P. 260 b. And men enthralled by mermaids' singing charms.. The ambigua virgo of Ovid is supposed to be the Sphinx. P. 260 b. Mr. Dyce says, Heaven-star, Electra, that bewailed her sisters. "Whatever text our translator may have followed here, he has mistaken electra for a proper name, and made nonsense of the whole line." "Flere genis electra tuas, Auriga, sorores." i.e., "that thy sisters, O Charioteer (Phaeton) weep amber from their eyelids." P. 261 b. Which fact and country wealth Halesus fled. Fact here stands for crime, see ante, 240 b. Country should be father's. "Et scelus et patrias fugit Halesus opes." P. 263 b. Ep. iii. Epigrams by J. D. Or through a grate doth show his double face. Malone understands from this line that Davies means what, in his days, was called a private box. From a print prefixed to Kirkman's Drolls 1673 he was induced to think that the boxes, for which a lower price was paid, were placed at each side of the stage balcony. P. 264 a. Ep. vi. Yet my Lord Chancellor's tomb he hath not seen, The Lord Chancellor whose tomb this "valorous young gallant " had not seen was Sir Christopher Hatton. It was erected in St. Paul's Cathedral, and Bishop Corbet says was "higher than the host and altar." 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, where the poet brings trees of all descriptions to the funeral, particularly a gigantic oak "The youth of these our tymes that did behold The really charming poem from which these lines are quoted will be found in The Pastorals and other Workes of William Basse, which were intended to have been Imprinted at Oxford in 1653, but which have remained unknown till 1869, when Mr. F. W. Cosens, of Clapham Park, entrusted the MS. to Mr. Collier, who has printed it in a beautiful little 4to of 130 pages-the latest (but we are glad to think not by any means the last) service rendered to old English literature by this unwearied and unweariable labourer. P. 265 b. Ep. xx. The going to Saint Quintin's and New-haven. New-haven was our ancestors' name for Havre de Grace. P. 266 b. Ep. xxiv. Of curtains, parapets and palisadoes. This line has hitherto stood "Of parapets, curtains and palisadoes." It would almost seem that Davies was quizzing Marlowe himself in this epigram. Ep. xxix. Heywood that did in Epigrams excel. " P. 267 a. I take the following copy of a title-page from Mr. Hazlitt's Hand-book. 'John Heywoode's Woorkes. A dialogue conteynyng the number of the effectuall proverbes in the Englishe tounge, compact in a matter concernynge two maner of maryages. With one hundred of Epigrammes; and three hundred of Epigrammes upon three hundred proverbs: and a fifth hundred of Epigrams. Wheronto are now newly added a syxt hundred of Epigrams by the sayde John Heywood. Londini, 1562." P. 267 6. Ep. xxx. He first taught him that keeps the monuments ... The keeper might have had a better teacher than Dacus, as Sir Walter Raleigh mentions in one of his recently published letters to Cecil that he had taken the French Ambassador to see the Monuments at Westminster "-the other sight being the Bear Garden! No horse has ever been so celebrated by poets as Banks' Curtal. One scene of his performances was the roof of St. Paul's Cathedral ! What would Dean Milman have said if Mr. Rarey had made an application to him for the same purpose, and quoted precedent? And as for "apes," Gifford says that "the apes of these days are mere clowns to their progenitors. One is recorded who would knit his brows if the Pope's name was mentioned." For Dacus see note post 270 b. P. 267 b. Ep. xxxiii. To make himself his wench but one half hour. The word himself has always hitherto been printed myself. The change seems almost necessary for the sense. P. 268 a. Ep. xxxvi. " Yet that vile medicine it doth far excel Which by Sir Thomas More hath been propounded. Sir Thomas More's unsavoury Epigramma is entitled 'Medicinæ ad tollendos fœtores anhelitus, provenientes a cibis quibusdam." It is given at length by Mr. Dyce, and certainly deserves the epithet vile. P. 269 b. Ep. xlii. Lycus which lately is to Venice gone Shall if he do return gain three for one. Mr. Dyce says, "In our author's days it was a common practice for persons, before setting out on their travels, to deposit a sum of money, on condition of receiving large interest for it at their return; if they never returned the deposit was forfeited.' P. 269 b. Ep. xliii. " The theatre at Paris Garden stood almost exactly at what is now the Surrey starting place of Blackfriars Bridge. In 1632 Donald Lupton in his London and the Country Carbonadoed says of it, Here come few that either regard their credit or loss of time; the swaggering Roarer; the amusing Cheater; the rotten Bawd; the swearing Drunkard; and the bloody Butcher have their rendezvous here, and are of the chiefe place and respect." Harry Hunkes and Sacarson