Dost thou think we shall know one another In th' other world?
CARIOLA. Yes, out of question.
DUCHESS. O, that it were possible we might But hold some two days' conference with the dead! >From them I should learn somewhat, I am sure, I never shall know here. I 'll tell thee a miracle: I am not mad yet, to my cause of sorrow: Th' heaven o'er my head seems made of molten brass, The earth of flaming sulphur, yet I am not mad. I am acquainted with sad misery As the tann'd galley-slave is with his oar; Necessity makes me suffer constantly, And custom makes it easy. Who do I look like now?
CARIOLA. Like to your picture in the gallery, A deal of life in show, but none in practice; Or rather like some reverend monument Whose ruins are even pitied.
DUCHESS. Very proper; And Fortune seems only to have her eye-sight To behold my tragedy.--How now! What noise is that?
[Enter Servant]
SERVANT. I am come to tell you Your brother hath intended you some sport. A great physician, when the Pope was sick Of a deep melancholy, presented him With several sorts<106> of madmen, which wild object Being full of change and sport, forc'd him to laugh, And so the imposthume<107> broke: the self-same cure The duke intends on you.
DUCHESS. Let them come in.
SERVANT. There 's a mad lawyer; and a secular priest; A doctor that hath forfeited his wits By jealousy; an astrologian That in his works said such a day o' the month Should be the day of doom, and, failing of 't, Ran mad; an English tailor craz'd i' the brain With the study of new fashions; a gentleman-usher Quite beside himself with care to keep in mind The number of his lady's salutations Or 'How do you,' she employ'd him in each morning; A farmer, too, an excellent knave in grain,<108> Mad 'cause he was hind'red transportation:<109> And let one broker that 's mad loose to these, You'd think the devil were among them.
DUCHESS. Sit, Cariola.--Let them loose when you please, For I am chain'd to endure all your tyranny.
[Enter Madman]
Here by a Madman this song is sung to a dismal kind of music
O, let us howl some heavy note, Some deadly dogged howl, Sounding as from the threatening throat Of beasts and fatal fowl! As ravens, screech-owls, bulls, and bears, We 'll bell, and bawl our parts, Till irksome noise have cloy'd your ears And corrosiv'd your hearts. At last, whenas our choir wants breath, Our bodies being blest, We 'll sing, like swans, to welcome death, And die in love and rest.
FIRST MADMAN. Doom's-day not come yet! I 'll draw it nearer by a perspective,<110> or make a glass that shall set all the world on fire upon an instant. I cannot sleep; my pillow is stuffed with a litter of porcupines.
SECOND MADMAN. Hell is a mere glass-house, where the devils are continually blowing up women's souls on hollow irons, and the fire never goes out.
FIRST MADMAN. I have skill in heraldry.
SECOND MADMAN. Hast?
FIRST MADMAN. You do give for your crest a woodcock's head with the brains picked out on 't; you are a very ancient gentleman.
THIRD MADMAN. Greek is turned Turk: we are only to be saved by the Helvetian translation.<111>
FIRST MADMAN. Come on, sir, I will lay the law to you.
SECOND MADMAN. O, rather lay a corrosive: the law will eat to the bone.
THIRD MADMAN. He that drinks but to satisfy nature is damn'd.
FOURTH MADMAN. If I had my glass here, I would show a sight should make all the women here call me mad doctor.
FIRST MADMAN. What 's he? a rope-maker?
SECOND MADMAN. No, no, no, a snuffling knave that, while he shows the tombs, will have his hand in a wench's placket.<112>
THIRD MADMAN. Woe to the caroche<113> that brought home my wife from the masque at three o'clock in the morning! It had a large feather-bed in it.
FOURTH MADMAN. I have pared the devil's nails forty times, roasted them in raven's eggs, and cured agues with them.
THIRD MADMAN.