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

463

It was a common practice for gallants to sit upon hired stools in the stage, especially at the private theatres. From the Induction to Marston's Malcontent it appears that the custom was not tolerated at some of the public theatres. The ordinary charge for the use of a stool was sixpence.

464

Malone was no doubt right in supposing that there is here an allusion to the "private boxes" placed at each side of the balcony at the back of the stage. They must have been very dark and uncomfortable. In the Gull's Horn-Book Dekker says that "much new Satin was there dampned by being smothered to death in darkness."

465

MS. "In meritriculas Londinensis."

466

MS. "Ware."

467

MS. "dissolv'd"

468

Sir Christopher Hatton's tomb. See Dugdale's History of St. Paul's Cathedral, ed. 1658, p. 83.

469

"The new water-work was at London Bridge. The elephant was an object of great wonder and long remembered. A curious illustration of this is found in the Metamorphosis of the Walnut Tree of Borestall, written about 1645, when the poet [William Basse] brings trees of all descriptions to the funeral, particularly a gigantic oak—

The youth of these our times that did beholdThis motion strange of this unwieldy plantNow boldly brag with us that are men old,That of our age they no advantage want,Though in our youth we saw an elephant."—Cunningham.

470

See the admirable account of "The Theatre and Curtain" in Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps' Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare, ed. 3, pp. 385-433. It is there shown that the access to the Theatre play-house was through Finsbury Fields to the west of the western boundary-wall of the grounds of the dissolved Holywell Priory.

471

Not in MS.

472

MS. "knowen this towne 7 yeares."

473

Not in MS.

474

Old eds. "streets."

475

Not in MS.

476

So Isham copy.—Other eds. omit the words "this is."

477

So MS. and eds. B, C. Not in Isham copy or ed. A.

478

Mastiff.

479

So Isham copy and MS.—Eds. A, B, C "and as idle."

480

So MS.—Isham copy and ed. A "oft."

481

Not in MS.

482

So Isham copy.—Omitted in ed. A.

483

So Isham copy.—Eds. A, B, C "old."

484

Boulogne was captured by Henry VIII. in 1544.

485

The reference probably is to the visitation of 1551.

486

In 1557 an English corps under the Earl of Pembroke took part in the war against France. "The English did not share in the glory of the battle, for they were not present; but they arrived two days after to take part in the storming of St. Quentin, and to share, to their shame, in the sack and spoiling of the town."—Froude, VI. 52.

487

Havre.—The expedition was despatched in 1562.

488

Led by the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland in 1569.

489

The reference is to the frost of 1564.—"There was one great frost in England in our memory, and that was in the 7th year of Queen Elizabeth: which began upon the 21st of December and held in so extremely that, upon New Year's eve following, people in multitudes went upon the Thames from London Bridge to Westminster; some, as you tell me, sir, they do now—playing at football, others shooting at pricks."—"The Great Frost," 1608 (Arber's "English Garner," Vol. I.)

490

"This yeare [1560] in the end of September the copper monies which had been coyned under King Henry the Eight and once before abased by King Edward the Sixth, were again brought to a lower valuacion."—Hayward's Annals of Queen Elizabeth, p. 73.

491

On the 4th June 1561, the steeple of St. Paul's was struck by lightning.

492

"On the 10th of October (some say on the 7th) appeared a blazing star in the north, bushing towards the east, which was nightly seen diminishing of his brightness until the 21st of the same month."—Stow's Annales, under the year 1580 (ed. 1615, p. 687).

493

The defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588.

494

Vixenish.

495

Dyce conjectures that this was the name of some person who kept an ordinary where gaming was practised. (MS. "for newes.")

496

So eds. B, C.—Isham copy and ed. A "a seaven."

497

So MS. with some eccentricities of spelling ("to much one one").—Old eds. "at."

498

Shape or fashion; properly the wooden mould on which the crown of a hat is shaped.

499

So MS.—Old eds. "ruffes."

500

Love-lock; a lock of hair hanging down the shoulder in the left side. It was usually plaited with ribands.

501

So MS. and eds. B, C.—Not in Isham copy or ed. A.

502

Gascoigne's "rhymes" have been edited in two thick volumes by Mr. Carew Hazlitt. He died on 7th October 1577. In Gabriel Harvey's Letter Book (recently edited by Mr. Edward Scott for the Camden Society) there are some elegies on him.

503

So Isham copy and ed. A.—Eds. B, C "spies."—MS. "notes."

504

So the MS.—Isham copy and ed. A "Which perceiving he."—Eds. B, C "Which to perceiving he."

