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n9607   ACT FOUR This act comprises two scenes, the first and longer of which returns the audience to Flavia, who is revealed, despite the subversive tendencies she showed on her earlier appearance, to be somewhat spineless when it comes to decisive action that goes against her father, Guadagni’s orders even when it is in defence of her own integrity. In this she affords a marked contrast with the self-possessed Victoria of the previous act. It is Flavia’s maid, Astutta, who continually is in command of the situation: inventive and resourceful. The scene opens on the main stage with Astutta teasing Flavia in a manner that is both tactful and witty in order to put a stop to her mistress’s suicidal histrionics. Astutta has written a letter to Francisco for Flavia to sign that gives him instructions how to help her escape her father’s tyranny. Their next problem is how to get the letter delivered. Nanulo arrives with the news that Guadagni is allowing Fabritio, the intended bridegroom, to send a pedlar-woman with bridal gifts to the house; Astutta decides to use the woman as their go-between. Flavia ignores the woman when she appears, despite Astutta’s promptings, but eventually agrees to look at the gifts Fabritio proffers. These unexpectedly chime more with Flavia’s mood than she might have imagined and she agrees to Astutta’s suggestion that their letter be entrusted to the pedlar’s care. Once that trust is placed in her, the pedlar throws off her disguise to reveal that “she” is really Flavia’s lover, Francisco. The lovers’ rejoicing is short-lived, as Guadagni returns suddenly from his conference with Pantaloni and their lawyers in quest of a document he left behind him. Hastily Francisco is hidden by Flavia in a cupboard “upstairs”; the two women wait “above”, as Guadagni storms through the house (the use of stage levels and of offstage sounds to augment the comic tension here is exemplary), eventually erupting on the upper level requesting the key to the very “press” where Francisco is hidden; Flavia is rendered tongue-tied and swoons in fear of her father. Astutta again takes command, informing Guadagni that his paper is in a particular “cabinet” of Flavia’s and, in the resulting haste to lay hands on it, pushes the box out of the window as if from clumsiness. Guadagni storms off after it (his voice is again heard descending through the house) while, left alone, the women release Francisco and plan their getaway through the back door of the house and into a gondola that Francisco has thoughtfully left waiting in a nearby canal. To gain valuable time, Astutta plans to lock the front door against her master and Nanulo to delay their re-entry. The main playing space now becomes the piazza outside the door to Guadagni’s house, where two zaffi (one in fact Nicolo in his disguise) argue for possession of the casket till quietened by Guadagni’s arrival. Severally Pantaloni and the lawyers and then a “real” pedlar-woman appear on the scene to intensify Guadagni’s fear that his daughter has been abducted, which his inability to get back into his house confirms for him. Nanulo, finding the back door wide open, enters and appears “above” revealing the disguise and the presents which Francisco has abandoned on his flight with Flavia and announcing that the neighbours witnessed the elopement and have informed him in detail of what happened. Nicolo, who earlier had been sent by Pantaloni to fetch his son, Fabritio, to witness the marriage deeds, returns with the news that Fabritio has gone missing, no one knows where. The two distressed fathers plan to take counsel together and resolve how to proceed. After the focus on character, manners and men’s conduct towards women that made up the substance of the previous act, Brome effects a brilliantly contrasting transition to pure farce, steadily increasing the pace of the action, filling his stage at every level with noise and intensifying bustle, and manipulating a multiplicity of varying tonal shifts with masterly control. In the midst of all the flurries of activity, Flavia out of panic just allows herself to be moved about, instructed and finally carried off like a helpless pawn of chance, relying on Astutta and Francisco to take responsibility for her. The difference from the efficient, controlled Victoria could not be stronger. Where Act Three required a tour de force from the actress playing Victoria; this act requires a tour de force of ensemble playing, if the onrushing farce is to be carried off with the required brio.

The second scene is shorter and altogether a quieter affair. Horatio and Piso discuss their failure to lure the Novella to bed, while Fabritio displays himself in his intended disguise. That he looks the double of Swatzenburgh is remarked on by his friends, particularly when he reveals the impressive beard he means to wear. Nicolo brings Borgio to them with the request that they are repair to Victoria’s house to meet with the newly married Flavia and Francisco. Borgio mistakes Fabritio for Swatzenburgh, which lays the ground for some future comic misunderstandings, as Fabritio himself is quick to appreciate. They leave for Victoria’s abode with Fabritio now announcing he will pay court to her too. This sequence shows Brome at his most efficient in terms of dramaturgical necessity as he prepares the ground for his final act, intimating the possibility for resolution but also suggesting that potentially more confusions might prevail. [go to text]

gs1097   move provoke into action [go to text]

gg3060   prevail succeed in persuading, inducing, influencing [go to text]

n9593   Would That is: if, or I wish. [go to text]

gg4843   green-sickness an anæmic disease which mostly affects young women about the age of puberty and gives a pale or greenish tinge to the complexion; generally deployed ironically to denote a girl's mooniness when first in love [go to text]

n7214   Cure you It was thought medically in the 1600s that the condition of green-sickness would be cured once the girl lost her virginity in marriage. [go to text]

n7216   Thing ] thing (It may be that this was intended as a sudden move into prose to justify Flavia's rebuke of Astutta, that she is just babbling senselessly. But the rest of this episode between mistress and chaperone is in verse, which would suggest that this line may be an incomplete verse line too. And so this edition has emended the word, giving it an upper-case initial letter to preserve the metrical beat that lies within the half-line. What an actress might choose to do by way of stage business in the pause suggested by the long dash that concludes the speech is her and the director's decision.) [go to text]

gg4844   prattle foolish, inconsequential, or incomprehensible talk; childish chattering [go to text]

gg1890   moving persuasive, convincing [go to text]

n7218   No means. ] no means (The period text prints this and Astutta's reply as prose but they do scan as lines of verse if laid out as in the emended lineation of the speeches that fall between the two quotations from Astutta's letter.) [go to text]

gs1635   expect wait (for) [go to text]

n7215   I thank thee, good Astutta. This and the following speeches up to number 405 are printed in the 1653 text as verse (lines 1335-1350) but it is wholly irregular, varying in its line lengths from 8 to 13 syllables. While Brome often allows lines to exceed the customary decasyllabic length, it is never by more than 1 or 2 syllables. Perhaps the compositors, confused by a change to prose, which is rarely deployed in this play, were so used to inserting capitals as the initial letters to the first word in any line, that they continued to do so here. This edition has chosen to set the speeches as prose, but would urge performers to note that there is nonetheless, as often in Brome's prose, a strong rhythm present in the phrasing, which gives a degree of heightening to the medium. It is as if Brome wishes to adopt a more intimate tone (now that Astutta has proved her worth and Flavia no longer in consequence sees a need to adopt the pose of love-lorn, suicidal maiden) but does not wish to depart too far from verse to which he will rapidly return once the pedlar-woman asserts her superior authority over Nanulo at speech 406. [go to text]

n7219   the messenger That is: the pedlar-woman whom Flavia and Astutta are expecting at any moment, having been told of her imminent arrival by Nanulo in 2.1. [go to text]

n7220   whole pockets full That is: spongers, parasites and needy borrowers who have at the ready quantities of letters beseeching patronage or letters for entering into credit with anyone willing to lend them money. [go to text]

n7221   Why? I do ] Why I do (It is possible that "Why" is used here in the sense of "But" which would make the reading in the 1653 text admissable. However, Astutta may be demanding to know why she should be silent and asserting that Flavia is being absurd. She is both teasing her mistress and also suggesting that Flavia is getting matters out of proportion. This is a question of characterisation, and that is the ground on which this emendation has been made.) [go to text]

