246 style figuratively, literary composition (OED n. 1c, d); pen (1a)

  247 shames outrivals (OED v. 6)

  sots aphetic form of ‘assots’: makes foolish, infatuates

  248–9 Praise of a woman as paragon or microcosm was a familiar hyperbole.

  248 an … brief tautologous: epitome, smaller embodiment of something larger (OED brief n.1 5a). Cf. R3 4.4.28.

  249 Contains elliptical: which contains (see Abbott, 244)

  each general every single

  251 Cf. Lodwick’s resourceless More fair, 307. Cf. polyptoton at LLL 1.1.77 (cited in 132n.). See 103n.

  252 ornament quality (of beauty, grace etc.); cf. 176n.

  253 Fly … pitch with predatory associations, referring to the highest point (pitch) to which a falcon soars ‘before swooping down on its quarry’ (OED pitch n.2 21a, b); cf. 2H6 2.1.12, ‘And bears his thoughts above his falcon’s pitch’.

  soar highest altitude attained in flight, apex

  255–7 hyperbole: i.e. if you admired [praised] her ten times more than you do, she is still worth a hundred thousand times more than that; from Ecclesiasticus, 43.30 (pointing to the idolatrous nature of Edward’s passion), ‘Praise ye Lord, & magnifie him as muche as ye can, yet doeth he farre excede’ (Geneva). For further hyperbolic use of numbers, cf. 4.1; 7.11; 12.150; 15.24; 17.19, 49; 18.228. See also 110n., 12.6n.

  256–7 Chiasmus – worth, praise, praise’s, worth (Sams) – produces awkward word order.

  257 *thy Capell’s emendation has been generally accepted. The misprint ‘their’ for ‘thy’ is common in the period (see, e.g., Q Son 26.12, 27.10, 37.7, 43.11, 45.12, 69.5, 70.6 and possibly 85.3). Cf. 368, 570, 4.105 (see nn.).

  * * *

  246 SP] Q2 (Lodowicke.); Lor: Q 247 shames] stains Oxf 250 Better than ‘beautiful’] Riv; Better then bewtifull Q; Better than beautiful, – Capell; “Better than beautiful” Collier 251‘fair’] Winny; faire Q 252 wouldst] (wouldest) 253 soar] sore Q2 256 the] Q2; thy Q; the MS in Folger 257 thy] Capell; their Q; his MS in Folger

  258 Cf. 135–6.

  259 set down See 233n.

  261 Her Only at the end of his eulogy does Edward first specify the sex of his love-object.

  261–4 Write … horse Cf. H5 3.7.39–81, where the Dauphin is mocked for writing a poem in praise of his horse.

  262 *over Q’s ‘on’ appears to be a misreading of ‘ou” with final ‘er’ suspension, a frequent abbreviation of over.

  263 love-lays love poems (or songs)

  264 *no punctuation after ‘What’ in Q: Q2 adds comma after What. Oxf’s punctuation is also possible.

  265 condition or estate position or rank

  270 proportion relative size, extent (OED n. 3a)

  271 peruse Cf. 18.239.

  272 Lapides challenges the view that a line has been lost before 272 (see 271 t.n.); the passage is actable as it stands: Edward is in mid-thought as he begins to speak, creating a vivid sense of the process of composition.

  272, 275, 276nightingale bird celebrated for its melodious singing; Edward is reminded, however, of its less favourable association with Philomela, who having been raped turned into a nightingale. See 1.109–13n.

