Part 18

_Mont._ Out on thee, damme of divels! I will quite Disgrace thy bravos conquest, die, not fight. _Lyes downe._

_Tam._ Out on my fortune, to wed such an abject! 45 Now is the peoples voyce the voyce of God; Hee that to wound a woman vants so much, As hee did mee, a man dares never touch.

_Cler._ Revenge your wounds now, madame; I resigne him Up to your full will, since hee will not fight. 50 First you shall torture him (as hee did you, And justice wils) and then pay I my vow. Here, take this ponyard.

_Mont._ Sinke earth, open heaven, And let fall vengeance!

_Tam._ Come sir, good sir, hold him.

_Mont._ O shame of women, whither art thou fled! 55

_Cler._ Why (good my lord) is it a greater shame For her then you? come, I will be the bands You us'd to her, prophaning her faire hands.

_Mont._ No, sir, Ile fight now, and the terror be Of all you champions to such as shee. 60 I did but thus farre dally; now observe. O all you aking fore-heads that have rob'd Your hands of weapons and your hearts of valour, Joyne in mee all your rages and rebutters, And into dust ram this same race of Furies; 65 In this one relicke of the Ambois gall, In his one purple soule shed, drowne it all. _Fight._

_Mont._ Now give me breath a while.

_Cler._ Receive it freely.

_Mont._ What thinke y'a this now?

_Cler._ It is very noble, Had it beene free, at least, and of your selfe; 70 And thus wee see (where valour most doth vant) What tis to make a coward valiant.

_Mont._ Now I shall grace your conquest.

_Cler._ That you shall.

_Mont._ If you obtaine it.

_Cler._ True, sir, tis in fortune.

_Mont._ If you were not a D'Ambois, I would scarce 75 Change lives with you, I feele so great a change In my tall spirits breath'd, I thinke, with the breath A D'Ambois breathes here; and necessitie (With whose point now prickt on, and so whose helpe My hands may challenge) that doth all men conquer, 80 If shee except not you of all men onely, May change the case here.

_Cler._ True, as you are chang'd; Her power, in me urg'd, makes y'another man Then yet you ever were.

_Mont._ Well, I must on.

_Cler._ Your lordship must by all meanes.

_Mont._ Then at all. 85

_Fights, and D'Ambois hurts him._

_[Enter Renel, the Countess, and] Charlotte above._

_Charlotte._ Death of my father, what a shame is this! Sticke in his hands thus! _She gets downe._

_Renel [trying to stop her]._ Gentle sir, forbeare!

_Countess._ Is he not slaine yet?

_Ren._ No, madame, but hurt In divers parts of him.

_Mont._ Y'have given it me, And yet I feele life for another vennie. 90

_Enter Charlotte [below]._

_Cler._ What would you, sir?

_Char._ I would performe this combat.

_Cler._ Against which of us?

_Char._ I care not much if twere Against thy selfe; thy sister would have sham'd To have thy brothers wreake with any man In single combat sticke so in her fingers. 95

_Cler._ My sister! know you her?

_Tam._ I, sir, shee sent him With this kinde letter, to performe the wreake Of my deare servant.

_Cler._ Now, alas! good sir, Thinke you you could doe more?

_Char._ Alas! I doe; And wer't not I, fresh, sound, should charge a man 100 Weary and wounded, I would long ere this Have prov'd what I presume on.

_Cler._ Y'have a minde Like to my sister, but have patience now; If next charge speede not, Ile resigne to you.

_Mont._ Pray thee, let him decide it.

_Cler._ No, my lord, 105 I am the man in fate; and since so bravely Your lordship stands mee, scape but one more charge, And, on my life, Ile set your life at large.

_Mont._ Said like a D'Ambois, and if now I die, Sit joy and all good on thy victorie! 110

_Fights, and fals downe._

_Mont._ Farewell! I hartily forgive thee; wife, And thee; let penitence spend thy rest of life. _Hee gives his hand to Cler[mont] and his wife._

_Cler._ Noble and Christian!

_Tam._ O, it breakes my heart.

_Cler._ And should; for all faults found in him before These words, this end, makes full amends and more. 115 Rest, worthy soule; and with it the deare spirit Of my lov'd brother rest in endlesse peace! Soft lie thy bones; Heaven be your soules abode; And to your ashes be the earth no lode!

