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n2858   ACT THREE At the beginning of Act Three, our attention shifts to the exiled Eulalia and away from the court to Palermo, a region which had been her jointure when she married the King. The pastoral setting (which does not feature in Brome’s main narrative source, Penelope’s Web; Barmenissa there takes up residence in 'a little cottage adjoining to the suburbs of the city' [sig. D3v]) recalls that of The Winter’s Tale, but Brome also demonstrates his independence from Shakespeare’s narrative. Unlike Hermione in The Winter’s Tale, who disappears - supposedly dead - from the play between 3.3 and 5.3, Eulalia will not drop out of the action. Instead, she becomes the focus of the narrative and of the second and last of the play’s dumb shows. The dumb show, which recapitulates some of the action of the first two acts, is introduced by the Genius, a guardian angel figure who grants Eulalia powers of prophesy, healing and teaching. These powers enable her to escape the murderous conspirators sent by Alinda, and to make her own living first by healing the people of Palermo and then by teaching their daughters. It is not until Fabio and Strozzo have been dispatched with the aid of the country people that our attention returns to the court, where an increasingly volatile Alinda turns the King against his son and heir. Location and dramaturgy are closely associated in Act 3, which moves from the broad swathe of the pastoral 3.1, in which the onstage action ebbs and flows around Eulalia as various characters enter and exit (an example of Brome’s bravura handling of large-cast action), to the more claustrophobic setting of the court in 3.2 and 3.3. [go to text]

n11348   3.1 ] ACT. III. Scœn. I. [go to text]

n2603   Enter EULALIA. Video A workshop reading of the whole of this sequence helps to demonstrate its rhythms and the way in which it centres the audience’s attention on Eulalia. After Eulalia’s initial speech, the stage is gradually filled as the Genius enters and introduces the dumbshow; it then empties and Eulalia speaks in soliloquy again before the entrance of Lodovico and Andrea. The sequence thus provides two moments of intense focus on Eulalia’s own words and her reactions to events, plus a stylised sequence which embodies the power of the Genius (part of which is to be donated to her) while still focusing on the sleeping queen (it is, after all, her dream vision that we see). In the workshop clip, this effect is intensified by the way in which Joseph Thompson as the Genius hovers over Eulalia (played by Kate Spiro) and, in particular, the way in which he intervenes to protect her from her future attackers. For comments on individual sections of the sequence see notes below. [go to text]

n2604   Turned out of all, Video We have not seen the former queen since Act 2, Scene 1, the scene in which she was deposed and sent into exile. Through this speech she regains some of the agency that has been stripped from her (Brome uses a similar technique to establish Alinda’s unscrupulous ambition at the opening of Act 1, Scene 5, in speech 196). The speech is modelled on one made by Barmenissa in Greene’s Penelope’s Web, but the situation and the content differ somewhat. Barmenissa’s speech is made as she returns and looks on the court from a distance, rather than at the point when she leaves the court for the first time. In Penelope’s Web the speech runs as follows:

Unhappy Barmenissa, why are the Destinies so inequal allotters of mishap as to appoint thy youth, which to others is a pleasant spring of good fortune, to thee a frosty winter of mishap? Art the stars so inequal in their constellation, or so uncertain in their influence, that majesty hath no privilege against misery, nor the title of a queen no assurance of good hap? Is the seat of dignity like the chariot of Phoebus, whose wheels challenge not one minute of rest? Then (Barmenissa) say with Solon, Cressus is not happy before his death. Confess with Amazias, King of Egypt, that the prosperous success of Policrates prognosticated some dire event. That Fortune standeth on the weathercock of Time, constant in nothing but in inconstancy. That no man is happy before his end, and that true felicity consisteth in a contended life and a quiet death. For I see well, that to assign happiness to him which lives (considering the alteration that Time and Fortune presents with sundry stratagems) is to allot the reward of victory before the battle be fought. The greatest misery of all, sayeth Byas, is not to hear misery, and that man is most happy (quoth Dionysius) that from his youth hath learned to be unhappy. Demetrius, surnamed the Besieger, judged none more unhappy than he which never tasted of adversity: for that Fortune accounts of them as abjects and vassals of dishonour, whom she presents not as well with bitter pills as sweet potions. Alluding to that saying of Plutarch, that nothing is evil that is necessary, understanding by the word, necessary, whatsoever cometh to a wise man by fatal destiny, because using patience in necessity he giveth a greater glory unto virtue. Sith then (Barmenissa) the fall from a crown ought to be no foil to content, grieve not at Fortune, least thy sorrow make her triumph the greater: but bear adversity with an honourable mind, that the world may judge thou art as well a princess in poverty as in prosperity: for kings are not called gods for that they wear crowns, but that they are lords over Fame and Fortune (sigs. D1v-D2r).

Brome does not elaborate on the vagaries of Fortune (the main theme of Barmenissa’s speech); he instead gives to Eulalia a firm faith in the power of divine Providence and a strongly worded attack on the luxuries and indulgences of courtly life.

In this workshop version of the speech, actor Kate Spiro captures both Eulalia’s stoicism and her steely determination; her self-proclaimed ‘meek obedience’ is not a sign of weakness - as her enemies assume - but a source of strength and conviction. [go to text]

gg1597   succour, help [go to text]

gs292   relief aid, help or assistance for the poor or needy or those in danger; in early modern England often refers specifically to financial assistance given to the poor from parish funds (OED n2, 3a) [go to text]

gg2148   afforded? granted, given [go to text]

gg2149   providence foresight, preparation for the future (OED n, 2); divine care or guidance (OED n, 3) [go to text]

gg2150   wretched miserable, impoverished, distressed [go to text]

gg2151   faith confidence, trust (OED n, 1a); (religious) belief (OED n, 3); assurance, promise (OED n, 8); fidelity, loyalty (OED n, 10) [go to text]

gs581   proclaim publicly declare (OED v. 1); show or prove (OED v. 4.a); Eulalia possibly also refers ironically to the proclamation against her [go to text]

n2605   ends beyond ourselves, aims/purposes that we do not understand [go to text]

gg2153   ends aims, purposes [go to text]

n2606   And all that we are then is to the world Which renders us great titles, i.e. our only identity is created by the world which gives us noble status [go to text]

gg2154   renders grants, delivers [go to text]

gg2155   great important, powerful, eminent [go to text]

gg2156   ta’en taken [go to text]

n2607   And all the world is ours. i.e. all of the things that are important in the world are ours [go to text]

gg2157   pomp, magnificence, ceremony [go to text]

gs293   fare food (OED n1, 8); Eulalia possibly also means condition (OED n1, 7) [go to text]

gg2158   riot, debauchery, extravagance (OED n, 1a); violence, disorder (OED n, 4a) [go to text]

gg2159   attire clothing [go to text]

gg2160   pageantry display, pomp (OED n, 2); show without substance (OED n, 3); OED’s earliest citations are from 1651 and 1662 [go to text]

n2608   when a cold becomes their sickness. i.e. when a cold turns into a more serious illness (because their clothes are too thin); possibly also when a cold is a result of - or is an appropriate reflection of - their lack of moral health [go to text]

n2611   meek obedience, Obedience to male authority was often claimed to be a cardinal virtue in women, and it was thought to have considerable biblical authority. For instance, in Of Domestical Duties (London, 1622), William Gouge draws on Genesis 3.6 and Ephesians 5.22 to write, ‘The first law that ever was given to woman since her fall, laid upon her this duty of obedience to her husband, in these words, Thy desire shall be to thine husband, and he shall rule over thee. How can an husband rule over a wife, if she obey not him? The principal part of that submission which in this text, and in many other places is required of a wife, consisteth in obedience’ (286; Gouge’s italics). Gouge also criticises ‘an ambitious and proud humour in women, who must needs rule, or else they think themselves slaves’, writing, ‘But let them think as they list: assuredly herein they thwart God’s ordinance, pervert the order of nature, deface the image of Christ, overthrow the ground of all duty, hinder the good of the family, become an ill pattern to children and servants, lay themselves open to Satan, and incur many other mischiefs which cannot but follow upon the violating of this main duty of obedience, which if it be not performed, how can other duties be expected?’ (286-7; Gouge’s italics). Brome thus follows conventional social and religious dicta in associating obedience with meekness (in Eulalia) and disobedience with pride and ambition (in Alinda). [go to text]

gg2161   handmaid, attendant, (female) servant [go to text]

n2612   my patience, Eulalia’s comment underlines her similarity to the proverbially Patient Griselda (another wife mistreated by her husband). [go to text]

n2610   They boast of honour and gentility For their attendants, then, when the chief honour Of the best women, meek obedience, Is my own handmaid, and my patience, A sweeter servant than gentility, Continually my other. Eulalia personifies abstract qualities such as honour, gentility, obedience and patience, contrasting the pretensions of the court with the virtues that she values most. [go to text]

n3972   Continually my other. For counsel and defence, what have I now? These are printed as one line in the octavo. [go to text]

gg2162   worldly-wise knowledgeable about only earthly or mundane matters [go to text]

gg2163   fruitful copious (OED a, 3); beneficial (OED a, 5) [go to text]

n2613   Birds chirp. In Greene’s Penelope’s Web, Barmenissa hears ‘the pretty birds recording their sweet and pleasant note’ (sig. D2r). The sound effect could have been produced by various means. In Inventions or Devices Very Necessary for all Generals and Captains, or Leaders of Men (London, ?1590), William Bourne suggests ‘letting the sound or wind of [...] pipes to pass through or into water, for that will make a quavering as birds do’ (99), while John Bate includes in the enlarged edition of his book The Mysteries of Nature and Art (London, 1635) a section ‘Of Voices, Calls, Cries, and Sounds’ (82-8) in which he describes how various birds’ calls can be made with a variety of pipes and whistles. Of course, such sounds might also have been made by actors offstage; Bate describes ‘An Irishman I have seen (which I much wonder at) imitate with his mouth the whistling of a Blackbird, a Nightingale and Lark, yea almost of any small bird, as exquisitely almost as the very birds themselves; and all is by the cunning holding the artificial blade of an onion in his mouth’ (86). For further discussion of these sound effects, see Philip Butterworth, Magic on the Early English Stage (Cambridge University Press, 2005), 104-5; 110-11. [go to text]

gg2164   sports entertainments, amusements, recreations, diversions (OED sport n1, 1a) [go to text]

gs294   revels festivities, riotous merry-making; lively entertainment (often involving dancing, acting, masquing, etc.) [go to text]

n2614   frisking lambs Although these references to 'frisking lambs' and suchlike may seem sentimental to modern ears, pastoral was an important political genre in the early modern period. The use of pastoral and the contrast that Eulalia draws between country and court (characteristic of the genre) have important implications for the remainder of the play. For further discussion of the use of pastoral in a 1630s context see the Introduction. [go to text]

n2615   which I duly earned, Brome stresses that Eulalia has not been begging. [go to text]