were two celebrated Bears. Malone conjectures that they were called after their masters. In The Merry Wives of Windsor Slender boasts "I have seen Sackerson loose twenty times and have taken him by the chain." P. 270 a. Ep. xlv. Dacus with some good colour and pretence Samuel Daniel in his Complaint of Rosamond, 1592, talks of the "silent rhetorique" and "dumb eloquence" of a lady's "perswading eyes," and very pretty and poetical phrases they are; but important in this place only as determining the name of the writer to whom Epigram xxx. is addressed. Mr. Dyce quotes an epigram by Sir John Harington which identifies him with Lepidus, whose "printed dog," Bungey by name, figures on the title-page of that writer's Orlando Furioso. 1591. First Book of Lucan. Lucans First Booke. Translated line for line by Chr. Marlow. At London, printed by P. Short, and are to be sold by Walter Burre at the Signe of the Flower de Luce in Paules Churchyard, 1600. 4to. [At Heber's sale it fetched £7 75.] P. 278 b. Not yet the adverse reaking southern pole. "Nec polus adversi calidus qua mergitur Austri." Of these garboils whence springs a long discourse. Garboil from French garbouille, tumult or commotion. Shakspeare uses it more P. 278 b. than once. P. 279 a. A town with one poor church set them at odds. "Tunc erat: exiguum dominos commisit asylum. Marlowe's version makes one think of those one horse towns spoken of in American newspapers. P. 280 a. At night in dreadful vision fearful Rome. Fearful is full of fear-trepidantis patriæ. P. 280 b. The thunder-hoofed horse in a crooked line. The epithet applied to the war horse is happier than the rest of the translation. Lucan meant that the cavalry crossed up the stream not to scape but to break the force of the current for the infantry to cross more easily. In Central Asia where everybody rides, and bridges are unknown, the taking of horses across rivers is a profession by itself, and during our occupation of Afghanistan these "Sporters with Water" as they are called, drove a roaring trade. P. 281 b. Envy denies all; with thy blood must thou It is not easy to recognise the original in this version "Livor edax tibi cuncta negat: gentesque subactas In the 1600 edition the equivalent of lassi Pontica regis is printed JADED King of Pontus, which makes a good scriptural name for a monarch. P. 283 b. And Vangions, who, like those of Sarmata, It is worth while to append the original Latin P. 285 a. "Et qui te laxis imitantur Sarmata braccis The earth went off her hinges; and the Alps This is one of Marlowe's mighty lines. Mr. Dyce, in my opinion very tastelessly, changes laps to tops to bring it nearer the Latin. "Veteremque jugis nutantibus Alpes Discussere nivem.' The whole passage is very grandly rendered-so grandly indeed that Shakspeare, who evidently had it in his mind, has not excelled it in the speech of Calphurnia, or its echo in Hamlet. P. 285 b. Defiled the day: and wild beasts were seen. There is something wanting here, and a reference to the original, where sub nocte is found without any equivalent in Marlowe, shows that the line must in all probability have been written P. 285 b. "Defiled the day: at night wild beasts were seen, &c." And Marius' head above cold Tav'ron peering. Teverone is the modern name of the Anio. P. 286 a. And which (ah me!) ever pretendeth ill. Here, as before, Marlowe uses pretendeth for portendeth. P. 286 b. And first his cleyes; why art thou thus enraged? Cleyes for claws is used by Ben Jonson in the form of cleis. Gifford says the word 'is common enough in our old poets: it is a genuine term, and though now confounded with claws, was probably restricted at first to some specific class of animals." Gawain Douglas has it in an intermediate form "And in thare crukit clewis grippis the pray." The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus. FROM THE QUARTO OF 1604. These notes have already extended to so great a length that I do not feel justified in making them longer still, by adding to what has been given in elucidation of the other impression of this play. It is as well however to mention that in the stage direction, in the awful and pathetic closing scene (306 b), I have added the words in brackets-Thunder, lightning [and rain] to indicate the connexion between thunder and lightning, and the desire to "Be changed into little water-drops, Additional Note to Tamburlaine the Great, Since the notes to this Play were printed off I have been favoured by Mr. John Payne Collier with the copy of the title-page of an edition which has never yet bean noticed by any writer on Marlowe's Works. I have therefore given it in the exact shape in which it was transmitted to me. Tamburlaine the Great Who, from the state of a Shepheard came a most puissant As it was acted by the right Honorable Printed at London by Richard Johnes: borne. 1597. |
