A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume Vii Part 111

[37] [Mine almighty.--MS.]

[38] [This, and the three following lines, are not in the MSS.]

[39] [In creeping thorough all her veins within, That she thereby shall raise much ruth and woe.--MS.]

[40] [This, and the five preceding lines, are not in the MSS.]

[41] [Lo, this before your eyes so will I show, That ye shall justly say with one accord We must relent and yield; for now we know Love rules the world, love only is the lord.--MS.]

[42] [Hath taught me plain to know our state's unrest.--MS.]

[43] [O mighty Jove, O heavens and heavenly powers.--MS.]

[44] [This, and the next line, do not occur in the MSS.]

[45] [Thy sprite, I know, doth linger hereabout And looks that I, poor wretch, should after come; I would, G.o.d wot, my lord, if so I mought: But yet abide, I may perhaps devise Some way to be unburdened of my life, And with my ghost approach thee in some wise To do therein the duty of a wife.--MS.]

[46] These omissions are frequent in our old plays. See note on "Love's Labour Lost," edit. of Shakspeare, 1778, vol. ii. p. 410.--_Steevens_.

[47] In this manner the word was formerly accented. See Dr Farmer's "Essay on the Learning of Shakspeare."

[48] Go. So in Epilogue--

"With violent hands he that his life doth end, His d.a.m.ned soul to endless night doth _wend_."

Again, in the "Return from Parna.s.sus," 1600, act v. sc. 4--

"These my companions still with me must _wend_."

In "George a Green Pinner of Wakefield," [Dyce's "Greene and Peele,"

1861, p. 259, &c.]--

"Wilt thou leave Wakefield and _wend_ with me ...

So will I _wend_ with Robin all along ...

For you are wrong, and may not _wend_ this way."

And in Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales," Prologue, line 19--

"Byfel, that, on that sesoun on a day, In Southwerk at the Tabbard as I lay, Redy to _wenden_ on my pilgrimage, To Canturbury with ful devout corage."

[49] Alexander.

[50] Hector.

[51] _Euripus Euboicus_, or _Chalcidicus_, is a narrow pa.s.sage of sea dividing _Attica_ and the Island of _Euboea_, now called the _Gulf of Negropont_. It ebbs and flows seven times every day: the reason of which, it is said, when Aristotle could not find, he threw himself into the sea with these words: _Quia ego non capio te, tu capias me_. Sir Thomas Brown, in his "Enquiries into Vulgar Errors," b. vii. c. 14, appears to have been not satisfied with this account of Aristotle's death, which he has taken some pains to render doubtful.

[52] [Go]. So act ii. sc. 3--

"Therefore my counsel is you shall not stir, Nor farther _wade_ in such a case as this,"

And in Turbervile's "Tragical Tales," 1587--

"Eare thou doe _wade_ so farre, revoke to minde the bedlam boy.

That in his forged wings of waxe reposed too great a joy."

[53] _Sadly_, in most of our ancient writers, is used as here for _seriously_. So in Nash's "Lenten Stuff," 1599: "Nay, I will lay no wagers, for, now I perponder more _sadly_ upon it, I think I am out indeed."

Again, in Hall's "Chronicle," 1550, fo. 2: "His cosyn germaine was nowe brought to that trade of livynge, that he litle or nothynge regarded the counsaill of his uncles, nor of other grave and _sadde_ persones, but did all thynge at his pleasure."

In Ascham's "Toxophilus," 1571: "And when I sawe not you amonges them, but at the last espyed you lookinge on your booke here so _sadlye_, I thought to come and hold you with some communication."

And in Warton's "Life of Sir Thomas Pope," p. 30: "Wherein is an abbes namyd Dame Alice Fitzherbert, of the age LX yeares, a very _sadde_, discreate, and relegyous woman."

[54] Formerly this diversion was as much followed in the evening, as it was at an earlier hour in the day. In "Laneham's Account of the Entertainment at Kenelworth Castle," we find that Queen Elizabeth always, while there, hunted in the afternoon. "Monday was hot, and therefore her highness kept in till _five a clok in the eeveing; what time it pleaz'd to ryde forth into the chase too hunt the hart of fors: which found anon, and after sore chased," &c. Again, "Munday the 18 of this July, the weather being hot, her highness kept the castle for coolness, till about _five a clok_, her majesty in the chase, hunted the hart (as before) of forz" &c.

[55] That is, _proceed no further_.

[56] i.e., Of nature.

[57] Acquaint her with my resolution. _To resolve_, however, was sometimes used for _convince_, or _satisfy_. It may therefore mean, _convince her of the propriety of my command_. So in Middleton's "More Dissemblers besides Women," act i. sc. 3--

"The blessing of perfection to your thoughts, lady, For I'm _resolv'd_ they are good ones."

Reed is right in his first explanation; it is so used in Chapman's "May Day," act i. sc. 1.

"Tell her such a man will _resolve_ her naming me."

--"Anc. Dram.," vol. vi. p. 6.--_Gilchrist_.

[A few lines further on in the text, however,] _resolve_ has the same meaning as _dissolve_; and so in Lyly's "Euphues and his England,"

p. 38: "I could be content to _resolve_ myselfe into teares to rid thee of trouble."

Marlowe, as quoted in "England's Parna.s.sus," 1600, p. 480 [see Dyce's "Marlowe," iii., 301], uses it in the same way--

"No molten Christall but a Richer mine, Euen natures rarest alchumie ran there, Diamonds _resolu'd_, and substance more diuine.

Through whose bright gliding current might appeare A thousand naked Nymphes, whose yuorie s.h.i.+ne, Enameling the bankes, made them more deare Then euer was that glorious Pallas gate.

Where the day-s.h.i.+ning sunne in triumph sate."

See also Shakespeare's "Hamlet," act i. sc. 2, and Mr Steevens's note on it.

[58] _To quail_, is to _languish, to sink into dejection_. So in Churchyard's "Challenge," 24--

"Where malice sowes, the seedes of wicked waies, Both honor _quailes_, and credit crackes with all: Of n.o.blest men, and such as fears no fall."

See also Mr Steevens's notes on the "First Part of Henry IV.," act iv.

sc. 2, and "Cymbeline," act v. sc. 5.

[Had the writer this pa.s.sage in his mind when he wrote the well-known lines on Shakespeare, "What need my Shakespeare," &c., which occur in the folio of 1632?]