Dramatis Personæ in Order of Appearancen1238

HORATIO	An old humorousgg150 courtier
LODOVICO	Eulalia’s faithful counsellor
FLAVELLO	Alias Alphonso; Alinda’s sycophant
Prince GONZAGOn905	[Son of King Gonzago and Queen Eulalia]n1239
EULALIAn906	The banished Queen; [daughter of the King of Naplesn143]
ALINDA	The veiledn63 concubine;gg149 [Sforza’s daughter]
Attendants
KING Gonzagon907	King of Sicilyn62
SFORZAn908	[A general, rival to Petruccio; a Neapolitan who came to Sicily with Eulalia]n1240
Captainn3903
[Drum]gg3175
SOLDIERSn3904
PETRUCCIOn909	[A general, rival to Sforza]n1240
Petruccio’s SERVANT
[GUARD]n4548
KING’S GUARDn4548
[Lord]
Two bishops
[Two friars]
DOCTOR	[A] subornedgg152 false [witness] against Eulalian1241
MIDWIFE	[A] subornedgg152 false [witness] against Eulalian1241
STROZZOn1248	[A] cashieredgg3276 lieutenantn1242
FABIO	[A] cashieredgg3276 lieutenantn1242
[Two virgins]
[Petitioners]
ANDREA	Eulalia’s fool; [a Neapolitan]
JAGO	[Eulalia’s servant]n1243
RUGIO	[Eulalia’s servant]n1243
[Two or Three Gentlemen]n3900
[KEEPER]n1244
GENIUSn64 of Eulalia
PEDROn3902	A gentleman of Palermo
POGGIO	[A] chief [inhabitant] of Palermon1245
LOLLIO	[A] chief [inhabitant] of Palermon1245
FIRST COUNTRYMANn3901	Of Palermo
SECOND COUNTRYMANn3901	Of Palermo
THIRD COUNTRYMANn3901	Of Palermo
FOURTH COUNTRYMANn3901	Of Palermo
CURATE	Of Palermo
CRIER	Of Palermo
GUARD	Of Palermo
[FIRST GIRL]n1246	[Pupil of Eulalia]
[Second Girl]n1246	[Pupil of Eulalia]
[THIRD GIRL]n1246	[Pupil of Eulalia]
[Fourth Girl]n1246	[Pupil of Eulalia]
FIRST CAPTAINn3903
SECOND CAPTAINn3903
[Mutinous] SOLDIERSn3904
[Tipstaff]
[Schoolboys]

---

n1238   Dramatis Personæ in Order of Appearance The octavo text provides a list of dramatis personae. As in many early modern playtexts, the female characters are listed after the male ones. I have re-ordered this list but have in most cases retained the octavo’s descriptions of the roles; my additions or alterations to these descriptions are in square brackets. The names of characters not included in the octavo's dramatis personae are also in square brackets. [go to text]

gg150   humorous moody, whimsical [go to text]

n905   Prince GONZAGO Gonzago shares his name with his father, something that the octavo text emphasises by placing the Prince after the King in its dramatis personae and describing him as ‘His Son the Prince’. In Greene’s Penelope’s Web, Gonzago’s equivalent is called Garinter, a name which is also used for a young prince in Greene’s Pandosto (the source for Shakespeare’s Winter’s Tale and another inter-text here). Prince Gonzago is around nineteen years old: Horatio says in [QC 2.2.speech277], that Eulalia ‘reads in her son’s face nigh twenty years of the King’s love to her’; Garinter in Penelope’s Web is said to be ‘of the age of twenty years’ (Penelope’s Web [London, 1587], sig. C4r). Both are, therefore, of an age when they might potentially be a threat to their unpredictable fathers. [go to text]

n1239   [Son of King Gonzago and Queen Eulalia] The octavo text lists Prince Gonzago under his father and describes him only as ‘His Son the Prince’. [go to text]

n906   EULALIA Eulalia’s name derives from the Greek for ‘good news’ or ‘the good word’. She shares it with two Spanish saints, St Eulalia of Merida and St Eulalia of Barcelona, both of whom were martyred between the ages of twelve and fifteen during the Diocletian persecution of Christians in the fourth century CE. See F. Fita, ‘Saint Eulalia of Barcelona, in The Catholic Encyclopedia, ed. Charles G. Herbermann et al., 11 vols (London: Robert Appleton, 1907-22): http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05603a.htm. An account of St Eulalia, drawing on Prudentius, was published in John Foxe’s Acts and Monuments (London, 1583), 93-4. Intriguingly, as Matthew Steggle notes, a church dedicated to St Eulalia was to be built at Palermo in the 1660s. He argues that although this is probably a coincidence, ‘St Eulalia’s Spanish pedigree is an important detail, since it draws attention to the fact that, whatever its literary affinities in pastoral, in political terms Sicily was currently part of the Spanish empire' (Steggle, Richard Brome, 89). A woman named Eulalia also features in Erasmus’ Colloquia, published in English in 1557 and 1606, where she is a ‘good woman’ to be contrasted with an archetypal shrew, Xantippe. Some of the sentiments voiced by Erasmus’ Eulalia could belong to Brome’s: ‘we must not desire anything that stands not with our husbands' liking: and whatsoever they affect and like, that must we like and obey. [...] therefore you ought to serve him, because you are his wife, or else, when you were married unto him, why did you make him such a solemn promise of obedience: and for the performance thereof, pawn your troth? Now if we make no conscience of such a solemn promise, whereunto God, and God's Angels, and God's Church, are witnesses; then is our truth forfeited, and we are to be held for false creatures, neither is any word that ever we speak to be held of any credit. [...] we are under a law, which hath made us subject to their power and authority. For though a man be a noble man, and a Lord, and hath tenants under him, yet is he also a subject, and must obey his Prince, as one that liveth under a law: and yet though a Lord, or a freeholder are to obey the law, and to do service for their Prince’ (‘A Very Excellent Dialogue Between a Good Woman and a Shrew, Showing How a Woman May Win her Husband's Love, Though he be Never so Froward’, in Seven Dialogues both Pithy and Profitable, trans. William Burton [London, 1606], sigs. E3v-E4r). [go to text]

n143   daughter of the King of Naples In Robert Greene’s Penelope’s Web, Brome’s source text, Barmenissa (the equivalent of Eulalia), is the ‘only daughter and heir of the great Chan’ (sig. C2v); Eulalia is described as ‘daughter of a king’ in 5.2, at [QC 5.2.speech1157], but she is never said to be her father’s heir. [go to text]

gg149   veiled concubine; concealed [go to text]

n63   veiled highlights the fact that Alinda is not an established, professional concubine, as is Olynda in Penelope’s Web [go to text]

n907   KING Gonzago Other characters named Gonzago in early modern drama include the Duke of Urbin in Marston’s Parasitaster, or The Fawn (Queen’s Revels, c. 1604-5), described in that play's dramatis personae as 'a weak lord of a self-admiring wisdom' (David A. Blostein, Parasitaster, or The Fawn [Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1978], Interlocutors, l. 2), and a follower of the Duke of Guise in Marlowe’s The Massacre at Paris (Strange’s Men, 1593). As Matthew Steggle notes, it also ‘strongly recalls the eponymous hero of the play-within-a-play in Hamlet, who of course dies because he is inadequately jealous’ (Richard Brome, 86). In Greene’s Penelope’s Web his equivalent is Saladyne, the Souldan of Egypt. [go to text]

n62   Sicily Brome relocates the action from Egypt (where Greene’s story in Penelope’s Web is set) to Sicily, the location of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale and a classic setting for seventeenth-century tragicomedy. [go to text]

n908   SFORZA This name is used for a military man in two other Caroline plays: Sforza, ‘a blunt soldier’, in James Shirley’s The Maid’s Revenge (Queen Henrietta Maria’s Men, 1626; London, 1639), sig. A1v, and General Sforza (who never actually appears on stage) in Thomas Heywood’s A Maidenhead Well Lost (Queen Henrietta Maria’s Men, c. 1625-33). Dramatic representations of the historical Lodovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, also feature in a number of plays. [go to text]

n1240   [A general, rival to Petruccio; a Neapolitan who came to Sicily with Eulalia] The octavo text brackets Sforza and Petruccio together, describing them as ‘Two Rivall Generals’. [go to text]

n3903   Captain The dramatis personae lists 'Two other Captains and Soldiers'; a captain and some soldiers appear in [QC 1.2.speech29], while two captains and soldiers appear in [QC 4.3.speech1027], where a stage direction describes them as 'a rabble of Soldiers and two Captains'. The captain from 1.2 may reappear as one of the captains in 4.3, but there is no reason why this has to be the case. I have therefore listed the captains of 4.3 separately. [go to text]

gg3175   [Drum] someone playing a drum, a drummer (OED n, 1 and 3a) [go to text]

n3904   SOLDIERS The dramatis personae lists 'Two other Captains and Soldiers'; a captain and some soldiers appear in [QC 1.2.speech29], while two captains and soldiers appear where a stage direction describes them as 'a rabble of Soldiers and two Captains' [QC 4.3.speech1027]. [go to text]

n909   PETRUCCIO In addition to the (anti-)hero of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew (Chamberlain’s Men, c. 1593) and Fletcher’s The Woman’s Prize or The Tamer Tamed (King’s Men, c. 1611) - both plays revived in the early 1630s - characters named Petruccio can be found in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (Chamberlain’s Men, c. 1594), Fletcher’s The Chances (King’s Men, c. 1617), Shirley’s The Traitor (Queen Henrietta Maria’s Men, 1631) and Suckling’s The Sad One (unfinished, c. 1637?). In Ford’s Love’s Sacrifice (Queen Henrietta Maria’s Men, c. 1632) Petruccio is one of ‘Two counsellors of state’ (A.T. Moore, ed., Love's Sacrifice [Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002], 'The Speakers in this Tragedy', l. 7), and in Rawlins’ The Rebellion (King’s Revels, c. 1634) he is a captain. [go to text]

n1240   [A general, rival to Sforza] The octavo text brackets Sforza and Petruccio together, describing them as ‘Two Rivall Generals’. [go to text]