505

The MS. adds—

"You keepe a whore att your [own] charge in towne;Indeede, frend Ceneas, there you put me downe."

506

Counter-scarps.

507

Old eds. "Casomates."

508

Old eds. "Of parapets, of curteneys, and pallizadois."—MS. "Of parapelets, curtens and passadoes."—Cunningham prints "Of curtains, parapets," &c.

509

"A term in fortification, exactly from the French fausse-braie, which means, say the dictionaries, a counter-breast-work, or, in fact, a mound thrown up to mask some part of the works.

'And made those strange approaches by false-brays,Reduits, half-moons, horn-works, and such close ways.'B. Jons. Underwoods."—Nares.

510

Dyce points out that this passage is imitated in Fitzgeoffrey's Notes from Black-Fryers, Sig. E. 7, ed. 1620.

511

In this epigram, as Dyce showed, Davies is glancing at a sonnet of Drayton's "To the Celestiall Numbers" in Idea. Jonson told Drummond that "S. J. Davies played in ane Epigrame on Draton's, who in a sonnet concluded his mistress might been the Ninth [sic] Worthy; and said he used a phrase like Dametas in Arcadia, who said, For wit his Mistresse might be a Gyant."—Notes of Ben Jonson's Conversations with Drummond, p. 15. (ed. Shakesp. Soc.)

512

So MS.—Old eds. "out."

513

So Isham copy.—Ed. A "when doth he his."

514

So Isham copy.—Ed. A "most brave, most all daring."—Eds. B, C "most brave and all daring."—MS. "most valiant and all-daring."

515

There are frequent allusions to this practice. Cf. Induction to Cynthia's Revels:—"I have my three sorts of tobacco in my pocket; my light by me."

516

John Heywood, the well-known epigrammatist and interlude-writer. His Proverbs were edited in 1874, with a pleasantly-written Introduction and useful notes, by Mr. Julian Sharman.

517

Dyce refers to a passage of Sir John Harington's Metamorphosis of Ajax, 1596:—"This Haywood for his proverbs and epigrams is not yet put down by any of our country, though one [marginal note, M. Davies] doth indeed come near him, that graces him the more in saying he puts him down." He quotes also from Bastard's Chrestoleros, 1598 (Lib. ii. Ep. 15); Lib. iii. Ep. 3, and Freeman's Rubbe and a Great Cast ( Pt. ii., Ep. 100), allusions to the present epigram.

518

Samuel Daniel. See Ep. xlv.

519

All the information about Banks' wonderful horse Moroccus ("the little horse that ambled on the top of Paul's") is collected in Mr. Halliwell-Phillips' Memoranda on Love's Labour Lost.

520

So eds. B, C.—Isham copy and ed. A "thinks."

521

Old eds. "thirtie nine." MS. "nine and thirtith."

522

Lain.

523

So Isham copy.—Ed. A "he."

524

So ed. B.—Isham copy, ed. A, and MS. "Septimus."

525

"Burn" is often used with an indelicate double entendre. Cf. Lear iii. 2, "No heretics burned but wenchers' suitors;" Troilus and Cressida, v. 2, "A burning devil take them."

526

Isham copy, "Heuens;" and eds. B, C "Heauens."—MS. "helevs."—Davies alludes to Odyssey iv., 219, &c.

527

So MS.—Old eds. "substantiall."

528

We are reminded of Bobadil's encomium of tobacco:—"I could say what I know of the virtue of it, for the expulsion of rheums, raw humours, crudities, obstructions, with a thousand of this kind; but I profess myself no quacksalver. Only this much: by Hercules I do hold it and will affirm it before any prince in Europe to be the most sovereign and precious weed that ever the earth tendered to the use of man."

529

So MS.—Not in old eds.

530

Dyce quotes from More's Lucubrationes (ed. 1563, p. 261), an epigram headed "Medicinæ ad tollendos fœtores anhelitus, provenientes a cibis quibusdam."

531

So eds. A, B, C.—Isham copy "so smooth."—MS. "so faire."

532

So MS.—Eds. "not."

533

Ghent.

534

The reference probably is to the Pont Neuf, begun by Henry III. and finished by Henry IV.

535

So MS.—Old eds. "That."

536

MS. "day!"

537

Isham copy and MS. "gentleman."

538

MS. "widdow."

539

So Isham copy and MS.—Other eds. "a."

540

So Isham copy.—Other eds. "passeth."—MS. "presses."

541

So Isham copy, ed. A, and MS.—Eds. B, C "listening."

542

So Isham copy, ed. A, and MS.—Eds. B, C "heed."

