Duc

“ The Duke, you must know, sir, was not so very young when I served under him, but he was still the handsomest man in the British army. They say, when he was a lieutenant, that all the great ladies fell in love with him, and the one he married, I have read in a book, he was much in love with, but a deal more afraid of her than ever he was of the Grand Monarque and all his armies. They say it was a joke in England that the great Duke obeyed his Duchess and trembled at her word. But I dare say he is not the only man who ever ruled men and then let his wife rule him. ”

“ Duke. Who's that?
De C. Some of the duchess's servants, I believe, sir.
Duke. Your hand will lay a new foundation to a kingdom;
And I am busy how to divide it with thee, when
We can call it ours.
De C. 'Tis his last night with mankind; the poison, sir,
Will do't so subtlely: whilst he but holds the
Knife, the least warmth attracts, and so dispreads
Itself through his blood and spirits. Not any
Struggling for't with nature; his life steals from
Him in a gentle slumber.
Duke. ”

“ Jarnac be thou Godfather to Charles de La-Hirè!—Nevers, do thou like office for de Laguy.”
“By God! not I, sire;” answered the proud duke. “I hold this man’s offence so rank, his guilt so palpable, that, on my conscience! I think your royal hangman were his best Godfather!”
“Nevertheless, De Nevers—it shall be, as I say!—this bold protest of thine is all sufficient for thine honor—and it is but a form!—no words, duke! it must be as I have said!—Joyeuse, escort this lady to thy duchess—pray her accept of her as the King’s guest, until this matter be decided. ”

“ Let me play the lion too. I will roar that I will do any man’s heart good to hear me. I will roar that I will make the Duke say ‘Let him roar again, let him roar again.’
QUINCE.
If you should do it too terribly, you would fright the Duchess and the ladies, that they would shriek; ”

“ He has a mother. (Perceiving Saint-Charles) What! You here, chevalier, and with the duchess?
Saint-Charles (taking the duke aside) Your grace will approve of what I have done. (Aloud) You have been at the palace and I thought it necessary to warn the duchess of the danger which threatens her only son, the marquis; he is likely to be murdered.
The Duke
Murdered!
Saint-Charles
But your grace will listen to my advice—
The Duke Come into my study, my friend, and let us at once take steps to avert this catastrophe. ”

“ He rarely visits her apartment; but Manfredini compels him. The Grand Duke is reserved and cold, his manner not near so good as his brother the Emperor. The chariot race is a stupid sport; the form of the cars is antique.
GRAND DUCHESS OF TUSCANY
24th.—The Portuguese Minister, M. de Lima, gave us a breakfast, that we might see the ceremony of the Grand Duke receiving homage from his subjects. I should like to have heard the deputies from Siena say, ‘Soumise par force’—galanterie de certaine part which I could easily dispense with. ”

“ She had only put on her mask for entry, and had now laid it beside her; she threw aside her domino, for the heat of the box was stifling, and the whiteness of her dress shone as lilies do at moonlight. She leaned her cheek on her hand, and looked down on to the romping, screaming, many-coloured throngs.
"You are not well to-night, Madame?" said the Duc, with the affectionate solicitude that he felt for all pretty women. ”

“ When the duchess rose, the bishop accompanied her into the recess of a window, and she said: “You may depend upon me; I cannot answer for the duke. It is not the early rising; he always rises early in the country, but he likes to read his letters before he dresses, and that sort of thing. I think you had better speak to Lady Corisande yourself.” ”

“ No one, probably, ever felt himself to be more alone in the world than our old friend, the Duke of Omnium, when the Duchess died. ”

“ The Duke.
[Picking up another paper fallen from the herbarium.]
Here's another.
[He reads.]
"As the mob
Resist you, cut them down."
[To the Archduchess.]
His goodness—
The Archduchess.
He hates the ferment of the modern mind,
But he's an excellent old man.
The Duke.
Two-sided.
Flowers from whose leaves death-sentences are shed,
Good Emperor Franz is like these specimens.
[He closes the herbarium.]
However, he's beloved, he's popular,
I love him well.
The Archduchess.
How he could help your cause!
The Duke.
Ah! if he would!
The Archduchess. ”

“ Noble. Time hath several falls.
Griefs lift up joys: feasts put down funerals.
Lus. Come then, my lords, my favour's to you all.
The duchess is suspected foully bent;
I'll begin dukedom with her banishment.
[Pg 97]
[Exeunt Duke, Nobles, and Duchess.
Hip. Revels!
Ven. Ay, that's the word: we are firm yet;
Strike one strain more, and then we crown our wit.
[Exeunt Hippolito and Vendice.
Spu. Well, have at the fairest mark [114] —so said the duke when he begot me;
And if I miss his heart, or near about,
Then have at any; a bastard scorns to be out. ”