n4548   [GUARD] The octavo text lists two different Guards: 'King's Guard' and 'Guard of Palermo'. Within the play, Guards appear in 1.2 (the guard accompanying Horatio), 1.3 (the guard who enter on the King's call for help), 2.3 (the guard accompanying Horatio and Flavello), 2.5 (the guard accompanying Petruccio), 4.2 (the guard accompanying Lollio and Poggio), 5.2 (the guard who enter on the King's command to arrest Lodovico and Horatio), and 5.3 (the guard who brings on Flavello). Of these, the guard of 4.2 and 5.3 (a single man) is the 'Guard of Palermo' listed in the dramatis personae, while the guards of 1.3, 2.3 and 5.2 might be the 'King's Guard' (i.e. a body of soldiers, which in 1.3 is headed by a Captain). The guards of 1.2 and 2.5 - both of which are probably a guard of soldiers rather than a single guard - do not appear to be either of these, and I have therefore added another 'Guard' to the dramatis personae. There is, of course, no reason why any of these guards, with the exception of the Palermo guard, should be played by the same actors. [go to text]

n4548   KING’S GUARD The octavo text lists two different Guards: 'King's Guard' and 'Guard of Palermo'. Within the play, Guards appear in 1.2 (the guard accompanying Horatio), 1.3 (the guard who enter on the King's call for help), 2.3 (the guard accompanying Horatio and Flavello), 2.5 (the guard accompanying Petruccio), 4.2 (the guard accompanying Lollio and Poggio), 5.2 (the guard who enter on the King's command to arrest Lodovico and Horatio), and 5.3 (the guard who brings on Flavello). Of these, the guard of 4.2 and 5.3 (a single man) is the 'Guard of Palermo' listed in the dramatis personae, while the guards of 1.3, 2.3 and 5.2 might be the 'King's Guard' (i.e. a body of soldiers, which in 1.3 is headed by a Captain). The guards of 1.2 and 2.5 - both of which are probably a guard of soldiers rather than a single guard - do not appear to be either of these, and I have therefore added another 'Guard' to the dramatis personae. There is, of course, no reason why any of these guards, with the exception of the Palermo guard, should be played by the same actors. [go to text]

n1241   [A] suborned false [witness] against Eulalia The Doctor and Midwife are bracketed together in the octavo text and are described as ‘Suborned false witnesses against Eulalia’. [go to text]

gg152   suborned bribed [go to text]

n1241   [A] suborned false [witness] against Eulalia The Doctor and Midwife are bracketed together in the octavo text and are described as ‘Suborned false witnesses against Eulalia’. [go to text]

gg152   suborned bribed [go to text]

n1248   STROZZO Called Strozzo in the Dramatis Personae and in Act 5; called Strozza in Act 3. I have preferred Strozzo throughout as it is used in dialogue as well as stage directions, but either name might be used in performance. Other characters called Strozzo can be found in Marson's Antonio's Revenge (Paul's, c. 1599-1600) and Shirley's The Sisters (King's Men, 1642); other characters called Strozza feature in Chapman's The Gentleman Usher (Chapel Children, c. 1602) and Heywood's A Maidenhead Well Lost. [go to text]

n1242   [A] cashiered lieutenant Strozzo and Fabio are bracketed together in the octavo text, and are described as ‘Two cashier’d Lieutenants’. Strozzo and Fabio are described by Eulalia as ‘young men’ in [QC 4.2.speech816]. [go to text]

gg3276   cashiered dismissed; in the army this generally involved 'disgrace and permanent exclusion' (OED cashier v, 2) [go to text]

n1242   [A] cashiered lieutenant Strozzo and Fabio are bracketed together in the octavo text, and are described as ‘Two cashier’d Lieutenants’. Strozzo and Fabio are described by Eulalia as ‘young men’ in [QC 4.2.speech816]. [go to text]

gg3276   cashiered dismissed; in the army this generally involved 'disgrace and permanent exclusion' (OED cashier v, 2) [go to text]

n1243   [Eulalia’s servant] The octavo text brackets Jago and Rugio together, describing them as ‘Two other her Servants’. [go to text]

n1243   [Eulalia’s servant] The octavo text brackets Jago and Rugio together, describing them as ‘Two other her Servants’. [go to text]

n3900   [Two or Three Gentlemen] A stage direction in [QC 2.3.speech327], specifies the entrance of 'two or three Gentlemen'. [go to text]

n1244   [KEEPER] Called ‘Jaylor’ in the octavo text’s Dramatis Personae and in the stage direction at the head of Act 3; I have regularised his name to match his speech prefixes in Act 2. [go to text]

n64   GENIUS in classical belief, an attendant spirit assigned to someone at birth, who controls his or her fortunes [go to text]

n3902   PEDRO Pedro is described by Andrea in [QC 3.1.speech472], as an 'old man'. [go to text]

n1245   [A] chief [inhabitant] of Palermo The octavo text brackets Lollio and Poggio together, describing them as ‘Two chief Inhabitants of Palermo’. The way in which they are listed after Pedro, who is described as ‘A Gentleman of Palermo’ and before the ‘Countrey-men of Palermo’ suggests their middling social status. [go to text]

n1245   [A] chief [inhabitant] of Palermo The octavo text brackets Lollio and Poggio together, describing them as ‘Two chief Inhabitants of Palermo’. The way in which they are listed after Pedro, who is described as ‘A Gentleman of Palermo’ and before the ‘Countrey-men of Palermo’ suggests their middling social status. [go to text]

n3901   COUNTRYMAN The octavo specifies 'Three or four countrymen of Palermo'; within the text four countrymen appear, all with speaking roles. [go to text]

n3901   COUNTRYMAN The octavo specifies 'Three or four countrymen of Palermo'; within the text four countrymen appear, all with speaking roles. [go to text]

n3901   COUNTRYMAN The octavo specifies 'Three or four countrymen of Palermo'; within the text four countrymen appear, all with speaking roles. [go to text]

n3901   COUNTRYMAN The octavo specifies 'Three or four countrymen of Palermo'; within the text four countrymen appear, all with speaking roles. [go to text]

n1246   [FIRST GIRL] The octavo’s Dramatis Personae asks for ‘Three or four Girls’; the text suggests that four are required, two whom have speaking roles. [go to text]

n1246   [Second Girl] The octavo’s Dramatis Personae asks for ‘Three or four Girls’; the text suggests that four are required, two whom have speaking roles. [go to text]

n1246   [THIRD GIRL] The octavo’s Dramatis Personae asks for ‘Three or four Girls’; the text suggests that four are required, two whom have speaking roles. [go to text]

n1246   [Fourth Girl] The octavo’s Dramatis Personae asks for ‘Three or four Girls’; the text suggests that four are required, two whom have speaking roles. [go to text]

n3903   CAPTAIN The dramatis personae lists 'Two other Captains and Soldiers'; a captain and some soldiers appear in [QC 1.2.speech29], while two captains and soldiers appear in [QC 4.3.speech1027], where a stage direction describes them as 'a rabble of Soldiers and two Captains'. The captain from 1.2 may reappear as one of the captains in 4.3, but there is no reason why this has to be the case. I have therefore listed the captains of 4.3 separately. [go to text]

n3903   CAPTAIN The dramatis personae lists 'Two other Captains and Soldiers'; a captain and some soldiers appear in [QC 1.2.speech29], while two captains and soldiers appear in [QC 4.3.speech1027], where a stage direction describes them as 'a rabble of Soldiers and two Captains'. The captain from 1.2 may reappear as one of the captains in 4.3, but there is no reason why this has to be the case. I have therefore listed the captains of 4.3 separately. [go to text]

n3904   SOLDIERS The dramatis personae lists 'Two other Captains and Soldiers'; a captain and some soldiers appear in [QC 1.2.speech29], while two captains and soldiers appear where a stage direction describes them as 'a rabble of Soldiers and two Captains' [QC 4.3.speech1027]. [go to text]

n62   Sicily Brome relocates the action from Egypt (where Greene’s story in Penelope’s Web is set) to Sicily, the location of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale and a classic setting for seventeenth-century tragicomedy. [go to text]

n3905   ACT ONE Act 1 opens at the Sicilian court, where the return of the King and General Sforza from a successful military campaign is awaited. As the courtier Horatio gives Queen Eulalia and Prince Gonzago information about the King’s valour and (especially) that of Sforza, we may already feel that the general has somewhat overshadowed his monarch. On the King’s appearance, it quickly becomes clear that he feels the same way, and his jealousy of Sforza gives rise not only to his apparent recall of Sforza’s rival, Petruccio, but also to fears that Eulalia may be having an affair with her countryman. Almost simultaneously, he spies Alinda, Sforza’s daughter, and his lust for her is swiftly transformed into physical action, as he ‘kisses her’ and the disapproving Sforza ‘storms’ [QC 1.1.speech78]. At the end of the scene, Alinda’s comment, ‘for this / Let than a king I shall abhor to kiss’ [QC 1.1.speech80], demonstrates her calculated ambition. This large-cast and dramaturgically complex opening scene is following by four fast-moving scenes which are based in the main part on exchanges between pairs of characters. 1.2 shows the former general Petruccio, seemingly under house arrest, from which he is released on the King’s orders by Horatio. In 1.3 the King and Flavello discuss the latter’s coaching of Alinda for the role of the King’s mistress; they then observe a heated exchange between Sforza and Alinda which gives them the pretext for the general’s arrest and that of Eulalia. In 1.4 we see Queen Eulalia imprisoned at the home of the courtier Lodovico pending her trial for adultery and for plotting the deaths of the King and Alinda. Unlike Shakespeare in The Winter’s Tale, and Shakespeare and Fletcher in Henry VIII, Brome chooses not to dramatise the trial itself. Instead, in 1.5 Flavello narrates its events, and the testimony of the witnesses he has bribed, to Alinda. The scene is book-ended by soliloquies from Alinda, in which the extent of her ambition, and her almost complete lack of scruple, is made clear. The speed of events in Act 1 is designed to underline the King’s power and his arbitrary exercise of it. Horatio comments in 1.1 on the King’s ‘un-to-be-examined hasty humours’ and his ‘devilish gift [...] in venery’ [QC 1.1.speech59], and these characteristics are repeatedly on display. [go to text]

n11356   1.1 ] ACT. I. Scœn. I. [go to text]

n83   The clouds of doubts and fears are now dispersed, Horatio's initial exchange with Lodovico parodies the opening lines of Shakespeare’s Richard III. [go to text]

gg153   jocund cheerful, merry [go to text]

gg154   bare bare-headed [go to text]

gg155   Hoboys. wooden double-reed wind instrument, analogous to the modern oboe, though rather more raucous; hoboys were also known as shawms [go to text]