gs1098   dalliest are playing (with), toying, making light of [go to text]

gg4960   lift an act of helping (as in "to give a lift", meaning "to give a helping hand"); but also with the sense of lifting as stealing, a trick (OED n2. 2a and 3) [go to text]

n9591   Enter NANULO [and] FRANCISCO The timing of this entrance in terms of performance needs to be such as to make sense of the last phrase of Astutta's speech: "...and so she's come already". Either Francisco must be advancing towards Astutta and Flavia as the words are spoken or a suitable noise offstage must announce the arrival of new characters whom Astutta rightly supposes to include the Pedlar-Woman. [go to text]

n7507   Look you, lady, I told you true Like the lines that immediately precede this entrance, the initial speeches here for Nanulo and the "pedlar-woman" appear to be set out as highly irregular verse-lines in the 1653 text. Again Brome seems to be deploying a style of prose that has a strong rhythmic undercurrent rather than proper verse; but the compositors have chosen to set the prose with upper-case initial letters for whatever word chances to be at the start of a fresh line of print, which gives an impression that the speeches are in verse. This edition has opted for setting this and the following two speeches as prose. [go to text]

gs1115   party person, individual [go to text]

gg4511   knacks ingenious contrivances; toys, trinkets, trifles, knick-knacks (OED knack n2, 3) [go to text]

gg4962   coy shy, retiring, modest [go to text]

gg4964   diligence officiousness, assiduity, persistence (OED n. 1a and b) [go to text]

n7508   ill, sir, for your eye-sight, and perhaps May spoil your growth Francisco, as the pedlar-woman, implies that Nanulo's interest in women's things is erotic, voyeuristic and masturbatory. To indulge in such matters, Francisco intimates, may affect Nanulo's sight or (rudely and cruelly teasing the fully-grown dwarf over his limited stature) stunt his growing to his proper height. These were medically believed in this period to be the consequences of excessive sexual activity in young men. [go to text]

gs1120   crave demand; entreat (but with authority or absolute right) [go to text]

gs1121   turn scheme, plan, trick [go to text]

n10134   Come, Mistress Bride Video We chose to workshop part of this scene, from the entrance of Francisco, disguised as the Pedlar Woman, down to where Flavia swoons at discovering who the pedlar really is. Our enquiry focused on the performance of disguise. How quickly should the audience twig what’s going on? What kinds of comedy are produced if (a) the audience are not enlightened until Flavia and Astutta are? Or (b) Francisco plays the audience either from the start or from some way into the sequence? What kind of tonal weight should we give to the revelation of the three gifts as coming from a would-be bridegroom: a noose, a dagger and poison? As so often in this play, we seem to hover on the edge of Websterian territory. There are echoes of The Duchess of Malfi and of The Devil’s Law-Case in this episode with its evil-seeming gifts (the former play had been revived by the King’s Men for performance at court during the Christmas season as recently as 1630). Trials and testings of love, chastity and constancy have numerous precedents in Stuart comedy and tragedy. Is Brome just having fun with popular theatrical conventions and tropes or is there a serious intent behind the seeming satire? If the latter, can we determine what his agenda is? This is an early play in the Brome canon and one conceived while the impact of the tragic-comic mode was still in evidence. Is he perhaps experimenting with the dramaturgical artistry required rapidly to shift between contrasting tones and moods? Could one layer all these various possibilities on to the scene in performance? Could one do this and not appear to reduce the characters to being little more than vehicles for Brome’s dramaturgical expertise?

A simple read-through established that once the gifts were proffered and seen, it was not easy to sustain a tone of comedy in the scene. Flavia has throughout her various scenes been fluctuating between strongly contrasting moods: she wants to be united with her Francisco and is overwhelmed with joy at any development of the plot that brings that union closer but equally lapses into deep despair at any intimation that their marriage will be prevented. She is a creature of extremes (very different from the self-possessed Victoria) and therein might lie an element of comedy but for the dark suicidal intent that possesses her whenever she cannot get her way. The giving of the presents, which are each in turn mementoes of death, emblematic of a series of famous suicides, is not seen by her (as by Astutta and, doubtless, the audience) as cruel and vicious; rather she welcomes them as giving her the means of ending her own life, should she need to. Flavia may be perverse but it is difficult to see her as absurd. Here, even in the initial reading of this sequence, the talismanic power of the gifts for Flavia produces a chilling atmosphere. Within the space of twenty lines, as Hannah Watkins (Flavia) pointed out, the text demanded that she move from angry indignation and scorn, through a resolute acceptance of death, to an absolute rapture in gazing on Francisco’s portrait. Here might perhaps be the material for farce, except that the poetry and the pacing of the presentation of the gifts invited shock and uncertainty in spectators rather than their ridicule. To laugh at Flavia’s wild, youthful emotional paroxysms would be to meet the cruelty inherent in the presents of noose, knife and poison with another kind of cruelty. The editors watching this attempt at playing the scene were shocked too by the matter-of-fact, coldly detached and menacing tone of Joseph Thompson’s delivery while presenting the gifts. Flavia’s emotionalism met with the grim realities of death (the moment drew comparisons with Bosola’s presentation of coffin and noose to the Duchess of Malfi, when he visits her as the fatal bellman). All felt that a mounting hysteria overwhelms Flavia so that the sudden revelation of Francisco is too much and she faints. A logical reading of the progress of Flavia’s character through the scene was beginning to emerge, but one that was productive of a tone closer to the tragic-comic than the downright amusing. Brian Woolland, the director, thought that the slowing of the pace with the opening of the box and revealing of its contents could be slowed yet further and encouraged Joseph to entice Hannah towards the box by adopting a “storyteller’s tone” to contrast the more with his delivery when showing the actual contents, one by one. The ensuing discussion focused on a number of smaller issues: the possibility of a textual error in “Cleopatra’s ashes”, which led to a decision to emend the line; a questioning of whose arms Flavia swoons into which was resolved in favour of Francisco’s, which would allow him to deliver most of speech 448 (beginning “Cursed be this idle habit” as direct address to the audience) before turning back to Flavia for the final line, which is clearly directed at her. It was decided to attempt to resolve these questions in a further run; Brian instructed Hannah as Flavia to be drawn to the box as if mesmerized and to surprise, even shock the audience by not being insulted but grateful to Fabritio when his gifts were revealed: that she respected what seemed in the situation to be his wish to give her a way out of the impossible situation forced on them by their fathers. What Brian asked everyone to do was “to play true to the emotional moment”. Here is the scene in full which resulted from these theoretical examinations of the text.

Brian spoke for everyone in commenting on the compelling strangeness of the sequence as it had just been acted. This was particularly the case with the way that Hannah’s being drawn to the box had been supplemented in the playing by her kneeling to touch each of the gifts in turn. Richard Cave commented on how drama had now been created by her movement within the playing space: that initially, placed over to stage left, she had wished to quit it, but had been drawn back firmly to occupy centre stage beside the pedlar’s box, only to begin moving confidently with the giving and showing of the portrait between Francisco and Astutta. Offered tokens of death and of life, she had chosen the latter and begun to demonstrate physically the psychological impact of that choice. Both lovers, however, emerged from the sequence in a critical light as tending to go too far: she in her hyper-emotionalism; he in his need to test and assure himself of her love for him. Neither seemingly trusts that the other is capable of being steadfast in feeling or in honour. The tragic potential of the scene seemed to emphasize the emotional immaturity of them both. Brian thought that the strangeness of the scene could, if one were playing to emphasize its darker aspects, be made even more so by two things. Flavia, picking up each of the gifts, might particularly dwell on the flask of poison, which we are informed is instantly lethal. Secondly Brian noted that Joseph as Francisco, who had begun the scene with a mock-female voice, had steadily begun to lose it as he felt the force of Flavia’s presence; and he opined that, since the audience are no more aware than Flavia who the pedlar woman truly is, he might have added to the strangeness by slightly stressing this tonal shift and that Flavia and Astutta might subliminally register the change in timbre, pitch and accent too and be puzzled by it, even though their awareness is directed at the gifts. The actors played the sequence again, endeavouring to bring these various points into their interpretation. This was the result.

