How we cite our quotes: Act.Scene
Quote #10
Flam… I have liv'd
Riotously ill, like some that live in court,
And sometimes when my face was full of smiles,
Have felt the maze of conscience in my breast.
Oft gay and honour'd robes those tortures try:
We think cag'd birds sing, when indeed they cry. (5.4)
This is fairly pessimistic in tone. Flamineo admits that he's full of inner sadness and has affected a cheerful, devil-may-care attitude on the outside. He suggests, with the bird comment, that this might be the way a lot of people and beings in the world behave: happy on the outside, sad on the inside.
Quote #11
Flam. …Fate 's a spaniel,
We cannot beat it from us. What remains now?
Let all that do ill, take this precedent:
Man may his fate foresee, but not prevent;
And of all axioms this shall win the prize:
'Tis better to be fortunate than wise. (5.6)
This is another pessimistic statement from Flamineo. Wisdom isn't even necessary, just a good fate (which is out of our control). If you have a bad fate, you can't escape it, since it's inevitable. And if you have a good fate you can't escape it either… Flamineo should probably shrug in the stage directions after he says this.
Quote #12
Lodo. …What dost think on?
Flam. Nothing; of nothing: leave thy idle questions.
I am i' th' way to study a long silence:
To prate were idle. I remember nothing.
There 's nothing of so infinite vexation
As man's own thoughts. (5.6)
Flamineo seems to think that death is "a long silence"—he's not concerned about going to hell, and he doesn't think about heaven or God as he's about to die. His main belief is in nothingness, and that's what he expects will greet him after death.