n65   Hoboys. Hoboys, also called shawms, were double-reed, wooden instruments, similar to the modern oboe. They are also called for in Act 5, Scene 4 [QC 5.4.speech1316]. Hoboys may have been used more frequently in indoor theatres than amphitheatres and they seem on occasion to have filled the role of the noisier trumpet in marking ceremonial entrances. Julia K. Wood suggests, however, that the differences between the music used in indoor and outdoor playhouses in the Caroline period were less distinct that they had been earlier in the seventeenth century (‘Music in Caroline Plays’, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Edinburgh [1991], 89-90). Brome calls for both trumpets and hoboys in the play-within-a-play in The Antipodes, performed at Salisbury Court, but specifies shawms in A Jovial Crew, performed at the Cockpit. He calls for hoboys in The Queen’s Exchange, which if it is a King’s Men play may have been performed at the Blackfriars or the Globe. [go to text]

n66   overwhelmed might be pronounced ‘o’erwhelmèd’ to conform to the iambic metre [go to text]

gg156   tedious. long, tiresome [go to text]

gg157   set on advance, go forward (OED set v1, 148g) [go to text]

gg158   apace, quickly [go to text]

gg159   interview meeting (OED n, 1); mutual view of one other (OED n, 2) [go to text]

gg160   grievous, burdensome (OED a, 1a); sorrowful (OED a, 6) [go to text]

gg161   relation narration, account [go to text]

gg162   late recent [go to text]

gg163   well-won gained by hard or honourable effort (OED ppl. a.) [go to text]

n84   As she had flown into his burgonet Horatio imagines the personified Victory creeping into the King’s helmet to hide, rather than standing proudly on the tip of the feather on his helmet. [go to text]

gg164   burgonet helmet with a visor, fitted to the neck-piece so that the head can be turned without exposing the neck (OED b.) [go to text]

gg165   shroud shelter [go to text]

gg166   sprig an ornament in the form of a spray (OED sprig n2, 4a); compare Marston, Antonio and Mellida (Children of Paul's, c. 1599): ‘I ha’ bought me a new green feather with a red sprig’ (W. Reavley Gair, ed., Antonio and Mellida [Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1991], 5.1.86-7) [go to text]

n3906   flourishing ] stourishing [go to text]

gg167   plume, feather [go to text]

gg3277   perched pushed forward, especially ‘in a presumptuous or conceited manner’ (OED, perch v2, intr.); stood or seated ‘in any elevated or somewhat precarious place’ (OED, perch v1, 5; trans.) [go to text]

gg169   valour. courage [go to text]

n1250   [Gonzago] ] Prin. [go to text]

gs38   Discourse of discuss [go to text]

gg171   holy-day. religious festival, day set aside for worship [go to text]

gs55   mettle character, disposition, temperament; can also pun on 'metal' [go to text]

n67   still true to th’ crown. Horatio’s catchphrase is repeated throughout the play, becoming ever more ironic as his unthinking loyalty to the King becomes more and more problematic. [go to text]

n1250   [Gonzago] ] Prin. [go to text]

gg170   discourse (v) speak about [go to text]

n68   put me out on’t. made me forget what I was going to say (to be ‘out’ is to forget one’s lines) [go to text]

gg173   humph, an expression of doubt or dissatisfaction (OED, int.) [go to text]

gg174   derogate detract from [go to text]

gg175   stout valiant, resolute [go to text]

gg176   marriage-triumph the joyful public celebration of a wedding, including spectacle or tournament [go to text]

n69   Tumbling down peers and princes, i.e. unhorsing all of the nobility of Sicily in jousting combats. [go to text]

gg177   Marry, a common intensifier or expletive, a contraction of 'By Mary', 'By Mary of God' [go to text]

gg178   comforts, 'Relief or support in mental distress or affliction' (OED comfort, n. 5.a); 'A thing that produces or ministers to enjoyment and content' (OED comfort, n. 7; usually plural) [go to text]

n70   You seem, my lord, to honour Sforza yet Before the King. Given her wry tolerance elsewhere, Eulalia is probably teasing Horatio here, but it is likely that she does think Horatio’s excessive praise of Sforza inappropriate. [go to text]

gg179   Before rather than, in preference to; sooner than [go to text]

gg181   ranged roam, wander [go to text]

gg182   advantage place of vantage, especially on rising ground (OED 3); time of vantage, favourable occasion (OED 4) [go to text]

n1250   [Gonzago] ] Prin. [go to text]

n71   Which i.e. the King’s valour. [go to text]

gg183   prodigious marvellous, extremely powerful [go to text]

gg184   pitch bitumen or asphalt: sticky, resinous, black or dark brown substance, hard when cold and semi-liquid when hot [go to text]

gg185   strait narrow or tight place [go to text]

n72   The royal person of our King His last bare stake of one life to a thousand. i.e. the King was facing the most desperate odds. [go to text]

n4537   fetched him off That is: delivered him, rescued him. [go to text]

n4538   simple at it? Make light of it (OED simple, v1, 2; intr.); possibly a misprint for ‘simper’: this is OED’s only example of this usage, and I have been unable to trace any others [go to text]

n4072   [Shout within]Victory! ] [Shout within, Victory] [go to text]

gg3175   DRUM someone playing a drum, a drummer (OED n, 1 and 3a) [go to text]

n3299   colours, ] Colonrs [go to text]

gg188   colours, flag [go to text]

n73   Enter CAPTAIN, DRUM and colours, KING and SFORZA, SOLDIERS. The KING embraces and kisses the Queen [EULALIA], the Prince [GONZAGO] and ALINDA. The triumphant entry of king, general and soldiers is marked by the drum and flags; this public ceremony is continued but also complicated in the king’s greeting kisses to Eulalia, Prince Gonzago and (surprisingly?) Alinda. Alinda is silent until the end of the scene, when she attempts to defend herself against Sforza’s accusations, but she is the focus of the King’s attention (and, thereby, that of the audience) from a much earlier stage. [go to text]

n3907   The The nature of the King’s embracing and kissing of Alinda is crucial to the tone of the exchanges that follow: should he give her a decorous, appropriate kiss, which is then to be contrasted with a more transgressive kiss that he gives her at [QC 1.1.speech78], or is it already an overly sexual gesture? The fact that Sforza does not seem to react, as he does violently to the later kiss, suggests that it may be the former. As David M. Turner suggests, ‘while it is evident that kissing was a common mode of salutation, it was clearly expected to take place within acceptable boundaries and limits’ (‘Adulterous Kisses and the Meanings of Familiarity in Early Modern Britain’, in The Kiss in History, ed. Karen Harvey [Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2005], 80-97 [81]). In The Anatomy of Melancholy (London, 1621), Robert Burton writes, ‘There be honest kisses, I deny not, osculum charitatis, friendly kisses, modest kisses, officious and ceremonial kisses’, but nonetheless claims that the ‘sugered kisses’ of lovers ‘leave a bitter impression, they are destructive’ (582). The question of at what point a friendly, modest, officious or ceremonial kiss might tip into erotic or lascivious kissing may have taken on a particular charge in the 1630s, in the context of Queen Henrietta Maria’s enthusiasm for platonic love. [go to text]

gg188   ensigns flag [go to text]

gg190   surcease, desist [go to text]

n3908   safe in these arms of peace. It is possible that the King's embracing and kissing of Eulalia, Gonzago and Alinda takes place on this line, or that he gestures to them again here. [go to text]

n85   Heaven bless the King and our good general Sforza! The octavo text gives this and the following line separate speech prefixes: the first is ‘Sold.’ and the second ‘Again’. This may suggest that a pause between the lines is required. [go to text]

n3913   [CAPTAIN and SOLDIERS exit.] ] Exit Capt. and Sould. [go to text]

n74   [Aside] Video I have added this stage direction, as the King is clearly talking to himself here. It is significant that the King starts to speak in asides almost as soon as he comes on stage: he is already detaching himself from those around him, and his rather querulous concern with his and Sforza’s relative status is calculated to make an audience uneasy. For the King to speak to the audience during such a public occasion perhaps also breaches decorum or the behaviour we expect of a king in these contexts. For further discussion of the asides see this clip from the workshop on this scene. The King may seem all the more unreliable if his kiss to Alinda when he entered the stage was inappropriately sexual. At this point the King appears to try to convince himself that Sforza deserves the praise being given to him, but he soon loses his perspective. [go to text]

gg3278   notes single tones of a definite pitch (i.e. musical notes) [go to text]

gg191   wild rude, uncivilised; ungoverned, imprudent, rash [go to text]

n1249   [Aloud] I have added a direction to indicate the point at which the King stops talking to himself and addresses his family. [go to text]

gg192   doubtful giving cause for apprehension; dreaded [go to text]

gg193   ventures enterprise, commercial speculation [go to text]

gg194   Redemption ransom [go to text]

gs540   conceive become possessed with; puns on conceive as 'to become pregnant' [go to text]

gg196   fabulous absurd [go to text]

gg197   bliss extreme happiness [go to text]

gs42   full: fully, completely [go to text]

n75   inferior means, poorest resources, i.e. the people of lowest status [go to text]

gg199   meanest most inferior in rank [go to text]

gg200   fidelity. loyalty [go to text]

n76   [Aside]Are you one of his great admirers too? The King quickly returns to speaking in aside, as neither Eulalia nor Sforza are aware of this comment. This is the first suggestion in the dialogue that the King’s jealousy of Sforza’s military prowess is entwined with sexual jealousy. [go to text]

n77   While I am but his shadow: The King suggests that he is reduced to a ghostly figure in comparison with Sforza, who is raised to almost god-like status. The fact that actors can be referred to as shadows (see, for instance, Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 5.1.430: ‘If we shadows have offended’) gives an extra edge to this comment: Sforza’s valour and the high opinion that everyone holds of it reduces the King to a mere actor, playing the role of ruler and lacking true substance. [go to text]

gg201   favour; goodwill, kindness; partiality, approval, encouragement [go to text]

gs577   bounced. proclaimed boastfully [go to text]

n78   [Aside] Judging by Eulalia’s response, the King mutters this line in such a way that he is overheard but his exact words cannot be discerned; to say them aloud would alert Sforza to the King’s growing antagonism, and Brome makes it clear that the general is oblivious to it. [go to text]

gg833   changed exchanged [go to text]

n4539   checked at OED defines 'to check at' as 'to aim reproof or censure at; to animadvert severely upon' (check v1, 12 intr.), citing examples from 1642 and 1652, but in this instance 'checked at' seems to mean something closer to rebuffed or 'taken offence at' (see OED check v1, 5a). [go to text]

