Five Revenge Tragedies: The Spanish Tragedy, Hamlet, Antonio's Revenge, The Tragedy of Hoffman, The Revenger's Tragedy (Penguin Classics)
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133 politic: shrewd, cunning
142 progress: royal journey
145 below: in hell
147 nose: smell
17 cockle-hat: a hat worn by pilgrims from the shrine of St James at Compostella and marked with his symbol of a scallop shell
18 shoon: shoes
20 Larded: Strewn
36 poll: head
44 certain: dependable
52 juggled: cheated
56 wall: protect
61 gamester: gambler
62 Swoopstake-like: As in a sweepstake
63 ope: open
72 saw: saying, maxim
75 rue: herb (sorrow)
101 dupped: opened
105 Gis: Oath, derived from ‘Jesu’
113 be with you, ladies: Q bwy, ladies
8 conversion: conversation
20 presence: ‘the immediate vicinity of a person; the company or society of someone’ (OED)
7 let: hindrance
13 cunning: skill
18 venies: fencing bouts
21 foils: fencing weapons with blunt edge and a button at the point
21 rapier: thin, sharp-pointed sword
31 singularity: distinction, excellence
33 miss: miscarry
36 period: ending
47 uncapable: insensible, unable to take in
1 Clown: Countryman, peasant
11 Ergo: Therefore
14 great: high-born
18 stoup: drinking cup
34SD shovel: sometimes emended to ‘skull’: clearly skulls are unearthed during this conversation
47 battery: assault
49 Quirks: Arguments
49 quillets: small plot of land
49 vouchers: ‘summoning of a person into court to warrant the title to a property’ (OED)
52 conveyance: legal transference of property
75 kibe: chilblain or blister
75 prithee: I pray thee
78 pocky: marked with pocks, syphilitic
79 tanner: leatherworker
109 abhor: fill with horror and disgust
112 Alexander: legendary Greek imperial leader
127 else: more
141 Olympus: mountain home of the Greek Gods
142 Pelion: mountain in Greece in mythology; it was piled on top of Ossa in an attempt to storm Olympus
158 Ossa: Q Oosell; mountain in Greece
4SD Braggart: Boastful, vain
5 water-fly: pestering insect
8 musk-cod: perfumed fop
16 Barbary horse: valuable horses from North Africa
18 wrought: designed
20 girdles, and hangers: loops or straps designed to hold swords
21 cousin-german: close relative (literally, first cousin)
26 laid: bet
32 outward: unclear, perhaps public or outdoor
42 predestinate: predestinated, preordained
63 length: Q laught
92 Unbated: Foil without its protective button and thus sharp
101 antique: ancient
131 fields: battlefields
Although Antonio’s Revenge works, and was performed, as a stand-alone play, it also makes reference to a contemporaneous play by Marston with many of the same characters, Antonio and Mellida, which tells how Piero Sforza, duke of Venice, tries to disrupt the love between his daughter Mellida and Antonio, son of his enemy the Duke of Genoa Andrugio. The shipwrecked Antonio, disguised as an Amazon, arrives at the Venetian court and persuades Mellida to escape with him, but she is captured and returned to her father. Andrugio returns to Venice with his son’s coffin to claim the reward placed on their heads by Piero, who, moved by this act of valour, wishes that Antonio were still alive to marry his daughter. Antonio, not truly dead, rises from the coffin; Piero has to accept him as his son-in-law and end his hatred of Andrugio, in a typical comic reconciliation. Piero’s first bloody acts are introduced at the beginning of Antonio’s Revenge 1.1, and must be thought to have happened between the comic ending of Antonio and Mellida and the tragic begining of this play.