It was decided at this point in the workshop, as the situation was moving towards stressing the element of strangeness in the scene, that perhaps we had too easily dismissed at first the potential for playing it as full-on comedy. While the original blocking in the space was retained, the actors were asked to heighten how they were playing: Joseph, for example, was to make his impersonation of a woman more mannered and to find ways of sending cues to the audience that his was an assumed persona. Given her name, it was felt that there was room in the text to allow Astutta, (the astute one) who is otherwise largely a spectator of what is happening, to begin steadily to suspect from the strangeness that the situation is not what it seems. The fact that in the previous attempt Joseph continually turned his face away when either of the women came within close proximity to him might be used by Olivia Darnley as Astutta to help with this new line of characterisation.

While this was undeniably funny, the style was directly farcical, verging at times on the camp. It is not, of course, easy to play comedy from cold: often it is necessary for actors to go to an extreme to find what happens, and then to find ways of reining the performance in without losing the comic momentum that has been discovered. Some details of this last reading were to be valued and developed: particularly the growing interest built into the role of Astutta, who in this version had suspicions from early in the scene that grew graver as it progressed. This grew logically out of the growing protectiveness that Olivia was demonstrating towards Flavia. Hannah’s accentuating Flavia’s childishness brought out into the open a quality that resides in the conception of the role, especially in the moment when, having had the dagger taken from her, she immediately grasped the bottle of poison. Joseph’s making more evident that this was indeed a test of Flavia’s constancy signalled clearly to the audience that his appearance was a disguise. The fact that the test went horribly wrong in the final moments confirmed his immature thinking and expectations too. Overall a notable strength in this last staging was that the audience were being encouraged to see what was occurring onstage through different characters’ eyes. The actors made one last attempt at the scene: working with what had been agreed were the strengths of their previous playing, they aimed now for a more refined comic style. What impresses with this final attempt is how vestiges of each of the earlier renderings can be traced like palimpsests behind this one. It is not uproariously funny but it is not heavily tragic either; rather the performance sustains a meticulous balance between the tonal ranges of both genres. Passion renders Flavia and Francisco childish and absurd, but there is no denying a depth of feeling in the two. The danger which seems to threaten in the sequence is to be registered but is nonetheless held in check by Astutta’s shrewdness so that all her random lines have significance and weight of a kind to point the alert spectator to follow and to some degree adopt her line of suspicion. The sophisticated poise of the playing invited as complex a response from the audience, moving between bemusement and amusement until the release into laughter that came with Flavia’s fainting and Francisco’s shocked awareness that he had not thought through the likely consequences of his scheme very sensibly. We watch here two lovers trapped by their unthinking folly rather than lovers who are victims of their own absurdity. [go to text]

gg4672   prefixed appointed, arranged (beforehand) [go to text]

gg4967   Break with begin to negotiate, open up discussions, start to barter [go to text]

gg4971   offer make (such) a proposal, suggest (such a thing) (OED offer v, 3g) [go to text]

n7515   good turn That is: the marital sex that is imminent ("the best turn in the bed"). [go to text]

n7517   near That is: about to happen soon. [go to text]

gg1781   ere before [go to text]

gg1162   ware goods (whether used in the singular as "ware" or plural) [go to text]

n7523   chains chains made of gold links forming a necklace or belt [go to text]

n7525   five-hundred crowns A crown was worth five shillings (sterling) and so five hundred amounted to £125. The National Archive Currency Converter indicates that in 2009 this sum would be worth £10,725.00. [go to text]

gs1122   work a skilfully made, intricate decoration, such as a headpiece or necklace, made of golden wire on and from which jewels were hung [go to text]

gs1123   relation gift to establish good relations between two people [go to text]

n7531   Lucrece’ knife Lucrece in ancient Rome was raped by king Tarquin; he was forced to flee the city and was defeated in an ensuing battle; she committed suicide by stabbing herself with a sword or dagger. [go to text]

n7534   Portia’s coals Portia, a confirmed stoic like her father, Cato, in the period after the assassination of Julius Caesar when her husband, Brutus, fled Rome with the other conspirators, committed suicide by swallowing fire in the form of hot coals. [go to text]

n7535   Cleopatra’s asps Cleopatra famously killed herself within her monument in ancient Egypt by allowing asps (poisonous snakes) to bite her body, as she feared that after the death of her lover and protector, Mark Antony, she would be cruelly treated by his enemy, Octavius Caesar. [go to text]

n7536   asps All but one of the copies of the 1653 text collated for this edition, including the British Library volume that is my copy text, carry the reading "ashes", which clearly does not make sense in terms of historical fact. Maybe the compositor misread a floridly ornate "p" in the likely spelling "aspes" as an "h". The copy housed in Eton College Library has "aspes" but it is not absolutely clear whether this is a very neat handwritten emendation (of which there are several in the volume) or an actual press correction. [go to text]

gs1125   fit match, meet (with the additional sense of doing so "fittingly", "aptly") [go to text]

gg4979   vial a small glass bottle, or phial [go to text]

gg4995   Conditionally on the condition that, only if [go to text]

gg4996   scorn’ show of contempt, insult or mockery [go to text]

gg3456   or either [go to text]

gs1130   lively lifelike, bringing the subject to life [go to text]

gg4997   exceeding exceedingly, very (an intensive) [go to text]

n9315   trow ] troe [go to text]

gg4252   trow I wonder [go to text]

gg2288   hapless unfortunate [go to text]

gs1131   trespass rudeness [go to text]

gg4998   Recall recollect; restore, revive (OED v1. 3c and 4) [go to text]

n7572   him, your love ] him your love (One is tempted to emend this to "him you love". But the reading in the 1653 text is defendable, if "your love" is taken to be in apposition to "him", along with the words "friend" and "Francisco". Another way of punctuating this, which would make this reading clearer, would be: "Of him (your love, his friend: Francisco)".) [go to text]

gg4999   needlesses needlessness, pointlessness (OED records no use of "needless" as a noun as here) [go to text]

gs1132   work prepare, teach, train [go to text]

gg2323   charge (n) cost, expense [go to text]

gg2741   ducats gold, sometimes silver, coins used in several European countries including Italy; an Italian ducat was worth around 3s. 6d in the 1600s (roughly £15.60 in currency in 2009) [go to text]

gs29   but only [go to text]

gg5000   further help, support, promote, encourage [go to text]

n7573   Seal it It was customary in the 1630s and earlier to seal private letters by dropping hot wax onto the carefully folded document and then impressing the wax with one's private seal (usually a metal disk with a raised or embossed pattern). [go to text]

gs1133   privy familiar, acquainted, privately aware of [go to text]

n10135   Where I meet doubts, I never undertook. There was some discussion amongst the panel of editors when this line occurred in the workshop involving this scene. One could emend it to read either "Where I met doubts, I never undertook" or "Where I meet doubts, I never undertake". The first is the easier to defend in terms of a small compositorial misreading; but the wording of the 1653 text has been retained here for its dramatic immediacy, even if the shift in tense makes for poor syntax. As printed, the line gives a sense of an ongoing principle embracing past, present and future: it is a decree absolute that is not open to discussion. [go to text]