n2616   a slumber In Penelope’s Web Barmenissa tells Olynda, ‘although I want an imperial crown, and other crowns also: this lack I find frees me from care, that I sleep more in the cottage than ever I slumbered in the court’ (sig. D4r). [go to text]

gg2165   ’gins begins [go to text]

n2617   seize ] these [go to text]

gg2166   canopy of state. covering or hangings suspended over a throne or a royal bed [go to text]

n2618   [Genius] ] the octavo includes no speech prefix here [go to text]

n2619   Sleep in thy sainted innocence Like supernatural characters in other plays, including Brome’s own Late Lancashire Witches, the Genius speaks in regular tetrameter couplets. One of his closest analogues is the urbane River God in Fletcher’s The Faithful Shepherdess, first performed around 1607-8 but revived by the King’s Men and performed at court on 6 January 1634 (Bawcutt, ed., Control and Censorship, 186). Like the River God, the Genius appears without warning in order to protect a key female character; while the River God appears with the wounded heroine Amoret in his arms, and heals her, the Genius provides Eulalia with the means to protect herself physically and economically. Visually, the Genius may have had much in common with the Genius Urbis, played by Edward Alleyn, who appeared in the Fenchurch Pageant which formed part of the entertainment for the ceremonial entry of James I into London in 1604. Genius Urbis is represented in one of the illustrations in Stephen Harrison, Arches of Triumph (London, 1604), as a bearded figure wearing a laurel wreath. [go to text]

gg2167   sainted holy, blessed [go to text]

gg2168   relate tell, narrate [go to text]

gg2169   passages progresses, transitions from one state to another (OED passage n, 3a); episodes, events (OED passage n, 14) [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]

n2620   Dumb show. Video Like the first dumb show, the second makes significant use of physical gesture; unlike the first, it also accompanies the physical action with narration: the action described in the stage direction is intended to be overlaid with the first part of the Genius’s speech, as the comment in the stage direction (‘All this as the GENIUS speaks’) indicates. The meaning of the sequence is therefore derived from the juxtaposition of the Genius’s words and the legible gestures employed by the actors in the dumb show. The dumb show also differs from its predecessor in that it is not a presentation of events as they happen. Instead, it recaps action from the previous acts, some of which took place on stage (e.g. the interaction between the Jailor and Sforza), the remainder taking place off-stage (e.g. the second hire of the perjurers, Alinda urging the King to have Sforza murdered, and Petruccio being given that task).

This clip from the workshop shows a run-through of the whole dumb show and demonstrates that the action can be co-ordinated in a relatively simple fashion, with fluid action that focuses the audience’s attention on the sleeping Eulalia. The Genius’s short lines suggest a certain formality and an incantatory quality to his speech, something which the juxtaposition of word and gesture heightens. The dream-like quality of the dumb show is heightened by the fact that the actual events of the play do not follow precisely the pattern established here.

As with other dumb shows, a major problem is how to arrange the characters on stage and present physical gestures clearly enough that the audience can interpret them correctly. For instance, if the Genius kneels beside the sleeping Eulalia when the dumb show starts, as he does in this version, he can mediate it for the audience without interfering with their sightlines. In an earlier read-through the Genius was placed to the side of the stage, but from this position he blocks the view of some of the audience and takes attention away from Eulalia.

The stage direction in the octavo text is relatively precise, and the dialogue gives further hints about the action. See the notes on individual parts of the stage direction for commentary on their correspondence with sections of the Genius’s voiceover. It would, of course, be possible to employ a much more exaggerated gestural style and a more elaborate use of costume, or, in the modern theatre, to use multi-media techniques such as video links or screens. For further comments on the use of dumb shows in general, see [NOTE n911]. [go to text]

n2621   [FABIO and STROZZO], ] two Lieutenants [go to text]

n2622   Enter ALINDA, FLAVELLO, [FABIO and STROZZO], DOCTOR, MIDWIFE. [FABIO and STROZZO], DOCTOR, [and] MIDWIFE [exit]. Video This direction is accompanied by the first ten lines of the Genius’s voiceover. The ‘villains’ might underscore their loyalty to Alinda and Flavello through some physical gesture. See this version of the dumbshow from the workshop,, in which they salute Alinda, lowering their hands to take the money that she offers. I was initially unsure about whether Alinda and Flavello could remain on stage throughout the dumbshow, but as the clip demonstrates, their presence - and, in particular, Alinda’s role in paying the would-be assassins and directing them towards the sleeping Eulalia - can underline their stage-manager-like involvement in all of the plots against the former queen. [go to text]

n3973   [FABIO and STROZZO], DOCTOR, [and] MIDWIFE [exit]. ] Exeunt Lieutenants, Doctor, Midwife [go to text]

n2624   Enter SFORZA at the other end raging, and the [KEEPER], with mute action. Video This direction is accompanied by lines 10 to 19 of the Genius’ voiceover. Most of the dumb-show consists of events that have not been dramatised on stage, but this direction recalls the action of 2.4, in which Sforza tried to persuade the Jailor to tell him why he is imprisoned, and the Jailor responded only with gestures, or ‘mute action’ (the stage directions in that scene specify ‘shakes his head’ and ‘shrugs, etc.’ [QC 2.4.speech354]). The gestures used here would therefore recall those employed in the earlier sequence. In the workshop we experimented with having Sforza and the Jailor move across the stage, rather than have them enter, perform and exit, in order to increase the fluidity of the sequence. See this workshop version, in which they cross the stage from right to left; in the run-through of the whole sequence they enter and exit from the same doorway. [go to text]

n2623   [KEEPER], ] Jailor [go to text]

n2625   [SFORZA and KEEPER exit.] The octavo gives Sforza and the Jailor no exit line, but if they remain it leads to a number of static characters on the stage and (more importantly) makes the exit of Petruccio (supposedly in order to pursue the scheme to kill Sforza) seem illogical. I have therefore added an exit direction for them. [go to text]

n2626   ALINDA whispers the KING, he gives a warrant and signet to PETRUCCIO. This direction accompanies the line ‘Who strictly for his head doth send’. In order to give enough time for Petruccio to receive the warrant and signet and exit, it is necessary for the actor playing the Genius to pause before they continue the speech. This is the warrant and signet that Petruccio was carrying when he entered at the start of 2.5; we did not see him being given them by the King, so this section of the dumbshow clarifies past events for the audience as well as for Eulalia. [go to text]

n2627   KING kisses ALINDA; Video The King’s kiss confirms his sexual infatuation with Alinda and his willingness to be swayed by her whims. We have seen him kiss her twice before (once on the King’s ceremonial return from war [QC 1.1.speech29], and later in the same scene, when the kiss provokes Alinda’s father, Sforza, to ‘storm’ [QC 1.1.speech 78]). This is the first time that we have seen them kiss since they have been married; I suspect, therefore, that this kiss is probably on the mouth, whatever the nature of the earlier kisses. In this workshop version, the kiss is merely on the cheek, but it nonetheless reinforces an audience's impression that the King’s actions are being unduly influenced by Alinda. [go to text]

n2628   graces FLAVELLO. Video To ‘grace’ in this context might be either ‘To show favour or be gracious to’ (OED v. 2) or ‘To confer honour or dignity upon; to honour with a title or dignity’ (OED v. 5.a; OED’s italics). The latter would probably have been easier to signal in a physical gesture; it must be something relatively easy for the audience to ‘read’, as the Genius does not comment on it in his narration. The King might knight Flavello, or present him with a patent or lands (i.e. a scroll or another kind of document); if a production was to set the play in twentieth-century Sicily, the King could potentially hug Flavello or kiss him on each cheek, in the way that Mafiosi in the cinema stereotypically salute their lieutenants. In the workshop on this sequence the actor playing the King merely gestures towards Flavello, a gesture which Flavello acknowledges with his bow. [go to text]

n3990   [They all exit.] ] Exeunt. [go to text]

n2630   those the i.e. those that provided the [go to text]

n2629   the second time The Genius reminds the audience, who have seen Fabio, Strozzo, the Doctor and the Midwife in the dumbshow at the start of Act 2, Scene 1, that these are the same people who betrayed Eulalia. Having committed one kind of treachery against her, they are about to commit another, still more serious, kind. [go to text]

gg2170   Co-actors fellow actors/agents [go to text]

n2631   Ill thrive their purposes! Video i.e. may their plans go awry. In the workshop on this scene we experimented with having the Genius make a physical intervention at this point. It is visually and dramatically effective, emphasising the Genius’ immediate desire to protect Eulalia and also foreshadowing his future protection, through the gifts that he will give her. [go to text]

gg2171   Pent closely confined; imprisoned [go to text]

gs295   abusèd deceived, misguided (with the implication that the King has been deliberately misled and that his ‘will’ has thus been misused or violated) [go to text]

gg2173   impatience irritability, restlessness [go to text]

gg2174   strictly rigorously, severely; precisely, without discrepancy [go to text]

n2632   thee to know. ] thee know. The regularity of the Genius’ couplets suggests that a syllable is missing from the octavo text at this point; this emendation is also carried out in Pearson’s text, and by the later annotator of a copy of the octavo, Newberry Library Case Y 135.B779 [go to text]

gg29   course way of proceeding, action; also trick, way of gaining money illicitly [go to text]

gg794   proper exclusive, special, private (OED a, 2a); appropriate [go to text]

gg2175   meed. reward, wages (OED n, 1a) [go to text]

n2633   divine prophetic fire; The Genius alludes to the biblical source of prophetic power in the inspiration of the holy spirit. The gift of prophetic power to a woman may have had particular resonance for a 1630s audience. Female prophets such as Lady Eleanor Davies, Anne Fenwick and Jane Hawkins were active during the 1620s and 30s; in particular, Davies’ activities were well-known and widely discussed. Eulalia’s gift of prophecy is used in the play as a means of protecting her safety and revealing plots against herself and others; it is not the ecstatic or religio-political prophecy of Davies, Fenwick or Hawkins. However, both the power itself and, in particular, the language used by the Genius may have reminded audience members of these real-life prophets. Questions surrounding female prophesy were even more pressing when the play was published in 1658; Phyllis Mack has traced as many as 300 female prophets active in the years of the Civil War and Commonwealth (Visionary Women: Ecstatic Prophecy in Seventeenth Century England [Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992], 24). [go to text]

gg2176   foredoom forecast, prophesy [go to text]

gs296   ends ‘latter or concluding part[s] (of a period, action, etc.)’ (OED end n, 7b); resolutions (OED end n, 11); completions (OED end n, 12); results, issues (OED end n, 13a) [go to text]

n2634   Æsculapius Latin form of the name of the Greek god of healing, Asclepius, son of the god Apollo (who was also noted for healing) and Coronis, daughter of Phlegyas; he learned the art of healing from his tutor, the centaur Chiron (Oxford Companion to Classical Literature, ed. Howatson, s.v. Æsculapius, Asclepius). [go to text]

gg2177   simples plants or herbs employed for medical purposes; remedies (OED simple n, 6) [go to text]

