* * *

  81 fire] Dyce (Heath); faire Q; far Seward

  92 show his weapons, trappings, retinue

  94 He’s the Second Knight is

  he the Messenger

  97 what … for i.e., love

  so apter therefore all the more likely

  98–9 In’s face … hopes His looks, especially his ruddy complexion, reflect his sanguine humour.

  101 extremes violent emotions

  104 Hard-haired In KT the equivalent passage is: ‘His crispe heer lyk rynges was yronne, / And that was yelow, and glytered as the sonne’ (Chaucer, Riv, 2165–6). Turner points out that Speght’s 1602 edn printed ‘of yron’ for ‘yronne’ (fashioned); the play’s striking phrase (presumably meaning tightly curled rather than lightly waved) results from this misreading.

  *tods bushes

  105 to undo to be uncurled

  with thunder by the wrath of Jove: perhaps referring to the belief that the laurel wreath of a conqueror protected him against lightning

  106 livery uniform given to one’s followers

  the warlike maid either Athene or Bellona

  107 red and white Red on its own is the colour of Mars, and thus appropriate for a warlike goddess; white is associated with maidens (see 5.1.139–42) and ‘red and white’ is the usual short-hand for female beauty. Waith (Oxf1) suggests that this and other details of this portrait come, not from Chaucer, but from his source in Boccaccio.

  108 rolling eyes expressing passion (cf. ‘in a fine frenzy rolling’ (MND 5.1.12) and ‘you’re fatal then / When your eyes roll so’ (Oth 5.2.37–8))

  109 *court Q reads corect; Dyce’s suggestion, court, could more plausibly have been misread in this way than Seward’s crown. Though the latter seems more logical, the idea that a female goddess should woo a hero, rather than vice versa, is in keeping with 2.2.259–62 and 7–12.

  * * *

  104 tods] Littledale; tops Q 109 court] Littledale; crown Seward; corect Q

  110 His … high has a high bridge

  character sign (from the characters or letters of the alphabet)

  111 fit for either fit to kiss ladies or fit to belong to ladies

  112 Must … too? This line may be an aside; no one responds to it. But perhaps that is the point.

  113 lineaments his shape

  114 clean well-built (as in ‘clean-limbed’)

  115 well-steeled See 2.2.51.

  staff handle

  116 There’s another It is not said which side this knight (not mentioned in Chaucer) belongs to. He seems to combine the qualities of the first and second knights (i.e., Mars and Venus) but his distinctive freckles come from Chaucer’s description of Arcite’s knight. Perhaps the audience was meant to recognize some real person in the description.

  118 great in soul

  121 sweet ones the freckles. Those described in Chaucer, a mixture of yellow and black (KT, 2169–70), are not said to be sweet.

  122 disposed arranged

  123 Great … nature Either the freckles look bigger because there are so few of them, or they show great as well as fine art. Paradoxes about nature seeming artificial (and vice versa) abound in late Shakespeare: see, for instance, AC 5.2.97–100 and WT 4.4.89–92.

  white-haired blond

  124 wanton white the very light blond of a child (wanton), by contrast with manly

  125 auburn yellowish or brownish colour, not, as now, reddish

  nimble set agile

  127 sinews muscles

  128–9 Gently … labour The bulge of his arms next to the constraining shoulder-piece suggests the swelling of early pregnancy and thus a pun on labour.

  129–30 never … arms possibly a sexual pun

  130 still in repose (by contrast with ‘when he stirs’)

  131–2 grey-eyed … compassion ‘gray eyes, which are a sign of mercy to the vanquished. Probably because gray eyes seem to have been considered as best suited for women, who are gentle by natural disposition’ (Skeat). Waith (Oxf1) points out that in this period grey-eyed really meant ‘what we should call blue or blue-grey eyes’, and cites Elisha Coles, A Dictionary of English–Latin and Latin–English (2nd edn, 1679, ‘Gray-eyed’).

  135 takes none lets no one wrong him

  136 shows looks like

  137 the winner’s oak given by the Romans to a victorious soldier (see Cor 2.1.125). Skeat notes that KT refers to a laurel garland; the alteration was presumably made to balance the image of ivy in the second knight’s description (104).

