16 mind: For Q’s made.
18 adulterous child: Venus, famously unfaithful to Vulcan.
20 Juno… Rhamnus town: Juno identifies herself with Nemesis, the goddess of vengeance, who was worshipped in her temple at Rhamnus in Greece.
21 doves: See 2.1.320.
22 prest at hand: (i) Close at hand (of the danger), (ii) readily (of the doves).
57 to a sceptre: As an emblem of his new association with Juno, the queen of the gods.
58 Fancy and modesty: I.e. the eroticism of Venus and the matronly decorum of Juno.
60 desire is thine: Whatever you desire is yours (because Venus is desire).
68 motion: (Here) proposal.
76 casualty of sea: An accident at sea (Juno disavows her part in raising the storm).
84 Darts forth her light… shore: Looks forward to the shore of Lavinium (where Lavinia, his future wife, awaits). The soul was usually thought of as feminine, and vision was supposed to involve light being directed from the eye to its object.
85 divorce: Dissolve, put an end to (as a divorce ends a marriage).
86 weary… thoughts: As the following lines suggest, Juno intends to wear out Aeneas’ thoughts of Lavinia and his promised kingdom as his body is tired by the hunt and by love-making.
91 Silvanus’ dwellings: The forests (home of the wood-god).
96 savour of: Have some of the characteristics of, ‘have a smack of.
97 have it: Absent from Q, ‘it’ seems necessary to grammar and metre.
99 Ida: (Here, apparently) Venus’ groves near Idalium in Cyprus.
100 Adonis’ purple down: Probably a bed of the purple anemones which sprang from the blood of Adonis.
Scene 3
4 Diana’s shrouds: Hunting clothes.
5 All fellows: All equals (proverbial, Tilley F182–3).
24 otherwhile… out of joint: He is sometimes not his normal self.
26 man of men: Any man, however great.
29 given… in gage: Wagered, i.e. risked.
30 pitch… toils: Set snares.
45 And dead… brought me up: (Perhaps) and dead to the honour on which my life has been based.
59 a winter’s tale: An adventure story suitable for long winter evenings.
61 soil: Marshy area where wild animals wallow.
64 forfeit to: For Q’s far fet to.
77 very: Mere.
79 fancy’s shapes: Objects of desire.
84 That resteth… pain: Which my rival presently enjoys, in contrast with my pain.
Scene 4
0.1 SD The storm: Probably the occasion for spectacular sound-effects, see 4.1.1–13.
0.1–0.2 SD at several times: I.e. they enter separately.
4 in a net: Vulcan caught Venus and Mars in a net as they made love. where: Whereas.
19 butts his beams: Casts his rays.
20–21 Prometheus… burning arms: Dido’s burning passion is so intense that it is as though the fire-bringer Prometheus (N) had disguised himself as the god of love. There is an echo of the myth of Semele, who was consumed in the flames when she requested that her lover, Jupiter, should appear before her in his true form.
35 Whose… content: Who, being both royal and desirable, could match my desire and royalty.
37 for me: Instead of me.
38 to Sirens’ eyes: Aeneas prefers to be at sea, where he can be admired by the alluring but dangerous Sirens (N); ‘to’ is omitted in Q.
45 Paphos: A town in Cyprus, the home of Aeneas’ mother Venus.
51 Delian: From Delos, the birthplace of Apollo, the god of music.
55 made disdain… fancy’s lap: Made coldness turn (for childlike comfort, or adult love) to love’s own lap.
ACT 4
Scene 1
11 Apollo’s axle-tree: The axis on which the sphere carrying the sun was thought to revolve or the axle of the sun-god’s chariot.
12 Atlas’… out of joint: Such an injury to Atlas (N) would shake the heavens.
19 Typhoeus’ den: Mount Etna in Sicily, under which Typhoeus was imprisoned. Q’s Tiphous may be a compositor’s error for Marlowe’s usual spelling Typhon (N).
24 sporting: (Here) copulating.
35 cares: Oliver 1968 justifies Q’s eares as a reference to larbas’ eavesdropping. But larbas has not known Dido’s whereabouts.
Scene 2
1–22 Come… eyes: Modelled on larbas’ reaction in Virgil to the rumour of Dido’s liaison with Aeneas (Aeneid IV, 198–218). Marlowe adds the sacrificial ritual (compare 5.1) and the dialogue with Anna.
2–3 gloomy Jove… ills: larbas supposes that Jupiter is punishing him for neglecting to worship him.
