152 fuses the ideas and images associated with acting ‘i’th’ heat’ (compare KL 1.2.11), striking while the iron is hot, and perhaps the Third Queen’s sense of her own intended words dissolving into formlessness

  153–4 bootless … sweat Their useless labour will have to be its own reward. Cf. 1.2.31–4.

  154 secure self-confident (generally, as here, with the implication of over-confident)

  155 puissance power (three syllables)

  156–7 Rinsing … clear washing their prayers with their tears to make them both purer and more intelligible (continuing the image of the ‘glassy stream’ in line 112). Q’s spelling, wrinching (probably phonetic, as Littledale suggests), also occurs in H8 1.1.167 (a scene generally considered Shakespearean).

  * * *

  144 human] (humaine) 147–8 It … comfort] one line Q 149–51] Q lines graves: / Creon; / doing: / 155 Nor] Seward; Not Q 156 Rinsing] (Wrinching)

  158–9 full / Of bread Cf. ‘He took my father grossly, full of bread’ (Ham 3.3.80). In Ezekiel, 16.49, it means a surfeit of food (Skeat) and refers to Sodom, which resembles the Thebes of 1.2. Shaheen points out that, among sixteenth-century translations, bread is the reading only of the Geneva Bible; it also occurs in the Authorized (King James) translation of 1611.

  160–2 How … business an exceptionally tautological phrase: Artesius (see ‘Officer’, List of Roles) is asked to choose the best men, the right number of them, and those most fit to succeed in (carry) this task; the over-emphatic command fails to impress the queens, who have confidence only in Theseus.

  162 forth go forth

  164–5 daring … fate ‘deed challenging Fate’ (Leech)

  165 take hands Shaking hands was a gesture of parting rather than meeting (see ‘I hold it fit that we take hands and part’, Ham 1.5.128). The queens say farewell, either to one another or to Theseus, Hippolyta and Emilia, and either join hands with each other or take those of the Athenians.

  166 widows … woes The image suggests that their woes have died, but the queen obviously means the opposite: they are married to grief forever if Theseus refuses their request. Littledale’s paraphrase is perhaps the best: ‘as Creon has left our dead lords unburied, so our woes have been left unburied by Theseus’.

  169 Cull forth choose with care

  unpanged not distracted by suffering

  171 service enterprise

  * * *

  159 Artesius] Artesuis Q; Artesis F 167 SP] this edn; All Q

  172 *Greater than any war Q reads was, and Waith (Oxf1) makes a good case for retaining it, but Theobald’s emendation is very much in the spirit of Theseus’ previous speech and the play’s general equation of love and war. As Bowers points out, it is also an implicit reply to the First Queen’s claim (131–3) that the celebration was to be longer than the war.

  more imports me matters more to me

  173 actions combats

  foregone undertaken before

  174 futurely in the future

  cope come to blows with, meet in battle (OED v. 3. trans. 7)

  The more proclaiming ‘What you have just said makes it even clearer that …’ (Bawcutt)

  175–6 her arms … synod alludes to Homer’s account (Iliad, 14) of how Jupiter was distracted from affairs on Olympus and the Trojan war by the sexual blandishments of Juno, aided by Aphrodite and Sleep. Another common image (most famous from Botticelli’s painting) shows Mars and Venus lying in post-coital lethargy while cupids or satyrs play with his armour (see 180–6).

  176 synod gathering of the gods

  177 warranting authorizing, in that both night and the moon make it possible for her to display passion

  corslet hold tightly (like the breast-plate which, they imply, he should be wearing)

  178 twinning cherries her lips, a common comparison (see also 2.2.64). Q has twyning; Seward printed twinning and most editors follow him, since ‘as alike as cherry to cherry’ was proverbial (Dent, C276). Skeat cites the comparison of lips to ‘two twind cherries’ in Beaumont and Fletcher’s Philaster (Bowers, 1: 2.2.75).

  fall let fall

  179 taste-full ‘savoureux, savorie, tastfull, tart, well smacking’ (Cotgrave 1611, quoted in OED). Theseus’ lips will be full (glutted) with the sweetness of Hippolyta’s.

  179–80 what … queens? rhetorical: ‘will you think about us?’

