Part 12
=69=, 154. =make scapes to please advantage:= commit escapades, and thereby give points against themselves.
=69=, 155-56. =women . . . candels:= women who make the worst accomplices to men.
=70=, 157. =their women:= their waiting-women.
=71=, 187-88. =as far as an unkle may.= Guise is uncle to the lady Beaupre. Cf. note on II, 2, 18.
=74=, 243-44. =Come . . . courted.= These words are whispered by Monsieur to Pero. The rest of his speech is spoken aloud as if in disgust at the rejection of advances made by him to Pero.
=74=, 244. =dry palm:= a sign of chastity.
=77=, 311. =I have the blind side of:= I can play on the weakness of.
=78=, 325. =engag'd in some sure plot:= involved in the toils of some plot securely laid against him.
=78=, 330. =Train . . . wreak:= allure D'Ambois within reach of his revenge.
=80=, 375. =angell of my life:= an allusion to the tutelary genius. For a similar use of _angel_ cf. _Ant. and Cleop._ II, 3, 21.
=81=, 383. =rais'd without a circle.= If a necromancer, before raising a spirit, drew a circle within which he stood, he was secure against its power.
=82=, 406. =which I have still in thought:= which is always with me, as far as my thoughts are concerned.
=84=, 445-46. =to force . . . estates.= With the punctuation adopted _And . . . throats_ is a clause parenthetically inserted in the main statement, and the meaning is: to get possession of estates by foreclosing mortgages, and thus destroying their owners. The Qq have a comma after _possessions_, and no brackets in the following line.
=84-85=, 448-49. =quarrell . . . Ajax.= A reference to the well-known episode in Sophocles' _Ajax_.
=85=, 453. =make them of a peece:= make them complete.
=85=, 464-66. =which not to sooth . . . Thou eat'st.= An anacoluthon.
=85=, 465. =And glorifie . . . Hammon.= Probably an allusion to the adoration of Alexander the Great as the son of Jupiter Ammon by the priests of this originally Æthiopian deity, at Thebes in Upper Egypt, in B. C. 331.
=86=, 473. =like a scrich-owle sing.= The screech of the owl was supposed to be an omen of death to the hearer. Cf. _Macbeth_, II, 2, 3-4.
=87=, 500. =to that wall:= at the distance of that wall.
=87=, 507. =her breathing rock.= Dilke explains this as "the distaff from whence she draws the thread of life," but though this is evidently the meaning required, it is difficult to extract it from this obscure phrase.
=87=, 510. =Defil'd . . . soule.= Another instance of confused imagery, which yields no satisfactory meaning.
=89=, 28. =which=, sc. time.
=90=, 35. =princely mistresse:= the Duchess of Guise.
=90=, 39. =Your servant:= D'Ambois.
=90=, 52. =in high formes:= on stools of disgrace.
=91=, 55. =great eagles beak.= Cf. III, 2, 4.
=91=, 57. =her . . . liver.= A double allusion, as Dilke has pointed out, to the story of Prometheus, and to the conception of the liver as the seat of the emotions.
=92=, 77. =with a traine:= by a stratagem.
=93=, 84. =gushing.= Used here transitively, qualifying _laws_, and governing _blood_.
=93=, 87. =bare . . . hammes:= the uncovered heads and cringing postures of sycophants.
=93=, 98. =Armenian dragons.= Chapman is fond of locating fabulous monsters in Armenia. Cf. II, 1, 118-19.
=94=, 115. =almighty Æther.= Probably a reminiscence of Virgil, _Georg._ 2, 325, _pater omnipotens Æther_.
=94=, 120. =Nay, they are two.= Monsieur, while saying this, makes two horns with his fingers.
=95=, 126. =a meere Cynthia:= a perfect moon-goddess.
=96=, 138. =The plague of Herod.= Cf. Acts XII, 23, "And he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost."
=98=, 180. =thus, with his fingers.= Cf. note on l. 120.