n2635   handiworks In Greene’s Penelope’s Web, Barmenissa tells the Souldan, ‘by parentage I am daughter to the great Chan of Tartaria, where my want was wealth, and my labour pleasure and delight: yet he knowing that principality is no privilege against Fortune, and that the highest estate is no warrant against mishap, learned me to use the needle and the wheel, that both I might eschew idleness in my youth, and (if the Destinies had so decreed) the better brook poverty in my age’ (sig. D4r). In contrast, Brome mystifies the source of Eulalia’s ability to work with her hands. [go to text]

gg2178   handiworks work with the hands, practical work [go to text]

gg2179   literature; book-learning, letters: in this context, the ability to read; 'literature' does not take on its modern meaning until the eighteenth century [go to text]

gs297   sort kind, sorts of people [go to text]

gg884   present urgent, pressing, immediate [go to text]

gg588   practice habit or exercise; carrying out of a profession (OED n, 1) [go to text]

n2636   holy flame Eulalia echoes the Genius' use of the language of divine inspiration. [go to text]

n2637   gift of healing, A number of people claiming to heal through God-given powers are known to have operated in seventeenth-century England, and the King himself claimed to heal scrofula - known as the King’s Evil - by touch alone. See Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century England (London: Penguin, 1991), 227-242. [go to text]

gg2180   mysteries. religious truths (OED mystery n1, 2a); skills, techniques (OED mystery n1, 10) [go to text]

n2638   are but for show, That is: exist only for appearances’ sake; have no substance. [go to text]

gg2181   ignis fatuus will-o’-the-wisp: ‘a phosphorescent light seen hovering or flitting over marshy ground, and supposed to be due to the spontaneous combustion of an inflammable gas (phosphuretted hydrogen) derived from decaying organic matter’ (OED). The light of the ignis fatuus appears to recede, vanish and appear in another location, leading to a belief that it was a spirit trying to lead travellers astray; the phrase was therefore applied figuratively (as here) to any deluded belief or practice [go to text]

gg1469   fond foolish [go to text]

gg3176   tracts paths, routes (OED tract n3, 8); (figuratively) manners of proceeding (OED tract n3, 9) [go to text]

gg2182   wanton degenerate [go to text]

gg2183   truth loyalty, fidelity, steadfast allegiance (OED n, 1a); honesty, virtue, integrity (OED n, 4); true religious belief (OED n, 10a) [go to text]

gg2184   innocence. freedom from sin, moral purity (OED 1); guilelessness, artlessness, simplicity (OED 3) [go to text]

gg2185   swollen puffed up; inflated (with pride) (OED a, 2) [go to text]

gg2186   sophisticated adulterated (OED a, 1); ‘altered from, deprived of, primitive simplicity or naturalness’ (OED a, 2a; citing The Queen and Concubine as figurative usage) [go to text]

gg2187   taint spoil; weaken; infect; tarnish [go to text]

n2639   inclined her course. headed; chose her direction/path [go to text]

gg2188   pined! wasted/exhausted by suffering (OED a) [go to text]

n2640   And look you, new master, yonder’s my old mistress; what fools were we that could not find her sooner! Alas! I can see through her: there is not so thin a queen in the cards. This passage appears in verse in the octavo. [go to text]

n2641   what fools were we Andrea again makes a playful reference to his own profession. [go to text]

n2642   in the cards. That is, in a pack of playing-cards. [go to text]

n2643   thee, Lodovico here addresses Eulalia with the familiar ‘thou’, something which he only does elsewhere in asides; the use of ‘thou’ seems to be part of his pretence that he thinks Eulalia is a pauper, since he switches back to ‘you’ as soon as Eulalia makes it clear that she knows his identity. [go to text]

gg2189   dainties delicacies [go to text]

n2537   dear i.e. dear to me. [go to text]

gg2190   wholesome healthy, free from corruption [go to text]

gg2191   in good sooth truly [go to text]

gg2192   beguile cheat [go to text]

gs298   plain free from duplicity (OED a1, 12); simple, ordinary (OED a1, 15) [go to text]

gg2193   edict proclamation [go to text]

gg2156   ta’en taken [go to text]

n2644   We heard indeed the King had put away His old good wife and ta’en a new one; but Can we think you are she that was the queen? This speech is printed as prose in the octavo. [go to text]

gg2194   dissembler, deceiver [go to text]

gg893   forfeit (v) lose [go to text]

n2645   Pray leave this fooling, mistress: eat your meat. And here’s good drink to wash it down, and then, if you have a mind to hang us, let the gallows take his due. For my own part, I had rather hang like a man while I am good for something, than you should pine away to nothing. This speech is printed as verse in the octavo. [go to text]

n2646   have a mind intend [go to text]

gg2195   due. (n) that which is due or owed, or that someone has a right to (OED n, 2a); fee, payment (OED n, 4a) [go to text]

gg2196   safe trustworthy (OED a. 11.a) [go to text]

n2647   I am not safe In my obedience unto the King i.e. I cannot be trusted because I am obedient to the King. [go to text]

gg499   conference conversation [go to text]

gg29   course, way of proceeding, action; also trick, way of gaining money illicitly [go to text]

n2648   but for this wilfulness in her I should not think her a woman, Women were stereotypically thought to be more stubborn and determined to get their own way than men. Cf. Dent W723: ‘WOMEN will have their wills’; The Maid’s Metamorphosis (Paul’s, 1599-1600; published London, 1600): ‘Juno’s a woman, and will have her will’ (sig. C1v); George Wilkins, Miseries of Enforced Marriage (King’s Men, 1606-7; published London, 1607), ‘Like a right woman I love to have my will’ (sig. A4v). [go to text]

n2538   upon i.e. to [go to text]

gg2197   grace (n) courtesy title used to a king or queen [go to text]

gg2198   grace (n) seemliness (OED n, 1b); sense of propriety (OED n, 13b); attractiveness, charm (OED n, 1a); show of willingness (OED n, 1c) [go to text]

gg2220   mark (v) pay attention to, observe [go to text]

gg2198   grace (n) seemliness (OED n, 1b); sense of propriety (OED n, 13b); attractiveness, charm (OED n, 1a); show of willingness (OED n, 1c) [go to text]

gg414   grace, (n) 'a short prayer either asking a blessing before, or rendering thanks after, a meal' (OED n, 20) [go to text]

n3974   [Eats] This stage direction appears in the octavo text. [go to text]

n2649   play a part That is: perform the expected/appropriate role (OED part n1, P2d [a]) [go to text]

n3975   [Drinks] This stage direction appears in the octavo text. [go to text]

gs238   Stay, wait [go to text]

n2650   to thee again. Andrea may drink here, or Eulalia may prevent him. [go to text]

gg2199   superfluously needlessly; extravagantly [go to text]

n2651   you never knew charity in beggars towards one another. Sounds proverbial, but is not to be found in Dent or Tilley; it may be related to Tilley B227: ‘A BEGGAR can no beggar well abide’. [go to text]

n2652   Bottle again Again, Andrea may drink or he may be interrupted by the arrival of the country people. [go to text]

gg2200   calamity! disaster [go to text]

n2653   What saints are those that they invoke so? Andrea pretends to think that the country people are invoking misery, desolation, etc. rather than bewailing their fate. The reference to saints may also remind an audience of the Italian (and therefore Roman Catholic) setting of the play, something that will be crucial to the plot at the end of Act 5. [go to text]

gg2201   strangers, foreigners; newcomers [go to text]

gg2202   palsy, paralysis [go to text]

gg2203   leprosy, ‘An infectious bacterial disease (Elephantiasis Græcorum), which slowly eats away the body, and forms shining white scales on the skin; common in mediaeval Europe’ (OED) [go to text]

gg2204   affliction. distress, misery [go to text]

gg2205   woeful sorrowful [go to text]

gg2200   calamity? disaster [go to text]

n2655   And how Did the inhabitants there stand affected To goodness or religion? That is: how were the inhabitants disposed towards goodness or religion? Eulalia seems to assume, as many people would in Caroline England, that the outbreak of sickness in Palermo has been caused by the bad behaviour of its inhabitants. For examples see Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, pp. 100-1. [go to text]

gg2206   extenuate underrate, make light of (OED v, 6); seek to lessen by partial excuse (OED v, 7) [go to text]

gg2207   murmur grumble, mutter in complaint [go to text]

n2654   Fair Palermian Fields‘, Palermo is a region in Sicily, as well as being the name of its capital city. In The Estates, Empires, and Principalities of the World (London, 1615, trans. Edward Grimeston), Pierre d’Avity, sieur de Montmartin, says that ‘the pleasantness and riches’ of the territory around the city of Palermo ‘is such, as it might do honour to two Sicilies’ (161). [go to text]

gg2208   dowry, as used here, dowry means the same as ‘jointure’: a piece of a husband’s estate left to the wife to sustain her during her widowhood (OED dowry n, 1; and dower n2, 1); ‘dowry’ can also mean a present or gift given by the husband to the wife (OED n, 3) [go to text]

n2656   Stay there, old man; I have heard there is neither lawyer nor physician in all the province. This speech is printed as verse in the octavo. [go to text]

n2658   neither lawyer nor physician Physicians would not be needed if the area was blessed with good health; the lack of lawyers suggests its virtue (since the inhabitants have no inclination to sue each other) and its lack of urban sophistication. Cf. the proverbs ‘Few LAWYERS die well, few physicians live well’ (Tilley L129), ‘A good LAWYER an evil neighbour’ (L124) and ‘The PHYSICIAN gleans and the lawyer reaps’ (P266). [go to text]

n2657   None could e’er get a living amongst ’um, in all their practise. It seems they lived then civilly and temperately. This speech is printed as verse in the octavo. [go to text]

gg2209   civilly courteously (OED adv, 6); soberly (OED adv, 7) [go to text]

gg2210   temperately. without excess, with moderation (OED adv, a); soberly (OED adv, c) [go to text]

gg1167   confines. region (the OED takes this to be the principal meaning up to 1670) [go to text]

gg2211   communicable; commonly applicable (OED a, 3c): OED’s earliest and only citation is from 1661: Thomas Fuller, The History of the Worthies of England (London, 1662): ‘The Engine. This general Word, communicable to all Machines or Instruments’ (2: 191) [go to text]

gg2212   neighbourhood. neighbourly feeling, goodwill between neighbours [go to text]

n2659   And, which was worth all the rest, their priests were ever the best good-fellows in all the country. This speech is printed as verse in the octavo. [go to text]

gg2213   good-fellows convivial companions (drinking buddies) [go to text]

gg1167   confines region (the OED takes this to be the principal meaning up to 1670) [go to text]

gg2214   ’scape escape [go to text]

gg2215   whiff breath; burst [go to text]

n2660   get a mischief come to harm [go to text]

n2661   Enter four [COUNTRYMEN]. In the octavo this stage direction appears after Pedro has said 'See more of those distressed souls that fly / The foul contagion'. [go to text]

n2662   [COUNTRYMEN]. ] Others [go to text]

n2661   ANDR[EA] [exits]. In the octavo this stage direction appears after Pedro has said 'See more of those distressed souls that fly / The foul contagion'. [go to text]

n3976   ANDR[EA] [exits]. ] Exit Andr. [go to text]

gg2216   contagion. disease, sickness, plague [go to text]

gg2217   charitable kindly, well-disposed [go to text]

gs299   wants, deficiencies; needs; suffering [go to text]

gg2218   Conducts leads, guides [go to text]

n3977   Yet charitable To each others’ wants, for here the deaf Conducts the blind, the blind supports the lame, The dumb removes the sick and feeble. All That can make least shift for’t fly the place; I have re-lineated this section of the speech: in the octavo the line-breaks are at 'Contagion, / Yet', 'wants: / For', 'Blind / Supports' and 'feeble / All'. [go to text]

n2663   least shift the slightest effort [go to text]

