The Works of Christopher Marlowe Volume II Part 77

[115] Scene: the front of Barabas' house.

[116] I am tempted to arrange the verse thus:--

"O happy hour, Wherein I shall convert an infidel, And bring his gold into our treasury!"

[117] Scene: a balcony of Bellamira's house.

[118] The verse read by criminals to ent.i.tle them to "benefit of clergy." The first words of the 51st Psalm were commonly chosen.

[119] Sermon. Cf. _Richard III._ iii. 2:--

"I thank thee, good Sir John, with all my heart; I am in debt for your last _exercise_."

[120] _I.e._, a pair of mustachios.

[121] The contemptuous expression "Turk of tenpence" is found in Dekker's _Satiromastix_, &c.

[122] In old ed. these words are printed as part of the text. I have followed Dyce in printing them as a stage-direction.

[123] So the old ed.--Dyce and Cunningham read "cunning;" but the expression "running banquet" (akin to our "hasty meal") occurs in _Henry VIII._ i. 4, l. 13.

[124] So modern editors. Old ed. "steed."

[125] Dyce observes that "realm" was often written "ream." Marlowe was not much addicted to quibbling.

[126] A musical term.

[127] Scene: a room in Barabas' house.

[128] "Tottered" and "tattered" are used indifferently by old writers.

[129] Cf. a somewhat similar description of a ruffian in _Arden of Feversham_:--

"A lean-faced writhen knave, Hawk-nosed and very hollow-eyed, With mighty furrows in his stormy brows; Long hair down his shoulders curled; His chin was bare, but on his upper lip A mutchado which he _wound about his ear_."

[130] A word formed from "catso."

[131] Swindling.

[132] Scene: the balcony of Bellamira's house.

[133] Old ed. _Pil._

[134] The origin of this boisterous exclamation is uncertain. Gifford suggested that it was corrupted from the Spanish _rio_, which is figuratively used for "a large quant.i.ty of liquor." Dyce quotes from the anonymous comedy, _Look about you_:--

"And _Ryvo_ will he cry and _Castile_ too."

[135] A corrupt pa.s.sage. "Snickle" is a North-country word for "noose."

Cunningham proposed "snickle _hard and fast_."

[136] Old ed. "_incoomy._" The word "incony" (which is found in _Love's Labour's Lost_, &c.) means "delicate, dainty." It has been doubtfully derived from the North-country "canny" or "conny" (in the sense of pretty), the prefix "in" having an intensive force.

[137] Dyce quotes from Sir John Mandeville:--"And fast by is zit the tree of Eldre that Judas henge him self upon for despeyt that he hadde when he solde and betrayed our Lorde."--_Voiage and Travell_, &c., p.

112, ed. 1725. "That Judas hanged himself," says Sir Thomas Browne, "much more that he perished thereby, we shall not raise a doubt.

Although Jansenius, discoursing the point, produceth the testimony of Theophylact and Euthymius that he died not by the gallows but under a cart-wheel; and Baronius also delivereth, this was the opinion of the Greeks and derived as high as Papias one of the disciples of John.

Although, also, how hardly the expression of Matthew is reconcileable unto that of Peter, and that he plainly hanged himself, with that, that falling headlong he burst asunder in the midst--with many other the learned Grotius plainly doth acknowledge."--_Vulgar Errors_, vii. 11.

[138] Old ed. "masty." Dyce "nasty."

[139] Old ed. "we."

[140] Scene: the Senate-house.

[141] We are to suppose that Barabas' body had been thrown "o'er the walls," according to the Governor's order. The scene is now changed from the Senate-house to the outside of the city.

[142] A herb of powerful soporific qualities. Shakespeare couples it with "poppy" in _Oth.e.l.lo_:--

"Not poppy nor _mandragora_, Nor all the powerful syrups of the world, Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep Which thou ow'dst yesterday."

[143] Old ed. "truce." The correction is Collier's. Dyce reads "trench."

[144] Scene: a square in the city.

[145] Lower.

[146] Old ed. "to kept."

[147] The scene shifts to the Governor's house.

[148] _I.e._ "intend'st."

[149] Large cannons.

[150] See vol. 1, p. 67, note 2.

[151] Old ed.--

"And toward Calabria back'd by Sicily, Two lofty Turrets that command the Towne.

_When_ Siracusian Dionisius reign'd; I wonder how it could be conquer'd thus."

The correction was made by the editor of 1826.

[152] Scene: a street.

[153] The stick that held the gunner's match.

[154] Scene: the hall of the Governor's house. Barabas is in the gallery.

[155] Old ed. "Serv."