=98=, 181-83. =comes . . . slew:= if he is the source of the blot on my honour, it becomes a beauty, not a blemish, and proves that I posses the same innocence that caused the death of.
=98=, 183. =Chymæra.= A fire-breathing monster, brought up by Amisodarus, King of Caria. She was slain by Bellerophon. This Corinthian prince, to purify himself from a murder he had committed, had fled to the court of Proetus of Argos, whose wife, Anteia, fell in love with him. On his rejection of her advances, she made false accusations against him, whereupon Proetus sent him to his father-in-law, Iobates, King of Lycia, with a sealed letter, requesting him to put him to death. Iobates sent him to kill Chimæra, thinking he would be certain to perish in the attempt. But mounted on the winged horse Pegasus, he killed her from on high with his arrows.
=98=, 183-84. =rescued . . . Peleon.= Peleus, King of the Myrmidons, during a visit to Iolcus, attracted the love of Astydameia, the wife of Acastus. On his rejection of her proposals, she denounced him falsely to her husband, who took him to hunt wild beasts on Mount Peleon, and when he fell asleep through fatigue, concealed his sword, and left him alone to be devoured. But he was saved by Cheiron, who restored him his sword.
=98=, 185. =the chaste Athenian prince:= Hippolytus, son of Theseus and Hippolyta, with whom his step-mother Phædra fell in love. On his rejection of her advances, she accused him to Theseus, at whose prayer Poseidon caused his destruction, by frightening his horses, when he was driving along the seacoast, and overturning his chariot. Afterwards, on the discovery of his innocence, Asclepius restored him to the upper world.
=98=, 187. =Egean.= So the Qq, instead of "Augean."
=98=, 190. =where thou fear'st, are dreadfull:= inspirest terror even in those of whom thou art afraid.
=98-99=, 192-94. =the serpent . . . and me.= A curious application of the legend of armed men springing from the dragon's teeth sown by Jason.
=99=, 204. =feares his owne hand:= is afraid of the consequences of his own handwriting.
=99=, 205-208. =papers hold . . . honors:= written documents often contain the revelation of our true selves, and, though of no material value, put the crown to our reputations.
=99-100=, 209-210. =and with . . . knowes:= and compare with its contents the evidence of this my most intimate attendant.
=101=, 6. =trails hotly of him:= is hot upon his scent. _Him_ apparently refers to _mischiefe_ in l. 4.
=102=, 25. =With . . . affrighted:= by which all things capable of terror are frightened.
=103=, 32. =Epimethean.= Epimetheus, the brother of Prometheus, opened Pandora's box, and let its evils loose among mankind.
=103=, 37-38. =Or stood . . . artillerie.= In the war of Zeus against Cronos, the Cyclopes aided the former, who had released them from Tartarus, by furnishing him with thunderbolts.
=103=, 47-48. =I will . . . spirit:= I will command a spirit, raised by my art, to enlighten us.
=104=, 54. =Behemoth.= The editor has been unable to find any precedent for Chapman's application of this name--which in the Book of Job denotes the whale or hippopotamus--to the chief of the powers of darkness.
=104=, 55. =Asaroth.= Apparently a variant of _Ashtaroth_, the plural of _Ashtoreth,_ the Phoenician moon-goddess; here mistakenly used for the name of a male spirit.
=104.= =Cartophylax.= A post-classical Greek term for "guardian of papers."
=106=, 97. =great in our command:= powerful in exercising command over us.
=107-109=, 113-51. =There is . . . his soule.= The dialogue and action here take place probably at the back of the stage, perhaps on the upper stage, of which use is made in _The Tempest_, the _Spanish Tragedie_, and other plays. The characters (as is evident from ll. 102-104) are supposed to be far off, but rendered visible and audible to Tamyra and D'Ambois by Behemoth's power.
=107=, 113. =a glasse of ink:= a mirror made of ink, i. e. the paper with the proofs of Tamyra's unfaithfulness.
