Brandish your crystal tresses in the sky, His brandish'd sword did blind men with his beams; 1549: "Ane stearre . . . callit ane comeit; quhen it is sene, ther occurris haistyly efter it sum grit myscheif." Greene often refers to the superstition: "like the elevation of a Commet which foreshewes ever some fatall and finall ruine" (Penelopes Web (Grosart, v. 175), 1587). And in Mamillia (Grosart, ii. 150), 1583: "his foes contrariwise conjecturing the worst, said that his pompous prodigalitie and rich attire were the two blazing starres and carefull comets which did alwaies prognosticate some such event." Common in later plays. And see Spenser's Faerie Queene, III. i. 16, where Upton's note gives classical references. Camden tells of one in 1582. See line 55 below, note. 3. Brandish] flash and glitter like a brandished sword. See quotation from Holland's Plinie at line 2. New Eng. Dict. has "Brandysh, or glytter, like a sword, corusco (Huloet, 1552). And Sylvester's Du Bartas : "Thine eyes already (now no longer eyes; But new bright stars) do brandish in the skyes." 3. crystal] bright, clear. Often used in connection with the skies. Compare "the heaven crystalline " in the old Taming of a Shrew (Six Old Plays, p. 190), 1594. A similar expression occurs in Marlowe's Tamburlaine, Part I. v.: "Flora in her morning's pride, shaking her silver tresses in the air." The reader is at once reminded of Marlowe by these opening lines. 4. revolting] rebellious. A favourite word in Shakespeare. 5. consented unto] agreed with, acted 5 ΙΟ 15 in concert. See Richard II. 1. ii. 25. fas consenting to this wicked act were 10. brandish'd] See note at line 3. Spenser has "his brandisht blade" (Faerie Queene, II. xi. 37). II. dragon's wings] Compare Troilus and Cressida, v. viii. 17. "That old dragon" that the Redcross knight slays in Spenser's Faerie Queene was in Shakespeare's mind: "Then, with his waving wings displayed wide" (1. xi. 18); "His blazing eyes Did burn with wrath and sparkled living fire, As two broad Beacons ... ... warning give that enemies conspyre" (st. xiv.). 12. replete with] full of. Compare The true Tragedie of Richard Duke of Yorke (Shaks. Library, Hazlitt, p. 85), 1592: Thy lookes are all repleat with Majestie"; and The Troublesome Raigne of King John (Shaks. Library, Hazlitt, p. 316), 1591: My life repleat with rage and tyranie." And see 2 Henry VI. 1. i. 20, and 3 Henry VI. 111. ii. 84. The expression occurs only in Shakespeare's earliest work, especially in the historical plays. It is not uncommon earlier. See Hawes' Pastime of Pleasure, 1509 (passim). 14. fierce] Used adverbially again in Henry V. II. iv. 9. 15. What should I say !] it is hopeless. Compare Golding's Ovid, bk. ii. 240, 245: "What should he doe? . He wist not what was best to doe, his He ne'er lift up his hand but conquered. Exe. We mourn in black: why mourn we not in blood? Upon a wooden coffin we attend, Glou. The church! where is it? had not churchmen pray'd wittes were ravisht so" (1567). And 16. lift] lifted. Common in early writers: "they drewe foorth, and lift Joseph out of the pit" (Genesis xxxvii. 28, Geneva Bible, altered in modern text). And Greene, A Looking Glasse for London (Grosart, xiv. 29, line 553) "And when I trac't upon the tender grass, : Love, that makes warme the center Lift up his crest to kisse Remilia's And Peele, David and Bethsabe: 17. mourn in blood] Compare mourn in steel" (3 Henry VI. ì. i. 58). 19. wooden] senseless, expressionless, unfeeling. The extended sense gives some colour to the line. See "that's a wooden thing" (v. iii. 89). Suffolk's contemptuous expression for the king. Compare Greene's Orpharion (Grosart, xii. 17), 1588-9: "or fayre without wit, and that is to marry a woodden picture 20 25 30 with a golden creast, full of favour but flattering.' 