Brecht Collected Plays: 7: Visions of Simone Machard; Schweyk in the Second World War; Caucasian Chalk Circle; Duchess of Malfi (World Classics)

by Bertolt Brecht

  ANTONIO

  New come from Paris, how doth Malfi please you?

  DELIO

  So well that I am sorry I shall straightway

  Be leaving it. I thank you, dear Antonio,

  For my preferment with Lord Ferdinand.

  ’Tis agreed I follow him to the wars.

  ANTONIO

  Here comes the great Calabrian Duke.

  They give way as Duke Ferdinand and courtiers, Bosola and Castruchio enter.

  FERDINAND

  Are the galleys come about yet?

  CASTRUCHIO

  They are, my lord. But methinks you should not desire to go to war in person.

  FERDINAND

  Now for some weighty reason. Why not?

  CASTRUCHIO

  It is fitting a soldier should rise to be a prince but not necessary a prince should descend to be a captain.

  FERDINAND

  No?

  CASTRUCHIO

  No, my lord, he were far better do it by deputy.

  FERDINAND

  This war too nearly touches mine honour. Since the old Duke of Malfi fell, I have sworn to defend my sister Duchess in his stead. While I live she need fear no foe.

  CASTRUCHIO

  Believe my experience. That realm is never long quiet where the ruler is a soldier.

  FERDINAND

  Antonio, great master of our sister

  Duchess’ household! Your cousin pleases me.

  His skill in this new science of gunnery

  From France we’ll soon know how to use in Cyprus.

  Enter courtier.

  COURTIER

  Your brother, the Lord Cardinal and sister duchess will be here anon. The people line the streets awaiting your progress to the haven.

  Crowd noises.

  Hark, your grace may hear their lusty shouts.

  Duke moves off towards the window to observe the crowd.

  DELIO

  Apart with Antonio.

  The presence begins to fill. You promised me

  To make me partaker of the natures

  Of some of your great courtiers.

  ANTONIO

  Well, there’s the Cardinal.

  DELIO

  What’s his temper? They say he’s a great scoundrel.

  ANTONIO

  He should have been Pope but did bestow bribes too impudently. Some good he hath done.

  DELIO

  What’s his brother, my new master?

  ANTONIO

  The Duke, there? A most perverse and turbulent nature.

  DELIO

  Twins?

  ANTONIO

  In quality. ’Tis said he and his brother are like plumtrees that

  grow crooked over standing pools. They are rich and o’erladen

  with fruit but none but crows, pies and caterpillars feed

  on them.

  DELIO

  What of their sister, the fair Duchess?

  ANTONIO

  You never fixed your eye on three fair medals

  Cast in one figure of so different temper.

  For her discourse it is so full of rapture

  You will only begin then to be sorry

  When she doth end her speech and wish, in wonder,

  She held it less vainglory to talk much.

  She throws upon a man so sweet a look

  That it were able to raise one that lay

  Dead in a palsy but in that look

  There speaketh so divine a continence

  As cuts off all lascivious and 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.

  DELIO

  Fie, Antonio,

  Have you turned scholar studying of her virtues?

  ANTONIO

  I’ll case the picture up. Only this much—

  All her particular worth grows to this sum.

  She stains time past, lights the time to come.

  Enter Cardinal, Duchess and Cariola.

  CARDINAL

  Crossing to Ferdinand:

  We are to part from you.

  To Duchess:

  And your own discretion

  Must now be your director.

  FERDINAND

  You are a widow;

  You know already what man is and therefore

  Let not youth, high promotion, eloquence—

  CARDINAL

  No, nor anything without the addition, honour,

  Sway your high blood.

  FERDINAND

  Marry? They are most lascivious

  Will wed twice.

  CARDINAL

  Oh fie!

  FERDINAND

  Their livers are more spotted

  Than Laban’s sheep.

  DUCHESS

  Diamonds are of most value,

  They say, that have passed through most jewellers’ hands.

  FERDINAND

  Whores, by that rule, are precious.

  DUCHESS

  Will you hear me?

  I’ll never marry.

  CARDINAL

  So most widows say.

  But commonly that motion lasts no longer

  Than the turning of an hourglass, the funeral sermon

  And it end both together.

  FERDINAND

  Now hear me:

  You live in a rank pasture here in the court.

  There is a kind of honeydew that’s deadly.

  ’Twill poison your fame; look to it; be not cunning.

  For they whose faces do belie their hearts

  Are witches, ere they arrive at twenty years,

  Aye, and give the devil suck.

  DUCHESS

  This is terribly good counsel.

  FERDINAND

  Hypocrisy is woven of a fine small thread,

  Subtler than Vulcan’s engine; yet believe it

  Your darkest actions, nay your privatest thoughts,

  Will come to light.

