Duchess of Malfi

• Bosola (1.1): '"He and his brother are like plum-trees that grow crooked over standing pools; they are rich, and o'erladen with fruit, but none but crows, pies, and caterpillars feed on them. Could I be one of their flattering panders, I would hang on their ears like a horse-leech till I were full, and then drop off."'
• The Duchess (4.2): '"I am Duchess of Malfi still"'
• The Duchess (1.1): '"All discord, without this circumference,/Is only to be pitied, and not feared"'
• Bosola (4.2): '"Let me know Wherefore I should be thus neglected. Sir, I served your tyranny, and rather strove To satisfy yourself, than all the world; And though I loathed the evil, yet I loved You that did counsel it, and rather sought To appear a true servant than an honest man."'
• Ferdinand (4.2): '"Cover her face: mine eyes dazzle: she died young."'
• Delio (5.5): '"Let us make noble use Of this great ruin; and join all our force To establish this young, hopeful gentleman In's mother's right. These wretched eminent things Leave no more fame behind 'em than should one Fall in a frost, and leave his print in snow; As soon as the sun shines, it ever melts, Both form and matter."'
• The Duchess (3.2): '"For know, whether I am doomed to live, or die, I can do both like a prince."'
• Ferdinand (4.1): '"Damn her, that body of hers, While that my blood ran pure in't, was more worth Than that which thou wouldst comfort, called a soul."'
• The Duchess (1.1): '"Diamonds are of most value, They say, that have passed through most jewellers' hands."'
• The Duchess (1.1): '"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."'
• Antonio (1.1): '"These words should be mine, And all the parts you have spoke, if some part of it Would not have savoured flattery."'
• Cariola (1.1): '"Whether the spirit of greatness or of woman Reign most in her, I know not, but it shows A fearful madness."'
• Antonio (3.2): '"Oh fie upon this single life! Forgo it: We read how Daphne, for her peevish flight, Became a fruitless bay-tree, Syrinx turn'd To the pale empty reed, Anaxarete Was frozen into marble, whereas those Which married, or proved kind unto their friends, Were by a gracious influence transshaped Into the olive, pomegranate, mulberry, Became flowers, precious stones or eminent stars."'
• Duchess (4.1): '"You violate a sacrament o'th'Church Shall make you howl in hell for't"'
• Ferdinand (3.2): '"Do not ask, then. He that can compass me and know my drifts May say that he hath put a girdle 'bout the world And sounded all her quicksands."'
• Bosola (3.2): '"What rests, but I reveal All to my lord? Oh, this base quality Of intelligencer!"'
• Bosola (4.1): '"Never in mine own shape, That's forfeited by my intelligence And this last cruel lie. When you send me next The business shall be comfort."'