=107=, 116. =fames sepulchres:= the foulness beneath which her good name is buried.
=107=, 120-21. =were . . . rarely:= were it never so uncommon, bear it with as unexampled courage.
=109=, 156. =In her forc'd bloud.= Dilke is followed in the substitution of _her_ for _his_. The allusion is evidently to the letter that Tamyra afterwards writes to D'Ambois in her own blood. Cf. V, 1, 176-77.
=110=, 169-70. =Lest . . . abuse:= lest a furious outburst due to your foreknowledge of the plot against us.
=111=, 185. =And . . . policy:= and the Monsieur's stratagems shall be taken in the flank by my own.
=111=, 186. =Center.= Here and in l. 192 this word, though strictly meaning the central point of the earth, seems used for the earth itself, as the centre of the universe. For this use cf. Shaks. _Tro. and Cress._ I, 3, 85-86.
"The heavens themselves, the planets, and this center Observe degree, priority, and place."
=111=, 191. =calme . . . ruine:= unsuspecting tranquillity previous to a convulsion of the elements.
=113=, 17-18. =The stony . . . sleeper.= The thunderstone, or thunderbolt, was supposed to have no power of harming any one who was asleep, or who wore laurel leaves. Leigh, in his _Observations on the First Twelve Cæsars_ (1647), p. 43, says of Tiberius that "he feared thunder exceedingly, and when the aire or weather was any thing troubled, he even carried a chaplet or wreath of laurell about his neck, because that as (Pliny reporteth) is never blasted with lightning."
=114=, 50. =determinate:= apparently used in the sense of _final_, though the sense is rare, except as qualifying a word which implies previous deliberation.
=115=, 55-56. =preventing . . . death:= anticipating the last blast that is to kill those who live, and to give life anew to the dead.
=115=, 64. =Fame growes in going.= Borrowed from the _Æneid_, IV, 173-75, _Fama . . . viresque acquirit eundo._
=115=, 67-68. =come . . . lust.= The _syren_ is Tamyra; her song the letter she is to write to her lover (cf. l. 75); Montsurry; band of murderers the fatal _rocks_; and the _ruffin gally_, D'Ambois.
=115=, 69-71. =the nets . . . danc'd.= There is a play here upon _nets_ in the sense of wiles, and in its usual signification. To "dance," or "march," or "hide" in a net was to delude oneself that one was acting secretly (cf. _Henry V_, I, 4, 173, and _Span. Trag._ IV, 4, 118).
=116=, 84. =for all:= in spite of all.
=116=, 86. =their= should be, in grammatical sequence, "her," referring to "a womans" in 83.
=116=, 91. =nor in humane consort:= nor do they find human fellowship. The metaphor of the _wildernesse_ is still being carried on.
=118=, 128-30. =Where . . . cruelty:= in the same quarter [i. e. your person] where all these bonds have been violated, they are preserved by the infliction of just punishment, with some exhibition of the same quintessence of cruelty that you have shown me.
=118=, 142. =Thus I expresse thee yet:= thus I give a further stroke to my delineation of thee.
=118=, 143. =thy . . . yet:= the image of thy unnatural depravity is not yet fully completed.
=118=, 145. =This other engine:= the rack, on which Montsurry's servants place Tamyra. Cf. l. 157, "O let me downe, my lord."
=119=, 151-52. =O who . . . None but my lord and husband.= Tamyra thinks that some evil spirit has taken her husband's shape, and cries to Montsurry to appear and deliver her.
=119=, 161. =Now . . . stands still.= This statement of the leading principle of the Copernican system, as a mere rhetorical paradox, is remarkable.
=119-120=, 163-72. =The too huge . . . with hypocrisie.= In this curious passage the earth is conceived of as a recumbent figure, which usually lies face upwards to the sky. But the weight of her sins has caused her to roll over, so that her back part now _braves_ heaven, while her face is turned to the Antipodes; and all the deceitful appearances which she has adopted through her cheating arts have come out in their true nature on her back, so that her hypocrisy stands revealed.
