138 The Early English Drama : [FEB. 



About the time, and common rumour : 



But I had so much wit to keep my thoughts 



Up in their close-built houses ; yet afforded him 



An idle satisfaction, without danger. 



But the whole aim and scope of his intent 



Ended in this : conjuring me in private 



To seek some strange-digested fellow forth, 



Of ill-contented nature ; either disgraced 



In former times, or by new grooms displaced 



Since his stepmother's nuptials ; such a blood, 



A man that were for evil only good : 



To give you the true word, some base-coin' d pander. 



Vin. I reach you : for I know his heat is such, 

 Were there as many concubines as ladies, 

 He would not be contained ; he must fly out. 

 I wonder how ill-featured, vile-proportioned, 

 That one should be, if she were made for woman, 

 Whom, at the insurrection of his lust, 

 He would refuse for once ? Heart ! I think none. 

 Next to a scull, though more unsound than one, 

 Each face he meets he strongly doats upon. 



Hip. Brother, you've truly spoke him : 

 He knows not you, but I'll swear you know him. 



Vin. And therefore I'll put on that knave for once, 

 And be a right man then a man o' the time : 

 For to be honest* s not to be o' the world. 

 Brother, I'll be that strange-composed fellow. 



He must have not only great confidence in his own powers, but a very 

 rich vein of fine writing within him to justify that confidence, who could 

 commence in a strain like this a drama that was to continue through five 

 long acts, and depend for its interest on one subject from beginning to 

 end almost on one feeling. It will be observed that in this opening 

 scene the motive of Vindici's revenge is but glanced at ; and yet we at 

 once feel it to be more than sufficient if not to justify, at least to excuse 

 all that is afterwards to follow from it, whatever that may be. The 

 author, however, does not permit us to be so easily satisfied, but most 

 skilfully contrives that every act which brings about the consummation, 

 on the hope of which his hero has been so long living, shall at the same 

 time bring with it additional grounds for making his catastrophe come 

 within the limits of poetical justice ; for Vindici's determination is, not 

 merely to get rid of the wretch who was the immediate cause of the ill 

 over which he has brooded till he has no other feeling within his heart 

 or thought within his brain but to cut off " all who trace him in his 

 line" to extirpate the whole <f nest of dukes," as he afterwards calls 

 them ; for " his great revenge has stomach for them all." 



We have seen, in the opening of the drama, that Vindici catches at 

 once at the first probable opportunity of furthering his views; and he is 

 shortly afterwards introduced to the duke's son, as a person able and 

 willing to assist in compassing his ends, whatever they may be. 



Previous to this, however, we have a long scene which introduces 

 to us nearly all the other characters, in a very striking point of view, 

 and prepares us for all that we are to expect from them. It appears that 

 the duchess's youngest son has just committed an atrocious outrage on a 

 most virtuous lady of his mother's court ; and in the scene in question 

 he is brought in to be condemned to death, according to the laws of the 