n86   when my heat shall fall to ashes; The King’s metaphorical reference to his death may recall the classical legend of Meleager, who was fated at his birth to die when a log burning on the fire was completely consumed. His mother, Althia, took the branch and preserved it in order to prolong Meleager’s life, but when in adulthood he killed her brothers, Plexippus and Toxeus, in a quarrel over the skin of the Calydonian boar, she took it out and burned it, whereupon Meleager died (Oxford Companion to Classical Literature, ed. M.C. Howatson [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989], s.v. Meleager). [go to text]

gg205   heat (n) rage, ardour; the heat of one's life (metaphorically); passion, lust [go to text]

n1250   [Gonzago] ] Prin. [go to text]

gg206   name (n) reputation; the king’s name [go to text]

gg207   right (n) justifiable claim, title [go to text]

n79   at my standard i.e. on my side. [go to text]

gg208   standard distinctive ensign of the king [go to text]

n1251   [Aside] The King again takes refuge in an aside; like his previous comments this cannot be overheard by the other people on stage, though his growing agitation might be clear in his muttering and in his body language. [go to text]

gg209   plainly: candidly, openly; explicitly; bluntly [go to text]

n80   no longer stand His cipher that in number makes him ten. i.e. I, who am worth ten times as much as him, will not be made to seem nothing (or worthless) in comparison to him. [go to text]

gg210   cipher a nonentity, a person who merely fills a place (OED n, 2); the original meaning of the word is 'An arithmetical symbol or character (o) of no value by itself, but which increases or decreases the value of other figures according to its position' (OED n, 1a) [go to text]

gg212   due proper, rightful, fitting [go to text]

gg162   late recent [go to text]

gg213   state-rhyme political cliché [go to text]

n4540   Pox on A plague on (an expletive). [go to text]

gg215   fit. (n) mood, capricious humour; outburst [go to text]

gg216   Peugh, peugh! an expression of disgust or contempt (OED pew, int.) [go to text]

gg217   malcontent discontented or disaffected person [go to text]

n81   malcontent The use of the word 'malcontent' would have conjured a well-developed dramatic stereotype to the minds of a Caroline theatre audience, as the stage malcontent was a familiar feature of plays such as Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi (King’s Men, 1614) and Marston’s The Malcontent (Children of the Chapel/King’s Men, c. 1603-4). Both of these plays were current on the Caroline stage: ‘The Duches of Malfy’ was performed at court 26 December 1630 (see G.E. Bentley, The Jacobean and Caroline Stage, 7 vols. [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1941-68], 1: 27) while The Malcontent was seen by the playgoer John Greene on 28 February 1635 (see John R. Elliott, Jr., ‘Four Caroline Playgoers’, Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England 6 (1993), 179-93 (192). In Characters of Vertues and Vices (London, 1608), 99-105, Joseph Hall describes the malcontent as follows:

What he hath he seeth not, his eyes are so taken up with what he wants; and what he sees he cares not for, because he cares so much for that which is not. [...] Every blessing hath somewhat to disparage and distaste it: children bring cares, single life is wild and solitary; eminency is envious, retiredness obscure; fasting painful, satiety unwieldy; religion nicely severe, liberty is lawless; wealth burdensome, mediocrity contemptible: everything faulteth either in too much or too little. [...] Nothing but fear keeps him from conspiracies, and no man is more cruel when he is not manacled with danger. He speaks nothing but satires and libels, and lodgeth no guests in his heart but rebels.

[go to text]

gs46   repulse rejection; also puns on ‘the act of repelling an assailant or hostile force’ (OED n, 1) [go to text]

gg219   durst dared [go to text]

gg220   absolute perfect, consummate; all-powerful [go to text]

n144   [Aside]Now he is in his fit. [Aside]Still Sforza! [Aside]There is an exception wrung out. None of the King’s speeches are marked as asides, but Horatio is surprised when the King finally speaks directly to him and commands him to send for Petruccio, and it is clear that he cannot hear the King’s interruptions during his speech. This technique is also used later in the scene, in [QC 1.1.speeches63-75], when the King comments throughout Eulalia’s description of how Alinda came to court; see [NOTE n90] for further discussion of the King’s asides and how they might be presented in performance. [go to text]

n82   [Starts] Horatio’s surprise provokes an involuntary physical reaction. This stage direction is one provided in the octavo text. [go to text]

n131   Goes to the Queen [EULALIA]. Video Brome’s stage direction (which is present in the octavo text) sets off a sequence in which he cuts in turn to three different conversations: (1) Lodovico and Flavello discuss the recall of Petruccio; (2) the King, Eulalia and Prince Gonzago discuss Alinda; (3) Sforza rebukes Alinda. If the attribution of the play to Salisbury Court is correct, Brome is manoeuvring a large number of actors around a small stage, giving the impression of a crowded court occasion during which the audience are given brief glimpses of snatched conversations. The scene thus makes significant demands on the company performing it; as the actor Robert Lister (here reading the King) commented during the workshop on this scene, ‘it depends on every actor on the stage with an ear like that [gestures with his hand] to what everyone else is doing’. In the modern theatre, the shifts between conversations might be signalled with subtle or more radical changes in lighting or other technical resources; at Salisbury Court Brome was dependent on the actors’ delivery and their positions on the stage. Experiments in the workshops suggest that to have the King seated during this scene causes practical difficulties, even through a seated position gives him a certain amount of control, and a movement out of it to approach Alinda might accentuate the importance of this moment. Compare this version, in which he is seated and moves out of his chair only to intervene in the discussion between Sforza and Alinda, with this, in which he forces Sforza to move towards him, creating a space into which he can insert himself to greet the general’s daughter. However, his ability to deliver speeches as asides is compromised if he is sitting down: compare these two versions of speeches 65-73. In addition, having the King seated might erroneously suggest that this scene is set in a throne room. For further discussion between actors and editors of the atmosphere and dynamics of this scene see this clip from the workshop. [go to text]

n87   [Aside] Video Horatio’s speech seems to be an aside (and I have therefore added a stage direction), but it may be delivered to Lodovico and Flavello or it may be divided so that the first half is addressed to them and the second to the audience, as it is in this clip from the workshop on this scene. The King's address to 'My lords' in speech 41 suggests that Horatio has been positioned near to Lodovico and Flavello, so it is natural that he might speak to them, but he may be unlikely to speak explicitly about the King’s faults to the untrustworthy Flavello. [go to text]

gg221   hasty sudden, rash [go to text]

gg222   humours, mood, temper, attitude, frame of mind [go to text]

n3909   It must be so. This is one of his Un-to-be-examined hasty humours, One of his starts. These, and a devilish gift These lines are printed as prose in the octavo. [go to text]

gg223   starts. sudden fit of passion, temper, etc. [go to text]

n88   These, and a devilish gift He has in venery, are all his faults. Horatio leaves the audience in no doubt about the King’s shortcomings; the King’s ‘gift [...] in venery’ will come to the fore in the second half of this scene. [go to text]

gg224   venery, pursuit of sexual pleasure; indulgence of sexual desire [go to text]

n3912   HORATIO [exits]. ] Exit Horatio. [go to text]

n89   Petruccio sent for, Given Lodovico and Flavello’s mutual hostility elsewhere in the play, their conversation here perhaps signals their mutual astonishment and unease about the King’s sudden shift in his attitude towards Petruccio; on the other hand, Flavello may be looking for opportunities to bring about Sforza’s disgrace and the ascent of his daughter. [go to text]

gg6221   braving challenging, defying [go to text]

n90   She Sforza’s daughter, say you? Video The King's interjections during Eulalia’s speech, one of which ('Sforza's absence, I fear you mean') is marked as an aside in the octavo text, could be handled in various ways. Speeches 68, 70 and 73 could be played as asides or said aloud, and it is possible to play this sequence with an openly antagonistic King interrupting Eulalia; however, it poses difficulties for the actor playing Eulalia, since the use of 'and' at the start of speeches 67 and 69, and the continuity in tone between each speech, suggests that Eulalia is oblivious to the King's interruptions. Another way of playing it, with the King standing beside Alinda and inspecting her closely as the Queen speaks, may also strain plausibility in performance, as Eulalia is apparently unaware (or strives to remain unaware) of the King’s designs on Alinda until much later in the play. A third option, as actor Alan Morrissey (here reading Eulalia) suggested during the workshop on this scene, is to freeze the action during the King’s asides. The most effective version that we tried during the workshops was for Eulalia to deliver the speech almost without stopping, the King’s asides being spoken during what seem like natural pauses as he inspects Alinda from a greater distance. See this clip from the workshop. The last of the King’s interruptions, 'Comely ambition', may be delivered aloud, as it is in this clip, or as an aside, as it is in this alternative versio. For further discussion of the asides between the actors and editors see this clip. [go to text]

n1252   [Eulalia] ] Queen. [go to text]

gs47   handsome in a woman usually denotes a fine figure or a stately kind of beauty [go to text]

n124   o’er over [go to text]

gg227   happily fortunately, successfully; with great content [go to text]

n3910   [Aside] This stage direction appears in the octavo text, where it is placed in the right hand margin. [go to text]

gg228   simple (as an adjective) unaffected, innocent, humble [go to text]

gg229   pretty, pleasing; good, excellent [go to text]

gg230   lively vivacious [go to text]

gs580   strangely. very greatly (OED adv, 4); surprisingly, oddly, wondrously, unaccountably (OED adv, 5) (Partridge suggests that 'strangely' can mean 'sexually intimate', while Gordon Williams, A Dictionary of Sexual Language and Imagery in Shakespearean and Stuart Literature [London: Athlone, 1994], 3: 1328-9, notes that strange was a 'biblical ephithet for an illicit sexual partner', and that it is often used in the context of adultery) [go to text]

n3300   Gonzago? ] Conzago [go to text]

gg232   pleased think it proper, have the desire [go to text]

gs48   fashioned her out moulded/transformed her [go to text]

gg234   Comely pleasing (OED a, 2); becoming, proper (OED a, 3) [go to text]

