How we cite our quotes: Act.Scene
Quote #4
Flam… Pray, sir, resolve me, what religion 's best
For a man to die in? or is it in your knowledge
To answer me how long I have to live?
That 's the most necessary question.
Not answer? are you still, like some great men
That only walk like shadows up and down,
And to no purpose; say——
[The Ghost throws earth upon him, and shows him the skull.]
What 's that? O fatal! he throws earth upon me.
A dead man's skull beneath the roots of flowers! (5.4)
Flamineo asks the ghost questions that it's really to late to ask or answer. The only response is the skull: he's doomed.
Quote #5
Vit. Are you grown an atheist? will you turn your body,
Which is the goodly palace of the soul,
To the soul's slaughter-house? Oh, the cursed devil,
Which doth present us with all other sins
Thrice candied o'er, despair with gall and stibium;
Yet we carouse it off. [Aside to Zanche.] Cry out for help!
Makes us forsake that which was made for man,
The world, to sink to that was made for devils,
Eternal darkness! (5.6)
It's a little ironic that Vittoria's asking Flamineo if he's become an atheist now that he's advocating suicide—as if he wasn't plotting murder with her and Brachiano back at the beginning of the play.
Quote #6
Flam… Whether I resolve to fire, earth, water, air,
Or all the elements by scruples, I know not,
Nor greatly care.—Shoot! shoot!
Of all deaths, the violent death is best;
For from ourselves it steals ourselves so fast,
The pain, once apprehended, is quite past. (5.6)
While faking his death, Flameo seems to suggest his real attitude towards mortality as well: he doesn't care if his body just dissolves into the elements, or if something else happens.