be fond upon dote upon (fond means insane)

  48 conceived understood

  49 Speaking it if I speak

  truly both accurately (so as to be conceived) and truthfully (so as to be saved)

  bound a common pun on the metaphorical and literal (financial) meanings (cf. MV 5.1.135–7), partly based on the fact that people too concerned with the fashion often ended up in debt to their tailors

  50-2 The fop (like Fungoso in Jonson’s Every Man Out of His Humour (1599)) follows his tailor’s advice about fashion; the tailor later pursues him for payment.

  50 generous bond noblesse oblige (RA)

  51 Follows (a) importunes; (b) is guided by. The implied subject is ‘who’.

  54 for because

  55 To … glass exactly like that of some favourite or other. For the idea of another person as a mirror or model, cf. 1.1.90.

  canon rule; the Q spelling, cannon, brings out the intended pun.

  55-8 What … foul? Walking on tiptoe with a sword in one’s hand is characteristic of a miles gloriosus (like Captain Tipto in Jonson’s New Inn (1629)); Palamon thinks one should tiptoe only to avoid getting one’s boots muddy.

  58-60 Either … trace I will either lead the fashion or else be out of it altogether.

  60 sequent trace following team of horses

  * * *

  55 canon] (Cannon)

  61 plaintain a leaf of the herb known as the Greater Plantain, used for soothing cuts and bruises (see LLL 3.1.74–5). Palamon ‘bleeds’, figuratively, when he sees a needy soldier (20), but is only slightly hurt by fashionable foppery.

  64 Makes Though successes is the subject of this verb, it probably alludes to Creon as well and hence is attracted to the singular.

  65-6 puts / Faith in a fever makes faith ill. Cf. 46. The thought of Creon makes Palamon revert to the religious language which he had earlier rejected as too extreme.

  66-7 deifies … Chance makes Chance the only goddess. Creon’s ‘successes’ are still the subject.

  67 Voluble ‘capable of ready rotation’ (OED I 2), like the wheel of Fortune; hence, changeable and inconstant. Stressed on the second syllable.

  attributes stressed on the first syllable

  67-9 only … act gives only to himself and his own actions the credit that should belong to those who serve him – an obvious contrast to Theseus’ reference to his ‘worthiest instruments’ (1.1.163)

  69 nerves strength

  commands men service Seward emends to ‘commands men’s service’, but there is a characteristic grammatical slide from ‘commands them [to do] service’ to ‘commands what they have won in their service’.

  70 boot booty or advantage

  *glory; one See t.n. The press corrector evidently realized that the punctuation of this line was wrong and attempted to do something about it. Littledale’s suggestion, followed here, makes sense, especially since on was a common spelling of one; there might also be a case for Kittredge’s emendation of on to on’t: ‘of it (i.e., of what has been won by men’s service)’.

  71 good, dares not dares not (do) good

  72 blood in the literal meaning and that of relationship

  sib kin, related

  73 leeches aquatic worms, used to suck the supposedly contaminated blood of the sick, ‘And when they have wel sucked & drawn til they be ful, they will fall off by themselves’ (Galen, 47)

  * * *

  64 Makes] Q; Make Seward 65 power] Seward; power: Q nothing;] (Sympson subst.) nothing, Q 70 glory; one] Littledale (Ingram); glory on; Qc; glory on Qu; glory on’t Kittredge

  74 Clear-spirited noble-hearted (perhaps continuing the medical metaphor, since ‘spirits’ were the distillation of the body’s humours)

  76 loud heard far and near

  76-7 our … pasture we will be tainted by our environment (Leech). Similar to the proverbial ‘Change of pasture makes fat calves’ (Dent, Prov, C230). Cf. ‘Virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it’ (Ham 3.1.116–18).

  76 our two syllables

  78-9 not … quality not related to him unless like him. Cf. ‘Twins? – In quality’ (Webster, DM, 1.1.172).

  80 deafed deafened (with their loudness). Justice was traditionally blind (impartial), but Creon’s unpunished villainy makes her seem deaf as well.

  81 Widows’ cries Palamon builds on Arcite’s image of loud infamy – ironically, after the events of 1.1. Chaucer also makes much of the loudness of the widows’ cries (KT, 900–2). Shaheen cites a number of scriptural passages about crying to the Lord for vengeance, particularly Exodus, 22.22–3.