“ This vicious old duke's worthily abused;
The pen of his bastard writes him cuckold?
Ven. His bastard?
Hip. Pray, believe it; he and the duchess
By night meet in their linen; [209] they have been seen
By stair-foot panders.
Ven. O, sin foul and deep!
Great faults are winked at when the duke's asleep.
See, see, here comes the Spurio.
Hip. Monstrous luxur!
[Pg 377]
Ven. Unbraced! two of his valiant bawds with him!
O, there's a wicked whisper; hell's in his ear.
Stay, let's observe his passage—
Enter Spurio and Servants. ”

“ The duke of NEWCASTLE next spoke, to this effect:—My lords, as my education and employments have afforded me no opportunity of acquiring any skill in military affairs, it will not be expected by your lordships, that I should be able to confute the arguments of the noble duke, whose acknowledged superiority in the art of war, and the abilities which he has displayed in the administration of every province which he has undertaken, give him a claim to the highest deference. ”

“ A proud, arrogant, overbearing “Katharine,” who marries the duke of Aranza, and intends to be lady paramount. The duke takes her to a poor hut, which he calls his home, gives her the household duties to perform, and pretends to be a day-laborer. She chafes for a time; but his manliness, affection, and firmness, get the mastery; and when he sees that she loves him for himself, he announces the fact that after all he is the duke, and she the duchess of Aranza.—J. Tobin, The Honeymoon (1804) .
Ju ́liance, a giant.—Sir T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur, i. ”

“ This lord's truth; he is next heir to the dukedom,
If the duke die without issue.
'Tis base in him the duke's life to pursue,
His blood is only to my sister due. [Exit.
Art. False duke, thou justly hast deserv'd thy death;
To cheat the innocent is a double crime;
I had no cunning guard about this heart
To keep it safe from a seducing tongue.
I have lost my heart, which he by falseness won;
How soon is truth and innocence undone! [Exit.
Enter Philidor.
Phil. Pray remember the poor prisoners, pray
[Pg 357] Remember the prisoners. ”

“ The Duke.
[Still paler and growing rigid.]
Read on, sir. Mother—mother—lift me up.
[Maria Louisa, assisted by the Prelate and
Doctor Malfatti, raises him on his pillows.]
Hartmann.
"Then the Grand Duke, who took on this occasion
The Austrian Emperor's place as Sponsor: then
Queen Hortense, and the Imperial Godmother;
Lastly, the King of Rome, borne by Her Grace,
The Duchess of Montesquieu. His Majesty,
Whose healthy mien the crowd observed with joy,
Wore a great silver mantle, lined with ermine,
Whose train His Grace the Duke of Valmy bore.
Princes—"
The Duke. ”

“ DUCHESS Yes, my good lord, I'll follow presently.
Exeunt GLOUCESTER and Messenger
Follow I must; I cannot go before,
While Gloucester bears this base and humble mind.
Were I a man, a duke, and next of blood,
I would remove these tedious stumbling-blocks
And smooth my way upon their headless necks;
And, being a woman, I will not be slack
To play my part in Fortune's pageant.
Where are you there? Sir John! nay, fear not, man,
We are alone; here's none but thee and I.
Enter HUME
HUME Jesus preserve your royal majesty!
DUCHESS What say'st thou? majesty! I am but grace. ”

“ The Duke.
[Reading.]
Bengalensis.
The Archduchess.
Of Bengal?
The Duke.
That's right.
The Archduchess.
I find you nervous. What's the matter?
The Duke.
Nothing.
The Archduchess.
Yes, but I know, your bosom-friend Prokesch,
The confidant of hopes they think too vast,
They've sent him far away.
The Duke.
But in exchange
They give me Marshal Marmont as a friend.
Despised in France, he crawls to Austria
To gather praise for treason to my Father.
The Archduchess.
Hush!
The Duke.
And a man like that is here to set
The son against the Father!—Oh!—
[Reading.] ”

“ You can’t do better, then. Au revoir;” and with a bow he left me, calling to Bontet to follow him upstairs and wait for the note which was to go to the officers at Pontorson. It must be admitted that the duke conducted the necessary arrangements with much tact. ”

“ The Duke as thou knowest, is absent, olde, and crooked, and at all houres in the mercy of death throughe the daungers of the warres. Nowe if he should chaunce to die, my desire is to mary thee with some great Lady: yea and if it were possible with the Duchesse her selfe, which God knoweth what profite it would bring both to thee and thy frendes, and in my iudgement an easie matter to compasse, if thou wilt dispose thy selfe after my counsell, or at leaste wise, if thou canst not come to the title of husband, thou maiest 304 not faile to be receiued as her frend. ”