  * * *

  261 SP] Q2 (Lodo.); Lor: Q Write] (Writ) a] om. Q2 262 over] Q2; on Q 264 What,] Q2; What Q think’st] (thinekst); thinkest Q2 praise a horse?] Q2; praise a horse. Q; praise? A horse? Oxf 265 SP] Q2 (Lodo.); Lor, Q 271 thoughts.] Warren; thoughts, Q; thoughts. – Capell; thoughts: Collier; thoughts. / .…… Moore Smith; thoughts. / … but why should I compare (Moore Smith) 272 nightingale –] Collier2 subst.; nightingale, Q; nightingale: Q2; nightingale: – Capell; nightingale? Armstrong2

  273 summer-leaping jumping (for joy) during the summer (cited OED summer n.1 comp. C1d (a)). Midsummer festivities included jumping through or over bonfires: cf. TNK 5.1.85–7. Leaping can also mean copulating (OED leap v. 9; cf. H5 5.2.137–40, ‘If I could win a lady at leapfrog … I should quickly leap into a wife’). Similar compounds are found at TGV 2.4.160 (‘summer-swelling’) and Mac 4.3.86 (‘summer-seeming’). Cf. 3.13, leap.

  swain country lover or wooer

  274 sunburnt ‘A sunburnt skin was not a mark of beauty to the Elizabethans’ (Onions). Cf. 313–14n.; also TC 1.3.282–3.

  276 adulterate adulterous

  277 i.e. and that comes too close to identifying my passion as adulterous

  278–9 Cf. Son 121.1, ‘ ’Tis better to be vile than vile esteemed’; also Son 96.5–6, ‘As on the finger of a throned queen / The basest jewel will be well esteemed’.

  279 For a comparable chiasmus, cf. TN 1.5.44–5, ‘virtue that transgresses is but patched with sin, and sin that amends is but patched with virtue’.

  280 proverbial: ‘As soft as silk’ (Dent, S449)

  silkworm’s twist thread of silk formed by winding one or more fibres of silk round one another (see OED twist n.1 4a)

  281–2 Like … amber suggesting that her hair’s beauty surpasses that of the most beautiful; amber was a conventional colour for beautiful hair.

  281 Like to ‘in the manner characteristic of’ (OED adv. 1a)

  flattering glass mirror that ‘represents too favourably’ (OED flattering a. 5); a poetic commonplace (Dent, G132.1)

  283 writing … eyes Cf. Son 17.5, ‘If I could write the beauty of your eyes’ (GTW).

  286 burns my heart with possible comic undertone of ‘heartburn’: cf. MA 2.1.3–4, ‘I never can see him but I am heart-burned an hour after.’

  * * *

  277 compared] compare (Brooke) 280–2 ‘Her … amber’] this edn; Her … Amber Q 281 to] as Q2 282 amber’ –] Melchiori1 subst. (amber –); Amber Q; Amber: Q2 ‘Like … glass’] Moore Smith subst.; like a flattering glas, Q

  287–8 play on the technical musical terms of Elizabethan polyphony: descant is varying melody for a higher voice or instrument, often played above the basic tune; ground is the ground melody or plainsong, i.e. the main tune set at a lower pitch (Shakespeare’s England, 2.16); voluntary is an improvised piece added to a set tune or ground (OED n. 2a). The seeming oxymoron in musical terms of voluntary (simply spontaneous) ground hints at irony: in pursuing the Countess, Edward desires to improvise in love, but his love has been set or designated (as a plainsong or ground), as he is already married. Cf. Luc 1128–34, ‘Come, PHILOMEL, that sing’st of ravishment, / Make thy sad grove in my dishevelled hair. … / For burden-wise I’ll hum on TARQUIN still, / While thou on TEREUS descants better skill’; also R3 3.7.48, ‘on that ground I’ll make a holy descant’.

  287 a world of an infinity of (i.e. a great many); cf. world of, 8.20, 21.

  makes composes (OED v.1 4a); the subject is soul.

  289 turned … gold alludes to Midas’ golden touch (Ovid, Met., 11.100–45). Cf. Son 65.14, ‘That in black ink my love may still shine bright’; also LLL 5.2.41–4, ‘Beauteous as ink … / Fair as a text B in a copy-book… / My red dominical, my golden letter’.

  290–1 write … paper ‘Gold leaf was used to decorate the initial capital letters … in illuminated manuscripts’ (Cam); cf. 231–3n.

