A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume Vii Part 112

[59] [The second Chorus to leave off abruptly with this word, the third Chorus taking up the narrative.]

[60] A compliment to Queen Elizabeth.--_S.P_.

It was, as Mr Steevens observes, no uncommon thing to introduce a compliment to Queen Elizabeth in the body of a play. See "Midsummer's Night's Dream," act ii. sc. 2. See also "Locrine," act v. sc. last.

[61] Probably Henry Noel, younger brother to Sir Andrew Noel, and one of the gentlemen pensioners to Queen Elizabeth; a man, says Wood, of excellent parts, and well skilled in music. See "Fasti," p. 145. A poem, ent.i.tled, "Of disdainful Daphne," by M[aster] H. Nowell, is printed in "England's Helicon," 1600, 4to. The name of Mr Henry Nowell also appears in the list of those lords and gentlemen that ran at a tilting before Queen Elizabeth. See Peele's "Polyhymnia," 1590.

"I cannot here let pa.s.s unremembered a worthy gentleman, Master Henry Noel, brother to the said Sir Andrew Noel, one of the gentlemen pensioners [see Peck's "Life of Milton," p. 225, for the Gentlemen Pensioners.] to Queen Elizabeth; a man for personage, parentage, grace, gesture, valour, and many excellent parts, inferior to none of his rank in the court; who, though his lands and livelihoods were but small, having nothing known certain but his annuity and his pension, yet in state, pomp, magnificence and expenses, did equalise barons of great worth. If any shall demand whence this proceeded, I must make answer with that Spanish proverb--

'_Aquello qual vienne de arriba ninguno lo pregunta_.'

'That which cometh from above let no one question.'

"This is the man of whom Queen Elizabeth made this enigmatical distich--

'The word of denial, and letter of fifty, Is that gentleman's name that will never be thrifty.'

He, being challenged (as I have heard) by an Italian gentleman at the _baloune_ (a kind of play with a great ball tossed with wooden braces upon the arm), used therein such violent motion, and did so overheat his blood, that he fell into a calenture, or burning fever, and thereof died, Feb. 26, 1596, and was by her majesty's appointment buried in the abbey church of Westminster, in the chapel of St Andrew."--_Benton in Nichols's "Leicestershire_," vol. iii. p. 249.

Henry Noel was the second son of Sir Edward Noel, of Dalby, by his second wife, Elizabeth, daughter and heir of William Hopton, of ----, Shropshire, relict of Sir John Peryent, Knt.--Ibid. 254.--_Gilchrist_.

[62] In the former edition, the word _denay'd_ was altered to the more modern one of _deny'd_. _Denay'd_, however, was the ancient manner of spelling it. So in the "Second Part of Henry VI.," act i. sc. 3--

"Then let him be _denay'd_ the regentship."

Again, in the "First Part of Jeronimo," 1605--

"And let not wonted fealty be _denayed_."

And in "Gammer Gurton's Needle"--

"Loke, as I have promised, I will not _denay_ it."

--_Collier_.

[63] _Prease_ signifies _a crowd or mult.i.tude, or any a.s.semblage of a number of persons_. So in "Damon and Pithias," vol. iv., pp. 49, 53--

"The King is at hand, stand close in _the prease_, beware," &c.

And ibid.--

"Away from the prisoner, what a _prease_ have we here!"

Again, in the "History of Euorda.n.u.s Prince of Denmark," 1605, sig. H: "The Prince pa.s.sing forwards sorely shaken, having lost both his stirrups: at length recovering himselfe, entred _the prease_, where on all sides he beate downe knights, and unbarred helms."

[It must be repeated, once for all, that such totally unnecessary notes as this have been retained only from a reluctance to impart to these volumes the character of an abridged or mutilated republication.]

[64] [Draweth.]

[65] _Raught_ is the ancient preterite of the word _reach_. It is frequently used by Spenser, Shakespeare, and other ancient writers.