10 Eliza: Dido was also called Elissa. The spelling here may indicate a compliment to Queen Elizabeth, but the reminiscence which some detect here to Spenser’s Epithalamion (composed for his wedding on 11 June 1594, more than a year after Marlowe’s death) is chronologically impossible unless the line is post-Marlovian.
13 hide of ground: When Dido arrived in Africa, larbas offered her as much land as could be covered by an ox-hide. She cut a hide into strips and marked out the boundary for a city which became Carthage. A ‘hide’ was also an Old English measure (approximately one hundred acres) of land.
27 partake: Share, hence impart, communicate.
32 coloured: (Here) specious.
39 numbers: (i) Quantity, (ii) songs (cf. line 45).
44 In this… pensiveness: ‘Luxuriating in this swooning [‘dying’] self-pity’ (Oliver 1968).
56 dishevelled hair: (Q’s spelling discheveld is etymological) emblematic of emotional disturbance.
Scene 3
6 my Phoenissa: Dido (the Virgilian epithet Phoenissa means ‘Phoenician’).
8 clogged: Burdened, weighted down.
9–11 immortal house… glassy fields: Fame and honour are given allegorical dwellings, the sea is thought of as land to be worked.
18 realms: For Q’s beames.
22–4 slice the sea… the deep: The black (‘sable’) ships will move so fast that the winds will follow after them like servants.
31 Banish… your mouth: Achates reacts punningly to the erotic extravagance of line 29.
32 follow… stars: Navigate by the stars in which your future is written.
50 accustom: Customarily do.
55 dure this female drudgery: Endure this enslavement to a woman, or stand these laborious female contrivances (tears, kisses, etc.).
Scene 4
6 drift: Purpose, with a pun on the ships’ motion.
11 Circe: See (N). The suggestion of an association between the enchantress and Dido’s late husband seems to be Marlowe’s invention.
13 how might I… chide?: What can I do to chide them?
19 How haps… not: How happens Achates not to bid me…
29–30 Hath not… leave him here: Either Aeneas was prepared to abandon Ascanius, or this is bare-faced bluff.
50 clouds… thou fled’st: Various myths describe Aeneas being hidden by a cloud sent by a god, but not his fleeing in one.
fled’st: Q’s fleest may be merely a variant form of the past tense.
57 Destinies: Fates.
62 Moors: Dido’s north African subjects.
64 make experience of: Test, demonstrate.
68 my guard: Probably a guard of honour, but the hint of preventing another attempted escape is not uncharacteristic of the play.
92 fire proud Lacedaemon: Burn Sparta (in revenge for the burning of Troy).
104 prevent: Forestall, act first.
105 take young Ascanius: Dido’s plan to keep Ascanius (here, of course, Cupid) hostage is Marlowe’s invention.
127 Packed: (i) Conspired, compacted, (ii) hoisted full sail.
151 not… base tackling: Nothing, not even so humble a thing as these ropes.
157 to chastise shipboys: The knotted ropes (155) could serve as whips.
159 favours: Ribbons given as love-tokens (and useles
s as sails).
Scene 5
This comic scene, with his first pastiche of ‘The Passionate Shepherd to his Love’, is entirely Marlowe’s invention.
5 services: (Here) a type of pear.
6 Dewberries: Blackberries or gooseberries.
20 twigger: (Affectionately) a good breeder, a rake.
28 our: Emended from Q’s your, but her pronouns are becoming confused in her excitement.
36–7 Well… say him nay: The Nurse remembers a rejected suitor, who would succeed (‘speed’) better now.
ACT 5
Scene 1
11 –15 The sun… her fumes: Like bees bearing the sweet honey of Hybla (N), the sun’s beams will carry the perfumes of the east, and shed them on the new town. ‘Wherewith’ (12) is syntactically ambiguous.
38–9 Ascanius’ prophecy… thousand years: ‘The prophecy was that Ascanius would found Alba Longa, and that he and his descendants (lulus was the son of Ascanius, born in Lavinium) would rule the empire for centuries to come’ (Gill 1977). Virgil treats lulus and Ascanius as identical, using both names to refer to the son of Aeneas. Cf. 1.1.96–108.
89 road: Roadstead, sheltered water just beyond the harbour.
106 use to quit: Make a practice of leaving.
110 ‘Let me go… hence’: Q gives this line to Aeneas, but Dido is echoing his words, as in line 124.