  292 *Lodwick Q’s ‘Lorde’ seems unlikely as Lodwick is nowhere described as a nobleman, and at 216 Edward requests Lodwick to bid the lords continue playing chess (unlikely phraseology to a lord). WP’s suggestion of ‘Lodwick’ is plausible. ‘Lodwick’ is abbreviated in SPs and SDs to ‘Lod’, ‘Lo’ and ‘Lor’ (see p. 121), a possible source of confusion. Cf. 355n.

  295 period end, full stop

  297 apprehend feel the force of, grasp

  298 ending period final stop (of love, of praise and, in practice, of a sentence – see 307, 316, 334, 335)

  * * *

  289 Lodwick] Lodowicke Q2 290–2]WP; Q lines name, / reade, / ; Capell lines capital / name, / read, / 292 Lodwick,] Moore Smith (WP); Lorde, Q; lad, (Collier); lord! (Collier)

  300 Chiasmus and alliteration combine to enact the hyperbole of this line: her beauty (Hers) surpasses the greatest, his affection (mine) is the greatest and greater than greater, i.e. her beauty outmatches his affection; more and most are in the sense of greater and greatest (she doesn’t just have more beauty than most beauties but more than the greatest beauty of all: see Abbott, 17). Cf. 223.

  301–3 conflates two proverbs: ‘As many as drops in the sea’ (Dent2, D615.11) and ‘As difficult as to number the sands in the sea’ (Dent, S91). Cf. 12.52–60.

  301 Hers … praise i.e. it is a greater task to praise her beauty (Hers).

  tell count; cf. 12.50, 51.

  302 suggests an hour-glass (sands = innumerable grains of sand)

  303 *Capell’s emendation makes sense of Q’s repeated error ‘said’. Cf. 8.74n.

  print For other instances of printing imagery, cf. 6.196, 13.27, 18.135n. on embossed; cf. also 231–3n. For broader discussion of printing as metaphor, see Thompson, 165–206.

  307 queen of shades Diana, goddess of the moon and chastity (Cam); shades defines the comparative darkness of night lit by the moon rather than the sun.

  308 gross and palpable synonyms: flagrant, overt. A Shakespearean collocation: ‘Who is so gross / That cannot see this palpable device?’ (R3 3.6.10–11); cf. also MND 5.1.361, 1H4 2.4.219.

  309–14 ‘The sequence of three rhymed couplets presents this as a typical poetic conceit’ (Cam). Son 21 cites such comparisons as false ways of writing about love. Cf. also the rhyming quatrains at LLL 4.3.226–85.

  309 pale … night Cf. TGV 4.2.97.

  312 dim and dead Cf. 17.39n.; also 104n.

  * * *

  302 Nay, more] Collier2; Nay more Q; Nay, more, Capell; Nay more! Oxf 303 sand by sand] Capell; said, by said, Q 304 talk’st] (talkest) 307]Capell subst.; More faire and chast then is the queen of shades: Q 308 line] Q2; loue Q; line MS in BL 309 Compar’st] (Comparest)

  313–14 Women wore masks to protect their faces from the ageing effects of the sun (cf. TGV 4.4.151); such masks entered English fashion in the 1570s (Shakespeare’s England, 2.97). Cf. 274.

  noon … sun For the rhyme, see Cercignani, 198.

  313 brave as his love (the Countess) will confront the sun barefaced (see 313–14n.)

  eye … noon midday sun; cf. Son 18.5, ‘Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines’.

  318 ransack … treasure Cf. 3.192 and n.

  ransack thoroughly scrutinize (OED v. 3a, citing this line), with underlying meaning of penetrate (3b); plunder (2a). Edward uses terms usually applied to rape to deprecate Lodwick’s talk of chastity. Cf. 3.192, 5.49.

  *treasure Q’s ‘treason’ may arise from a minim misreading (an alternative correction being ‘treasury’). As well as riches or the container for such, treasure is associated with a woman’s virginity or genitalia: cf. Son 136.5–6, ‘Will will fulfil the treasure of thy love, / Ay, fill it full with wills, and my will one’. Cf. 3.192, 5.72 (and nn.).

