John Webster (1580?–1634). The Duchess of Malfi.

Vol. 47, pp. 821-837* of The Harvard Classics

Latest news abroad in Malfi: The Duchess has run off with her butler. But this happened before the days of newspapers or radio, so Webster made from it an exciting play.

*Correction from the original text which prompted to read pages 721-737 which would have been from the play, Philaster rather than The Duchess of Malfi.

Act IV

Scene II

[Enter Madman]
Here by a Madman this song is sung to a dismal kind of music

O, let us howl some heavy note,

  Some deadly dogged howl,

Sounding as from the threatening throat

  Of beasts and fatal fowl!

As ravens, screech-owls, bulls, and bears,

  We ’ll bell, and bawl our parts,

Till irksome noise have cloy’d your ears

  And corrosiv’d your hearts.

At last, whenas our choir wants breath,

  Our bodies being blest,

We ’ll sing, like swans, to welcome death,

  And die in love and rest.