Sounds of organ music and chanting.
2nd PILGRIM
’Tis strange so many monks in yon procession.
1st PILGRIM
Who is that woman, clad like a penitent;
It seems she hath a man and three small children by her side.
2nd PILGRIM
’Tis the duchess, I saw her
As she drove along the streets of fair Ancona.
1st PILGRIM
Meseems she’s very pale.
2nd PILGRIM
Here comes the cardinal
From out the sacristy. What is that parchment
He carries in his hand?
VOICE OF CARDINAL
Herefore, through the authority of the Almighty God, Father of Heaven and His Son, Our Saviour, I, Cardinal of Ancona, denounce, proclaim and declare Margarita Gloria, Duchess of Malfi and her paramour, Antonio Bologna, together with their children, anathema by the avise and assistance of our Holy Father, the Pope, and all bishops, abbots, priors and other prelates and ministers of our Holy Church, for her open lechery and sins of the flesh.
1st PILGRIM
He hath excommunicated her!
VOICE OF CARDINAL
I curse her head and the hairs of her head, her eyes, her mouth, her nose, her tongue, her teeth, her neck, her shoulders, her breast, her heart, her arms, her legs, her back, her stomach, her womb and every part of her body from the top of her head to the soles of her feet.
2nd PILGRIM
There hath been no rumour
She was to be judged.
1st PILGRIM
And to think ’twas said
She came here for sanctuary!
VOICE OF CARDINAL
I dissever and part them from the Church of God and likewise from contracts and oaths of law. I forbid all Christian men to have any company with them and all her earthly goods I seize in the name of the Holy Church. And as their candles go from our sight so may their souls go from the visage of God and their good fame from the world.
2nd PILGRIM
Then she is no longer Duchess of Malfi!
1st PILGRIM
By what justice hath her brother
Seized her estates?
2nd PILGRIM
Sure I think by none.
1st PILGRIM
I have not seen a goodlier ceremony than this
Though I have visited many.
2nd PILGRIM
What was it with much violence he took
From off her finger?
1ST PILGRIM
’Twas her wedding ring.
Scene 6
A road near Loretto. Enter Antonio, Duchess, children, Cariola, servants.
DUCHESS
Banished Ancona!
ANTONIO
And what is worse our love
Is named a sin and published throughout all Italy
That all may shun us and you are ravished of your goods.
DUCHESS
Is all our train shrunk to this poor remainder?
ANTONIO
These poor men which have got little in your service
Vow to take your fortune; but your wiser birds,
Now they are fledged, are gone.
DUCHESS
They have done wisely.
ANTONIO
Right the fashion of the world.
From decayed fortunes every flatterer shrinks;
Men cease to build where the foundation sinks.
DUCHESS
I had a very strange dream last night.
ANTONIO
What was it?
DUCHESS
Methought I wore my coronet of state
And on a sudden all the diamonds
Were changed to pearls.
ANTONIO
My interpretation
Is you’ll weep shortly for to me the pearls
Do signify your tears.
DUCHESS
The birds that live in the field
On the wild benefit of nature, live
Happier than we for they may choose their mates
And carol their sweet pleasures to the spring.
Dear Antonio, I’ve brought you this misfortune
For which I am sorry.
ANTONIO
You are not the cause of it.
For since that hour, scarcely now remembered,
For ’tis obscured by so much later sorrow,
Wherein I broke reason on the wheel and sought
To ’scape these toils through running craft alone,
I am myself no more.
DUCHESS
If the Lord Cardinal treat us so harshly,
My brother Ferdinand is yet more cruel.
I do suspect some ambush.
Therefore by all my love I do conjure you
To take our eldest son and fly towards Milan.
Let us not venture all this poor remainder
In one unlucky vessel.
ANTONIO
You counsel safely.
Best of my life, farewell. Since we must part,
Heaven hath a hand in it, but no otherwise
Than as some curious artist takes in sunder
A clock or watch, when it is out of frame,
To bring it to better order.
DUCHESS
To eldest son:
I know not which is best,
Thou art happy that thou hast not understanding
To know thy misery, for all our wit
And reading brings us to a truer sense
Of sorrow.
Pause, she draws the boy back.
No, give me back my boy.
He is weak in the lungs. He’ll take some harm.
To second son.
Go, thou, with thy father. Alas, thou art so small.
Haply wilt cry for thy mother i’ the’ night.
Yet thou art stronger and thou hast far to go.
In the eternal church I hope we do not part thus.
ANTONIO
Oh, be of comfort.
Man, like to lavender, is proved best being bruised.
DUCHESS
’Tis true. O heaven, thy heavy hand is in it.
