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n10668   ACT TWO The second act moves to Northumbria. Its first scene brings THEODRIC back to the Northumbrian court from his embassy to Queen Bertha's. King OSRIC sends out attendants to announce wedding festivities and then THEODWALD and EAUFRID to arrange travel for himself to the West Saxon Queen. Left alone with Theodric, Osric asks about the object of his favourite’s affections: Theodric produces Mildred’s portrait, with which the King immediately falls so enamoured that he drops Bertha’s and evinces inner turmoil. Concealing his change of heart from Theodric, Osric grows ever more distressed, and the scene ends with the Court in alarm over his condition. The second scene, set in a rural community somewhere in Osric’s kingdom, presents the consequences of the royal change of heart. Four CLOWNS and their friend JEFFREY are planning to celebrate the King’s marriage to Queen Bertha with appropriate festivities: their dialogue is dominated by discussion of ringing bells, which are already audible, and lighting bonfires, for which Jeffrey wants fuel to be sourced from all combustible tools and equipment. ALFRID arrives from court and, assisted by a local CONSTABLE, kills all joy by announcing the King’s sickness. Impressed by Jeffrey’s resistance to the suspension of festivities, Alfrid recruits him to Court as a Fool to cure the King of his melancholy. The third scene finds SEGEBERT and ANTHYNUS in the Northumbrian wilderness: Segebert intends to present himself to Osric and dissuade him from marrying Bertha. Despite being dressed as pilgrims, Segebert and Anthynus have had to fend off Outlaws. Their assailants, led by Offa in disguise, return to resume their murderous attack. While Anthynus knocks down OUTLAW 1, Offa wounds Segebert in the head, only to be disarmed by Anthynus, who beats off the other two outlaws. Offa also flees but leaves behind the sword that he has just used against his father, who recognises the weapon. Keeping this realisation, and the sword, to himself, Segebert limps off with Anthynus in search of a spring. A HERMIT and his SERVANT enter to hear the cries of Outlaw 1, whom they carry off for resuscitation in the Hermit’s cave. The fourth scene opens with Anthynus bearing Segebert in his arms, complaining of being lost and declaiming against the vicissitudes of Fortune. He sets down his father, who is in danger of bleeding to death, and sets off in search of help. Segebert, soliloquising over Offa’s sword and speaking in images of blood, reproaches himself for paternal misjudgement and then collapses. Hermit and Servant enter to find the unconscious man groaning, still clutching Offa’s sword, and looking vaguely familiar to the Hermit. He and his Servant now carry Segebert off for resuscitation in the Hermit’s cave. As they depart, Anthynus returns, misses his father, and calls for him: Anthynus’ cries produce an echo, which he pursues offstage and then back onstage again. There Anthynus vows not to eat or sleep until he finds Segebert, marks this vow by kissing and then taking some of his father’s spilt blood, and exits. [go to text]

n10394   Enter OSRIC, THEODRIC, THEODWALD, EAUFRID, ALFRID, EDELBERT [and ATTENDANTS]. ] Enter Osriick the King, Theodrick, Theodwald, Eaufrid, Alfrid, Edelbert, 2 Lords. (Emendation follows Wood.) [go to text]

n10395   [Theodwald] ] 1.Lor. (Emendation follows Wood) [go to text]

n10396   [Eaufrid] ] 2. Lord. (Emendation follows Wood) [go to text]

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

n9642   bonfires. ] bonefires. This spelling, which is used consistently in the 1657 Quarto text, records the etymology of the word: it had originally meant `a great fire of bones in the open air' (OED n, 1) but in the 16th century developed its current sense as `large fire kindled in the open air for a celebration, display, or amusement' (OED n, 4). [go to text]

n10397   [Theodwald and Eaufrid] ] 1. & 2. Lor. (Emendation follows Wood) [go to text]

gs511   state pomp and ceremony [go to text]

gg6092   decency fitness, propriety (OED 1) [go to text]

gg6093   effectually, with complete success (OED 1a) [go to text]

n10397   [Theodwald and Eaufrid] ] 1. & 2. Lor. (Emendation follows Wood) [go to text]

gs1688   prevent outrun, forestall (OED v. 5a and 8) [go to text]

n10398   Ex[it THEODWALD and EAUFRID] ] Ex. Lords. (Emendation substantially follows Wood, who reads: `Exeunt Theodwald and Eaufrid'. 1657 Quarto puts the exit after the second line of Osric's speech [QE 1.2.speech145]: see [QE 2.1.line764]. [go to text]

gg5981   anticipate accelerate, cause to happen earlier (OED v. 5) [go to text]

n11253   But when Your Highness shall behold Video Theodric's speech exemplifies his rhetorical proficiency at its most manipulative. Inviting Osric to imagine what he will do with the living original of the portrait, Theodric provides a near-pornographic text to go with the image. In workshop session on 28 June 2006, Robert Lister's delivery of the speech communicated something of its prurience . [go to text]

gs1689   more, rather; more precisely [go to text]

n9628   imaginary, This word refers to the portrait of Queen Bertha, Theodric's point being that the substantial reality of the queen far surpasses her painted similitude. Context, then, demands that `imaginary' here function as a noun meaning `image'. The nearest that the OED gets to this sense is `an imagination, a fancy' (OED imaginary, B 1), for which the earliest example listed dates from 1709. [go to text]

gs1855   short, inadequate [go to text]

gs1761   ravish entrance, enrapture (OED v. 3b) [go to text]

gs1762   argument theme, subject-matter of discussion (OED n. 6) [go to text]

n11281   Suppose you see Video Theodric now moves from pornography into Neo-Platonism. Invited to assess Bertha's appearance, he responds with an extended image or `conceit' which progresses from a description of a woman to an assertion of royal authority. It starts as a simile in which the ladies of Bertha's court are likened to the stars at night. Then, imagining a full moon (`Cynthia in her full of lustre') coming out from behind a cloud and outshining all other lights in the sky, it makes an analogy: Bertha is to her ladies-in-waiting as the moon is to the stars around it. Theodric finally claims that although this analogy is how Bertha's beauty is perceived by mere humans like himself, the godlike eye of the King can directly comprehend that mystery. For Robert Lister's workshop performance of this rhetorical manoeuvre on 28 June 2006, see video . [go to text]