114 chained: Q’s chaungd is possible but weak.
116 for grief of thee: Caused by my grieving over you.
117 thy: For Q’s my.
136–8 Si bene… mentem: ‘If I have deserved anything from you, or anything about me has been dear to you, take pity on a falling house; and I beg this – if there is still [adhuc for Q’s ad haec] any place for prayers – abandon this purpose’, Aeneid IV, 317–19.
139–40 Desine… sequor: ‘Stop inflaming both of us with your laments. Against my will, I must go to Italy’, Aeneid IV, 360–61.
156–9 Thy mother… gave thee suck: Close to Aeneid IV, 365–7. The mountains of the Caucasus were famed for their harshness, as were the tigers of Hercynia in Persia for their ferocious cruelty.
162 fisher swain: Poor fisherman.
165–8 O serpent… thee: An elaboration on the almost proverbial dangers of nurturing a serpent in one’s bosom.
171 at large: Fully.
201 mermaid’s eye: Mermaids allured sailors with their looks, as sirens did with their voices.
202 Aulis’ gulf: Where the Greek fleet assembled before it sailed for Troy.
215 fairies: Fairies were said to spirit away human children, and replace them with changelings (which, like Cupid, might then disappear).
234 heart’s of adamant: (Aeneas’) heart is made of impenetrable stone (Q’s heart leaves the sentence without a main verb).
247 Triton’s niece: Marlowe confuses the sea-monster Scylla (N), a relative of Triton (N), with Scylla the daughter of King Nisus, who swam after her lover Minos’ boat.
248 Arion’s harp: The musician Arion (N) was robbed and thrown overboard by pirates, but rescued by a dolphin which had been charmed by his music (Q’s Orions is a confusion with the mythological hunter and his constellation).
268 my: For Q’s thy.
271 straight: Straightaway, very soon.
274–7 Not far… relics: In Aeneid IV, 478–502, Dido’s invented sorceress is an Ethiopian priestess of the Hesperides (N).
275 arts: Magical skills.
277 ticing relics: The love-tokens Aeneas has left behind.
306 a conqueror: I.e. Hannibal, the Carthaginian general who invaded Italy and nearly defeated Rome in the Second Punic War, imagined as a phoenix rising from Dido’s ashes.
308 his: Aeneas’.
310–11 Litora… nepotes: ‘I pray that coasts may fight opposing coasts, waves fight waves, arms fight arms; may they and their descendants go on fighting’, Aeneid IV, 628–9.
313 Sic… umbras: ‘Thus, thus I rejoice to go down into the shadows’, Aeneid IV, 660.
314–28 O help… to thee: Marlowe’s addition to Virgil.
317 tires upon: Feeds on, consumes.
319 prevail: (Here) avail.
TAMBURLAINE THE GREAT
Marlowe did not invent Tamburlaine. The historical Timur (1336–1405) was widely known in the West as the conqueror of Baghdad (1401) and Damascus (1403); his defeat and capture of Beyazit I (Marlowe’s Bajazeth) in 1402 at the battle of Angora (modern Ankara) made him especially famous as the humbler of the proudest of monarchs, and – since this victory relieved for a time the Ottoman pressure on Christendom – led to the belief that he was the scourge of God. Marlowe draws particularly on the accounts of the Spaniard Pedro Mexía’s Silva de Varia Leción (1542), as translated both in Thomas Fortescue’s The Forest or Collection of Histories (1571) and in George Whetstone’s The English Mirror (1586); and of Petrus Perondinus, Magni Tamerlanis Scythiarum Imperatoris Vita (1553), which he seems to have read in Latin. Nonetheless, when Part One, The Conquests of Tamburlaine the Scythian Shepherd, was first staged in 1587 by the Lord Admiral’s Men, it was a startlingly innovatory play, an aggressively learned celebration of power radically different from the normal repertoire of the popular theatre. There were other plays about eastern conquerors, but their protagonists were usually assimilated to familiar Elizabethan paradigms: Thomas Preston’s Cambises (c. 1561) is a Morality play whose ‘hero’ exemplifies the evils and suffers the fate of a tyrant; the anonymous Wars of Cyrus (late 1580s) transforms the king of Persia into a model of romance chivalry and magnanimity, ‘A prince… most mild and merciful’ (sig. Fr). Tamburlaine is different – so different that he seems to stand outside merely human categories:
Some powers divine, or else infernal, mixed
Their angry seeds at his conception;
For he was never sprung of human race. (2.6.9–11)
The excitement the play originally caused can be difficult to recapture today. In performance, however, it can still be exhilarating.