I have seen my little boy oft whip his top,
And compared myself to it. Naught made me e’er
Go right but heaven’s scourging stick.
ANTONIO
Do not weep.
Heaven fashioned us of nothing and we strive
To bring ourselves to nothing. Farewell Cariola,
And thee sweet armful.
To the Duchess:
If I do never see thee more,
Be a good mother to our little ones
And save them from the tiger. Fare you well.
DUCHESS
Let me look upon you once more for—
Kisses him.
Fare you well.
He goes out with second son.
My laurel is all withered.
CARIOLA
Look, madam, what a troop of armed men
Make toward us, with their visors closed.
Why do they hide their faces? They are brigands surely.
Enter Bosola, helmeted, with a guard
DUCHESS
O they are most welcome.
Worse than brigands.
I would have my ruin be sudden.
I am your adventure, am I not?
BOSOLA
You are. You must see your husband no more.
DUCHESS
Come, to what prison.
BOSOLA
To none.
DUCHESS
Whither, then?
BOSOLA
To your palace. Your brother means you safety
And pity.
DUCHESS
Pity? With such pity men preserve alive
Pheasants and quails when they are not fat enough
To be eaten.
BOSOLA
These are your children?
DUCHESS
Yes.
BOSOLA
Can they prattle?
DUCHESS
But little, and I intend, since they were born accursed,
Curses shall be their first language.
BOSOLA
Fie, madam!
Forget this base, low-born fellow.
DUCHESS
Were I a man,
I’d beat that counterfeit face into thy other.
But come, whither you please. I am armed against misery,
Bent to the sways of the oppressor’s will.
There’s no deep valley but near some great hill.
Scene 7
A room in the Cardinal’s palace.
The Cardinal is reading a book. A monk sits near him telling his beads.
CARDINAL
I am puzzled in a question about hell.
Looks at book.
He says in hell there’s one material flame
And yet it shall not burn all men alike.
Lay him by.
Closes book.
How tedious is a guilty conscience!
When I look into the fish pond in my garden,
Methinks I see a thing armed with a rake
That seems to strike at me.
Enter Ferdinand with two swords.
How now Ferdinand?
Thou lookest ghastly.
There sits in thy face some great determination.
What is it?
FERDINAND
I am come to kill thee.
Take this sword and draw.
CARDINAL
Am I to fight with thee?
Hast thou gone mad, brother? Why dost thou threaten thus?
FERDINAND
You have published our sister’s shame and publicly
Dishonoured her. For this you shall die.
CARDINAL
Now you are mad indeed!
FERDINAND
Will you fight, brother?
Or shall I softly slit your throat with my poignard?
I give you the honour of arms.
CARDINAL
I am a churchman. I will not take the sword.
Holds up the book like a sword.
This holy book is my defence. Pierce it an thou darest.
Ferdinand strikes it aside with his sword.
Hold! Thou thyself didst rage against her most
Intemperately. ’Twas you did call her strumpet.
FERDINAND
I did. But not i’ th’ market place.
You have so wrought it that the rabble shall soil
Her charms in the tavern and in the baths
They’ll reckon whether her breasts be large or small.
You shall pay for this.
CARDINAL
Shall you defend her?
Shall she go scot free?
FERDINAND
She hath injured me, not you,
And I will punish her.
CARDINAL
These are strange words indeed.
FERDINAND
Will you fight or die like a poltroon?
He throws him the sword.
CARDINAL
Leaping up and snatching sword.
Hah!—Help!—Our guard!
MONK
Ho, guards! Guards!
FERDINAND
You are deceived.
They are out of reach of your howling.
CARDINAL
’Twas not I but my holy office did constrain me.
She had sinned.
FERDINAND
Attacking.
I think your purse constrained you.
You have stolen her lands.
CARDINAL
And to have these same estates you’d kill your brother.
FERDINAND
So be it. Choose for your death a cause that you
May best conceive. In this there sits a deeper
Reason which you shall never know.
MONK
Help! Help!
He is your brother!
Ferdinand wounds him. The Cardinal drops his sword.
CARDINAL
Thou hast hurt me!
FERDINAND
Not enough!
Drives him back and stabs him.
CARDINAL
Oh justice!
I suffer now for what hath former been;
Sorrow is held the eldest child of sin.
Exit Ferdinand.
MONK
Oh what a death was this! In quest of greatness,
Like wanton boys whose pastime is their care
We follow after bubbles blown i’ the air.
Alas that thou which stoodst like a huge pyramid,
Begun upon a large and ample base,
Shouldst end in a little point, a kind of nothing.
