In the closing scene with her cold-blooded assassins, Lodovico and Gasparo, she speaks daggers, and might almost be supposed to exorcise the murdering fiend out of these true devils. Every word probes to the quick. The whole scene is the sublime of contempt and indifference.
‘Vittoria. If Florence be i’ th’ Court, he would not kill me.
Gasparo. Fool! princes give rewards with their own hands,
But death or punishment by the hands of others.
Lodovico (To Flamineo). Sirra, you once did strike me; I’ll strike you
Unto the centre.
Flam. Thou ‘lt do it like a hangman, a base hangman,
Not like a noble fellow; for thou see’st
I cannot strike again.
Lod. Dost laugh?