23. planets of mishap] An expression of Greene's: "Borne underneathe the Planet of mishap" (Alphonsus, King of Arragon, Grosart, xiii. 391). 66 26. Conjurer] a magician; one who has to do with spirits. So in Part II. 1. ii. 76. Roger Bolingbroke the conjurer " is a nigromancer in the Chronicles. And compare Comedy of Errors, Acts iv. and v. "A Ballad of the life and deathe of Doctor Faustus the Cunngerer" (Stationers' Register, 1589). Sacrapant in The Old Wives Tale (Peele) is a conjurer. 27. magic verses] Compare Faerie Queene, 1. ix. 48: "All his manly powres it did disperse, As he were charmed with inchaunted rimes: That oftentimes he quaked, and fainted oftentimes." 34. thread of life] Again in 2 Henry VI. iv. ii. 31, and Pericles, I. ii. 109. Compare Golding's Ovid, ii. 81, 819 (1567): "And in the latter end The fatall dame, shall breake thy threede." Without any ect reference to the Fates, compare (eele's) Jack Straw (Hazlitt's Dodsley, v. 409): "When thread of life is. Almost fret in twain." 35 My bon None do you like but an effeminate prince, And ne'er throughout the year to church thou go'st Bed. Cease, cease these jars and rest your minds in peace! Instead of gold we'll offer up our arms, Since arms avail not now that Henry's dead. Posterity, await for wretched years, Our isle be made a nourish of salt tears, When at their mothers' moist'ned eyes babes shall suck, And none but women left to wail the dead. 55 49. moist'ned] F 1; moist Ff. 2, 3, 4. 50. nourish] Ff, Cambridge; marish Pope, Craig; nourice Theobald. 56. or bright-] or bright Francis Drake Pope conj.; or bright Cassiopeta Theobald conj.; or bright Berenice Johnson conj. (Other suggestions are Orion Mitford, Great Alexander Bullock, Cepheus Keightley, Charlemagne Anon.) And must be awed and governed like a child" (Dyce, 203, a). 38. lookest] expectest. 66 50. nourish] nurse. A frequent word in use of the fatherland or country; as in Holland's Plinie, bk. iii. ch. v. p. 56 (1601): "that land [Italy] which is the nource of all lands.. the mother chosen by the powerfull grace of the To nourish" and "to nurse gods." had identical uses, which are extended Halliwell's Dictionre to the noun. "Nominale MS. Nutrix, Steevens gives an example from Lyd te's Tragedies of John Bochas, bk. i... al, norys "otes vii.: vas in his floures Athenes whan. Was called nourish wise." Spenser calls Night the woe" (Faerie Queene, ourse of III. iv. 55). 52. thy ghost I invocate] invoke or pray to. Compare Richard III. 1. ji. 8: Be it lawful that I invocate thy ghost." And Locrine, Iv. i.: "by the gods whom thou dost invocate, By the dread ghost of thy deceased sire." And in Sonnet xxxviii. New Eng. Dict. has earlier examples. 55, 56. more glorious star. . . Than "The turning to a blazing starre of And again, bk xv. lines 944-56:— His sowle with speede . . . Venus Amid the Senate house of Rome And from her Cæsars bodye tooke men den prince ver-awe rt protector and realm in awe, 1 may flesh h thou gos nds in pe Pad Enter a Messenger. Mess. My honourable lords, health to you all! Bed. What say'st thou, man, before dead Henry's corse? 60 Will make him burst his lead and rise from death. 