lights the time to come.
Cariola	You must attend my lady in the gallery, Some half and hour hence.
Antonio	I shall.
	Exeunt Antonio* and Delio.*
Ferdinand	Sister, I have a suit to you.
Duchess	To me, sir?
Ferdinand	A gentleman here, Daniel de Bosola, One that was in the galleys⁠—
Duchess	Yes, I know him.
Ferdinand	A worthy fellow he is: pray, let me entreat for The provisorship of your horse.
Duchess	Your knowledge of him Commends him and prefers him.
Ferdinand	Call him hither.
	Exit Attendant.
	We are now upon11 parting. Good Lord Silvio, Do us commend to all our noble friends At the leaguer.
Silvio	Sir, I shall.
Duchess	You are for Milan?
Silvio	I am.
Duchess	Bring the caroches.12⁠—We’ll bring you down To the haven.
	Exeunt Duchess, Silvio, Castruccio, Roderigo, Grisolan, Cariola, Julia, and Attendants.
Cardinal	Be sure you entertain that Bosola For your intelligence.13 I would not be seen in’t; And therefore many times I have slighted him When he did court our furtherance, as this morning.
Ferdinand	Antonio, the great-master of her household, Had been far fitter.
Cardinal	You are deceiv’d in him. His nature is too honest for such business.⁠— He comes: I’ll leave you.
	Exit.
	Reenter Bosala.
Bosola	I was lur’d to you.
Ferdinand	My brother, here, the cardinal, could never Abide you.
Bosola	Never since he was in my debt.
Ferdinand	May be some oblique character in your face Made him suspect you.
Bosola	Doth he study physiognomy? There’s no more credit to be given to the face Than to a sick man’s urine, which some call The physician’s whore, because she cozens14 him. He did suspect me wrongfully.
Ferdinand	For that You must give great men leave to take their times. Distrust doth cause us seldom be deceiv’d. You see the oft shaking of the cedar-tree Fastens it more at root.
Bosola	Yet take heed; For to suspect a friend unworthily Instructs him the next way to suspect you, And prompts him to deceive you.
Ferdinand	There’s gold.
Bosola	So: What follows? Aside. Never rain’d such showers as these Without thunderbolts i’ the tail of them.⁠—Whose throat must I cut?
Ferdinand	Your inclination to shed blood rides post Before my occasion to use you. I give you that To live i’ the court here, and observe the duchess; To note all the particulars of her haviour, What suitors do solicit her for marriage, And whom she best affects. She’s a young widow: I would not have her marry again.
Bosola	No, sir?
Ferdinand	Do not you ask the reason; but be satisfied. I say I would not.
Bosola	It seems you would create me One of your familiars.
Ferdinand	Familiar! What’s that?
Bosola	Why, a very quaint invisible devil in flesh⁠— An intelligencer.15
Ferdinand	Such a kind of thriving thing I would wish thee; and ere long thou mayst arrive At a higher place by’t.
Bosola	Take your devils, Which hell calls angels! These curs’d gifts would make You a corrupter, me an impudent traitor; And should I take these, they’d take me [to] hell.
Ferdinand	Sir, I’ll take nothing from you that I have given. There is a place that I procur’d for you This morning, the provisorship o’ the horse; Have you heard on’t?
Bosola	No.
Ferdinand	’Tis yours: is’t not worth thanks?
Bosola	I would have you curse yourself now, that your bounty (Which makes men truly noble) e’er should make me A villain. O, that to avoid ingratitude For the good deed you have done me, I must do All the ill man can invent! Thus the devil Candies all sins o’er; and what heaven terms vile, That names he complimental.
Ferdinand	Be yourself; Keep your old garb of melancholy; ’twill express You envy those that stand above your reach, Yet strive not to come near ’em. This will gain Access to private lodgings, where yourself May, like a politic dormouse⁠—
Bosola	As I have seen some Feed in a lord’s dish, half asleep, not seeming To listen to any talk; and yet these rogues Have cut his throat in a dream. What’s my place? The provisorship o’ the horse? Say, then, my corruption Grew out of horse-dung: I am your creature.
Ferdinand	Away!
	Exit.
Bosola	Let good men, for good deeds, covet good fame, Since place and riches oft are bribes of shame. Sometimes the devil doth preach.
	Exit.