543

So eds. B, C.—Isham copy, MS., and ed. A, "debtor poor."—With the foregoing description of the "ballad-singer's auditory" compare Wordsworth's lines On the power of Music, and Vincent Bourne's charming Latin verses (entitled Cantatrices) on the Ballad Singers of the Seven Dials.

544

So MS.—Eds. "Thus."

545

Cf. a somewhat similar description in Guilpin's Skialetheia (Ep. 25):—

"My lord most court-like lies abed till noon,Then all high-stomacht riseth to his dinner;Falls straight to dice before his meat be down,Or to digest walks to some female sinner;Perhaps fore-tired he gets him to a play,Comes home to supper and then falls to dice;Then his devotion wakes till it be day,And so to bed where unto noon he lies."

546

If the play ended at six, it could hardly have begun before three. From numerous passages it appears that performances frequently began at three, or even later. Probably the curtain rose at one in the winter and three in the summer.

547

This word is found in Chapman, Harrington, and others.

548

So MS.—Old eds. "often."

549

Groningen was taken by Maurice of Nassau. Vere was present at the siege.

550

The expression "take in" (in the sense of "conquer, capture") is very common.

551

An English expedition, under Sir John Norris, was sent to Brittany in 1594.

552

This line and the next are found only in Isham copy and MS.

553

So Isham copy—Eds. A, B, C "the."—MS. "ye."

554

When a person started on a long or dangerous voyage it was customary to deposit—or, as it was called, "put out"—a sum of money, on condition of receiving at his return a high rate of interest. If he failed to return the money was lost. There are frequent allusions in old authors to this practice.

555

So MS.—Not in old eds.

556

The Bear-Garden in the Bankside, Southwark.

557

In Titus Andronicus, v. 1, we have the expression "to fight at head" ("As true a dog as ever fought at head"). "To fly at the head" was equivalent to "attack;" and in Nares' Glossary (ed. Halliwell) the expression "run on head," in the sense of incite, is quoted from Heywood's Spider and Flie, 1556.

558

Covered with hawks' dung.

559

"Harry Hunkes" and "Sacarson" were the names of two famous bears (probably named after their keepers). Slender boasted to Anne Page, "I have seen Sackarson loose twenty times and have taken him by the chain."

560

So MS.—Old eds. "holds."

561

So MS.—Old eds. "swears."

562

Dyce shows that Samuel Daniel is meant by Dacus (who has already been ridiculed in Ep. xxx.). In Daniel's Complaint of Rosamond (1592) are the lines:—

"Ah, beauty, syren, faire enchanting good,Sweet silent rhetorique of perswading eyes,Dumb eloquence, whose power doth move the bloodMore than the words or wisedome of the wise," &c.

Perhaps there is an allusion to this epigram in Marston's fourth satire:—

"What, shall not Rosamond or GavestonOpe their sweet lips without detraction?But must our modern critticks envious eyeSeeme thus to quote some grosse deformity,Where art not error shineth in their stile,But error and no art doth thee beguile?"

563

So eds. B, C.—Ed. A "draw" (Epigram xlv.-xlviii. are not in the MS.)

564

Ended in 1598 by the peace of Vervins.

565

The war between Austria and Turkey was brought to a close in 1606.

566

A reference to Tyrone's insurrection, 1595-1602.

567

So Isham copy.—Not in other eds.

568

See note, p. 232.

569

Dyce points out that by Lepidus is meant Sir John Harington, whose dog Bungey is represented in a compartment of the engraved title-page of the translation of Orlando Furioso, 1591. In his epigrams (Book III. Ep. 21) Harington refers to this epigram of Davies, and expresses himself greatly pleased at the compliment paid to his dog.

570

This sonnet and the two following pieces are only found in Isham copy and ed. A.

571

So Isham copy.—Ed. A "fill."

572

Tippling.

573

"Bouse" was a cant term for "drink."

574

See note v. p. 226.

575

It was a common practice for gallants to wear their mistresses' garters in their hats.

576

A well-known bookseller.

577

Old ed. "Blount."

578

Paul's churchyard, the Elizabethan "Booksellers' Row."

579

Old ed. "launcht."—The forms "lanch" and "lance" are used indifferently.

580

Alike.

581

"Et ardenti servilia bella sub Ætna."

582

"Nec polus adversi calidus qua vergitur Austri."

583

"Obliquo sidere."

584

Axis.

585

Tumults.

586

"Summisque negatum,Stare diu."

587

Far-fetched.

588

"Exiguum dominos commisit asylum."