  140 charging-staff a lance for tilting

  143 men heroes (as in 3.6.264)

  144 bravely splendidly

  145 titles rights. The play seems to be recalling its origin in the legend of Oedipus’ sons fighting over the throne of Thebes.

  147 what think you? probably rhetorical – ‘What can you be thinking of?’ – in response to Emilia’s weeping

  149 steeled made them strong: cf. 115.

  150 the field the arranging and decorating of the tournament. Pirithous is to act as marshal.

  152 stay wait

  153 fame the report he has just heard

  appear make a public appearance

  154 be royal display kingly generosity. Cf. ‘All was royal’ (H8 1.1.42).

  want be lacking

  bravery splendour

  154 SD Though Q’s SD has all the characters leave at once after 156, it seems likely that Emilia, who has been suppressing her tears after 148, speaks her last couplet after the others have gone.

  156 for thy sins She feels that the death of either man will be her fault.

  * * *

  144–5 bravely / Fighting about] Seward; show / Bravely about Q 154 SD] this edn; Exeunt. after 158 Q 4.3] Scæna 3. Q

  4.3

  4.3 This is the only all-prose scene in the play; because Fletcher wrote mainly in verse, its authorship is disputed.

  1–2 The doctor’s attempt to attribute the Daughter’s condition either to ‘lunacy’ or to the menstrual cycle implies that she has been mad for some time, although only a month or less has elapsed between 3.6 and 4.2 (see 3.6.290).

  2 other some some others

  3 continually that is, not cyclically

  harmless unhurtful (to others)

  distemper illness

  4 drinking Cf. 3.2.26–7. Thirst is a classic symptom of love-sickness, caused by ‘the intense heat and dryness of atrabilious melancholy’ (Beecher, 160).

  5 another … better the next world (as at 21–56). Cf. ‘Hereafter, in a better world than this’ (AYL 1.2.284).

  5–6 what … about whatever fragmentary conversation she holds

  6–7 the … it it is permeated with the name of Palamon (as small pieces of fat are inserted into a roast to moisten and flavour it). Skeat compares ‘Larded all with sweet flowers’ (Ham 4.5.38) and ‘Larded with many several sorts of reasons’ (Ham 5.2.20).

  7 farces stuffs (another metaphor from cooking)

  8 withall with it

  11 burden refrain of a song. The Daughter’s worsening state may be indicated by the fact that she can no longer remember the songs she wants to sing.

  12 Down-a a common refrain. Skeat compares Ham 4.5.171: ‘You must sing a-down a-down’. Proudfoot cites Henry Chettle’s Hoffman, 5.1.56–9 (also a mad scene).

  13 Giraldo Presumably the ‘Master Gerald’ of 3.5.23. The confusion of name may be the Daughter’s, or the authors’, or the Daughter may be commenting sarcastically on the Schoolmaster’s pretensions (see Appendix 4, pp. 398–9).

  fantastical full of absurd ideas. Holofernes in LLL is described as ‘exceeding fantastical, too, too vain’ (5.2.528–9).

  * * *

  1–100] as verse Q 8 SD] after business Q

  14 as … legs as he can possibly be

  14–16 for … Aeneas Cf. Antony’s vision of joining Cleopatra in the Elysian fields, where ‘Dido and her Aeneas shall want troops, / And all the haunt be ours’ (AC 4.14.53–4). Leech and Bawcutt suggest that the Daughter imagines that the Schoolmaster has taught her a song about Dido and Aeneas, which she rejects as fantastical because she knows Dido will love Palamon, not Aeneas. But it is not necessary to make this connection: for, in mad scenes, can be followed by a non sequitur.

  17 stuff rubbish

  19–21 you … ferry It was a classical burial custom to provide money for the dead person to pay Charon, who ferried souls to the other side of the river Styx.

  22 blessed spirits Skeat compares ‘felices animae’ (Aeneid, 6.39 and 669).

  *are … sight Q’s reading (see t.n.) was accepted by Leech who glossed sight as colloquial: ‘a great number’. But Mason’s suggestion is grammatical and logical, given the play’s emphasis on seeing.

  23–4 livers … love The liver was thought to be the seat of the passions.