  180 blubbered with tear-stained faces (not comic in this period)

  183–4 every … hundred Every hour in bed with Hippolyta will make him want to spend a hundred more. Cf. Bacon (81): ‘He that hath a wife and children hath given hostages to fortune’ (‘Of Marriage and Single Life’, first pub. in 1612 edn of Essays).

  * * *

  172 war] Seward (Theobald); was Q 178 twinning] Seward (Theobald); twyning Q

  186 banquet a light first course served before a feast to whet the appetite

  bids invites

  186–8 Though … suitor another confusing parallelism, hinging on the double function of suitor. Hippolyta would be sorry as well as surprised if Theseus were as irresponsibly carried away by sexual passion as the widows seem to imagine; would be equally sorry to be the cause of it (i.e., suitor echoes bids at the end of the previous speech); and is equally sorry that she must ask him to defer the consummation of their marriage (i.e., suitor looks forward to 193ff.).

  190 surfeit an illness brought on by excess, often of food or drink, for which abstinence was recommended. There is an implied antithesis between the queens’ surfeit of grief and Hippolyta’s willing abstinence from joy (i.e., the wedding night).

  191 present immediate

  191–2 pluck … on me be regarded by all women as a disgrace to our sex (Craik)

  192 SD *Kneeling is obviously implied by the queens’ request and their words to Emilia at 199, though precisely where it should happen is unclear.

  193–5 As … dumb The response to this, her first request to Theseus, will show her whether she has any power over him. While 193 sounds obedient – she will never make any other requests if this is denied – it can also be seen as a threat.

  196 Prorogue postpone

  196–7 hang … heart both literally (‘go into battle but look after your safety for my sake’) and figuratively (‘take arms against your own love for me’)

  198 fee possession; a reward for services offered to a feudal lord. Whiter cited this line in 1794, pointing out the associative link between fee, service and suit in both Shakespeare and Fletcher (78–80).

  * * *

  199 SP] this edn; All Q

  202 nature natural feeling or affection. OED (sb. 3e) cites ‘compunctious visitings of Nature’ (Mac 1.5.46).

  207 to have me (do)

  Pirithous stressed on first syllable here; see List of Roles

  208 get you (to the temple), addressed to Pirithous, Hippolyta, or the wedding party in general. Theseus asks Pirithous to celebrate the marriage (by proxy), then hold the celebration in his absence.

  209 success accented on the first syllable (Proudfoot). Kökeritz gives this as the only such example in Shakespeare.

  return the object of pray for: a quick return from the war

  210 pretended intended

  211 your soldier himself; cf. 76. As before Q’s punctuation (see t.n.) is ambiguous: either Theseus claims that he is, as always, their soldier – that is, devoted to their cause – or, more likely, he is confirming his previous orders to Artesius.

  212 *Aulis Theobald’s conjecture for Q’s Anly has been accepted by all subsequent editors, although with some uneasiness, since, as Proudfoot notes, it ‘does not lie between Athens and Thebes’. The Greek fleet sailed from Aulis to Troy after the sacrifice of Iphigenia by her father Agamemnon, which, Waith notes (Oxf1), was another famous example of a general’s putting the command of the gods before his private happiness.

  214 moiety a portion (not necessarily half). The troops levied by Artesius will join those already at Aulis.

  214–15 business … bigger-looked something which looks bigger (more threatening) than the business of the wedding (cf. 196) but still well below his army’s strength

  * * *

  200 SD] Dyce subst.; not in Q 207 SD] Dyce subst. after 205; not in Q 211 soldier. As before – hence] Weber subst. (Mason); Soldier (as before) hence Q; soldier, as before. Hence Leech 212 Aulis] Seward (Theobald); Anly Q

  215 SDI *Q indicates no exit for Artesius, but it seems right that he should leave as soon as possible after receiving his orders. Alternatively, 217 (if addressed to him) could serve as an exit cue, or (as Skeat suggests) he could leave at 225.

  216–17 I stamp … token Bawcutt’s explanation of this complex image is the clearest: ‘stamp means (1) press and (2) make a coin by stamping a piece of metal; current means (1) moving away from him (because of his departure) and (2) authentic (as a coin is genuine, not counterfeit); and token means (1) keepsake and (2) stamped piece of metal used as a coin’. Cf. Donne’s ‘Valediction of Weeping’, where the speaker’s tears reflect the face of his mistress: ‘thy stamp they bear, / And by this mintage they are something worth’.