ACT THREE
Scene 1
A ruin near Milan. Enter Antonio and his son. They hold their cloaks close against them as if walking against the wind.
ANTONIO
Yonder lie the ruins of a noble abbey.
Whene’er we tread upon these ancient stones
We set our foot upon some reverend history.
Here in this open court that now lies naked
To the injuries of the stormy weather
Some men lie interred who loved the church so well
They thought it should have canopied their bones
Till doomsday. But all things have their end.
Churches and cities, which have diseases like to men,
Must have like death we have. Come, boy, we must make haste.
Until we reach Milan.
BOY
Why can’t we stay with mother?
ANTONIO
We are too small to live with greatness.
Our littleness is crushed between the millstones
Of their intemperate actions.
BOY
Shall we not see her more?
ECHO
Not see her more.
BOY
Oh hark to the pretty echo from the ruin!
ANTONIO
Poor boy, well I know your feet are blistered
Yet we must fly our danger. Do not stay!
ECHO
Do not stay!
BOY
If we run fast, father, think you we will die?
ECHO
Still die.
BOY
What does the echo say?
ANTONIO
It seems to tell us, boy, how bitter is the fate
Of him who is forbid to fight. Alas
Now I remember once, ahawking with my father
Upon the plains of Brittany, our falcon
Spied a hare and coursed it till the poor beast
Was wearied unto death and so, despairing
Turned upon its back and with its stony feet
Hardened by a whole life of timid flight
Beat in the falcon’s breast. Yet we must fly.
They exit. Bosola enters and looks after them. He is accompanied by two murderers.
BOSOLA
Where is that letter for Antonio?
One murderer gives it to him.
’Twill shortly make him run the other way.
Though they fare fast yet death is speedier than they.
Scene 2
A room in the Duchess’ palace. Enter Ferdinand and Bosola.
FERDINAND
How doth our sister duchess bear herself
In her imprisonment?
BOSOLA
Nobly. I’ll describe her.
She’s sad as one long used to it and she seems
Rather to welcome the end of misery
Than shun it, a behaviour so noble
As gives a majesty to adversity.
You may discern the shape of loveliness
More perfect in her tears than in her smiles.
She will muse four hours together and her silence
Methinks expresses more than if she spoke.
FERDINAND
Doth she inquire for her steward-husband and her cubs?
BOSOLA
Call them her children.
For though our national law distinguishes bastards
From true legitimate issue, compassionate nature
Makes them all equal.
FERDINAND
Doth she weep for them?
BOSOLA
Aye, for she is ignorant if they be safe or no.
FERDINAND
She shall learn. Give her my gift. With it I intend
She shall be distracted from her sorrow.
BOSOLA
Is not this too cruel?
FERDINAND
No. Unseen I’ll mark how deeply her lecherous sin
Is rooted in her mind. Now first, the letter.
Ferdinand hides upon the balcony. Duchess and attendants and Cariola enter.
BOSOLA
All comfort to your grace!
DUCHESS
I will have none.
Prythee why dost thou wrap thy poisoned pills
In gold and sugar?
BOSOLA
Your brother,
The Lord Ferdinand, is come to visit you
And he hath likewise bid Antonio return.
In proof that he hath sealed his peace with you
Here is a copy of his letter to your husband.
He would have you read it.
Gives letter.
DUCHESS
Reads.
‘To the right worshipful Antonio Bologna:
Sir—
Why do you not come to Malfi? Your wife, the noble Duchess misses you and I myself I must confess want your head in a business.—’
Strange words.
BOSOLA
Strange? Antonio is an upright treasurer.
DUCHESS
I perceive my brother’s meaning. He does
Not want his counsel but his head. ’Tis written here.
BOSOLA
In this you are deceived. Prythee read on.
DUCHESS
‘I have discharged the Milanesian bonds and am satisfied you
were falsely accused in this matter. Thus I have made sure
of your honest service to my sister. Think no more of the
money, I would rather have your heart.’
That I believe.
BOSOLA
What do you believe?
DUCHESS
I think my brother can not sleep until
Antonio is dead. I trust he will not come.
BOSOLA
Why? Is not this offer reasonable?
DUCHESS
That is his devilish cunning. ’Tis cut
To Antonio’s measure. For he believes
In reason to a mortal degree.
BOSOLA
Meseems your fear is stronger than your love.
DUCHESS
Since all my love is long since turned to fear.
BOSOLA
I think Antonio will come. His love for thee
Will fetch him. Meanwhile
For your diversion and to cure you
Of your melancholy study of what’s past,
The Lord Ferdinand presents you with a rare