_Musicke, and the Ghost of Bussy enters, leading the Ghost[s] of the Guise, Monsieur, Cardinall Guise, and Shattilion; they dance about the dead body, and exeunt._

_Cler._ How strange is this! The Guise amongst these spirits, 120 And his great brother Cardinall, both yet living! And that the rest with them with joy thus celebrate This our revenge! This certainely presages Some instant death both to the Guise and Cardinall. That the Shattilions ghost to should thus joyne 125 In celebration of this just revenge With Guise that bore a chiefe stroke in his death, It seemes that now he doth approve the act; And these true shadowes of the Guise and Cardinall, Fore-running thus their bodies, may approve 130 That all things to be done, as here wee live, Are done before all times in th'other life. That spirits should rise in these times yet are fables; Though learnedst men hold that our sensive spirits A little time abide about the graves 135 Of their deceased bodies, and can take, In colde condenc't ayre, the same formes they had When they were shut up in this bodies shade.

_Enter Aumall._

_Aumale._ O sir, the Guise is slaine!

_Cler._ Avert it heaven!

_Aum._ Sent for to Councill by the King, an ambush 140 (Lodg'd for the purpose) rusht on him, and tooke His princely life; who sent (in dying then) His love to you, as to the best of men.

_Cler._ The worst and most accursed of things creeping On earths sad bosome. Let me pray yee all 145 A little to forbeare, and let me use Freely mine owne minde in lamenting him. Ile call yee straight againe.

_Aum._ We will forbeare, And leave you free, sir. _Exeunt._

_Cler._ Shall I live, and hee Dead, that alone gave meanes of life to me? 150 Theres no disputing with the acts of Kings; Revenge is impious on their sacred persons. And could I play the worldling (no man loving Longer then gaine is reapt or grace from him) I should survive; and shall be wondred at 155 Though (in mine owne hands being) I end with him: But friendship is the sement of two mindes, As of one man the soule and body is, Of which one cannot sever but the other Suffers a needfull separation. 160

_Ren._ I feare your servant, madame: let's descend. _Descend Ren[el] & Coun[tess]._

_Cler._ Since I could skill of man, I never liv'd To please men worldly, and shall I in death Respect their pleasures, making such a jarre Betwixt my death and life, when death should make 165 The consort sweetest, th'end being proofe and crowne To all the skill and worth wee truely owne? Guise, O my lord, how shall I cast from me The bands and coverts hindring me from thee? The garment or the cover of the minde 170 The humane soule is; of the soule, the spirit The proper robe is; of the spirit, the bloud; And of the bloud, the body is the shrowd. With that must I beginne then to unclothe, And come at th'other. Now, then, as a ship 175 Touching at strange and farre removed shores, Her men a shore goe, for their severall ends, Fresh water, victuals, precious stones, and pearle, All yet intentive, when the master cals, The ship to put off ready, to leave all 180 Their greediest labours, lest they there be left To theeves or beasts, or be the countries slaves: So, now my master cals, my ship, my venture All in one bottome put, all quite put off, Gone under saile, and I left negligent 185 To all the horrors of the vicious time, The farre remov'd shores to all vertuous aimes, None favouring goodnesse, none but he respecting Pietie or man-hood--shall I here survive, Not cast me after him into the sea, 190 Rather then here live, readie every houre To feede theeves, beasts, and be the slave of power? I come, my lord! Clermont, thy creature, comes. _Hee kils himselfe._

_Enter Aumal, Tamyra, Charlotte._

_Aum._ What! lye and languish, Clermont! Cursed man, To leave him here thus! hee hath slaine himselfe. 195

_Tam._ Misery on misery! O me wretched dame, Of all that breath! all heaven turne all his eyes In harty envie thus on one poore dame.

_Char._ Well done, my brother! I did love thee ever, But now adore thee: losse of such a friend 200 None should survive, of such a brother [none.] With my false husband live, and both these slaine! Ere I returne to him, Ile turne to earth.

_Enter Renel leading the Countesse._

_Ren._ Horror of humane eyes! O Clermont D'Ambois! Madame, wee staid too long, your servant's slaine. 205

_Coun._ It must be so; he liv'd but in the Guise, As I in him. O follow life mine eyes!

_Tam._ Hide, hide thy snakie head; to cloisters flie; In pennance pine; too easie tis to die.

_Char._ It is. In cloisters then let's all survive. 210 Madame, since wrath nor griefe can helpe these fortunes, Let us forsake the world in which they raigne, And for their wisht amends to God complaine.

