dull unfeeling

  * * *

  102 SD] Capell subst.lurked] Q2 (lurkt); lurke Qeyes] Moore Smith; eyes? Q; eies, Q2 104 her] their Delius (Capell) 107 SD] Riv

  110 many millions first of the play’s numerical hyperboles; cf. 5.33, 12.6, 59. Cf. also 255–7n.

  111 your royal presence Cf. KJ 2.1.377.

  114 ‘although by doing so (bringing peace) I have incurred war’ (i.e. internal conflict caused by his misplaced passion for the Countess)

  116 toward monosyllabic: ‘tow’rd’; cf. 8.103, 12.108, 17.62.

  117 yielding surrendering, both to the Scots (letting them escape unfought) and to his passion

  118 Artois, away no mention of Warwick (cf. 137, 1.0.2n., 132–5n.) or Lodwick (see 89.2n.). For possibility of revision, see pp. 62–4.

  119–66 Neither Froissart nor Painter shows the Countess pressing Edward to stay.

  119 stay See 60n.

  121 My … wars i.e. Salisbury, fighting in Brittany on Edward’s behalf to restore Montfort to the dukedom (see 1.133–4n.)

  122 triumph triùmph

  123–66 the play’s only extended passage of rhyming couplets

  123 niggard … state ‘do not deprive us of your exalted presence’; the Countess’s formal address (you/your) shifts here to the more personal thou/thy: see 1.55, 57n. Cf. 410n. on you, 3.118n. on thou, 166n.

  niggard be sparing of; cf. Son 1.12.

  * * *

  113 SD] this edn; Raising her / Collier2 115 No] rising No Oxf 116 hate] haste Capell 117 SP] Q2; not in Q; K Ed MS in Folger SD] Capell subst. 117–18 love – … Artois] Riv subst.; loue: / Come wele persue the Scots, Artoyes Q; loue, / Come, weele pursue the Scots, Artoys Q2; love,” / “Come, we’ll pursue the Scots;” – Artois / Capell

  124 wall i.e. of the castle; theatrically, the tiring-house wall

  125 near nearer (see Abbott, 478, and t.n.); cf. 4.67, 10.61 and nn.

  126 tonight last night (see OED adv. 3)

  128–30 i.e. neither reason (wit) nor medicine (art) can repel or cure Edward’s passion; conspiring implies the Countess’s collusion.

  128–9 conspiring … heart may allude to the basilisk, the proverbial serpent that killed with a glance. Cf. 1.116n.

  129 infected infectious (OED a. 2b)

  131–4 from the Aristotelian notion of the eye as both transmitter and receiver of light: the Countess’s eyes, into which Edward desires to stare, have blinded him more than the sun. Cf. 167. See 327n., 565–6n.

  131–2 i.e. not only the sun can blind with its brilliance.

  132 Cf. LLL 1.1.77, ‘Light seeking light doth light of light beguile’.

  light … light blinding brilliance … eyesight

  133 two day-stars The day-star is the sun (OED n. 3); Edward compares the Countess’s eyes to the sun (hence two), whose power to blind they exceed. Cf. Golding, Ovid, 3.526, ‘His ardent eyes, which like two stars full bright and shining be’. Q’s ‘to’ was an acceptable though rare spelling of two.

  134 steals For singular verb with plural subject, see Abbott, 333.

  135–6 Cf. 258.

  137–8 See 72–3n.

  137 Cf. 118n.

  * * *

  125 near] (neare); nea’r Cam 128 SD] Capell subst. 133 two] (to), Q2

  138 stay See 60n.

  139 to in addition to

  speaking expressive (OED a. 2b); cf. Hero and Leander, 1.85.

  141 April sun proverbial for impermanence (Dent2, A310.11)

  142 be done vanish

  143–4 The contrast of outward wall and inner house is elaborated and sustained until 157–8, ragged walls, What is within.

  146 habit rude rough apparel

  147 Presageth naught makes no promises; predicts austerity

  148 initiates tension between conflicting imperatives of bounty (generous hospitality) and pride (family and sexual honour)

  *bounty’s riches i.e. the wealth of hospitality; Q’s ‘bounties’ might also, like the Shakespearean forms ‘odours’ (Q/F MND 3.1.78, ‘odorous’) and ‘marvels’ (Q TC 1.2.131, ‘marvellous’), be construed as ‘bounteous’, and riches as the singular noun ‘richesse’. Cf. ‘bounteous’, Son 4.6.

  149–51 Cf. Lyly: Midas, 1.1.72–4, ‘Such virtue is there in gold that, being bred in the barrenest ground and trodden under foot, it mounteth to sit on princes’ heads’, and 2.2.5–6; and Galatea, Prol.15–16 (from Pliny, 33.21).

