Five Revenge Tragedies: The Spanish Tragedy, Hamlet, Antonio's Revenge, The Tragedy of Hoffman, The Revenger's Tragedy (Penguin Classics)
Page 42
4 suspicious: arousing suspicion
12 force perforce: of necessity
8 enlarged: released
12 o’erblown: blown over
21 Salve: Allay
21 soothe: agree
33 clap me up: imprison me
38 disparagement: humiliation
46 estate: state
59 meanly: of low birth
66 forged: contrived
72 exasperate: made more severe
77 Etna: volcano in Sicily
91 Ariadne: used a thread to guide Theseus through the labyrinth
92 surprised: taken prisoner
93 front: forehead
96 conceit: mind
110–11 Et tremulo … opus: obscure: ‘They joined dismayed dread to quaking fear, a futile deed of sottish betrayal’ (Edwards)
114 lodestar: navigational star
117 Incertain: Doubtful
20 uphold: persist
23 hugy: huge
35 passing: very
3 seld-seen: seldom-seen
4 toys: trivial matters
5 Go to: expression of impatience
5 shifts: tricks
6 trudge: get moving
21 flat: settled
24 hare: quarry, game
31 go by: be careful
46 inextricable: Q inexecrable; indissoluble
81 happed: happened to
93 Haply: Perhaps
99 exempt the place: obscure: the context would suggest ‘suspend the office’
OSD book: Hieronimo quotes from both the Bible and Seneca
1 Vindicta mihi: ‘Vengeance is mine’ (Romans 12:19)
6 Per scelus … iter: ‘The safe way for crime is always through crime’ (Seneca)
12–13 Fata si … sepulchrum: translated in lines 14–17 (Seneca)
22 inevitable: successful
24 kindship: kindness
35 Remedium … est: ‘Is an idle remedy for ills’ (Seneca)
45 coil: disturbance
46 sort: crowd
58 corrigedor: advocate or magistrate
60 action: legal case
65 ejectione firmae: writ to eject a tenant
76 Corsic: Corsican
81 blood: passion
90 lively: living
107 as a raging sea: this extended image is confused and difficult to make complete sense of: Hieronimo berates himself for not doing as the raging sea, when his social inferiors, ‘lesser waters’, do their labouring
116 Alcides: Hercules, who descended to the underworld as his twelfth labour
119 triple-headed porter: Cerberus; see also 1.1.30 note above
121–2 Thracian poet … Orpheus: Orpheus, the Thracian poet-musician, persuaded Persephone/Proserpine by his playing to let his dead wife Eurydice leave the underworld
124 burden: refrain or chorus
154 blasted: blighted, parched
176 stay: support
11 train: attendants
14 troth: loyalty
19 condescent: agreement
32 sith: then, next
39 extremities: extreme emotions
52 intercept: disrupt
57 suits: requests
87 mistakes: misinterprets
121 trow: do you think
122 Poco palabras: ‘Few words’ (Spanish)
174–5 Chi mi … vuole: ‘He who shows unusual fondness to me has or wishes to betray me’ (Italian)
1–5 Awake … lakes: editors usually, following Edwards, suggest a line has been lost here that would make sense of Andrea’s vision: that infernal sights cannot compare to what is being played out in front of him
1 Erichtho: a sorceress
17 ground … upon: base their beliefs on dreams
31 Hymen: god of marriage
31 hie: run
10 From this … of men: this repetition may well be a compositorial error, but if any text was lost it cannot be recovered
15 history: admonitory tale or example
24 fashion: appearance
32 drift: intention
39 care: caution
47 avail: help
50 grace: support
64 motion: entertainment
68 fit you: get what you want; requite you; do as is fit
75 quick: impatient
86 Nero: Roman emperor; see also Hamlet, scene 9.233 and note
100 determined: designed
106 argument: synopsis
107 roundly: plainly
110–12 Perseda … Soliman: a play called Soliman and Perseda, closely based on Henry Wotton’s Courtlie Controversie of Cupid’s Cautels (1578) and published in 1592, has often been attributed to Kyd, but its echo of this playlet is the only evidence for his authorship; see also Playwrights
117 bashaws: courtiers or officers in the Turkish court
134 conceited: imagined
141 abstracts: outlines
145 fauchion: broad curved sword
148 huntress: the chaste goddess of hunting, Diana
159 Tragedia cothurnata: Buskined tragedy, the most serious sort in ancient Greece
160 matter: serious material
168 mass: used in oaths
172 unknown: foreign
178 cunning: knowledge
195 Babylon: both the biblical Tower of Babel, associated with a confusion of languages, and the wicked city of Babylon
8 rent: tear
16 unmanured: uncultivated
17 noisome: harmful
20 passengers: passers-by
27 cited: summoned
OSD knocks up: hangs up
17 title: board to indicate location
22 recompt: recall
9 book-keeper: prompter
102 pitchy: black
118 Marched in a net: Concealed himself
119 rated: berated
140 missed: departed from
156 ope: open
213 Scylla: a dangerous rock, paired with Charybdis
213 grief: often emended to ‘gulf’