_Count._ Tis fit and onely needfull: leade me on; In heavens course comfort seeke, in earth is none. _Exeunt._ 215

_Enter Henry, Espernone, Soissone, and others._

_Henry._ Wee came indeede too late, which much I rue, And would have kept this Clermont as my crowne. Take in the dead, and make this fatall roome (The house shut up) the famous D'Ambois tombe. _Exeunt._

_FINIS._

LINENOTES:

_opens_. Emended by ed.; Q, opes.

25 _Nobleman_. Two words in Q.

29 _Cler._ _Here, then._ Placed by Q at the end of l. 29.

44 _bravos_. Emended by ed.; Q, braves.

73-74. Three lines in Q, broken at _conquest_, _it_, and _fortune_.

88-89. Three lines in Q, broken at _yet_, _him_, and _me_.

125 _Shattilions_. Ed.; Q, Shattilians.

144 _accursed_. Shepherd, Phelps; Q, accurst.

201 _none_. Added by ed.

210 _Char_. Shepherd, Phelps; Q, Cler.

Notes to The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois

_For the meaning of single words see the Glossary._

=168. To the right vertuous . . . Sr. Thomas Howard, &c.= Thomas Howard, born before 1594, was the second son of the first Earl of Suffolk. He was created a Knight of the Bath in January, 1605, and in May, 1614, was appointed Master of the Horse to Charles, Prince of Wales. In 1622 he became Viscount Andover, and in 1626 Earl of Berkshire. He held a number of posts till the outbreak of the Civil War, and after the Restoration was appointed Gentleman of the Bedchamber to Charles II, and Privy Councillor. He died on July 16, 1669. His daughter Elizabeth married Dryden, and his sixth son, Sir Robert Howard, became distinguished as a dramatic writer and critic. Chapman addresses to this patron one of the Sonnets appended to his translation of the _Iliad_, in which he compares him to Antilochus, and calls him "valiant, and mild, and most ingenious."

=169=, 35-36. =the most divine philosopher.= The reference is doubtless to Epictetus, the influence of whose _Discourses_ appears throughout _The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois_.

=174=, 70. =That thinke . . . that=, that do not consider heavenly bliss complete folly, when compared with money.

=175=, 71-2. =Well . . . arise.= A hypocritical appeal by Baligny to the absent Duke of Guise, of whose ambitious schemes he suspects Renel to be a supporter.

=175=, 79-82. =My brother . . . brother.= Cf. _Introduction_, p. xxxvii.

=176=, 97. =stands now on price with him:= is now the subject of bargaining between him and me.

=178. Monsieur taking leave of the King.= Henry apparently leaves the stage, after this formal ceremony of farewell, without speaking, for he takes no part in the dialogue, and he is not mentioned among those who _exeunt_ at l. 290.

=178=, 145. =See . . . Brabant.= The expedition of the Duke of Anjou here alluded to is that of 1582, when he was crowned Duke of Brabant at Antwerp.

=181=, 202-4. =durst . . . lady.= Cf. _Bussy D'Ambois_, I, ii, 96-179.

=181=, 204-8. =emptied . . . were.= Cf. _Bussy D'Ambois_, III, ii, 478-515.

=182=, 234-5. =When . . . commanders.= Monsieur's description in these and the following lines of Clermont's and Bussy's first appearance at Court is purely fictitious.

=183=, 254. =a keele of sea-coale.= A keel was a flat-bottomed boat, used in the northeast of England, for loading and carrying coal. Afterwards the word was also used of the amount of coal a keel would carry, i. e. 8 chaldrons, or 21 tons 4 cwt. Sea-coal was the original term for the fossil coal borne from Newcastle to London by sea, to distinguish it from _char-coal_. Cf. Shakespeare, _Merry Wives of Windsor_, I, iv, 9, "at the latter end of a sea-coal fire."

=184=, 267. =a poore knights living.= The knights of Windsor, a small body who had apartments in the Castle, and pensions, were often known as "poor knights."

=185=, 278. =But killing of the King!= Cf. _Bussy D'Ambois_, III, ii, 411.

=188=, 332-3. =Why, is not . . . worthily.= If this is a complimentary allusion to Jaques' speech in _As You Like It_, II, vii, 140-166, it is remarkable as coming from the writer whom Shakespeare at an earlier date had probably attacked in his _Sonnets_.

=188=, 335-42. =what the good Greeke moralist sayes . . . of both.= This passage is based upon the _Discourses_ of Epictetus, bk. IV, vii, 13, which, however, Chapman completely misinterprets. Epictetus is demonstrating that a reasonable being should be able to bear any lot contentedly. "+theleis penian phere kai gnôsêi ti estin penia tychousa kalou hypokritou. theleis archas? phere, kai ponous.+"

+hypokritês+ is used here metaphorically, of one who acts a part in life, not, as Chapman takes it, of an actor in the professional sense.

