John Marston

“ Lust’s like the plummets hanging on clock-lines,
Will ne’er ha’ done till all is quite undone; 10
Such is the course salt sallow lust doth run;
Which thou shalt try. I’ll be reveng’d. Duke, thy suspect;
Duchess, thy disgrace; Ferneze, thy rivalship;
Shall have swift vengeance. Nothing so holy,
No band of nature so strong,
No law of friendship so sacred,
But I’ll profane, burst, violate, ’fore I’ll
Endure disgrace, contempt, and poverty. ”

“ Faith, I know not what; an hermaphrodite, two parts in one; my true person being Antonio, son to the Duke of Genoa; though for the love of Mellida, Piero’s daughter, I take this feigned presence of an Amazon, calling myself Florizell, and I know not what. I a voice to play a lady! I shall ne’er do it.
Alb. O! an Amazon should have such a voice, virago-like. Not play two parts in one? away, away, ’tis common fashion. Nay, if you cannot bear two subtle fronts under one hood, idiot, go by, go by, off this world’s stage! O time’s impurity! ”

“ O blessed state! what a ravishing prospect doth the Olympus of favour yield! Death, I cornute the duke! Sweet women! most sweet ladies! nay, angels! by heaven, he is more accursed than a devil that hates you, or is hated by you; and happier than a god that loves you, or is beloved by you: you preservers of mankind, life-blood of society, who would live, nay, who can live without you? O paradise! how majestical is your austerer presence! how imperiously chaste is your more modest face! ”

“ Surely I desire to satisfy every firm spirit, who, in all his actions, proposeth to himself no more ends than God and virtue do, whose intentions are always simple: to such I protest that, with my free understanding, I have not glanced at disgrace of any, but of those whose unquiet studies labour innovation, contempt of holy policy, reverend, comely superiority, and established unity: for the rest of my supposed tartness, I fear not but unto every worthy mind it will be approved so general and honest as may modestly pass with the freedom of a satire. ”

“ Why, man, we are all philosophical monarchs
Or natural fools. Celso, the court’s a-fire;
The duchess’ sheets will smoke for’t ere’t be long:
Impure Mendoza, that sharp-nos’d lord, that made
The cursèd match link’d Genoa with Florence,
Now broad-horns the duke, which he now knows.
Discord to malcontents is very manna: 250
When the ranks are burst, then scuffle, Altofront.
Celso. Ay, but durst——
Mal. ’Tis gone; ’tis swallow’d like a mineral:
Some way ’twill work; pheut, I’ll not shrink:
He’s resolute who can no lower sink.
Bilioso re-entering, Malevole shifteth his speech. ”

“ Duke, I’ll torment thee now; my just revenge 210
From thee than crown a richer gem shall part:
Beneath God, naught’s so dear as a calm heart.
Re-enter Celso.
Celso. My honour’d lord,—
Mal. Peace, speak low, peace! O Celso, constant lord,
(Thou to whose faith I only rest discover’d,
Thou, one of full ten millions of men,
That lovest virtue only for itself;
Thou in whose hands old Ops may put her soul)
Behold forever-banish’d Altofront,
This Genoa’s last year’s duke. O truly noble! ”

“ Re-enter Malevole.
Mal. Your devilship’s ring has no virtue: the buff-captain, the sallow Westphalian gammon-faced zaza cries, “Stand out;” must have a stiffer warrant, or no pass into the castle of comfort.
Men. Command our sudden letter.—Not enter! sha’t: what place is there in Genoa but thou shalt? into my heart, into my very heart: come, let’s love; we must love, we two, soul and body. ”

“ Fer. Your smiles have been my heaven, your frowns my hell:
O, pity, then! grace should with beauty dwell.
Maq. Reasonable perfect, by’r lady.
Aurel. I will love thee, be it but in despite
Of that Mendoza:—witch!—Ferneze,—witch!—
Ferneze, thou art the duchess’ favourite:
Be faithful, private: but ’tis dangerous.
Fer. His love is lifeless that for love fears breath: 50
The worst that’s due to sin, O, would ’twere death!
Aurel. Enjoy my favour. ”