5 quaint: strange
10 Dido: killed herself when her lover Aeneas left Carthage
14 doom: judgement
28 bugs: objects of terror
31 Tityus: tortured for lustfulness by having vultures peck his liver
34 lover: Ixion
34 surcease: cease
36 Chimera: mythological monster with the head of a lion, body of a goat and tail of a dragon
40 Sisyphus: condemned to push a huge stone uphill
11 Holla: Exclamation meaning ‘stop!’
17 fantasy: imagination
26 fortified: defended
37 horrors: horrifies
51 sensible: of the senses
51 avouch: proof
56 parle: meeting to discuss armistice
57 sleaded poleaxe: obscure, perhaps ‘sledded Polacks’ (Poles on sleds), or ‘leaded pole-axe’
59 jump: exactly
63 eruption: revolt
68 mart: merchandise
69 impress: enforced service
71 toward: anticipated
74 Marry: Expression of surprise or outrage
76 pricked: spurred
76 emulous: rivalrous
80 sealed: Q seale
80 compact: agreement
83 moiety competent: half or equal share
84 gaged: wagered
86 inapproved: unproved
88 Sharked: Seized
106 invulnerable: Q invelmorable
115 stravagant: extravagant, wandering
117 probation: examination, trial
123 strikes: Q frikes
2 impotent: Q impudent
15 licence: permission
29 unmeet: improper
33 sable: black
35 haviour: bearing, manner
38 of force: necessarily
54 rouse: toast
61 Hercules: virile god in Roman mythology; see also Antonio’s Revenge, prologue, 11 and 5.6.14–15 and
note
64 galled: sore
70 incestuous: according to the ‘Table of Kindred and Affinity’ in the Book of Common Prayer, a man was forbidden to marry his brother’s widow
72 corse: corpse
73 Niobe: in mythology, Niobe wept incessantly for the death of her children; see also Tragedy of Hoffman, 5.2.134 and note
94 hard upon: promptly
108 kee: say
109 Cease: Q Ceasen
118 cap-à-pié: Q Capapea; from head to toe
127 form: visible aspect
136 platform: battlements
153 beaver: helmet face-guard
164 tell: count
168 sable silver: black and silver
175 tenable: capable of being kept in
177 understanding: meaning, sense
184 doubt: suspect
7 chariest: most cautious
9 calumnious: slanderous
11 trip: cause to fall
15 sophister: one who deploys specious arguments
20 recks: cares
22 occasion: opportunity
25 stayed for: awaited
28 adoptions: suitability as friends
29 Grapple: Fasten
30 entertain: greeting
49 Marry: Expression of surprise or outrage
49 understand: appreciate
58 Springes: Traps
61 scanter: more limited
1 shrewd: bitter
7 upspring: a kind of dance
8 Rhenish: wine from the Rhine in Germany
18 goblin: demon
39 removed: secluded, private
44 beckles: obscure, perhaps ‘beckons’ or ‘beetles’
51 pin’s fee: the (low) value of a pin
56 artery: Q Artiue
57 Nemean lion: renowned beast strangled by Hercules as one of his labours
59 lets: hinders
61 waxeth: grows
10 unfolding: revelation, tale
18 porpentine: porcupine
19 blazon: public description
30-31 –fat weed … wharf: the weed has not been identified; Lethe is a river in the classical underworld; see also Antonio’s Revenge, 4.3.198 note
34 forged: invented
43 angel: Q angle
48 secure: safe, unworried
49 hebona: poison
53 quicksilver: mercury (poisonous)
57 barked and tettered: encrusted with pustules
62 accompts: accounts
70 matin: morning
75 tables: writing tablets or notebook
76 saws: commonplaces or sayings from books
90 Illo: Greeting, related to ‘hello’ or ‘holla’
131 cellarage: underground cellar
138 Hic et ubique: Here and everywhere
143 pioneer: soldier specializing in digging mines
151 antic: bizarre, incongruous
154 undoubtful: doubtful
10 drabbing: visiting prostitutes
14 closeth: becomes more confiding
23 viz.: namely (abbreviation of videlicet)
24 reach: understanding
41 filched: stolen
44 lagging: drooping
47 Small: Short
7 distemperancy: disordered mental state
33 levies: enrolments of soldiers
34 Polack: Pole
97 fain: gladly
110 censure: judgement
132 quietus: ‘a release or respite from life’ (OED)
133 bodkin: dagger
139 orisons: prayers
169 beck: command
188 monsters: referring to the proverbial horns of the cuckold
190 paintings: cosmetics
193 fig: trot about
195 A pox: Expression of irritation or impatience
225 hams: the back of the knee.
