Джон Уэбстер. The Duchess of Malfi
(Отрывок)
Act I, scene i
The Court at Malfi, Italy
The year: 1504
Enter ANTONIO and DELIO
DELIO: You are welcome to your country, dear Antonio;
You have been long in France, and you return
A very formal Frenchman in your habit.
How do you like the French court?
ANTONIO: I admire it:
In seeking to reduce both state and people
To a fix'd 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 masterpiece, 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 if't chance
Some curs'd 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'th' 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,
If he had means to be so. Here's the Cardinal.
Enter BOSOLA and CARDINAL
BOSOLA: I do haunt you still.
CARDINAL: So.
BOSOLA: 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!
CARDINAL: You enforce your merit too much.
BOSOLA: 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?
CARDINAL: Would you could become honest.
BOSOLA: 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.
ANTONIO: He hath denied thee some suit?
BOSOLA: He and his brother are like plum-trees that grow crooked
Over standing-pools; they are rich, and o'erladen 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 dependences, 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?
BOSOLA: Ay, to hang in a fair pair of slings, take his latter swing in the
World upon an honorable 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.
Exit BOSOLA
DELIO: I knew this fellow seven years in the galleys
For a notorious murder; and 'twas thought
The Cardinal suborn'd it: he was releas'd
By the French general, Gaston de Foix,
When he recover'd Naples.
ANTONIO: '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.
Act I, scene ii
Action continues from previous scene
Enter ANTONIO, DELIO, FERDINAND, CASTRUCHIO, SILVIO
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.
FERDINAND: Who took the ring oftenest?
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?
CASTRUCHIO: Methinks, my lord,
You should not desire to go to war in person.
FERDINAND: [aside] Now, for some gravity--why, my lord?
CASTRUCHIO: It is fitting a soldier arise to be a prince, but not necessary
A prince descend to be a captain.
FERDINAND: No?
CASTRUCHIO: 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 honor.
CASTRUCHIO: 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.
CASTRUCHIO: True, my lord.
FERDINAND: And of a jest she broke of a captain
she met full of wounds: I have forgot it.
CASTRUCHIO: She told him, my lord, he was a pitiful fellow, to lie
Like the children of Ismael, all in tents.
FERDINAND: Why, there's a wit were able to undo
All the chirugeons o'th' 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.
CASTRUCHIO: That she would, my lord.
How do you like my Spanish jennet?
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 ballasted with quicksilver.
SILVIO: True, my lord, he reels from the tilt often.
RODERIGO and GRISOLAN: Ha, ha, ha!
FERDINAND: Why do you laugh? methinks you that are courtiers
Should be my touchwood, take fire when I give fire;
That is, not laugh but when I laugh, were the subject never so witty.
CASTRUCHIO: 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.
FERDINAND: But I can laugh at your fool, my lord.
CASTRUCHIO: He cannot speak, you know, but he makes faces:
My lady cannot abide him.
FERDINAND: No?
CASTRUCHIO: 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, DUCHESS, CARIOLA, and JULIA
CARDINAL: Are the galleys come about?
GRISOLAN: They are, my lord.
FERDINAND: Here's the Lord Silvio is come to take his leave.
DELIO: [aside to Antonio] 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
Engendering of toads; where he is jealous of any man,
He lays worse plots for him than ever was imposed 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 laugh 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' th' 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 his 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 vain-glory 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
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 practic'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 flattering glasses,
And dress themselves in her.
DELIO: Fie, Antonio,
You play the wire-drawer with her commendation.
ANTONIO: I'll case the picture up: only thus much,
All her particular worth, grows to this sum;
She stains the time past, lights the time to come.
CARIOLA: You must attend my lady in the gallery,
Some half an hour hence.
ANTONIO: I shall.
Exit 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 h'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 upon parting. Good Lord Silvio,
Do us commend to all our noble friends
At the leaguer.
SILVIO: Sir, I shall.
FERDINAND: You are for Milan?
SILVIO: I am.
DUCHESS: Bring the caroches: we'll bring you down to the haven.
Exit all but the CARDINAL and FERDINAND
CARDINAL: Be sure you entertain that Bosola
For your intelligence: 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 CARDINAL, enter BOSOLA
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 th' face,
Than to a sick man's urine, which some call
The physician's whore, because she cozens 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? never rain'd such showers as these
Without thunderbolts i' th' 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'th' 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.
FERDINAND: Such a kind of thriving thing
I would wish thee; and ere long, thou may'st 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'th'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 complemental.
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