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

gg2219   habitation. residence [go to text]

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

n3978   Mark me, good Lodovico, note my reasons: Eulalia's speech seems to be directed only to Lodovico, but by the end of his response [QC 3.1.speech482] Lodovico is speaking loudly enough for Pedro to overhear its final line. [go to text]

gg2220   Mark (v) pay attention to, observe [go to text]

gg2237   afflicted troubled (OED ppl. a, 1); affected by disease of body or mind, suffering (OED ppl. a, 2; the first citation is dated 1680-90, but the context here suggests that this meaning is possible); downcast (OED ppl. a, 3) [go to text]

gg2221   o’er-hasty over-hasty: rash, susceptible [go to text]

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

n3979   ’Tis better that the world should judge so, And perish for it in its ignorance, Than you so wilfully be cast away. You hear that none escape. I have re-lineated this speech: in the octavo text the line-breaks are at 'perish / For' and 'wilfully / Be'. [go to text]

n3980   None, old nor young, Man, woman, child: all in one kind or other Do feel affliction. I have re-lineated this speech: in the octavo text the line-break is at 'all / In'. [go to text]

gg2222   in lieu in place of [go to text]

n3981   None, Though the most do wish they might, in lieu Of their sad sufferings. I have re-lineated this speech: in the octavo text the line-break is at 'wish / They'. [go to text]

gg1313   whither (to whatever) place; where [go to text]

n3982   And whither now Do you intend your travel with your griefs? This is printed as one line in the octavo. [go to text]

n2664   travel ] travail (the spelling of 'travel' and 'travail' were interchangeable in Early Modern English, and both words could be understood here) [go to text]

gg1006   divines clergymen, priests [go to text]

gg2223   augurs, soothsayers, prophets [go to text]

gg2224   complaint lamentation [go to text]

n2665   Aside to LODOVICO The octavo places the speech and speech prefix in brackets to indicate the aside. [go to text]

gg2225   divination prophetic acts/ceremonies [go to text]

n3983   And that until his justice take away Her loathèd life this evil will not cease. I have re-lineated this speech: in the octavo text the line-breaks come at 'until / His' and 'life, / This'. [go to text]

gg2226   polluted sinful, tainted [go to text]

n3984   Yes, sir; we hear She’s banished and forbid relief. But nothing Save her polluted blood must quench this flame, In expiation of her sin and shame. I have re-lineated this speech: in the octavo text the line breaks come at 'forbid / But' and 'flame / In'. [go to text]

gg2227   In expiation of to atone for; to purify from [go to text]

gg848   fly. flee, break away [go to text]

gg2228   grounded, established, fixed; based, on these grounds, on this basis [go to text]

gg2229   indulgency indulgence; over-lenient treatment [go to text]

gg2230   forfeit (a) forfeit to law, lost by misconduct [go to text]

n2666   ever so; ] everso [go to text]

gg2231   apes imitators, mimics [go to text]

gg2232   prostitute sacrifice or debase for profit, defile, dishonour (OED 2b) [go to text]

n3985   ’Twas ever so; Priests are but apes to kings, and prostitute Religion to their ends. Might you not judge I have re-lineated this part of the speech: in the octavo text the line break comes at 'Kings, / And'. [go to text]

gg2233   Sense feeling for, liability to feel pain (on behalf of) (OED n, 5) [go to text]

n2667   Might you not judge As well, it was th’ injustice and the wrongs The innocent Queen hath suffered, that has brought Sense of her injuries upon her province? And that if she had died her dowry here With her had also suffered death, to make It nothing to the King, as he made her? This part of the speech is printed as prose in the octavo. [go to text]

n4103   Aye, ] I [go to text]

gg2220   mark (v) pay attention to, observe [go to text]

gg2234   surmise allegation; suspicion; conjecture [go to text]

n2853   First Countryman ] 1. [go to text]

n2854   Second Countryman ] 2. [go to text]

n3986   Third Countryman ] 3. [go to text]

n3987   Fourth Countryman ] 4. [go to text]

n3988   ’Tis plain, your foul mistrust is the infection That rages in you. This speech is printed as prose in the octavo. [go to text]

n3989   Here, in this arm Shrunk up as it were seared with fiery irons. This speech is printed as prose in the octavo. [go to text]

gg2235   irons. branding irons [go to text]

n2669   Blessed Providence Like contemporary healers in the 1630s, Eulalia uses prayer as part of a healing process. In the ceremony to cure scrofula, for instance, each patient would approach and kneel before the King, who would touch them lightly on the face while a chaplain read out a verse from St Mark’s Gospel: ‘They shall lay hands on the sick and they recover’. In 1632, a Frenchman named Boisgaudre was accused of healing scrofula himself: ‘His method was to spit on his hands and rub the patient’s sores, making the sign of the cross, and giving the sufferer a paper to hang round his neck on which was inscribed In nominee Jesu Christi, ipse sanctur’. Five years later James Leverett was investigated by the Royal College of Physicians after claiming to heal scrofula and other diseases by touching his patients and declaring ‘God bless; I touch; God heals’, while in the same year Richard Gilbert was ‘holding healing sessions every Monday at his home, where he touched sufferers from wens, swellings and the Evil, declaring sanctimoniously, "I touch; God heals"’ (Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, 227, 238). [go to text]

gg2236   Providence God (‘applied to the Deity as exercising prescient and beneficent power and direction’: OED n, 4); divine care or guidance (OED n, 3) [go to text]

gg2237   afflicted troubled (OED ppl. a, 1); affected by disease of body or mind, suffering (OED ppl. a, 2; the first citation is dated 1680-90, but the context here suggests that this meaning is possible); downcast (OED ppl. a, 3) [go to text]

n2668   Blessed Providence assist me, whilst with prayers I use the gift thou gav’st me for the cure Of these afflicted people. Give me thine hand: What feel’st thou now? This speech is printed as prose in the octavo. [go to text]

gg2238   balm aromatic ointment used to sooth pain or heal wounds (OED n, 1) [go to text]

gs300   temper regulation, adjustment (OED n, 2); constitution, character (OED n, 4a); ‘The relative condition of a body in respect of warmth or coldness’ (OED n, 7); bodily constitution, condition (OED n, 8) [go to text]

gg2239   use. (n) employment, application (OED n, 1); habit, practice (OED n, 8); purpose (OED n, 16a); benefit, usefulness (use, n, 20a) [go to text]

gg2240   whole. sound, healthy, well again [go to text]

gg2241   idolatry, worship of a created thing as if it were God (OED n, 1); immoderate admiration (OED n, 2) [go to text]

gg1263   sped fared; managed [go to text]

gg2242   win persuade, prevail upon (OED win v1, 9a) [go to text]

gg2243   of cheerful, happy, glad [go to text]

gg2244   hire, wages [go to text]

gg558   slight mean, insubstantial, lowly, small, trifling [go to text]

gg2245   store. things with which a household, camp or other base of activities is stored (with food, clothing and other amenities) (OED n, 1a); sufficient or plentiful supply (of something needful) (OED n, 4a); plenty, abundance (OED n, 4b); things owned by someone, or the goods/money they have accumulated (OED n, 5a) [go to text]

n2670   I will but take my next competent meal; Many seventeenth-century healers were paid in kind and refused to take money for their activities, such as Henry Baggalie, active in Lancashire in 1634, who ‘received meal or cheese or commodities of the like nature, but never did take silver or any other reward’ (Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, 221-2, 245). [go to text]

gg2246   competent adequate, sufficient (OED a, 3a); moderate, sufficient but not excessive (OED a, 3b) [go to text]

gg2247   valuable. a reasonable sum (OED a, 1b); valid, sound (OED a, 5: first citation 1647) [go to text]

gg2248   company, (travelling) companions [go to text]

gg2249   partner associate, companion (i.e. those who suffer with Pedro) [go to text]

n2671   [All of the COUNTRY PEOPLE exit.] ] Exeunt omnes Rustici [go to text]

gg2250   dwell live [go to text]

gg2251   taste test; check the wholesomeness of, act as a taster for [go to text]

gg1854   Lest for fear that [go to text]

gg2252   Straight immediately [go to text]

gg1564   speeds. fares, is making out [go to text]

gg2253   surgeon! barber surgeon: doctor [go to text]

gg2254   bone-setting those who (1) set broken or dislocated bones; or (2) apply remedies for venereal disease, which attacks the bones [go to text]

n2672   bone-setting Andrea’s comments about his malady suggest the symptoms of venereal disease. As Williams (1:128-9) writes, syphilis (the pox) is referred to as the ‘boneache’ because it causes severe bone damage. Compare the comment in Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure (King’s Men, c. 1603-4): ‘thy bones are hollow; impiety has made a feast of thee’ (1.2.54-5); in Davenant’s Love and Honour (King’s Men, 1634; published London, 1649), Lelia is said to be fit to ‘serve for an hospital, when the sins / Of the camp are retir’d into your bones’ (sigs. B2v-B3r). [go to text]

n2673   I am out of joint! (1) my bones are dislocated (literally); (2) I am out of order (figuratively): compare Shakespeare’s Hamlet: ‘The time is out of joint. O cursèd spite / That ever I was born to set it right!’ (1.5.189-90). [go to text]

gg2255   contagious infectious [go to text]

n3991   I’ll taste no more of such contagious airs, To save as many queens as I have hairs. These lines are printed as prose in the octavo. [go to text]

gg2256   bone-setters, (1) barber surgeons who set broken or dislocated bones; (2) people who apply remedies for venereal disease, which attacks the bones; (3) Williams (1: 130-1) notes that ‘bone-setter’ could mean ‘bawd’ [go to text]

n3992   my back and crupper-bone is out of joint. Oh, for a sow-gelder – a surgeon I would say. Out a joint, out a joint, I am all out a joint! This section of the speech is printed as verse in the octavo. [go to text]

gg2257   crupper-bone tail-bone, coccyx (crupper: buttocks); The Queen and Concubine is OED’s only citation, but it also appears in John Hilton, Catch That Catch Can, or, A Choice Collection of Catches, Rounds and Canons for 3 or 4 Voices (London, 1652), p. 43, and in Nicholas Culpepper's translation of Jean Riolan's A Sure Guide, or, The Best and Nearest way to Physic and Chirurgery (London, 1657), pp. 19, 77, 250-1, 276, 285 [go to text]

