78–9 inherited … displaced: Stilt has these the wrong way round
79 retority: ‘territory’
81 temperance: ‘tempest’ or ‘thunder’
86 Otho: Q Charles: both names are used in the play, but Otho is the more frequent
89 Otho: Q Charles (see preceding note)
92 Aware: ‘Beware’
95 head: ruler
101 damnation: ‘dominion’
103 fine: conclusion
112 towering: mounting high in the sky
117 Mass: Used in oaths
127 Sewer: Butler supervising meals
127 cup-bearer: household officer serving wine
144 reproach: ‘repute’
145 condemnation: ‘reputation’
152 rigorous: harsh
155 them: Q thee
174 wait: attend
176 cloudy: sullen
184SD French Doctor: this stage type had already appeared in a number of plays, including Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor and the anonymous The Wisdom of Dr Dodypoll
185 Dieu vous garde: ‘God save you’ (French)
190 homme: ‘man’ (French)
191 gentleman: Q gentlemen
201 A vôtre … généreux: ‘At your service, most generous sir’ (French)
202 cunning: clever
210 scarlet mistress: Nemesis
216 remove: dismissal
217 be gar: ‘by god’, a kind of stage-French
217 agen’: ‘against’
218 fisgig: ‘a light, frivolous woman’ (OED)
218 dra’: drab: prostitute
219 companion: Q company on
219 principality: the quality of prince-ship
224 natural: illegitimate
224 ’dopted: adopted (as heir)
225 fit: treat you appropriately (with a sense of threat)
227 knacks: tricks
230 très-excellent … moder: Lorrique’s ‘French’: ‘very excellent lady mother’
232 almsgivers: charitable patrons
233 jackanape: monkey; impudent fellow
234 bonne coeur: ‘good heart’ (French)
244 petit: ‘little’ (French)
249 medicine: antidote
252 pepper: destroy
253 draw-latch: lazy fellow
254 oui: Q awe; ‘yes’ (French)
254 je bit a vous: Q iebbet a vow; Lorrique’s ‘French’ is untranslatable
258 post: hurry
1 dormitory: vault, grave
28 wrought: worked
30 true-stitched: worked with an embroidery identical on both sides
30 poesie: motto
40 robbed Prometheus … fire: in Greek mythology, Prometheus stole fire from Zeus
40 moving: life-giving
57 cog: trick
81 barley-break: traditional rural game of chase played by three couples
105 conversing: dealing
115 begin to: pledge a toast to
126 minion: mistress
134 list: like
136 jumbling: stirring, agitation
163 Fleets: Rushes
165 accessary: privy to a crime
172 woe worth him: evil betide him
204 extremer: the utmost
217 neglects: ignores
231 tributary: tribute
249 Briareus: a hundred-handed giant in Greek mythology
251 gone: Jowett conjectures that this abrupt ending indicates missing text, in which, perhaps, Hoffman vows revenge on Martha instead of her husband, and he and Lorrique agree the plan carried out in 4.2
1 slack: negligent
12 [Luningberg]: a gap in the text here may indicate that the name was illegible; the plot suggests Martha has come from Luningberg
13 salute: acknowledge
43–6 Quo … sua: ‘Where may our mortal race flee? In the end, nothing is safe; for cruel death scythes everything. For the weapons of death nothing is difficult, nothing is impenetrable; violent death carries off everything in his power’ (source unknown)
50 freehold: permanent possession
59 Endymion’s love: in Greek mythology, the moon fell in love with Endymion
61 Cimmerian: of a race of people fabled to live in perpetual darkness
61 mists: Q mistmis
79 porphyry: ornamental stone like marble
81 inquired: investigated
91 confound: ruin
91 dotage: infatuation
92 linger: continues to live
94 scar: cliff, ridge
98 Atlas: bore the world on his shoulders, according to Greek mythology
160 died: Q did
179 calm: Q cald me
215 rude vulgar: common people
219 liver: regarded as the seat of love
225 si … vi: ‘if not by flattery, by force’
0SD severally: from separate directions or doors
6 Balt: Baltic Sea
17 wonted: usual
27 knacks: trinkets
39 green: fresh
42 continuance: age
62–4 that’s the way … wide way: cf. ‘for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction’ (Matthew 7:13)
69 divines: predicts
81 roe: deer
82 queachy: boggy
84 frequentless: unfrequented