=188-189=, 354-5. =The splenative philosopher . . . all.= Democritus.

=189=, 356-74. =All objects . . . they were.= These lines are suggested by Juvenal's _Satire_, X, ll. 33-55, but they diverge too far from the original to be merely a paraphrase, as they are termed by the editor of the 1873 reprint.

=191=, 17-18. =That . . . fire.= Cf. _Bussy D'Ambois_, V, iv, 148-53.

=194=, 75. =These . . . armes.= Cf. _Bussy D'Ambois_, V, i, 128-154.

=200-201=, 40-3. =Since they . . . wrong'd:= since these decrees ensure the performance of that guardianship, so that earth and heaven are kept true to their original order and purpose, in no case must the wrong suffered by an individual man, as he thinks, be considered really a wrong done to him.

=203=, 105. =Euphorbus=, son of Panthous, a Trojan hero, who first wounded Patroclus, but was afterwards slain by Menelaus. Pythagoras, as part of his doctrine of the transmigration of souls, is said to have claimed to have been formerly Euphorbus.

=204=, 113-22. =What said . . . power.= The reference is to Sophocles' _Antigone_, 446-457, where the Princess justifies herself for burying her brother's body in defiance of Creon's edict.

=205=, 135-6. =For . . . authoritie.= The lines here paraphrased, to which Chapman gives a marginal reference, are from the _Antigone_, 175-7.

+Amêchanon de pantos andros ekmathein psychên te kai phronêma kai gnômên, prin ain archais te kai nomoisin entribês phainêi.+

=205=, 141. =virtuosi.= The word is here used not in the sense of _connoisseurs_, but of _devotees of virtue_. The editor has not been able to trace any other instance of this.

=206=, 157-60. =that lyons . . . prey.= Adapted and expanded from the _Discourses_ of Epictetus, bk. IV, i, 25. The original of the words quoted marginally by Chapman in a Latin version is, +ouchi d' hosôi malakôteron diexagei, tosoutôi doulikôteron?+

=207=, 181. =Simil[iter].= By this marginal reference Chapman seems to indicate that ll. 176-181 are drawn from the same source--the _Discourses_ of Epictetus--as ll. 157-160, to which the previous marginal note refers. But no such passage occurs in the _Discourses_.

=209-210=, 205-34 =The Massacre . . . never massacerd.= On this strange _apologia_ for the Guise's share in the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, see _Introduction_, pp. xxxix-xl.

=209-210=, 211-32. =Who was in fault . . . lost.= Freely adapted and transposed from the _Discourses_ of Epictetus, I, xxviii, 11-20.

=210-211=, 246-9. =your brave . . . deere.= Cf. Appendix B, where De Serres mentions the Count of Auvergne's "Scottish horse (which Vitry had given him) the which would have outrunne all the horses of France."

=213=, 5-6. =th'insulting Pillars Of Bacchus and Alcides.= These "Pillars" are mentioned together by Strabo (bk. III, vi), who relates that during Alexander's expedition to India the Macedonians did not see them, but identified those places with them, where they found records of the god or the hero.

=216=, 69-70. =What thinke . . . lackies coates.= Cf. Appendix B, where Nerestan has _three_ "lackquaies," who are in reality "soldiars so attyred" for the purpose of arresting the Count of Auvergne.

=217=, 82-6. =Who knowes . . . made:= who is unaware that crafty policy pads out the giant that does his will, so that his wisdom may seem commensurate with his bulk, though it is merely for a trifling encounter with what, when touched, proves a shadow, though policy makes it out to be a monster.

=219=, 12. =The Locrian princes.= The inhabitants of Locri, a settlement near the promontory of Zephyrium, were celebrated for the excellence of their code of laws, drawn up by Zaleucus.

=220=, 41-46. =Demetrius Phalerius=, born about B. C. 345, was a follower of Phocion, and on the death of the latter in B. C. 317, became head of the Athenian administration. The citizens, in gratitude for his services, erected 360 statues to him, but afterwards turned against him. In B. C. 307 he was driven from Athens, sentence of death was passed on him, and the statues were demolished.

=220=, 47. =Demades=, a contemporary of Demosthenes, who, by his genius for extempore oratory, raised himself to a predominant position in Athens as a champion of the Macedonian influence, but afterwards incurred the penalty of +atimia+.

