Bussy D'Ambois and The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois Part 32

=123=, 28. =And . . . man:= And consider it, though left headless, as a completely formed man.

=123=, 36. =vertuous treasurie:= stock of virtues.

=124=, 46-53. =Not so . . . mens hate.= An adaptation of Seneca's _Agamemnon_, 64-72:

_Non sic Libycis Syrtibus aequor Furit alternos volvere fluctus, Non Euxini turget ab imis Commota vadis unda, nivali Vicina polo; Ubi, caeruleis immunis aquis, Lucida versat plaustra Bootes, Ut praecipites regum casus Fortuna rotat._

These lines, with those immediately before and after, are more loosely adapted in Kyd's _Spanish Tragedie_, III, 1, 1-11.

=126=, 23. =this embodied shadow:= this spirit while it had bodily form.

=126=, 24-27. =With reminiscion . . . of art.= Cf. IV, 2, 158-61.

=127=, 41-53. =Terror of darknesse . . . greater light.= After Bussy's statement in ll. 29-32 we should expect him to immediately summon _the Prince of darknesse_, Behemoth. But ll. 41-46 are apparently addressed to the sun-G.o.d, who is invoked to put to flight night and mystery. Then as an alternative, in ll. 47-53, Behemoth, to whom darkness is as light, is bidden appear. Dilke subst.i.tutes _oh_ for _or_ (the reading of all Qq) at the beginning of l. 47. If this change be right, the invocation commences at this line, and ll. 41-46 are merely a preliminary rhetorical appeal for more illumination. But in this case there is an incongruity between such an appeal and the summoning of the _Prince of shades_, who sees best where darkness is thickest. Lamb in his _Specimens_ retains the reading of the Qq, and says of the pa.s.sage: "This calling upon Light and Darkness for information, but, above all, the description of the spirit--'threw his changed countenance headlong into clouds'--is tremendous, to the curdling of the blood. I know nothing in poetry like it."

=130=, 103. =all the signes:= i. e. of the Zodiac.

=131.= =Intrat Umbra Frier . . . Tamyra.= The Ghost of the Friar enters and _discovers_, i. e. _reveals to view_, Tamyra, who since the close of V, 1, has remained wrapped _in the arras_, or, as the variant stage direction in A here puts it, _wrapt in a canapie_.

=131=, 9. =before he be revenged:= before vengeance is taken on him. The reading of A, _engaged_, is perhaps (as Dilke suggests) preferable.

=133=, 27-28. =what . . . D'Amboys:= what bugbear, such as this, is not afraid to visit D'Amboys, even in his sleep?

=134=, 45. =Will . . . here?= D'Ambois's sword fails to pierce the _privy coat_ worn by the murderer. Cf. V, 2, 57.

=134=, 52. =That . . . resembled:= That was a successful artifice, and a skilful impersonation.

=135=, 65. =enforce the spot:= emphasize the stain on your honour.

=136=, 82. =Then . . . fact:= then these teachers of divinity deal with figments, not with realities.

=136=, 83-84. =Man . . . servant:= Man consists of two attached friends, the body and the mind, of which the latter is swayed by the former, as a lover by his mistress.

=136=, 90-93. =And if Vespasian . . . groomes.= Cf. Suetonius, _Life of Vespasian_, Ch. 24. _Hic, quum super urgentem valetudinem creberrimo frigidae aquae usu etiam intestina vitia.s.set, nec eo minus muneribus imperatoriis ex consuetudine fungeretur, ut etiam legationes audiret cubans, alvo repente usque ad defectionem soluta, Imperatorem, ait, stantem mori oportere. Dumque consurgit, ac nit.i.tur, inter ma.n.u.s sublevantium exstinctus est._

=137=, 100-108. =And haste . . . dwellers.= An adaptation of Seneca, _Her. Oet._ 1518-1526:

_O decus mundi, radiate t.i.tan, Cujus ad primos Hecate vapores La.s.sa nocturnae levat ora bigae, Dic sub Aurora positis Sabaeis, Dic sub Occasu positis Iberis, Quique ferventi quatiuntur axe, Quique sub plaustro patiuntur Ursae; Dic ad aeternos, properare Manes Herculem._

=137=, 110-111. =may . . . funerall:= may celebrate fittingly my unworthy end with such a funeral volley as it deserves.