Like its hero, its poetry tends to disrupt familiar categorizations. Tamburlaine’s first appearance is a surprise (1.2). We have been led to expect a brigand (Scythia was virtually synonymous with barbarism); instead, he is an Errol Flynn swashbuckler who, however, overwhelms Zenocrate not with erotic charisma but with ‘high astounding terms’ (Prologue, 5):
With milk-white harts upon an ivory sled
Thou shalt be drawn amidst the frozen pools
And scale the icy mountains’ lofty tops,
Which with thy beauty will be soon resolved. (1.2.98–101)
Everything is in the future tense (‘For “will” and “shall” best fitteth Tamburlaine’, 3.3.41), as indefinite as the strange journey he envisages through high, cold places. The ivory sled drawn through the snow by white harts is literally dazzling. At one level, it evokes a delight in material riches, revelling in the luxury of being drawn along, as in the triumphs to which the play frequently returns. But this is also a fantasy of being transported in another, more transcendent sense: the imagined wealth is fabulous, it shades into the exoticism of romance, as, later, will Dr Faustas’ dream of spirits ‘Like Almain rutters with their horsemen’s staves, / Or Lapland giants, trotting by our sides’ (1.127–8). Zenocrate too is both an invaluable prize (‘more worth to Tamburlaine / Than the possession of the Persian crown’, 1.2.90–91) and a more-than-mortal being whose radiant beauty can melt (‘resolve’, 101) the snow.
There is a comparably exalted materialism in Tamburlaine’s lines when he seizes the crown (2.6). One reason the speech compels attention is that, like much of the play’s most memorable poetry, it is the hero’s own articulation of his complex, almost superhuman ambition. Another is that the lines condense and draw into themselves many of the verbal motifs we have already heard, and so seem naturally climactic. The defeated Cosroe had earlier supposed Tamburlaine’s rebellion to be against the hierarchy of nature, ‘With such a giantly presumption’ (2.6.2.) like that of the Titans against Jupiter.
But here Tamburlaine propounds a new cosmology: ambition is a bodily need, ‘The thirst of reign’ only to be satisfied by the ‘sweetness of a crown’ (52); and it is a drive that permeates the universe from Jupiter down through the warring elements that make up the body and the rest of ‘The wondrous architecture of the world’ (62) and crosses the divide between matter and spirit to enter our ‘aspiring minds’ (60). The world teaches, wills us to aspire. ‘Our souls’ become grammatically confused with the ‘wand’ring planet[s]’ and ‘restless spheres’ they contemplate, all borne along by the perpetually continuing present participles ‘climbing’, ‘moving’ (61–5). Some readers have felt that the object of all this aspiring, ‘The sweet fruition of an earthly crown’ (69), is oddly anti-climactic. But the whole speech centres on the crown Tamburlaine holds in his hand, and is designed to confound the usual hierarchy of spirit and matter: Jupiter’s mother, the goddess of earthly wealth whose name in Latin means ‘riches’, is here called ‘heavenly Ops’ (53), and ‘th’empyreal heaven’ (55) turns the empyrean into an empire. Like a great aria, the speech returns in its last line to its opening theme of sensual pleasure, the ‘fruition’, enjoyment almost sexually fruity, of the crown’s earthly sweetness.
Tamburlaine’s poetry is dominated by excess, by hyperbole and insistent comparatives and superlatives. Like the play’s hero, it strives to outdo, to overgo. At its peaks, it turns its own rhetorical power back on itself, declaring that it cannot express its inexpressibility. Thus, when Tamburlaine ponders Zenocrate’s beauty (5.1), his words dwell on their own inadequacy (‘Fair is too foul an epithet for thee’, 136) and climax in the claim that even a super-poem on beauty distilled from all the poets would leave something unsaid:
Yet should there hover in their restless heads,
One thought, one grace, one wonder at the least,
Which into words no virtue can digest. (171–3)
The verse enacts this unspeakable beauty in its own huge, almost unspeakable sentences, and confounds together the subject and its expression in imagery that fuses Zenocrate’s face with the metaphors that describe it:
…thy shining face
Where Beauty, mother to the Muses, sits
And comments volumes with her ivory pen,
Taking instructions from thy flowing eyes –
The Complete Plays Page 54