much. DUCHESS. O misery! like to a rusty o'ercharg'd cannon, Shall I never fly in pieces?—Come, to what prison? BOSOLA. To none. DUCHESS. Whither, then? BOSOLA. To your palace. DUCHESS. I have heard That Charon's boat serves to convey all o'er The dismal lake, but brings none back again. BOSOLA. Your brothers mean you safety and pity. DUCHESS. Pity! With such a pity men preserve alive Pheasants and quails, when they are not fat enough To be eaten. BOSOLA. These are your children? DUCHESS. Yes. BOSOLA.                                  Can they prattle? DUCHESS. No:   But I intend, since they were born accurs'd, Curses shall be their first language. BOSOLA. Fie, madam! Forget this base, low fellow——    DUCHESS. Were I a man, I 'd beat that counterfeit face[97] into thy other. BOSOLA. One of no birth. DUCHESS. Say that he was born mean, Man is most happy when 's own actions Be arguments and examples of his virtue. BOSOLA. A barren, beggarly virtue. DUCHESS. I prithee, who is greatest? Can you tell? Sad tales befit my woe:  I 'll tell you one. A salmon, as she swam unto the sea. Met with a dog-fish, who encounters her With this rough language; 'Why art thou so bold To mix thyself with our high state of floods, Being no eminent courtier, but one That for the calmest and fresh time o' th' year Dost live in shallow rivers, rank'st thyself With silly smelts and shrimps? And darest thou Pass by our dog-ship without reverence?'   'O,' quoth the salmon, 'sister, be at peace:   Thank Jupiter we both have pass'd the net! Our value never can be truly known, Till in the fisher's basket we be shown:   I' th' market then my price may be the higher, Even when I am nearest to the cook and fire.'   So to great men the moral may be stretched; Men oft are valu'd high, when they're most wretched.—   But come, whither you please. I am arm'd 'gainst misery; Bent to all sways of the oppressor's will:   There 's no deep valley but near some great hill. Exeunt. 

        Act IV 

        Scene I[98]         [Enter] FERDINAND and BOSOLA FERDINAND. How doth our sister duchess bear herself In her imprisonment? BOSOLA. Nobly:  I 'll describe her. She 's sad as one long us'd to 't, and she seems Rather to welcome the end of misery Than shun it; a behaviour so noble As gives a majesty to adversity:   You may discern the shape of 

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