How we cite our quotes:
Quote #7
DUKE
Oh take me not in sleep! I have great sins, I must have days,
Nay months, dear son, with penitential heaves
To lift 'em out, and not to die unclear.
O thou wilt kill me both in heaven and here!(2.3.11-14)
The Duke thinks Lussurioso wants to kill him, and he's hoping for time to atone for his sins. In the world of the play, it's pretty widely believed that people also face God's judgment after death, so people want time to get their sins in order in hopes of avoiding a terrible eternity.
Quote #8
DUKE
It well becomes that judge to nod at crimes,
That does commit greater himself and lives.
I may forgive a disobedient error,
That expect pardon for adultery
And in my old days am a youth in lust.
Many a beauty have I turned to poison
In the denial, covetous of all.
Age hot is like a monster to be seen:
My hairs are white, and yet my sins are green.(2.3.141-149)
Usually the Duke seems to be all villain, all the time, but there may be something real to his reflections here. Is he feeling badly about the women he's killed? He certainly seems to be realizing that while he's gotten old, his sins stay fresh.
Quote #9
VINDICE
Brother, place the torch here, that his affrighted eyeballs
May start into those hollows. Duke, dost know
Yon dreadful vizard? View it well, 'tis the skull
Of Gloriana whom thou poisonedst last.DUKE
Oh, 't'as poisoned me.(3.5.151-155)
This scene really is like a horror movie, but it's also a scene of vigilante judgment. The grim irony is that Vindice uses the Duke's ongoing faults to lure him into condemning himself. Vindice rubs salt in the wounds, but it's the Duke's continued lust that causes him to kiss the skull (thinking it's a living woman) and absorb the poison.