  149 golden ore i.e. ore containing gold

  150 undecked unembellished; cf. 610, 4.51.

  nature’s tapestry flowers

  151 Cf. 14n. on barren … fruitless.

  sere dry, withered; cf. 18.169.

  152 And but (OED conj.1 7b)

  * * *

  139 SD] Capell subst. 144 inner] inward Q2 148 bounty’s] Capell; bounties Q; bounties, Winny; boundless Parfitt; bounteous (this edn) 151 fruitless, dry] Q2; fructles dry Q

  153 His its, referring to the earth (152) (see Abbott, 228)

  parti-coloured variegated; cf. 14.15.

  *coast region, area (OED n. 6, frequently spelt ‘cost’, as in Q). The alternative, ‘cost’, meaning ‘outlay, expense’ (cost n.2 1b), sits awkwardly with parti-coloured; Cam compares Son 64.2, ‘The rich proud cost of outworn buried age’.

  154–5 i.e. if you dig under the upper turf (152), you’ll find the flowers in all their glory growing from rotten dung.

  154 this … pride The collective noun issue (offspring) takes a plural possessive, their.

  155 side ‘Used with reference to generation or birth’, i.e. loin (OED n.1 1b), picking up issue, 154

  156–7 For the rhyming couplet compare/are, see Kökeritz, 180.

  156 make up complete (OED v.1 3a); the first of many verbs with up denoting ‘completion or finality’ (up adv.1 18a, b). Cf. eat up (485), choked up (3.137), drank up (4.57), Choked up (12.5), trimmed … up (12.16), kill us up (15.23), bury up (15.30), Make up (15.31), beat you up (17.9), surrendered up (18.81), Sheathe up (18.238).

  compare comparison

  157 ragged having a crenellated outline, like a castle; cf. 18.204.

  no testimony are give no evidence of

  158 doth hide referring back to ragged walls; for third-person plural with verb form -th, see Abbott, 334.

  159 *waste destruction, devastation (OED n. 6a). As the west wind is not traditionally destructive, Delius’s waste has been generally accepted.

  under garnished pride i.e. rich adornments underneath, synonymous with fair, hidden pride (148)

  160 a vocative line addressed to the King

  my … be my words can suffice to express

  161 stay See 60n.

  162 fond foolish

  163 keeps the gate as porter, to grant or deny access; a familiar figure of romance, e.g. FQ, 1.10.5

  164 albeit … me though I have pressing business

  * * *

  153 pride,] Moore Smith; pride Q; proud Capell; pied Delius (Capell) perfumes] presumes Q2; (perfumes Parfitt parti-coloured] (party colloured) coast] Q2; cost Q; coast) Parfitt 155 corruption’s side] corruptious stied Oxf 156 all-too-long] (all to long) 159 waste] Delius; West Q 162 SD] Tyrrell subst.

  165 attend … attend on wait (as in tarry) … wait upon

  166 host be a guest, lodge

  166 SD *all but Lodwick See Sc. 2n. That 167–89 could describe the immediately preceding encounter between the King and the Countess supports Lodwick’s entry with the King at 89.1–2 (see 89.2n.).

  167–349 G.R. Hibbard, Thomas Nashe (1962), 55, discusses instances of the employment of poets as ghost-writers for the aristocracy. See also Muir, ‘Poets’.

  167 Cf. 131–4n.

  168 drink ‘listen to … with rapture’ (OED v.1 4); cf. RJ 2.2.58–9.

  170 i.e. driven by the winds; cf. OED rack v.3, of horses, animals etc., to move at a fast steady pace, but also OED n.2 2a, where a rack is a ‘mass of cloud moving quickly’.

  171 disturbed disturbèd

  172 Lo see, behold; Q’s ‘Loe when’ may represent ‘look when’ = whenever (Onions, on ‘look’).

  173 enchanted Cf. 232.

  174 Attracted drawn to themselves by invisible or magical influence (OED v. 3)

  175 reverent deeply respectful

  176 scarlet with blushing for shame. Cf. Son 142.6.

  ornaments adornments, embellishments; in Shakespeare the word suggests falsity or outward show (cf., e.g., MV 3.2.73–4), a sense reinforced by 179. Cf. 252n.

  177 oriental red the red of the sky at sunrise (oriental = eastern, where the sun rises). Cf. Hero and Leander, 1.73–5.

  * * *

  166 tonight.] to-night. ACT II. SCENE I. The same. Gardens of the Castle. Enter LODOWICK. Capell 166 SD Exeunt] om. Capell; Exeunt SCENE THREE Enter Lodowick / Warren all but Lodwick] Poel subst. 167 SP] Q2 (Lodowick); Lor: Q 169 passions,] Cam; passion Q; passion, Capell clouds] Collier; clouds: Q; clouds, – Capell 170 rack] rackt Q2 174 cherry] cheerie Q2 175 Anon] (A none) 176 cheeks] Capell; cheeke Q 177 oriental] (oryent all)

  178 Lodwick’s chiasmus contrasts coral, a living organism, the red variety prized almost as a precious stone, and red brick, undistinctive and dead. For coral, cf. Hero and Leander, 1.32.

