_Vit. Cor._ O, happy they that never saw the court, Nor ever knew great men but by report! [_Dies._ _Flam._ I recover like a spent taper, for a flash, And instantly go out. Let all that belong to great men remember the old wives' tradition, to be like the lions i' the Tower, on Candlemas-day: to mourn if the sun shine, for fear of the pitiful remainder of winter to come. 'Tis well yet there's some goodness in my death; My life was a black charnel. I have caught An everlasting cold; I have lost my voice Most irrecoverably. Farewell, glorious villains! This busy trade of life appears most vain, Since rest breeds rest, where all seek pain by pain. Let no harsh flattering bells resound my knell; Strike, thunder, and strike loud, to my farewell! [_Dies._ _Eng. Am._ [_Within_]. This way, this way! break ope the doors! this way! _Lod._ Ha! are we betrayed? Why, then let's constantly die all together; And having finished this most noble deed, Defy the worst of fate, not fear to bleed: _Enter_ Ambassadors _and_ GIOVANNI. _Eng. Am._ Keep back the prince: shoot, shoot. [_They shoot, and_ LODOVICO _falls._ _Lod._ O, I am wounded! I fear I shall be ta'en. _Gio._ You bloody villains, By what authority have you committed This massacre? _Lod._ By thine. _Gio._ Mine! _Lod._ Yes; thy uncle, Which is a part of thee, enjoined us to't: Thou know'st me, I am sure; I am Count Lodowick; And thy most noble uncle in disguise Was last night in thy court. _Gio._ Ha! _Carlo._ Yes, that Moor Thy father chose his pensioner. _Gio._ He turned murderer!-- Away with them to prison and to torture! All that have hands in this shall taste our justice, As I hope Heaven. _Lod._ I do glory yet That I can call this act mine own. For my part, The rack, the gallows, and the torturing wheel, Shall be but sound sleeps to me: here's my rest; I limned this night-piece, and it was my best. _Gio._ Remove the bodies.--See, my honoured lords, What use you ought make of their punishment: Let guilty men remember, their black deeds Do lean on crutches made of slender reeds. [_Exeunt._ Instead of an EPILOGUE, only this of Martial supplies me: _Hæc fuerint nobis præmia, si placui._[99] For the action of the play, 'twas generally well, and I dare affirm, with the joint-testimony of some of their own quality, for the true imitation of life; without striving to make nature a monster, the best that ever became them: whereof as I make a general acknowledgment, so in particular I must remember the well-approved industry of my friend Master Perkins,[100] and confess the worth of his action did crown both the beginning and end. _THE DUCHESS OF MALFI._