674. Uncouple at the timorous flying hare. Cf. The Sheepheard's Song, 'Course the fearful hare.' 676. roe, Roe Q. 680. overshut his troubles. Steevens suggested overshoot, i.e. fly beyond.' Malone adds :-'To shut up, in Shakespeare's age, signified to conclude. I believe therefore the text is right.' 682. cranks = turns. 683. musits. 'Musits are said by the lexicographers to be the places through which the hare goes for relief.'-MALONE. The lexicographers make out their ignorance of sport with this display of humour. A hare's muse (French musse) is still the common and only term for the round hole made in a fence through which a hare traces her run. Musit is from the Fr. diminutive mussette. 687. conies, Conies Q. See Note III. (4), Lucrece. 695. spend their mouths, a term of venery. Cf. :-' He will spend his mouth, and promise, like Brabbler the hound.'-Troilus and Cressida, v. i. 99. 705. doth, do Q. 712. moralize :—The practice of moralising works-that is, of drawing moral applications from treatises, fables, and romances— prevailed extensively in the Middle Ages, and was, at first, chiefly cultivated by religious writers. . . . It is to this custom Venus alludes when she says it is unlike herself to moralize.'-BELL. 736. defeature. Cf. Comedy of Errors, v. i. 299 : "Careful hours with time's deformed hand Have written strange defeatures in my face.' 740. wood mad. (The Guide into Tongues, 1617.) 748. th' impartial, the th' impartiall Q. 777. Mermaids, Marmaids Q. 787. reprove disprove, refute. Cf. 2 Henry VI., 11. i. 40: 'My lords Reprove my allegation if you can.' 798. caterpillers, Caterpillers Q. See Note III. (4), Lucrece. 808. teen vexation. -> 813. lawnd, or laund = an open space of untilled ground in a wood. Cf. 3 Henry VI., m. i. 2: 'Under this thick-grown brake we'll shrowd ourselves 848. parasites, parasits in Q. rhyming with 'wits.' 849. Cf. the 'Anon, anon, Sir' scene, 1 Henry IV., 11. iv. 849. tapsters, Tapsters Q. See Note III. (1), Lucrece. 858. cedar-tops, Ceader tops Q. See Note III. (5), Lucrece. 870. Coasteth=approaches; Q. 9 has 'posteth.' 871-2. In Q. And, as she runs the bushes in the way, Some catch her by the neck, some kiss her face, And as she runnes, the bushes in the way, Some catch her by the necke, some kisse her face, Modern Editions omit the comma after 'way,' but this makes the next phrase awkward. I omit the comma after 'runs,' believing that verb to be transitive, as in the phrase the fox ran the meadows,' or, possibly, as in 'he ran the blockade,' or 'ran the gauntlet.' The comma which I omit is rhythmical, not grammatical. See Note II. on The Sonnets. 873. twined, twin'd Q. 875. doe, Doe Q. See Note III. (4), Lucrece. 877. at a bay, a term of venery for the action of hounds baying in a circle round the exhausted stag or boar. It seems to reflect the old French abai, abbai, more closely than does the modern English at bay (French aux abois), which is used of the quarry in its extremity rather than of the hounds that surround it. The Guide into Tongues (1617) has an Abbay or Barking q. (=as it were) at a Bay, vi. Bay or Barke,' and, under Bay, 'barke, or hold at a Bay.' 888. who shall cope him first encounter him. Cf. As You Like It, 11. i. 67: 'I love to cope him in these sudden fits.' Cope, v. t. = to encounter, perhaps from Ice. kapp, contention ; kappi, a champion-derivatives from Latin campus, a field (of battle). Thus the Imperial Dictionary, The Guide into Tongues (1617), derives the word from Low German Kop, the head, as it were to come head to head, or face to face.' 889. This dismal cry, viz. the strange intonation of the hounds' 'cry' when baying. 'Cry' is a term of venery. Cf. A Midsummer Night's Dream, Iv. i. :— and 'full cry.' - 'A cry more tuneable Was never halloo'd to, nor cheer'd with horn': 902. together, togither Q. rhyming with whither.' 909. mated confounded: from French mater, to fatigue, Old French mat, worn out: all from the chess term, Persian shah mât, English check mate, literally the king is dead.' 920. Another flap-mouth'd mourner. The whole passage attests the Poet's intimate knowledge of the chase, and it reflects the use of such themes in courtly medieval poetry. Cf. the death of Begon in Garin le Loherain. He, too, is ineffectually dissuaded from hunting a boar, and, when dead, is mourned by his hounds. 