P. 15-16. Put case our Authour should, once more, Sweare that his play were good. This refers to the epilogue to C. Revels, acted 1600, in which Jonson expressed his own admiration of a play that must have seemed tedious enough to the auditors in lines concluding, 'By God 'tis good, and if you like't, you may.' P. 27. Their moods he rather pitties, then enuies. The metre of course requires the accent upon the second syllable of enuies. This seems to be a mere exigency of versification, but cf. Jonson's English Grammar, ch. 7: 'All verbs coming from the Latin, either of the supine, or otherwise, hold the accent as it is found in the first person present of those Latin words: as ánimo, animate' &c. 1. I. 6. On with your gowne and cappe. Overbury, in his character of 'A meere Common Lawyer,' mentions the lawyer's 'ruffe,' his 'hoopsleeve gowne,' and his cap. Cf. the costume of Master Practice in The Magnetic Lady I. 1. I. I. 27. Veluet armes. 'The English and French haue one peculiar fashion, which I neuer obserued in any other part, namely to weare scabbards and sheaths of veluet vpon their rapiers and daggers: For in France very Notaries vse them in the Cities, and ride vpon their footecloaths, or in Coaches (both hired), and in England men of meane sort vse them.' An Itinerary, Fynes Moryson, London 1617, Part III, Book 4, ch. 2, 178. Cf. Stubbes, Anat. of Abuses 53. Marston mentions a velvet scabbard in What You Will 4. I. 63. I. I. 39. Castalian mad. Made mad by poetry. Castalia was the Muses' spring on Mt. Parnassus. I. I. 47-88. The original authorship of this translation of Ovid, Eleg. 1. 15, is fully discussed in the Introduction, and only particular points will be taken up here. I. I. 49. The line from whence I sprung. 'Humble, however, though it [my family] be, in the days of my father it may be said to have been illustrious, and in point of nobility inferior to none; it was remarkable for neither its wealth nor its poverty; whence, rendered conspicuous by neither extreme, it holds its Equestrian rank.' Ovid, Trist. 2. 111 ff., tr. H. T. Riley. Cf. also Trist. 4. 10. 7-8. I. I. 55. Homer will liue. Ovid has vivet Maeonides. The translator has at least avoided the vexed question of Homer's birthplace-supposing there was a Homer. I. I. 57. And so shall Hesiod too, while vines doe beare. Vivet et Ascraeus, dum mustis uva tumebit (Ovid, 11). Hesiod's home was in Ascra, a small Boeotian town at the foot of Mt. Helicon. (Cf. Ovid, Ex Ponto 4. 14. 31 ff.) The version of this elegy printed in Bullen's edition of Marlowe has 'Ascraeus' instead of 'Hesiod'. I. I. 63-4. Dum fallax servus, etc., Ovid 17-18. This couplet is translated by Thos. Heywood, Apology for Actors, 1612? (Sh. Soc. 1841, p. 57): 1. 1. 65–6. While ther's false servant, or obdurate sire, Sly baud, smoot whore, Menandros wee'l admire. The translation of this elegy included in Marlowe's Works has (lines 19-20): Rude Ennius, and Plautus full of wit, Are both in Fame's eternal legend writ. Upon Plautus Bullen notes (Marlowe, Works 3. 137): 'The poet must have read "animosi Maccius oris." The true reading is "animosque Accius oris." I. 1. 71. Tytirvs, Tillage, Ænee shall be read. Ovid writes: Tityrus et fruges Aeneiaque arma legentur (25). Tillage is certainly not a happy rendering of fruges: the exigencies of a line for line translation have here interfered with both exact rendition and poetic form. Yet even in the original the juxtaposition of the proper noun and the two common nouns is hardly felicitous. 1. I. 77. The suffering plough-share. Dens patientis aratri. 1. 1. 79–80. Cedat et auriferi ripa benigna Tagi is clearer than the translation. I. 1. 81-2. Me let bright Phœbvs swell. The quarto 1593 of Venus and Adonis bore these lines of Ovid 1. 15. 