  321–9 nine-line epistrophe (repetition of a word at the end of successive lines); hyperbolically comic display of rhetorical figures of repetition was often used in love poetry; cf. 206–9n.

  322 thrice more a great deal more (used hyperbolically); cf. thrice compounds -gracious (355), -gentle (367), -dread (383), -noble (3.1), -valiant (3.73), -loving (3.138) and so much (18.130). Such compounds are mocked at LLL 5.1.134–5.

  323 perfections emulates See 134n.

  324 breeds procreates, multiplies

  sweets things that are ‘pleasant to the mind or feelings; something that affords enjoyment or gratifies desire’ (OED n. 3a). Cf. Son 95.4 (and see 330–1n.).

  plenteous plenteously

  * * *

  316 More … chaste –] Capell subst.; More faire and chast, Q; More faire and chaste. Q2 318 treasure] Capell; treason Q

  326 cheer … sun Cf. VA 483–6; also 604.

  327 dazzle … sun proverbial: ‘He that gazes upon the sun shall at last be blind’ (Dent, S971.1). See Ard3 Poems, 42, on the predatory significance of gazers in Shakespeare; cf., e.g., Luc 365–6. Cf. 131–4, 565–6n., 3.66–70 (see 3.66n. and 68n.).

  328 in this application i.e. in keeping with this simile of the sun

  329–31 biblical: ‘he maketh his sonne to aryse on the euyll, and on the good’ (Matthew, 5.45); and proverbial: ‘The sun shines upon all alike’ (Dent, S985)

  329 free and general ‘affable to all; open to sexual advances … perh. a colloq. expression’ (OED general a. 6b, citing this line)

  330–1 basest weed … fragrant rose ‘conventional expressions … found only once in Shakespeare, in two consecutive Sonnets: 94.12 and 95.2’ (Cam). Son 94 ends with the line that also appears as 617.

  332 moonlight line a satirical snipe: both moon and light have associations of madness and delirium (OED moon n.1 1b, light a.1 22).

  333 *queen In secretary hand, a misreading of ‘Quen’ as Q’s ‘louer’ is a just conceivable compound error, ‘Qu’ becoming ‘l’, ‘en’ becoming ‘ou’ and a final upstroke of the ‘n’ being misinterpreted as an ‘er’ suspension.

  335–7 an ironic reference to Judith’s decapitation of the Assyrian general, Holofernes, who was laying siege to the Hebrews (Judith, 12.20–13.8 (Geneva)). Cf. Knack, TLN 1702–3, ‘Nor had proud Holofernes lost his head, / Had he not bene a foule Adulterer’. By expressing his fear of militant chastity, Edward defines himself as its assailant. Though Lodwick may here consciously intend to discourage the King’s pursuit of the Countess, he exhibits no such moralizing attitude in Sc. 3. See 188–9n.

  335 Judith the biblical heroine but ‘also the name of Shakespeare’s daughter, b. 1585’ (Sams); cf. the reference to another apocryphal heroine, Susanna (the name of Shakespeare’s elder daughter, b. 1583), at 15.24–5 (see n.).

  * * *

  333–4] Capell subst.; More faire and chast then is the louer of shades, / More bould in constancie. / Q 333queen] Capell; louer Q 335‘In constancy’?] Melchiori1 subst. (In constancy?); In constancie Q; In constancie, Q2; In constancy! Capell who?] Q2; who, Q – than Judith was.] Capell; Then Iudith was, Q; Then Iudith was. Q2

  336, 338next next line

  337 woo entreat

  338 Blot efface, delete; see 1.144n.

  340–1 i.e. I’m grateful to you for having done little damage, though the little you have done is dire.

  341 passing very, extremely

  342–8 from Propertius, Elegies, 2.1.43–4; cf. Pettie, sig. I6r, ‘Let sea men speake of windes, of bees herdes that them keepe: / Let souldiers talke of war and fight, and sheepeheardes of their sheepe.’ The principle holds in lines 342–4 and 348, but not 345–7, where it is replaced by that of opposites (WP).

