The Works of Christopher Marlowe Volume III Part 8

FOOTNOTES:

[113] It should be _binds_: _i.e._, "Leucote flies to the several winds, and, commissioned by the Fates, commands them to restrain their violence." _Broughton._

[114] The next few lines are in Chapman's obscurest manner. "Devotes,"

in l. 21, means, I suppose, "tokens of devotion to his patron."

[115] Cunningham says, "I cannot perceive the meaning of 'doth repair more tender fawns.'" "Fawns" is equivalent to "fawnings;" and the meaning seems to be, "applies himself to softer blandishments."

[116] Orithyia.--The story of the rape of Orithyia is told in a magnificent pa.s.sage of Mr. Swinburne's _Erectheus_.

[117] So the Isham copy. Later eds. "true."

[118] So the Isham copy. Later eds. "torrent."

[119] Some eds. "himselfe surpris'd." Dyce gives "himself so priz'd."

[120] A short arrow blunted at the end; it killed birds without piercing them.

[121] Countenance.

[122] Clipt, embraced.

[123] From Gr. [Greek: Atthis] (a woman of Attica, _i.e._, Orithyia).

[124] "The flame taking _bait_ (refreshment), feeding." Dyce. (Old eds.

"bating.")

[125] Old eds. "vsde."

[126] Isham copy "deuil."

[127] In Chapman's day the work of the grammarian Musaeus was supposed to be the genuine production of the fabulous son of Eumolpus.

OVID'S ELEGIES.

All the old editions of Marlowe's translation of the _Amores_ are undated, and bear the imprint Middleburgh (in various spellings). It is probable that the copy which Mr. Charles Edmonds discovered at Lamport Hall, Northamptons.h.i.+re (the seat of Sir Charles Isham, Bart.), is the earliest of extant editions. The t.i.tle-page of this edition is--_Epigrammes and Elegies By I. D. and C. M. At Middleborugh_ 12mo.

After the t.i.tle-page come the _Epigrammata_, which are signed at the end "I. D." (the initials of Sir John Davies). Following the _Epigrammata_ is a copy of verses headed _Ignoto_, and then comes a second t.i.tle-page--_Certaine of Ovid's Elegies. By C. Marlowe. At Middleborough_. In his preface to a facsimile reprint of the little volume, Mr. Edmonds states his conviction that this edition, notwithstanding the imprint Middleborough, was issued at London from the press of W. Jaggard, who in 1599 printed the _Pa.s.sionate Pilgrime_. He grounds his opinion not only on the character of the type and of the misprints, but on the fact that there would be no need for the book to be printed abroad in the first instance. It was not (he thinks) until after June 1599--when (with other books) it was condemned by Archbishop Whitgift to be burnt--that recourse was had to the expedient of reprinting it at Middleburgh. In the notes I refer to this edition as Isham copy.

The next edition, which has the same t.i.tle-pages as the Isham copy--_Epigrammes and Elegies by I. D. and C. M. at Middleborugh_, 12mo--was certainly, to judge from its general appearance, printed abroad, and by foreigners. The text agrees in the main with that of the Isham copy, but the corruptions are more numerous. I have followed Dyce in referring to this edition as Ed. A.

The Isham copy and Ed. A contain only a portion of the Elegies. The complete translation appeared in _All Ovid's Elegies: 3 Bookes. By C. M.

Epigrams by I. D. At Middleborugh_, 12mo. (Ed. B); and in another edition with the same t.i.tle-page (Ed. C). The readings of Ed. C. I have occasionally borrowed from Dyce. It is supposed that the book "continued to be printed with Middleburgh on the t.i.tle, and without date, as late as 1640" (Hazlitt).

OVID'S ELEGIES.

P. OVIDII NASONIS AMORUM.

LIBER PRIMUS.

ELEGIA I.

Quemadmodum a Cupidine, pro bellis amoris scribere coactus sit.

_We which were Ovid's five books, now are three, For these before the rest preferreth he: If reading five thou plain'st of tediousness, Two ta'en away, thy[128] labour will be less;_

With Muse prepared,[129] I meant to sing of arms, Choosing a subject fit for fierce alarms: Both verses were alike till Love (men say) Began to smile and took one foot away.

Rash boy, who gave thee power to change a line?

We are the Muses' prophets, none of thine.

What, if thy mother take Diana's[130] bow, Shall Dian fan when love begins to glow?

In woody groves is't meet that Ceres reign, And quiver-bearing Dian till the plain? 10 Who'll set the fair-tressed Sun in battle-ray While Mars doth take the Aonian harp to play?

Great are thy kingdoms, over-strong and large, Ambitious imp, why seek'st thou further charge?

Are all things thine? the Muses' Tempe thine?

Then scarce can Phoebus say, "This harp is mine."

When[131] in this work's first verse I trod aloft, Love slaked my muse, and made my numbers soft: I have no mistress nor no favourite, Being fittest matter for a wanton wit. 20 Thus I complained, but Love unlocked his quiver, Took out the shaft, ordained my heart to s.h.i.+ver, And bent his sinewy bow upon his knee, Saying, "Poet, here's a work beseeming thee."

O, woe is me! he never shoots but hits, I burn, love in my idle bosom sits: Let my first verse be six, my last five feet: Farewell stern war, for blunter poets meet!

Elegian muse, that warblest amorous lays, Girt my s.h.i.+ne[132] brow with seabank myrtle sprays.[133] 30

FOOTNOTES:

[128] So the Isham copy. Ed. A. "the."

[129] Isham copy and ed. A. "vpreard, I meane."

[130] The original has--

"Quid? si praeripiat flavae Venus arma _Minervae_ Ventilet accensas flavae _Minerva_ comas."

[131]

"c.u.m bene surrexit versu nova pagina, primo!

At tenuat nervos proximus ille meos."

[132] Sheen.

[133] Dyce's correction for "praise" of the old eds.