35-36: Vilia miretur vulgus; mihi flavus Apollo Pocula Castalia plena ministret aqua. Bright Phœbus might be called a somewhat colorless rendering of flavus Apollo. And swell has not the elegance of ministret. Ben Jonson is not happy as a translator of Ovid. 1. 1. 83. Frost-fearing myrtle shall impale my head. Sustineamque coma metuentem frigora myrtum. The Marlowe version has 'frost-drad myrtle', an anomalous use of drad. Chaucer, Troilus and Cressida 3. 1775, has: 'Ector, most y-drad of any wight,' which gives us the usual sense of 'drad'-being feared, not causing fear. I. I. 85-6. "Enuie, the liuing, not the dead, doth bite: "For after death all men receiue their right. Jonson employs quotation marks at the beginning of lines not to indicate that the words are quoted, which may or may not be the case, but to call attention to the significance of the ideas. Anything that has the sententious or aphoristic form is likely to be thus marked; but especially if it seems apt to Jonson's general theories or immediate needs. Here, he is calling attention to an utterance that the diligent reader may connect with the martyrdom of Ben Jonson at the hands of the poet-apes. Line 85 lacks the dignity and self-command of Ovid, 39: Pascitur in vivis Livor: post fata quiescit. I. 2. The following passage in the will of John Marston senior is of interest: 'to sd son John my furniture &c. in my chambers in the Middle Temple my law books &c. to my sd son whom I hoped would have profited by them in the study of the law but man proposeth and God disposeth &c.' Upon this we have the comment of Grosart, in the Poems of John Marston x-xi: "The paternal disappointment in the matter of "the Law" it is noteworthy is worked into What You Will (act i. sc. 1).' But as we see the son of a divine Seldom proves preacher, or a lawyer's son I. I. 174-179, Randolfo loq. For further notes on the parallel between Ovid and Marston, see Introduction. 1. 2. 12 ff., 38 ff.; 3. 4. 129 ff. The social condition of players (histriones) in ancient Rome was even worse than that of players in England during Elizabeth's reign. Histriones were classed with cashiered soldiers, bawds, betrayers, and criminals generally. Cf. the Perpetual Edict of Salvius Julianus, VII (ed. B. Walker 1877, 43): Infamia notatur qui ab exercitu ignominiae causa ab imperatore, eove, cui de ea re statuendi potestas fuerit, dimissus erit. Qui artis ludicrae pronuntiandive causa in scaenam prodierit. Qui lenocinium fecerit, &c. Jonson was therefore happy in his choice of time and scene for his lashing of the players. Cf. the Apologetical Dialogue, 128 ff. 1. 2. 12–14. I heare of a tragœdie of yours Medea. Sceptra tamen sumpsi, curaque tragoedia nostra called Ovid, Am. 2. 18. 13-18. So it would seem to have been a tyrannical love, not a tyrannical father, that drew Ovid away from tragedy. The Medea was completed, though no copy is extant. Cf. Quintilian, Institutes 10 §98. 1. 2. 17-18. An enghle for players? In Histriomastix 4, the Ingle is a gallant who is gulled out of his splendid sword by Clout, the player. I. 2. 18. A shot-clogge? Commenting on the Staple of News 4. I, Gifford says: 'Our shot-clog, &c. Whalley's explanation of this term is incorrect. Instead of "an incumbrance on the reckoning," it appears to mean both here, and in the passage referred to [Every Man Out 5. 6], one who is pledged for the reckoning; a simpleton, a gull, in short, who discharges the shot [the tavern reckoning] for the whole party.' I. 2. 26-27. Rowle powle? 'Query-crop-headed and vulgar, or of no more shape than a roll-pudding?' (N.) I. 2. 30-31. Are wee paralells, rascall? 'Asinius. I dare answer his challenge, by word of mouth, or by writing, but I scorne to meete him, I hope he and I are not Paralels.' Satiromastix p. 232. 1. 2. 