gg5019   undertook committed oneself to an enterprise, entered into a compact with, made oneself answerable for (another person) (OED undertake v, 8, 9 and 10) [go to text]

gg5020   inexpiable (of an offence) that cannot be atoned for, unforgiveable, unappeasable [go to text]

n7609   Hence disguise It is clear from the text that Francisco first removes part of the disguise, maybe swathing around his head; but then, when he gets no immediate response from Flavia, throws off his outer clothing to reveal his true self. It is open to the actress playing Flavia to choose how quickly she recognises Francisco: whether she knows her lover instantly but is utterly tongue-tied or whether she is either confused or unsure at first. This moment establishes something of a pattern within the final two acts of the drama, where one by one several characters reveal themselves to be in disguise and "unmask". This may be interpreted as a well-worn theatrical device or as Brome taking a satirical stance against a world where playing a role is an accepted social norm. Here Francisco admits his adopting a disguise was partly devised as a means of getting access to Flavia but also as a way of testing her integrity and depth of affection for him. In other words he chooses to compromise his own integrity in order to examine the strength of hers. [go to text]

n7610   She swoons ] Shee swounds. [go to text]

gs1135   idle pointless, useless [go to text]

gs1134   habit garment [go to text]

gg5021   impious wicked, wanting in due reverence or respect, lacking a proper dutifulness [go to text]

gg5022   jealousy apprehension, anxiety (OED n. 4) [go to text]

gg4352   mistrust suspicion, distrust, doubt [go to text]

gg5023   ’Slight! An expletive (a shortening of the phrase: "By God's light!") [go to text]

n9593   Would That is: if, or I wish. [go to text]

n7611   Whilst I look down to ’scape discovery. That is: while I look about downstairs to ensure we have avoided being discovered. Astutta's fear is that their noise will have provoked the watchful Nannulo's suspicions and that he will come to investigate. [go to text]

n7612   a qualm of kindness, this Astutta means that Flavia's swooning is but a fainting-fit brought on by the intensity of her feelings for Francisco. [go to text]

gg1606   qualm sudden fit of faintness, illness, or sickness; (often associated with) fearfulness, faintheartedness (OED n3. 1 and 2a) [go to text]

gg5024   kindness a feeling of tenderness or fondness; affection (OED 5) [go to text]

gg667   peace (int.) be quiet; keep calm [go to text]

gs1136   handsomely carefully, gently (OED 3b) [go to text]

gg5025   nakedness openness to attack or injury; vulnerability, defencelessness (OED 4) [go to text]

gg5026   pull bring down (misfortune or disaster) on (one's head) (OED v. 16b) [go to text]

gg5027   blown up destroyed, ruined (OED blow v1, 25. Though OED does not record a usage before 1660, this is clearly the sense here.) [go to text]

gs1137   craft There may be a punning use of the word here embracing both the sense of cunning and that of the tools of the pedlar-woman's trade (her box of wares). [go to text]

n7613   gondola ] gondalo [go to text]

gs1138   surprise take unawares and capture (OED n. 1 and 2b) [go to text]

gs1139   control take control of, seize hold of [go to text]

n7614   I have blasphemed in my security That is: in mentioning Paradise just now I have taken holy things in vain when I was over confident. [go to text]

gg1080   don put on (wear) [go to text]

gg1079   weeds clothes [go to text]

gs1683   fly hasten away; be quick and go [go to text]

gg686   closet private room, study [go to text]

gs1140   fit supply, equip (OED v1. 11b) make ready, prepare (OED v1. 6a) [go to text]

gs632   care affectionate concern [go to text]

gs687   cross a vexation, a misfortune (OED n. 10b) [go to text]

gg688   constrained forced, compelled [go to text]

gg5028   allured tempted, enticed [go to text]

n7615   ravish you to large expense The use of the word "ravish" here neatly puns on two meanings of the word: "entrance" and "deprive". Astutta means that the pedlar's goods are so exquisite that Guadagni will be compelled to spend huge sums of money on buying them. [go to text]

gs1141   fit fitting, apt [go to text]

gg5029   jump precisely at this very moment (with sense too of "fortuitously") [go to text]

n7616   gallery Galleries in seventeenth-century houses of any substance were usually long rooms where a family's treasures were displayed or a place where in inclement weather a family walked up and down for exercise. It was often a place to which visitors were directed to wait an audience with members of the family. However, Brome may have been influenced by Coryat's descriptions of Venetian buildings which repeatedly refer to the architectural beauty of the galleries constructed in Venetian palaces and merchant's houses which were often open-sided to allow viewing of the canals below. Coryat writes: "Every Palace of any principall note hath a prety walke or open gallery betwixt the wall of the house and the brincke of the rivers banke, the edge or extremity whereof is garnished with faire pillers that are finely arched at the top. [...] Somewhat above the middle of the front of the building, or [...] a little beneath the toppe of the front they have right opposite unto their windows, a very pleasant little tarrasse, that jutteth or butteth out from the maine building: the edge whereof is decked with many prety litle turned pillers, either of marble or free stone to leane over. [...] They give great grace to the whole edifice, and serve only for this purpose, that people may from that place as from a most delectable prospect contemplate and view the parts of the City round about them in the coole evening" (Thomas Coryat, Coryat's Crudities, 2 vols. [Glasgow: James MacLehose for Glasgow University Press, 1905], p. 307). [go to text]

gg3985   dispatch make haste, get a move on [go to text]

gg5030   cost expenditure, outlay (OED n2. 1b) [go to text]

gg4611   gauds something gaudy; showy ornaments, pieces of finery; gewgaws (OED n2. 2) [go to text]

gg2465   trifles trivial things [go to text]

n9594   One rings That is: the sound of a bell is heard from offstage. [go to text]

gg5031   qualified controlled, regulated, modified (OED qualify v, 13) [go to text]

gs980   providence prudent management or provision (OED 1a and 4) [go to text]

n9316   Enter FLAVIA and ASTUTTA above The 1653 text positions this entrance after Astutta's speech, "What have you done with him?". If the scene is to flow rapidly in performance to sustain the comic dynamic, then it is imperative that the line be spoken even as the two women make their entrance. Hence the repositioning of the stage direction in this edition. [go to text]

n7618   Enter FLAVIA and ASTUTTA above As this scene develops, Brome avails himself of the full resources of the Blackfriars theatre, playing out one scene on the main stage while introducing a degree of counterpoint by now having characters appearing on the upper stage level, as the lower level empties. Soon he will be deploying both spaces within one piece of action, making for dramatic tension and extending the potential for comic invention by allowing the characters and action in one space to subvert what is occuring within the other. [go to text]

n7619   him That is, Francisco, whom Astutta bid Flavia hide in her "cabinet". The comment allows an audience to suppose that this sequence has moved to that very cabinet and Astutta is expecting to find both lovers there. [go to text]

gg2516   press (n) large cupboard, usually with shelves, often used for clothes (OED n. 15) [go to text]

gg1946   undone ruined, destroyed [go to text]

gg3457   nor neither [go to text]

gg5034   stink break wind to emit a foul smell or even defecate through fear [go to text]

gg5035   aqua-vitae (literally, water of life from the Latin) all-but-pure alcohol, spirits such as brandy [go to text]

n7620   Within Brome adds to the sense of mounting tension by allowing the audience to hear Guadagni's approach. Offstage sound for comic effect is a device continually deployed by Brome: his use reaches its most inventive in The Antipodes (acted 1638). [go to text]