85 basilisks: a basilisk is a fabled reptile
91 untimeless: untimely
104 close: private
111 houseled: purified by being given Holy Communion
126 lick-dish: parasite
158 ordained: planned
238 had he: Q had
253 Catiline: Roman conspirator who apparently shared the blood of a slave with his fellows to strengthen their bond
253 resolved: made resolute
261 pander: go-between, pimp
275 fort: strength
296 policy: political acumen
306 occasion: opportunity
311 Mathias: Q Lodowick
313 redeemless: irredeemable
324 credit: believe
10 feared: worried about
14 embryo: in an undeveloped stage
23 Resolve: Settle, solve
40 hold me hard: have a harsh opinion of me
44 gadding: wandering
58 spaniel: fawning or cringing person
127 Philomel … Tereus: Tereus raped Philomel in Ovid’s Metamorphoses
134 Niobe: punished by the gods for her pride by the murder of her children; see also Hamlet, scene 2.73 and note
137 wife of Athamas: in Greek mythology, Ino threw herself off a cliff with her child to escape her mad husband
142 hug: delight
152 treasury: secure store
160 meed: wages
17 suspect: suspicion
33 open arms: fight openly
41 discovered: revealed
49 green: i.e. innocent
52 sable: black
93 abject: inferior
94 covert: wood, shelter
95–8 Virgil … Aeneas: from the Aeneid, Book IV
95 sings: Virgil’s own verb for his poetry
106 fretted: worn into holes
108 coll: embrace
110 assay: do, venture
118 ghost: corpse
133 least: the smaller of the skeletons
173 wring: squeeze
177 death: this abrupt ending may mean something is missing: one early text in the Dyce collection, in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, adds a manuscript final line to complete the couplet: ‘Swallow & choake you with her sulphurous breath’, but its provenance is not known
4 do: have sex
8 dry: aged; impotent
9 luxur: lecher
11 a son and heir: a prodigal
13 fret: agitation
20 unsightly: unseeing; ugly
20 rings: eyesockets
22 bought complexion: from cosmetics
26 usurer: moneylen
der
27 Melt: Spend
28 told: counted
29 cold: rejected
34 palsy-lust: paralysed or enfeebled lust
36 Outbid: Over-rated
38 ‘Age … covetous’: quotation marks indicate a proverbial or quotable phrase
39 quit-rent: paid by a freeholder to a landlord (here, figuratively, tragedy) in lieu of services
42 determined: decided upon
46 three-piled: of fabric, luxurious
48 clay: mortal flesh
49 little: of low rank
49SD [his]: Q her
50 vizard: mask
55 prithee: I pray thee
56 bald: in the iconography of the period, Opportunity (occasion) was pictured as bald, but with a long forelock to be grabbed to stop her escaping
66 hap: fortune
68 coat: petticoat
71 warily: watchfully
73 policy: craftiness unhusk: strip the covering
76 built houses: i.e. shut away
77 idle: worthless
80 strange-digested: malcontent
82 grooms: manservants
85 pander: pimp, procurer
86 reach: understand
91 insurrection: rising
101 prefer: promote
102 Go to: Expression of impatience
105 fore-top: forelock
106 French: referring to venereal disease, which caused hair loss
107 habit: disguise
107 quaintly: in a cunning fashion
110 coin: invent, counterfeit
111 take false money: be tricked
113 swallow: be gullible
121 hopes: heirs
123 a woman: the feminized image of Justice
130 compelled: forced
133 state: estate, money
134 deject: ‘to lower in condition, to abase’ (OED)
142 secretary: confidante
10 broad: explicit, pronounced
13 insculption: carved inscription
14 ’bowelled: disembowelled
15 cered: wrapped in cere- or grave-cloth; see also Antonio’s Revenge, 2.1.1 note
19 Doom: Pronounce judgement
24 son-in-law: stepson
37 corse: corpse
49 general: completely
54 far: much
80 cool: cold
81 performance: sexual potency
93 Pox: Expression of irritation or impatience
98 makes: is advantageous
108 easy: ready, biddable
110 better: i.e. permanently
111 dispatch: kill
116 durance: imprisonment
119 wedlock faith: marital fidelity
120 kill … forehead: i.e. plant the cuckold’s horn there
124 wealthy: extravagant
130 private: solitary
138 hatted-dame: woman of lower class