  180–9 Alternating rhyme helps to create a rhetorical pattern of comparison (and takes the form of a truncated English sonnet, abab cdcd ee).

  180–1 Cf. Painter, ‘The Countesse somewhat shamefast … began to blushe and taint with roseall colour, the whitenesse of her alablaster face’ (sig. 3Q1v).

  180 tender sensitive, cautious (both in terms of her colour – subdued natural red as of coral – and temperament)

  shame shyness

  181 sacred A king’s office was sacred. Cf. 415, 422.

  183 i.e. at lowering his eyes inappropriately (amiss) for a king (who has something to hide). Cf. 187, 3.20; also 18.78.

  184 silly helpless

  185 bear conduct, deport

  187 dote See 106n.

  188–9 For the closing rhyming couplet, see Kökeritz, 243–4. Sets up the metaphorical fusion of love and war that pervades the play: cf., e.g., 336–7; 3.46–70, 102–4; 6.27–33; 12.1, 20–2, 131–2; 13.114–15; 17.21–3.

  189 siege metaphorically links the King’s pursuit of the Countess with the play’s literal sieges: cf. 578, 3.205, and see 1.129.

  190 walking all alone Referring to a love-sick king, this may imply a garden location (see Ichikawa, 223–4, 236–7); cf. summer arbour, 227.

  * * *

  181 presence] Q2; present Q 183 vail] Capell; waile Q 189 lingering] (lingring) 189.1]Oxf; after 190 Q 190 alone.] alone. LOD. stands back. / Collier

  191 more fairer For addition of more to intensify comparatives, see Abbott, 11.

  192 more silver softer-toned and more melodious (silver is credited with ‘a clear gentle resonance’, OED silver a. 6a); more eloquent (a. 6b)

  193–8 Cf. Painter, sig. 3Q2r, where the Countess’s story of Scots aggression leaves Edward ‘astonned with so sage & wise an aunswere, [that] chaunging his minde, [he] went towarde the Castle’.

  193 strange foreign, referring to her mimicry of the Scots

  195 Even thus exactly so

  spake … spoke past participial forms of ‘speak’; the former is more literary and self-conscious, and may differentiate the Countess’s own voice from her representation of the Scots’ coarser accent.

  broad coarsely: cf. 8n. on untuned.

  198–9 See 100–1n.

  199 *But only; Q2 corrects punctuation to define she herself as subject of Breathes, 200 (see Abbott, 128).

  200 Breathes utters (OED v. 12a). Cf. 6.211 (see n.).

  an angel’s note Painter refers to her ‘Aungelles voyce’ (sig. 3Q2v).

  201 barbarous disyllabic: rough, rude (OED a. 3)

  204 Caesar was famous as a military historian for his work de Bello Gallico. Cf. 418, 1.160–4n.

  205 discourse discòurse

  * * *

  191 hither] Q2; thither Q 195‘Even thus’,] Capell subst.; Euen thus Q; Euen thus, Q2 ‘he spake’] Capell subst.; he spake Q spoke] spake Q2 196 epithets] (epithites) Scot] Scots Delius 198‘And … she,] Capell subst.; And thus quoth she, Q; And thus, quoth she, Q2 herself –] Brooke; her selfe, Q; herselfe: Q2 199 her? … herself] Q2; her but she her selfe: Q; her but she her self? – Armstrong2

  206–9 For similar consciously patterned rhetoric, cf. 321–9n., 523–32n., 12.40–65n.

  206–7 Cf. Judith, 11.21, ‘There is not suche a woman in all the worlde, bothe for beautie of face, and wisdome of wordes’ (Geneva; see 335–7n.).

  207 slander false claim

  208 cheerful gladdening, enlivening

  210 See 189n., 1.129n.

  212–13 Cf. 72–3 and n.

  213 stay See 60n.

  216 hold on continue (OED v. 24)

  play at chess defines the enforced leisure of Edward’s lords

  217 we either the royal plural, or referring to the King and Lodwick (cf. 227–30)

  219–25 from Painter, sig. 3R1r-v, where Edward confesses his passion to his unnamed ‘secretarie’ (one entrusted with ‘secret’ affairs (OED secretary n.1 1a), and one who manages the correspondence of the King (OED n.1 2a)). See LN.

  220 lusty pleasing (as applied to eloquence or language: OED 2e)

  222 shadow conceal (OED v. 6a)

  veil of lawn fine linen

  * * *

  214–15]Riv lines Lodwick? / liege. / 214 Lodwick] Lodowicke Q2 215 liege] soueraigne Q2 218 sovereign] liege Q2 SD] Q2 219 well] om. Q2

  223 queen … queen hyperbole: the Countess surpasses the beauty even of Venus (beauty’s queen).