“ Enter Piero, unbraced, his arms bare, smeared in blood, a poniard in one hand bloody, and a torch in the other; Strotzo following him with a cord.
Pier. Ho, Gasper Strotzo, bind Feliche’s trunk
Unto the panting side of Mellida!
[Exit Strotzo.
’Tis yet dead night, yet all the earth is clutch’d [198]
In the dull leaden hand of snoring sleep;
No breath disturbs the quiet of the air,
No spirit moves upon the breast of earth,
Save howling dogs, night-crows, and screeching owls,
Save meagre ghosts, Piero, and black thoughts. ”

“ Enter Bilioso and Prepasso, two Pages before them; Maquerelle, Bianca, and Emilia.
Bil. Make room there, room for the ladies! why, gentlemen, will not ye suffer the ladies to be entered in the great chamber? why, gallants! and you, sir, to drop your torch where the beauties must sit too!
Pre. And there’s a great fellow plays the knave; why dost not strike him?
Bil. Let him play the knave, o’ God’s name; thinkest thou I have no more wit than to strike a great fellow?—The music! more lights! revelling-scaffolds! do you hear? Let there be oaths enow ready at the door, swear out the devil himself. ”

“ The Malcontent has more dramatic interest than Antonio and Mellida; it is also more orderly and artistic. Jonson’s criticism evidently had a salutary effect, for we find no such flowers of speech as “glibbery urchin,” “sliftred paunch,” “the fist of strenuous vengeance is clutch’d,” &c. Marston has been at pains to give a more civil aspect to his “aspera Thalia.” Moreover, the moralising is less tedious, and the satire more pungent than in the earlier plays. There is less of declamation and more of action. The atmosphere is not so stifling, and one can breathe with something of freedom. ”

“ Men. Who cannot feign friendship can ne’er produce the effects of hatred. Honest fool duke! subtle lascivious duchess! silly novice Ferneze! I do laugh at ye. My brain is in labour till it produce mischief, and I feel sudden throes, proofs sensible, the issue is at hand.
As bears shape young, so I’ll form my device,
Which grown proves horrid: vengeance makes men wise. ”

“ Swinburne, in his masterly essay on Chapman, says with truth that “in no play of the time do we get such a true taste of the old city life so often turned to mere ridicule by playwrights of less good humour, or feel about us such a familiar air of ancient London as blows through every scene.”
It is very certain that Marston could never have written single-handed so rich and genial a play. In all Marston’s comedies there is a strong alloy of bitterness; we are never allowed to rise from the comic feast with a pleasant taste in the mouth. ”

“ Exit with Maquerelle.
Men. Women! nay, Furies; nay, worse; for they torment only the bad, but women good and bad. Damnation of mankind! Breath, hast thou praised them for this? and is’t you, Ferneze, are wriggled into smock-grace? sit sure. O, that I could rail against these monsters in nature, models of hell, curse of the earth, women! that dare attempt anything, and what they attempt they care not how they accomplish ”

“ Enter Julio, Forobosco, and Castilio.
Jul. Ho, father! father!
Pier. How now, Julio, my little pretty son?
Why suffer you the child to walk so late?
For. He will not sleep, but calls to follow you,
Crying that bug-bears and spirits haunted him.
[Antonio offers to come near and stab; Piero presently withdraws.
Ant. [Aside.] No, not so.
This shall be sought for; I’ll force him feed on life
Till he shall loath it. This shall be the close
Of vengeance’ strain.
Pier. Away there, pages, lead on fast with light; 140
The church is full of damps; ’tis yet dead night. ”

“ After dancing a measure the maskers request Piero to have the hall cleared while they sit unmasked at the banquet. Thereupon the guests and retainers withdraw, but Piero at the maskers’ request remains. He takes a seat at the banquet; the conspirators, unmasking themselves, spring forward and bind him with cords to the chair; insult over him, cut out his tongue, produce in a dish the limbs of his murdered son, and finally hack him to death with their swords. The tyrant’s death is welcomed with universal joy. ”

