The Works of Christopher Marlowe Volume II Part 78

[156] Old ed. "summe."

[157] Dyce reads "ascend."

[158] The stage-direction in old ed. is "A charge, the cable cut. A caldron discovered." In Scene 4 the Governor had directed the Knights and Del Bosco to issue out at the discharge of the culverin.

[159] Cunningham's correction for the old eds. "fate."

[160] Intended.

[161] Old ed. "meditate."

[162] Old ed. "call."

FOOTNOTES FOR: "EDWARD THE SECOND"

[163] Scene: a street in London.

[164] So 4tos.--Dyce gives "lie;" but "die" may perhaps be interpreted as "swoon."

[165] Cf. Day's _Parliament of Bees_:--

"Yet if you meet a tart antagonist, Or discontented rugged satirist, That slights your errant or his art that penned it, Cry _Tanti!_"

So in the Prologue to Day's _Isle of Gulls_:--

"Detraction he scorns, honours the best: _Tanti_ for hate, thus low for all the rest."

[166] So Dyce.--4tos. "fanne."

[167] Mr. Tanc.o.c.k quotes from Pliny's _Natural History_:--"Hystrici longiores aculei et c.u.m intendit cutem missiles. Ora urgentium figit canum et paulo longius jaculatur."

[168] So the 4tos.--Dyce reads "sylvan."

[169] The name of a rustic dance.

[170] So the 4tos.--Dyce reads "shall."

[171] The 4tos. read, "My lord, here comes the king and the n.o.bles."

Dyce gives, "Here comes my lord the king and the n.o.bles." Mr. Fleay arranges the pa.s.sage thus:--

"Here comes my lord The king and th' n.o.bles from the parliament.

I'll stand aside."

[172] Equivalent to a dissyllable.

[173] Cf. _3 Henry VI._ v. 6, "_aspiring_ blood of Lancaster."

[174] I have kept the form found in ed. 1598, as a trisyllable is here required.

[175] Dyce's correction "leave" seems unnecessary. Warwick is speaking ironically.

[176] Dyce altered "Gaveston" to "Lancaster;" but the language is ironical.

[177] Fight, contend. The word is borrowed from the game of tennis.

[178] Ed. 1598, "mourned _for_ Hercules." Eds. 1612, 1622, "mourned _for of_ Hercules"--and so Dyce.

[179] Rule. Cf. _1 Tamburlaine_, i. 1, l. 119.

[180] Kennel, gutter. Cf._Jew of Malta_, v. 1, l. 91.

[181] Dyce proposed to read "Prut prut!" others suppose that the bishop is playing on the word "convey," which was a cant term for "steal." Cf.

_Richard II._ iv. 1, l. 113:--

"_Bol._ Go, some of you, convey him to the Tower.

_King._ O good! convey! conveyers are you all."

[182] So eds. 1612, 1622.--Ed. 1598 omits "best."

[183] Scene: Westminster.

[184] Untimely.

[185] Are angry at him. We have the word again later in the play--

"I know, my lord, many will _stomach_ me."

[186] Old eds. "Weele."

[187] It is not absolutely necessary to suppose that there is an allusion to any particular forest. What the queen means is that she is seeking solitude.

[188] Scene: a street.

[189] Scene: the New Temple (cf. ll. 74-5 of scene ii.). At the entrance of the king we are to suppose a change of scene.

[190] "Was the poet thinking of Ovid, 'Non bene conveniunt,' &c. Met.

ii. 846?"--_Dyce_.

[191] Perhaps we should read "upon": but "traitor" may be p.r.o.nounced as a trisyllable by inserting a vowel sound before the first _r_.

[192] Float.

[193] So ed. 1612.--Ed. 1598 "lord."

[194] So ed. 1598.--Ed. 1612 "are."