  83 audience hearing

  83 SD *The time needed for actors to move from the upstage doors to the front of the stage usually requires entrance directions to be early. The placing of this SD in Q (see t.n.) suggests either that Valerius makes an extremely rapid entrance (as befits a messenger) or that he appears in the door at this point but (in keeping with the content of his speech) takes his time in coming downstage to address the others.

  84 be leaden-footed do not hurry to reach him

  85-7 Phoebus … sun that is, when he heard that his son Phaeton, whom he had reluctantly allowed to drive the chariot of the sun, had come so near destroying the earth that Jupiter had finally killed him with a thunderbolt (Ovid, 2.397–9). The allusion to a familiar story of presumption receiving divine punishment is obviously relevant to Creon.

  * * *

  83 SD] after 83–4 Q

  86 whipstock whip handle

  87 but only

  to by comparison with

  88 Small … him Even trivial things put him in a rage.

  89-90 But … sent Lineation here is uncertain because of the breakdown of the metre; perhaps Theseus, drawn out for emphasis, is meant to complete Palamon’s line.

  92 who Theseus

  92-3 to seal … wrath to make good (put the seal on) what his anger has already promised

  96 Thirds … worth achieves a third of what he is capable of

  97 action fighting

  dregged made cloudy, like the dregs of wine, by contrast with clear-spirited (74). OED cites Owen Feltham (1627–42): ‘a great occasion of dregging our spirits’. The metaphor is based on the medical analogy between ‘vital spirits’ and the process of evaporation; mounting from liver to heart to brain, the spirits were supposed to become increasingly refined, inspiring wit and courage.

  98 Leave that unreasoned Don’t think about that.

  100-1 Yet … oppose Were (would be) goes with both dishonour and rebellious; neutral to and oppose both have Creon as their object.

  100 Yet to be to continue to be (Oxf1). Skeat suggests that ‘yet’ marks a change of tone – ‘yet, I might urge …’ – as Palamon goes back on his initial claim that the situation needs no discussing.

  102 stand either ‘stand with him’, at Fate’s mercy, or ‘stand, with him, to face our Fate

  103 bounded … minute set the limits of our lives

  105 On fail of if we fail to comply with

  106-7 The intelligence … defier News of war came from Creon’s ‘intelligencer’ (spy) at the same time as Theseus’ challenge. Such speed is common in drama as a way of compressing time (cf. the arrival of the various messengers in R3 4.4 and AC 3.7); here, it also bears out the wisdom of the queens’ advice in 1.1.157–9.

  107-10 who … health ‘for whom, if he were a quarter as honourable as his enemy, we would feel that shedding our blood was as healthful as medically prescribed bleeding’. The sentence structure is confused but the idea is a common one: for instance, ‘The blood I drop is rather physical [therapeutic] / Than dangerous to me’ (Cor 1.5.18–19).

  109 come plural, because it refers not only to Theseus but the Athenian army

  110 spent a double meaning: their loss of blood would purchase honour, if any could be gained in fighting for Creon

  112 Our … hearts Before may mean ‘earlier than’, or, as Littledale suggests, ‘further than’. Cf. ‘whose hearts have left their bodies here in England’ (H5 1.2.128) and Mac 5.4.13–14.

  112-13 what will … damage? What damage will our half-hearted blows do?

  113-15 Let … ourselves an ironic comment: ‘when the battle is over, let infallible hindsight tell us what, by that time, we will know anyway’. Cf. ‘O that a man might know / The end of this day’s business ere it come! / But it sufficeth that the day will end, / And then the end is known’ (JC 5.1.122–4).

  113 th’event the outcome. Cf. ‘Well, well, th’event’ (KL 1.4.348).

  116 becking beckoning

  1.3

  * * *

  1.3] Scæna 3. Q

  1 No further Hippolyta and Emilia have presumably accompanied Pirithous part way on his journey.

  3 Make … question have any fear or doubt; cf. ‘make that thy question’ (WT 1.2.324) (RA)

  4 an’t might be if it (such excess of power) were possible

  5 dure an alternative spelling of endure. Hippolyta wishes Theseus not only enough power for success but also enough to deal with any conceivable ill fortune. There may be a play on success and excess.

