Re-enter Vendice and Hippolito and the two Lords.
Ven. Pistols! treason! murder! Help! guard my lord the duke!
Enter Antonio and Guard.
Hip. Lay hold upon this traitor.
Lus. O!
Ven. Alas! the duke is murdered.
Hip. And the nobles.
Ven. Surgeons! surgeons! Heart! does he breathe so long?
[Aside.
Ant. A piteous tragedy! able to make
An old man's eyes bloodshot.
Lus. O!
Ven. Look to my lord the duke. A vengeance throttle him!
[Aside.
Confess, thou murderous and unhallowed man,
Didst thou kill all these?
3rd Lord. None but the bastard, I.
Ven. How came the duke slain, then?
3rd Lord. We found him so.
Lus. O villain!
Ven. Hark!
Lus. Those in the masque did murder us.
Ven. La you now, sir—
O marble impudence! will you confess now?
3rd Lord. 'Sblood, 'tis all false.
Ant. Away with that foul monster,
Dipped in a prince's blood.
3rd Lord. Heart! 'tis a lie.
Ant. Let him have bitter execution.
Ven. New marrow! no, I cannot be expressed.
How fares my lord the duke?
Lus. Farewell to all;
He that climbs highest has the greatest fall.
My tongue is out of office.
Ven. Air, gentlemen, air.
Now thou'lt not prate on't, 'twas Vendice murdered thee.
[Whispers in his ear.
Lus. O!
Ven. Murdered thy father. [Whispers.
Lus. O! [Dies.
Ven. And I am he—tell nobody: [Whispers] So, so, the duke's departed.
Ant. It was a deadly hand that wounded him.
The rest, ambitious who should rule and sway
After his death, were so made all away.
Ven. My lord was unlikely—
Hip. Now the hope
Of Italy lies in your reverend years.
Ven. Your hair will make the silver age again,
When there were fewer, but more honest men.
Ant. The burthen's weighty, and will press age down;
May I so rule, that Heaven may keep the crown!
Ven. The rape of your good lady has been quitted
With death on death.
Ant. Just is the law above.
But of all things it put me most to wonder
How the old duke came murdered!
Ven. O my lord!
Ant. It was the strangeliest carried: I've not heard of the like.
Hip. 'Twas all done for the best, my lord.
Ven. All for your grace's good. We may be bold to speak it now,
'Twas somewhat witty carried, though we say it—
'Twas we two murdered him.
Ant. You two?
Ven. None else, i' faith, my lord. Nay, 'twas well-managed.
Ant. Lay hands upon those villains!
Ven. How! on us?
Ant. Bear 'em to speedy execution.
Ven. Heart! was't not for your good, my lord?
Ant. My good! Away with 'em: such an old man as he!
You, that would murder him, would murder me.
Ven. Is't come about?
Hip. 'Sfoot, brother, you begun.
Ven. May not we set as well as the duke's son?
Thou hast no conscience, are we not revenged?
Is there one enemy left alive amongst those?
'Tis time to die, when we're ourselves our foes:
When murderers shut deeds close, this curse does seal 'em:
If none disclose 'em, they themselves reveal 'em!
This murder might have slept in tongueless brass
But for ourselves, and the world died an ass.
Now I remember too, here was Piato
Brought forth a knavish sentence once;
No doubt (said he), but time
Will make the murderer bring forth himself.
'Tis well he died; he was a witch.
And now, my lord, since we are in for ever,
This work was ours, which else might have been slipped!
And if we list, we could have nobles clipped,
And go for less than beggars; but we hate
To bleed so cowardly: we have enough,
I' faith, we're well, our mother turned, our sister true,
We die after a nest of dukes. Adieu! [Exeunt.
Ant. How subtlely was that murder closed![234]
Bear up
Those tragic bodies: 'tis a heavy season;
Pray Heaven their blood may wash away all treason!
[Exit.
[NOTES.]
[1] See J. A. Symonds' Shakespeare's Predecessors, chap. xii., for a definition and description of this dramatic genus.
[2] This play will be included in another volume of the Mermaid Series.
[3] It ought, perhaps, to be mentioned that the remarks which follow are adapted in part from an essay on Webster published in my Italian By-ways.
[4] Readers of this volume who are anxious to obtain more light upon Webster's art, must be referred to Lamb's notes in the Specimens from English Dramatic Poets, to Mr. Swinburne's article on John Webster in The Nineteenth Century for June, 1886, and to my own essay upon Vittoria Accoramboni in Italian By-ways (Smith and Elder, 1883).