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PENGUIN CLASSICS
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014,USA
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Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
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This edition first published in Penguin Classics 2012
Introduction and editorial matter copyright © Emma Smith, 2012
Cover: Mirror of life and death, French School, 17th century, in the Musée de la Ville de Paris, Musée Carnavalet, Paris (Photograph © Archives Charmet/The Bridgeman Art Library)
All rights reserved
The moral right of the author of the introduction and editorial material has been asserted
Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser
ISBN: 978-0-14-196046-3
11 hight: was called
19 Acheron: river of the lower world. The description of the underworld here is derived from Virgil’s Aeneid, Book VI
20 Charon: ferryman across the River Styx in the underworld
23 Sol: the sun
23 Thetis: daughter of the sea god Nereus
25 knight marshal: officer in the English royal household with jurisdiction within 12 miles (20 km) of the palace
28 strond: strand, shore
29 fell: savage
29 Avernus: lake entrance to the underworld
30 Cerberus: three-headed guard dog of the underworld
33 Minos, Aeacus and Rhadamanth: judges of the underworld
36 leaves of lottery: in Virgil, lots were drawn to judge the destination of the dead in the underworld
46 martialist: soldier
49 Myrmidons: Achilles’ followers in Homer’s Iliad
49 scour: move quickly
55 Pluto: king of the underworld
65 Furies: in Greek mythology, the angry avengers of crimes
66 Ixion: punished by Zeus for lusting after his wife Hera, by being bound to an ever-spinning wheel
67 usurers: money lenders
70 wights: men
73 Elysian: Elysium was the resting place for heroes and the virtuous
75 adamant: hard stone or diamond
76 Proserpine: Pluto’s consort, also known as Persephone
79 doom: judgement
82 gates of horn: in the Aeneid, the entrance for true visions or dreams
85 wot: know
90 mystery: hidden or secret thing
1 camp: army
8 tribute: ‘tax … in acknowledgement of submission’ (OED)
12–14 O multum … juris: address derived from Roman poet Claudian: ‘O one much loved of God, for thee the heavens contend, and the united peoples fall down on bended knee: victory is sister to just right’ (Boas)
20 deeper wage: more reward
21 chivalry: gallant horsemanship
23 bound: border
27 colours: flags or banners
30 rebound: echo
32 squadron form: square formation
33 wings of shot: armed troops on the outside of the formation
34 push of pike: close combat
38 ordnance: artillery
41 cornet: wing of soldiers
47 handy: hand-to-hand
50 rampiers: ramparts
52 Bellona: Roman goddess of war
53 rain: Q ran
54 shivered: shattered
55–6 Pede pes … viro: ‘Foot against foot, spear against spear, arms clash on arms and man is assailed by man’ (not a direct quotation: Boas notes sources in Virgil and Curtius)
56 Arma: Q Anni
56 armis: Q annis
59 scindered: sundered
61 unbowelled: disembowelled
62 purple: blood-soaked
70 Here-hence: As a result
73 insulting: scornfully triumphing over
74 vaunts: brags
76 Pricked forth: Spurred on
82 carbines: cavalry
83 Phoebus: the sun
83 waning: Q wauing
86 argument: token
96 frolic: rejoice
99 tucket: trumpet flourish instructing troops to march
120 overcloying: excessively moving
122 staying: stopping
131 largess: generosity
140 boots: profits
142 colours: standards
143 corsive: corrosive
156 courser: horse
160 privilege: sovereign authority
161 whether: which
168 partial: biased
168 difference: disagreement
171 lion’s death: proverbial, ‘the braver hunter is the one to kill the lion, rather than simply wear his pelt’
176 censure: judgement
178 sit beside: possibly set aside, forgo (Edwards)
190 guerdon: reward
15–17 Qui jacet … magis: collage from Alanus de Insulis, Seneca and Kyd’s own composition: ‘If one lies on the ground, one has no further to fall; towards me Fortune has exhausted her power to injure; there is nothing more that can happen to me’
20 sable weed: black clothing
22 despiteful: cruel
>
23 blind: the visual iconography of Fortune had her blind (thus indifferent to merit) and standing on a rolling stone (thus mutable)
33 distained: sullied
48 reck: care for
54 bewray: reveal
57 mischief: misfortune
82 Terceira: an island in the Azores
93 envious: malicious
7 nill: will not
10 chevalier: gallant
11 glorious cause: for love of Bel-imperia
16 Nemesis: goddess of divine retribution
20 Pallas: Pallas Athene, goddess patron of Athens
20 Pergamus: Troy
21 halberdiers: soldiers armed with halberds or long spears mounted with axes
22 pauncht: stabbed in the belly
22 dinged: knocked
34 wound: embraced
35 welding: carrying, wielding
47 favour: item worn as a token of affection
83 conceit: thought, imagination
85 gage: ransom
90 Tush: Expression of contempt or disapproval
90 ambages: indirect speeches, ambiguities
96 aspect: form
98 words of course: formulaic speeches
105 humorous: temperamental
124 Rapt: Entranced
132 fall to: begin eating
137 pompous: stately
137SD scutcheon: shield
139 sound: fathom, understand
139 mystery: hidden significance
142 Albion: England