=138=, 135-40. =My sunne . . . bloud.= In these lines the _killing spectacle_, the _prodigie_, of l. 134, and its effect are described.

Tamyra, the light of D'Ambois's life, with her reddened bosom and hands, is likened to a sun whose beams have turned to blood. So far the imagery is clear, but it is difficult to extract a satisfactory sense from what follows. What do _Pindus and Ossa_ symbolize, and what exactly does their _melting_ mean? This seems one of the few pa.s.sages in the play which really deserve Dryden's stricture for "looseness of expression and gross hyperboles."

=139=, 146. =struck.= The Qq, and all editors, read _stuck_, but the word seems inapplicable to a thunderbolt. The editor has conjectured _struck_, which, with a minimum of change, gives the sense required.

=139=, 149 =Joine flames with Hercules.= Here the quartos of 1607 and 1608 contain the right reading. D'Ambois, who has met death in the spirit of Hercules (cf. ll. 100-108), is now to share his translation to the skies. For the description of Hercules as a star see Seneca, _Her.

Oet._ 1564-1581.

=142=, 211-14 =as . . . dies.= The reference is to the wax in the taper, which retains in its _savour_ the mark of its origin in the hive, till transient as life, it glances with the eye of a flame, and, so doing, expires.

THE TEXT

_The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois_ was printed in quarto in 1613 by T. S.

for John Helme. No reprint appeared till 1873, when it was included in the edition of Chapman's Tragedies and Comedies published by J. Pearson.

The text of the quarto was reproduced, with the original spelling and punctuation, but with a few errors. There have been two later editions in modernized spelling, and with slight emendations, by R. H. Shepherd in 1874, and W. L. Phelps in 1895.

In the present edition the text of the quarto has been reproduced, with some additional emendations, and the original spelling has been retained. As regards punctuation, the use of capital letters and italics, and the division of the Acts into Scenes, the same methods have been followed as in the case of _Bussy D'Ambois_.

THE REVENGE OF _Bussy D'Ambois_.

A TRAGEDIE

_As it hath beene often presented at the priuate Play-house in the White Fryers._

Written By GEORGE CHAPMAN, Gentleman.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

LONDON:

Printed by _T. S._ and are to be solde by IOHN HELME, at his Shop in S. Dunstones Church-Yard, in _Fleetstreet_. 1613.

SOURCES

The story of a plot by Bussy D'Ambois's kinsfolk to avenge his murder is, in the main, of Chapman's own invention. But he had evidently read an account similar to that given later by De Thou of the design entertained for a time by Bussy's sister Renee (whom Chapman calls Charlotte) and her husband, Baligny, to take vengeance on Montsurry.

Clermont D'Ambois is himself a fict.i.tious character, but the episodes in which he appears in Acts II-IV are drawn from the account of the treacherous proceedings against the Count d'Auvergne in Edward Grimeston's translation of Jean de Serres's _Inventaire General de l'Histoire de France_. This narrative, however, is not by De Serres, but by Pierre Matthieu, whose _Histoire de France_ was one of the sources used by Grimeston for events later than 1598.

The portraiture of Clermont throughout the play as the high-souled philosopher is inspired by Epictetus's delineation in his _Discourses_ of the ideal Stoic. But in his reluctance to carry out his duty of revenge he is evidently modelled upon Hamlet. In Act V, Scene i, the influence of Shakespeare's tragedy is specially manifest.

The Scenes in Act V relating to the a.s.sa.s.sination of Guise are based upon Grimeston's translation of De Serres's _Inventaire General_.

The pa.s.sages in Grimeston's volume which recount the Duke's murder, and those which tell the story of the Count d'Auvergne, are reprinted as an Appendix.