  218 I will I am determined to

  218 SD The procession probably circles the stage on its way out, in the same order that it entered; thus Hippolyta, Pirithous and Emilia are the last to leave and Pirithous can speak more confidentially to Theseus.

  220 full fully (Leech)

  bate abate, lessen

  221–2 solemnity … return Seward corrected want to wait, assuming that solemnity meant the wedding itself. Colman (1778) restored want, taking solemnity to mean the celebrations appropriate to the occasion (sports, plays, fireworks, as at the royal wedding of 1613). The latter makes more sense in the light of Theseus’ reply.

  222 Cousin friend

  225 abatement reduction

  farewell all spoken to the entire procession, but perhaps aimed pointedly at Pirithous, reinforcing the command for him to remain in Athens

  * * *

  218 SD] Bawcutt subst.; Exeunt towards the Temple. Q 225 SD] Weber subst.; not in Q

  226 make good … world live up to your reputation

  229 affections human feelings (in this case, sexual desire)

  bend bow, give way

  230–1 they … mast’ry The gods themselves suffer under the sway of the powerful Eros: see, for instance, Faerie Queene, 3.12, and cf. 5.1.89–94.

  231 men This word should probably be stressed. Theseus, as at 74, refuses godlike status for himself, while insisting on a lofty concept of humanity which makes him ‘more godlike than the gods’ (Bawcutt).

  232 being … subdued when we (like the gods of the fables) are conquered by sensuality

  233 We lose … title we become beasts

  Good cheer be cheerful

  234 your comforts the action that will comfort you (see 148)

  1.2

  1.2 The opening lines indicate that the action has shifted to Thebes; there is no further localization. Although the previous scene shows that the siege of Thebes is a very recent event, Palamon and Arcite talk as if they were living among all the vices usually associated with a long period of peace: soldiers unrewarded for their courage, debauchery and corruption endemic. The authors may be drawing on Chaucer’s Anelida and Arcite, where Creon’s encouragement brings ‘noble folke’ to the town (70). In any case, the men’s complaints are common ones: see Jorgensen, ch. 5, for the prevalence of the view that too long a period of peace leads to corruption. Abrams, ‘W.S.’, notes that the desultory, unfocused conversation imitates the frustration of which Arcite is so conscious. Some productions have tried to counteract this effect: at York (1973) the two men were exercising as they talked; at Berkeley (1985) they engaged in practice combat. Ashland (1994) showed them on the point of escaping from the city when called back by Valerius’ news.

  * * *

  1.2] Scæna 2. Q

  1 blood kinship

  2 prime literally ‘first’, in the sense of most important, most valued; cf. ‘Prospero the prime duke’ (Tem 1.2.72).

  2-3 yet unhardened … nature while our ‘natural’ vices (perhaps such as they will recall in 3.3) are not yet unbreakable habits

  5 dim the brightness of our youth – like armour that grows dusty through lack of use: see ‘Perseverance … / Keeps honour bright’ (TC 3.3.150–1)

  6 keep continue

  we shame we are ashamed. Both shame and sully are objects of before, while keep refers both to abstinence and incontinence: i.e., Arcite fears that Thebes will erode their moral values until they are as ashamed to abstain from sins of intemperance as to commit them. Cf. Montaigne: ‘A man must imitate the vicious, or hate them: both are dangerous: for to resemble them is perilous, because they are many, and to hate many is hazzardous, because they are dissemblable’ (Florio, 1.254 (RP)).

  8 I’th’ aid … current with the stream. The image of being carried along by a stream which will lead eventually to drowning, not difficult in itself, is so laboured in expression that it induces the frustration it describes. Cf. Tim 4.1.25–8: ‘That ’gainst the stream of virtue they may strive, / And drown themselves in riot!’ (RP).

  11 if labour through if we should labour through it (Skeat)

  13 cried up publicly applauded, because everything they see proves its truth

  14 Since … school See ‘Thou know’st that we two went to school together’ (JC 5.5.26) for this kind of bonding.

  15 Walking either ‘when we are walking’ or ‘walking ruins of men’ (Skeat) bare weeds shabby (threadbare) clothing. Skeat suggests that bare has two syllables.

