The Works of Christopher Marlowe, Vol. 3 (of 3)

MiddletonThat cry!—what may that mean?

Heywood (as if awaking).

I hear no cry.MiddletonWhat is't comes hither, like a gust of wind?

Cecilia rushes in.

CeciliaWhere—where? O, then, 'tis true—and he is dead!All's over now—there's nothing in the world—For he who raised my heart up from the dust,And show'd me noble lights in mine own soul,Has fled my gratitude and growing love—I never knew how deep it was till now!Through me, too!—do not curse me!—I was the cause—Yet do not curse me—No! no! not the cause,But that it happen'd so. This is the rewardOf Marlowe's love!—why, why did I delay?O, gentlemen, pray for me! I have beenLifted in heavenly air—and suddenlyThe arm that placed me, and with strength sustain'd me,Is snatch'd up, starward: I can neither follow,Nor can I touch the gross earth any more!Pray for me, gentlemen!—but breathe no blessings—Let not a blessing sweeten your dread prayers—I wish no blessings—nor could bear their weight;For I am left, I know not where or how:But, pray for me—my soul is buried here.(Sinks down upon the body.)Middleton"Cut is the branch that might have grown full straight,And burned is Apollo's laurel bough!"(Solemn music.)Dark Curtain

1

The Arguments are by Chapman, who also divided Marlowe's portion of the form into the First and Second Sestiad.

2

Eds. 1600, 1606, 1613, "Sea-borders."—Ed. 1598, according to Malone, has "sea-borderers;" and so eds. 1629, 1637.

3

Some editions give "wore."

4

Some eds. have "rockt," which may be the right reading.

5

So ed. 1637.—The earlier editions that I have seen read "may."

6

Cf. Venus and Adonis (l. 3)—

"Rose-cheek'd Adonis hied him to the chace."

7

So Hamlet i. 1—

"The moist star,Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands."

8

"Thrilling—tremulously moving."—Dyce. Perhaps the meaning rather is penetrating—drilling its way through—"the gloomy sky."

9

Variegated (Lat. discolor).

10

Dyce quotes a passage of Harington's Orlando Furioso where "flowre" (floor) rhymes with "towre."

11

Ed. 1600 and later 4tos. "Tail'd." For the coupling of "Vailed" with "veiling," cf. 2. Tamb. v. iii. 6. "pitch their pitchy tents."

12

This line is quoted in As you like it, iii. 5:—

"Dead shepherd, now I find thy saw of might,—Who ever lov'd, that lov'd not at first sight."

13

"A periphrasis of Night." Marginal note in ed. 1598.

14

Lines 199-204, 221-222, are quoted, not quite accurately, by Matthew in Every Man in his Humour, iv. 1.

15

Some eds. give "between."

16

Cf. Shakespeare, Sonnet cxxxvi.—

"Among a number one is reckoned none."

17

Some eds. read "sweet."

18

Cf. Second Sestiad, l. 73—

"She with a kind of granting put him by it."

19

This line is quoted in England's Parnassus with the reading "ripest."

20

Hushed.

21

"To the 'beldam nurse' there occurs the following allusion in Drayton's Heroical Epistle from Queen Mary to Charles Brandon:—

'There is no beldam nurse to powt nor lowerWhen wantoning we revell in my tower,Nor need I top my turret with a light,To guide thee to me as thou swim'st by night.'"—Broughton.

22

So the old eds.—Dyce reads "about."

23

We are reminded of Lycidas:—

"Comes the blind Fury with the abhorrèd shearsAnd slits the thin-spun life."

24

Omitted in ed. 1600 and later 4tos.

25

This word cannot be right. Query, "high-aspiring?"

26

Cf. Rom. and Jul. v. 1—

"I dreamed my lady came and found me dead,Strange dream that gives a dead man leave to think!—And breathed such life with kisses in my lips,That I revived and was an emperor."

27

Omitted in eds. 1600, 1606, 1613, and 1637.

28

Peised, weighed.

29

Rooms were strewed with rushes before the introduction of carpets. Shakespeare, like Marlowe, attributed the customs of his own day to ancient times. Cf. Cymb. ii. 2—

"Our Tarquin thusDid softly press the rushes ere he wakenedThe chastity he wounded."

30

Old eds. "crau'd."

31

Some eds. give "O, none have power but gods."

32

"In ages and countries where mechanical ingenuity has but few outlets it exhausts itself in the constructions of bits, each more peculiar in form or more torturing in effect than that which has preceded it. I have seen collections of these instruments of torments, and among them some of which Marlowe's curious adjective would have been highly descriptive. It may be, however, that the word is 'ring-led,' in which shape it would mean guided by the ring on each side like a snaffle."—Cunningham.