“ For we vow, by the honour of our blood, to recompense any man that bringeth his head, with twenty thousand double pistolets, and the endearing of our choicest love.
From Venice: Piero Sforza. 24
And. My thoughts are fix’d in contemplation
Why this huge earth, this monstrous animal,
That eats her children, should not have eyes and ears.
Philosophy maintains that Nature’s wise,
And forms no useless or unperfect thing.
Did Nature make the earth, or the earth Nature? 30
For earthly dirt makes all things, makes the man,
Moulds me up honour ”

“ Pietro. Thy friends! 19
Mal. Yes, from my friends; for from mine enemies I’ll deliver myself. O, cut-throat friendship is the rankest villainy! Mark this Mendoza; mark him for a villain: but heaven will send a plague upon him for a rogue.
Pietro. O world!
Mal. World! ’tis the only region of death, the greatest shop of the devil; the crudest prison of men, out of the which none pass without paying their dearest breath for a fee; there’s nothing perfect in it but extreme, extreme calamity, such as comes yonder.
Enter Aurelia, two halberts before and two after, supported by Celso and Ferrardo ”

“ Pietro. This Malevole is one of the most prodigious affections that ever conversed with nature: a man, or rather a monster, more discontent than Lucifer when he was thrust out of the presence. His appetite is unsatiable as the grave; as far from any content as from heaven: his highest delight is to procure others’ vexation, and therein he thinks he truly serves heaven; for ’tis his position, whosoever in this earth can be contented is a slave and damned ”

“ Enter two mourners with torches, two with streamers; Castilio and Forobosco, with torches; a Herald bearing Andrugio’s helm and sword; the coffin; Maria supported by Lucio and Alberto; Antonio, by himself; Piero and Strotzo, talking; Galeatzo and Matzagente, Balurdo and Pandulfo: the coffin set down; helm, sword, and streamers hung up, placed by the Herald, whilst Antonio and Maria wet their handkerchers with their tears, kiss them, and lay them on the hearse, kneeling: all go out but Piero. Cornets cease, and he speaks. ”

“ I suspect that Marston, on entering the church, left this tragedy in a fragmentary state, and that it was completed by the actor Barksteed. The whole interest centres in the beautiful and sinful Isabella, whose wayward glances, as she moves in splendour, fascinate all beholders; who is indeed a “glorious devil” without shame or pity, boundless and insatiable as the sea in the enormity of her caprices. ”

“ The more in years, the more in perfection they grow; if they lose youth and beauty, they gain wisdom and discretion: but when our beauty fades, good-night with us. There cannot be an uglier thing than to see an old woman: from which, O pruning, pinching, and painting, deliver all sweet beauties! ”

“ Why wilt thou die? and so often sworn to my soul Vivit Dominus, As the Lord liveth I would not have thee die but live,—will neither let me die nor let me live, but die an everlasting life and live an everlasting death ”

“ Maq. Faith, boldly; strongly defies defame, as one that has a duke to her father. And there’s a note to you: be sure of a stout friend in a corner, that may always awe your husband. Mark the behaviour of the duchess now: she dares defame; cries, “Duke, do what thou canst, I’ll quit mine honour:” nay, as one confirmed in her own virtue against ten thousand mouths that mutter her disgrace, she’s presently for dances.
Bian. For dances!
Maq. Most true.
Emil. Most strange.
Enter Ferrardo.
See, here’s my servant, young Ferrardo: how many servants thinkest thou I have, Maquerelle? ”

“ Sophonisba is a fearless and magnanimous heroine, but her temper is too masculine; she talks too much and too bluntly, and is too fond of striking an attitude. Syphax, the villain of the play, is so prodigiously brutal as to appear perfectly grotesque; and the hero Massinissa bores us by his trite moral reflections. Marston strove to produce a stately tragedy, and was under the impression that his efforts had been crowned with success ”