n2674   Oh, for a sow-gelder – a surgeon I would say. Williams compares this passage with a similar conjunction of terms for castrators in Middleton and Rowley, Wit at Several Weapons (Prince Charles’s Men, 1613), in which Sir Gregory brings the Niece an ‘entire ruby, cut into a heart, / And this the word: Istud amoris opus’ (‘A labour of love, for you’) that he has been given by Cunningame. He comments, ‘Yes, yes; / I've heard him [i.e. Cunningame] say that love is the best stone-cutter’, but she retorts, ‘Why, thou saucy issue of some travelling sow-gelder, / What makes love in thy mouth?’ (4.2.21-6). [go to text]

gg2258   sow-gelder someone who makes a living by gelding or spaying sows (OED) [go to text]

n2675   No, nor a thing I have that has no bone in’t. All else is out a joint. This speech is printed as verse in the octavo. [go to text]

n2676   nor a thing I have that has no bone in’t. i.e. the only things that are not ‘out of joint’ are the parts of his body that have no bones: his tongue and his penis; the innuendo underlying this speech suggests that Andrea thinks that his malady has made him impotent. [go to text]

n2539   a i.e. of [go to text]

gg2259   smarted suffered [go to text]

gg2260   frisking capering, dancing [go to text]

n3993   Lies down This stage direction appears in the octavo text. [go to text]

gg2261   ventured. dared, took this risk [go to text]

gg2262   stone-cutter (1) a surgeon who cuts for gall-stones (OED stone-cutter, 2: first citation is 1655, but the use of ‘stone’ to mean gall-stone goes back to c. 1000); (2) a castrator (Williams, 3: 1321). Cf. Edward Sharpham, Cupid’s Whirligig (King's Revels, c. 1607; printed London, 1607), in which Sir Timothy Troublesome pledges to geld himself, telling his servant Wages to fetch the ‘operator’; when Wages asks ‘What’s he sir’, Troublesome replies ‘The stone-cutter’, to which Wages responds ‘Oh you mean the sow-gelder’ (sig. E2v). [go to text]

gg2263   stood stood up, with sexual innuendo (to stand is to have an erection) [go to text]

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

gg2264   plight; health [go to text]

gg2265   sufficient! able, capable [go to text]

gg2266   Haugh, exclamation expressing joy, wonder or surprise (OED ha, int.) [go to text]

gs301   heigh exclamation expressing exultation or surprise (OED hey, int.) [go to text]

n3994   Capers and turns This stage direction appears in the octavo text. [go to text]

gs302   clowns rustics, country people (Andrea probably also puns on his own occupation as a professional clown or fool) [go to text]

gg2267   purgatory place of spiritual purging and purification; in Roman Catholic doctrine a place 'in which souls who depart this life in the grace of God suffer for a time, because they still need to be cleansed from venial sins, or have still to pay the temporal punishment due to mortal sins, the guilt and the eternal punishment of which have been remitted' (OED n, 1a) [go to text]

gg2268   Heigh-oh-ho. exclamation, usually indicating sighing or languor, but here expressing joy and relief (OED heigh-ho, int.) [go to text]

n2853   First Countryman ] 1. [go to text]

n2854   Second Countryman ] 2. [go to text]

n2853   First Countryman ] 1. [go to text]

n2854   Second Countryman ] 2. [go to text]

n2678   What shall we render her in recompense? All that we have is too little for this woman, this good woman, this holy woman, this she-saint, if there be one above ground. This speech is printed as verse in the octavo. [go to text]

gg2111   render give back, return [go to text]

gg2269   recompense? reward, payment [go to text]

n2680   above ground. i.e. living [go to text]

n3986   Third Countryman ] 3. [go to text]

n2681   do not make an ‘if’ at her, i.e. do not cast doubt upon her; do not call her existance into question. [go to text]

n2682   lest the ground swallow thee quick The idea that the ground might open up and swallow a liar or faithless person is found in many early modern texts. It has biblical and classical precedent: sinners are swallowed by the earth in Numbers 16:30-3 (‘if the LORD make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick into the pit; then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the LORD’), and Agamemnon in Chapman’s translation of Homer’s Iliad (London, 1611) pledges: ‘When this brave breaks in their hated breath; / Then let the broad earth swallow me, and take me quick to death’ (54). The idea is also used by Fabio and Strozzo in [QC 4.2.speeches819-820]. [go to text]

gg1854   lest for fear that [go to text]

gg2270   quick alive [go to text]

n2854   Second Countryman ] 2. [go to text]

n2683   without all adventure, i.e. without hazard. Variations of the phrase ‘without (all) (per)adventure’ are frequently given to Poggio elsewhere in the play. It is therefore possible that he was originally intended to be part of this scene and that the dialogue was not revised when the speech was reassigned. The same is true in 4.3, in which a group of countrymen appear, one of whom says ‘they shall die forty times without peradventure’ [QC 4.2.speech894]. In both cases, the dialogue is followed by the entrance of Poggio less than twenty lines later, meaning that it is impossible for him to be one of the participants. Elsewhere in his plays, Brome often assigns characteristic tags or catchphrases to individual characters. Compare, for instance, Trainwell’s consistent references to her ‘discretion’ in The Northern Lass, or Tom Saleware’s repetition of the phrase ‘Sapientia mea mihi stultitia tua tibi’ in A Mad Couple Well Matched. For further discussion of signs of revision in the extant text of The Queen and Concubine see the notes to speech 834 [NOTE n2851], the stage direction at the head of Act 4 [NOTE n2800] and the Textual Introduction. [go to text]

gg2271   unknown strange, unfamiliar [go to text]

n3986   Third Countryman ] 3. [go to text]

n2679   And therefore a good woman, for ’tis too true, all those that are well known are e’en bad enough, and known she will not be for all our entreats. No, not so much as from whence she came, we see. This speech is printed as verse in the octavo. [go to text]

n2684   an unknown woman. And therefore a good woman, In the additional passage in Act 4, Scene 3, Poggio recalls this exchange, saying to Lollio, ‘Did not I tell you she was an unknown woman? And therefore a good one, quoth you.’ [QC 4.3.speech834.13]. Together with the Second Countryman’s use of the ‘without all adventure’ catchphrase, this further suggests that Brome originally intended Poggio and Lollio to be part of this scene. [go to text]

gg2272   e’en even: fully [go to text]

gg2273   entreats. entreaties, pleas [go to text]

n2854   Second Countryman ] 2. [go to text]

n2685   And that counsel she may keep still for me, for doubtless, and without all peradventure, if we had need of another such it were in vain to seek her. This speech is printed as verse in the octavo. [go to text]

n2687   without all peradventure, That is: without doubt, beyond question (peradventure: uncertainty, doubt, risk). [go to text]

n2853   First Countryman ] 1. [go to text]

n2686   Sure, ’twas from heaven she came, where the whole stock of good women were placed long ago. This speech is printed as verse in the octavo. [go to text]

gs303   stock family, kindred (OED n1, 3c.); quantity, store (OED n1, 55a; earliest citation is 1638) [go to text]

gs304   fairly legitimately (OED adv, 4b); clearly, plainly (OED adv, 6: earliest citation is 1661); actually (OED adv, 7) [go to text]

gg2274   mischievous vicious, wicked [go to text]

gg2275   looks appearances, expressions [go to text]

gg2276   amazedly? stunned, bewildered [go to text]

n2688   Fear not, Lodovico. Why look ye, friends, so amazedly? Ha’ ye lost your way? Or what do ye seek? This speech is printed as prose in the octavo. [go to text]

gs305   roundly plainly, bluntly; openly, frankly; straight; unsparingly; promptly [go to text]

n2689   your old fool and your young, This statement suggests that Fabio recognises Andrea despite the fact that he is not wearing his professional fool’s costume. [go to text]

gg1539   unhappy (1) causing misfortune or trouble; (2) unlucky or ill-fated; (3) mischievous; evil; naughty (obsolete; OED a, 1a, 2a and 5) [go to text]

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

gg2277   thitherward; towards it, in that direction [go to text]

gg2278   invocations. entreaties, prayers; spells [go to text]

gg2777   Oyez! Oyez! Oyez! hear ye (the traditional call of town criers) [go to text]

n2690   suspend the proclamation to prevent abomination. Video The Curate’s extravagant, Latinate vocabulary, his propensity for speaking in couplets and his tendency to lapse into Latin mark him out from the other country people; however, his Latin is of a questionable standard, much of it consisting of quotations from grammar school texts. His dramatic forebears include Holofernes in Shakespeare’s Loves Labour’s Lost and Gerald in Fletcher and Shakespeare’s The Two Noble Kinsmen, both of whom are schoolmasters. In particular, he closely resembles the pedant Sarpego, who features prominently in Brome’s The City Wit, performed at Salisbury Court around 1630 by a cast that included some actors still active with the King’s Revels company in 1636. For an example of Sarpego in action, complete with Latin tags, see this reading of the prologue from The City Wit; like those of Sarpego, the Curate's lines lend themselves to a pompous, slightly self-satisfied tone. He could also, like Sarpego, be played as a more severe disciplinarian, or as slightly incompetent and bumbling; for the latter, see this alternative reading of part of Sarpego's prologue by Hannah Watkins. For further comment see Introduction. [go to text]

n3310   abomination. ] preventa bomination. [go to text]

gg2279   abomination. outrage, hateful acts [go to text]

gg2280   sa, sa! a hunting cry [go to text]

n2691   insect and rip up the entrails The Curate imagines that they are hunting Fabio and Strozzo, and uses appropriate language. [go to text]

gg2281   insect cut into (OED v1,); The Queen and Concubine is OED’s only citation, but the earliest I have found is in Thomas Powell's poem 'The Bay', in The Passionate Poet (London, 1601), in which Powell compares himself with contemporary satirists, saying,

May others make the ears evaporate,
When they unmask the times and world's estate:
I will admire, yet never will insect,
I am not prone but only to reflect. (sig. F2v)

[go to text]

gg2282   assassinate assassination, murder [go to text]

n2692   infausta dies! unlucky day (Latin) [go to text]

n2693   the naked womb of a woman! The Curate uses the rhetorical figure of synecdoche, in which a part is used to represent the whole: here Eulalia’s womb represents her whole body in an image that is so exaggerated as to make the speaker seem ridiculous. [go to text]

gg26   viz. videlicet: that is to say (Latin) [go to text]

n2540   senex et ineptus. an old man and a fool (Latin); the senex was a stock character in the comedies of Roman dramatists such as Terence and Plautus and, as Linda Green has pointed out to me, the name carries imputations of impotence which may be relevant here. [go to text]

n2694   give me their swords under my fool’s coat, I’ll hurt nobody. Picking up the Curate's comment that Fabio and Strozzo have presented 'Two swords against the naked womb of a woman' [QC 3.1.speech572], Andrea’s comment seems to allude to either the incompetence of fools with weapons or their sexual impotence. Compare Black Will’s comment in Arden of Faversham (auspices uncertain, c. 1585-91): ‘He like a fool bears his sword-point half a yard out of danger’ (The Tragedy of Master Arden of Faversham, ed. Martin White [London: A&C Black, 1982], 14.59-60). [go to text]

gg2283   facundity, eloquence [go to text]

gg2284   construction arrangement of words (OED 5a); translation (OED 6); interpretation (OED 7) [go to text]

n2695   cedunt arma togæ. let arms yield to the toga: i.e. let war yield to peace; let violence give place to law (Latin). The Curate quotes from Cicero, De Officiis, 1.22.77). The phrase originally refers to the overthrow of Catiline, and so may inspire the Curate’s later comment that Fabio and Strozzo are ‘Catilinarian traitors’ [QC 3.1.speech588]. [go to text]

gg1762   answer defend; take responsibility for; justify [go to text]

n2696   in nomine majestatis In the name of the king (Latin). [go to text]

gg2285   attend wait for; listen to [go to text]

gg884   present urgent, pressing, immediate [go to text]

