Tamburlaine the Great Volume I Part 14

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: To the Gentlemen-readers, &c.] From the 8vo of 1592: in the 4tos this address is worded here and there differently. I have not thought it necessary to mark the varioe lectiones of the worthy printer's composition.]

[Footnote 2: histories] i.e. dramas so called,--plays founded on history.]

[Footnote 3: fond] i.e. foolish.--Concerning the omissions here alluded to, some remarks will be found in the ACCOUNT OF MARLOWE AND HIS WRITINGS.]

The "Account of Marlowe and His Writings," is the introduction to this book of 'The Works of Christopher Marlowe.' That is, the book from which this play has been transcribed. The following is from pages xvi and xvii of that introduction.

"This tragedy, which was entered in the Stationers' Books, 14th August, 1590,[a] and printed during the same year, has not come down to us in its original fulness; and probably we have no cause to lament the curtailments which it suffered from the publisher of the first edition. "I have purposely,"

he says, "omitted and left out some fond and frivolous gestures, digressing, and, in my poor opinion, far unmeet for the matter, which I thought might seem more tedious unto the wise than any way else to be regarded, though haply they have been of some vain-conceited fondlings greatly gaped at, what time they were shewed upon the stage in their graced deformities: nevertheless now to be mixtured in print with such matter of worth, it would prove a great disgrace to so honourable and stately a history."[b] By the words, "fond and frivolous gestures," we are to understand those of the "clown;" who very frequently figured, with more or less prominence, even in the most serious dramas of the time.

The introduction of such buffooneries into tragedy[c] is censured by Hall towards the conclusion of a pa.s.sage which, as it mentions "the Turkish Tamberlaine," would seem to be partly levelled at Marlowe:[d]

"One higher-pitch'd doth set his soaring thought On crowned kings that Fortune hath low brought, Or some vpreared high-aspiring swaine, As it might be THE TURKISH TAMBERLAINE.

Then weeneth he his base drink-drowned spright Rapt to the three-fold loft of heauen hight, When he conceiues vpon his fained stage The stalking steps of his greate personage, Graced with huf-cap termes and thundring threats, That his poore hearers' hayre quite vpright sets.

NOW, LEAST SUCH FRIGHTFULL SHOWES OF FORTUNE'S FALL AND BLOUDY TYRANTS' RAGE SHOULD CHANCE APALL THE DEAD-STROKE AUDIENCE, MIDST THE SILENT ROUT COMES LEAPING IN A SELFE-MISFORMED LOUT, AND LAUGHES, AND GRINS, AND FRAMES HIS MIMIK FACE, AND IUSTLES STRAIGHT INTO THE PRINCE'S PLACE: THEN DOTH THE THEATRE ECCHO ALL ALOUD WITH GLADSOME NOYSE OF THAT APPLAUDING CROWD: A GOODLY HOCH-POCH, WHEN VILE RUSSETTINGS ARE MATCH['D] WITH MONARCHS AND WITH MIGHTIE KINGS!"[e]

But Hall's taste was more refined and cla.s.sical than that of his age; and the success of TAMBURLAINE, in which the celebrated Alleyn represented the hero,[f] was adequate to the most sanguine expectations which its author could have formed.]

[a] "A ballad ent.i.tuled the storye of Tamburlayne the greate," &c. (founded, I suppose, on Marlowe's play) was entered in the Stationers' Books, 5th Nov. 1594.

[b] P. 4 of the present volume.

[c] In Italy, at the commencement of the 18th century (and probably much later), it was not unusual to introduce "the Doctor," "Harlequin," "Pantalone," and "Coviello," into deep tragedies. "I have seen," says Addison, "a translation of THE CID acted at Bolonia, which would never have taken, had they not found a place in it for these buffoons." REMARKS ON SEVERAL PARTS OF ITALY, &C. IN THE YEARS 1701, 1702, 1703, p. 68, ed. 1745.

[d] Perhaps I ought to add, that Marlowe was dead when (in 1597) the satire, from which these lines are quoted, was first given to the press.

[e] Hall's VIRGID. Lib. I. Sat. iii., ed. 1602.

[f] See Heywood's Prol. to our author's JEW OF MALTA, p. 142 of the present volume.[See the Project Gutenberg E-Text of 'The Jew of Malta.' "]

[Footnote 4: censures] i.e. judgments, opinions.]

[Footnote 5: Afric] So the 8vo.--The 4to "Affrica."]

[Footnote 6: their] Old eds. "his."]

[Footnote 7: through] So the 4to.--The 8vo "thorough."]

[Footnote 8: incivil] i.e. barbarous.--So the 8vo.--The 4to "vnciuill."]

[Footnote 9: incontinent] i.e. forthwith, immediately.]

[Footnote 10: chiefest] So the 8vo.--The 4to "chiefe."]

[Footnote 11: rout] i.e. crew.]

[Footnote 12: press] So the 8vo.--The 4to "prease."]

[Footnote 13: you] So the 8vo.--0mitted in the 4to.]

[Footnote 14: all] So the 4to.--0mitted in the 8vo.]

[Footnote 15: mated] i.e. confounded.]

[Footnote 16: pa.s.s not] i.e. care not.]

[Footnote 17: regiment] i.e. rule, government.]

[Footnote 18: resolve] i.e. dissolve.--So the 8vo.--The 4to "dissolue."]

[Footnote 19: s.h.i.+ps] So the 4to.--The 8vo "s.h.i.+ppe."]

[Footnote 20: Pa.s.s] So the 8vo.--The 4to "Hast."]

[Footnote 21: you] So the 8vo.--The 4to "they."]

[Footnote 22: Ceneus] Here both the old eds. "Conerus."]

[Footnote 23: states] i.e. n.o.blemen, persons of rank.]

[Footnote 24: their] So the 8vo.--The 4to "the."]

[Footnote 25: and Persia] So the 8vo.--The 4to "and OF Persia."]

[Footnote 26: ever-raging] So the 8vo.--The 4to "RIUER raging."]

[Footnote 27: ALL] So the 4to.--Omitted in the 8vo.]

[Footnote 28: And Jove may, &c.] i.e. And may Jove, &c. This collocation of words is sometimes found in later writers: so in the Prologue to Fletcher's WOMAN'S PRIZE,--"WHICH this may PROVE!"]

[Footnote 29: knew] So the 8vo.--The 4to "knowe."]

[Footnote 30: lords] So the 4to.--The 8vo "Lord."]

[Footnote 31: injury] This verb frequently occurs in our early writers.

"Then haue you INIURIED manie." Lyly's ALEXANDER AND CAMPASPE, sig. D 4, ed. 1591. It would seem to have fallen into disuse soon after the commencement of the 17th century: in Heywood's WOMAN KILLED WITH KINDNESS, 1607, we find,

"You INJURY that good man, and wrong me too."

Sig. F 2.