'Seul ont Begon en la forest laissie; Et jouste lui reviendrent si trois chien, KER, Epic and Romance. 940. random, randon Q. The old form from Old French randon, French randonnée. 'Terme de chasse. Tour, circuit fait sur un même lieu par une bête qu'on a lancée.'—LITTRÉ. 956. vail'd=let fall. 963. Both crystals, where they view'd each other's sorrow:-Magic crystals, as Dr. Dee's, in which one in sympathy with another could see the scene of his distress. 973. halloo, hallow Q. This spelling is given by The Guide into Tongues, 1617. 995. clepes calls. 1002. decease, decesse Q. rhyming with 'confesse.' (Fr. décès, Lat. decessus.) 1003. boar, Bore Q. See Note III. (4), Lucrece. 1028. The grass stoops not, she treads on it so light. Eneid, viii. 808: 'Illa vel, intactæ segetis per summa volaret 1031. as murder'd Q. 3, are murder'd Q. 1. 1046-7. As when the wind, imprison'd in the ground, Cf. Virgil, Struggling for passage, earth's foundation shakes. This was the received explanation of an earthquake. Cf. 1 Henry IV., III. i. 32: 'Oft the teeming earth Is with a kind of colic pinch'd and vex'd By the imprisoning of unruly wind Within her womb; which, for enlargement striving, Shakes the old beldame earth and topples down 1048. Which with cold terror doth men's minds confound. 'When Shakespeare was sixteen years old (1580) there was an earthquake in England.'-MALONE. 1054. was drench'd, had drecht Q. 1083. Having no fair to lose, fair = beauty. 1093. lion, Lion Q. 1096. tiger, Tygre Q. See Note III. (4), Lucrece. (Ibid.) 1105. Urchin-snouted; urchin = hedgehog (The Guide into Tongues). 1105. boar, Boare Q. See Note III. (4), Lucrece. 1112. boar (Ibid.). 1128. two lamps in darkness lies:-'It is obvious from this example, as from numerous others, that the Elizabethan violations of time and form cannot always be referred to haste or accident, but that they were sometimes adopted designedly to suit the metre or the rhyme. In such cases as the present, it is possible that the final s came into use as a substitute for the Saxon termination th.'-BELL. 1149. staring, perhaps bristly and unkempt, as in the 'staring coat' of an ungroomed horse. THE RAPE OF LUCRECE I. The Text.-The Text is taken from the First Quarto of 1594, as reproduced in facsimile from the copy in the British Museum by Mr. Charles Praetorius. Spelling and punctuation have been modernised generally, but not invariably, in accordance with the use of The Cambridge Shakespeare. In every other case of a departure from the Quarto, the fact is noted. The Variorum Shakespeare of 1821, Shakespeare's Poems (Kelmscott), and The Poems of William Shakspeare (Robert Bell), have also been used for the text and notes. out the Notes the First Quarto (B. M.) is referred to as Q. Through II. The Use of the Apostrophe as a Guide to the Metrical Pronunciation. See Note II. on Venus and Adonis. The use of III. The Use of Capitals.-Cf. Note V. on The Sonnets. capitals in the First Quartos of Venus, Lucrece, and The Sonnets is not arbitrary, and much, both of the author's intention and of the manner of his age, is lost by a hard and fast conformation to modern practice. In the First Quarto of Lucrece capitals are used to denote:— (1) Professions and Occupations, viz. :-Orator, where the capital is retained in this Edition by analogy with the occasional modern practice in the cases of Poet, Painter, Musician. You find also, Iudge 1. 220, Authors 1. 1244, Clients 1. 1020, Plowman 1. 958, Messenger l. 1583, Merchant 1. 1660, Citizen 1. 464, Groom, ll. 1345, 1632-45; and, somewhat similarly, Father 1. 1731: in which cases the modern practice has been followed. (2) Technical Terms, especially of War, viz. :-Tent 1. 15, Armies 1. 76, Trumpet 1. 470, Falchion ll. 509, 1046, 1626, Fort 1. 482, Sentinel 1. 942, (Battering-) Ram 1. 464, Cannon l. 1043, Foe l. 1696; and similarly, in the case of other buildings and appliances, City 11. 464-5, 1544, Monument 1. 391, Cabinet l. 442, Curtain l. 374, Cell 1. 881, Schedule (Cedule) 1. 1312, Bell 1. 1492. In the last instance 'Bell' is used as an image, or emblem. (3) This use is very frequent in the case of Animals, introduced as in Fables, e.g. 1. 836, 'My Honey lost, and I a Drone-like Bee'; 1. 849, |