The Works of Christopher Marlowe, Vol. 3 (of 3)

THE SIXTH SESTIAD

The Argument of the Sixth SestiadLeucote flies to all the Winds,And from the Fates their outrage blinds,113That Hero and her love may meet.Leander, with Love's complete fleet

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1

The Arguments are by Chapman, who also divided Marlowe's portion of the form into the First and Second Sestiad.

2

Eds. 1600, 1606, 1613, "Sea-borders."—Ed. 1598, according to Malone, has "sea-borderers;" and so eds. 1629, 1637.

3

Some editions give "wore."

4

Some eds. have "rockt," which may be the right reading.

5

So ed. 1637.—The earlier editions that I have seen read "may."

6

Cf. Venus and Adonis (l. 3)—

"Rose-cheek'd Adonis hied him to the chace."

7

So Hamlet i. 1—

"The moist star,Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands."

8

"Thrilling—tremulously moving."—Dyce. Perhaps the meaning rather is penetrating—drilling its way through—"the gloomy sky."

9

Variegated (Lat. discolor).

10

Dyce quotes a passage of Harington's Orlando Furioso where "flowre" (floor) rhymes with "towre."

11

Ed. 1600 and later 4tos. "Tail'd." For the coupling of "Vailed" with "veiling," cf. 2. Tamb. v. iii. 6. "pitch their pitchy tents."

12

This line is quoted in As you like it, iii. 5:—

"Dead shepherd, now I find thy saw of might,—Who ever lov'd, that lov'd not at first sight."

13

"A periphrasis of Night." Marginal note in ed. 1598.

14

Lines 199-204, 221-222, are quoted, not quite accurately, by Matthew in Every Man in his Humour, iv. 1.

15

Some eds. give "between."

16

Cf. Shakespeare, Sonnet cxxxvi.—

"Among a number one is reckoned none."

17

Some eds. read "sweet."

18

Cf. Second Sestiad, l. 73—

"She with a kind of granting put him by it."

19

This line is quoted in England's Parnassus with the reading "ripest."

20

Hushed.

21

"To the 'beldam nurse' there occurs the following allusion in Drayton's Heroical Epistle from Queen Mary to Charles Brandon:—

'There is no beldam nurse to powt nor lowerWhen wantoning we revell in my tower,Nor need I top my turret with a light,To guide thee to me as thou swim'st by night.'"—Broughton.

22

So the old eds.—Dyce reads "about."

23

We are reminded of Lycidas:—

"Comes the blind Fury with the abhorrèd shearsAnd slits the thin-spun life."

24

Omitted in ed. 1600 and later 4tos.

25

This word cannot be right. Query, "high-aspiring?"

26

Cf. Rom. and Jul. v. 1—

"I dreamed my lady came and found me dead,Strange dream that gives a dead man leave to think!—And breathed such life with kisses in my lips,That I revived and was an emperor."

27

Omitted in eds. 1600, 1606, 1613, and 1637.

28

Peised, weighed.

29

Rooms were strewed with rushes before the introduction of carpets. Shakespeare, like Marlowe, attributed the customs of his own day to ancient times. Cf. Cymb. ii. 2—

"Our Tarquin thusDid softly press the rushes ere he wakenedThe chastity he wounded."

30

Old eds. "crau'd."

31

Some eds. give "O, none have power but gods."

32

"In ages and countries where mechanical ingenuity has but few outlets it exhausts itself in the constructions of bits, each more peculiar in form or more torturing in effect than that which has preceded it. I have seen collections of these instruments of torments, and among them some of which Marlowe's curious adjective would have been highly descriptive. It may be, however, that the word is 'ring-led,' in which shape it would mean guided by the ring on each side like a snaffle."—Cunningham.

33

Some eds. give "so faire and kind." Cf. Othello, iv. 2—

"O thou windWho art so lovely-fair and smell'st so sweet."

34

Ed. 1613 and later eds. "upstarting."

35

Fetched

36

Some eds. give "shallow."

37

In the old eds. this line and the next stood after l. 300. The transposition was made by Singer in the edition of 1821.

38

Old eds.—"then … displaid," and in the next line "laid."

39

Old eds. "heare" and "haire."

40

Old eds. "glympse."

41

Pluto was frequently identified by the Greeks with Plutus.

42

Old eds. "day bright-bearing car."

43

Dinged, dashed. Some eds. give "hurled."—Here Marlowe's share ends.

44

This Epistle is only found in the Isham copy, 1598.

45

Old eds. "improving."

46

"He calls Phœbus the god of gold, since the virtue of his beams creates it."—Marginal note in the Isham copy.

47

The reader will remember how grimly Lady Macbeth plays upon this word:—

"I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal:For it must seem their guilt."—ii. 2.

48

"It is not likely that Burns had ever read Hero and Leander, but compare Tam o' Shanter—

'But pleasures are like poppies spread,You seize the flower, its bloom is shed,Or like the snow falls in the river,A moment white—then melts for ever!'"—Cunningham.