n7621   best betray all Astutta is being deeply ironic, as she often is with Flavia, whom she continually treats as the child she once nursed. [go to text]

n7622   Here father, here sir. Astutta mimics Flavia's voice, since she seems dumbstruck by the crisis. [go to text]

n7623   look as nothing were, all will be nought else That is: look as if nothing whatever is the matter, or else all is lost. [go to text]

gg2516   press (n) large cupboard, usually with shelves, often used for clothes (OED n. 15) [go to text]

gg4899   cabinet a case for the safe custody of jewels, or other valuables (OED n. 5) [go to text]

n7624   Where is your key of this? Give me’t, give me’t. Astutta here mimics Guadagni in his urgency, making demands of Flavia. [go to text]

gg5036   perplexes confuses, baffles, troubles (renders anxious) [go to text]

n9595   giddy-headed That is: flighty, mad-brained. Interestingly, OED cites the earliest uses of this compound in Brome, but gives Covent Garden Weeded as its example, dating the use erroneously as 1652. [go to text]

gs290   harlot not necessarily sexual: can be a generally pejorative term for a woman [go to text]

n7637   recover’t. Nanulo! Nanulo! ] recover't, Nanulo, /Nanulo. [go to text]

n7638   gondola ] gondalo [go to text]

n9317   haste ] hast [go to text]

n7639   unpress That is: let Francisco out of the press (the cupboard, where he has been in hiding). Clearly this injunction should be followed up with appropriate action, since Francisco needs to be liberated in time for his line at speech 500[NV 4.1.speech500]. No stage direction has been included in the text since there has to be at this juncture a sense of great hurry about the upper stage level and a cast must build Francisco's appearance out of the press into whatever business they design overall. [go to text]

gg2674   wit intelligence, wisdom; quickness, ingenuity [go to text]

gg5045   saint to call (a person) a saint; give the name of ‘saint’ to; to reckon among the saints (OED v. 2a) [go to text]

gg5046   calendared registered in the calendar of saints or saints' days [go to text]

n7640   love ] Love (The 1653 reading could be taken to mean (by virtue of the initial capital letter and the use of italics) not just the general state of love but the very god of Love, Cupid or Eros, which makes Francisco's statement even more forcefully blasphemous than as represented in this edition. But this is an effect available only to readers. It would be difficult in the modern theatre to convey readily to audiences the connection with Cupid and the blasphemy of the sentence.) [go to text]

n7641   Enter a ZAFFI, taking up the cabinet. Once again Brome is neatly deploying the full resources of the Blackfriars Theatre. Even as three characters leave the upper playing area, two more enter on the main stage, while we also hear "within" the sound of Guadagni descending through his house. Brome expertly conveys a sense of the geography of the house in which this scene is situated and the relation of certain rooms within it to the street outside. In this dramaturgical mastery of stage space Brome may have been influenced by his mentor, Ben Jonson's handling of the spaces within and outside Lovewit's house in The Alchemist. (This was another of the King's Men's plays, acted in 1610 and revived by them for the 1631-32 season, the season before that in which The Novella was first staged). [go to text]

gg5975   ZAFFI a state officer of the law in Venice, either acting as a guard or carrying out business for the various governing bodies [go to text]

gs1013   habit a costume appropriate to a particular function or office, a uniform expressing a particular rank or position in society [go to text]

n7642   St. Mark One of the four evangelists and the patron saint of Venice. [go to text]

gg5047   Half-part share-and-share alike; divide equally between [go to text]

gs1146   very truly entitled to the name or designation, as absolute a (knave) as [go to text]

gg5048   owes owns, possesses (OED v. 1a) [go to text]

n9675   share before the dog that owes it Take the bone from us both? The origin of this proverbial phrase (two dogs strive for a bone while a third, usually a cur, runs away with it) is to be found in Aesop's Fables. M.P. Tilley in his Dictionary of the Proverbs in England in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1950) lists it as D545, and also records a usage in Arden of Faversham. [go to text]

n9592   Oh, you watch well above there. Guadagni needs to direct this with a glance or gesture at the upper playing level (in spectators' imaginations an upper room in Guadagni's house) where he supposes Astutta is still standing, not realising in his haste and anxiety that she is no longer there. [go to text]

gs1147   watch act as sentinel, look-out or guard [go to text]

n7647   ear-marked villains It was a customary form of (English) punishment for thieves to be branded to signify their crime or to have parts of their bodies removed. The cutting off of ears and slitting of noses was a common mode of punishment, usually executed in public when the criminal was being displayed in the stocks. Brome's plays abound in references to the practice, especially after this punishment was meted out to William Prynne, a high-profile example of such brutality, on charges of treasonous writing against the queen. [go to text]

gg3084   instrument "a person made use of by another [...] for the accomplishment of a purpose" (OED n. 1b); an agent, tool [go to text]

gs1148   counterfeit impostor, dissembler (OED n. 2) [go to text]

gs843   relieve rescue, assist (OED v. 1a); also used specifically to refer to legal relief (OED v. 1d) [go to text]

gg5050   confirmation ratifying (of a legal document) (OED 2) [go to text]

gg1163   moved provoked, disturbed [go to text]

gg613   crossed frustrated, jinxed; (literally) run across (one's path) [go to text]

gs1148   counterfeit impostor, dissembler (OED n. 2) [go to text]

gg1982   examination inquiry (by questioning) [go to text]

n7669   Hear me Aside, sir ] Hear me aside /Sir (The 1653 reading produces a highly irregular verse line. If emended as in the modernised text, then this gives a decasyllabic first line to Nicolo's speech and marks a particular stress on the word, "Aside", which is appropriate in the context, since Nicolo has no wish for Pantaloni's scheme concerning his revenge on Victoria to be made public.) [go to text]

n7671   the woman That is, as Guadagni, supposes: the Pedlar-woman. [go to text]

n7672   He gives the cabinet to NAN[ULO] The fact that this direction requires Guadagni to be in possession of the cabinet means that at some point after the entrance of Pantaloni and the lawyers, Nicolo must have seized the box and returned it to its owner. Cast and director will have to work out appropriate business to effect this transfer of the prop. The actor playing Nicolo might, for example, thrust the box at his accuser immediately before he takes Pantaloni confidentially aside. This also supposes that the box is at this time actually in Nicolo's possession, since up to the arrival of Guadagni, Nicolo and the Zaffi have been competing to get hold of it. As it is the genuine Zaffi who, when challenged by Guadagni, informs on Nicolo by revealing him to be an impostor, maybe a cast could work out a pattern of comic business whereby he relinquishes hold of the box just before he charges Nicolo with being a "counterfeit". This is a likely pattern of stage business but it has not been entered into a series of stage directions to leave actors free to improvise both movements and timing. [go to text]

gg1052   feat stunt, tour de force, trick [go to text]

gg5977   treated negotiated, consulted with [go to text]

gg5056   carnifex executioner [go to text]

gs1152   fitted made ready, given your instructions [go to text]

n7677   habit of a Dutchman Much of the comedy in this, the previous and the ensuing, final act will derive from the audience's response to recognising distinctive styles of national wear (French, Spanish and Dutch). The French style was ornate and often highly decorated; the Spanish garb was more severe, figure-fitting in a manner that drew the torso precisely upright into an elevated posture; Dutch and German men were noted for sporting "slops" (wide, baggy breeches and hose, which gave wearers a distinct bottom-heavy look). Since the text has referred [NV 3.1.speech365] to Don Pedro as looking like Surly in Jonson's The Alchemist when he dresses up as a Spanish Count, it is conceivable that the King's Men deployed the same costume for Don Pedro as for Surly. Numerous plays in the sixteenth century refer to slops, so such articles of attire are likely to have been included in the company's wardrobe and be available for Brome's use. The same is true of French attire. The more recognisable the clothing as stock material from the wardrobe, the more the difference to be found in Brome's handling of type figures might be appreciated. [go to text]