  * * *

  2–3 cousin: … nature,] this edn; Cosen, … nature; Q

  16 martialist follower of Mars, a soldier did propound held forth, set before himself as a goal (see OED v. 3)

  17 ingots coins

  18 won earned (by winning in battle)

  had not Skeat explains: ‘Did not get for himself, for it went to the captain.’ But Palamon may mean that there were no rewards at all, rather than that the rewards were misappropriated.

  flurted scorned. OED v. gives two relevant definitions of flirt, or flurt: 1 ‘To give (a person) a sudden sharp blow or knock’, and 4a trans. ‘To sneer or scoff at’. Skeat cites other examples in Fletcher: Rule a Wife (Bowers, 6: 3.5.55), The Wild Goose Chase (Bowers, 6: 2.2.162) and The Pilgrim (Bowers, 6: 3.3.91).

  18-20 and … altar Two ideas, and two separate sentences, are conflated here: the soldier is humiliated by the very peace which he has made possible; since he is so treated, who else will want to be a soldier?

  21 Juno Her hatred for Thebes is an important part of its legend. Chaucer refers to it in Anelida and Arcite (‘Mars … the old wrath of Juno to fulfill’ (51)) and Arcite complains of it in KT, 1543–62. Provoked by Jupiter’s seduction of two Theban women (Alcmena, the mother of Hercules, and Semele, the mother of Bacchus), it led to her destruction of all royal descendants of Cadmus, the city’s founder.

  23-6 Peace … be Peace is envisaged as being made kinder, as well as physically healthier, as a result of war – an image that is possible only because the personification has replaced the abstract idea. The cycle in which Peace leads to Plenty, then to Pride, Envy, War, Poverty and again to Peace, is depicted in the anonymous Histriomastix (pub. 1610).

  23-4 purge … repletion make up for her over-indulgence. Peace is often seen as a time of literal and figurative over-eating, which war can cure. Cf. ‘we shall ha’ means to vent / Our musty superfluity’ (Cor 1.1.224–5) and 1.1.48. The idea recurs in 5.1.65–6. Rolfe notes that repletion is not used elsewhere by Shakespeare.

  24 retain take into service. This sounds as if Peace has two hearts, one charitable and one hard, but the meaning is clearly that in time of war a nation’s heart grows kinder.

  26 out an image from acting: to be out is to have forgotten one’s lines. Both men seem to feel that the conversation is carrying them in the wrong direction, like the stream of 9–12.

  * * *

  19 fought!] Kittredge; fought, Q 24 retain] Q; regain Skeat; reclaim (Heath)

  28 cranks and turns the winding and crooked streets. See OED crank sb. la. Plutarch’s Life of Theseus (45) refers to ‘the turnings and cranckes of the Labyrinthe’ (Proudfoot, xx).

  29 decays like ruins (13), used of persons whose fortune (or health) is decayed

  31 unconsidered unrespected, disregarded

  34 paid with ice treated with cold contempt

  35 This the neglect of soldiers

  39 colour appearance (with the implication of falseness)

  40 jump exactly

  41-2 The difficulty of this construction results from verbal compression. The phrase were to be has both strangers and monsters as its object, but there is also an antithesis between not to be in 40 and to be in 43–4. Arcite and Palamon would be strangers in their own country if they did not behave like its inhabitants, but, if they did behave like them, they would be monsters. Here, in 41, probably refers both to as they are and to were to be strangers.

  41 they the other Thebans

  were would be

  strangers foreigners

  42 mere absolute

  43 Unless … tutor’s ‘unless we fear that we will model our behaviour on those who themselves are imitators of fashion’. Because fashion and affectation are frequent targets of anti-court satire, apes sometimes figure in it; cf. Spenser, Mother Hubbard’s Tale.

  * * *

  41 are here] this edn; are, here Q; are here, Dyce1 (Mason) 42 be, mere] Littledale (Nicholson); be meere Q

  45 Affect either ‘imitate’ or ‘like’

  catching contagious, like an illness

  46 Where … faith Littledale glosses faith as ‘self-reliance’. But the speech contains other religious double-meanings – faith, saved (48), unblessed (53) and canon (55) – ridiculing those who follow the fashion as if their salvation depended on it. By contrast with Arcite’s desperate view of their predicament, Palamon ironically suggests that they can be saved by faith, not by such ‘good works’ as imitating other people’s clothes. For the religious context of these lines.