  25 Proserpine the queen of the underworld, carried off by Pluto while gathering flowers. Cf. Palamon’s first sight of Emilia in 2.2.

  26 mark me pay attention; the Q punctuation leaves it unclear whether these words refer to Palamon or her listeners.

  26 – then Q’s dash may indicate an omission, an unreadable word in the MS, or a gap to be filled in by business or improvisation.

  27 How … amiss Ophelia’s madness is also described as turning everything to ‘prettiness’ (Ham 4.5.189).

  amiss ill

  Note observe

  29 Faith … you Perhaps she imagines that someone has asked her a question about the other world.

  * * *

  22 spirits are,] Weber (Mason); spirits, as Q 26 him mark me –] Q subst.; him – mark me – Seward then.] Q; then – Dyce

  30 barley-break a country game generally played by three couples, each of which had to keep hand in hand while running; one couple, in the centre of the field, tried to catch the others as they ran past. Like other games of this kind, it was also used metaphorically for sexual coupling (Proudfoot). Because the central space was called ‘hell’, it can have a double meaning (as, e.g., in Middleton and Rowley, The Changeling, 5.3.162–4). The Daughter seems to be explaining that she knows about hell through visiting it during this game.

  we … blessed Though her version of the classical afterlife is based on famous accounts like Book 6 of Virgil’s Aeneid, the Daughter is also thinking in Christian terms (cf. 2.6.13–17).

  31 other place Waith (Oxf1) notes that Hamlet also uses this phrase for hell (Ham 4.3.34–5).

  33 shrewd measure a harsh punishment (not simply ‘measure for measure’)

  33–5 one … they … we The shifting pronouns show the Daughter, who first describes herself as dead and already ‘blessed’, realizing instead that she is in danger of damnation if she commits suicide for love.

  35–8 there … enough The traditional punishment for usurers, boiling in oil and lead, is suffered by Barabas in Marlowe, The Jew of Malta, 5.5.

  36 grease sweat: usurers are fat because they ‘devour’ the wealth of others. See Volpone, Jonson, 5: 1.1.40–3.

  37 cutpurses See note on 2.2.214.

  38 enough cooked enough

  *Q marks an exit for the Daughter here but no re-entrance. It seems more logical to delete the first exit than to add an entry; mad characters do often run in and out, like Hieronimo, Hamlet and Ophelia, but in that case one would expect someone to go after her.

  39 coins creates fantastic ideas. Cf. ‘the very coinage of your brain’ (Ham 3.4.137).

  * * *

  31 i’th’other] F; i’th / Thother Q 33 take heed! If] 1778; take heed: if Dyce; take heede, if Q 36 usurers’ grease] 1778; usurer’s grease 1711; usurers grease Q 38 enough.] enough. Exit. Q

  46 to … on’t to avoid it; ironic, since the men she mentions are presumably in hell because (like Lucio in MM) they did not marry the women they seduced

  47 continues elaborates and sustains her ideas rather than flitting from one to the other. Skeat cites ‘She is troubled with thick-coming fancies’ (Mac 5.3.38).

  47–49 ’Tis … melancholy The Doctor distinguishes between psychosis (madness) and the kind of obsessive neurosis sometimes called melancholy. The technical name for the Daughter’s condition was erotomania, or love-melancholy.

  48 engrafted fixed, implanted

  51 I were I would be

  an I’d call if I called

  52 sport joke: that is, the fact that damnation forces the two women into unwanted proximity

  another Dyce alters to th’other, on the assumption that the Daughter is still talking about the same women, but it is equally possible that she is imagining others.

  54 arras Tapestry hangings (sometimes made in Arras) provided a hiding place for lovers; see 3.5.125–6.

  a suing fellow a persistent suitor

  55 garden house a small house or bower in a garden, used for ‘banquetting’ (see Fumerton, 129) and secret assignations such as the one Angelo arranges in MM 5.1.212

  56 This song is unidentified.

  58–59 an often-noted echo of Mac 5.3.40

  60 what then? What’s to be done?

