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whole range of the drama. He was a man of a truly original genius, and seems to have felt strong pleasure in the strange and fantastic horrors that rose up from the dark abyss of his imagination. The vices and the crimes which he delights to paint, all partake of an extravagance which, nevertheless, makes them impressive and terrible, and in the retribution and the punishment there is a character of corresponding wildness. But our sympathies, suddenly awakened, are allowed as suddenly to subside. There is nothing of what Wordsworth calls a mighty stream of tendency" in the events of his dramas, nor, in our opinion, is there a single character that clearly and boldly stands out before us, like a picture. This being the case, we shall lay before our readers, merely an outline of the story of this his best play (Duchess of Malfy), and a few of its finest passages.
The Duchess of Malfy having been left a widow, fixes her affections on Antonio, the master of her household. In the second scene of the first act, Antonio thus beautifully describes her.
You only will begin then to be sorry
When she doth end her speech, and wish, in wonder,
She held it less vain-glory to talk much
Than your penance to hear her; while she speaks,
She throws upon a man so sweet a look,
That it were able to raise one to a galliard
That lay in a dead palsy; and to dote
On that sweet countenance: but in that look
There speaketh so divine a continence,
As cuts off all lascivious, all vain hope.
Her days are practised in such noble virtue,
That sure her nights (nay more, her very sleeps,)
Are more in heaven than other Ladies' shrifts.
Let all sweet Ladies break their flattering glasses,
And dress themselves in her."
Her brothers, Ferdinand and the Cardinal, are averse to her marrying again; and, before leaving her court, the former hires Bosola, who had served in the galleys as a punishment for a murder, to watch the motions of the Duchess. Though aware of her brothers' sentiments, she determines secretly to marry Antonio. Accordingly, in the third scene of the first act, she confesses to him her passion. There is a fine mixture of tenderness and dignity in this avowal. The following speech may serve as a specimen.
We are forced to woo—because none dare woo us.
And as a Tyrant doubles with his words,
And fearfully equivocates, so we
Are forced to express our violent passions
In riddles and in dreams, and leave the path
Of simple virtue, which was never made
To seem the thing it was not. Go—go—brag
You have left me heartless—mine is in your bosom,
I hope 'twill multiply love there. You do tremble!
Make not your heart so dead a piece of flesh,
To fear more than to love me! Sir, be confident;
What is't distracts you? This is flesh and blood, Sir;
'Tis not the Figure, cut in alabaster,
Kneels at my husband's Tomb. Awake—awake—
I do here put off all vain ceremony,
And only do appear to you a widow
That claims you for her husband; and, like a widow
I use but half a blush in't."
They are married; and Cariola, the confidant of the Duchess, thus speaks of their ill-fated union.
Reign most in her, I know not, but it shews
A fearful madness—I owe her much pity."
The second act, which commences, we presume, about nine months after the termination of the first, opens with a scene of a somewhat singular nature. The Duchess is suddenly taken in labour; and, on being conveyed to her chamber, is delivered of a boy. Bosola has observed her illness, and conjectured the cause. Antonio, to prevent discovery, declares it to be the Duchess' order, that all the officers of the court shall be locked up in their chamber till sunrise, under pretence of some ducats having been missed from her cabinet. Being of a superstitious disposition, he has addicted himself to astrology; and, on the birth of the child, calculates its nativity. This paper he accidentally drops, and Bosola finding it, receives confirmation of his suspicions. He immediately communicates to Ferdinand, now at Rome, the situation of his sister; and the second act terminates with a conversation between that Prince and the Cardinal, in which he passionately vows destruction to the Duchess, her child, and paramour.
The third act opens about a couple of years afterwards, during which time, we are told, that the Duchess has had two other children, and that her re-