35-6. They are i' your element. Dekker derides this speech, Satiromastix p. 195: 'Horace. Tis out of his Element to traduce me: I am too well ranckt Asinius to bee stab'd with his dudgion wit.' P. 196: 'Asinius. [Horace's friend.] Leaue haue you dear Ningle, marry for reading any book Ile take my death vpont (as my Ningle sayes) tis out of my Element.' It should be observed how often in Satiromastix Dekker ridicules the words and phrases of Poetaster. Cf. Twelfth Night 3. 1. 57-9: Who you are, and what you would are out of my welkin, I might say Element, but the word is over-worn.? Also 3. 4. 137: 'Malvolio. I am not of your element.' It is barely possible that Shakespeare is here allowing himself a little derision of Jonson. I. 2. 40-41. 'A reference to the dislike that the London authorities had to the players.' (N.) 1. 2. 52. Skelder. 'And no question, if he be poore, he shall now and then light vpon some Gull or other, whom he may skelder (after the gentile fashion) of money' (Dekker, Gulls Hornbook, ed. Grosart, 2. 246). I. 2. 56. The statute. 'Player is affraid of the statute, for if he haue no better supportation then his profession, he is neither admitted in publicke, nor if hee bee a roamer dares iustifie himselfe in priuate, being a flat roague by the statute.' (Reprinted from the Rich Cabinet Furnished with Varietie of Descriptions, &c., by T. G[ainsford?]. 1616, in Hazlitt, Eng. Dr. and Stage, 228-230.) The statute referred to is 39 Eliz. c. 4 (1597-8), 'An Acte for punyshment of Rogues Vagabondes and Sturdy Beggars,' which declares: 'All Fencers Bearewardes cōmon Players of Enterludes and Minstrelles wandring abroade, (other then Players of Enterludes belonging to any Baron of the Realme, or any other honorable Personage of greater Degree, to be auctoryzed to play, under the Hand and Seale of Armes of such Baron or Personage)' shall be stripped, whipped and sent to their own parishes or to the house of correction. I. 2. 57. To blazon, is to set forth a coat of arms in its proper colours; to trick, as has been before observed, is to draw it only with a pen.' G. Gifford seems to be wrong here; cf. Woodward and Burnett, Treatise on Heraldry, 1892, 1. 105: "To "blazon" a Coat of Arms is to describe it in heraldic phraseology so exactly that any one acquainted with the language of armory may be able accurately to depict it from its concise description.' Trick means, 'To draw, as a bearing or collection of bearings, or a whole escutcheon or achievement of arms.' C.D. 1. 2. 58. Iwisse. Cf. Iwusse, 5. 3. 261, and note. 1. 2. 60. The publike edicts. An allusion to the Roman praetorian edicts, but actually contemplating the statute of 1597-8 referred to in line 56. 1. 2. 65-6. The sense of these lines is perfectly clear, but I do not find an exactly parallel use of blow. Cf. Every Man In 2. 1, Kitely to Downright: He would be ready To blow the ears of his familiars With the false breath of telling what disgraces, And low disparagements, I had put upon him. 1. 2. 71. A poeme of that nature. Referring to the tragedy of Medea, mentioned in 1. 2. 14. 1. 2. 75-7. 'In Elegy, also, we challenge equality with the Greeks; and Tibullus seems to me the most terse and elegant writer of it. There are some that prefer Propertius. Ovid is more luxuriant in style than either, and Gallus more harsh.' Quintilian, Inst. 10 §93. I. 2. 85-7. Nicholson's text reads: 'He whose worm-eaten statue must not be spewed against, but hallowed lips and grovelling adoration,' &c., and on but is the note: 'Approached or worshipped, being understood.' Yet, however incongruous the ideas as given in folio 1616, we are hardly to suppose an implied interpolation. Nicholson's omission of with before hallowed is an instance of the carelessness that has vitiated his whole text; see our Variants, particularly those for the latter part of the play. |