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

gg2286   examine investigate [go to text]

gg776   on’t; of it [go to text]

gg2287   breathing-while breathing space, short space of time [go to text]

n2697   a proclamation This is the proclamation mentioned in [QC 2.1.speech258], when the King said, ‘And let it be proclaimed according to th’ extremity of law our censure be observed’. [go to text]

n2698   Whereas upon just and lawful trial— ] Whereas, &c [go to text]

gg2288   hapless unfortunate [go to text]

n2700   [Aside] The octavo places the aside direction in the right hand margin. [go to text]

n2699   at the price of life i.e. at the cost of my life. [go to text]

n2701   relieving her from killing i.e. saving her from being murdered. [go to text]

n3996   That’s an idle fear: we knew her not, which now we do we may again reliver her into their hands for them to kill her yet, and then there’s no harm done. This speech is printed a verse in the octavo. [go to text]

gg2289   idle foolish, trivial [go to text]

gg2290   reliver give up again, restore (OED v.); cf. Shakespeare, Measure for Measure (King’s Men, 1603-4): ‘And why meet him at the gates and reliver our authorities there?’ (4.4.5). Many editors of Shakespeare amend 'reliver' to 'redeliver'; N.W. Bawcutt, for instance, writes 'the other recorded uses of reliver and relivery date from the mid 15th c., and it is more probable that in splitting the word [it appears as re-/liuer] the compositor accidentally omitted a syllable' (Bawcutt, ed., Measure for Measure [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991], 199). However, there are additional seventeenth-century uses of the word not recorded by OED; see, for instance, the titlepage of The Honest Welsh Cobbler (London, 1647), who will 'endeavour herself to reliver herself in as cood tialect as her can for her hait plood'. [go to text]

gs306   pains, efforts, endeavours (Poggio is being slightly sarcastic) [go to text]

n2702   keep the law in our own hands Throughout Acts 3 to 5, the country people insist on their right administer justice for themselves. For further comment see the Introduction. [go to text]

n2703   homines insani! Madmen (Latin). [go to text]

n2704   Quomodo erravistis? how have you wandered from the truth? (Latin) [go to text]

n2705   a manubus istis. This is possibly a misprint, or a mistake on the Curate's part, for ‘a manibus istis’, 'from those hands'. He may be misremembering a famous passage from Persius, Satires, 1:38-9:

nunc non e manibus illis,
nunc non e tumulo fortunataque favilla nascentur violae?
Juvenal and Persius, ed. and trans. Susanna Morton Braund (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004)

translated as 'will violets not spring from those remains, from that tomb and from that blessed ash now?' In some editions of Persius 'nunc non e manibus illis' appears as 'Non nunc è manibus istis'. [go to text]

gg2292   Catilinarian conspiratorial, treacherous: after the Roman politician Catiline, who was implicated in the so-called Catilinarian conspiracy attempting to overthrow the Roman Republic in the first century BCE and was ‘sometimes taken as the type of a profligate conspirator’ (OED Catiline, a.) [go to text]

n2706   You have found her life The King has pardoned, i.e. you have concluded that the King has pardoned her life. [go to text]

gg2293   doom sentence [go to text]

gg2294   heavy, oppressive, overpowering [go to text]

gs307   but except [go to text]

n2707   Recte dixisti domine. Rightly said sir. (Latin) [go to text]

gg2295   imperative in grammar, the form or ‘mood’ of a verb which indicates that the speaker or writer is expressing a command, request, or exhortation (OED a, 1a) [go to text]

gg2296   mood, in grammar, one of a variety of forms that a verb can take in an inflected language (such as Latin); the mood of a verb indicates whether it expresses fact, command, wish, conditionality, etc. The principal moods are known as indicative (expressing fact), imperative (command), interrogative (question), optative (wish), and subjunctive (conditionality) (OED mood n2, 1a) [go to text]

gg2297   optativa in grammar, the optative form or ‘mood’ of a verb, which indicates that the speaker or writer is expressing a wish or desire (OED optative a, 1) [go to text]

gg2298   oft’ner oftener [go to text]

gg2299   bona fide in good faith, genuinely (Latin) [go to text]

gg2300   accidences. inflections of (Latin) grammar, e.g. the forms or ‘moods’ that verbs can take to indicate particular modes of expression (commands, wishes, questions, conditionality, etc.) [go to text]

gg2301   For my part, for my share in the business: i.e. in my opinion [go to text]

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

gg2302   arraignment trial [go to text]

n2709   But first tell me. Are not you two the men That gave false evidence at my arraignment Touching injured Sforza? This speech is printed as prose in the octavo. [go to text]

n2711   What a nimble barber am I? It may be relevant that Palermo was famous in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries for its razors (Edward H. Sugden, A Topographical Dictionary to the Works of Shakespeare and his Fellow Dramatists [Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1925], 386, s.v. Palermo). [go to text]

gg2303   nimble quick-witted, clever [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]

n2713   Digito compesce labellum. Put a finger to your lips (Latin). (A quotation from Juvenal, Satires, 1: 160.) [go to text]

gg2304   zeal, eagerness, loyalty [go to text]

n2714   periculum est in via; Danger lies that way. (Latin) [go to text]

n2712   we will walk safely. For this time, therefore, we’ll do only thus: double our guards upon ’em, and away to prison with them. Est locus in carcere quod tullianum appellatur. We will presume to know who ’twas that set you a work, before you go. This section of the speech is printed as verse in the octavo. [go to text]

n2715   Est locus in carcere quod tullianum appellatur. there’s a place in the jail called the Tullianum (Latin). The Tullianum was a 'dungeon in the state-prison in Rome, built by King Servius Tullius’ (John T. White and J.E. Riddle, Latin-English Dictionary [London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1876], 1996). Sugden describes it as ‘The most ancient building in Rome. It was originally the well-house of the Capitol, but was in later times used as a prison. Here St. Peter was said to have been confined’ (Topographical Dictionary, 527). The phrase is a quotation from Sallust, Catilina, 55, which is quoted in William Lily’s Brevissima Institutio, part of A Short Introduction of Grammar Generally to be Used (London, 1632), sig. L2v. The Short Introduction, also known as ‘Lily’s Grammar’, was published in over 300 editions from 1548; its use was compulsory in grammar schools. These lines are also quoted in the academic plays Laelia (printed 1595), Abraham Fraunce’s Victoria (1583) and Abraham Cowley’s Naufragium Ioculare (1638). [go to text]

gs308   presume take upon ourselves; dare, take the liberty [go to text]

n2710   [Fabio and Strozzo] ] Ambo. [go to text]

gg103   presently, immediately (OED adv, 3); without delay [go to text]

n2716   Abite hinc in malam rem: Go to hell (Latin). The phrase is used in classical texts including Terence’s Andria (in Terence, ed. John A. Barsby, Loeb Classical Library, 2 vols [Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001], vol. 1), l. 317 (the Loeb text reads ‘abin hinc in malam rem’). [go to text]

gg2305   hamper obstruct, impede [go to text]

gg2305   hamper obstruct, impede [go to text]

gg2306   halter fetter, bridle; hang [go to text]

n3997   LOLLIO and POGGIO [exit] with FABIO and STROZZO. ] Exeunt Lollio and Poggio, with Fabio and Strozza [go to text]

n3998   LODOVICO, EULALIA and PEDRO talk aside. In the octavo text this stage direction appears after Andrea's line [QC 3.1.speech604] [QC 3.7.line1967]. [go to text]

n3311   PEDRO ] Petro [go to text]

n2717   Abi hinc et malam rem: Andrea uses the singular form of the imperative (‘abi’) rather than the Curate’s plural; part of the joke may be that he therefore appears to be telling the Curate to ‘go to hell’ [go to text]

n2718   As I am erudite, idoneus adolescens; a very towardly juvenis, cupis atque doceri. This speech is printed as verse in the octavo. [go to text]

gg2307   erudite, learned [go to text]

n2719   idoneus adolescens; (A) proper/deserving/capable young man (Latin): the ‘adolescens’ was also a stock character in Roman comedy; the Curate’s phrasing may also suggest that he is applying this epithet to himself, which would be comically inappropriate. [go to text]

gg2308   towardly promising, eager to learn [go to text]

gg2309   juvenis youngster (Latin) [go to text]

n2720   cupis atque doceri. who desires to be taught (Latin). Taken from ‘Qui mihi discipulus puer es, cupis atque doceri’ ('You who are my pupil, boy, who desires to be taught'), the first line of William Lily’s ‘Guilielmi Lilii ad suos Discipulos Monita Paedagogica, sev Carmen De Moribus’, in An Introduction of the Eight Parts of Speech, and the Construction of the Same (London, 1542), sig. H4v. This poem was included, with the rest of the Introduction of the Eight Parts of Speech, in A Short Introduction of Grammar Generally to be Used (1548). ‘Qui mihi discipulus puer es, cupis atque doceri’ is quoted in a number of other early modern texts, including Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus (?Strange’s Men, c. 1588), in which Wagner says to Robin ‘wilt thou serve me, and I’ll make thee go like Qui mihi discipulus?’, using the Latin tag in an attempt to mimic Faustus’ style (Doctor Faustus: A- and B-Texts, ed. David Bevington and Eric Rasmussen [Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1993], A-Text, 1.4.15-16). [go to text]

n2721   atque ] atq [go to text]

gs309   manners. polite behaviour [go to text]

gg2310   discreetly judiciously [go to text]

gg2311   caput head [go to text]

n2722   Helicon. The largest mountain in Boeotia in Greece; supposedly a home of the Muses, to whom it was sacred, and the site of the fountains of Aganippe and Hippocrene, which were supposed to inspire those who drank from them. By the seventeenth century the name of the mountain was often confused with those of the fountains, and ‘Helicon’ was therefore used in reference to poetic inspiration (OED Helicon; Oxford Companion to Classical Literature, ed. Howatson, s.v. Helicon). [go to text]

gg2311   caput? head [go to text]

n2723   Simile non est idem; Seeming is not the same. (Latin: a proverbial expression comparable with ‘all that glistens is not gold’.) [go to text]

