The Works of Christopher Marlowe Volume II Part 76

[75] A piece of money marked on one side with a cross.

[76] Old ed. "thee."

[77] Bellamira displays herself on a balcony. Cf. a stage-direction in Brome's _Covent Garden Weeded_:--"Enter Dorcas above on a Bellconie.

Gabriel gazes at her. Dorcas is habited like a curtizan of Venice."

[78] Scene: a street.

[79] Old ed.--

"_Enter Lodow. reading._

"_Math._ What dares the villain," &c. The challenge was "feign'd from Lodowick."

[80] On the upper-stage, a raised platform.

[81] Bold.

[82] Here and elsewhere, for the sake of the metre, Dyce prints "Lodovico." Perhaps he is right, for the name may have been contracted into "Lod." or "Lodo." in the MS. from which the play was printed.

[83] Dyce compares _3 Henry VI._ ii. 5:--

"_These arms of mine_ shall be thy winding sheet; My heart, sweet boy, _shall be thy supulchre_."

[84] Cf. _Two Gentlemen of Verona_, iii. 2:--

"Say that upon the altar of her beauty You sacrifice your tears."

[85] "Impartial" is occasionally used by old writers in the sense of "unkindly." Cf. Prologue to Peele's _Arraignment of Paris_:--

"Th' _unpartial_ daughters of Necessity Bin aiders in her suit."

So in William Smith's _Chloris_(Sonnet 11):--

"No, it was not Nature's ornament But winged love's _unpartial_ cruel wound."

[86] Scene: a room in Barabas' house.

[87] "Kept in expectation, having their hopes flattered."--_Dyce._

[88] Old ed. "Jaynes."

[89] Dyce's correction: old ed. "sinne."

[90] So the old ed. Cunningham boldly reads "Governor," which is certainly the word we should have expected.

[91] Dyce and the other editors give "When duck you?" I take "when" to be an abrupt exclamation denoting impatience, in which sense the word is often found (see Dyce's _Shakespeare Glossary_).

[92] Scene: a room in Barabas' house.

[93] _I.e._ portendeth.

[94] Old ed. "life."

[95] Old ed. "least."

[96] A very old proverb; it is found in Chaucer's _Squieres Tale_, John Heywood's _Proverbs, Comedy of Errors_, &c.

[97] Old ed. "plot."

[98] _I.e._ in abundance. Dyce compares Beaumont and Fletcher's _Knight of the Burning Pestle_, ii. 2:-- "Here's money and gold _by th' eye_, my boy."

[99] Briefly.

[100] The juice of ebony (variously written "hebon" or "hebenon") was thought to be a strong poison. Cf. _Hamlet_, i. 5:--

"Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole With juice of cursed _hebenon_ in a vial."

[101] Scene: the Senate-house.

[102] Old ed. "Bashaws." (I have kept the spelling "Ba.s.so" throughout.)

[103] Scene: a room in the convent.--The stage direction in the 4to. is

"_Enter two Friars and Abigail._"

[104] Scene: a street.

[105] _I.e._ compared to.

[106] A vulgar Italian oath. (Old ed. "_Catho diabola._")

[107] Old ed. "inmates."

[108] Upper rooms; lofts. The word is still used in some parts of the country.

[109] Dyce reads "untold."

[110] This line and the next are given to Ithamore in the old copy.

[111] Ithamore.

[112] The old form (preserved in "Covent Garden") of "convent."

[113] Scene: a room in Barabas' house. In the 4to. this scene is a continuation of the former.

[114] Old ed. "save." Perhaps we should read:-- "What will you? save my life!"