gg979   firmament, the heavens or sky [go to text]

n10309   human ] humane (according to the OED, a possible spelling from the 15th century to the 18th century) [go to text]

n10310   veil ] vail (according to the OED, a possible spelling from the 15th century to the 18th century) [go to text]

n10311   Cynthia In classical Greek and Roman mythology, one of the names for Diana in her role as goddess of the moon. [go to text]

gs1690   full period, point or state of greatest fullness; period or state of complete illumination of the moon's disc (OED n3. B 4a and 4c) [go to text]

gg5982   lustre. bright light; radiant beauty or splendour (OED n1, 3 and 4) [go to text]

n10309   human ] humane (according to the OED, a possible spelling from the 15th century to the 18th century) [go to text]

n11254   Oh, thou art mine! Video The King's exclamation of affection for his favourite initiates an exchange in which Osric induces Theodric to articulate amorous attraction to Mildred and to exhibit her portrait. Both displays are necessary for the plot; and in workshop session on 28 June 2006, the exchange proved to sustain rather more emotional interest than had been apparent on the page. [go to text]

n10360   ne’er nev'r [go to text]

gs1763   apprehension? opinion (OED 9) [go to text]

gs1764   affection disposition, state of mind (OED affection n1, 5) [go to text]

gs1770   drawn, delineated, depicted [go to text]

gg6039   limner. painter, especially of portraits [go to text]

gg6101   colours. paints, pigments (OED colour n1, 8A) [go to text]

n10308   He wrongs the Queen 1657 Quarto gives this clause a line of its own; but it and the preceding sentence together constitute a regular line of iambic pentameter. [go to text]

n11255   Keep off a little: Video Through most of this speech and his next following ([QE 2.1.speech157] and [QE 2.1.speech159]), Osric speaks aside. Workshop session on 28 June 2006 experimented with having him take a particular member of the audience into his confidence, there displacing Theodric and thus demonstrating his estrangement from his favourite: see . [go to text]

gg6094   Keep off move away, stand back [go to text]

n9629   [OSRIC, studying Mildred's portrait,] lets [Bertha's] fall. ] (lets fall the other) [go to text]

n10312   [THEODRIC picks up Bertha's portrait and returns it to OSRIC] ] (takes it up) [go to text]

gs1765   cry her mercy. beg her pardon [go to text]

n10313   fall in his discovery! The sense could be either `diminish in Theodric's opinion' or `be shamed by Theodric's revelation': the ambiguity anticipates the quick slide of this speech from embarrassment into paranoia. [go to text]

gs1691   professors those who profess (as opposed to those who practice) something (OED n. 2a) [go to text]

gs1767   Protest I assure you (that), I declare (that) [go to text]

n9630   rapt ] rap't. The sense (OED rapt v, 2) is `enraptured', `transported'. [go to text]

gg6095   bove above (OED prep) [go to text]

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

gg6096   circumstances, surroundings (OED circumstance n, 1) [go to text]

n9632   Light ] Lights. The syntax of Theodrick's speech is extremely contorted, and Wood has not emended this word. However, since it appears to be serving as a predicate which is governed by a plural pronoun (`Many'), the plural of the verb form is required. [go to text]

n9631   above affection, That is: superior to love (OED `affection' n1, 2a), from which `adoration' in the next line is implicitly distinguished. [go to text]

n11279   Then marvel not Video Osric's self-exculpation adverts to the earlier speech [QE 2.1.speech148] in which Theodoric had figured the Queen's court as the moon surrounded by stars, the lesser lights making the greater one more glorious. Claiming to have made an analogous comparison between the portraits of Mildred and Bertha, Osric speaks in the language of Tudor and Stuart portraiture (`effigy', `figure', `piece of craftsmanship'). For performance and discussion in workshop session on 28 June 2006, see video . [go to text]

gg2643   Ha! a versatile exclamation which can express surprise, wonder, joy, suspicion, indignation, etc., depending on the speaker’s intonation (OED int, 1) [go to text]

n10314   tainted blood? The figure of speech carries some legal significance on account of Segebert's exile and the offense which has occasioned it. Among the consequences of a judgment of death or outlawry in respect of treason or a felony was `corruption of blood, so that the condemned could neither inherit nor transmit by descent' (OED `attainder'). Despite banishing Segebert as a traitor [QE 1.1.speech 37], however, Queen Bertha has refused to seize the property which Segebert's children are to inherit [QE 1.1.speech43]. [go to text]

gs583   search investigate, examine (OED v. 5a) [go to text]

n11280   Tarry, let me see Video In his final examination of the portraits of Bertha and Mildred, Osric loses sight of the fact of representation and addresses the visual images as if they were the women figured by them. Video material from the workshop session on 26 June 2006 is not very helpful for this speech. It does, however, include record of how director Brian Woolland and actors Alan Morrissey (Osric) and Robert Lister (Theodric)worked out Osric's transition, beginning with Theodric's production of Mildred's portrait in [QE 2.1.speech152], into the imaginary: see clip . [go to text]

gg4198   Tarry, wait, hold on, delay [go to text]

gs1768   wants falls short (OED want, 1b) [go to text]

gg491   want lack [go to text]

gg3069   grant admit, acknowledge [go to text]

gg921   wants is without, lacks, is lacking (something) [go to text]

gg6097   palpably noticeably; clearly (OED) [go to text]

gg6098   squint permanent tendency in the eye to look obliquely or askant (OED n. 1a, for which The Queen's Exchange supplies the earliest example listed) [go to text]

gs1768   wants. falls short (OED want, 1b) [go to text]

gs1699   conceit opinion, estimation (OED nII, 4) [go to text]

gg6099   furious excessive (OED 3, where the earliest example given for this sense is 1668) [go to text]

gs1692   shrewly. shrewly = shrewdly, here meaning `severely' (OED 2) [go to text]

n9633   ha’n’t ] han't [go to text]

gg5983   nether lower, under (OED adj, 2a) [go to text]

gg5984   physiognomists persons who read faces or other physical features to discern character and/or to foretell destiny (OED) [go to text]

