A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume Vii Part 114

[95] Afterwards purchased by Mr Collier.

[96] [This does not appear quite to follow. In a poem, "Upon London Physicians," written about 1620, and quoted in "Inedited Poetical Miscellanies," edit. Hazlitt, 1870, sig. Ff 5, he is mentioned in the same way, without any reference to his literary repute or performances.]

It is to be observed in the list of Lodge's productions, that there is an interval between 1596, when "Wit's Misery and the World's Madness"

appeared, and 1603, when the "Treatise of the Plague" was published.

[97] Others have been attributed to him in conjunction with Greene, but on no sufficient evidence--viz., "Lady Alimony," not printed until 1659; "The Laws of Nature," and "The Contention between Liberality and Prodigality," 1602.

[98] [Reprinted in Mr Dyce's editions of Greene's Works, 1831 and 1861.]

Henslowe probably alludes to this play in his MSS., and if so, it was acted as early as 1591. The following is the entry: "R. (i.e., received) at _the Looking Gla.s.se_, the 8th of Marche, 1591, vij s." [See Mr Collier's edit. 1845, pp. 23-8.]

[99] [Here follows in the former edition a list of Lodge's works, which will be found more fully and correctly given in Hazlitt's "Handbook,"

in _v_.]

[100] In the course of the incidents of this historical tragedy, Lodge has very much followed the lives of Marius and Sylla, as given by Plutarch: he was a scholar, and it was not necessary therefore for him to resort to Sir Thomaa North's translation from the French, of which Shakespeare availed himself, and of which there were many editions subsequent to its first appearance in 1579. It is pretty evident, however, from a comparison of a few pa.s.sages quoted in the notes in the progress of the play, that Lodge did employ this popular work, although he has varied some of the events, and especially the death of Sylla.

It is not, perhaps, possible now to settle the point when this tragedy was first represented on the stage, but it was most likely some time before its publication in 1594. We know that Lodge had written in defence of the stage before 1582, and it is not unlikely that he did so, because he had already written for it. Robert Greene, in his "Groat's worth of Wit," speaks of Lodge as a dramatic poet in 1592; and the comedy which they wrote together, it is ascertained, was acted in March 1591, if not earlier, although it was not printed until three years afterwards. The versification of "The Wounds of Civil War" certainly affords evidence that it was penned even before Marlowe had improved the measure of dramatic blank verse, which Shakespeare perfected: it is heavy, monotonous, and without the pauses subsequently introduced; if therefore Lodge produced it after Marlowe's "Edward II." was brought out, he did not at least profit by the example. All the unities are set at defiance.

[101] The "consul's pall" is the consul's robe. Thus Milton in "Il Penseroso"--

"Let gorgeous Tragedy In scepter'd _pall_ come sweeping by."

Purple _pall_ is very commonly met with in our old writers.

[102] "Sylla _nill_ brook" is "Sylla _ne will_, or will not brook."

Shakespeare uses the word. See Mr Steevens's note, "Taming of the Shrew," act ii. sc. 1.

[103] "But specially one day above the rest, having made him sup with him at his table, some one after supper falling in talke of Captaines that were in Rome at that time, one that stood by Scipio asked him (either because he stood in doubt, or else for that he would curry favour with Scipio), what other Captaine the Romanes should have after his death, like unto him? Scipio having Marius by him, gently clapped him upon the shoulders and said, Peradventure this shall be he."

--_North's Plutarch, "Life of Caius Marius_."

[104] [Old copy, _into_.]

[105] [Old copy, _shall_, and so in the next line.]

[106] It is doubtful whether we ought to read _impale_ or _impall_.

If the latter, it means to enfold with a _pall_; but Cleveland uses _impale_ in the same sense--

"I now _impale_ her in my arms."

This, however, is rather a forced construction.

[107] [Old copy, _spence_.] This may mean "the _expense_ of years that Marius hath o'erpast," or it may be an easy misprint for "s.p.a.ce of years." Either may be right.

[108] [Old copy, _mate_.]

[109] [Old copy, _conservatives_.]

[110] "To _bandy_ a ball" Coles defines _clava pilam torquere_; "to bandy at tennis," "Dict." 1679. See Mr Malone's note on "Lear," act i.

sc. 4.

[111] _Prest_ for Asia, is ready for Asia. It is almost unnecessary to multiply instances, but the following is very apposite:--

"Dispisde, disdainde, starvde, whipt and scornd, _Prest_ through dispaire myself to quell."

--R. Wilson's "Cobbler's Prophecy," 1594, sig. C4.

[112] Lodge and other writers not unfrequently use the adjective for the substantive: thus, in "The Discontented Satyre:"--

"Blush, daies eternal lampe, to see thy lot, Since that thy _cleere_ with cloudy _darkes_ is scar'd."

[113] The quarto has the pa.s.sage thus--

"These peers of Rome have mark'd A rash revenging _hammer_ in thy brain;"

which seemed so decidedly wrong as to warrant the change that, without much violence, has been made.

[114] _Guerdon_ is synonymous with _reward_. It is scarcely yet obsolete.

[115] Old copy, _hammer_.

[116] Vengeance.

[117] Scarce. It is found in Spenser. Robert Greene also uses it--

"It was frosty winter season, And fair Flora's wealth was _geason_."

--"Philomela," 1592. Again, we find it in the tragical comedy of "Appius and Virginia," 1575--"Let my counsel at no time lie with you _geason,_"

sig. D. [vol. iv. p. 138].

[118] Open them.

[119] Old copy, _what_.

[120] The meaning of "would _amate_ me so," is, would daunt or confound me so. See note to "Tancred and Gismunda" [_supra_, p. 79], where instances are given.

[121] Mr Steevens, in a note on the "Comedy of Errors," act ii. sc. 1, has collected a number of quotations to show the meaning of the word _stale_, and to them the reader is referred. In this place it signifies a false allurement, bait, or deception on the part of fortune.

[122] The barbarous jargon put into the mouth of this Frenchman is given in the orthography of the old copy, since it was vain to attempt correction.

[123] "Now when they were agreed upon it, they could not find a man in the city that durst take upon him to kill him; but a man of armes of the Gaules, or one of the Cimbres (for we find both the one and the other in writing) that went thither with his sword drawn in his hand. Now that place of the chamber where Marius lay was very dark, and, as it is reported, the man of armes thought he saw two burning flames come out of Marius's eyes, and heard a voice out of that dark corner, saying unto him: O fellow, thou, darest thou come to kill Caius Marius? The barbarous Gaule, hearing these words, ran out of the chamber presently."

--_North's Plutarch, "Life of Caius Marius_."

[124] "For when he was but very young, and dwelling in the country, he gathered up in the lap of his gowne the ayrie of an eagle, in the which were seven young eagles; whereat his father and mother much wondering, asked the soothsayers what that meant? They answered that their sonne should one day be one of the greatest men in the world, and that out of doubt he should obtain seven times in his life the chiefest office of dignity in his country."--_North's Plutarch, "Life of Caius Marius_."

[125] The old quarto divides the play very irregularly; for according to it there are two Acts iii. and two Acts iv. One of the Acts iii. was made to commence here.

[126] Necessarily or unavoidably.

[127] Old copy, _Picaeo_.