n91   Reconcile all quickly, Video Brome cuts to a conversation between Sforza and Alinda which may have begun much earlier in the scene, with Sforza taking the opportunity of the King moving to speak to Eulalia to isolate Alinda (see this workshop extract for a version in which Sforza and Alinda are conversing during the King's exchange with Eulalia). It is also possible that the conversation starts with 'Reconcile all quickly' and that his line is a response to Alinda’s body language (as his later ‘Do you stare at me?’ [QC 1.1.speech75] is). Having him move across the stage can be awkward (as is shown in this workshop extract, but if he is in the Eulalia/Prince Gonzago/Alinda group when the King is talking to the lords it is easier for him to move her to one side. [go to text]

n4541   Reconcile all That is: submit to my opinion (OED reconcile v, I 8a); make atonement (OED reconcile v, I 6c); settle this quarrel (OED reconcile v, II 9a); behave in a conciliatory manner (OED reconcile v, I 7). [go to text]

gs578   induced introduced, required [go to text]

n92   answer’t. answer it, i.e. answer this charge; undertake responsibility for it [go to text]

n93   No more, I’ll talk with you anon. Video Sforza seems to break off as the King approaches, and the King takes the opportunity to take possession of Alinda. See this workshop extract for a way in which the characters can be placed in order for Sforza to gain a strong position from which to react to the King’s advances on his daughter. [go to text]

gg236   anon. soon; immediately; in good time [go to text]

n125   ta’en taken [go to text]

n94   Kisses her. Video This stage direction is in the octavo. As described in [NOTE n3907], the nature of the King’s kisses during this scene is crucial, and its impact may depend on the conventions that have been established on the King's entrance. In the workshop on this scene, whether the King kissed Alinda on the hand or the cheek here altered the dynamic of the exchange: see these extracts for the contrasting effects. A kiss on the lips would alter it again. Social conventions regarding kisses on the hand, cheek and mouth seem to have been in flux during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Although kisses on the mouth in the early sixteenth century were often non-erotic, Keith Thomas suggests this kind of kissing began to fall out of favour at the Elizabethan court and had all but disappeared by the end of the seventeenth century (‘Afterword’, in The Kiss in History, 187-203 [192]). Instead, kissing on the mouth became increasingly to be associated with sexual passion. For instance, in Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale (King’s Men, c. 1611-12), a prominent influence on The Queen and Concubine, Leontes identifies ‘Kissing with inside lip’ (1.2.286) as one of the signs of the supposed affair between Hermione and Polixenes. However, some ambiguity remained, and some late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century male writers criticise women who wish to be greeted with a kiss on the cheek rather than a kiss on the lips: John Harington in ‘Of a Lady that Gives the Check’ (in The Most Elegant and Witty Epigrams [London, 1618]), asks ‘Is’t for a grace, or is’t for some disleek, / Where other kiss with lip, you give the cheek?’ (sig. H4v). During the early seventeenth century, kisses to the hand or cheek were equally ambiguous gestures, used in erotic contexts but also used to demonstrate the affection or loyalty of an inferior to a superior (servant to master, client to patron, or subject to monarch, for instance) or to demonstrate amity within families or quasi-familial groups. In George Wilkins’ The Miseries of Enforced Marriage (King’s Men, c. 1606; published London, 1607), Sir John Harcop instructs the brothers of his son-in-law-to-be, ‘Nay kiss her, kiss, though that she shall / Be your brother's wife, to kiss the cheek is free’ (sig. C2v). Something of the complexity and ambiguity of social kissing in the 1630s can be seen in Shirley’s The Lady of Pleasure (Queen Henrietta Maria’s Men, 1635; published London, 1637), in which Celestina criticises Isabella for refusing to be kissed on the lips in greeting:

Oh, it shows ill upon a gentlewoman
Not to return the modest lip, if she
Would have the world believe, her breath is not
Offensive (sig. E1r).

However, Celestina has earlier declared that her own suitors cannot

boast abroad
And do me justice, [that] after a salute
They have much conversation with my lip;
I hold the kissing of my hand a courtesy,
And he that loves me, must upon the strength
Of that, expect till I renew his favour (sig. D3r)

She therefore suggests that an initial greeting kiss on the lips might be kept within the bounds of decorum if it is not repeated. Brome himself suggests a hierarchy of erotic kissing in The Novella, in which Piso declares that he is

above the art of amorists,
That cringe and creep by weak degrees of love:
To kiss the hand, the cheek, the lip, then cry
'Oh, divine touch!' [NV 3.1.speech267]

[go to text]

n95   SFORZA storms. Video Brome’s stage direction suggests Sforza’s violent emotional response to the King’s kissing Alinda. Similar directions in other early modern plays include ‘They storme’ in response to the question ‘art not thou a witch?’ in Brome and Heywood’s The Late Lancashire Witches (quarto text, [LW 5.1.line2625-26]); ‘Give them the letters and they stamp and storm’ in The Fair Maid of the Exchange (auspices unknown, c. 1602?; published London, 1607 [sig. I1r]); ‘King drinks, Queen and Mal. storms’ in The Noble [Spanish] Soldier (auspices unknown, c. 1626?; published London, 1634 [sig. H3r]); and ‘Sussex delivers a petition to the King, the King receives it, shows it to the Queen, she shows it to Winchester and to Beningfield: they storm’ during a dumb-show in the first part of Heywood’s If You Know Not Me You Know Nobody (Queen Anne’s Men, c. 1604; published London 1605 [sig. D1v]). John Bulwar’s manual, Chirologia, or, The Natural Language of the Hand (London, 1644), includes examples of 'natural' gestures which may have been employed by the original actor playing Sforza. The gesture Indignor, ‘TO SMITE SUDDENLY ON THE LEFT HAND WITH THE RIGHT’ [IMAGEQC_1_1], is said to convey ‘a declaration of some mistake, dolour, anger, or indignation’ (pt. 1, p. 32). The gesture Minor, ‘TO SHOW AND SHAKE THE BENDED FIST AT ONE’ [IMAGEQC_1_2], is used by those ‘who are angry, threaten, would strike terror, menace, revenge, show enmity, despite, contemn, humble, challenge, defy, express hate, and offer injury’. Bulwar comments, ‘When anger, a fit of the invading appetite, hath took hold of our spirits, and that we are incensed by some affront we cannot brook, we use to threaten, to call the trespasser to account by this gesture of the hand, occasioned by the violent propensity of the mind, and strong imagination of the act of revenge’ (pt. 1, p. 57). This gesture was still prominent in the eighteenth-century theatre, used to suggest feelings of aggression and rebellion. Another gesture, Indignatione Timeo, ‘THE SMITING OF THE HAND UPON THE THIGH’ [IMAGEQC_1_3], is according to Bulwar ‘so deeply imprinted in the manners of men, that you shall in vain persuade a man angry and enraged with grief, to contain his Hand from this passion’ (pt. 1, p. 91). Inventione Laboro, ‘THE FINGER IN THE MOUTH GNAWN AND SUCKED’ [IMAGEQC_1_4], is ‘a gesture of serious and deep meditation, repentance, envy, anger, and threatened revenge’ (pt. 1, p. 158). In the second section of the work, Chironomia, or, The Art of Manuall Rhetoricke, Bulwar notes that ‘THE breast stricken with the hand, is an action of grief, sorrow, repentance, and indignation’ (pt. 2, p. 46), while ‘The thigh smitten with the hand, was the gesture of one pleading more vehemently, of one grieved and fuming with indignation, of one taking notice of an others error, or confessing himself deceived’ (pt. 2, p. 1). Another action manual, preserved in Bodleian Library MS Ashmole 768, suggests that ‘to stamp with the foot in great contentions is not unseemly’ (see B.L. Joseph, Elizabethan Acting, second edition [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1964], 58). In workshops the direction’s possibilities in modern performance were discussed. Although the kinds of gestures recommended in early modern action manuals could be incorporated or adapted (stamping a foot, for instance, is still a widely understood physical gesture), in modern performance Sforza’s ‘storm’ might be more internalised - whether comparatively naturalised or exaggerated. The gesture might also be aimed in different directions: towards Alinda, towards the King, or towards the audience. Alternatively, a production might chose to signal Sforza's indignation through a physical intervention to separate the King and Alinda, as in this example from the workshop. Like the kiss itself, different ways of signalling Sforza’s emotional reaction alter the dynamic of this moment - is this a private moment of impotent rage or an open act of rebellion; it is noted only by the King, or is it a gesture that is open to interpretation by the assembled courtiers? [go to text]

gg237   storms. rages, reacts in a furious manner (especially by making gestures or movements) [go to text]

n100   [All except EULALIA and ALINDA exit.] Video It seems likely that Eulalia and Alinda deliver their lines as the other characters exit, Eulalia addressing the departing King and Alinda speaking in an aside to the audience; I have therefore amended the stage directions to indicate this (the octavo provides only a general ‘Exeunt’ after Alinda’s line). See this extract from the workshop for an example of how this might work on stage. Each speech is characteristic of the figure who delivers it (Eulalia’s demonstrating her loyalty and Alinda’s her ambition), and the two speeches form a complete pentameter couplet, appended to what would otherwise have been the scene’s concluding couplet from the King. If the kiss between the King and Alinda, and Sforza’s storming, have been highly visible, Eulalia’s line might also be an attempt to rescue a situation in which the courtiers are startled and unsure about what their reaction should be. In addition, the lines, particularly when delivered after the exit of the King, help to emphasise the extent to which the play is structured around the relationship between the two women. [go to text]

n11357   1.2 ] Scœn. IV. [go to text]

gg3279   Repulsed rejected; also puns on ‘the act of repelling an assailant or hostile force’ (OED repulse n, 1) [go to text]

n3301   In ] Is [go to text]

gg239   upstart newcomer to high rank, parvenu, social climber [go to text]

gg240   dear beloved [go to text]

gg241   field (n) battlefield [go to text]

gg242   presence, place or space surrounding the king (OED 2a); ceremonial attendance (OED 2b); presence-chamber (OED 2c) [go to text]

gg243   observance giving of due respect, dutiful service (OED n, 5) [go to text]

gg244   infectious liable to contaminate morals, character, etc. (OED a, 4) [go to text]

gg245   gratify reward; give a gratuity, especially as a reward, payment or bribe; to pay for services (OED v, 2) [go to text]

n3911   switch. The meaning of this stage direction is obscure. As a noun, 'switch' refers to a whip, or to a tree-shoot used as a whip; rarely it can also mean an incentive (OED n, 1a, 1b and 2a). As a verb, 'to switch' can mean to strike or flog as if with a whip (OED v, 1a), to strike a blow (1.b), or to incite (2b). Possibly Petruccio strikes the servant as soon as he appears, although there is little in the dialogue to suggest that any violent action occurs until the stage direction at [QC1.2.speech84], 'Strikes him'. It is possible that the direction is misplaced, or that it should have been struck out. [go to text]