  61 affected cared for

  * * *

  48 engrafted] 1778; engraffed Q 52 another] Q; th’ other Dyce

  65–6 a great penn’orth on’t a good bargain (penny-worth) in it

  66 to give … state if I gave half of what I am worth

  67 unfeignedly genuinely

  69 That … eye looking too much at Palamon; cf. 2.3.8–10. The Doctor plays on intemperate and distempered, both of which mean out of temper, or balance.

  71 execute … faculties fulfil their normal functions

  72 in … vagary wandering far and wide

  73–4 Confine … permitted Confinement in a dark room was a common treatment for madness, because of the belief that seeing too many different objects was harmful (see TN 4.2).

  76 eat with her As he explains below (94–5), the Doctor wants to persuade the Daughter to eat. Medical books of the period tell how mental patients are tricked into eating or sleeping and thus cured.

  commune talk

  77 beats upon is obsessed by: cf. ‘still ’tis beating in my mind’ (Tem 1.2.176).

  79 pranks … madness means by which her madness plays tricks and leaps about. Similarly, the doctor in Webster, DM, asks his patient, ‘Can you fetch a frisk, sir?’ (5.2.71).

  80–1 such … prison Cf. 2.3.16–17; the Doctor has not heard her speak of this, but the inconsistency would not be noticed.

  80 green naive, youthful

  81 stuck in decked with

  83 compounded odours perfumes (also recommended as a cure for melancholy; e.g. in Lemnius, A8–8v)

  84 grateful pleasing

  84–5 become Palamon fit the role of Palamon

  * * *

  68 unfeignedly] 1778; unfainedly Q

  85–6 for … thing This sounds like a quotation from a song, but I have not traced it.

  86–7 carve her Q’s reading has been emended to crave and carve for her. But carve can be used intransitively with a dative pronoun. Webster’s WD shows that to carve to someone was a sign of respect: ‘I carved to him at supper-time.’ ‘You need not have carved him in faith’ (1.2.126–9).

  87 still among from time to time

  90 play-feres companions, playfellows (already archaic)

  repair go

  91 tokens love-tokens, small gifts

  92 suggested for him were wooing on his behalf

  93 bring persuade

  94 reduce restore

  out of square disordered

  95 regiment rule, regimen

  96 it this treatment

  approved tried with success

  how … not innumerable times

  96–7 to make … this I hope to make the number more, thanks to this case.

  98 passages stages, events

  99 appliance treatment (drugs, diet, etc.)

  99–100 hasten the success get results as soon as possible; success means result, whether good or bad

  100 SD The flourish in Q’s SD obviously belongs with the entrance of Theseus at the beginning of the next scene.

  * * *

  86–7 carve her] F; crave her Q; carve for her Seward 5.1] Actus Quintus. / Scæna I. Q 0.1 Flourish.] Dyce; after 4.3.100 Q

  5.1

  5.1 In KT the lists are held in an amphitheatre with an altar to each of the three gods. It is not clear whether the play requires one onstage altar or three. Seward treats the three invocations as separate scenes; Montgomery (Oxf), suggests that they may be thought of as occurring simultaneously in three different locations. But the atmosphere of each temple could be created by the colours and trappings of its group of worshippers.

  2 Tender offer

  3 fires (two syllables)

  4 swelling billowing into clouds

  6 will honour that will honour

  7 SD This bare direction probably indicates a spectacular processional entrance to music, with each side, as Montgomery (Oxf) suggests, emerging from one of the two stage doors; the knights, elaborately costumed and armed, must live up to their descriptions in 4.2.

  9 german closely related

  10 ‘to destroy your closeness of relationship and affection’. The image may derive from one of the strangest episodes of Statius’ Thebaid (12.420–46), when the wife and sister of Polynices, wandering over the Theban battlefield, attempt to burn his body on the funeral pyre of his brother and mortal enemy Eteocles. They find that even the flames on the pyre are in conflict, symbolizing the undying hatred of the two men. Cf. ‘Like the two slaughtered sons of Oedipus, / The very flames of our affection / Shall turn two ways’ (Webster, WD, 5.1.197–200).

  11 dove-like in peace

  15 as … ye as you are acting in the sight of the gods

  16 prayers (two syllables)

  * * *

  7 SD Flourish of cornets] Weber; after 5 Q

  17 part my wishes divide my good wishes equally