=120=, 178. =he:= the Friar.
=120=, 181. =his.= We should expect a repetition of _her_ in l. 180. _His_, however seems to be equivalent to _man's_, anticipating _man_ in l. 182. Possibly we should read _this_.
=121=, 191. =In, Ile after.= These words are addressed to the body of the Friar.
=122=, 20. =with terror:= inspiring terror in their enemies.
=123=, 28. =And . . . man:= And consider it, though left headless, as a completely formed man.
=123=, 36. =vertuous treasurie:= stock of virtues.
=124=, 46-53. =Not so . . . mens hate.= An adaptation of Seneca's _Agamemnon_, 64-72:
_Non sic Libycis Syrtibus æquor Furit alternos volvere fluctus, Non Euxini turget ab imis Commota vadis unda, nivali Vicina polo; Ubi, cæruleis immunis aquis, Lucida versat plaustra Bootes, Ut praecipites regum casus Fortuna rotat._
These lines, with those immediately before and after, are more loosely adapted in Kyd's _Spanish Tragedie_, III, 1, 1-11.
=126=, 23. =this embodied shadow:= this spirit while it had bodily form.
=126=, 24-27. =With reminiscion . . . of art.= Cf. IV, 2, 158-61.
=127=, 41-53. =Terror of darknesse . . . greater light.= After Bussy's statement in ll. 29-32 we should expect him to immediately summon _the Prince of darknesse_, Behemoth. But ll. 41-46 are apparently addressed to the sun-god, who is invoked to put to flight night and mystery. Then as an alternative, in ll. 47-53, Behemoth, to whom darkness is as light, is bidden appear. Dilke substitutes _oh_ for _or_ (the reading of all Qq) at the beginning of l. 47. If this change be right, the invocation commences at this line, and ll. 41-46 are merely a preliminary rhetorical appeal for more illumination. But in this case there is an incongruity between such an appeal and the summoning of the _Prince of shades_, who sees best where darkness is thickest. Lamb in his _Specimens_ retains the reading of the Qq, and says of the passage: "This calling upon Light and Darkness for information, but, above all, the description of the spirit--'threw his changed countenance headlong into clouds'--is tremendous, to the curdling of the blood. I know nothing in poetry like it."
=130=, 103. =all the signes:= i. e. of the Zodiac.
=131.= =Intrat Umbra Frier . . . Tamyra.= The Ghost of the Friar enters and _discovers_, i. e. _reveals to view_, Tamyra, who since the close of V, 1, has remained wrapped _in the arras_, or, as the variant stage direction in A here puts it, _wrapt in a canapie_.
=131=, 9. =before he be revenged:= before vengeance is taken on him. The reading of A, _engaged_, is perhaps (as Dilke suggests) preferable.
=133=, 27-28. =what . . . D'Amboys:= what bugbear, such as this, is not afraid to visit D'Amboys, even in his sleep?
=134=, 45. =Will . . . here?= D'Ambois's sword fails to pierce the _privy coat_ worn by the murderer. Cf. V, 2, 57.
=134=, 52. =That . . . resembled:= That was a successful artifice, and a skilful impersonation.
=135=, 65. =enforce the spot:= emphasize the stain on your honour.
=136=, 82. =Then . . . fact:= then these teachers of divinity deal with figments, not with realities.
=136=, 83-84. =Man . . . servant:= Man consists of two attached friends, the body and the mind, of which the latter is swayed by the former, as a lover by his mistress.