145 fouler name: i.e. incest
154 length: bawdy pun, referring to the penis
155 ’light: alight
156 penthouse: outhouse
156 rid: rode
157 check: knock
157 basins: set up outside barbers’ shops
167 collet: setting or base of a cut diamond
177 seventh commandment: against adultery
186 venial: forgivable
189 earnest: foretaste
197 healths: toasts
201 fall: fall down for sex or through drunkenness
202 withdrawing: retiring (to bed)
207 impudent: shameless
213 beholding to report: i.e. held to be legitimate
216 loose: devote
3 wist: knew
8 dauntless: fearless
17 out o’th’verge: too far
18 ’Sfoot: God’s foot (oath)
23 siftings: searches
29 blanks: unsigned or incomplete payments
33 Push: Pish – an exclamation
34 musk-cat: prostitute or fop
38 ague: fever
40 Forget: Behave in a more relaxed way
41 remember: treat me according to my status
42 conster: construe, interpret
51 scrivener: secretary
55 patrimonies: inheritances
59 gravel: to blot ink with sand
63 Dutch: perhaps ‘drunken’ or ‘excessive’
69 rim: limit
77 Honest salutation: Judas’ kiss
78 glide: pass
80 Lucifer: fell from grace through pride
82 estates: social classes
87 disease o’th’mother: hysteria, gossiping
95 Indian devil: gold and silver (from the Indies)
102 waxed: sealed
109 repugnant: antagonistic
111 blood: status
114 friend: mistress
121 luxurious: lascivious
129 tang: flavour
134 raise: promote
141 bodkin: needle or hairpin
153 simple: naive
156 wind up: incite
170 puny: lightweight
172 name: i.e. ‘bawd’
182 ’slud: God’s blood (oath)
193 dis-heir: prevent him from inheriting or getting heirs (by death) OSD
193 discovering: revealing
7 Precedent: Exemplar
13 pledge: toast, assent
17 confection: medicine; sweetmeat
20 Melius … vivere: ‘Better to die virtuous than live with dishonour’
26 Curae … stupent: from Seneca’s Hippolytus: ‘Small cares speak out, greater ones are dumb’
31 masque: Q maske; entertainment
34 moth: destroyer
36 wearing: clothing
41 hard: intensely
45 harried: raped
51 compact: composed
58 near: Q ne’er
63 sitting: court hearing
1 hardly: severely
10 Madonna: Respectful term for an Italian woman
21 gentleman-usher: a higher rank of attendant
23 own: Q one
38 attorney: representative
46 drawn-work: decorated
48 take the wall: allow the privilege of walking protected on the wall-side
57 siren: in Greek mythology, mermaids with beautiful singing voices who lured sailors to their death
58 Mass: Used in oaths
61 next: heir
66 sudden: imminent
67 tide: hour
74 wink: nod, shut (my) eyes to
80 white: aged mould: decline
87 ’lack the day: lackaday: unfortunately
88 vex: aggravate
94 angels: gold coins
103 state: estate
107 keep men: keep servants; lovers
116 nearly: deeply
116 ’bate: abate
119 unmothered: unmotherly
142 Holla: Exclamation meaning ‘Stop!’
144 madam: Q Mad-man
153 dam: mother
170 clip: embrace
176 mother: in the proverbial saying, ‘father’
187 haviours: behaviours
190 ashore: from the shore
203 portion: money
204 friends: lovers
207–8 forehead … jewels: fashionable jewellery for the forehead
208 petitionary people: commoners presenting petitions at court
212 ’Slid: God’s eyelid (oath)
221 vassals: servants
222 horns: i.e. of cuckoldry
233 hundred acres: i.e. in clothes of great equivalent value
234 foreparts: ornamental breast-covering
239 mete: measured
239 rod: land measure
242 head-tires: fashionable headdresses
242 untold: not counted
251 look: worry
258 inward: internal
263 plaudities: applause
270 base-titled creatures: beasts
7 d
iscourse: conversation
20 toward: future
26 bate: cease
30 white money: silver
31 Mahomet: Islam
34 flat: seduce
35 close: reserved
40 received: greeted
52 false gallop: canter
62 taper: candle
77 ravel: unravel
81 leg: bow
87 drab: whore
90 fees behind the arras: fees for arranging liaisons behind the tapestry or arras (a joke about Jacobean monopolies)
90 farthingales: hooped skirts
Five Revenge Tragedies: The Spanish Tragedy, Hamlet, Antonio's Revenge, The Tragedy of Hoffman, The Revenger's Tragedy (Penguin Classics) Page 45