n11070   Shews women apt to lust and strong incontinence. Just this interpretation is stated in a treatise on physiognomy which had first been printed in English in 1562 but is here quoted from its 1634 edition: `The neather Lip loose and very red, signifieth great fleshlinesse, and vnshamefastnesse in a Woman.’ (The…Booke of the famous Doctor and expert Astrologia, Arcandam, or Alcandrin…with an Addition of Phisiognomie [London: Felix Kyngston, 1634], ) [go to text]

gg6100   Phew! exclamation expressive of disgust, weariness, discomfort [go to text]

gg2960   sweet pleasing, agreeable [go to text]

gs1769   sense, perception (OED n. 1e) [go to text]

n11014   mar ] marry 1657 Quarto reading makes neither dramatic nor figurative sense. The emendation, which serves both, asssumes a easily imagined misreading of a well-worn manuscript. I am grateful to Michael Leslie for suggesting it. [go to text]

gg4485   changeling a fickle or inconstant person; a waverer, turncoat [go to text]

n10399   Enter [THEODWALD and EAUFRID]. ] Enter 2. Lords. (Emendation follows Wood.) [go to text]

n10397   [Theodwald and Eaufrid] ] 1. & 2. Lor. (Emendation follows Wood) [go to text]

gg1497   yet, still [go to text]

n10395   [Theodwald] ] 1.Lor. (Emendation follows Wood) [go to text]

n10396   [Eaufrid] ] 2. Lord. (Emendation follows Wood) [go to text]

n11251   Yes, yes, 1657 Quarto prints these two words at the beginning of the following line; Wood relineates with a break after `You'. [go to text]

n10395   [Theodwald] ] 1.Lor. (Emendation follows Wood) [go to text]

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

n10396   [Eaufrid] ] 2. Lord. (Emendation follows Wood) [go to text]

gg5985   trothplight betrothal [go to text]

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

gs1693   at that (OED adv or conj, where the instance in The Queen's Exchange is listed as an example of this sense) [go to text]

n10353   [THEODRIC, OSRIC, THEODWALD and EAUFRID exit.] ]Exeunt omnes. [go to text]

n9634   A shout within, then musicians ring bells. ] Shout within, the Musick, sound the Bells. Wood emends to: `A shout within, the sound of music and bells.' [go to text]

gg3110   commonwealth, state, community [go to text]

gs1771   brave! Capital! Excellent! Bravo! (OED int.) [go to text]

gs1773   nation. entire population (OED n. 1e) [go to text]

gs1772   brave general epithet of admiration or praise: good, capital, fine (OED adj. 3) [go to text]

gs1774   prick height, acme, highest point (OED n. 14), with an innuendo on prick = penis (OED n. 12b) [go to text]

gg6102   praise, object of praise (OED n. 3b) [go to text]

gs1651   very true (truly entitled to the name or designation) [go to text]

gs603   spark a lively young man [go to text]

n9642   bonfires ] bonefires. This spelling, which is used consistently in the 1657 Quarto text, records the etymology of the word: it had originally meant `a great fire of bones in the open air' (OED n, 1) but in the 16th century developed its current sense as `large fire kindled in the open air for a celebration, display, or amusement' (OED n, 4). [go to text]

n9676   the bowls a-trolling, The phrase means `the drinking vessels being passed around': either `carousing' or `tippling' would approximate the sense. [go to text]

gg5728   but only [go to text]

gs1694   rear set up (OED v1. 1a) [go to text]

gg5987   tenor, largest bell in a peal or set of bells (OED n1. B 1) [go to text]

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

n10354   borne ] born The emendation to current spelling of the past participle of the verb `to bear' indicates the pun: Jeffrey's absence will be tolerated, and the bell which occasions Jeffrey's absence will be carried. [go to text]

gs363   withal. substituted for ‘with’ (OED prep.) [go to text]

gg5988   lop-heavy heavy with a weight which causes lopping, hanging down, or drooping (OED) [go to text]

gg4384   churchwarden a lay honorary officer of a parish or district church, elected to assist the incumbent in the discharge of his administrative duties, to manage such various parochial offices as by custom or legislation devolve upon him, and generally to act as the lay representative of the parish in matters of church-organization (OED) [go to text]

gg5989   curate In the Church of England, a clergyman engaged for a stipend or salary, and licensed by the bishop of the diocese to perform ministerial duties in the parish as a deputy or assistant of the incumbent (OED n. 2a) [go to text]

gg5921   amended. recovered, improved [go to text]

gs1775   Whoop, an exclamation expressing excitement [go to text]

gg6218   tangle, give out a quick succession of ringing sounds (OED v2. where the instance in The Queen's Exchange is one of only two listed) [go to text]

gg5987   tenor largest bell in a peal or set of bells (OED n1. B 1) [go to text]

gs1695   bravest worthiest, most excellent (OED brave a, 3a) [go to text]

gs1772   brave general epithet of admiration or praise: good, capital, fine (OED adj. 3) [go to text]

n9635   holiday, ] holy day 1657 quarto preserves etymology and sustains verbal play with the notion of worktools as sacrilegious. [go to text]

gg3954   justle push against, collide with [go to text]

gg1376   almanac. book of tables, containing a calendar of months and days, with astronomical data and calculations, ecclesiastical and other anniversaries, besides other useful information, including astrological forecasts of good days for special occasions like weddings [go to text]

n11252   It shall be said that we will work no more till thy seventh son, O Queen, who must be born a prophet, shall foretell, the age to come shall not have a true labourer or honest workman in it. Jeffrey embeds prophecy within prophecy. Implicitly prophesying that Bertha will bear at least seven sons, he explicitly prophesies that he and his companions will not work until the seventh son prophesies that the future will be without true labourers and honest workmen. The response of Clown 1 indicates that he has got the point: being true and honest, Jeffrey and the Clowns will never work again. The prophecy may be alluding to the filial strike rate of King Charles I’s sister, Elizabeth Stuart. Of the numerous children she bore to Prince Frederick, the Elector Palatine and unsuccessful claimant to the Bohemian throne, between 1614 and 1632, seven were sons who survived past infancy. The eldest had, however, died a few days after his fifteenth birthday; and anyhow the number seven frequently appears in prophecies. [go to text]

n9636   holiday ] holyday [go to text]