[66] [Old copy, _where her_.]

[67] [Reward.]

[68] Alluding to the vulture that gnawed the liver of t.i.tius. In "Ferrex and Porrex," act ii. sc. 1, is this line--

"Or cruell gripe to gnaw my groaning hart."

--_Reed_. The allusion is rather to the vulture of Prometheus.

--Steevens.

[69] _Vipeream inspirans animam_. The image is from Virgil. Rowe likewise adopts it in his "Ambitious Stepmother"--

"And send a _snake_ to every vulgar breast."--_Steevens_.

[70] i.e., The wretch. The word _miser_ was anciently used without comprehending any idea of avarice. See note on "King Henry VI, Part I.,"

edit. of Shakespeare, 1778, vol. vi. p. 279.--_Steevens_.

[71] "A _stoop_, or _stowp_; a post fastened in the earth, from the Latin _stupa_."--Ray's "North Country Words," p. 58, edit. 1742.

[72] Not that she is careful or anxious about, or regrets the loss of this life. So in Milton's "Paradise Lost," Bk. ix. line 171--

"Revenge at first though sweet, Bitter ere long back on itself recoils; Let it; _I reck not_, so it light well aim'd."

And again, in the "History of Sir John Oldcastle," 1600--

"I _reck_ of death the less in that I die, Not by the sentence of that envious priest."

[73] Petrarch and Laura.

[74] These initials were almost unquestionably intended for Christopher Hatton, afterwards knighted and created Lord Chancellor of England. In the fourth year of Queen Elizabeth, 1562, about six years before this play is supposed to have been written, we learn from Dugdale's "Origines Juridiciales," p. 150, a magnificent Christmas was kept in the Inner Temple, at which her majesty was present, and Mr Hatton was appointed Master of the Game. Historians say he owed his rise, not so much to his mental abilities, as to the graces of his person and his excellence in dancing, which captivated the Queen to such a degree, that he arose gradually from one of her Gentlemen Pensioners to the highest employment in the law, which he, however, filled without censure, supplying his own defects by the a.s.sistance of the ablest men in the profession. _The grave Lord Keeper_, after his promotion, still retained his fondness for that accomplishment to which he was indebted for his rise, _and led the Brawls_ almost until his death. In 1589, on the marriage of his heir with Judge Gawdy's daughter, "the Lord Chancellor danced the measures at the solemnity, and left his gown on the chair, saying _Lie there, Chancellor_." His death, which happened two years after, was hastened by an unexpected demand of money from the Queen, urged in so severe a manner, that all the kindness she afterwards showed to him was insufficient to remove the impression it had made on him. See Birch's "Memoirs of Queen Elizabeth." vol. i. pp. 8, 56, [and Nicolas's "Life of Hatton," p. 478.]

[75] Dryden's translation of Boccaccio's "Description of the Cave" is as follows:--

"Next the proud palace of Salerno stood A Mount of rough ascent, and thick with wood.

Through this a cave was dug with vast expence: The work it seem'd of some suspicious prince, Who, when abusing power with lawless might, From public justice would secure his flight.

The pa.s.sage made by many a winding way, Reach'd even the room in which the tyrant lay.

Fit for his purpose on a lower floor, He lodged, whose issue was an iron door; From whence by stairs descending to the ground.

In the blind grot a safe retreat he found.

Its outlet ended in a brake o'ergrown With brambles, choak'd by time, and now unknown.

A rift there was, which from the mountain's height Convey'd a glimm'ring and malignant light, A breathing place to draw the damps away, A twilight of an intercepted day."

--"Sigismonda and Guiscardo." Dryden's Works, vol. iii. p. 251.

[76] See Milton's "Paradise Lost," Bk. i. l. 60.

[77] _Fetters_ or _chains_. So in Beaumont and Fletcher's "Beggar's Bush," act iii. sc. 4--

"_Gyves_ I must wear, and cold must be my comfort."