List of Characters: the Italian names of the characters are drawn from, and thus illustrated from, John Florio’s Italian/English dictionary, A Worlde of Wordes (1598)
4 SFORZA: ‘force, power, strength’
5 STROTZO: ‘to kill or crush to death, to strangle’
9 NUTRICHE: ‘a nurse, a foster-mother’
11 FELICHE: ‘happy, fortunate, lucky’
16 GALEATZO: ‘a galleass’ or ship
17 MATZAGENTE: ‘a killer or queller of people’
1 ramps: snatches, tears; rises upon
1 clumsy: ‘benumbed or stiffened with cold’ (OED)
5 pills: strips
6 aspects: appearances
9 devoir: business, appointed task
11 Hercules: Roman demigod renowned for strength and virility; see also 5.6.14–15 and note below, and Hamlet, scene 2.61
13 round: i.e. the semicircular form of Paul’s theatre
17 winks: shuts eyes apprehension: perception, understanding
20 amain: at full speed
20 black-visaged: the stage was draped in black for tragedies
26 aught: 1602 ought: anything strains: tunes
26 consort: musical harmony
28 lackey: dance attendance upon
29 unused: unusual peise: 1602 paize: weight OSD unbraced: with clothes unfastened
1 trunk: body
3 clutched: 1602 cloucht
10 unpeered: without peer, unequalled
12 braggart: boasting
17 ’tice: entice
18 scouts: spies (i.e. stars)
19 swart: dark
23 May: i.e. prime
26 sweets: pleasures
26 cropped: produced as a crop
28 rankling: festering
29 belk: belch, vent
37 Unseasoned: Not timely (because interrupting)
41 Go to: Expression of impatience
42 Fut: An expression of surprise
44 plunge: lurch; critical situation
45–6 Sin’s … devils: set in italic in 1602 to mark as sententiae for extracting into a commonplace book
45–7 Sin’s … me: 1602 puts in parenthesis
51 puff: expression of contempt
57 grant: agreement
61 fleering: laughing scornfully
63 clipped: hugged
64 wring: twist
76 sinking: deep, penetrating
78 hale: pull, haul
80 lagged: belated
80 censure: opinion
84 honey: flatter
85 topless: unending
86 blast: blight or ruin
90 Stygian: dark and foreboding as the underworld river Styx
91 incubus: nightmare demon
96 Belike: Probably
104 inamorate: lover
107 coursers: horses (figuratively, clouds)
108 Beat up: ‘to strike in order to rouse or drive game’ (OED)
1 vouchsafe: ‘grant, permit or allow, as an act of grace or condescension’ (OED)
4 Submiss: Submissive
4 entreats: pleas
5 gilt: thin layer of gold
8 fulgor: dazzling brightness
8 glossed: glossy, bright
10 courts: invites you to court
14 harbour: shelter, lodging
16 wreathe: twist
17 glib: smooth
17 parasite: ‘person who obtains the hospitality or patronage of the wealthy by obsequiousness and flattery’ (OED)
19 front: forehead
20 rivelled: wrinkled
20 abortive: useless
21 straggling: stray
26 Bacchus: god of wine (Greek Dionysus)
30 age: time
33 Beshrew: Curses on
38 spur-royals: gold coin worth 15 shillings
49 states: nobles
51 rich-purfled: richly trimmed and decorated
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br /> 52 carcanets: jewels worn in the hair
55 affect: are affectionate to
56 crackling: ‘trilling in singing (used in contempt)’ (OED)
58 light: wanton, disrespectful
60 art: cosmetics
61 gauds: showy displays
OSD Alberto: 1602 Alberto, Forobosco
3 Aurora: goddess of the dawn
4 firmament: skies
6 And if: Even if
7 stock: in fencing, a thrust with a pointed weapon
12 girn: smile
12 rusty: sunburnt
14 colour-de-roy: ‘king’s colour’, somewhere between purple and brown
17 touchstone: used to test the quality of gold and silver
19 copper: red
20 slip: counterfeit coin
21 retort: return
21 SD writing tables: notebooks
27 device: heraldic symbol
33 stone-horse: stallion
34 word: motto
34 Wighy purt: obscure: ‘the neighing of a horse’ (Gair)
43 paunched: punched, pierced
48 shades: shadows; ‘the world of disembodied spirits’ (OED)
50 stand: rest, halt
56 prodigies: portents
59 Deus imperat astris: ‘God rules the stars’
60 doubled: repeated
67 bewrayed: revealed
69 mess: serving
71 prithee: I pray thee
75 great: expectant
81 spright: spirit
82 Tush: Expression of contempt or disapproval
89 wind: blow
104 latest: final
109 jubilee: celebration
111 protested: declared
112 pensioners: paid soldiers
114 solsticy: turning or culminating point
131 ensign: flag
OSD at first: as at his first entrance in 1.1
8 imbraid: taunt
12 reeks: smokes
17 slave: villain
18 strumpet: ‘a debauched or unchaste woman’ (OED)
18 luxurious: lascivious
18 twines: embraces
20 main: power
25 bulk: majority
25 Erebus: Hell
4 cleave: split
9 SD seeming: insincere
28 prodigious: monstrous, deformed
30 attaint: convicted
34 Stand: Pause
38 ’Slid: God’s eyelid (oath)
41 affects: emotions
45 blurred: stained
53 Jack: ‘a low-bred or ill-mannered fellow’ (OED)
63 coz: kinsman
64 cluttered: clotted
71 drooping: declining
