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Five Revenge Tragedies: The Spanish Tragedy, Hamlet, Antonio's Revenge, The Tragedy of Hoffman, The Revenger's Tragedy (Penguin Classics)

Page 45

by William Shakespeare


  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

 

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