=136=, 90-93. =And if Vespasian . . . groomes.= Cf. Suetonius, _Life of Vespasian_, Ch. 24. _Hic, quum super urgentem valetudinem creberrimo frigidæ aquæ usu etiam intestina vitiasset, nec eo minus muneribus imperatoriis ex consuetudine fungeretur, ut etiam legationes audiret cubans, alvo repente usque ad defectionem soluta, Imperatorem, ait, stantem mori oportere. Dumque consurgit, ac nititur, inter manus sublevantium exstinctus est._
=137=, 100-108. =And haste . . . dwellers.= An adaptation of Seneca, _Her. Oet._ 1518-1526:
_O decus mundi, radiate Titan, Cujus ad primos Hecate vapores Lassa nocturnæ levat ora bigæ, Dic sub Aurora positis Sabæis, Dic sub Occasu positis Iberis, Quique ferventi quatiuntur axe, Quique sub plaustro patiuntur Ursæ; Dic ad æternos, properare Manes Herculem._
=137=, 110-111. =may . . . funerall:= may celebrate fittingly my unworthy end with such a funeral volley as it deserves.
=138=, 135-40. =My sunne . . . bloud.= In these lines the _killing spectacle_, the _prodigie_, of l. 134, and its effect are described. Tamyra, the light of D'Ambois's life, with her reddened bosom and hands, is likened to a sun whose beams have turned to blood. So far the imagery is clear, but it is difficult to extract a satisfactory sense from what follows. What do _Pindus and Ossa_ symbolize, and what exactly does their _melting_ mean? This seems one of the few passages in the play which really deserve Dryden's stricture for "looseness of expression and gross hyperboles."
=139=, 146. =struck.= The Qq, and all editors, read _stuck_, but the word seems inapplicable to a thunderbolt. The editor has conjectured _struck_, which, with a minimum of change, gives the sense required.
=139=, 149 =Joine flames with Hercules.= Here the quartos of 1607 and 1608 contain the right reading. D'Ambois, who has met death in the spirit of Hercules (cf. ll. 100-108), is now to share his translation to the skies. For the description of Hercules as a star see Seneca, _Her. Oet._ 1564-1581.
=142=, 211-14 =as . . . dies.= The reference is to the wax in the taper, which retains in its _savour_ the mark of its origin in the hive, till transient as life, it glances with the eye of a flame, and, so doing, expires.
THE TEXT
_The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois_ was printed in quarto in 1613 by T. S. for John Helme. No reprint appeared till 1873, when it was included in the edition of Chapman's Tragedies and Comedies published by J. Pearson. The text of the quarto was reproduced, with the original spelling and punctuation, but with a few errors. There have been two later editions in modernized spelling, and with slight emendations, by R. H. Shepherd in 1874, and W. L. Phelps in 1895.
In the present edition the text of the quarto has been reproduced, with some additional emendations, and the original spelling has been retained. As regards punctuation, the use of capital letters and italics, and the division of the Acts into Scenes, the same methods have been followed as in the case of _Bussy D'Ambois_.
THE REVENGE OF _Bussy D'Ambois_.
A TRAGEDIE
_As it hath beene often presented at the priuate Play-house in the White Fryers._
Written By GEORGE CHAPMAN, Gentleman.
[Illustration]
LONDON:
Printed by _T. S._ and are to be solde by IOHN HELME, at his Shop in S. Dunstones Church-Yard, in _Fleetstreet_. 1613.
SOURCES
The story of a plot by Bussy D'Ambois's kinsfolk to avenge his murder is, in the main, of Chapman's own invention. But he had evidently read an account similar to that given later by De Thou of the design entertained for a time by Bussy's sister Renée (whom Chapman calls Charlotte) and her husband, Baligny, to take vengeance on Montsurry. Clermont D'Ambois is himself a fictitious character, but the episodes in which he appears in Acts II-IV are drawn from the account of the treacherous proceedings against the Count d'Auvergne in Edward Grimeston's translation of Jean de Serres's _Inventaire Général de l'Histoire de France_. This narrative, however, is not by De Serres, but by Pierre Matthieu, whose _Histoire de France_ was one of the sources used by Grimeston for events later than 1598.
The portraiture of Clermont throughout the play as the high-souled philosopher is inspired by Epictetus's delineation in his _Discourses_ of the ideal Stoic. But in his reluctance to carry out his duty of revenge he is evidently modelled upon Hamlet. In Act V, Scene i, the influence of Shakespeare's tragedy is specially manifest.
