How we cite our quotes:
Quote #4
VINDICE
Wer't not for gold and women, there would be no damnation; Hell would look like a lord's great kitchen without fire in't.
But, 'twas decreed before the world began,
That they should be the hooks to catch at man.(2.1.274-277)
Blame the women. Seems a bit unfair, since it's Vindice who's just spent the last scene working for a man (Lussurioso) trying to undo a woman. Not to mention that Vindice has just been tempting his own mother and sister to the Dark Side.
Quote #5
DUCHESS
I'll kill him in his forehead, hate there feed:
That wound is deepest though it never bleed.(1.2.120-121)
She may not be able to violently exact her revenge against the Duke, but she can cheat on him and fill him with self-doubt and hatred and all kinds of terrible thoughts and feelings, penetrating his mind while leaving his body intact.
Quote #6
HIPPOLITO
Nay then, step forth thou bribeless officer. [Draws his sword.]
I bind you all in steel to bind you surely:
Here let your oaths meet, to be kept and paid,
Which else will stick like rust, and shame the blade.
Strengthen my vow, that if at the next sitting,
Judgement speak all in gold and spare the blood
Of such a serpent, e'en before their seats,
To let his soul out, which long since was found
Guilty in heaven.(1.4.59-67)
Hippolito, usually the mellower brother compared to Vindice, sure takes a stand for justice and/or vengeance here. He's trying to get Antonio and Piero to join him in avenging the rape of Antonio's wife. Interestingly, both his commitment to vengeance and Vindice's are based on wrongs done by men to women. Is the play saying that men are especially likely to seek revenge when someone has hurt a woman?