33

Some eds. give "so faire and kind." Cf. Othello, iv. 2—

"O thou windWho art so lovely-fair and smell'st so sweet."

34

Ed. 1613 and later eds. "upstarting."

35

Fetched

36

Some eds. give "shallow."

37

In the old eds. this line and the next stood after l. 300. The transposition was made by Singer in the edition of 1821.

38

Old eds.—"then … displaid," and in the next line "laid."

39

Old eds. "heare" and "haire."

40

Old eds. "glympse."

41

Pluto was frequently identified by the Greeks with Plutus.

42

Old eds. "day bright-bearing car."

43

Dinged, dashed. Some eds. give "hurled."—Here Marlowe's share ends.

44

This Epistle is only found in the Isham copy, 1598.

45

Old eds. "improving."

46

"He calls Phœbus the god of gold, since the virtue of his beams creates it."—Marginal note in the Isham copy.

47

The reader will remember how grimly Lady Macbeth plays upon this word:—

"I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal:For it must seem their guilt."—ii. 2.

48

"It is not likely that Burns had ever read Hero and Leander, but compare Tam o' Shanter—

'But pleasures are like poppies spread,You seize the flower, its bloom is shed,Or like the snow falls in the river,A moment white—then melts for ever!'"—Cunningham.

49

In England's Parnassus the reading is "of men audacious."

50

Wholly.

51

Some eds. give "For as she was."

52

A magical figure formed of intersected triangles. It was supposed to preserve the wearer from the assaults of demons. "Disparent would seem to mean that the five points of the ornaments radiated distinctly one from the other."—Cunningham.

53

Old eds. "her."

54

Heated.

55

Old eds. "how."

56

Substance, as opposed to spirit. Cf. note. Vol. i., 203.

57

Cadiz, which was taken in June 21, 1596, by the force under the joint command of Essex and Howard of Effingham.

58

So the Isham copy.—The other old eds. read "townes," for which Dyce gives "town."

59

Within.

60

Vent forth.

61

"Fowl" and "fool" had the same pronunciation. Cf. 3 Henry VI. v. 6:—

"Why, what a peevish fool was he of Crete,That taught his son the office of a fowl!And yet for all his wings the fool was drowned."

The "moorish fool" is explained by the allusion to the lapwing, two lines above. (The lapwing was supposed to draw the searcher from her nest by crying in other places. "The lapwing cries most furthest from her nest."—Ray's Proverbs.)

62

A kind of crape.

63

So the modern editors for an "imitating."

64

Ingenious. Chapman has the form "enginous" in his translation of the Odyssey, i. 452,

"By open force or prospects enginous."

65

Some modern editors unnecessarily give "With crowd of sail."

66

Old eds. "joys."

67

Old eds. "he."

68

Some eds. give "For such a Hero."

69

Command.

70

Picture.

71

"This conceit was suggested to Chapman by a passage in Skelton's Phyllyp Sparowe:

"But whan I was sowing his beke,Methought, my sparow did speke,And opened his prety byll,Saynge, Mayd, ye are in wyllAgayne me for to kyll,Ye prycke me in the head.'—Works, I, 57, ed. Dyce."—Dyce.

72

Affections.

73

"This description of the fisherman, as well as the picture which follows it, are borrowed (with alterations) from the first Idyl of Theocritus."—Dyce.

74

"Eyas" is the name for an unfledged hawk. "Eyas thoughts" would mean "thoughts not yet full-grown,—immature." Dyce thinks the meaning of "eyas" here may be "restless." (Old eds. "yas.")

75

A monosyllable.

76

Some eds. give "them, then they burned as blood."

77

Approaching catastrophe.

78

Some eds. "and."

79

Used transitively.

80

Some eds. "Leanders."

81

Shakespeare uses the verb "slubber" in the sense of "perform in a slovenly manner" (Merchant of Venice, ii. 8, "Slubber not business for my sake").

82

Companions, yoke-mates.

83

Gr. ἡδονη.

84

From Lat. crista?

85

Prune.

86

Gr. λευκοτης.

87

Gr. δαψιλης.

88

Some eds. read "Coyne and impure."

89

From Gr. οικτος?

90

Some eds. "in."

91

"A compound, probably, from ερως and νοσος or νουσος Ionice." Ed. 1821.

92

Some modern editors read "sat."

93

Singer suggested "Alcmaeon."

94

"Chapman has a passage very similar to this in his Widow's Tears, Act iv.:—

'Wine is ordained to raise such hearts as sink:Whom woful stars distemper let him drink.'"—Broughton.

95

"Old eds. 'prayes,' 'praies,' 'preies,' and 'pryes.'"—Dyce.

96

Dyce reads "enthrill'd" (a word that I do not remember to have seen).