  CARDINAL

  You may flatter yourself

  And take your own choice privately to be married

  Under the eyes of night.

  FERDINAND

  Think it the best voyage

  That e’er you made, like the irregular crab,

  Which though it goes backward, thinks it goes right

  Because it goes its own way, but observe;

  Such weddings may more properly be said

  To be executed than celebrated.

  CARDINAL

  The marriage night

  Is the entrance into some prison.

  FERDINAND

  And those joys,

  Those lustful pleasures are like heavy sleeps

  Which do forerun man’s mischief.

  CARDINAL

  Wisdom begins at the end. Remember it.

  DUCHESS

  To Cardinal.

  We’ll bear you company to your litter.

  Cardinal gives her his arm and they go out. Ferdinand beckons to Bosola and takes him apart.

  FERDINAND

  Giving him money.

  There’s gold.

  BOSOLA

  Whose throat must I cut?

  FERDINAND

  I give you that

  To live in the court here and observe the Duchess,

  To note all the particulars of her behaviour;

  What suitors do solicit her for marriage

  And whom she best affects. She’s a young widow;

  I would not have her marry again.

  BOSOLA

  No, Sir?

  FERDINAND

  Do not ask the reason but be satisfied.

  I say I would not.

  There is a place that I procured for you

  This morning, the provisorship of the horse.

  B
OSOLA

  The provisorship of the horse? Say then my corruption

  Grew out of horse dung. Oh that your bounty

  Should make me a villain! I am your creature

  Exits.

  DELIO

  To Antonio.

  I knew this fellow seven years in the galleys

  For a notorious murder.

  Duchess re-enters and goes to Ferdinand.

  DUCHESS

  I think that speech between you both was studied,

  It came so roundly off.

  FERDINAND

  You are my sister.

  This was my father’s poignard, do you see ?

  Shows poignard.

  I would be loth to see it look rusty since it was his.

  I would have you give over these chargeable revels.

  A visor and a mask are whispering rooms

  That ne’er were built for goodness. Fare ye well,

  And women like that part which, like the lamprey,

  Hath never a bone in it.

  DUCHESS

  Fie, sir!

  FERDINAND

  Nay,

  I meant the tongue, variety of courtship.

  What cannot a neat knave with a smooth tale

  Make a woman believe. Farewell lusty widow.

  He goes out. She pauses for a moment, then follows with courtiers.

  VOICE

  Way for the Duke! Make way for Duke Ferdinand! Way for

  the Duke! The Duke is off to the wars!

  Crowd noises.

  Scene 2

  Boudoir of the Duchess of Malfi.

  Duchess and Cariola are on.

  DUCHESS

  Shall all this move me? If my royal kindred

  Lie in my way unto this marriage,

  I’ll make them my low footsteps. And even now,

  Even in this hate, as men in some great battles

  By apprehending danger, have achieved

  Almost impossible actions (I have heard soldiers say so),

  So I, through frights and threatenings, will assay

  This dangerous adventure. Let old wives report

  I winked and chose a husband! Cariola,

  To thy known secrecy I have given up

  More than my life, my fame.

  CARIOLA

  Both shall be safe;

  For I’ll conceal this secret from the world

  As warily as those that trade in poison

  Keep poison from their children.

  DUCHESS

  Thy protestation

  Is ingenious and hearty: I believe it.

  Is Antonio come?

  CARIOLA

  He attends you.

  DUCHESS

  Good dear soul,

  Leave me: but place thyself behind the arras

  Where thou mayst overhear us. Wish me good speed.

  Cariola goes behind the arras.

  For I am going into a wilderness

  Where I shall find nor path nor friendly clew

  To be my guide.

  Enter Antonio.

  I sent for you; sit down;

  Take pen and ink and write: are you ready?

  ANTONIO

  Yes.

  DUCHESS

  What did I say?

  ANTONIO

  That I should write somewhat.

  DUCHESS

  Oh, I remember:

  After this triumph and this large expense,

  It’s fit (like thrifty husbands) we inquire

  What’s laid up for tomorrow.

  ANTONIO

  So please your beauteous excellence.

  DUCHESS

  Beauteous?

  Indeed I thank you: I look young for your sake.

  As my steward you have taken my cares upon you.

  ANTONIO

  I’ll fetch your grace the particulars

  Of all your revenues and your expenses.

  DUCHESS

  Oh, you are an upright treasurer; but you mistook

  For when I said I meant to make inquiry

  What’s laid up for tomorrow, I did mean

  What’s laid up yonder for me.

  ANTONIO

  Where?

  DUCHESS

  In heaven.