  Speed success (perhaps also suggesting ‘rapid success’) (RP)

  6 Store … governors Skeat cites the proverb ‘Store is no sore’ (cf. Dent, Prov, S903).

  7 His … drops Weber compares AC 3.12.8.

  10 best-tempered pieces the pieces of craftsmanship tempered (like metal) most finely

  13 Bellona see 1.1.75n.

  14 terrene state earthly condition (with a pun on state/kingdom)

  15 gifts (to win their favour)

  19 don their helms put on their helmets (and depart for the wars)

  put to sea set off on a sea voyage, as dangerous as going to war

  * * *

  5 dure] Q; cure Seward; dare (Sympson)

  20 broached impaled, spitted. Skeat compares H5 3.3.38.

  20-2 women … ’em The unnatural word order might be the result of an insertion wrongly placed; 21–2 would scan better as: ‘That have sod their infants in the brine they wept / At killing them, and after eat them. Then, /’ etc. But perhaps the tortured style mirrors the subject-matter. The conjunction of infant cannibalism with the word sod is biblical; Shaheen cites 2 Kings, 6.28–9 and Lamentations, 4.10, which was taken to be a prophecy of the future sufferings of Jerusalem. The History of the Jewish War by Josephus (Joseph Ben Gorion), translated 1558, gives a detailed account (6.3) of the mother who fed on her own son during the siege of the city; a more immediate source was Nashe’s Destruction of Jerusalem, pub. 1593 (2.75, 77), and William Browne tells the same story, to illustrate the effects of famine, in Britannia’s Pastorals (Browne, 2.1.705–9), pub. 1613–14. All these sources use the word sod, and ‘unsod’ occurs (as Littledale notes) in Fletcher’s Sea-Voyage (Bowers, 9: 3.1.99), again in connection with cannibalism.

  21 sod boiled

  eat still a recognized past tense in current British speech (pronounced et)

  23 stay wait

  of us in us. Skeat cites ‘We shall find of him / A shrewd contriver’ (JC 2.1.157).

  spinsters The word still had overtones of its original meaning, women who stay at home and spin, unlike the warlike Hippolyta and Emilia.

  24-6 Peace … requiring Peace be to you as long as I pursue this war! when that is ended, we shall not need to pray for it’ (Mason). Alternatively, Pirithous says that if the two women are granted peace equivalent to his ardent conduct of this war, they will have all anyone could possibly wish.

  27 his depart Theseus’ departure

  29-30 nor … or neither … nor

  31-3 *Playing … twins Pirithous’ attention has been divided, like that of a nurse looking after twins, between his hand (taking part in the sports connected with the marriage celebrations) and his head (planning to assist Theseus in his war with Thebes). This variation on a common idea (thoughts are ‘conceived’ in the mind like children) may allude to the belief that a woman nursing twins had enough milk for only one of them (Paster, 237).

  * * *

  26 SD] Exit Pir. Q 31 one] Weber (Mason); ore Q; o’er Riv

  35 cabined been confined together; cf. ‘cabined, cribbed, confined’ (Mac 3.4.23).

  37 Peril … contending danger and privation competing with each other (thus making the corner ‘as dangerous as poor’). Another possible reading would be ‘contending against peril and want’ (Littledale), but the language throughout this passage seems deliberately doubled, still playing with the idea of twinship.

  37-8 skiffed / Torrents travelled down torrential rivers in a light boat (skiff). Figurative, but possibly also a reference to the voyage of the Argonauts, in which Theseus and Hercules took part, dramatized by Thomas Heywood in The Brazen Age, pub. 1613. Cf. also 1.2.7–12.

  39 I’th’ least of these As Seward points out, it is not clear whether these refers to Torrents or tyranny and power. In either case, they contended with many dangers of which even the least was terrifying.

  40 *Sought Fought, the Q reading, has been generally accepted, but the legends of Theseus and Pirithous show them literally seeking the lodgings of Death. Cf. Chaucer: ‘So well they loued, as old bookes saine, / That when that one was dead, soothly to tell / His fellow went & sought him downe in hell’ (KT, 1198–200).

  where … lodged their journey to the underworld, in an attempt to abduct Proserpina (Ovid, 12.210–44). In some versions of the myth, Pirithous is killed and remains in the underworld; in others, Theseus voluntarily stays with him and Hercules later rescues them both.

