Monologue

Flamineo Monologue from The White Devil

From The White Devil by John Webster

male · dark · 1:42 min

Proof! 'twas corruption. O gold, what a god art thou! and O man, what a devil art thou to be tempted by that cursed mineral! Your diversivolent lawyer, mark him! knaves turn informers, as maggots turn to flies, you may catch gudgeons with either. A cardinal! I would he would hear me: there 's nothing so holy but money will corrupt and putrify it, like victual under the line. (Enter English Ambassador.) You are happy in England, my lord; here they sell justice with those weights they press men to death with. O horrible salary! (Eng. Ambass: Fie, fie, Flamineo.) Bells ne'er ring well, till they are at their full pitch; and I hope yon cardinal shall never have the grace to pray well, till he come to the scaffold. If they were racked now to know the confederacy: but your noblemen are privileged from the rack; and well may, for a little thing would pull some of them a-pieces afore they came to their arraignment. Religion, oh, how it is commeddled with policy! The first blood shed in the world happened about religion. Would I were a Jew! (Marc: Oh, there are too many!) You are deceived; there are not Jews enough, priests enough, nor gentlemen enough.

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