gg128   habit clothing [go to text]

n7678   The best jest. Ha, ha, ha! Brome creates mirth for spectators by juxtaposing two conversations between masters and servants across each other, leaving Guadagni turning this way and that as he tries to attend to both focal points of interest. [go to text]

gg5974   Fool play the fool with; tease [go to text]

n7679   stay you there Various meanings of the words, "why" and "stay" hover perhaps punningly in this usage. Guadagni may be puzzled why Nicolo is still lingering (staying) close to Pantaloni, but it is clear too that the younger man is looking to or relying on the older man for support or help (OED stay v2, 3b). Alternatively the speech could be differently punctuated to read: "Why! Stay you there, sirrah." In this reading Nicolo presumes (having conveyed his private message to his master) that he can leave but is stopped in his tracks by Guadagni's outburst. In this instance "Why!" would carry the meaning "Why are you moving?" or "Where do you think you are going?" Nicolo would be obliged to respond literally to the injunction "Stop" until released by Pantaloni's defence of his conduct. A cast might explore both possibilities. [go to text]

gs1153   shift change your clothes [go to text]

gs1684   fast locked [go to text]

gg5057   make havoc pillage and rape (the term is usually applied to an army that has seized an enemy stronghold and is allowed to seize all spoils available) [go to text]

n7680   It is no dallying. That is: this is not a time to dally; get a move on; shift yourself. [go to text]

n9318   NANULO ex[its] The 1653 text positions this exit midway through Pantaloni's speech in the right-hand margin after "fetch a smith". This edition has repositioned the direction at the close of Pantaloni's speech, but it could be played with a frightened Nanulo beginning to hasten from the stage before fully hearing his instructions. [go to text]

n7682   by good appointment That is: (I was) properly commissioned. [go to text]

n7683   bride-laces These were often elaborate laces with silver ends that were used to thread a bodice or tie a bodice to a skirt. They were given as tokens of love and devotion by a groom to his future bride or as presents to either partner in a marriage from a well-wisher. Compare the sequence in Act 4 of Brome and Heywood's The Late Lancashire Witches where a groom on his wedding-night is rendered impotent after inserting in his codpiece such a lace which was given to him by a former lover who, being a witch, has put a curse on the object. [go to text]

gs1154   curious unusual, distinctive, intricate [go to text]

gg978   dressings head-dresses [go to text]

gg4591   deck array, adorn, decorate [go to text]

gg3271   ween think [go to text]

n7684   Holds it That is: is it being held? Will it take place as planned? [go to text]

gs1027   fit (v) supply, furnish, or provide [go to text]

n7685   new fashioned Two meanings are latent here: both newly made (where fashioned means fabricated, sewn, manufactured) and newly in fashion. [go to text]

gg4609   tires (derived from attire): coverings, modes of dressing, or ornaments for a woman's head; head-dresses [go to text]

gg5063   secret clandestine, covert, stealthy, hidden [go to text]

n7686   [Enter] NANULO above In the 1653 text this direction is inserted in the right hand margin alongside the two lines of Nanulo's speech, beginning "Hence let me fall to earth" (NV 4.1.1654-1655). Clearly for the comedy of his initial words to have their full effect, he must enter either before or while speaking them, hence this edition has moved the positioning of the direction. Once again in terms of his dramaturgy, Brome is exploiting the various playing levels of the theatre to make for rapidly shifting tones of comedy. The audience know precisely how Nanulo must have got himself to that upper level (when it appeared to him and his master that the doors of the house were shut against them), which makes Guadagni's next line all the funnier. Throughout this scene spectators are invariably one step ahead of the characters, having been carefully informed of all the plotting that is going on, so that the confusion of the characters onstage will inevitably elicit their superior laughter. [go to text]

gg5069   conveyed carried off clandestinely; stolen away furtively [go to text]

gg5070   Loaden weighed down, laden [go to text]

n7694   deceptio visus That is, his means of disguising his appearance (Latin, meaning a deceitful appearance). [go to text]

gg3210   charmed influenced by magic power, bewitched, under a spell [go to text]

n7695   juggling box box of conjuring tricks, of magic and sleights of hand [go to text]

gs1156   toys tricks [go to text]

n7696   NANULO shows the habit, the cord etc This direction, printed as a single line here, is in the 1653 text sited as a block of three lines in the right hand margin alongside the dialogue, starting from Nanulo's line beginning, "The cursed cloak...". The direction is divided as follows: "Nan. shows /(the ha-/ (bit, the cord &c.". [go to text]

gg1134   habit friendliness (dialect?) [go to text]

n7698   you know where That is: pursuing his unwelcome courtship of Victoria. [go to text]

gs1157   doubtful ambiguous, equivocal, indeterminate [go to text]

gg5071   vagary capricious conduct (often involving a journey or excursion) [go to text]

gs1159   fetch go in quest of (OED v. 1) [go to text]

gg869   Forbear avoid, shun [go to text]

gs1080   against in anticipation of, in preparation for, in time for (OED 19) [go to text]

gs1161   jerks witticisms, gibes, sallies [go to text]

gg5073   quillets verbal niceties, quibbles [go to text]

gg5074   petulant impudent, insolent, rude [go to text]

n7700   misery That is: on miserable people, on unfortunates who are criminals and their like. [go to text]

gg2704   circumvent cheat, outwit [go to text]

n7701   the wit Brome is using a complex grammatical compression here, in which "that which" has to be understood as preceeding "the wit". The advice is that the two old men find means to avoid what Francisco ("the wit") has effected to their discomfort. "Wit" could also be interpreted as the "trick" that has been levelled at Guadagni and Pantaloni. [go to text]

gg5075   charge A grammatical and linguistic compression: charge here carries a double meaning. First: require ("this officer") or command (him); and secondly: to bring a charge against "this woman", or to take (her) in charge. [go to text]

n9319   who by examination ] who by'examination (The apostrophe would appear to be a means of indicating an elision of the two words that the punctuation mark seems to separate.) [go to text]

gs416   examination judicial inquiry; inspection, scrutiny; formal interrogation [go to text]

gg2493   discovery disclosure, revelation [go to text]

gs575   discover uncover [go to text]

gg1162   ware goods (whether used in the singular as "ware" or plural) [go to text]

n280   ready money cash (rather than credit) [go to text]

n7706   Take her to custody. The 1653 text sets this and the next six lines of what is fast, cross-cutting dialogue as if they were prose. But there is a rhythm to the quick-fire exchange (a help to actors to sustain the pace) and the lines are regular enough to be set as verse; and so the text has been appropriately emended in this edition. [go to text]

gg5080   recollect compose, rally one's spirits (OED v1. 4 and 6) [go to text]

gg5082   call home summon, take command of [go to text]

gg3876   approved commended, said to be good (OED ppl, 3; here the first citation is given as occurring in Milton’s Paradise Lost, first published 1667) [go to text]

n9320   sudden ] soddaine [go to text]

gg5084   Advise ponder, deliberate, consider, take thought (OED v. 6) [go to text]

gs1166   use make, practise, employ [go to text]

n7710   All exit ] Exeunt om[nes]. [go to text]

n7731   the fort Fabritio means Victoria and her chastity. [go to text]

gg5094   impregnable that cannot be overcome or vanquished; invincible; unconquerable [go to text]

gs1172   composition assembling, putting together, amassing [go to text]