73 desertless: undeserving
73 clods: fools, oafs
75 provident: prepared, careful
76 jades: a jade is an ‘inferior or worn-out horse’ (OED)
77 eminence: height
81 rank: excessively, completely
82 mimic: histrionic
87 lepered: infected
89 chance: luck
92 chide: quarrel
93 fume: heat
93 coil: disturbance
94 bandy: toss from side to side
94 factions: parties, sides
96 blind: ‘destitute of intellectual, moral or spiritual light’ (OED)
97 vaunt: boast
98 daunt: overcome
100 slink: skulk or hide
101 well-peised: well-balanced, even
106 bid’st a fig: not care about
107 exact: require
O.1SD sennet: musical notes to signal a theatrical entrance
O.2SD streamers: long, pointed flags
1 cerecloth: waxed cloth for wrapping dead bodies
7 twone: twined
8 beetle-browed: scowling
9 bustles: rouses itself
11 hap: occur
16 beck: command
28 conger: eel
29 tiring man: theatre-costume hand
30 God’s bores: God’s wounds (oath)
44 Endear: Render yourself dear to
50 neaks: obscure oath
50 tickle it: ‘(?) to bring to an agreeable end’ (OED)
51 wind: embrace
53 dubbed: conferred with the rank of knight
61 abstract: extract, distil
5 noisome: noxious
6 boon: request, prayer
11 humming murmur: it was widely believed the wounds of the dead would bleed anew in the murderer’s presence
12 jellied: coagulated
13 lawn: thin linen
15 post: make haste
17 obloquy: slander
18 wrongfully: unjustly (suffers)
20 well-tempered: like metal treated for hardness and strength
20 proof: tried or proven strength
21 raced: scratched
25 dittied: sang
30 Start: Flinch
34 fetch: trick, plot
37 lickerish: greedy; lascivious
41 suspect: suspicion
42 viced: forced, pressed
50 affect: be affectionate to
51 clapper: tongue
51 glibbed: smoothed
55 traduce: defame, blame
61 juiceless: dried-up
67 girts: circles
67 temple: the side of the forehead
71 doting: stupid
71 Stoic: after the Greek philosophical school, a person who controls his emotions to endure pain with patience
73 rifted: cleft
73 chawn: abyss
80 old Fortunatus: title character in Dekker’s 1599 play, who has a magic hat enabling him to travel where he wishes
81 list: want
84 frothy: vain, shallow
86 Maugre: Despite
87 sheathed: encased (in the body)
87 corbed: shut
102 dotard: imbecile
104 quiet: peace of mind
104 disease: disturb, infect
106 slave: body (as opposed to soul)
2 peace: shut up
2 wanton: extremely
3 brook: tolerate
6 covert: shelter
9 pined: suffering
19 light: trivial; unchaste
27 cant: 1602 scant; niche or corner for a statue
37 self-one: ‘(?) Alone with itself’ (OED)
46–9 Ferte … habet: from Seneca’s De Providentia: ‘Endure bravely. In this you may surpass God. He is exempt from suffering, while you are superior to it […] scorn pain; either it will end or you […] scorn fortune: it has no weapon to strike your soul’
51 affied: betrothed
55 fleamy: consisting of phlegm, thought to be associated with inaction in humoral theory
56 marish: marshy
68 close: enclose; confide
79 surcharged: overburdened
81 Phoebe: goddess of the moon
88 from: 1602 with
100 wreak: revenge
101 credit: believe
112–17 Madam … do: 1602 set as prose
122 chuck: term of endearment
123 force my face: pretend
125 hand: 1602 end
138 plaining: lamenting, mournful
141 Ne plus ultra: ‘Nothing more’
16 trunk: body
21 Heu … mea: Seneca’s Octavia: ‘Alas: to what end my labour and my prayers?’
29 cap and leg: courtly gestures of doffing hat and bowing
4 turn edge: be blunted
11 fee’d: paid
14 egging: urging
17 lifen: enliven, make lifelike
26 pipe of breath: windpipe
37 trope: 1602 troop
41 bracks: flaws, cracks
45 Tragedia cothurnata: see Spanish Tragedy, 4.1.159 note
47 Pell mell: Confusion, disorder
49 Capienda … est: adapted from Seneca’s Agamemnon: ‘Amongst evil we must take the steepest path’<
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0.3 SD poleaxes: halberds, long-handled weapons with axe-heads
0.12 SD chafing-dish: vessel holding burning charcoal
1 jades: a jade is an ‘inferior or worn-out horse’ (OED)
2 SD Clock strikes twelve: 1602 (12.)
7 lamp: illuminate with lamps
17 mould: earth
19 intellect: spirit
20 obsequies: funeral rites
27 orb: astronomical sphere, heaven
31 Non … mori: source unknown: ‘It is not a wretched thing to die, but it is to die wretchedly’ (Gair)
39 blazed: proclaimed
41 complot: conspire
46 unpeised: obscure, unburdened
51 Scelera … vincis: Seneca’s Thyestes: ‘you do not avenge crimes unless you surpass them’
0 SD hair about her ears: symbol of grief or distraction
4 mistress: 1602 mistes
6 unpranked: undressed, not ready
8 presence: chamber
10 Bacchanal, or Jason’s wife: Agave, a Bacchanal in Euripides’ Bacchae; Medea, Jason’s wife: both were mad, bereaved mothers; see also Tragedy of Hoffman, 1.3.21