gg6103   profane not respectful of religious practice; irreverent (OED adj. 3) [go to text]

gs1776   husbandry! farming, agriculture (OED n. 2) [go to text]

n9635   holiday. ] holy day 1657 quarto preserves etymology and sustains verbal play with the notion of worktools as sacrilegious. [go to text]

gg5986   beeking warming (OED beek v1, 1), Scottish or northern English dialect [go to text]

n10387   sheeplocks, Precisely what inflammable piece of farming equipment this term designates is not clear. Cued by the OED (lock n2, 3) Wood suggests: `possibly similar to a "hobble or shackle on a horse's or other animal's foot to prevent it from straying". Another possibility would be the temporary fencing used for sheep pens. [go to text]

gg6107   flails, instruments for threshing corn by hand, consisting of a wooden staff or handle, at the end of which a stouter and shorter pole or club is so hung as to swing freely (OED flail n, 1) [go to text]

n9635   holiday ] holy day 1657 quarto preserves etymology and sustains verbal play with the notion of worktools as sacrilegious. [go to text]

gg6108   rocks, distaffs (OED rock n2, 1) [go to text]

gg6109   wheels spinning-wheels [go to text]

gg6110   reels, the parts of spinning apparatus onto which thread is wound [go to text]

gg6111   buckingtubs, wooden containers in which yarns, cloths, or garments were bleached or cleaned by being steeped or boiled in wood-lye [go to text]

gs1777   battledores, wooden bats used for washing clothes and for smoothing wrinkles out of them [go to text]

gs1700   stuff utensils, furniture (OED n1. 1g) [go to text]

n10357   We’ll burn her for a witch, Witchcraft on the Continent incurred the penalties for heresy, and witches were also burned in Scotland. In England, where witchcraft was a felony, convicted witches were executed by hanging: see Brome and Thomas Heywood's The Late Lancashire Witches (1634). Even under English law, however, witchcraft practised against one's monarch, master, or husband was treason (or petty treason) and as such was punished at the stake rather than the gallows. [go to text]

gg789   trash, rubbish, dross [go to text]

gg2569   mansion dwelling-place, home [go to text]

n10367   [Clowns 1, 2, 3 and 4] ] All.4. [go to text]

gg5990   ’Sfoot, Abbreviated oath: by God's foot! (The examples listed in the OED are all between 1600 and 1660.) [go to text]

n10355   by th’ arses, That is, by the tailboards. A tailboard is defined by the OED as `a board at the hinder end of a cart, barrow, van, etc.; usually one attached to the bottom by a hinge, and capable of being suspended at various angles for convenience in loading, etc.' Wood emends to `arfs', but the emendation is unnecessary; and his attempt to gloss it indicates that it resists plausible definition. [go to text]

n9637   hurdles, ] hardles. The OED gives this form as a possible spelling in the 16th and 17th centuries; but emendation, which follows Wood, is required to render the word recognisable. (Another possibility would be `handles', but would not fit the context quite so well.) The sense here is `portable rectangular frame...having horizontal bars interwoven or wattled with withes of hazel, willow, etc.,...used chiefly to form temporary fences, sheep-pens' (OED hurdle n, 1a). [go to text]

gg6105   harrows, heavy frames of timber which are dragged over ploughed land to break clods, pulverize and stir the soil, root up weeds, or cover in the seed (OED harrow n1, 1) [go to text]

gg6106   racks vertically barred frames for holding animal fodder (OED rack n4, 1a) [go to text]

gg6010   besides, other than mentioned (OED adv. 3) [go to text]

gg6011   low allow (OED v3. 1) [go to text]

gg5807   hogsheads, large cask for liquids (OED 1) [go to text]

gg5991   kilderkins, casks, the capacity of which varied at this time from 16 to 18 gallons, depending upon the commodity contained in them [go to text]

gg5992   firkins small casks, the capacity of which was half that of a kilderkin [go to text]

n9638   runlets, ] rundlets (emendation follows Wood). These were casks or vessels of varying capacity (OED). An alternative emendation is `rundles', meaning solid wheels or barrels (OED rundle 1, 6c); but the context is better served by a term designating a wooden container. [go to text]

n9639   all to everything down to and including [go to text]

n10359   [Clowns 1, 2, 3 and 4] All. [go to text]

n9640   huge and monstrous ] Houge and monstrious. The spelling may signal countrified accent for the speaker. [go to text]

n10367   [Clowns 1, 2, 3 and 4] ] All.4. [go to text]

gg3819   gall make sore by chafing or rubbing [go to text]

gg5993   liquored drunk [go to text]

gg4692   gelt, castrated [go to text]

n10356   that which shall be nameless in a cleft stick. that is, a man's genitalia [go to text]

n10358   [Clowns 1, 2, 3 and 4] ] All 4. [go to text]

gg5721   A prefix which turns a proper name into a battlecry (OED int., 2) [go to text]

n10400   the bravest bonfire that ever blazed since Troy, According to classical legend and literature, the Greeks besieged Troy, a city in Asia Minor, for ten years. After the invading army finally managed, by treachery and trickery, to enter the city, Troy was sacked and set ablaze. In Book 2 of Virgil's Æneid, the fugitive Trojan Prince Æeneas vividly recounts the destruction of the city. [go to text]

n11073   that which the tyrant emperor warmed his hands at. The reference is almost certainly to the emperor Claudius Caesar Nero (37-68 AD). Among the crimes reported of his fourteen-year reign by Suetonius in his Lives of the Twelve Caesars was that Nero sent out his attendants to set Rome on fire. The blaze burned for six days and seven nights. Although Suetonius does not precisely say that Nero warmed his hands at it, he does say that the Emperor watched it from a tower. Suetonius also reports that while the city burned, Nero dressed himself in a tragedian's costume and recited verses about the fall of Troy. [go to text]

gs524   forbear. stop (this behaviour), desist [go to text]

gg6008   Hebrew’s unintelligible speech (The earliest example listed in the OED for this colloquial sense (n, 2b) dates from 1705.) [go to text]

n10360   ne’er nev'r [go to text]

n10361   whate’er ] what e're [go to text]