gg2741   ducats gold, sometimes silver, coins used in several European countries including Italy; an Italian ducat was worth around 3s. 6d in the 1600s (roughly £15.60 in currency in 2009) [go to text]

n7732   to be entered The grammatical sense of this requires the relating of the initial words with the final three: "no way to be entered but by...". Piso is continuing the metaphor of the fortress which is under seige: that entry will not be by any means of attack but by settling the financial demand. [go to text]

gg2941   Sure for certain, rest assured [go to text]

n7733   noble That is: nobler. The choice of words here, however, indicates that the men had not supposed any woman setting herself up as a courtesan could be of noble birth. They are gradually coming to the conclusion that Victoria is of a higher social status than any of them imagined. [go to text]

gg724   jeered mocked [go to text]

n7734   Monsieurship That is: Horatio's French disguise. The combining of the French "monsieur" with the decidedly English "-ship" neatly conveys the role-play involved in the form of a linguistic joke. [go to text]

gs1173   and in spite of [go to text]

gs1072   qualities abilities, accomplishments, cultual and aesthetic gifts [go to text]

gg5095   skitterbrook one who befouls his breeches; a coward (this would appear to be a Brome coinage, as the OED cites the only usages as occurring in The Novella [NV 4.2.speech583] and in The Court Beggar [CB 4.2.speech771]) [go to text]

gg1431   slops baggy breeches or hose, often called Dutch slops (OED n1. 4a) (the title page of Middleton and Dekker's The Roaring Girl has an illustration of Mary Frith dressed in slops (available on EEBO); the portrait of Sir Martin Frobisher (painted by Cornelius Ketel, 1577, owned by the Bodleian, and available online) illustrates the slops often worn by sailors: see http://elizabethangeek.com/costumereview/image.mhtml?image_id=58 [go to text]

gg1611   cozened beguiled, deceived [go to text]

gs1174   rate standard of living, level of domestic expenditure [go to text]

n7735   howe’er maintained Literally this means: whatever the source of her income. But the word "maintained" carries particular associations in relation to a courtesan, who was usually maintained (in the sense of "kept") by a benefactor in return for her sexual services. He provided for her standard of living, dressing, entertaining. [go to text]

n7736   comings in This is a neat pun: the phrase can mean Victoria's revenues, but as a courtesan her income would be governed by the number of comings into her house of clients intent on purchasing her services. [go to text]

n7737   for their livings This means: to provide for their livelihood or furnish them with an income. [go to text]

gg5096   feature good proportions of the body or face; comeliness; beauty [go to text]

n7738   knee-trick This seems to be one of Brome's coinages. He was later to use the term, "knee-labour" meaning kneeling in The Antipodes but here he seems to be calling on the rather coy usage in the 1600s of "kneestead" and "kneeward" to mean in the vicinity of the genitalia (see OED knee n, 13). Given the rather crude tone of the conversation between the gallants here, the reference might be to the tactic of forcibly widening a woman's legs by strategic placing of the man's knees to allow him easy penetration. [go to text]

gg5097   eunuchised (be) made a eunuch, castrated [go to text]

n7741   [Enter NICOLO] No direction for Nicolo's entrance is given in the 1653 text. [go to text]

gg5098   pimp procurer; go-between [go to text]

gs1175   translated transformed; changed in appearance [go to text]

n7742   translated out of Sober Italian The 1653 text places the line-break after "sober", but that creates two irregular verse lines. By emending as in this edition two properly formed pentameters result with the second line having the rhythmic force almost of an aphorism. [go to text]

n7739   high Dutch There is a pun on the word "high" relating to Fabritio's "gorgeous" attire in the Dutch fashion, where the meaning is elaborate, expensive, of the highest quality. But also the word reflects on his status as aristocratic in appearance and therefore one most likely to speak "high" rather than "low" German. [go to text]

n7740   I swear he was past my reading. Nicolo picks up the image implicit in Horatio's use of the word, "translated". What he means is that Fabritio's disguise completely fooled him: he could not read signs that would reveal the figure was actually his master's son. [go to text]

gg5099   Almain German [go to text]

gs922   Late recently [go to text]

n9321   [He shows it] Fabritio shows the beard at this point but does not don it to disguise himself till instructed to in the direction accompanying [NV 4.2.speech609]. [go to text]

gg5100   stay loitering, pausing, halting (remaining in the one place) [go to text]

n7743   Phoebus Phoebus or Apollo was the god of light, music and poetry, inspiration and prophecy. The adjective Apollonian is often used in opposition to the term Bacchic or Dionysian, derived from the names (Latin and Greek) of the god of wine, frenzy, madness. Hence the invocation to Apollo to stave off madness in the elderly Pantaloni. [go to text]

n7744   brother The word was often used as a term of address between fellow-members of a guild (both old men are soon to be brothers-in-law or so they hope; but they are also both of the merchant class). [go to text]

n7745   got her off That is: successfully eloped with her. [go to text]

n7746   got him on That is: given him an erection, is having sex with him. [go to text]

n3667   Hymen In classical mythology and lore, Hymen was the god of marriage, usually represented as a young man carrying a torch and veil. [go to text]

gg1432   without outside [go to text]

n7747   desires To speak wi’ye. I guess The 1653 text places the line-break after "wi'ye" as if Nicolo suddenly reverted to prose. By emending the lines so that the break falls after "desires" as here, then two complete and orderly verse lines result. [go to text]

gs1176   bravo pimp or procurer [go to text]

n7748   By mine ears It was not unusual for criminals to be punished by having their ears lopped in the 1600s. What Nicolo is saying is that he is so confident of what he is saying that he is willing to bet the loss of his ears on the matter, which would be no idle jest. [go to text]

gg5101   knavery trickery; dishonest dealing [go to text]

n7750   [NICOLO exits] The 1653 text offers no direction here, but Nicolo must leave the stage as instructed here to make sense of his re-entry with Borgio after the next two speeches. [go to text]

n7749   Your lodging protects me. That is: as your guest here, I know I am safe. [go to text]

gg5102   brach’s a kind of hound which hunts by scent; in later English use, always feminine, and extended to any kind of hound; a bitch-hound (figuratively, a term of abuse for a woman as sexual object) [go to text]

gg5103   whisk a variant spelling of the word "whiskin" (meaning a pander, procurer, go-between), which is Brome's customary spelling in The Northern Lass and The City Wit [go to text]

gg5104   Monsieur French title applied in the 1600s to men of high rank, a French lord [go to text]

gg4778   ducatoun a silver coin formerly current in Italian and some other European states, worth in the 1600s from 5 to 6 shillings sterling (currently in 2009 the value would be between £22.00 and £26.00) [go to text]

n7751   Is she come about? That is: Has she come round to my way of thinking? Has she changed her mind and will offer herself to me on my terms rather than hers? [go to text]

n7752   parting fee That is: a fee at parting, a tip when you departed. [go to text]