97

Did make to spring. Cf. Fourth Sestiad, l. 169.

98

So the Isham copy. All other editions omit the words "the blood."

99

"Valure" is frequently found as a form of "value;" but I suspect, with Dyce, that it is here put (metri causa) for "valour."

100

Plot.

101

Gr. αδολεσχης.

102

Some eds. "price."

103

Gr. ἁγνεια

104

Singer gives a reference to Pausan, x. 5.—Old eds. "Phemonor" and "Phemoner."

105

Comfits.

106

"Other some" is a not uncommon form of expression. See Halliwell's Dict. of Archaic and Provincial Words.

107

Old eds. "their."

108

Old eds. "his."

109

A sudden pettishness or freak of fancy. Cf. Two Noble Kinsmen:—

"The hot horse hot as fireTook toy at this."

110

Former editors have not noticed that Chapman is here closely imitating Catullus' Carmen Nuptiale—

"Virginitas non tota tua est: ex parte parentum est:Tertia pars patri data, pars data tertia matri,Tertia sola tua est: noli pugnare duobus,Qui genero sua jura simul cum dote dederunt."

111

Some eds. "starting." Cf. Julius Cæsar, iv. 3, ll. 278-9—

"Art thou some god, some angel, or some devil,That makest my blood cold and my hair to stare?"

112

"Old eds. 'much-rong,' 'much rongd,' and 'much-wrong'd.'"—Dyce (who reads "much-wrung").

113

It should be binds: i.e., "Leucote flies to the several winds, and, commissioned by the Fates, commands them to restrain their violence." Broughton.

114

The next few lines are in Chapman's obscurest manner. "Devotes," in l. 21, means, I suppose, "tokens of devotion to his patron."

115

Cunningham says, "I cannot perceive the meaning of 'doth repair more tender fawns.'" "Fawns" is equivalent to "fawnings;" and the meaning seems to be, "applies himself to softer blandishments."

116

Orithyia.—The story of the rape of Orithyia is told in a magnificent passage of Mr. Swinburne's Erectheus.

117

So the Isham copy. Later eds. "true."

118

So the Isham copy. Later eds. "torrent."

119

Some eds. "himselfe surpris'd." Dyce gives "himself so priz'd."

120

A short arrow blunted at the end; it killed birds without piercing them.

121

Countenance.

122

Clipt, embraced.

123

From Gr. Ατθις (a woman of Attica, i.e., Orithyia).

124

"The flame taking bait (refreshment), feeding." Dyce. (Old eds. "bating.")

125

Old eds. "vsde."

126

Isham copy "deuil."

127

In Chapman's day the work of the grammarian Musaeus was supposed to be the genuine production of the fabulous son of Eumolpus.

128

So the Isham copy. Ed. A. "the."

129

Isham copy and ed. A. "vpreard, I meane."

130

The original has—

"Quid? si præripiat flavæ Venus arma MinervæVentilet accensas flavæ Minerva comas."

131

"Cum bene surrexit versu nova pagina, primo!At tenuat nervos proximus ille meos."

132

Sheen.

133

Dyce's correction for "praise" of the old eds.

134

Then.

135

So the Isham copy and ed. A. Other eds. "struggling."

136

"Frena minus sentit quisquis ad arma facit."—Marlowe's line strongly supports the view that "bear hard" in Julius Cæsar means "curb, keep a tight rein over" (hence "eye with suspicion"). Cf. Christopher Clifford's School of Horsemanship (1585):—"But the most part of horses takes it [a 'wil of his owne'] through the unskilfulnesse of the rider by bearing too hard a hand upon them," p. 35.

137

"Our poet's copy of Ovid had 'Tu penna pulchros gemina variante capillos.'"—Dyce. (The true reading "Tu pennas gemma, gemma, variante capillos.")

138

Old eds. "kinsmans."

139

Old eds. "thee."

140

Isham copy "aske."

141

Ed. A. "cause me to be thine."

142

"Temperat et sumptus parcus uterque parens."

143

Isham copy and ed. A. "Bull."

144

Not in Isham copy or ed. A.

145

So Dyce; old eds. "receive."

146

"Optabis merito cum mala multa viro."

147

"Bibat ipse jubeto."

148

So Dyce for "goblets" of the old eds. ("Rejice libatos illius ore cibos.")

149

"Fiam manifestus adulter."

150

The original has "Nocte vir includet."

151

"Dedisse nega."

152

Isham copy and ed. A. "spread."

153

Ed. A. "her faire white body." ("Et nudam pressi corpus ad usque meum.")

154

Not in Isham copy or ed. A.

155

Old eds. "dende."

156

Sometime ("quondam").

157

"Ante vel a membris dividar ipse meis."