589

"So old ed. in some copies which had been corrected at press; other copies 'Aezean.'"—Dyce.

590

Carræ's.

591

A somewhat weak translation of Lucan's most famous line:—"Victrix causa diis placuit, sed victa Catoni."

592

As the line stands we must take "nod" and "fall" transitively ("though every blast make it nod and seem to make it fall"). The original has "At quamvis primo nutet casura sub Euro."

593

"Fecunda virorum / Paupertas."

594

"Ingens visa duci patriae trepidantis imago."

595

"Inde moras solvit belli."

596

"Sonipes."

597

"Nuda jam crate fluentes / Invadunt clypeos."

598

Silent.

599

Prove.

600

"Jactatis … Gracchis."

601

Marlowe omits to translate the words that follow in the original:—

"Utque ducem varias volventem pectore curasConspexit."

602

A line (omitted by Marlowe) follows in the original:—"Par labor atque metus pretio majore petuntur."

603

An obscure rendering of

"Gentesque subactasVix impune feres."

604

Old ed. "Eleius." It is hardly possible to suppose (as Dyce suggests) that Marlowe took the adjective "Eleus" for a substantive.

605

A mistranslation of "carcere clauso." ("Carcer" is the barrier or starting-place in the circus.)

606

"Immineat foribus." "Souse" is a north-country word meaning to bang or dash. It is also applied to the swooping-down of a hawk.

607

Old ed. "leaders."

608

So Dyce for the old ed's. "Brabbling." The original has "Marcellusque loquax." ("Brabbling" means "wrangling.")

609

A mistake (or perhaps merely a misprint) for "Cilician."

610

Old ed. has "Jaded, king of Pontus!"

611

"Unless we understand this in the sense of—say I receive no reward (—and in Fletcher's Woman-Hater, 'merit' means—derive profit, B. and F.'s Works, i. 91, ed. Dyce,—), it is a wrong translation of 'mihi si merces erepta laborum est.'"—Dyce.

612

"Sicilia" should be "Cilicia."

613

A free translation of the frigid original—

"Arma tenentiOmnia dat qui justa negat."

614

Old ed. "Lalius."

615

Old ed. "Articks Rhene." ("Rhene" is the old form of "Rhine.")

616

So old ed. Dyce's correction "or groaning woman's womb" seems hardly necessary. (The original has "plenaeque in viscera partu conjugis.")

617

"Numina miscebit castrensis flamma Monetae."

618

Old ed. "bowde."

619

Fetches.

620

The original has—

"Castraque quae, Vogesi curvam super ardua rupem,Pugnaces pictis cohibebant Lingonas armis."

Dyce conjectures that Marlowe's copy read Lingones.

621

Old ed. "bloats."

622

"Tunc rura NemossiQui tenet et ripas Aturi."

623

Marlowe seems to have read here very ridiculously, "gaudetque amato [instead of amoto] Santonus hoste."—Dyce.

624

Marlowe has converted the name of a tribe into that of a country.

625

The approved reading is "longisque leves Suessones in armis."

626

"Optimus excusso Leucus Rhemusque lacerto."

627

"Et qui te laxis imitantur, Sarmata, bracchis Vangiones."

Marlowe has mistaken "Sarmata," a Sarmatian, for the country Sarmatia.

628

The old ed. gives "fell Mercury (Joue)," and in the next line "where it seems." "Jove" written, as a correction, in the MS. above "it" was supposed by the printer to belong to the previous line.

629

The original has—

"Hunc inter Rhenum populos Alpesque jacentes, / Finibus Arctois patriaque a sede revulsos, / Pone sequi."/ ("Populos" is the subject and "Hunc" the object of "sequi." For "Hunc" the best editions give "Tunc.")

630

"Parts" must be pronounced as a dissyllable.

631

"Praecipitem populum."

632

"Serieque haerentia longa / Agmina prorumpunt."

633

"Urbem populis, victisque frequentem Gentibus."—Old ed. "captaines."

634

"Fulgura fallaci micuerunt crebra sereno."

635

The original has, "jugis nutantibus." Dyce reads "tops,"—an emendation against which Cunningham loudly protests. "Laps" is certainly more emphatic.

636

The line is imperfect. We should have expected "at night wild beasts were seen" ("silvisque feras sub nocte relictis").

637

Old ed. "Sibils."

638

Shrieked.

639

"Gelidas Anienis ad undas."

640

"Or Lunæ"—marginal note in old ed.

641

The original has "rapi."

642

Old ed. "wash'd."

643

Portendeth.

644

Here Marlowe quite deserts the original—