n9641   constable. Constables were responsible for keeping the peace and carrying out some administrative duties. The title was qualified according to the level and location of responsibility: this rural Northumbrian officer who accompanies the emissary from Court is probably a petty or parish constable. [go to text]

gs1782   word command (OED n. 6) [go to text]

gg6126   monsters mythical creatures which are part animal and part human, or combine elements of two or more animal forms (OED monster n, 1a) [go to text]

n10362   This posterior posture The phrase is a cue for the actor -- perhaps to prance about like a dog balanced on its hindlegs, to pose with his buttocks stuck out, and/or to smell another character's backside. [go to text]

gs1897   cross thwart, oppose [go to text]

n9636   holiday ] holyday [go to text]

n9636   holiday ] holyday [go to text]

n11093   The King shall know your loves; and for your part, Master Speaker — Your friend and Jeffrey. 1657 puts the verse line break after `Master'. Wood may be correct in presenting the entire scene as prose, but this speech appears to initiate a brief exchange of verse dialogue between Alfrid and Jeffrey. Although that appearance could be entirely fortuitous, its coincidence with the former's invitation of the latter to Court has seemed to warrant keeping the exchange in verse but improving the scansion. [go to text]

n11093   The King shall know your loves; and for your part, Master Speaker — Your friend and Jeffrey. 1657 puts the verse line break after `Master'. Wood may be correct in presenting the entire scene as prose, but this speech appears to initiate a brief exchange of verse dialogue between Alfrid and Jeffrey. Although that appearance could be entirely fortuitous, its coincidence with the former's invitation of the latter to Court has seemed to warrant keeping the exchange in verse but improving the scansion. [go to text]

n10386   Then Jeffrey be it. I’ll promise you preferment If you 1657 Quarto puts the line break after `If'. [go to text]

gs1216   earnest: money paid as an instalment or pledge: a deposit (OED n. 2) [go to text]

n10385   Is melancholy, and thou mayst do him More good 1657 Quarto puts the line break after `good'. Wood may be correct in presenting the entire scene as prose. [go to text]

n11072   college of physicians. Alfrid here evinces an opinion which recurs often enough in other of Brome's plays for it to appear to have been the playwright's own. His physicians get mocked for professional doctrine and methods which had been derived from classical medical texts (notably Galen's) and were being challenged in Brome's day by the teachings of Paracelsus and the practices of apothecaries and herbalists. See, elsewhere in this edition: Richard Cave's notes [NOTE n10256] and [NOTE n1463] to his edition of The Antipodes; Julie Sanders's note [NOTE n7183] to her edition of The Sparagus Garden; and Marion O'Connor's note [NOTE n7967] to her edition of The Court Beggar. [go to text]

gg284   courtship behaviour fitting a courtier [go to text]

n10358   [Clowns 1, 2, 3 and 4] ] All 4. [go to text]

gg5994   hobby-horse a figure of a horse, deployed in a morris-dance, made of wickerwork, or other light material, furnished with a deep housing, and fastened about the waist of one of the performers, who executed various antics in imitation of the movements of a skittish or spirited horse; also, the name of this performer in a morris-dance (OED n. 1) [go to text]

gg5995   revel-rout? occasion of festivity [go to text]

gs1899   hobby-horse a figure of a horse, deployed in a morris-dance, made of wickerwork, or other light material, furnished with a deep housing, and fastened about the waist of one of the performers, who executed various antics in imitation of the movements of a skittish or spirited horse [go to text]

gg5263   preferment advancement to an office or position, promotion (OED n. 4) [go to text]

gs1898   look expect (OED v. 5g) [go to text]

gg6012   outstand endure longer than (OED v. 2) [go to text]

gs1778   favourites. persons who stand unduly high in the favour of a prince (OED favourite n, 2) [go to text]

gg5996   shift change of clothes (OED n. 9a); linen or cotton undergarment worn next to the skin (OED n. 10a) [go to text]

gg5997   shift manage, succeed, get on (OED v. 4a) [go to text]

n10358   [Clowns 1, 2, 3 and 4] ] All 4. [go to text]

n10360   ne’er nev'r [go to text]

n9636   holiday ] holyday [go to text]

n9682   Sic valete valetote. `Thus farewell, farewell!' The second Latin word (valete) is a plural imperative verb, of which the third word (valetote) is an intensified form. Jeffrey's parting shot to his country friends, then, is to give a command and repeat it with bells on: his speech enacts his sudden acquisition of courtiership. Brome uses the same, somewhat pretentious, formula in The City-Wit, near the end of the Epilogue, which is spoken by the pedant Sarpego. [go to text]

n10363   [JEFFREY, CONSTABLE and ALFRID exit through one stage doorway.] 1657 Quarto does not assign a separate exit to the trio who are heading for court. Jeffrey's last words in the scene, however, are an obvious exit line. Moreover, as he and his new companions are heading for a destination that differs from the Clowns', they should use a different door -- most likely the one through which the Constable and Alfrid entered. [go to text]

n10365   the Deil brast crag of him. Responding to the pretentious Latin of Jeffrey's farewell, the Clown abuses him in monosyllabic Northern dialect, meaning: `Now may the Devil break his neck!' [go to text]

n10366   Deil ] Dee'l [go to text]

gg6113   brast Northern form of `burst', here in obsolete sense (OED burst v, 1a) as `break', `snap' [go to text]

gg6112   crag neck (OED n2. 1 which describes this usage as regional, including Northumbria) [go to text]

n10364   [CLOWNS 1, 2, 3 and 4 exit through the other stage doorway.] ] Exeunt omnes. [go to text]

n9647   savages, ] salvages (a possible spelling in the 16th-19th centuries) [go to text]

gg5998   home-bred native, domestic, indigenous (OED adj. 2) [go to text]

gg6126   monsters mythical creatures which are part animal and part human, or combine elements of two or more animal forms (OED monster n, 1a) [go to text]

gg5999   enterprised attempted (OED enterprise v, 1) [go to text]

gg6000   seeming, appearance; aspect (OED vbl n, 1 and 2) [go to text]

gs1696   bare paltry, worthless (OED adj. 10b); simple, rude (OED adj. 10d) [go to text]

gs377   means; resources (especially financial) [go to text]

gg6114   inveterate virulent (OED adj. 3) [go to text]