  41 brought them off saved them

  41-4 Their … undone probably a reference to the Gordian knot which was supposed to be too intricate to untie (cf. the reference to ‘this sacred Gordian’ in Webster, DM, 1.1.480–1). The skilful finger is presumably that of Time. True and long might refer either to ‘love’ or to ‘cunning’. In saying that the knot may be outworn only by death, Hippolyta does not consider that it might be cut, as it was by Alexander the Great. For the influence of Montaigne’s essay on friendship.

  * * *

  40 Sought] this edn (Littledale); Fought Q

  47 like equal

  which that is, himself or Pirithous. This passage is often taken to mean that Theseus cannot choose between Pirithous and Hippolyta, but it is more likely that Hippolyta is stating the common Renaissance idea that a friend is a second self.

  47-9 Doubtless … you Theseus’ love for Hippolyta is still greater than his love for himself and his friend.

  48 reason … manners Emilia presumably means that her sister’s preeminence in Theseus’ love should be evident to any rational person, but the stress on manners creates the possibility that she is simply paying an expected compliment.

  49-82 This speech is often compared with Hermia’s words to Helena in MND (3.2.198–214).

  49-50 acquainted … play-fellow In making time rather than play-fellow the object of acquainted, Emilia may imply that this kind of affection belongs to a particular age. Some critics who see Emilia as a lesbian focus on the double meaning of enjoyed.

  52 too proud the bed Beds and graves are often compared (see RJ passim); for the idea of ‘proud death’, see Ham 5.2.364.

  took … moon died. The virgin huntress Diana is also the moon goddess; Flavina was therefore, like Emilia, her servant (cf. 5.1.140–2).

  53-4 when … eleven when we were both 11 years old

  53 count age

  54 *eleven Aeleven, which appears in Q, is an alternative form, or error, for a leven.

  56 more ground a firmer basis (Oxf1)

  more maturely seasoned has lasted longer, or ‘is between more mature people’ (AT)

  57 buckled fastened. Cf. corslet as a verb in 1.1.177 and Polonius’ advice to Laertes to ‘Grapple [trusted friends] … unto thy soul with hoops of steel’ (Ham 1.3.63).

  57-8 their … other i.e., in their military roles: Emilia is aware of the importance of shared experience in maintaining affection. Contrast Cicero’s De Amicitia: Laelius says that he and Scipio Africanus loved each other even though neither of them needed the other (ix.30).

  * * *

  54 eleven] F; a eleven Q; aleven Riv; a leven Bowers Flavina] Seward; Flauia Q

  58-64 The marginal stage direction at this point (see t.n.) is the first of several addressed to the stage manager (see Fig. 15, p. 126, pp. 139–40 above and cf. 1.4.26–7n).

  60 she … spoke of condenses ‘she for whom I sigh, and of whom I spoke’

  61 for because (that is, we could not give a reason). Waith (Oxf1, 49–50) quotes Montaigne’s explanation of his love for his friend La Boétie: ‘Parce que c’était lui, parce que c’était moi’ [‘because it was he, because it was my selfe’ (Florio, 1.202)].

  61-3 like … operance Cf. Donne’s ‘The Relic’ (‘we loved well and faithfully, / Yet knew not what we loved, nor why; / Difference of sex no more we knew / Than our guardian angels do’) and ‘Valediction forbidding Mourning’ (‘Moving of th’earth brings harms and fears, / Men reckon what it did and meant, / But trepidation of the spheres / Though greater far, is innocent’).

  63 operance operation

  66 No more arraignment It needed no further trial.

  67-8 *breasts … oh Q places O after breasts; as Brooke says, ‘metre and sense are both satisfied by the easy supposition that oh was unintentionally misplaced by the compositor’.

  71 toy trifling decoration

  72-4 her affections … decking for this passage as printed in Q. The idea is clear (Emilia admired and imitated even the most casual choices of dress made by her friend) but it is hard to make grammatical sense out of the lines. In Q, the parenthesis that opens before pretty never closes; perhaps it was misread as a comma after careless.