,
And sometimes when my face was full of smiles
Have felt the maze of conscience in my breast.
Oft gay and honoured robes those tortures try:
We think cag'd birds sing when indeed they cry.

[_Enter Brachiano's ghost, in his leather cassock and_
_breeches, and boots; with a cowl; in his hand a pot_
_of lily flowers, with a skull in't._

Ha! I can stand thee: nearer, nearer it.
What a mockery hath death made thee! thou look'st sad.
In what place art thou? in yon starry gallery?
Or in the cursed dungeon?--No? not speak?
Pray, sir, resolve me, what religion's best
For a man to die in? or is it in your knowledge
To answer me how long I have to live?
That's the most necessary question.
Not answer? are you still like some great men
That only walk like shadows up and down,
And to no purpose? Say:--

[_The Ghost throws earth upon him and shows him the skull._

What's that? O, fatal! he throws earth upon me!
A dead man's skull beneath the roots of flowers!--
I pray [you], speak, sir: our Italian Church-men
Make us believe dead men hold conference
With their familiars, and many times
Will come to bed to them, and eat with them.

[_Exit_ GHOST.

He's gone; and see, the skull and earth are vanished.
This is beyond melancholy. I do dare my fate
To do its worst. Now to my sister's lodging
And sum up all these horrors: the disgrace
The prince threw on me; next the piteous sight
Of my dead brother; and my mother's dotage;
And last this terrible vision: all these
Shall with Vittoria's bounty turn to good,
Or I will drown this weapon in her blood."

[_Exit._

_The Duchess of Malfi_ is to my thinking very inferior--full of beauties as
it is. In the first place, we cannot sympathise with the duchess, despite
her misfortunes, as we do with the "White Devil." She is neither quite a
virtuous woman (for in that case she would not have resorted to so much
concealment) nor a frank professor of "All for Love." Antonio, her
so-called husband, is an unromantic and even questionable figure. Many of
the minor characters, as already hinted, would be much be