158

Qy. "rebound?"

159

Dyce reads, "If, Boreas, bear'st" (i.e., "thou bear'st"). But the change in the old eds. from the second to the third person is not very harsh.

160

A picturesque rendering of

"Vitreoque madentia roreTempora noctis eunt."

161

"Lente nec admisso turpis amante … vale." Of course "nec" should be taken with "admisso."

162

Not in Isham copy or ed. A.

163

I should like to omit this word, to which there is nothing to correspond in the original.

164

Marlowe has misunderstood the original "Sic nisi vittatis quod erat Cassandra capillis."

165

"Pessima Tydides scelerum monumenta reliquit."

166

An awkward translation of

"Si sinerent læsæ, candidia tota, genæ."

167

So ed. B.—Ed. C. "wanton."

168

Old eds. "keembed." ("Pone recompositas in statione comas.")

169

Not in Isham copy or ed A.

170

"Est quædam, nomine Dipsas, anus."

171

"Nigri non illa parentemMemnonis in roseis sobria vidit equis."

Cunningham suggests that "wise" was "one of the thousand and one euphemisms for 'inebriated.'"

172

The spelling in old eds. is "wrong."

173

"Virus amantis equæ."

174

"Si te non emptam vellet emendus erat." (Marlowe's copy must have read "amandus.")

175

Proved their strength. "Qui latus argueret corneus arcus erat."

176

The usual reading is "Ut celer admissis labitur amnis aquis."

177

"Vestis bona quaerit haberi."

178

Old eds. "liues."

179

"Ille viri toto videat vestigia lecto."

180

"Rugosas genas."

181

Not in Isham copy or ed. A.

182

"Mitte puellam."

183

Old eds. "to."

184

So ed. B.—Ed. C "such."

185

"Custodum transire manus vigilumque catervas." (For "hands" the poet should have written "bands.")

186

"Et galeam capiti quae daret uxor erat."

187

Not in Isham copy or ed. A.

188

"Simplex."

189

Sans.

190

"Nec Venus apta," &c.

191

Old eds. "to."

192

"Vendit."

193

"Non bene conducti testes."

194

So ed. B.—ed. C "bad merchandise."

195

Old eds. "many."

196

The original has "ager."

197

Not in Isham copy or ed. A.

198

Bound.

199

"Et dandis ingeniosa notis."

200

So Dyce for "try" of the old eds.

201

Not in Isham copy or ed. A.

202

"Volturis in ramis et strigis ova tulit."

203

Old eds. "thy."

204

So Dyce for "from" of the old eds.

205

This line is omitted in ed. A.

206

Isham copy and ed. A "This."

207

Isham copy and ed. A "had'st."

208

Isham copy and ed. A "Punish ye me."

209

So the Isham copy. The other old eds. "chide."

210

Not in Isham copy or ed. A.

211

The original has "colorati Seres."

212

So ed. B.—Ed. C "And."

213

"Temere."

214

Old eds. "They."

215

Cunningham and the editor of 1826 may be right in reading "trammels" (i.e. ringlets). "Trannel" was the name for a bodkin. (The original has "Ut fieret torto flexilis orbe sinus.")

216

"Nuda Dione."

217

"Nescio quam pro me laudat nunc iste Sygambram."

218

Isham copy and ed. A "tearmes our."

219

Dyce's correction for "come" of the old eds.

220

Isham copy and ed. A "might."

221

So Isham copy and ed. A.—Dyce follows ed. B, "Or into sea."

222

So old eds.—Dyce "doth."

223

Isham copy and ed. A omit this line and the next.

224

So Dyce.—Old eds. "fathers hoord." ("Durus pater.")

225

The poet must have read "animosi Maccius oris." The true reading is "animosique Accius oris."

226

Old eds. "Argos."

227

Isham copy and ed. A "conquering."

228

Isham copy and ed. A "Let kings give place to verse."

229

So the Isham copy.—Ed. A (followed by Dyce) gives "rocks."—Eds. B and C "rakes" (and so Cunningham).

230

I.e. Ben Jonson, who afterwards introduced it into the Poetaster (I. 1). This version is merely a revision of the preceding, which must also have been written by Ben Jonson.

231

"Tityrus et fruges Æneïaque arma legentur."

232

"Metuentem frigora myrtum."

233

Not in Isham copy or ed. A.

234

Old eds. "thy."

235

A clear instance of a plural verb following a singular subject.

236

"Quod bene pro cœlo mitteret ille suo."

237

Old eds. "blacke."

238

"Carmine dissiliunt, abruptis faucibus, angues." ("Fauces" means both "jaw" and "mountain-gorge." Marlowe has gone desperately wrong.)

239

Old eds. "O."