145 Saracen: Muslim, Arabic (with connection to the Crusades)
166 puissant: powerful
176 Unless: Unless it were that
3–10 In time the savage … stony wall: quoted from Watson’s sonnet in his Hecatompathia
4 haggard: untrained
4 stoop to lure: technical term from falconry: to come down for food
13 feature: shape, proportions
16 Pan and Marsyas: gods punished after challenging Apollo in contests of flute-playing; see also Tragedy of Hoffman, 1.3.2–3 and note
16 quill: pen; reed pipe
20 slandered: brought into disrepute
21 sire: father
25 uprear: raise
27 beauty’s: Q beauteous
27 thrall: slave or captive
29 ecstasies: outbursts
36 sound the bottom: discover
43 Vien qui presto: ‘Come here quickly’ (Italian)
49 conveyance: acting as go-between
82 liberal: generous
85 fraught: loaded
91 unjust: dishonest
107 tam armis quam ingenio: ‘by equal parts of force and skill’ (Mulryne)
126 limed: baited
127 smooth: flatter
131 sleight: trickery
4 contents: sources of contentment
9 may: Q mad
17SD Balthazar above: indicating his place over the stage in the gallery
21 disjoined: separated
37 countercheck: reply, rebuke
42 bower: arbour
45 Vesper: the morning star
46 travellers: labourers
49 ware: watchful
50 prickle: thorn
3 coy it: behave modestly
6 froward: difficult, uncontrollable
16 moiety: half-share
22 motion: proposal
34 forwardness: eagerness
36 pitched: agreed
42 will: wilfulness
43 friends: relatives
50 back: back-word, refusal
8 faith: faithfulness
13 match: meeting
20 Luna: moon
26 Flora: goddess of flowers and of spring
29 record: sing
33 Venus: goddess of love
35 Mars: god of war, lover of Venus
38 ruder: coarser
41 ward: guard
42 retort: turn back
45 withal: Q with
49 die: punning: achieve orgasm
OSD shirt: nightshirt
15 whilom: formerly
28 misdone: done wrong
39 author: perpetrator
62 practice: treachery
66 dirge: funeral song
67–80 aliquis … sequatur: Kyd’s compilation of bits of Lucretius, Virgil and Ovid: ‘Let someone mix for me the herbs that the beautiful spring brings forth, and let a medicine be given for our pain: or let him offer juices, if there are any that will bring oblivion to our minds. I shall myself gather whatever herbs the sun brings forth, throughout the mighty world, into the fair realms of light. I shall myself drink whatever poison the sorceress contrives, whatever herbs too, the goddess of spells weaves together by her secret power. All things I shall essay, death even, until all feeling dies at once in my dead heart. Shall I never again, my life, see your face, and has eternal sleep buried your light? I shall die with you – so, so would I rejoice to go to the shades below. But nonetheless, I shall keep myself from a hasty death, in case then no revenge should follow your death’ (Edwards)
73 herbarum: Q irraui (emendation Edwards, Mulryne)
2 looked: anticipated, expected
1 Infortunate: Subject to Fortune
18 credit: belief
37 mould: earth, character
46 suggestion: accusation
50 Phlegethon: infernal river of fire
53 meed: reward
55 lake: Acheron, the lake of hell
64 entreated: treated
65 commends: sends greetings
78 quittal: repayment
81 But: Except
88 misconceived: mistakenly suspected
101 entreat: plead
12 secretary: confidant
26 Red ink: presumably a note for the stagehands about the appearance of the bloody letter
37 mean: means
39 train: trap
52 Close: Meet
53 bewray: disclose
79 condition: character
81 humour: disposition
87 prithee: I pray thee
98 mount: rise (punning on the gallows)
99 Che le Ieron: unclear: perhaps a corruption of the page’s name
108 complot: conspiracy
109 watch: constables
115 expulse: expel
123 haps: fortunes
4 shift: succeed
20 watch and ward: patrol
32SD dag: gun
36SD strives: struggles
3 mistrust: anticipate
24 fact: crime
31 exasperate: render more severe
38 policy: course of action; trick
40 prosecutes: brings about
42 limed: trapped (by being stuck in bird-lime)
45 holp: helped
46 fatch: stratagem
59 stand: stand fast
72 turned off: executed
80 tickle: insecure
82 uneffected: not done
84 list not: do not wish to
88 advantages: taking advantage
89–90 Et quel … bastera: ‘And what I want, nobody knows; I know, and that’s enough for me’ (Italian)
3 minority: under age
4 uncertainty: irresolution
11 descant: criticize
8 consumeth: wears out
13 regard: care about
18 Gramercy: Thank you
20 nearer: more serious
23 gear: business; gallows
40 approved: proved
46 disfurnish: by custom, a hangman got the clothes of an executed criminal
49 boot: purpose, recompense
57 dispatch: do it quickly
72 truss: close-fitting jacket; to hang
88 marry: expression of surprise or outrage
88 motion: proposal
95 interdicted: forbidden
97 intercepts: prevents
107 Stand: Depend
15 empyreal: the highest heavens
16 countermured:
defensively double-walled
19 Petergade: apparently the hangman’s version of Pedringano
23 commission: authority
32 writ: Q write
54 accident: circumstance
61 constrained: forced
65 banned: cursed
69 plain: complain
1 purge: heal
7 outrage: unrestrained behaviour
10 whipstalk: whip handle (here, a toy)
21 mirror: model, paragon
2 sequestered: kept apart
Five Revenge Tragedies: The Spanish Tragedy, Hamlet, Antonio's Revenge, The Tragedy of Hoffman, The Revenger's Tragedy (Penguin Classics) Page 41