229 pregnant: full of meaning
232 idle: foolish
236 mass: used in oaths
269 boarded: met
273 resty: inactive
279 children: the newly fashionable children’s acting company of Blackfriars
281 mops and mows: grimaces
286 foil: weapon
286 target: round shield
289 halt: falter, wait
299 Roscius: Roman actor
306 Seneca: Roman philosopher and playwright, very influential on revenge tragedy
306 Plato: classical Greek philosopher, hence inappropriate here: perhaps Corambis’, or someone’s, mistake for the comic playwright Plautus
308 Jephtha: father forced to sacrifice his daughter, having promised God to offer whoever first greeted him on his return from battle with the Ammonites (Judges 10)
319 abridgement: that which will shorten my speech
321 vallanced: fringed
324 chopine: exaggeratedly raised shoe
325 uncurrent: not in circulation, not current
339 sallets: salads
342 Aeneas’ tale to Dido: In Virgil’s Aeneid, Aeneas tells Dido the story of Troy’s destruction
346 Pyrrhus: revenging son of Achilles
346 Hyrcanian: Q arganian; from Hyrcania, known for its tigers
351 ominous horse: the Trojan horse, secretly filled with Greek soldiers, which broke the siege of Troy
354 guise: disguise, masked
356 imparched: dry, roasted
357 Priam: king of Troy; see also Tragedy of Hoffman, 2.2.1415 and note
364 whiff: puff of wind
365 unnerved: ‘rendered nerveless or weak’ (OED)
369 Hecuba: wife of Priam
370 mobled: muffled
374 kercher: handkerchief
380 milch: milk
389 epitaph: Q Epiteeth
419 John-a-dreams: dreamy fellow
425 kites: carrion-eating birds of prey
429 scullion: Q scalion; low-ranking servant
33 arras: tapestry curtain or screen
7 periwig: stylized wig, theatrical rather than everyday
11 termagant: imaginary deity then believed to be worshipped by Muslims, presented in the mystery plays as ‘a violent overbearing personage’ (OED)
12 Herod: king of Judea who ordered the massacre of the innocents to try to kill the infant Jesus; played in medieval plays as a ranting tyrant
19 journeymen: hired men
23 warrant: promise, guarantee as true
25 set: written
36 cullison: employer’s badge
38 cinque-a-pace: dance, hence comic routine
53 gloze: talk speciously
60 bleach: blanch, go pale
69 chameleon’s dish: the chameleon was rumoured to live on air
69 crammed: stuffed
74 Julius Caesar: Shakespeare’s previous play in 1599
87 miching mallico: obscure, Hamlet apparently glosses as ‘mischief’
95 stooping: bowing 104 whilom: formerly
104 whilom: formerly
117 wormwood: bitter-tasting plant used in medicine
119 determine: decide
142 jade: ‘inferior or worn-out horse’ (OED)
145 poopies: puppets
158 hobby-horse: horse costume worn by morris dancer
168 Hecate: goddess of witchcraft
184 belike: probably
184 perdy: certainly
191 pipe: woodwind instrument
203 stops: using a finger to cover the holes in a woodwind instrument
206 Zounds: From ‘God’s wounds’ (oath)
208 fret: rub
233 Nero: tyrannical Roman emperor, who had his mother (among many others) executed
28 stays: awaits
29 physic: medicine
17 better: social superior (the King)
29 Mars: Roman god of war
31 front: forehead
37 Vulcan: Roman god of fire and metal-working
42 cozened: cheated
42 hob-man blind: game of blind man’s buff
48 clouts: cloths, patches