The Scenes in Act V relating to the assassination of Guise are based upon Grimeston's translation of De Serres's _Inventaire Général_.
The passages in Grimeston's volume which recount the Duke's murder, and those which tell the story of the Count d'Auvergne, are reprinted as an Appendix.
The frontispiece to this volume, the Château of La Coutancière, at which Bussy D'Ambois was killed, is reproduced from an illustration in A. Joubert's _Louis de Clermont_.
TO THE RIGHT
VERTUOUS, AND
truely Noble Knight, Sr.
_Thomas Howard, &c._
_Sir_,
Since workes of this kinde have beene lately esteemed worthy the patronage of some of our worthiest Nobles, I have made no doubt to preferre this of mine to your undoubted vertue and exceeding true noblesse, as contayning matter no lesse deserving your reading, 5 and excitation to heroycall life, then any such late dedication. Nor have the greatest Princes of Italie and other countries conceived it any least diminution to their greatnesse to have their names wing'd with these tragicke plumes, and disperst by way of patronage through the 10 most noble notices of Europe.
Howsoever, therefore, in the scænicall presentation it might meete with some maligners, yet, considering even therein it past with approbation of more worthy judgements, the ballance of their side (especially being held 15 by your impartiall hand) I hope will to no graine abide the out-weighing. And for the autenticall truth of eyther person or action, who (worth the respecting) will expect it in a poeme, whose subject is not truth, but things like truth? Poore envious soules they are that cavill at truths 20 want in these naturall fictions: materiall instruction, elegant and sententious excitation to vertue, and deflection from her contrary, being the soule, lims, and limits of an autenticall tragedie. But whatsoever merit of your full countenance and favour suffers defect in this, I shall soone 25 supply with some other of more generall account; wherein your right vertuous name made famous and preserved to posteritie, your future comfort and honour in your present acceptation and love of all vertuous and divine expression may be so much past others of your rancke encreast, as 30 they are short of your judiciall ingenuitie, in their due estimation.
For howsoever those ignoble and sowre-brow'd worldlings are carelesse of whatsoever future or present opinion spreads of them; yet (with the most divine 35 philosopher, if Scripture did not confirme it) I make it matter of my faith, that we truely retaine an intellectuall feeling of good or bad after this life, proportionably answerable to the love or neglect we beare here to all vertue and truely-humane instruction: in whose favour 40 and honour I wish you most eminent, and rest ever,
_Your true vertues most true observer, Geo. Chapman_.
THE ACTORS NAMES
_Henry_, the King. _Monsieur_, his Brother. _Guise_, D[uke]. _Renel_, a Marquesse. _Montsureau_, an Earle. _Baligny_, Lord Lieutenant [of Cambray]. _Clermont D'Ambois._ _Maillard._ } _Challon._ } Captaines. _Aumal._ } _Espernone._ _Soissone._ _Perricot_, [An _Usher_.] [A _Messenger._] The _Guard._ _Souldiers._ _Servants._
{ _Bussy_. { _Monsieur_. The ghost[s] of { _Guise_. { _Card. Guise_. { _Shattilion_.
_Countesse_ of Cambray. _Tamyra_, wife to Montsureau. _Charlotte [D'Ambois]_, wife to Baligny. _Riova_, a Servant [to the Countesse].
[SCENE: _Paris, and in or near Cambrai_.]
The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois
A Tragedie
ACTUS PRIMI SCÆNA PRIMA.
_A Room at the Court in Paris._]
_Enter Baligny, Renel._
_Baligny._ To what will this declining kingdome turne, Swindging in every license, as in this Stupide permission of brave D'Ambois Murther? Murther made paralell with Law! Murther us'd To serve the kingdome, given by sute to men 5 For their advancement! suffered scarcrow-like To fright adulterie! what will policie At length bring under his capacitie?