Category: Plays/Films/Dramas
_The Malcontent_ was dedicated by Marston in very handsome terms to Ben Jonson, and there is a complimentary allusion to Jonson in the epilogue. At this distance of time it is impossible to fully understand the relations that existed between Jonson and Marston. There seem to h...
drunken shipwreck, is again in Chapman's manner; but his elaborate devices for blanching copper and sweating angels (later in the same scene) must, without the shadow of a doubt...
19. SCENE II._Pier._ Sit close unto my breast, heart of my love; Advance thy drooping eyes, thy son is drown'd. Rich happiness that such a son is drown'd! Thy husband's dead: life of my joys...
8. SCENE I._Bal._ Limn them? a good word, limn them: whose picture is this? _Anno Domini_, 1599. Believe me, master Anno Domini was of a good settled age when you limn'd him: 1599 years ol...
4. SCENE I._Cat._ Your honour with a paugh! 'slid, now every jackanapes loads his back with the golden coat of honour; every ass puts on the lion's skin and roars his honour. Upon your hon...
20. SCENE I._Mal._ [_above, out of his chamber_] Yaugh, god-a-man, what dost thou there? Duke's Ganymede, Juno's jealous of thy long stockings: shadow of a woman, what wouldst, weasel? thou...
26. SCENE I.I would fain shift place; O vain relief! Sad souls may well change place, but not change grief: As deer, being struck, fly thorough many soils,[453] Yet still the shaft sticks f...
10. SCENE II._Mar._ Nay, prithee give me leave to say, vouchsafe; Submiss entreats beseem my humble fate. Here let us sit. O Lucio, fortune's gilt Is rubb'd quite off from my slight tin-foil...
1. iv. 2, exemplify Marston's potent gift of presenting bold conceptions_The Malcontent_ was dedicated by Marston in very handsome terms to Ben Jonson, and there is a complimentary allusion to Jonson in the epilogue. At this distance of time it is i...
7. SCENE I._Ant._ Stop, stop Antonio, stay Antonio! Vain breath, vain breath, Antonio's lost; He cannot find himself, not seize himself. Alas, this that you see is not Antonio; His spirit...
15. SCENE I._Alb._ Fie, 'tis unsuiting to your elate spirit: Rather put on some transhaped cavalier, Some habit of a spitting critic, whose mouth Voids nothing but gentile and unvulgar Rheu...
6. SCENE II._Feli._ Castilio, Alberto, Balurdo! none up? Forobosco! Flattery, nor thou up yet? Then there's no courtier stirring: that's firm truth? I cannot sleep: Feliche seldom rests In...
31. SCENE II._Mal._ O, thou art a blessed creature! had I a modest woman to conceal, I would put her to thy custody; for no reasonable creature would ever suspect her to be in thy company: a...
32. SCENE III._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 wh...
3. SCENE I._Ant._ Heart, wilt not break? and thou abhorrèd life, Wilt thou still breathe in my enragèd blood? Veins, sinews, arteries, why crack ye not, Burst and divulst with anguish of m...
28. SCENE I._Maq._ O ladies, the most abominable mischance! O dear ladies, the most piteous disaster! Ferneze was taken last night in the duchess' chamber: alas, the duke catched him and ki...
13. SCENE I._Enter_ CASTILIO _and_ FOROBOSCO, ALBERTO _and_ BALURDO, _with poleaxes_; PIERO, _talking with_ STROTZO, _seemeth to send him out: exit_ STROTZO. _Re-enter_ STROTZO _with_ MARIA...
12. SCENE II._Ant._ Alberto, peace: that grief is wanton-sick, Whose stomach can digest and brook the diet Of stale ill-relish'd counsel. Pigmy cares Can shelter under patience' shield; but...
25. SCENE III._Maq._ 'Tis a pretty pearl; by this pearl (how does't with me?) thus it is. Seven and thirty yolks of Barbary hens' eggs; eighteen spoonfuls and a half of the juice of cock-spar...
11. SCENE I._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_ L...
29. SCENE II._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 w...
21. SCENE II._Maq._ To speak feelingly, more, more richly in solid sense than worthless words, give me those jewels of your ears to receive my enforced duty. As for my part, 'tis well known...
24. SCENE II._Mal._ Ay, old coal: methinks thou liest like a brand under these[414] billets of green wood. He that will inflame a young wench's heart, let him lay close to her an old coal th...
5. SCENE I._And._ Away! I have no excellence to please. Prithee observe the custom of the world, That only flatters greatness, states exalts. And please my excellence! O Lucio, Thou hast b...
16. SCENE II._Ant._ Ay, heaven, thou may'st, thou may'st, omnipotence. What vermin bred of putrefacted slime Shall dare to expostulate with thy decrees! O heaven, thou may'st indeed: she was...
9. SCENE I.'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 ear...
22. SCENE III.[398_Pass._ Yes, I can sing, fool, if you'll bear the burden; and I can play upon instruments, scurvily, as gentlemen do. O, that I had been gelded! I should then have been a fat fo...
14. SCENE II._Nut._ Fie, fie; to-morrow your wedding day, and weep! God's my comfort! Andrugio could do well: Piero may do better. I have had four husbands myself. The first I called, sweet...
27. SCENE II._Pietro._ Would God nothing but the dogs were at it! Let the deer pursue safety,[477] the dogs follow the game, and do you follow the dogs: as for me, 'tis unfit one beast shoul...
18. SCENE I._Bal._ Ho, who's above there, ho? A murrain on all proverbs. They say hunger breaks through stone walls; but I am as gaunt as lean-ribb'd famine, yet I can burst through no ston...
30. SCENE I.[528_Bil._ This calf hath been a reveller this twenty year. When Monsieur Gundi lay here ambassador, I could have carried a lady up and down at arm's end in a platter; and I can tel...
17. SCENE I._Enter at one door_ CASTILIO _and_ FOROBOSCO, _with halberts; four Pages with torches_; LUCIO, _bare_; PIERO, MARIA, _and_ ALBERTO, _talking_; ALBERTO _draws out his dagger_, MA...
23. SCENE I._Enter_ MENDOZA _with a sconce,[408] to observe_ FERNEZE'S _entrance, who, whilst the act is playing, enters unbraced, two Pages before him with lights; is met by_ MAQUERELLE _a...