n2724   non obstante. Notwithstanding (OED n, 2b). The term was also used in legal contexts to refer to ‘A clause in a statute or letter patent conveying a dispensation from a monarch or other executive to perform an action notwithstanding any statute to the contrary’ (OED n, 1a). Brome also uses the phrase in The Northern Lass, [NL 5.1.speech892]. [go to text]

n2725   Oedipus! Son of Laius, king of Thebes, in Greek myth; the Curate refers to the legend that Oedipus vanquished the Sphinx, a monster who killed those who could not answer her riddle, by guessing the answer (Oxford Companion to Classical Literature, ed. Howatson, s.v. Oedipus). [go to text]

gg2312   juvenal. youngster (Latin) [go to text]

gg2313   pass be taken [go to text]

gg2314   associate associate with [go to text]

n2726   Disclaiming of all honourable titles, i.e. rejecting all our nobility. [go to text]

gs310   render deliver [go to text]

gg2315   rents revenues; taxes; payments made by tenants [go to text]

gg2316   strange, aloof, distant [go to text]

gs311   officious interfering, overzealous; diligent (the latter sense would be sarcastic here) [go to text]

gg2318   deeply, extremely; seriously [go to text]

gg2319   breach breaking, violation [go to text]

gg2320   confounded confused [go to text]

gg2321   respect consideration, regard, reason [go to text]

n2727   was the danger of the law, i.e. put me at risk of legal penalty. [go to text]

n2728   my cousin lord, i.e. Horatio [go to text]

n3999   And ’twas my cousin lord, I warrant, that you boxed. This speech is printed as prose in the octavo. [go to text]

n4000   ’Tis he that brags so much His truth unto the crown; I need not name him. This speech is printed as prose in the octavo. [go to text]

n2729   Sed nunc quid sequitur? But now what follows; but now what is to follow. (Latin) [go to text]

gs312   issue result, consequence [go to text]

n4001   Of this court-quarrel. By the way, ’tis well You have renounced all quality of court; These lines are printed as prose in the octavo. [go to text]

gs121   quality rank, station, status (OED n, 3a) [go to text]

gg2322   living means of support, livelihood [go to text]

n2730   write but yeoman, That is: sign yourself as a yeoman (in, for instance, legal documents), and not as a gentleman or a knight. [go to text]

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

gg2324   viaticum. travelling allowance [go to text]

gg2325   Clogged impeded [go to text]

gg2326   plough-chains, chains used to pull a plough [go to text]

gg2327   fetters chains or shackles for the feet of a human being or animal (OED fetter n, 1); restraints (OED fetter n, 2) [go to text]

gg2328   horse-locks. shackles for a horse’s feet [go to text]

n2731   Cave, caveto. Danger, beware! (Latin) [go to text]

n4002   [They all exit.] ] Exeunt Omnes. [go to text]

n11349   3.2 ] Scœn. VIII. [go to text]

gg2329   triumphs public celebrations, pageants, processions [go to text]

gg2330   estates, fortunes (OED estate n, 12a) [go to text]

gg830   advancement, promotion, preferment [go to text]

gs313   present available; remaining [go to text]

gg2331   being, life [go to text]

gg915   boot, also [go to text]

gg2332   highest greatest [go to text]

gg2333   measure, quantity, extent [go to text]

n2732   yet wanting an addition That is: something lacking. [go to text]

n4003   Oh, most Celestial sound! Here’s all your business granted. I have re-lineated this speech: in the octavo the line break comes at 'sound! / Here's'. [go to text]

gg2334   Celestial heavenly [go to text]

gs314   business affairs, concerns [go to text]

gs315   hand signature [go to text]

n2733   the poor woman’s pardon That killed her husband for his gelding the priest. This bawdy joke about the propensity of priests for having sex with their parishioners’ wives may be given additional force by the play’s Sicilian setting: Roman Catholic priests were, unlike Church of England clergy, supposed to be celibate. [go to text]

gg2335   gelding (v) castrating [go to text]

gg2336   discreet judicious [go to text]

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

n2734   the son of a dish-maker. Alinda hints at Flavello’s lowly background and the extent of his rise to power through her influence. [go to text]

n2735   bounteous goddess. Both Eulalia and Alinda are described as sacred by their followers, but the courtly flattery to which Flavello subjects Alinda pales in comparison with the genuine wonder that Eulalia’s miracles inspires. [go to text]

n2736   place i’th’ calendar, Flavello seems to allude to the calendar or list of canonised saints (OED calendar, n. 4.b): he has done enough to envision himself in the list of those favoured or blessed. [go to text]

n2737   Nicosia. Nicosia is a town in Sicily, 65 miles south-east of the city of Palermo (Sugden, Topographical Dictionary, 366, s.v. Nicosia). [go to text]

n2738   three grants In Penelope’s Web, the grant to the second wife is not part of an established tradition. Instead, the Souldan gives Olynda ‘free liberty to make choice of three things without denial whatsoever she would crave’ as part of his plan to ‘counter[feat] a more deeper affection than ever he did’; the scheme then turns into a public event: ‘Olynda [...] desired this grant to be solemnly given before the peers of Egypt. Upon this request the Souldan made proclamation throughout all his empire, that the nobility should within fifteen days appear at Memphis, where then he kept his court, with notice also that upon that day the queen should freely ask three things of the Souldan without denial’ (sig. D4v). [go to text]

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

gg2337   Ingrateful ungrateful [go to text]

n2739   stab mine ears In this rather hyperbolic statement, Alinda connects Flavello’s failure to commit violence towards Eulalia and his expression of that failure to her. The violence of her language also perhaps hints at her gradual loss of control during the second half of the play. [go to text]

gg2338   dull. stupid, insensitive [go to text]

gg2339   spirit energy; courage, resolution [go to text]

gs316   sure certainly, doubtlessly [go to text]

gg2340   suspect; suspicion, doubt [go to text]

n2740   I’ll rip the hollow cave The King’s violent diction echoes Alinda’s, and his behaviour also mimics her increasing lack of moderation. [go to text]

gg2341   construed interpreted [go to text]

gg2321   respect, consideration, regard, reason [go to text]

gg2342   principal first, most important, best [go to text]

gg2343   stripes strokes from a whip (they left long red weals like stripes across the body) [go to text]

gs317   late recent; former; perhaps puns on ‘recently deceased’ [go to text]

gg2344   reverence profound respect [go to text]

n4004   To yield a reverence to his contentment, And shall forever. These lines are printed as one line in the octavo. [go to text]

gs318   pretty artful, ingenious; childish [go to text]

n4005   My lord, my love, what pretty Meaning have you? Do you bring your son to mock me? I have re-lineated this speech: in the octavo the line-break comes at 'you? / Do'. [go to text]

n2741   My Alinda, The King addresses his new wife as ‘my Alinda’ and ‘my dear Alinda’ throughout Acts 3 and 4. [go to text]

n2742   the Egyptians Sun-worship was common in ancient Egypt; this is perhaps also an intertextual reference to the original setting of Greene’s Penelope’s Web, in which the equivalent of the King is the Souldan of Egypt. [go to text]

n2743   And of the daring giants’ ignorant nature That warred against the gods. According to Hesiod, the Giants were the children of Gaia (Mother Earth) conceived from the blood of her husband Uranus when he was castrated by Cronus (father of Zeus). The best-known legend concerning the Giants tells of their rebellion against Zeus and the other Olympian gods. The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature, ed. Howatson, s.v. Giants, notes that the myth ‘was sometimes thought of as symbolizing the fight of civilisation against barbarism’ (251). [go to text]

n2744   I would not move Your anger. Pray let this win your reconcilement.Kisses This speech is printed as prose in the octavo. [go to text]

n2745   Kisses It seems most likely that Alinda kisses the King, recapitulating the kisses that they have already exchanged, but she might also kiss Gonzago to indicate her (feigned) goodwill towards him. [go to text]

n2746   you The King begins the scene by addressing Alinda as ‘thou’, signalling the intimacy between them. He then switches to formal or respectful ‘you’ as he describes the scheme to grant her three boons and seal her political power as queen, perhaps suggesting her dominance, before switching back to ‘thou’ in his final compliment to her. [go to text]

gg2345   ratified settled, confirmed [go to text]

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

gg1062   bounty? kindness, generosity, munificence (but with possible sexual overtones) [go to text]

gg2346   home, unsparingly; forthrightly [go to text]

gg2347   fitting befitting [go to text]

gg697   clemency. mercy, leniency [go to text]

n4006   ALINDA [remains], to her FLAVELLO. ] Manet Alinda, to her Flavello [go to text]

n2747   discovery, That is: of the conspiracy of Horatio and Lodovico (seen in 2.2). [go to text]

gs319   fashion manage, contrive [go to text]

n3312   Flavello ] Elav [go to text]

gg2348   Rests remains [go to text]

gg2349   copy model, example, master-copy [go to text]

n2749   a statesman’s hand. i.e. a style of handwriting that could be taken for that of a senior politician [go to text]

gg2040   hand. handwriting (OED n, 16) [go to text]

n2748   Gives him a letter. I have added a stage direction here, as the dialogue implies that Alinda hands Flavello a draft of the letter that he must write up and take to Eulalia. [go to text]

n2750   They had no thought of me. The audience know that Alinda’s confidence is misplaced, as Lodovico and Horatio were indeed plotting against her. [go to text]

gg2234   surmise allegation; suspicion; conjecture [go to text]

n2751   Most royal and most wronged sovereign mistress, be happily assured that the time of your restoration is at hand; and that by no less means than the death of that she-monster that usurps your dignity. All shall be determined at Nicosia by your devoted servant unto death. Nameless.’ In the octavo text, the letter is printed in italics, is inset on the left and is justified on both sides [IMAGEQC_3_2] The tendency to differentiate letters from other parts of a printed text is found in many plays: see, for instance, Arden of Faversham (London, 1592), sigs. C4v-D1r; Beaumont, The Knight of the Burning Pestle (London, 1613), sig. H3v; Massinger, The Great Duke of Florence (London, 1636), sig. G4r. I am very grateful to Marta Straznicky for these references and for discussion of these issues. [go to text]

gg2350   superscription, address or direction (OED 3) [go to text]

gs320   fly, run, hasten [go to text]

gs321   despite anger, hatred [go to text]

n11350   3.3 ] Scœn. X. [go to text]

n2752   you fear all horned beasts. It seems unlikely that Horatio intends his reference to the King’s forehead to allude to cuckoldry, but the King picks it up to make a bitter joke about the metaphorical horns that he wears as a result of Eulalia’s (supposed) infidelity. A ballad, L.P.’s Rock the Cradle, John (London, 1625), includes a picture of a horned cuckold. [go to text]

gg2183   truth loyalty, fidelity, steadfast allegiance (OED n, 1a); honesty, virtue, integrity (OED n, 4); true religious belief (OED n, 10a) [go to text]

gs322   But if [go to text]