gg6001   desert. wilderness (OED n2. 1)) [go to text]

gg6002   touched injured or hurt in any or the least degree (OED touch v, 12b) [go to text]

gg6115   sturdy solidly built; strong (OED adj. 7) [go to text]

gg4107   knaves rogues, scoundrels [go to text]

gs1779   price, cost (OED n. 7) [go to text]

gg6003   bloodhounds assassins, murderers; human hunters for blood [go to text]

n10368   Enter OFFA disguised and [three] OUTLAWS. 1657 Quarto places this stage direction at [QE 2.3.1431, after the speech ([QE 2.3.speech281]) in which Segebert reacts to the return of the Outlaws. Their number has been inferred from subsequent plot developments and confirmed by the dramatis personae list. [go to text]

gg6116   made head advanced, pressed forward (OED head n1, 29 and 57a) [go to text]

gs633   expedition. haste in getting business settled [go to text]

n10382   [Offa] ] All. The speech heading in 1657 makes no sense in context, and neither does Wood's expansion of it to `All Outlaws': one of the outlaws has spoken in the immediately preceding speech, and Offa is trying to incite his team to get on with their dirty work. [go to text]

n9649   They fight. ANTHYNUS knock[s] down OUTLAW 1. OFFA wounds SEGEBERT in the head, [and] he sinks. ANTHYNUS disarms OFFA. OFFA runs off whilst ANTHYNUS speaks. In 1657 Quarto, the whole of this stage direction is set as verse dialogue, with a line break after `sinks'; and it is printed in the typeface used for the dialogue rather than that used elsewhere for stage directions. [go to text]

n10369   [To OFFA]This sword thou never handlest more. [To SEGEBERT]Take you it and fresh courage, sir. 1657 Quarto prints these two sentences as prose, which may be correct. (As Wood points out, `The fighting coincides with a disruption to the verse.') They have been changed here for consistency with the rest of the speech which they begin. [go to text]

n9651   Dear honoured sir, look up! Father, how do you? ] two verse lines: Dear honoured sir, look up! / Father, how do you? (Relineation follows Wood.) [go to text]

gg2478   ready eager; vigilant [go to text]

gg3904   industry, effort, diligence [go to text]

n9656   Æneas, that true Trojan son whose fame For piety ever crowns his name, The piety which earned Æneas the epithet pius was a matter of filial devotion. In Book II of Vergil's Æneid, Æneas recounts the Greeks' destruction of his native Troy. In flight from the burning city, Æneas carried his father, Anchises, on his own shoulders and held fast the hand of his son, Iulus Ascanius. His wife Creusa, following behind her husband, father-in-law and son, promptly perished. Old Anchises, however, not only survived the first part of Æneas' wanderings but was posthumously reunited with his son when, as recounted in Book VI of the Æneid, Æneas visited the underworld. [go to text]

gg1393   Well said, well done (conventional compliment) [go to text]

gg6004   accommodate mend, repair (OED v. 8) [go to text]

n9657   [SEGEBERT and ANTHYNUS exit.] ] Exeunt. [go to text]

n10371   It is a belly-devil, rather, that has tormented me e’er since I served you under ground hereby. No man above ground could have fasted like me. 1657 Quarto sets this speech ([QE 2.3.speech307]) as three verse lines, with breaks after: me; man. Wood resituates the break between second and third lines, moving the first two words of the latter back to the former, but leaves the first line untouched, all fifteen syllables of it. I think the speech is prose, which suits the social status as well as the personal style of its speaker. [go to text]

n10370   e’er ] E're [go to text]

gg6117   hereby. in this neighbourhood (OED 1) [go to text]

n10376   above ground Picking up his own mention of subterranean servitude `under ground' (in the Hermit's cave), the Servant plays with different senses of `above ground' as `above the surface of the earth' and `[alive anywhere] on earth'. [go to text]

n10372   caterpillar? The Hermit uses the word figuratively, to mean `rapacious person' (OED n, 2): scansion permitting, he might have said `piller' instead. The Servant responds to the word as meaning `larva of an insect'. [go to text]

n10373   Yes, such as caterpillars eat: blossoms and buds, many green growing things, such as you make your medicines of, and roots. Would I could get some of the caterpillars! A dish of caterpillars fried — let me see: in what? in usurer’s grease, if one knew where to get it — might serve to feast an emperor. But we live out o’th’ world by prayer and fasting. 1657 Quarto sets this speech as verse, with breaks after: eats; things; get; fried; one; Emperor; fasting. Wood relineates the first three lines, with breaks after: buds; make. Another possibility would be to put breaks after: blossoms; as; I; caterpillars; see; where; and emperor. Content and context, however, suggest that the speech is prose. [go to text]

n10374   But, sir, there’s difference in our exercises. If I could spend my time, whole days, in prayer as you do, this kind of fare — or fasting, rather — would not be so bitter to me. 1657 Quarto presents this speech (No. 309) as four verse lines, with breaks after: I; as; fasting. It would be possible both to improve the scansion and make a better match with sense by resituating the first two line breaks after: exercises; prayer. That the result would be quite regular blank verse, however, seems to me fortuitous. [go to text]

n10375   Yes, something like the croaking of a frog, methought. If it were one, I would wade up to the waist for’t for my supper.[Discovering OUTLAW 1]Here, here, sir! Here ’tis! Here’s more work for you. Once a week we are commonly troubled either to cure or bury: one or other, thank the outlaws. They make us work for nothing here, as if we dwelt here for the purpose, nor do I know other indeed. 1657 Quarto presents this speech (No. 314) as verse, with line breaks after: it; for't; more; trouble; the; dwelt. Wood relineates, with breaks after; frog; to; sir,; week; or; make; dwelt; other. To this editor, the speech is prose. [go to text]

n10389   waist ] waste [go to text]

n10377   There’s 1657 Quarto prints these clauses as two lines of verse, broken after the first third-person singular masculine pronoun. Wood prefers prose. [go to text]

n10379   And tomorrow up with him again, and then down into a grave. Better let him lie now, sir. You’ll ne’er do good on him, I doubt: he looks so damnably as if the Devil were at my elbow for him. 1657 Quarto sets this speech ([QE 2.3. speech321]) as five verse lines, with breaks after: down; Sir; looks; elbow. The stresses, however, do not fall into anything like regular iambics, and the penultimate line has fourteen syllables. [go to text]