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

n7753   are you here too? Borgio has in fact mistaken Fabritio for the actual Dutchman, Swatzenburgh, as the dialogue eventually makes clear when his intimate chat with Fabritio ends at speech 622[NV 4.2.speech622]. [go to text]

n7764   sir.[Aside to FABRITIO]You ] sir: you [go to text]

n9602   would not That is: would not wish. [go to text]

n7763   know Presumably this refers to the fact that both Borgio and the Dutchman, Swatzenburgh, whom Borgio supposes Fabritio to be, are acquainted. Also Borgio intimates that what should best be kept a secret is the Dutchman's successful approach to Victoria, which, if known by the assembled gallants, might provoke their envy and potential aggression. [go to text]

n7765   they (fear it not). But ] they (I fear it not) but (The inclusion of "I" in the 1653 text makes little sense in the context, since Borgio is trying here to allay any fears that the man (whom he supposes wrongly is Swatzenburgh) may be experiencing on encountering Borgio at this moment, in this place and with this company of gallants.) [go to text]

n7757   [Aside] It would seem appropriate that this speech is rendered as an aside, addressed directly to the audience. Borgio is in conversation with Fabritio and, if Nicolo speaks apart from the other characters on stage, then that leaves Horatio and Piso to direct the two following speeches to each other. [go to text]

n7754   familiars The usage here is punning on "familiar" as meaning overly intimate, ingratiating but also, by using the word as a noun and not an adjective, Brome is intimating that there is something eerie and troubling about that intimacy: that it is akin to being possessed by a satanic familiar ("a demon or evil spirit supposed to attend at a call" OED). [go to text]

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

n7756   They’ll talk yet thus The 1653 text makes the line-break after "talk yet", making "Thus" the initial word of the second line. This makes for some clumsy versification. Rhythmically the lines seem to require that the line-break fall as in the emendation after "are!", so that the speech falls neatly into two exclamations. [go to text]

gg5105   loggerhead blockhead [go to text]

n7755   today ] to day [go to text]

gs1177   hit hit the mark, in the sense of "copied exactly" [go to text]

gs291   shape costume, appearance [go to text]

gg1170   right (adv.) accurately, sensitively [go to text]

gg5106   dollars (in the singular, dollar) the English name for the German thaler, a large silver coin, of varying value, current in the German states from the sixteenth century [go to text]

n7758   Give me today During the time when Borgio is talking intimately with Fabritio, the latter must be seen to hand over a "fee" or tip to the pimp. He is taking his clue from the drift of Borgio's conversation on his arrival; but it is also a calculated move to win Borgio's favour, though the reason for that is not clear until his aside at the close of this speech of Borgio's. Fabritio then reveals that he realises Borgio has in fact made a mistake about the Dutch disguise and plans to make good use of the man's error. [go to text]

gg5107   fireworks (metaphorical) explosive behaviour [go to text]

n7760   strangeness ] strangers (It is difficult to make sense of the reading in the 1653 text, though it is clear that Borgio is remarking on how aloof the supposed Dutchman is compared with his fiery behaviour in expelling Don Diego from the stage in the previous act. One might perhaps defend a reading of "stranger" (deployed as a comparative adjective) on the grounds that Borgio is drawing attention to the discrepancy between the temperament that the Dutchman presented to him earlier and that of the man who now stands before him. But this would require one to infer a word like "behaviour" as being in opposition to "fireworks", which it would not be easy for a modern actor to convey vocally to spectators. Brome has indulged in a number of grammatical compressions in this scene, but to take either "strangers" or "stranger" as the preferred reading would make for very convoluted and ambiguous syntax. One might suppose that the original hand, whether a scribe's or Brome's, had rendered the ending of the word messy or confused or that contemporary seventeenth-century spelling of "strangeness" and the use of the long "S" might have required the compositor to make a not very satisfactory guess. "Strangeness" has been opted for as the logical alternative to either of these more questionable readings.) [go to text]

n7761   choice That is: whether to go ahead with the offer of marriage or to back off and abandon Victoria. [go to text]

n7762   [Aside] It makes no sense for Fabritio to speak these words to Borgio, since they would alert the latter to his having made a mistake concerning the Dutchman's identity. Horatio's next comment makes it clear that Fabritio's remark has not been addressed to him or to Piso. Consequently the inclusion of an aside here seems justifiable in terms of a likely staging. [go to text]

n7766   that stranger Horatio is referring to Fabritio while working with his awareness, voiced earlier, that Borgio has somehow mistaken Fabritio's identity. [go to text]

n7767   Only yourself, and briefly from Francisco. That is: my business, which is from Francisco, is only to yourself (Horatio) and that briefly. [go to text]

n7768   Where but at our house, sir? The 1653 text begins a new verse line with this question and then tries to make a series of verse lines out of the rest of the speech. The line endings are as follows: "bride /Craving...gentlemen /I named unto you." This leaves an awkward half-line with "I named unto you", since the ensuing line "For no disparagement unto their worths, sir" is a full verse line. If the opening words of Borgio's speech are rendered as a completion of the verse line begun by Horatio and the following lines are rearranged as in this edition, that makes for a run of fully formed verse lines. [go to text]

n7770   For no disparagement unto their worths, sir, The 1653 text prints this as a new speech for Borgio/Paulo so that two adjacent speeches are assigned to the same character. Clearly the two are consecutive elements of the same extended sentence and so this text emends them to create one continuous speech. Possibly a page-turn in the scribal copy or foul papers where the speech prefix had been repeated confused the compositor. Or maybe there is a missing interjection from one of the gallants, possibly from Piso, that interrupted the two halves of Borgio's speech which would account for why he needs to assure his listeners that there is to be no "disparagement" in their going to Francisco. [go to text]

gg4588   disparagement dishonour, disgrace, discredit [go to text]

gg5108   chambered lodged in a (bed)chamber [go to text]

n7771   church-sure That is: properly married, according to the rites of the church, before a priest and with witnesses. [go to text]

n7772   cock-sure That is: he has bedded her, enjoyed her sexually. [go to text]

gs1178   bungler one who is sexually unskilled, a clumsy novice [go to text]

n7773   But where is that Fabritio? This serves to remind audiences again that Borgio has not recognised Fabritio because of his disguise; rather he has assumed that the Dutchman before him is Swatzenburgh. This prepares the ground for some comic misunderstandings in the following act. [go to text]

gg5109   Jog (as an injunction and accompanied with "on") be off with you; move on; get you gone [go to text]

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

gg5110   hang give up, delay, suspend (a project or game) [go to text]

n7774   hangman’s project That is: impersonating the hangman to gain access to Victoria. [go to text]

gs1179   shape clothes, bodily form and appearance, like one's self [go to text]

gs1180   quick the tenderest part (of a person's body or soul) [go to text]

gg5111   make prize take as a trophy, win [go to text]

gs1181   crossed thwarted, opposed, obstructed [go to text]

n7775   safe aboard The primary meaning here is: we wish you every success in your venture. But figuratively the nautical phrase carries bawdy overtones: safe boarding meant successful sex. The gallants are still crudely thinking in terms of bedding Victoria as an adventure. [go to text]

n7776   HOR[ATIO and] PISO exit ] Exit Hor. Piso [go to text]

n6889   Zaffi These were the common law officers in Venice, who carried out the business of the various governing bodies within the republic. They could on occasion function as guards but were mainly deployed roughly in the manner of the modern police officer. [go to text]

n7777   [NICOLO exits] The 1653 text provides no exit direction for Nicolo. No exit direction is given for Fabritio at the close of the scene either. Cast and director must make a choice here whether or not to keep Nicolo onstage throughout Fabritio's final lines. But the tone and tenor of those lines seem more akin to direct address to the audience, explaining Fabritio's motive in what he is about to do and inviting their acquiescence. This has the air of a soliloquy, which it would seem wrong for Nicolo to overhear or participate in. Moreover Nicolo has specific instructions from Fabritio about what he is next to do and the implication is that he departs to get on with it. This edition has therefore chosen to include an exit direction for Nicolo. [go to text]

gs1182   strain line of thought, line of action [go to text]

gg5112   outstrip exceed, overstep [go to text]

gg2482   gather infer, guess that [go to text]

gs1183   recall bring back, recover, restore [go to text]

n7778   [FABRITIO exits] No exit direction is provided in the 1653 text. [go to text]

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