The Works of Christopher Marlowe Volume II Part 75

[33] Old ed. "1 Nun."

[34] Can this word be right? Qu. "cloisters"?

[35] Old ed. "_Nun._"

[36] _I.e._, sometime.

[37] Dyce reads "forgive," perhaps rightly.

[38] Here the old ed. gives "+" (to indicate the notch in the plank under which the treasure was concealed).

[39] I have added the second "go" for the sake of the metre.

[40] Scene: before Barabas' house.

[41] Collier notices that ll. 1, 2, are found (with slight variation) in Guilpin's _Skialetheia_, 1598. Cf. Peele's _David and Bethsabe_:--

"Like as the fatal raven, that in his voice Carries the dreadful summons of our death."

[42] Cf. _Dido_, iii. 3:--

"Who would not undergo all kind of toil To be well stored with such a _winter's tale_."

The words "in my _wealth_" have little meaning; I suspect that we should read "in my _youth_."

[43] Cf. _Hamlet_, i. 1:--

"Or if thou hast uph.o.a.rded in thy life Extorted treasure in the womb of earth, For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death, Speak of it."

[44] Old ed. "walke."

[45] Old ed. "Birn para todos, my ganada no er." I have adopted Dyce's reading.

[46] Dyce thinks that Shakespeare recollected this pa.s.sage when he wrote:--

"But soft! what light through yonder window breaks?

It is the East and Juliet is the sun."

[47] Cf. _Job_ xli. 18:--"By his neesings a light doth s.h.i.+ne, and his eyes are like the _eyelids of the morning_." So Sophocles in the _Antigone_ speaks of the sun as ~hameras blepharon~. The reader will remember the line in _Lycidas_:--

"Under the opening _eyelids of the morn_."

[48] "Perhaps what is meant here is an exclamation on the beautiful appearance of money, Hermoso parecer de los dinos, but it is questionable whether this would be good Spanish."--_Collier._ Dyce gives "Hermoso Placer."

[49] Scene: the Senate-house.

[50] _I.e._, did not lower our sails. Cf. _1 Tamburlaine_, i. 2, l. 193.

[51] Old ed. "Spanish."

[52] Old ed. "left and tooke." The correction was made by Dyce.

[53] Established.

[54] Cf. _King John_, i. 2:--

"And now instead of _bullets wrapt in fire_."

[55] Scene: the market-place.

[56] The modern editors give "Poor villains, such as," &c.; but the reading of the 4to. is quite intelligible.

[57] Cf. Shylock's "Still have I borne it with a patient shrug."

[58] Dyce quotes from Barnabe Barnes' _Divils Charter_, 1607, "For I must _have a saying to_ those bottels."

[59] Pieces of silver. Cf. _Ant. and Cleo._:--

"Realms and islands were As _plates_ dropt from his pocket."

[60] Old ed. "_Itha._"

[61] A cant word still in use.

[62] Old ed. "_Ith._"

[63] An allegorical character in the old moralities. Cf. _1 Henry IV._ ii. 4:--"That reverend _vice_, that grey _iniquity_, that _vanity_ in years." In the _Devil is an a.s.s_, "Lady Vanity" is coupled with "Iniquity."

[64] Old ed. "Mater."

[65] Stop our conversation.

[66] I have followed Dyce's suggestion in adding this word.

[67] An important part in Barabas' get-up was his large nose. In William Rowley's _Search for Money_, 1609, there is an allusion to the "artificial Jew of Malta's nose."

[68] In _t.i.tus Andronicus_ Aaron gives a somewhat similar catalogue of villainies.

[69] Use.

[70] Heartily.

[71] The scene s.h.i.+fts to the front of Barabas' house.

[72] Dyce's correction for the old copy's "vow to love him."

[73] Affianced. "Accordailles, the betrothing or _making sure_ of a man and woman together."--_Cotgrave._

[74] The word "he" was inserted by Cunningham for the sake of the metre.