ed are English; and the result of the
combination is to make the poisoners and assassins more fiendishly
malignant in spirit than they actually were. Thus Ferdinand, in "The
Duchess of Malfy," is the conception formed by an honest, deep-thoughted
Englishman of an Italian duke and politician, who had been educated in
those maxims of policy which were generalized by Machiavelli. Webster
makes him a devil, but a devil with a soul to be damned. The Duchess,
his sister, is discovered to be secretly married to her steward; and in
connection with his brother, the Cardinal, the Duke not only resolves on
her death, but devises a series of preliminary mental torments to madden
and break down her proud spirit. The first is an exhibition of wax
figures, representing her husband and children as they appeared in
death. Then comes a dance of madmen, with dismal howls and songs and
speeches. Then a tomb-maker whose talk is of the charnel-house, and who
taunts her with her mortality. She interrupts his insulting homily with
the exclamation, "Am I not thy Duchess?" "Thou art," he scornfully
replies, "some great woman sure, for riot begins to sit on thy forehead
(clad in gray hairs) twenty years sooner than on a merry milkmaid's.
Thou sleepest worse than if a mouse should be forced to take up her
lodging in a cat's ear; a little infant that breeds its teeth, should
it lie with thee, would cry out, as if thou wert the more unquiet
bedfellow." This mockery only brings from her firm spirit the proud
assertion, "I am Duchess of Malfy still." Indeed, her mind becomes
clearer and calmer as the tortures proceed. At first she had imprecated
curses on her brothers, and cried,

"Plagues that make lanes through largest families,
Consume them!"

But now, when the executioners appear, when her dirge is sung,
containing those tremendous lines,

"Of what is 't fools make such vain keeping?
Sin their conception, their birth weeping,
Their life a general mist of error,
Their death a hideous storm of terror,"--

when all that malice could suggest for her torment has been expended,
and the ruffians who have been sent to murder her approach to do their
office, her attitude is that of quiet dignity, forgetful of her own
sufferings, solicitous for others. Her attendant, Cariola, screams out:

"Hence, villains, tyrants, murderers: alas!
What will you do with my lady? Call for help.

"_Duchess._ To whom,--to our next n