  I am making my will (as ’tis fit princes should

  In perfect memory), and I pray sir, tell me

  Were it not better to make it smiling, thus,

  Than in deep groans and terrible ghastly looks

  As if the gifts we parted with procured

  That violent distraction?

  ANTONIO

  Oh, much better.

  DUCHESS

  If I had a husband now this care were quit:

  But I intend to make you overseer.

  What good deed shall we first remember? Say.

  ANTONIO

  Begin with that first good deed began i’ th’ world,

  After man’s creation, the sacrament of marriage,

  I’d have you first provide for a good husband:

  Give him all.

  DUCHESS

  St. Winfrid, that were a strange will!

  ANTONIO

  ’Twere strange if there were no will in you

  To marry again.

  DUCHESS

  What do you think of marriage?

  ANTONIO

  I take it as those that deny purgatory,

  It locally contains or heaven or hell;

  There’s no third place in it.

  DUCHESS

  How do you like it?

  ANTONIO

  My banishment, feeding on my melancholy,

  Would often reason thus—

  DUCHESS

  Pray let’s hear it.

  ANTONIO

  Say a man never marry, nor have children,

  What takes that from him? Only the bare name

  Of being a father, or the weak delight

  To see the little wanton ride a cock-horse

  Upon a painted stick or hear him chatter

  Like a taught starling.

  DUCHESS

  Fie, fie, what’s all this ?

  One of your eyes is bloodshot. Use my ring to it.

  They say ’tis a good remedy. ’Twas my wedding ring

  And I did vow never to part with it

  But to my second husband.

  ANTONIO

  You have parted with it now.

  DUCHESS

  Yes, to help your eyesight.

  ANTONIO

  You have made me stark blind.

  DUCHESS

  How?

  ANTONIO

  There is a saucy and ambitious devil

  Is dancing in this circle.

  DUCHESS

  Remove him.

  ANTONIO

  How?

  DUCHESS

  There needs small conjuration when your finger

  May do it: thus, is it fit?

  ANTONIO

  What said you?

  He kneels.

  DUCHESS

  Sir,

  This goodly roof of yours is too low built;

  I can not stand upright in’t, nor discourse

  Without I raise it higher: Raise yourself,

  Or if you please, my hand to help you: so.

  ANTONIO

  Ambition, madam, is a great man’s madness

  That is not kept in chains and close-pent rooms

  But in fair lightsome lodgings and is girt

  With the wild noise of prattling visitants

  Which makes it lunatic beyond all cure.

  Conceive not I am so stupid but I aim

  Whereto your favours tend: but he’s a fool

  That, being acold, would thrust his hands in the fire

  To warm them.

  DUCHESS

  So, now the ground’s broke,

  You may discover what a wealthy mine

  I make you lord of.

  ANTONIO

  Oh, my unworthiness!


  DUCHESS

  You were ill to sell yourself:

  This dark’ning of your worth is not like that

  Which tradesmen use in the city; their false lights

  Are to rid bad wares off: and I must tell you

  If you will know where breathes a complete man

  (I speak it without flattery), turn your eyes

  And progress through yourself.

  ANTONIO

  Were there nor heaven nor hell,

  I should be honest. I have long served virtue

  And never taken wages of her.

  DUCHESS

  Now she pays it.

  The misery of us that are born great,

  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 is not. 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 it distracts you? This is flesh and blood, sir;

  ’Tis not the figure cut in alabaster

  Kneels at my husband’s tomb. Awake, awake, man,

  I do here put off all vain ceremony

  And only do appear to you a young widow

  That claims you for her husband, and like a widow,

  I use but half a blush in it.

  ANTONIO

  Truth speak for me,

  I will remain the constant sanctuary

  Of your good name.

  DUCHESS

  I thank you, gentle love;

  I have seen children oft eat sweetmeats thus

  As fearful to devour them too soon.

  ANTONIO

  But for your brothers?

  DUCHESS

  Still in his arms.

  Do not think of them!

  All discord without this circumference

  Is only to be pitied and not feared:

  Yet, should they know it, time will easily

  Scatter the tempest.

  ANTONIO

  These words should be mine,

  And all the parts you have spoke, if some part of it

  Would not have savoured of flattery.

  DUCHESS

  Kneel.

  Enter Cariola.

  ANTONIO

  Hah!

  DUCHESS

  Be not amazed, this woman’s of my counsel:

  I have often heard lawyers say a contract in a chamber,

  Per verba de presenti, is absolute marriage.

  Bless, heaven, this sacred gordian, which let violence

  Never untwine!

  ANTONIO

  And may our sweet affections, like the spheres,

  Be still in motion!

  DUCHESS

  Quickening and make

  The like soft music!

  ANTONIO

  That we may imitate the loving palms,

  Best emblem of a peaceful marriage,

  That never bore fruit divided!

  DUCHESS