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

n2753   was my judgement wronged in him! i.e. he betrayed my good opinion of him (the sexual connotations of 'wronged' suggest the high emotional charge to the King’s language here) [go to text]

gg664   countenance— expression; emotion [go to text]

gg2351   genius attendant spirit, guardian [go to text]

gg1905   checked restrained, controlled [go to text]

gs323   forward eager [go to text]

n3313   My ] Mine (corrected in the octavo's list of errata) [go to text]

gg302   conceit notion [go to text]

gg2352   yoke-fellow comrade, partner; derives from ‘a contrivance, used from ancient times, by which two animals, esp. oxen, are coupled together for drawing a plough or vehicle; usually consisting of a somewhat curved or hollowed piece of wood fitted with "bows" or hoops at the ends which are passed round the animals’ necks, and having a ring or hook attached to the middle to which is fastened a chain or trace extending backward by which the plough or vehicle is drawn’ (OED yoke n, 1) [go to text]

n2754   when he’s hanged he shalt.  Horatio responds to the King’s description of Lodovico as his ‘yoke-fellow’ with a punning equation between the noose put around someone’s neck when they are hanged and the yoke fastened around the neck of a domesticated animal. The use of ‘yoke’ to mean subjection, restraint or humiliation (OED v. 3) may also be relevant. [go to text]

n3314   shalt. ] shall be King. (corrected in the octavo's list of errata: 'shalt, King.') [go to text]

n3314   King ] shall be King. (corrected in the octavo's list of errata: 'shalt, King.') [go to text]

gg2353   How, what [go to text]

n4007   Your majesty knows my thoughts. Nay, I thank my creation, I was ever This is printed as one line in the octavo text. [go to text]

gg2354   creation, i.e. the way I was created by God [go to text]

n2755   of your majesty’s mind from my nativity, There is something ridiculous in Horatio’s eager assertion that he has spent his life agreeing with the King, but it also encapsulates the relationship between them: Horatio’s long-standing, unquestioning loyalty is a habit, not the product of thought or reflection. [go to text]

gg2355   nativity, birth [go to text]

n2756   Here’s a true statesman now! i.e. Horatio is behaving like a true politician in his equivocation. The King also seems to allude to Horatio’s assertion about the role of a ‘true statesman’ in [QC 1.1.speech45]. This line could be delivered as an aside or directly to Horatio; if it is the latter, the King is mocking Horatio directly to his face, something which would affect the way in which a production portrayed the relationship between the two men. [go to text]

gg1781   ere before [go to text]

gg2356   in of [go to text]

n2757   sure staff i.e. reliable support [go to text]

gg1432   without, outside [go to text]

n4008   [HORATIO exits] ] Exit Horatio [go to text]

gg2357   end purpose, aim [go to text]

gg2358   searched examined, penetrated [go to text]

gg2359   conceived devised; thought of [go to text]

gg219   durst dared [go to text]

n2541   make a scruple That is: have misgivings. [go to text]

gg2360   falsehood; disloyalty, faithlessness [go to text]

n4009   with the same hand made that mother childless Gonzago says that after killing Sforza he would have committed suicide, leaving his mother childless [go to text]

gg2361   forfeited (v) lost [go to text]

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

gs324   Sirrah, sir (authoritatively or contemptuously); often addressed to a boy or servant [go to text]

n2758   would I could say my father. i.e. I wish I could say you were my father. Gonzago seems to mean ‘I wish you would acknowledge that you were my father’: as his later address to ‘My king, and father’ in [QC 3.3.speech715] indicates, he refuses to indulge the King’s paranoid fears. [go to text]

gg1894   stripling youth, young man [go to text]

gg2362   part the side of [go to text]

n2759   ’Twas time to think it. refers back to the King’s ‘Horatio, would you think it?’ in [QC 3.3.speech706] [go to text]

n2760   Till our further pleasure. i.e. until we have additional demands (OED pleasure n, 2: ‘that which is agreeable to or in conformity with the wish or will of the person specified; will, desire, choice’) [go to text]

gg2363   traitorling. petty or contemptible traitor (OED); young traitor (this appears to be an invention of Brome’s; I have not found any examples elsewhere) [go to text]

n2761   My lord, you are too severe. This line should probably be addressed to Horatio. [go to text]

n4010   [HORATIO exits] with GONZAGO ] Exeunt with Gonzago. [go to text]

gg2364   exasperate incensed, angered [go to text]

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

n2762   dare swear valiantly Alinda picks up Flavello’s ‘swore’ (i.e. testified) to refer to boastful soldiers whose actions do not live up to their words; ‘swore’ may also suggest that the soldiers’ bad language is not matched by courage in battle. [go to text]

n2763   murder, ] murther [go to text]

gs325   tame insipid, weak (OED a. 5.a.): in this context seems to mean ‘easily achievable’ [go to text]

n4011   Dare do a murder, madam, such a tame One too; I am confident they have killed her. However, I have done my best. I have re-lineated this section of the speech: in the octavo the line break comes at 'too / I'. [go to text]

n2764   Thou Alinda’s forms of address to Flavello switch abruptly from anger (‘thou’) to frosty distain (‘your [...] sir [...] you [...] negligent fellow’). [go to text]

gg2366   coarse rough, unrefined [go to text]

n2764   your Alinda’s forms of address to Flavello switch abruptly from anger (‘thou’) to frosty distain (‘your [...] sir [...] you [...] negligent fellow’). [go to text]

n2764   sir, Alinda’s forms of address to Flavello switch abruptly from anger (‘thou’) to frosty distain (‘your [...] sir [...] you [...] negligent fellow’). [go to text]

n2764   negligent fellow. Alinda’s forms of address to Flavello switch abruptly from anger (‘thou’) to frosty distain (‘your [...] sir [...] you [...] negligent fellow’). [go to text]

gg2367   be’t be it [go to text]

n2765   How cheers my love? That is: what is your state of mind, how do you feel? (See OED cheer v, 1a) [go to text]

n2766   ominous aspect The King’s hyperbolic language suggests his enduring infatuation with Alinda. [go to text]

gs326   aspect sight; may also pun on aspect as an astrological term meaning the relative positions of the stars, planets, etc. as they appear to an observer on earth at a particular time (OED n, 4) [go to text]

gg2368   radiancy radiance (OED); OED’s earliest citation is 1646, but the earliest example I have found is in John Davies, Mirum in Modum: A Glimpse of God’s Glory and the Soul’s Shape (London, 1602): ‘They must, with wings display’d, defend their eye, / From being confounded with his radiancy’ (sig. G1r) [go to text]

gs327   quit relieve, clear [go to text]

n2767   wipe off a score of years. Here, as elsewhere, Brome stresses the difference between the ages of the King and Alinda. [go to text]

gg2369   wavering inconstant, fickle [go to text]

n2768   my first night’s bliss Brome is careful to indicate that the King and Alinda have consummated their marriage: this has important implications for the way in which the play ends. For further comment see Introduction. [go to text]

n2769   [Kisses ALINDA twice.] I have added the stage direction which is strongly implied here. [go to text]

n2770   performance i.e. sexual and other performances. [go to text]

n2771   on the rack ‘In a state of acute physical or mental suffering’ (OED rack n3, 1c). [go to text]

gg2370   for’t. for it [go to text]

gg2371   perverseness wickedness; obstinacy [go to text]

gg2372   Checked at tried to restrain/hold back [go to text]

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

n2773   whose life, Swol’n up with popularity, was my danger, i.e. whose continued existence put me in danger. [go to text]

n2774   Swol’n up with popularity, This phrase restates the play’s consistent association between ambition and inflation. [go to text]

gs328   state. health of mind or body (OED n, 1d); possessions, means of livelihood (OED n, 1e); high rank, status, power (OED n, 16); country (OED n, 29a) [go to text]

n2772   She will not name’t again, We did not see Alinda request Sforza’s death in Act 2, but the off-stage action was recapitulated in the dumb-show at the start of Act 3. [go to text]

n2775   fall into th’ interpretation i.e. be thought to be. [go to text]

n2776   in desire i.e. due to her desire. [go to text]

gg1631   prevented came before, anticipated [go to text]

gg2373   timorous fearful [go to text]

n2777   said again. i.e. repeated my demand. [go to text]

gg341   sure secure [go to text]

gg2374   speak relate, give an account of [go to text]

gg2375   compunction, remorse [go to text]

gg2376   inseparate inseparable [go to text]

gg2377   adjunct attachment [go to text]

n4012   [Aside] In the octavo text the direction, '[side]' , appears in the right hand margin of the line 'That must confirm my safetie: Pray my Lord'. [go to text]

gg2378   ravish snatch; seize [go to text]

gs329   satisfaction fulfillment of desire; removal of doubt [go to text]

gs330   blood, murder, death (OED n, 3a) [go to text]

n4013   [PETRUCCIO exits.] ] Exit Petruccio. In the octavo this stage direction appears in the margin after the King's 'Nay Alinda'. [go to text]

gs331   obsequious dutiful; appropriate after a death (OED adj, 1b) [go to text]

gs332   withal, nevertheless, notwithstanding [go to text]

n2778   do you give me leave to think That is: allow me to think. ‘Do you’ is used as an intensifier. [go to text]

gs333   capital chief, head (OED a, 6); punishable by death (OED a, 2a); of or relating to the head or top (OED a, 1); deadly (OED a, 3); most serious, radical (OED a, 4) [go to text]

gg2379   cuckolds, men whose wives have been unfaithful to them [go to text]

n2779   dance the hornpipe Williams (2: 690) notes that the hornpipe is associated with copulation and cuckoldry, via the idea that a cuckold wears invisble horns; he cites Richard Brathwaite, Ar’t Asleep, Husband? (London, 1640), who refers to ‘These can play the merry mates with their wives, and never laugh till their hearts ache: and hear a hornpipe played, and never rub their brow antlers’ (107-8), and Dekker and Webster, Northward Ho (Paul’s, 1605-6), in which the citizen Mayberry accuses his apprentice of acting as a pimp to his wife, only to be rebuked by Bellamont: ‘Oh Master Mayberry! Before your servant to dance a Lancashire hornpipe!’ (Bowers, ed., vol. 2 [1955], 1.3.26-7). The hornpipe is a lively and vigorous dance usually performed by one person and often associated with sailors (OED 2). [go to text]

gs334   kind manner, fashion; with a pun on 'sexual action' [go to text]

n2780   put her by dismissed her, sent her away [go to text]

gs335   confounded; stunned, thrown into confusion (OED confound v, 4); can also mean ‘put to shame’ (OED confound v, 3), though this is generally used in ecclesiastical contexts [go to text]

n2781   mine honour Compare the King’s statement in his set speech to the Parliament in [QC 2.1.speech219], that his divorce is ‘the great change honour compels me to’. [go to text]

gg2380   demeans (v) behaves, conducts [go to text]

n2782   yours and my succession. That is, to the children that Alinda thinks she and the King will have (to which Prince Gonzago could be a threat even if he were disinherited). [go to text]

n3315   has inspired ] inspir’d (corrected in the octavo's list of errata) [go to text]

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