The Works of Christopher Marlowe Volume III Part 35

FOOTNOTES:

[503] So Isham copy and ed. A.--Eds. B, C "spies."--MS. "notes."

[504] So the MS.--Isham copy and ed. A "Which perceiving he."--Eds. B, C "Which to perceiving he."

[505] The MS. adds--

"You keepe a wh.o.r.e att your [own] charge in towne; Indeede, frend Ceneas, there you put me downe."

IN GALLUM. XXIV.

Gallus hath been this summer-time in Friesland, And now, return'd, he speaks such warlike words, As, if I could their English understand, I fear me they would cut my throat like swords; He talks of counter-scarfs,[506] and casamates,[507]

Of parapets, curtains, and palisadoes;[508]

Of flankers, ravelins, gabions he prates, And of false-brays,[509] and sallies, and scaladoes.[510]

But, to requite such gulling terms as these, With words to my profession I reply; 10 I tell of fourching, vouchers, and counterpleas, Of withernams, essoins, and champarty.

So, neither of us understanding either, We part as wise as when we came together.

FOOTNOTES:

[506] Counter-scarps.

[507] Old eds. "Casomates."

[508] Old eds. "Of parapets, of curteneys, and pallizadois."--MS. "Of parapelets, curtens and pa.s.sadoes."--Cunningham prints "Of curtains, parapets," &c.

[509] "A term in fortification, exactly from the French _fausse-braie_, which means, say the dictionaries, a counter-breast-work, or, in fact, a mound thrown up to mask some part of the works.

'And made those strange approaches by false-brays, Reduits, half-moons, horn-works, and such close ways.'

_B. Jons. Underwoods._"--Nares.

[510] Dyce points out that this pa.s.sage is imitated in Fitzgeoffrey's _Notes from Black-Fryers_, Sig. E. 7, ed. 1620.

IN DECIUM.[511] XXV.

Audacious painters have Nine Worthies made; But poet Decius, more audacious far, Making his mistress march with men of war, With t.i.tle of "Tenth Worthy" doth her lade.

Methinks that gull did use his terms as fit, Which term'd his love "a giant for her wit."

FOOTNOTES:

[511] In this epigram, as Dyce showed, Davies is glancing at a sonnet of Drayton's "To the Celestiall Numbers" in _Idea_. Jonson told Drummond that "S. J. Davies played in ane Epigrame on Draton's, who in a sonnet concluded his mistress might been the Ninth [sic] Worthy; and said he used a phrase like Dametas in Arcadia, who said, For wit his Mistresse might be a Gyant."--_Notes of Ben Jonson's Conversations with Drummond_, p. 15. (ed. Shakesp. Soc.)

IN GELLAM. XXVI.

If Gella's beauty be examined, She hath a dull dead eye, a saddle nose, An ill-shap'd face, with morphew overspread, And rotten teeth, which she in laughing shows; Briefly, she is the filthiest wench in town, Of all that do the art of whoring use: But when she hath put on her satin gown, Her cut[512] lawn ap.r.o.n, and her velvet shoes, Her green silk stockings, and her petticoat Of taffeta, with golden fringe around, 10 And is withal perfum'd with civet hot, Which doth her valiant stinking breath confound,-- Yet she with these additions is no more Than a sweet, filthy, fine, ill-favour'd wh.o.r.e.

FOOTNOTES:

[512] So MS.--Old eds. "out."

IN SYLLAM. XXVII.

Sylla is often challeng'd to the field, To answer, like a gentleman, his foes: But then doth he this[513] only answer yield, That he hath livings and fair lands to lose.

Sylla, if none but beggars valiant were, The king of Spain would put us all in fear.

FOOTNOTES:

[513] So Isham copy.--Ed. A "when doth he his."

IN SYLLAM. XXVIII.

Who dares affirm that Sylla dare not fight?

When I dare swear he dares adventure more Than the most brave and most[514] all-daring wight That ever arms with resolution bore; He that dare touch the most unwholesome wh.o.r.e That ever was retir'd into the spittle, And dares court wenches standing at a door (The portion of his wit being pa.s.sing little); He that dares give his dearest friends offences, Which other valiant fools do fear to do, 10 And, when a fever doth confound his senses, Dare eat raw beef, and drink strong wine thereto: He that dares take tobacco on the stage,[515]

Dares man a wh.o.r.e at noon-day through the street, Dares dance in Paul's, and in this formal age Dares say and do whatever is unmeet; Whom fear of shame could never yet affright, Who dares affirm that Sylla dares not fight?

FOOTNOTES:

[514] So Isham copy.--Ed. A "most brave, most all daring."--Eds. B, C "most brave and all daring."--MS. "most valiant and all-daring."

[515] There are frequent allusions to this practice. Cf. Induction to _Cynthia's Revels_:--"I have my three sorts of tobacco in my pocket; my light by me."

IN HEYWODUM. XXIX.

Heywood,[516] that did in epigrams excel, Is now put down since my light Muse arose;[517]

As buckets are put down into a well, Or as a schoolboy putteth down his hose.