49

In England's Parnassus the reading is "of men audacious."

50

Wholly.

51

Some eds. give "For as she was."

52

A magical figure formed of intersected triangles. It was supposed to preserve the wearer from the assaults of demons. "Disparent would seem to mean that the five points of the ornaments radiated distinctly one from the other."—Cunningham.

53

Old eds. "her."

54

Heated.

55

Old eds. "how."

56

Substance, as opposed to spirit. Cf. note. Vol. i., 203.

57

Cadiz, which was taken in June 21, 1596, by the force under the joint command of Essex and Howard of Effingham.

58

So the Isham copy.—The other old eds. read "townes," for which Dyce gives "town."

59

Within.

60

Vent forth.

61

"Fowl" and "fool" had the same pronunciation. Cf. 3 Henry VI. v. 6:—

"Why, what a peevish fool was he of Crete,That taught his son the office of a fowl!And yet for all his wings the fool was drowned."

The "moorish fool" is explained by the allusion to the lapwing, two lines above. (The lapwing was supposed to draw the searcher from her nest by crying in other places. "The lapwing cries most furthest from her nest."—Ray's Proverbs.)

62

A kind of crape.

63

So the modern editors for an "imitating."

64

Ingenious. Chapman has the form "enginous" in his translation of the Odyssey, i. 452,

"By open force or prospects enginous."

65

Some modern editors unnecessarily give "With crowd of sail."

66

Old eds. "joys."

67

Old eds. "he."

68

Some eds. give "For such a Hero."

69

Command.

70

Picture.

71

"This conceit was suggested to Chapman by a passage in Skelton's Phyllyp Sparowe:

"But whan I was sowing his beke,Methought, my sparow did speke,And opened his prety byll,Saynge, Mayd, ye are in wyllAgayne me for to kyll,Ye prycke me in the head.'—Works, I, 57, ed. Dyce."—Dyce.

72

Affections.

73

"This description of the fisherman, as well as the picture which follows it, are borrowed (with alterations) from the first Idyl of Theocritus."—Dyce.

74

"Eyas" is the name for an unfledged hawk. "Eyas thoughts" would mean "thoughts not yet full-grown,—immature." Dyce thinks the meaning of "eyas" here may be "restless." (Old eds. "yas.")

75

A monosyllable.

76

Some eds. give "them, then they burned as blood."

77

Approaching catastrophe.

78

Some eds. "and."

79

Used transitively.

80

Some eds. "Leanders."

81

Shakespeare uses the verb "slubber" in the sense of "perform in a slovenly manner" (Merchant of Venice, ii. 8, "Slubber not business for my sake").

82

Companions, yoke-mates.

83

Gr. ἡδονη.

84

From Lat. crista?

85

Prune.

86

Gr. λευκοτης.

87

Gr. δαψιλης.

88

Some eds. read "Coyne and impure."

89

From Gr. οικτος?

90

Some eds. "in."

91

"A compound, probably, from ερως and νοσος or νουσος Ionice." Ed. 1821.

92

Some modern editors read "sat."

93

Singer suggested "Alcmaeon."

94

"Chapman has a passage very similar to this in his Widow's Tears, Act iv.:—

'Wine is ordained to raise such hearts as sink:Whom woful stars distemper let him drink.'"—Broughton.

95

"Old eds. 'prayes,' 'praies,' 'preies,' and 'pryes.'"—Dyce.

96

Dyce reads "enthrill'd" (a word that I do not remember to have seen).

97

Did make to spring. Cf. Fourth Sestiad, l. 169.

98

So the Isham copy. All other editions omit the words "the blood."

99

"Valure" is frequently found as a form of "value;" but I suspect, with Dyce, that it is here put (metri causa) for "valour."

100

Plot.

101

Gr. αδολεσχης.

102

Some eds. "price."

103

Gr. ἁγνεια

104

Singer gives a reference to Pausan, x. 5.—Old eds. "Phemonor" and "Phemoner."

105

Comfits.

106

"Other some" is a not uncommon form of expression. See Halliwell's Dict. of Archaic and Provincial Words.

107

Old eds. "their."

108

Old eds. "his."

109

A sudden pettishness or freak of fancy. Cf. Two Noble Kinsmen:—

"The hot horse hot as fireTook toy at this."

110

Former editors have not noticed that Chapman is here closely imitating Catullus' Carmen Nuptiale—

"Virginitas non tota tua est: ex parte parentum est:Tertia pars patri data, pars data tertia matri,Tertia sola tua est: noli pugnare duobus,Qui genero sua jura simul cum dote dederunt."

111

Some eds. "starting." Cf. Julius Cæsar, iv. 3, ll. 278-9—

"Art thou some god, some angel, or some devil,That makest my blood cold and my hair to stare?"

112

"Old eds. 'much-rong,' 'much rongd,' and 'much-wrong'd.'"—Dyce (who reads "much-wrung").

113

It should be binds: i.e., "Leucote flies to the several winds, and, commissioned by the Fates, commands them to restrain their violence." Broughton.