=228-230=, 209-34. =I will search you . . . search no more.= This episode is suggested by the following passage concerning the Count of Auvergne in Appendix B. "Hee was ready to call the two brothers of Murat into his cabinet, and to cause them to be searcht, for that he was well advertised that they alwayes carryed the Kings letters and his commandments. But a great resolution, thinking that there is no more harme in fearing, then in the thing that causeth feare, feares extremely to make shewe that hee hath any feare."

=233=, 24. =Two . . . Hercules.= A proverbial expression. Cf. V, iv, 34-5.

=234=, 14-25. =When Homer . . . despis'd.= The editor of the 1873 edition of Chapman's Plays points out that "these twelve lines headed _Of great men_ appear, with a few unimportant verbal differences, among the Epigrams printed at the end of Chapman's Petrarch in 1612."

=234=, 20. =for disposing these:= for regulating these gifts of fame, strength, noble birth, and beauty. _These_ is used loosely to qualify the nouns implied by the adjectives, _Strong'st_, _noblest_, _fairest_, in l. 19.

=236=, 56-7. =You can . . . minde.= If the text is correct, the lines mean: you can never find means to give attention to externals without neglecting the improvement of your mind. Mr. Brereton has suggested to the editor that the true reading may be, _Things out worth care_, in which case "out" = "outward."

=236=, 58-75. =God . . . birth.= A free paraphrase of the _Discourses_ of Epictetus, bk. IV, vii, 6-11.

=236=, 78-9. =But . . . honour=, but the reason alleged, to see these battalions in review order, is a great compliment to you.

=237=, 84-95. =I over-tooke . . . the Earle of Oxford.= The subject of this remarkable encomium was Edward de Vere (1550-1604), seventeenth Earl of Oxford. He was educated at Cambridge, and from an early age became a prominent figure at the Court of Elizabeth, who, it was said in 1573, "delighteth more in his personage, and his dancing and valiantness, than any other." In 1575 he paid a visit to Italy, and it is apparently to an episode on his return journey in the spring of 1576 that reference is made here, and in the following lines. The portrait here drawn of him is too flattering, as he was violent in temper and extravagant, but the Earl's literary gifts merited the praise of Chapman. Puttenham and Meres speak highly of him as a writer of comedy, and Webbe pays a tribute to his excellence in "the rare devises of poetry." Over twenty of his lyrics survive, chiefly in anthologies.

=237=, 95-103. =being offer'd . . . quit.= The _Duke Cassimere_ here spoken of was John Casimir, Count Palatine, who in the autumn of 1575 entered into alliance with the Huguenots and invaded France, but, after suffering a check at the hands of the Duke of Guise, made a truce and retired. The incident here spoken of apparently took place in the spring of the next year (cf. the previous note). Why, however, does Chapman introduce it here, and how did he know of it? Can he, immediately after leaving Oxford, which he entered, according to Wood, "in 1574 or thereabouts," have gone in Oxford's train to the Continent?

=238=, 112. =a Sir John Smith.= Though alluded to in so contemptuous a way, this Sir John Smith appears to be the noted soldier of fortune, diplomatist, and military writer, who lived from about 1534 to 1607. After serving for many years in continental armies, in 1574 he became an agent of the English government, and took part in various diplomatic missions. In 1590 he published "Certain Discourses concerning the formes and effects of divers sorts of Weapons" and dedicated the work to the English nobility, whom he calls in one part of his "proeme" the "verie eyes, eares and language of the king, and the bodie of the watch, and redresse of the Commonwealth." Hence perhaps the allusion in l. 113 to "common Nobles fashions."

=238-9=, 127-41. =If you would Consull be . . . no thought?= A translation of the _Discourses_ of Epictetus, bk. IV, x, 20-22.

=238-9=, 129-30. =gloryfying Plebeians, Kissing Patricians hands.= Epictetus has simply, +tas cheiras kataphilêsai+.

=239=, 134. =sit for the whole tribunall.= A mistranslation of +epi bêma kathisai+, i. e. "sit on the tribunal."

=239=, 138-9. =And to be voide . . . constancie.= An obscure rendering of +hyper apatheias oun, hyper ataraxias+. _For constancie_ = for the sake of tranquillity of mind.

=240=, 152. =Colonell.= Clermont seems to be addressed by this title because of the statement in Appendix B that "D'Eurre intreated the count of Auvergne to see [the muster] to the ende . . . that all his companions should be wonderfully honored with the presence of their coronell."