n10276   ne’er ] ne're [go to text]

n11092   Nay, had I his weight in venison so near killed, and might be allowed to eat it, I would ask no more flesh while I lived. 1657 Quarto presents the two lines of this speech ([QE 2.3.speech323]) as verse, broken (after 18 syllables!) between `to' and `eat'. Wood relineates with line breaks after `so' and `eat'. This editor thinks the speech to be prose. [go to text]

n10378   [HERMIT and HERMIT’S SERVANT exit carrying OUTLAW 1.] An exit for the Hermit, his Servant and Outlaw 1 is obviously necessary here, but 1657 Quarto does not give one. What it gives instead is a stage direction: `(Here enter Offa and the Outlaws assuring him they are dead)'. Wood's note to the direction -- `This is done without scripted dialogue' -- fails to rescue it. The direction for the entry of Offa and his criminal companions does not belong here in Act 2 but rather in Act 4, which starts with an entrance for Offa and 2 Outlaws, and then an opening question from Offa: `You are sure they are both dead and buried?' [QE 4.1.speech517]. In 1657 Quarto the misplaced stage direction has been printed on signature D1^r (right hand column) but belongs on signature E2 ^r (again, right hand column): the compositor[s] may have confused formes, and/or the confusion may have lain in the copy. [go to text]

n10388   2.4 No scene division is indicated in 1657 Quarto, and Wood does not insert one. However, the stage has been completely cleared; and, unless Anthynus can be thought to have been carrying Segebert around in circles, the fictional place has certainly changed. (Time is not indicated.) The Quarto misplaces a stage direction at this point (see [NOTE n10378]), and its omission of a scene division is but further evidence of confusion. [go to text]

gg2545   awful awe-inspiring [go to text]

n10380   displease the awful power of Heaven By chiding at the feigned ones, good take heed. At his re-entry with Segebert in his arms, Anthynus began speaking about moral personifications (outrage, murder and cruelty, despair)[QE 2.4.speech324]. Thereafter he has been speaking to divinities in Greek and Roman classical mythology -- Fortune and Fate. Sebegert's rebuke recalls his son to his senses, which are monotheistic, even (as the word `Heaven' hints) Christian. [go to text]

gg5218   chidden, scolded, rebuked [go to text]

gg5547   forbear refrain from enforcing, pressing, or demanding (OED v. 9) [go to text]

n10381   me unto my thoughts, This phrase is governed by the verb `forbear', in the sense `leave'. [go to text]

gs1697   know recognise, identify (OED vI, 1a) [go to text]

n9658   an execution of that horror commission of fratricide [go to text]

n9659   Wert ] Wer't [go to text]

gg6118   Whenas whereas (OED 2b); although; while on the contrary [go to text]

n10383   parricidal ] parricidial (OED lists examples of this form of the adjective from 1605 to 1815.) [go to text]

gg6119   bowels feelings, heart (OED bowel n1, 3 and 4) [go to text]

n9660   troubled ]trebbled. Wood does not emend, but the change is necessary. At this point the speaker is setting up an extended metaphor of two streams of blood (one good, the other bad), and the dualism will be sustained for two dozen lines. The image of a `troubled' -- disturbed, stirred up, agitated -- spring fits well with the larger metaphor. To retain `trebbled', however, would be to introduce the concept of a triad and thereby entangle the metaphor into nonsense. [go to text]

gs1757   pious faithful to family duties and obligations (OED 2) [go to text]

gg6125   sanctimonious sacred, holy, consecrated (OED 1) [go to text]

gs1783   piety. faithfulness to the duties naturally owed to one's parents (OED n. 3), and particularly those owed by a son to his father [go to text]

gg6005   vermilion. bright red or scarlet [go to text]

gs1698   vent discharge, expel (OED v2. 2a) [go to text]

gs1699   conceit opinion, estimation (OED nII, 4) [go to text]

n11069   And in the clear I see Offa’s falsehood. In both my blood runs forth apace. Oh, may My thick blood, Anthynus, be forgiven by thee And the clear cleanse my Offa’s treachery! ] And in the clear I see Offa's falsehood may/ In both my blood runs forth apace. O/ My thick blood Anthynus be forgiven by thee./ And the cleare cleanse my Offa's treachery 1657 Quarto has evidently carried up the word `may' from the second line but (quite unusually) has neglected to mark the carried-up word with an open-parenthesis sign: see [QE 2.4. line1712]. Wood, leaving the word where it is in 1657 Quarto, glosses it as follows: `maybe; ie. Segebert speculates that "Offa's falsehood" could be in both "streams of blood", because of his rapid bleeding.' I think this explanation requires Segebert to be speculating against the logic of his own extended image, and it does nothing to rescue the grammatical errors of the second and third verbs in the quotation as printed. [go to text]

n11094   Not I, sir: I heard nothing. Wood presents this sentence as a verse part-line completed by the first sentence in the Hermit's next speech. Wood has contrived to relineate the 1657 Quarto text so as to preserve verse throughout the ensuing exchange between the Hermit and his Servant ([QE 2.4 speech336] through [QE 2.4 speech351]), as he also did throughout the dialogue between them in the preceding scene ([QE 2.3.speech302] through [QE 2.3.speech323]). The case for adopting Wood’s relineation here is stronger than it was for that earlier exchange: it produces fewer seriously hypermetrical lines; many of the successive speeches end/begin in part-lines which can be joined in reasonable iambic pentameter; and it matches the somewhat more serious context of this exchange. Nevertheless, Wood’s relineation of this exchange still seems to be going against the grain of the Servant’s speeches, in which it produces lines of up to 15 syllables, breaks lines in defiance of English syntax, and appears incongruous with the speaker’s tone. Brome’s versification is notoriously difficult to call: the on-balance decision for this exchange, as for most of the corresponding one in the previous scene, has been to present the dialogue as verse from the Hermit met by prose from his Servant but to record Wood's relineation of the 1657 Quarto text in notes. [go to text]

n11095   Here, sir, here’s something that perhaps has groaned, but it’s out of hearing now. 1657 Quarto presents this sentence as verse, broken after `groaned'. Wood relineates by making the first three words complete a line with the last seven in the preceding speech and then breaking after `here's' and `out'. [go to text]

