How we cite our quotes: Act.Scene
Quote #1
Lodo. …Fortune's a right whore:
If she give aught, she deals it in small parcels,
That she may take away all at one swoop. (1.1)
Lodovico doesn't see any greater meaning or higher purpose in Fortune or Fate. He sees Fortune as primarily vengeful—draining away life and honor after it gives you just a little. It's a pretty pessimistic way of seeing things.
Quote #2
Flam. …Tis just like a summer bird-cage in a garden: the birds that are without despair to get in, and the birds that are within despair and are in a consumption for fear they shall never get out. (1.2)
This is Flamineo, riffing on marriage. It's an old-timey version of the dumb "can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em saw." (Yeah, we could've put this in the "Family" theme section—but it's a pessimistic statement so why not put it here?)
Quote #3
Vit. …No, I do scorn to call up one poor tear
To fawn on your injustice: bear me hence
Unto this house of—what's your mitigating title?Mont. Of convertites.
Vit. It shall not be a house of convertites:
My mind shall make it honester to me
Than the Pope's palace, and more peaceable
Than thy soul, though thou art a cardinal.
Know this, and let it somewhat raise your spite,
Through darkness diamonds spread their richest light. (3.2)
Vittoria seems pretty Stoic here. Like Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus, the great Stoic philosophers, Vittoria knows that if she can't control what's going on outside of her, she can at least control her own mind, and try to use it to see external events in a more positive light… Basically, life is giving her lemons and she's making lemonade.