How we cite our quotes: (Act.Scene.Line)
Quote #1
Miserable age, where only the reward
Of doing well is the doing of it. (1.1.31-32)
A hopeful note to start the play on, no? Bosola serves up a thesis statement that the rest of the play investigates: you can be good, but nobody's going to reward you for it. There's another side to these lines, though. The Renaissance was an time when the old feudal system of allegiance and favor was passing over into a system of employment and service, and when Bosola speaks of "virtue," he's figuring it not so much as a personal quality as a commodity, a form of exchangeable labor for which he feels he should be rewarded.
Quote #2
I would have you curse yourself now, that your bounty,
Which makes men truly noble, e'er should make
Me a villain: oh, that to avoid ingratitude
For the good deed you have done me, I must do
All the ill man can invent. (1.1.264-68)
Whew. So much going on here. Bosola is playing on the dual meanings of the words "noble" (both as "an aristocrat" and "virtuous") and "villain" (both as "a low-born person" and "criminal") to describe his dilemma with Ferdinand. This is the moment when Ferdinand truly gets Bosola on board to spy for him, and notice that it all hinges on this word "gratitude." Bosola's definitely happy for the actual position that Ferdinand's wrangled for him (provisor of the horse), but moreover he's indebted to him because Ferdinand has done him a favor. "Gratitude," then, isn't really being used here as the wibbly-wobbly emotional concept we have today, but rather as a hard-and-fast social dynamic.
Quote #3
Can this ambitious age
Have so much goodness in't as to prefer
A man merely for worth, without these shadows
Of wealth and painted honours?
[…]
[…] rejoice
that some preferment in the world can yet
arise from merit. (3.2.272-82)
Bosola's just found out that the Duchess and Antonio are married, and he's celebrating the fact that she chose Antonio despite the fact that he's her social inferior. There's a lot of debate over whether or not this speech is genuine, or if Bosola's just trying to get on the Duchess's good side. See, even though he's a spy, Bosola is consistently very straightforward with his moral judgments. And although he's obliged to go tell the Duchess's brothers what he's learned, it's totally reasonable to believe that his joy that "some preferment can yet arise from merit" is authentic.