  343 immured immurèd: walled in. That Q’s form ‘emured’ is typical of Shakespeare (Cam, 174) may be confirmed by LLL 3.1.121 and 4.3.302 (Q (1598), sigs D1r, F3r) and by the use of the nonce noun ‘emures’ (walls) in F TC Prol.8. But compare also ‘immured’ (Son 84.3), ‘immur’d’ (F R3 TLN 2581) and ‘immure’ (VA 1194).

  constraint confinement

  344 sets down writes about, records; see 233n.

  345–7 Cf. R2 1.3.294–301.

  347 grief pain, suffering

  happy opposite Cf. 619.

  348 Cf. RJ 2.2.165, ‘How silver-sweet sound lovers’ tongues’.

  * * *

  338 Lodwick] Lodowicke Q2 342 boisterous] (boystrous) 343 immured] (emured)

  350 treasurer disyllabic: guardian. Cf. Edward’s words to the Countess in Painter, sig. 3Q3r, ‘you, that like a faythfull keper and onely Treasorer of my heart’ (WP).

  351–4 To account for the writing materials, Edward pretends that he and Lodwick are studying the deployment of an army.

  351, 358draw order; cf. 6.195.

  351 battle ‘body or line of troops in battle array’ (OED n. 8a)

  352 flankers cannons ‘posted so as to flank a position’ (OED n.1 2); not found in Shakespeare. John Davies, Epigrams and Elegies [1599?], sig. B4v, ‘In Gallum 24’, identifies the terms ‘flankers, Rauelings, gabions’ (l. 7) as exotic.

  squadrons companies of soldiers drawn up in square formation (cf. 12.43, 13.30); perhaps trisyllabic (see Abbott, 477, and cf. 415n.), challenging Capell’s metrical addition of ‘here’

  353 defective discipline deficient military training or skill (OED discipline n. 8)

  355 thrice-gracious See 322n.

  *lord Q has ‘Lords’; it seems unlikely that Lodwick is included in this address (see 292n.).

  356 intrusion Cf. 6.51.

  357 my … fares ‘how my sovereign fares’ (see Abbott, 414)

  358 the same i.e. the battle plan (OED same B pron. 4a = ‘the aforesaid … thing’); actually the love poem

  I … form i.e. according to my instructions

  360–2 See LN.

  * * *

  349.1COUNTESS] the Countesse Q2 350 treasurer] treasure Q2 351 Lodwick] Lodowicke Q2; Aloud to Lodowick, showing him the paper in his hand Lod’wick Oxf 352 squadrons] squadrons here Capell 354 shouldst] (shouldest) 355 lord] Capell; Lords Q 358 SD] Collier 359 SP] Q2 (Lodo.); Lor: Q SD] Q2

  362 consort companion

  sullen Q’s spelling ‘sullome’, though rare (not in OED), is attested in Robert Allen’s A Treatise of Christian Beneficence (1600), sig. 2I2r (DSK). Cf. 12.8.

  363–5 See LN.

  364 ground the earth (to be planted with flowers); background: natural or prepared surface for working on (OED 6b)

  shame ambiguous: Edward’s discourteous melancholy; the morally disreputable behaviour he contemplates

  366–9 Cf. Painter, ‘The Countesse seing the King thus moued, not knowing the cause why, was vncertayne what aunswere to make. Which the king perceiuing, sayde vnto her … “And what saye you Madame therevnto, can you giue me no remedie?” ’ (sigs 3Q2v–3r).

  367 think … wrong so much as think of wronging the King; ‘with unconscious irony: it would be right to think that the king’s behaviour is wrong’ (Cam)

  Thrice-gentle gentle = noble (cf. 4.188). See 322n.

  368 *thy Q’s ‘theyr’ may originate in misreading of copy ‘yr’, but this is too conjectural to recommend Q2’s ‘your’. See 257n.; also 410n. on you.