John Webster

“ Are the doors lock'd?
Zan. Yes, madam.
Vit. Are you grown an atheist? will you turn your body,
Which is the goodly palace of the soul,
To the soul's slaughter-house? Oh, the cursed devil,
Which doth present us with all other sins
Thrice candied o'er, despair with gall and stibium;
Yet we carouse it off. [Aside to Zanche.] Cry out for help!
Makes us forsake that which was made for man,
The world, to sink to that was made for devils,
Eternal darkness! ”

“ 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. ”

“ Casaubon gives us of an horse-rider called John Young, “that could tame the most fierce Bulls and unruly Horses, as also by pipeing to make the most couragious and fierce Mastiff to lie close down and to be quiet, by the force of his imagination and charms. And this John Young’s Philosophy was agreeable to this of Agrippa’s, to wit, That all creatures were made by God, for the use of Man and to be subject unto him; and that if men did use their power rightly, any man might do what he did.” ”

“ DUCHESS. Your arm, Antonio: do I not grow fat? I am exceeding short-winded.—Bosola, I would have you, sir, provide for me a litter; Such a one as the Duchess of Florence rode in. BOSOLA. The duchess us'd one when she was great with child. DUCHESS. I think she did.—Come hither, mend my ruff: Here, when? thou art such a tedious lady; and Thy breath smells of lemon-pills: would thou hadst done! Shall I swoon under thy fingers? I am So troubled with the mother! [41] BOSOLA. [Aside.] I fear too much. DUCHESS. I have heard you say that the French courtiers Wear their hats on 'fore that king. ”

“ Fran. What! turn'd fury!
Isab. To dig that strumpet's eyes out; let her lie
Some twenty months a-dying; to cut off
Her nose and lips, pull out her rotten teeth;
Preserve her flesh like mummia, for trophies
Of my just anger! Hell, to my affliction,
Is mere snow-water. By your favour, sir;—
Brother, draw near, and my lord cardinal;—
Sir, let me borrow of you but one kiss;
Henceforth I 'll never lie with you, by this,
This wedding-ring.
Fran. How, ne'er more lie with him! ”

“ Who covereth the Heavens with Clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains. He giveth snow like wool, he scattereth the hoary frost like ashes. He casteth forth his ice like morsels: Who can stand before his Cold? He sendeth forth his word, and melteth them: he causeth his wind to blow, and the waters flow. And all these fulfil the will and command of God, and not the will of the faln Angels ”

“ BOSOLA. In sooth, I 'll tell you: Now all the court 's asleep, I thought the devil Had least to do here; I came to say my prayers; And if it do offend you I do so, You are a fine courtier. ANTONIO. [Aside.] This fellow will undo me.— You gave the duchess apricocks to-day: Pray heaven they were not poison'd! BOSOLA. Poison'd! a Spanish fig For the imputation! ANTONIO. Traitors are ever confident Till they are discover'd. There were jewels stol'n too: In my conceit, none are to be suspected More than yourself. BOSOLA. You are a false steward. ”

“ There are another generation that seem wise in their own eyes, whose brains are like blown Bladders filled with the wind of over-weening and self-conceitedness, and these usually do huff, snuff, and puff at every thing that agrees not with their Capricious Cockscombs, when their abilities for the most part lie in the scraps they have gathered from the Theaters, or from the discourses had in Taverns and Coffee-houses, and if they can but reach some pittiful pieces of Drollery and Raillery, they think themselves fit and able to censure any thing though never read nor seen, except the Title Page. ”

“ FERDINAND. The devil! My brother fight upon the adverse party! He wounds the CARDINAL, and, in the scuffle, gives BOSOLA his death-wound. There flies your ransom. CARDINAL. O justice! I suffer now for what hath former bin: Sorrow is held the eldest child of sin. FERDINAND. Now you 're brave fellows. Caesar's fortune was harder than Pompey's; Caesar died in the arms of prosperity, Pompey at the feet of disgrace. You both died in the field. The pain 's nothing; pain many times is taken away with the apprehension of greater, as the tooth-ache with the sight of a barber that comes to pull it out. ”

“ SCENE III Enter Flamineo as distracted, Marcello, and Lodovico
Flam. We endure the strokes like anvils or hard steel, Till pain itself make us no pain to feel. Who shall do me right now? is this the end of service? I'd rather go weed garlic; travail through France, and be mine own ostler; wear sheep-skin linings, or shoes that stink of blacking; be entered into the list of the forty thousand pedlars in Poland. [Enter Savoy Ambassador.] Would I had rotted in some surgeon's house at Venice, built upon the pox as well as on piles, ere I had served Brachiano! ”

“ How can the Witches (if not maniacal in the highest degree) believe, that the Devil who is a Lyar, and the Father of lyes, and whom they cannot but know hath in the like cases deceived many, that have (in their opinion) made contracts with him, will prove true in the performance of his promise? Or that he who is the enemy of all truth and goodness, and laboureth to deceive all Mankind, will be faithful to perform his promise, or to do them any good, either real or apparent? Or (if the Witches be not incredibly mad) can they believe that he will perform without Hostages, Bonds-men, or Sureties? ”