65 Glou. Is Paris lost? is Roan yielded up? If Henry were recall'd to life again These news would cause him once more yield the ghost. Exe. How were they lost? what treachery was us'd? es shall Mess. No treachery, but want of men and money. Amongst the soldiers this is muttered, 65. is Roan] F 1; and is Roan Ff 2, 3, 4; Rouen Cambridge. She no sooner let it flye, The mention of hair shows that the 66 70 Nor. 64. lead] the lining or inner shell of the wooden coffin. Compare Beaumont and Fletcher's Knight of Malta, Iv. ii.: "[They remove the coffin, lift Oriana out of it, and then put it back into the monument.] . Mir. Softly good friend; take her into your arms. Put in the crust again." The "crust here is the lapping of lead mentioned in The Passionate Pilgrim, xxi. 391-95. See too Middleton's A Mad World, my Masters, II. ii.: "let him trap me in gold, and I'll lap him in lead." Without a knowledge of this a passage in The Merchant of Venice, 11. vii. 49-51 loses its force. Marlowe gives: "Not lapt in lead but in a sheet of gold" (Tamburlaine, pt. ii., end of Act ii.). "Wrapt in lead," meaning dead, occurs twice in Spenser's Shepheards Calendar (June and October), 1579. 67. cause him yield] For "to" omitted after "cause," compare Greene, George-a-Greene (at the end): “Whose fathers he caus'd murthered in those warres." 70. this is muttered] Grafton has here (i. 562): "the Duke of Bedford openly rebuked the Lordes in generall, because that they in the time of warre, through their privie malice and inwarde grudge, had almost moved the people to warre and commocion, in which time all men should .. serve and dread their soveraigne Lorde King Henry, in performing his conquest in Fraunce, which was in maner brought to conclusion." That here you maintain several factions; And whilst a field should be dispatch'd and fought, 75 One would have lingering wars with little cost; Let not sloth dim your honours new-begot : Give me my steeled coat: I'll fight for France. 80 85 76. A third thinks] F 1, Cambridge; A third man thinks Ff 2, 3, 4, Steevens, etc., Craig; a third thinks that Keightley conj. 78. Awake, awake] Ff 1, 3, 4; Awake, away F 2. 80, 81. arms of England's coat,] Ff; arms; Of England's coat Cambridge; arms, Of England's coat Pope. 83. her] Ff, Malone, Steevens; their Theobald, Cambridge, Craig. ... 71. maintain • factions] back up, uphold factions or parties. New Eng. Dict. quotes Hanmer, Chronicle of Ireland (ante 1604): "His three sonnes ... formerly went into Ireland to maintaine one of the factions." See note, II. iv. 109 below, on factions. 72. field... dispatch'd] armed force, or order of battle made ready and sent promptly away. 74-76. One Another . . . A third] Compare Faerie Queene, 1. xii. 10. 80. flower-de-luces] The fleur de lis, or lily of France. A heraldic bearing and artistic ornament probably representing the Iris. "Iris, this herbe is called Floure-delyce" (R. Banckes? Herball, Sig. D, ii. 30, 1525). As a part of England's coat, Grafton says: "Ihon Rastall sayth in his chronicle that it is not lyke to be true that the great Hall of Westminster that is now, was buylded by this king, but rather in the tyme of King Richarde the Second. For sayth he, the Armes that are there both on the timber and on the stone worke, which is the three Lyons quartered with the flower de luce, and the white Hart for his badge, were the armes of King Richard. For there was never king of England that gave the flower de luce which was the armes of 83. her flowing tides] England's flowing tides (Malone). The prosaic alteration of Theobald's is gladly rejected. A similar quibble (tide, tied) is in Lyly's Endymion, IV. ii. 85. steeled coat] coat of mail. Not again in Shakespeare. An expression of Greene's in Alphonsus, King of Arragon (line 1553): "Buckle your helmes, clap on your steeled coates." Marlowe has "steeled crests (Tamburlaine, pt. II. ii. 2); Lodge has" thy steeled crest" (Wounds of Civil War, Hazlitt's Dodsley, vii. 114). Compare "coats of steel," 3 Henry VI. II. i. 160, and note. 87, 88. lend... eyes to weep] Compare Timon of Athens, v. i. 160. 88. intermissive] coming at intervals. New Eng. Dict. has an earlier example from Ferne's Blazon of Gentrie, 1586. |