gg246   commend praise [go to text]

gg141   bravely worthily; fearlessly; splendidly, handsomely (OED) [go to text]

n101   Lord Sforza, sir, I cry him mercy The servant misinterprets Petruccio’s comment as indignation that he has not accorded Sforza his correct title. [go to text]

n102   less ’twere unless it were [go to text]

n103   to better purpose. to better effect; with a better result [go to text]

gg147   fly (v) run away from [go to text]

gg248   preface preamble, preliminary explanation [go to text]

gg249   testy short-tempered, irritable [go to text]

gg250   rails, utters abusive language, rants [go to text]

gs50   scruple refers to a small unit of time (OED n1, 3), but puns on alternative meaning: 'a doubt, uncertainty or hesitation in regard to right and wrong, duty, propriety, etc.' (OED n2, 1) [go to text]

n104   look well to me. watch me well, take good care of me; see also the more metaphorical version, ‘have an eye’ in [QC 1.2.speech119] [go to text]

gs101   strength a body (of men); the strength [go to text]

gg253   hold. (n) imprisonment [go to text]

n3302   minion ] Nignion (corrected in the octavo's list of errata) [go to text]

gg254   minion favourite (of the king or queen) (OED n, I 1a); popular favourite (OED n, I 1c) [go to text]

n105   cannot think him safe and I not Faster, i.e. the King fears for his safety unless Petruccio is kept more securely in prison. [go to text]

gg3280   Faster, more secure [go to text]

gg256   collect conclude (OED v, 5) [go to text]

n3820   Look to me Watch me, take care of me (either Horatio has become carried away and now fears for his safety, or Petruccio has made a threatening gesture). [go to text]

gg257   troth (in) truth [go to text]

n4542   Look to me That is: watch me, take care of me. [go to text]

n4542   Look to me That is: watch me, take care of me. [go to text]

gg258   post (as a verb) hasten, hurry [go to text]

gg259   grave serious [go to text]

gg260   massy solid, bulky [go to text]

gg261   bill-men. soldiers armed with bills, which are weapons varying from ‘a simple concave blade with a long wooden handle, to a kind of concave axe with a spike at the back and its shaft terminating in a spear-head’ (OED bill n1, 2) [go to text]

gg262   prithee (I) pray thee: (I) ask you; please [go to text]

n5949   [They all exit.] ] Exeunt omnes [go to text]

n11358   1.3 ] Scœn. VI. [go to text]

gs52   surprised with a pun on the military use: to assail or attack suddenly [go to text]

n3918   Yes, and means To hurry her away from court this night; I heard him threaten it. I have relineated this speech: in the octavo, the line break is at 'from / Court'. [go to text]

gg264   fit (a) suitable, convenient, well-fitting (like a garment) [go to text]

n3927   But he must not do’t. She is too sweet, Flavello, and too fit For my embraces to be snatched away. This speech is printed as prose in the octavo. [go to text]

gg265   ripe ready for harvest, fully prepared; sexually mature or marriageable (OED a, 2b) [go to text]

n106   fit her That is: make her suitable, tailor her. [go to text]

gg266   appetite sexual preference, desire, craving [go to text]

n3928   The pains I took to fit her to your appetite Before she saw you. This is printed as one line in the octavo. [go to text]

gg267   careful painstaking [go to text]

gg268   compliable inclined to comply [go to text]

gg269   discourse (n) conversation; or topic of conversation [go to text]

n3819   I plied her then with pills that puffed her up Brome may take the image of Alinda as being puffed up with ambition and pride (which recurs throughout the play) from Greene’s description of Olynda in Penelope’s Web as‘puffed up with a sweete conceit of her prosperity’ (sig. D1r). The Souldan is also described as ‘puffed up with the highness of his majesty, and number of his territories subject to his government’ (sig. D2v). [go to text]

gg270   plied supplied repeatedly in order to tempt or induce [go to text]

gs53   pills plays on pill as a word referring to solid forms of medication taken orally (OED n3, 1a), but is used figuratively (Flavello refers to the promises of promotion that he has used to intoxicate Alinda with dreams of royal favour and advancement); may also pun on the slang meanings of 'pills': testicles (with sexual innuendo), and nonsense (OED n3, 2b) [go to text]

gg272   high lofty; of an exalted rank; proud, arrogant [go to text]

n107   Has the King’s kisses, In early modern English, inversion of subject and verb in a question can lead to a singular verb followed by a plural subject; compare Shakespeare, The Tempest (King's Men, c. 1611): ‘What cares these roarers for the name of King?’ (1.1.16-17). See N.F. Blake, A Grammar of Shakespeare’s English (London: Palgrave, 2002), 202. [go to text]

gg273   adulterate adulterous (OED ppl. a, 1); coming from a base origin: impure, corrupted, degraded (see OED ppl. a, 2) [go to text]

gg205   heat, (n) rage, ardour; the heat of one's life (metaphorically); passion, lust [go to text]

n4543   Come your ways; Come along. [go to text]

gg274   amiss wrong [go to text]

gg275   capitulate treat, parley (OED v, 2); make conditions (OED v, 2b); make terms about (OED v, 3) [go to text]

gg276   satisfaction penance, compensation, atonement [go to text]

gg277   sensible aware, capable of perceiving [go to text]

gg278   banquet, 'a course of sweetmeats, fruit, and wine, served either as a separate entertainment, or as a continuation of the principal meal' (OED n1, 3) [go to text]

gg3281   Heated made (sexually) excited, inflamed, impassioned (OED ppl. a. 2) [go to text]

gg280   cold (a) chilling (OED a, 10a); gloomy, dispiriting (OED a, 9); the opposite of cordial or friendly (OED a, 8); the term ‘cold shoulder’ is a nineteenth-century expression, but Brome’s use of ‘cold’ may carry something of the same sense [go to text]

gg281   wantonness lasciviousness [go to text]

gg282   abuse wrongful treatment [go to text]

gg283   impudence shamelessness, immodesty; insolence, presumption [go to text]

gg283   Impudence shamelessness, immodesty; insolence, presumption [go to text]

gs54   Courtship, behaviour fitting a courtier, but also carries implications of the other meaning of courtship as wooing [go to text]

gs54   courtship, behaviour fitting a courtier, but also carries implications of the other meaning of courtship as wooing [go to text]

n1253   [Aside] I have marked all of the King’s speeches in this sequence as asides, since they are not to be heard by Sforza or Alinda. Each might be muttered to himself, directed to the audience, or spoken to Flavello. [go to text]

n108   Brave mettled Courageous; ‘brave’, meaning attractive/fine. This also suggests the King’s admiration for Alinda’s appearance. [go to text]

gg3174   mettled spirited [go to text]

gg285   wench young woman [go to text]

gg286   inestimable too great to be estimated; priceless [go to text]

n4544   use your pleasure Do as you please. [go to text]

gg287   style (v) call, term [go to text]

gg283   impudence, shamelessness, immodesty; insolence, presumption [go to text]

gs54   courtship behaviour fitting a courtier, but also carries implications of the other meaning of courtship as wooing [go to text]

gg3282   leaves ceases [go to text]

gg3283   treat speak about; negotiate over [go to text]

gs57   graced puns on gratify: give pleasure to [go to text]

n109   once, twice, thrice Alinda mockingly echoes Sforza’s language in [QC 1.3.speech128]. [go to text]

gg291   well-read well-informed, skilled [go to text]

gg292   lecturer instructor [go to text]

gg293   desert. deserving, merit [go to text]

n1253   [Aside] I have marked all of the King’s speeches in this sequence as asides, since they are not to be heard by Sforza or Alinda. Each might be muttered to himself, directed to the audience, or spoken to Flavello. [go to text]

gg294   baggage good-for-nothing; strumpet, whore [go to text]

gg293   desert deserving, merit [go to text]

gg295   base contemptible, degraded, unworthy [go to text]

gg296   dignity position, honour, rank (OED n, 2) [go to text]

gg297   near intimate [go to text]

gs58   kind, 'manner, fashion', but may also pun on 'family, kin' [go to text]

n4523   howe’er however [go to text]

n1253   [Aside] I have marked all of the King’s speeches in this sequence as asides, since they are not to be heard by Sforza or Alinda. Each might be muttered to himself, directed to the audience, or spoken to Flavello. [go to text]

n128   That word makes thee a queen. The King unconsciously puns on queen and ‘quean’, meaning whore; this pun resonates throughout the scene and, indeed, the play as a whole. Alinda will become queen in ousting Eulalia, but she will also become the ‘concubine’ of the play’s title in become the King’s second wife or, in the view of Sforza and other courtiers, his quean. Ironically, Eulalia will be ‘proved’ a quean in the divorce proceedings through the false evidence that she is having an adulterous affair with Sforza, but she will regain her position as queen, and be proved to have been no quean, at the play’s conclusion. [go to text]

gg299   Maintain encourage; defend; bear the expense of; continue [go to text]

n1253   [Aside] I have marked all of the King’s speeches in this sequence as asides, since they are not to be heard by Sforza or Alinda. Each might be muttered to himself, directed to the audience, or spoken to Flavello. [go to text]

n3929   protest, That is: I protest. [go to text]

gg300   desperate, driven to despair or reckless action [go to text]

gg6222   vexes troubles, irritates, torments [go to text]

gs59   handsomely. cleverly, skilfully [go to text]

gg302   conceit notion [go to text]

gg303   petty trivial [go to text]

n3303   forgets ] forgoes (uncorrected copies of the octavo) [go to text]

gg304   silly insignificant; unsophisticated; foolish [go to text]

gg305   squeamishly disdainfully, fastidiously [go to text]

n129   takes the wind of This phrase has two associations, one with nautical language, in which it means to ‘to get to windward of (another ship) so as to intercept the wind, to get the weather gage of’ (OED wind n1, 3b), the other from hunting terminology, in which it means to take the scent of (or detect) an animal (OED wind n1, 4). Alinda suggests that the newly-made countess either avoids being connected with, or cannot bear the stench of her lower-born ancestors. [go to text]

gg306   progenitors. ancestors [go to text]

gg222   humour mood, temper, attitude, frame of mind [go to text]

gg307   posterity descendents [go to text]

