How we cite our quotes: Act.Scene
Quote #1
Giov. What do the dead do, uncle? do they eat,
Hear music, go a-hunting, and be merry,
As we that live?Fran. No, coz; they sleep.
Giov. Lord, Lord, that I were dead!
I have not slept these six nights. When do they wake?Fran. When God shall please. (3.2)
Technically, Giovanni and Francisco are supposed to be Catholics, but Francisco departs from the Catholic view of death. According to Church doctrine, the dead don't sleep after death—rather, they enjoy the "beatific vision" of God until the resurrection occurs. The idea that the dead are in a state of unconsciousness or sleep until the resurrection is called "Adventism."
Quote #2
Brach. …O thou strong heart!
There 's such a covenant 'tween the world and it,
They 're loath to break. (5.3)
Brachiano really does love the world and all the pleasure he can extract from it. So naturally, separating from life is like a painful divorce for him—especially since he thinks he's going to hell, and sees the devil on his deathbed.
Quote #3
Brach. O thou soft natural death, that art joint-twin
To sweetest slumber! no rough-bearded comet
Stares on thy mild departure; the dull owl
Bears not against thy casement; the hoarse wolf
Scents not thy carrion: pity winds thy corse,
Whilst horror waits on princes'. (5.3)
Brachiano does not get to enjoy "a soft natural death"— he's reserved for the horror. In fact, there are very few characters in the play who seem destined for a peaceful, sane, and sacred demise—maybe Cornelia or Giovanni?
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.
Quote #7
Vit. My soul, like to a ship in a black storm
Is driven I know not whither. (5.6)
Vittoria doesn't know what's going on as she dies: is she destined for heaven or hell or… what? She has no clue—but the "black storm" simile seems ominous.
Quote #8
Flam… We cease to grieve, cease to be fortune's slaves,
Nay, cease to die by dying. Art thou gone?
And thou so near the bottom? false report,
Which says that women vie with the nine Muses,
For nine tough durable lives! I do not look
Who went before, nor who shall follow me;
No, at my self I will begin the end.
While we look up to heaven, we confound
Knowledge with knowledge. Oh, I am in a mist! (5.6)
Flamineo is disturbed by death, but also feels sort of liberated by it—since he'll no longer be one of "fortune's slaves." At the same time, he might be headed for hell—but he can't see, because he's "in a mist." He's refusing to look to heaven and doesn't feel like forgiveness is a possibility or even an option.
Quote #9
Vit. Oh, happy they that never saw the court,
Nor ever knew great men but by report! [Vittoria dies.] (5.6)
This is characteristic for Vittoria—she blames her corruption on "great men" (meaning Brachiano) as she dies, but can't admit that she made some huge mistakes and is really pretty bad, overall.
Quote #10
Flam. I recover like a spent taper, for a flash,
And instantly go out.
Let all that belong to great men remember th' old wives' tradition, to
be like the lions i' th' Tower on Candlemas-day; to mourn if the sun
shine, for fear of the pitiful remainder of winter to come.
'Tis well yet there 's some goodness in my death;
My life was a black charnel. I have caught
An everlasting cold; I have lost my voice
Most irrecoverably. Farewell, glorious villains.
This busy trade of life appears most vain,
Since rest breeds rest, where all seek pain by pain.
Let no harsh flattering bells resound my knell;
Strike, thunder, and strike loud, to my farewell! [Dies.] (5.6)
Flamineo admits his life was extremely bad—a "black charnel." But he doesn't beg for forgiveness or say he would have done things differently—he simply laments the emptiness of life and the pointlessness of everything.