“ he came trotting along in a great hurry, muttering to himself as he came, "Oh! the Duchess, the Duchess! ”

“ ELEANOR, Duchess of Gloucester
CARDINAL Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, great-uncle to the King
DUKE OF SOMERSET
DUKE OF SUFFOLK
DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM
LORD CLIFFORD
YOUNG CLIFFORD, his son
VAUX
Richard Plantagenet, Duke of YORK ”

“ For thirteen hundred years the daughters of the house had been married without a dowry or taken the veil; the younger sons of every generation had been content with their share of their mother’s dower and gone forth to be captains or bishops; some had made a marriage at court; one cadet of the house became an admiral, a duke, and a peer of France, and died without issue. Never would the Marquis d’Esgrignon of the elder branch accept the title of duke. ”

“ Have I given any symptoms of an avaricious disposition? Have I obtained any grants from the Crown, since I have been placed at the head of the treasury? Has my conduct been different from that which others in the same station would have followed? ”

“ How bright the sun, The breeze how soft! Can anything produced In the Old World compare, thought I, for power And majesty, with this tremendous stream Sprung from the desert? And behold a city Fresh, youthful, and aspiring! ”

“ The duke wheeled his chair around and looked at the visitor, who stood just within the door, bowing profoundly.
The newcomer was a youth of about fifteen years of age, tall, slight and elegant in form; fair, blue-eyed and light-haired in complexion; refined, graceful and self possessed in manner; and faultlessly dressed in deep mourning; but! how amazingly like the duke's own son, the young Marquis of Arondelle. ”

“ The Duke.
I love you!
The Emperor.
Yes; if you appeared alone,
Without a drum, upon the bridge at Strassburg,
The King would vanish.
The Duke.
I adore you, Grandad!
The Emperor.
I'm stifled!
The Duke.
No.
The Emperor.
I should have held my tongue.
The Duke.
Besides, the climate of Vienna's bad:
I'm ordered Paris—
The Emperor.
Really?
The Duke.
For my cough.
If I'm to spend a season there, of course
I can't stop anywhere but at the Louvre.
The Emperor.
Indeed!
The Duke.
And if you liked—
The Emperor.
They've often begged us
To wink at your escaping—
The Duke. ”

“ Doth warrant thee that it is no Priest's legend.
MAX.
How mere a maniac they supposed the Duke!
What, he can meditate?—the Duke?—can dream
That he can lure away full thirty thousand
Tried troops and true, all honourable soldiers,
More than a thousand noblemen among them,
From oaths, from duty, from their honour lure them,
And make them all unanimous to do
A deed that brands them scoundrels?
OCTAVIO.
Such a deed,
With such a front of infamy, the Duke
No way desires—what he requires of us
Bears a far gentler appellation. Nothing
He wishes but to give the Empire peace. ”

“ The duke is "most high and most puissant prince," the marquis and earl "most noble and puissant lord," the viscount "noble and puissant lord," the baron "trusty lord." The duke is "his Grace;" the other Peers their "Lordships." "Most honourable" is higher than "right honourable."
Lords who are peers are lords in their own right. Lords who are not peers are lords by courtesy:—there are no real lords, excepting such as are peers. ”

“ The duke’s hand was on my arm, restraining me, and he held it there till the feet had passed above us and the stealthy tread landed on the marble flagging of the hall. We thrust our heads out and peered through the darkness. I saw the figures of two men, one following the other toward the front door; this the first and taller unfastened and noiselessly opened; and he and his fellow, whom, by the added light which entered, I perceived to be carrying a box or case of moderate size, waited for a moment on the threshold. ”

“ The duke stood regarding the necklace for a moment, as it lay gleaming and glittering on the wooden table in the bare inn parlor. Then he stepped up to the table, but at the moment I cried:
“You won’t steal her away before—before——”
“Before we fight? I will not, on my honor.” He paused and added: “For there is one thing I want more even than her.” ”

“ The Duke stretched out his hand, took the reins, put foot in stirrup, and mounted; and the good horse pawed, pranced, reared himself up, and curvetted. The Viscount of Toarz saw how the Duke bore himself in arms, and said to his people that were around him, 'Never have I seen a man so fairly armed, nor one who rods so gallantly, or bore his arms or became his hauberk so well; neither any one who bore his lance so gracefully, or sat his horse and managed him so nobly. There is no such knight under heaven! a fair count he is, and fair king he will be. ”