n111   the jewel in your ear. Earrings were often worn by elite men in the 1630s; see, for instance, Van Dyck’s Triple Portrait of Charles I (1635; Royal Collection, London) and Charles I, after Van Dyck (c. 1635-1637; National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London). [go to text]

gg308   harlot whore [go to text]

n110   I would not part with i.e. I would not part with it. [go to text]

gg309   unhallowed unholy [go to text]

gg310   Sanctum sanctorum, (the) holy of holies [go to text]

gg311   recantation retraction or renunciation of a mistaken opinion or belief; OED (recant v1, 1) notes that ‘recant’ is used especially ‘with formal or public confession of error in matters of religion’ [go to text]

n11557   Etc. The Etc is an indication that the actors should improvise. [go to text]

n1254   Enter CAP[TAIN] and [KING’S] GUARD. In the octavo text the stage direction, which reads ‘Enter Capt. & Guard’, is crammed into the same line as their speech (‘Heaven save the King!’), presumably because there is no space on the preceding line. The Captain and rest of the King's Guard probably deliver the line as they enter in response to the King and Flavello’s call for aid. [go to text]

n1255   [Captain and King’s Guard] ] Omn. [go to text]

gg312   close strictly confined [go to text]

n3930   Away with him, See he be kept close prisoner. Flavello, See that his daughter have convenient lodging. This speech is printed as prose in the octavo. [go to text]

gs157   convenient appropriate, suitable (with sexual innuendo) [go to text]

gg314   estate (n) condition of existence (OED n, 1a); status, position in the world (OED n, 3a); ‘condition with respect to worldly prosperity, fortune’ (OED n, 2a) [go to text]

gg315   lodge harbour [go to text]

gg316   Study (v) seek to achieve (OED v, 11); in this context also suggests ‘plot for’ [go to text]

n3931   [They all exit.] ] Exeunt. [go to text]

n11359   1.4 ] Scœn. VII. [go to text]

gg212   due proper, rightful, fitting [go to text]

gg317   grudging complaining, being discontented [go to text]

gg318   wait await [go to text]

gg312   close strictly confined [go to text]

n112   and high That is: and is high. [go to text]

gg319   trespass (n) offence (OED n, 1); minor violation of the law (OED n, 2); crime [go to text]

gg320   Sufficeth is sufficient [go to text]

n113   the path a subject ought to go. Eulalia consistently defines her duty as that of a subject rather than specifically that of a wife; she thus emphasises her public role rather than her private relationship with the King. [go to text]

gg321   pleased content, inclined [go to text]

gg290   grace (v) show favour to; confer honours on [go to text]

n3932   Madam, howe’er my person, No less than my authority, I know Is most unwelcome to you, I must appear And lay the King’s command upon you, which You must obey. This speech is printed as prose in the octavo. [go to text]

n3933   I must? See, Lodovico, Here’s a plain-dealing lord, that knows my love And my obedience to the King, and warns me I have relineated these lines: in the octavo the line breaks come at 'plain- / Dealing' and 'my / Obedience'. [go to text]

n127   Lay’t lay it [go to text]

gg322   touching regarding [go to text]

gg323   fell dreadful, terrible; cruel, savage [go to text]

n114   Do you look up at it? Eulalia evidently starts and/or looks amazed when Horatio accuses Sforza of plotting against the King. [go to text]

n115   He has championed you sweetly, it seems. In this heavy sexual innuendo, Horatio hints at the allegations that Eulalia and Sforza have had an affair, and puns on Sforza’s long-standing status as the Queen’s Champion, to which he himself alluded in the first scene (see [QC 1.1.speech17]). [go to text]

gs60   championed supported, either through martial support (as in the tournaments on Eulalia’s marriage to the King) or in sexual intercourse [go to text]

gg137   honest chaste [go to text]

gg325   reproof. reproach, shame [go to text]

n116   Mars Horatio alludes to the long-standing affair between Mars, the Roman god of war (Ares in Greek mythology), and Venus, the Roman goddess of love (Aphrodite in Greek mythology); according to the narrative famously told in Homer’s Odyssey, VIII, and Ovid’s Metamorphoses, IV, the pair were discovered by Venus’ husband Vulcan, Roman god of fire and metal-working (Hephaestus in Greek mythology), who caught them in a net which was set to spring when they laid on the bed together. The story concludes with the humiliation of Venus and Mars as the other gods are called by Vulcan to view them in the net. [go to text]

gg326   fencer someone who fences in public shows: a professional fighter [go to text]

gg327   martialist. warrior [go to text]

gg255   fast secure [go to text]

gg236   anon. soon; immediately; in good time [go to text]

gs579   stays awaits [go to text]

gg329   manifest, obvious, clear [go to text]

gg330   moan. complaint, lamentation [go to text]

n11360   1.5 ] Scœn. IX. [go to text]

n117   Mount, mount, my thoughts, Alinda’s soliloquy makes both her ambition and her lack of scruple clear; it is also evident that she does not love the King but merely takes advantage of his ‘dotage’. [go to text]

gg331   pitch height; summit (OED n2, 19a); height to which a bird rises in its flight (OED n2, 21) [go to text]

gg332   vassal slavish, servile [go to text]

gg3284   Props holds, supports [go to text]

gg334   abject degraded; despicable, contemptible [go to text]

gg335   servile slavish, cringing, ignoble [go to text]

gg336   lofty proud, exalted, sublime [go to text]

gg337   dotage folly; excessive love, infatuation; senility [go to text]

gg338   interposed obstructing, intervening [go to text]

gg3285   lets obstacles, hindrances [go to text]

gg340   groundwork foundation [go to text]

gg341   sure secure [go to text]

n118   sovereign Queen. Titles are important in this exchange; in speech 201, Flavello emphasises the fact that Eulalia can no longer claim the title of queen, and addresses Alinda as ‘Your excellence’ [QC 1.5.speech202]. [go to text]

gs61   sovereign supreme, greatest; qualification of ‘queen’, perhaps suggesting that Flavello flatters Alinda by telling her that she is a 'sovereign' queen - i.e. a power in her own right - rather than merely gaining power through the King's favour [go to text]

gg343   brave splendid [go to text]

gg344   attention consideration [go to text]

gg345   large copious [go to text]

gg346   allowance. approbation, approval [go to text]

n119   our This could refer to the conspiracy of Alinda and Flavello, or it could show Alinda trying out the ‘royal we’. Note that in this scene Flavello consistently addresses Alinda as ‘you’ while she addresses him as ‘thou’: in Early Modern English 'you' is often used to address one’s superior (similar to ‘vous’ in French), while ‘thou’ is used to address an inferior (similar to ‘tu’ in French). For all the intimacy of their conspiracy, Alinda asserts her superior rank (or the superior rank that she will soon achieve) and Flavello goes along with this linguistic performance. [go to text]

n3934   excellence, ] Exeunt Omnes. [go to text]

gg347   Advance increase [go to text]

n145   Eulalia is brought unto the bar, For this sequence and the opening of the following scene, Brome draws on the account of Barmenissa’s trial in Penelope’s Web. Greene writes that Saladyne summoned ‘all his nobility at the promontory of Japhet to a parliament upon certain articles preferred against his wife, and confirmed by false witnesses, she was by general consent deposed’ (sig. C4r). [go to text]

gg329   manifest? obvious, clear [go to text]

gg348   behoved was required; was proper for [go to text]

gg349   work (v) influence, prevail upon [go to text]

gg141   bravely, worthily; fearlessly; splendidly, handsomely (OED) [go to text]

n3936   That was my care; it behoved me to work The witnesses, who swore (in brief) most bravely, That they heard Lord Sforza, whom you also may Forget now to call father — This speech is printed as prose in the octavo. [go to text]

gg3286   knowledge of (sexual) intimacy with (OED knowledge n, 7) [go to text]

gg351   carnal sexual [go to text]

gg3276   cashiered dismissed; in the army this generally involved 'disgrace and permanent exclusion' (OED cashier v, 2) [go to text]

gg162   late recent [go to text]

n120   threw Flavello ironically suggests that Sforza unknowingly released the mutinous officers so that they could ‘serve’ him by making the accusations against him (‘threw ’em by’: discarded them) [go to text]

gg352   office. service, duty, employment, responsibility [go to text]

gg353   left: left off [go to text]

n121   though it had That is: if it had.... [go to text]

gg3287   Affirmed maintained, confirmed [go to text]

n122   Two The fact that Eulalia is accused by the court midwife and physician is significant. As Nicola Leach notes in 'Midwifery and the Performance of Truth in Early Modern England', unpublished PhD thesis, King’s College London (2006), ‘The plot works on the understanding that the midwife and physician would not only have intimate knowledge of the queen’s body, they would also have access to the inner sanctum of the royal residence and would therefore be privy to the queen’s sexual secrets [...] Brome’s play provides us with an extreme example of the frightening possibility of social inversion; where the midwife and physician’s authoritative testimony is enough to indict the most powerful female in the land on the grounds of a fabricated secret’ (82). The value of Flavello’s gaining the testimony of the queen’s servants can also be seen in the fact that he pays them a thousand crowns each, twice as much as he pays Fabio and Strozzo, the cashiered Lieutenants who testify against Sforza. [go to text]

gg355   dainty valuable, excellent; rare [go to text]

gg3288   bawds procurers, go-betweens [go to text]

gg357   action, deed [go to text]

n123   how many, how many, how many times This line would be a regular pentameter line if the second ‘how many’ was removed, but it is also possible that the line is deliberately extra-metrical, giving a brief, mocking impression of the intensity of Eulalia and Sforza’s supposed adulterous passion. [go to text]

gg358   unlawful illegal; morally prohibited [go to text]

gg359   Aforehand, in advance [go to text]

gg360   patient forbearing; calm; passive [go to text]

gg361   iniquity, wickedness [go to text]

gg362   censure judgement (especially, though not always, adverse judgment) [go to text]

gg363   straightway straightaway [go to text]

gg364   set (v) sitting in judgement (OED v1 4c) [go to text]

n130   That she is not a queen and I am one. As in [QC 1.3.speech145] there is an unconscious pun on queen and quean (whore): Alinda’s gaining the position of queen is dependent on her behaving like a quean, or the ‘concubine’ of the play’s title. [go to text]

gg3289   hewed hollowed [go to text]

gg3290   squared rendered appropriate [go to text]

gg367   head position of superiority [go to text]

n4021   [Singing] The octavo has a direction for '[Song]'. [go to text]

n2867   What if a day, As C.R. Baskervill appears to have been the first to point out (in a review of The Cambridge History of English Literature, ed. A.W. Ward and A.R. Waller, vols. 5-6, ‘The Drama to 1642’, in Journal of English and Germanic Philology 11 [1912], 476-87 [485]), this is the first stanza of a song by Thomas Campion (in fact it is attributed to Campion only in Alexander Gil’s Logonomia Anglica [London, 1619], 140, but no serious objections to his authorship have been raised). For detailed accounts of the song, on which I have drawn here, see Greer, ‘What if a day’: An Examination of the Words and Music’; Edward Doughtie, ed., Liber Lilliati: Elizabethan Verse and Song (Bodleian MS Rawlinson Poetry 148) (London and Toronto: Associated University Presses, 1985), 195-200.