  224 ground cause; cf. 1.26.

  infirmity Edward refers to his passion (221) either as (love) sickness (OED 2a), or as moral weakness (OED 4a).

  227 arbour anything from a garden to an orchard, most likely ‘A bower or shady retreat’ (OED 5a). The lines imply a need at least for two seats. A stage property ‘arbour’ figures in Spanish Tragedy (represented on the title-page of the 1615 reprint).

  228 council house ‘house in which a council meets’ (OED 1a)

  cabinet private chamber or apartment

  229 green undeveloped, not yet elaborated; also conveys naive immaturity (cf. KJ 3.3.145)

  conventicle meeting place (OED 6, citing E3), perhaps implying a clandestine and illegal gathering with a ‘sinister purpose or tendency’ (OED 3); stressed on first and third syllables, as at 2H6 3.1.166 and 2TR, 3.34

  231–3 Writing/printing imagery occurs throughout the play: cf., e.g., 290–1, 303 (n. on print); 3.49–52; 6.127, 194–6; 12.129–30; 13.27; 17.20; 18.3.

  231 invocate … muse Cf. Son 38.9–10, ‘Be thou the tenth Muse, ten times more in worth / Than those old nine which rhymers invocate’.

  invocate call on in prayer

  golden muse In classical mythology a muse was one of the ‘nine goddesses … inspiring learning and the arts, esp. poetry and music’ (OED muse n.1 1a); golden = most excellent or important (cf. silver, 192).

  232 enchanted Cf. 173.

  233 set down write; cf. 259, 344.

  true sighs indeed i.e. sighs recreated, not merely represented

  * * *

  223 beauty’s queen] Capell; beauties Queene Q; beauty’s queens Delius; beauties Queenes WP 224.1LODWICK] Lodowicke Q2 225 Hast] Capell; Ki: Hast Q Lodwick] (Lodowike) 228 council house] (counsel house) 230 disburdening] (disburdning) 231 Lodwick] Lodowicke Q2

  234 Talking of grief i.e. rather than writing: an enchanted pen can itself sigh or talk. The subject of Talking can be pen (232) or sighs (233), or the phrase may be parenthetical, meaning ‘when grief is your topic’, and balancing when … tears (235). Cf. LLL 4.3.320–1, ‘Never durst poet touch a pen to write / Until his ink were tempered with Love’s sighs.’

  235 encouch frame; support

  237 Tartar’s referring to inhabitants of Central Asia, a stock example of people of rough or violent disposition

  238 flint-heart proverbial (Dent, H311): hard-hearted

  Scythian Scythians were nomadic peoples occupying ‘a large part of European or Asiatic Russia’ (OED a. 1; see n. 1a, citing this line); like Tartars, they exemplified violence and brutality.

  239 moving power to affect or provoke emotions

  240–1 Cf. 3.195n. on enrich thee with.

  241 enriched enrichèd: rewarded

  *sovereign’s disyllabic: Q2’s interpretation of Q’s ‘soueraigne’ has been generally accepted; though ‘sovereign’ could itself represent the possessive (cf. marriage’, 426, and Abbott, 471), in performance it might be ambiguous.

  242–5 Edward contrasts music’s emotive power with poetry’s greater persuasive force. Cf. 3.52–5, 53n.

  242–3 The Thracian poet Orpheus played his harp in the underworld to rescue his dead wife Eurydice; an unpropitious allusion, as he lost her in the end (see Golding, Ovid, 10.42–51).

  242 concordant harmonious; cf. PT 46, Shakespeare’s only use.

  243 attendance attention

  244 strains poetic passages (OED n.2 13b); sounds (13a), in Shakespeare only at Son 90.13, ‘strains of woe’

  *poets’ fits context better than Capell’s singular

  wit invention, imagination

  245 Beguile and ravish words that hint at the use of poetry as an instrument of seduction

  *Beguile Q’s ‘Beguild’, corrected by Q2, is an error easily resulting from misreading of final ‘l’ or ‘e’ as ‘d’; cf. 3.206n. on gild.

  ravish entrance, transport with feeling or ecstasy

  soft impressionable

  human Distinctive spellings for the senses human and ‘humane’ (Q’s form) date from after 1700; both are available here.

  * * *

  235 writ’st] (writest) 237 Tartar’s] Capell; Torters Q; Tartar’s MS in BL, Bod, TCC subst. 241 sovereign’s love] Q2; soueraigne loue Q 244 strains] straine Q2 poets’] Parfitt; poets Q; poet’s Capell 245 Beguile] Q2; Beguild Q human] (humane)