The Works of Christopher Marlowe Volume II Part 84

_Souldier._ Now, sir, to you that dares make a duke a cuckolde, and use a counterfeyt key to his privye chamber: though you take out none but your owne treasure, yett you put in that displeases him, and fill up his rome that he shold occupye. Herein, sir, you forestalle the markett, and sett up your standinge where you shold not. But you will saye you leave him rome enoghe besides: that's no answere; he's to have the choyce of his owne freeland; yf it be not too free, there's the questione. Nowe, for where he is your landlorde, you take upon you to be his, and will needs enter by defaulte: what though you were once in possession, yett comminge upon you once unawares, he frayde you out againe; therefore your entrye is mere intrusione: this is against the law, sir: and though I come not to keepe possessione (as I wolde I might!), yet I come to keepe you out, sir.

_Enter_ MINION.

You are wellcome, sir: have at you! [_He kills him._

_Minion._ Trayterouse Guise, ah, thou hast morthered me!

_Enter_ GUISE.

_Guise._ Hold the[e], tall soldier! take the[e] this, and flye.

[Exit Soldier_.

Thus fall, imperfett exhalatione, Which our great sonn of France cold not effecte; A fyery meteor in the fermament: Lye there, the kinge's delyght and Guise's scorne! Revenge it, Henry, yf thou list or darst: I did it onely in dispight of thee. Fondlie hast thou incenste the Guise's sowle, That of it selfe was hote enough to worke Thy just degestione with extreamest shame. The armye I have gatherd now shall ayme, More at thie end then exterpatione; And when thou thinkst I have forgotten this, And that thou most reposest in my faythe, Than will I wake thee from thy folishe dreame, And lett thee see thie selfe my prysoner.

[_Exeunt._"

[412] "Mugeroun (Maugiron) fell in a duel: Anquetil, _Hist. de France_, t. v. 344, ed. 1817: but Saint-Megrin, the gallant of the d.u.c.h.ess of Guise, _was_ a.s.sa.s.sinated. 'Ils dresserentu ne embuscade a la porte du Louvre. Comme Saint-Megrin, en sortoit la nuit, des a.s.sa.s.sins apostes se jeterent sur lui, et l'etendirent sur le pave, perce de trente-cinq coups. Il vecut cependant jusqu au lendemain.' Anquetil, _Ibid._ p.

347."--_Dyce._

[413] Pension, maintenance.

[414] Collier's correction for the old copy's "s.e.xious."

[415] Quit, free.

[416] It cannot be determined where this scene takes place.

[417] Dyce reads "'A takes" (_i.e._ "He takes"); but the omission of a personal p.r.o.noun, where the sense is plain, occurs not unfrequently.

[418] Scene: a room in the royal palace at Blois.

[419] Cf. _2 Tamburlaine_ iv. 3:--"Mounted his shining chariot" (for "mounted _in_").

[420] Dyce conjectures that Guise must have seen himself in a mirror as he uttered these words.

[421] Set.

[422] Order.

[423] Scene: the interior of a prison at Blois.

[424] Scene: a room in Dumaine's house, at Paris.

[425] Old ed. "_His life_ and all," &c.

[426] Scene: Saint-Cloud.

[427] Old ed. "Lucrecia walles."

[428] Old ed. "Jacobus."

[429] Old ed. "their."

[430] Dyce's correction for "_incense_ ... to kiss the _holy_ earth." He compares _Edward II._ (I. 4, ll. 100, 101):--

"I'll fire thy crazed buildings, and _enforce_ The papal towers to kiss the _lowly_ ground."

[431] The bracketed words were inserted by Dyce.

[432] Dyce's correction for the old copy's "for."

FOOTNOTES FOR: "THE TRAGEDY OF DIDO, QUEEN OF CARTHAGE"

[433] Old ed. "aire."

[434] "This expression is well ill.u.s.trated by t.i.tian's[?] picture (in the National Gallery) of the rape of Ganymede.--In Shakespeare's _Love's Labour's Lost_, act v. sc. 2, we have,--

'A lady _wall'd-about_ with diamonds!'"--_Dyce._

[435] This speech is undoubtedly by Marlow, but it is curious that Nashe, in _Summer's Last Will and Testament_ speaks of the amus.e.m.e.nt caused among the G.o.ds by the sight of Vulcan's dancing:--"To make the G.o.ds merry the celestial clown Vulcan tuned his polt foot to the measures of Apollo's lute, and danced a limping galliard in Jove's starry hall." (Hazlitt's _Dodsley_, viii. 91). In both pa.s.sages there is perhaps an allusion to the lines in the first book of the _Iliad_ (599-600), describing how "unquenchable laughter rose among the blessed G.o.ds when they saw Hephaestus limping through the hall."

[436] Surprised.

[437] The stars were the children of Astraeus and Eos. See Hesiod, _Theogony_, ll. 381-2.

[438] These rhyming lines are suggestive of Nashe.

[439] "Parce metu, Cytherea; manent immota tuorum Fata tibi." Virg. _aen._ i. 257-8.

[440] "Hic jam ter centumt totos regnabitur annos Gente sub Hectorea." Virg. _aen._ i. 272-3.

[441] "Donec regina sacerdos Marte gravis geminam partu dabit Ilia prolem."

irg. _aen._ i. 273.

[442] Probably a misspelling of "eternise."

[443] Business.

[444] The scene shifts to a wood near the sea-sh.o.r.e.

[445] Old ed. "Cimodoae."--Cf. Virgil, _aen._ i. 144.

[446] Old ed. "thee."

[447] "Vos et Scyllaeam rabiem penitusque sonantes Accestis scopulos, vos et Cyclopia saxa Experti: revocate animos, maestumque timorem Mitt.i.te."

--Virgil, _aen._ i. 200-203.