This song was extremely popular in both England and the Netherlands. The first appearance of the lyric is in manuscripts dated to the early 1590s, and it is first accompanied by a tune in the ‘Commonplace Book of John Lilliat’, Bodleian Library MS Rawl. poet. 148, fo. 109v (an adjacent item is dated 1599, suggesting that it was copied c. 1599-1600). (See Greer, 305, and Doughtie, 126-7, for transcriptions.) This tune appears repeatedly in manuscript and print throughout the seventeenth century. There are also two other variant tunes, each found in only one text: the five-voice setting in Richard Alison, An Hour’s Recreation (London, 1606), nos. 17-18 (Doughtie comments, ‘although the music shares some rhythmic features with the more popular tune found in L[illiat], it is not the same’ [197]), and another setting in Christ Church, Oxford, MS 439, p. 115 (Doughtie, 197). Two of the many manuscript versions (Christ Church, Oxford, MS 439, p. 115, and Paris Conservatoire, MS. Res. 1186, fo. 15-15v) date from the 1630s, and a ballad version of the lyric with ten stanzas, to be sung ‘To a pleasant new tune’, appearing under the title ‘A Friend’s Advice In an Excellent Ditty, Concerning the Variable Changes in this World’, survives in editions of around 1625 (STC 4541.5), 1628-9 (STC 4541.7), 1650-58 (Wing 408E) and 1663-74 (Wing 409). The ballad may have been first issued in the 1590s, since one of the earliest manuscript witness for the text describes it as ‘The fickle estate of our uncertain life to a pleasant new tune’ (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawl. poet. fo. 10v-11). The lyric also appears in another dramatic work, the anonymous Scottish play Philotus (published Edinburgh, 1603); Doughtie writes, ‘Apparently the play was older, and the two-stanza poem was inserted as a filler’ (196).

It seems likely that initial productions of The Queen and Concubine would have used the tune first presented in Lilliat’s commonplace book, with which the lyric is repeatedly associated. The tune was still being included in manuscript collections in the 1630s and, as Greer notes, ‘Unlike many ballad tunes, "What if a day" ... is not simply a convenient and well-known channel for the transmission of the words, but a melody closely corresponding to the forms and inflections of its text’ (312). In the first part of Hudibras (London, 1663), Samuel Butler alludes to ‘What if a day’ in a way that suggests the song’s affective power and its associations for audiences:

For though Dame Fortune seem to smile
And leer upon him for a while;
She’ll after show him, in the nick
Of all his Glories, a Dog-trick.
This any man may sing or say
I’th’ ditty call’d What if a Day.
(Canto III, 5-10; p. 77)

For a rendition of a lute arrangement possibly by John Dowland (see Doughtie, 199) see this performance by Valéry Sauvage available on You Tube. If the Elizabethan tune was still being used in the 1630s, it may have been updated with a new arrangement, but it may have been deliberately intended to evoke a by-gone age; at any rate, an alert spectator may well have recognised the lyrics and/or tune and realised that this was an old song. Steggle remarks that the inclusion of this song ‘evokes the Elizabethan, not by accident but quite deliberately’ (Richard Brome, 85).

The lyrics to this and one of the play’s other songs, ‘How blessed are they that waste their wearied hours’ are printed at the head of the octavo playtext rather than in their proper places in the play itself. This, and the fact that the lyrics to the third song are lost, may suggest that the lyrics to all the songs were on separate sheets.

The lyric as it is printed in The Queen and Concubine varies somewhat from other manuscript and print versions. See below for notes on major textual variations between The Queen and Concubine lyric and three other early sources. A more full collation can be found in Doughtie, 198-9. [go to text]

n2868   month, ] night (Bodleian Library, Rawlinson MS 148, fo. 109v [Greer, 305]) [go to text]

gg2442   Crown (v) bless, amplify, give honour to (OED v1, 11); bring to a happy conclusion (OED crown v1, 10) [go to text]

n2869   delights ] desire (Bodleian Library, Rawlinson MS 148, fo. 109v [Greer, 305]) [go to text]

gg2443   wished wished for, longed for [go to text]

n2870   wished ] sweet (Bodleian Library, Rawlinson MS 148, fo. 109v [Greer, 305]; Alison, An Hour’s Recreation) [go to text]

gg2444   contentings? satisfactions, delights (OED contenting vbl. n, 1) [go to text]

n2871   May not the ] Cannot the (Bodleian Library, Rawlinson MS 148, fo. 109v [Greer, 305]; ‘A Friend’s Advice’ [London, c. 1625]); Cannot a (Alison, An Hour’s Recreation) [go to text]

gg1405   chance falling out or happening of events; in this context, mischance [go to text]

gg2445   Cross (v) thwart, forestall; contradict; afflict, go against [go to text]

n2872   delights ] delight (Bodleian Library, Rawlinson MS 148, fo. 109v [Greer, 305]); desires (Alison, An Hour’s Recreation) [go to text]

n2873   as many ] a thousand (Bodleian Library, Rawlinson MS 148, fo. 109v [Greer, 305]) [go to text]

gg2446   tormentings? instances of torment (OED tormenting, vbl. n.) [go to text]

n2874   Fortune, honour, beauty, birth, ] Fortunes in their fairest birth (‘A Friend’s Advice’) [go to text]

n2875   birth, ] youth (Bodleian Library, Rawlinson MS 148, fo. 109v [Greer, 305]; Alison, An Hour’s Recreation) [go to text]

gs362   Wanton carefree; lascivious; irresponsible [go to text]

gg2447   doting foolish [go to text]

n2876   mirth, ] love (Bodleian Library, Rawlinson MS 148, fo. 109v [Greer, 305]; Alison, An Hour’s Recreation) [go to text]

gg2448   shadows ghosts; delusions [go to text]

gg2449   toys, foolish things, fancies, nonsense [go to text]

n2877   In our lives’ bereaving That is: in the vanishing of our lives. See Thomas Kyd, Cornelia (London, 1594): ‘Now as for happy thee, to whom sweet Death, / Hath given blessed rest for life’s bereaving’ (sig. L1v). [go to text]

n2878   our ] y^eir (Bodleian Library, Rawlinson MS 148, fo. 109v [Greer, 305]); their (Alison, An Hour’s Recreation) [go to text]

n4050   [Singing] The octavo has the stage direction 'Song.', and no speech prefix. [go to text]

n3022   How blessed are they Like the first song, this also appears in another text, in this case Francis Quarles's play The Virgin Widow, printed in 1649 and apparently written for private performance around 1640-2. The long gap between the original performances and publication of The Queen and Concubine make it difficult to tell what the provenance of the song is, but it may seem unlikely that Quarles would have incorporated a pre-existing song into his play, especially one deriving from the commercial theatre. If the song is by Quarles, and was written at the same time as the rest of his play, it cannot have featured in early performances of The Queen and Concubine. It is possible that it was incorporated for a revival in the early 1640s, or for a surreptitious performance after the official closure of the public playhouses; on the other hand, it may have been accidentally placed in the manuscript, or have been inserted by the publishers of the 1659 octavo. Like the first song, its lyrics are printed at the head of the play, suggesting that they were originally on a separate sheet of paper.

Although it may not be original to The Queen and Concubine, the song is similar in its sentiments to the ‘Madrygale’ that Barmenissa sings to herself in exile in Greene’s Penelope’s Web:

The stately state that wise men count their good:
The chiefest bliss that lulls asleep desire,
Is not dissent from kings and princely blood:
No stately crown ambition doth require.
For birth by fortune is abased down,
And perils are comprised within a crown.

The sceptre and the glittering pomp of mace,
The head impaled with honour and renown,
The kingly throne, the seat and regal place,
Are toys that fade when angry fortune frown.
Content is far from such delights as those,
Whom woe and danger do envy as foes.

The cottage seated in the hollow dale,
That fortune never fears, because so low:
The quiet mind that want doth set to sale,
Sleeps safe when princes’ seats do overthrow.
Want smiles secure, when princely thoughts do feel
That fear and danger treads upon their heel.

Bless Fortune thou whose frown hath wrought thy good:
Bid farewell to the crown that ends thy care,
The happy fates thy sorrows have withstood,
By ’signing want and poverty thy share.
For now content (fond fortune to despite)
With patience ’lows thee quiet and delight
(D2r-v)

[go to text]

gg2632   waste spend, pass [go to text]

n4547   wearied ] weary (Quarles, Virgin Widow, sig. F1v) [go to text]

gg2633   solemn sombre [go to text]

gg2634   groves, small woods; groups of trees giving shade [go to text]

gg2635   bowers, arbours, leafy glades [go to text]

gg2607   frantic violently or ragingly mad (OED a, 1) [go to text]

gg1374   frolic (a) merry, excited [go to text]

gg2636   pant, ‘to long or wish with breathless eagerness; to gasp with desire; to yearn for, after, or to do something’ (OED v, 3) [go to text]

gs432   breathe exhaust, tire out [go to text]

gg2637   pursy flabby, puffed up (OED a, 1; David Crystal and Ben Crystal, Shakespeare’s Words: A Glossary and Language Companion [London: Penguin, 2002], s.v. pursy). Compare The Weakest Goeth to the Wall (London, 1600): ‘to keep our hands in ure, / And breath our pursy bodies, which I fear, / Would have grown stiff for want of exercise’ (sig. C3v) [go to text]

gg2638   griping grasping, devouring (OED a, 1); painful, distressing (OED a, 2); a ‘gripe’ can also mean a spasmodic pain in the bowels (OED gripe n1, 2b) [go to text]

gg1238   want (n) need, poverty [go to text]

gg2639   sullen dull, drab; gloomy [go to text]

n3023   murder ] murther [go to text]

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