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

n11096   So, more work still! Whilst we are gathering simples to cure one, here’s another John Simple laid in our way to bury. 1657 Quarto presents this speech as verse, broken after `still' and `one'. Wood preserves those line breaks and makes the first four words complete a line with the last six words in the previous speech, [go to text]

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

n10468   John Simple Dramatic context requires this name to designate a person of humble social class (OED simple n, 1b) and unknown personal identity. It may also allude to the role of the simpleton (or `natural fool') John of the Hospital in Robert Armin's play The Two Maids of More-clacke: with the life and simple maner of IOHN in the Hospitall (printed 1609). See R.A.Foakes, Illustrations of the London Stage (London: Scolar, 1985), 96-7. [go to text]

n11097   Aye, but he has no breath, not so much, I’ll undertake, as a scolding wife that has been nine days in the grave. 1657 Quarto presents this speech as verse, broken only before `scolding'. Wood relineates with breaks after `breath' and `scolding' and makes the first six words form a part line with the four words of the previous speech. [go to text]

n11098   Good master, let it warn you, though we have hitherto passed by these man-tigers, these wolvish outlaws safely, early and late, as not worth their malice. Yet pray, sir, now, since they begin to kill men of this coat, and these years, let us forsake this savage habitation, and live in the world of meat again. 1657 Quarto presents this speech as verse, broken after: hitherto; not; they; us; live. Making the first two words in the speech complete a line with the last five in the preceding speech, Wood relineates with breaks after: master; hithero; safely; malice; kill; us; habitation. [go to text]

n9661   savage ] Salvage (a possible spelling in the 16th-19th centuries) [go to text]

n10390   Methinks I should have known this face. In half recognising the disguised and injured Segebert, the Hermit gives a faint hint of his own identity as Alberto, Segebert's former rival and fellow courtier. [go to text]

n11100   He’s holp away, and made away enough already methinks. 1657 Quarto, followed by Wood, presents this speech, all fifteen syllables of it, as a line of verse. [go to text]

gg6006   holp helped. OED gives `holp' as a possible form for the past participle of the verb `to help' in the 16th and 17th centuries. [go to text]

n11099   Sure they have blown their sins into him that killed him, he’s so heavy, he’s deadly heavy. Pray, Sir, let me fetch my grave instruments and your book and bestow him here. You will not bury him in your cave, I’m sure. 1657 Quarto presents this speech as verse, broken after: killed him; me; here. Making the first six words in the speech complete a line with the four words of the preceding speech, Wood relineates with breaks after: sins; heavy, he's; grave; here; sure. [go to text]

gs1780   bestow dispose of (OED v. 1) [go to text]

n11101   I say I’ll have him down. Perhaps the wounded man That’s there may know him. 1657 Quarto, followed by Wood, breaks this line after `wounded'. [go to text]

n11102   I would I had but this fellow’s weight in buttock beef. 1657 Quarto presents this speech as a single line of verse. Wood relineates putting a line break after `would' and making the first two words continue a line from the end of the preceding speech. [go to text]

gg6007   buttock rump [go to text]

n9662   [HERMIT and HERMIT’S SERVANT carry SEGEBERT off through one stage doorway.] ] Exeunt. [go to text]

gs1781   stay, delay (OED n3. 4) [go to text]

n10384   e’er ] e're [go to text]

gg2643   Ha! a versatile exclamation which can express surprise, wonder, joy, suspicion, indignation, etc., depending on the speaker’s intonation (OED int, 1) [go to text]

gg6121   marked made mental note (of) (OED mark v, 25a) [go to text]

gg6120   tarriance delay (OED 1) [go to text]

n9663   whether ] whither: a possible spelling in the 16th and 17th centuries [go to text]

n9663   whether ] whither: a possible spelling in the 16th and 17th centuries [go to text]

n10401   Here. The best known example of an offstage voice repeating part of an onstage utterance is probably to be found in Act 5 scene 3 of John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi, performed by the King's Men at the Blackfriars and Globe Theatres ca. 1612-1623 (when the playtext was printed) and at Court in 1630. Other examples of the use of this device from the 1630s include Thomas Randolph's Amyntas (1630) and Walter Mountfort's The Launching of the Mary (1633). In their invaluable Dictionary of Stage Directions in English Drama 1580-1642 (Cambridge University Press, 1999), Alan Dessen and Leslie Thomson distinguish between instances of such repetitions appearing to answer the questions of the onstage figure, and of their confusing or comforting the onstage figure: although both occur here in The Queen's Exchange, it is cited as an example only of the former, `most common use of the device' (p 99). [go to text]

n9664   (within) ] (Anth. within). The stage direction is placed to the right of the echo to which Anthynus is responding. [go to text]

gg1469   fond foolish [go to text]

gg6123   properties characteristics (OED property n, 1b) [go to text]

n10391   inhuman ] inhumane. Either spelling is possible in the 17th century: the modern one has been chosen because, stressing the second syllable, it better suits the scansion. [go to text]

gg6124   inhuman brutal, cruel (OED 1) [go to text]

gg6126   monsters mythical creatures which are part animal and part human, or combine elements of two or more animal forms (OED monster n, 1a) [go to text]

n10392   [ANTHYNUS kneels to kiss the stage floor, imagined to be wet with blood] 1657 Quarto provides no stage direction for the business which the speech implies. Wood adds `(kisses the ground)'. [go to text]

n10393   [Again tearing fabric from his own garments, ANTHYNUS dips it in the imaginary blood] 1657 Quarto provides no stage direction for the business which the speech implies. Wood adds `(removes some of the blood-stained earth)' -- a direction which overlooks the fact that this action is being performed on the stage of a theatre. In the previous scene [QE 2.3.speech288], Anthynus bound his father's head with linen which he produced from somewhere about his own person. The actor playing Anthynus has not changed costume since then, so the supply is still at hand. Wood construes the blood-staining business as reminiscent of Roman Catholics gathering relics from their martyrs' execution sites, and as indicative that Anthynus is of that belief. [go to text]

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