18 The glass the sands of the hour glass once it has been turned upside down, an image of the irreversibility of the process that has been set in motion and perhaps also a metatheatrical reference to the end of the play.

  20 aught anything

  show show itself

  22 arm … arm one arm dominating the other

  24 parcel part (cf. ‘part and parcel’). Bawcutt suggests an allusion to the biblical ‘If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out …’ (Matthew, 5.29–30).

  25 tender behave towards

  28 To seat … confound ‘to place there another person, whom I should wish to destroy’ (Skeat); something (the stress falls on thing) shows the depersonalizing effect of the process Arcite describes

  29 port bring to port

  30 limiter God or Jove; also, perhaps, Terminus, the classical god of limits and boundaries. In Peacham’s Minerva Britanna (1612) his image is accompanied by the verse: ‘I am the bound of things, which God aboue / Hath fixt, and none is able to remoue’ (193).

  31–3 It is not clear when the men embrace or whether they do so once or twice. Palamon’s request may be reinforced at 32, to which Arcite’s reply gives consent. If Palamon’s line comments on their action, ‘One farewell’ is Arcite’s request for a second embrace, presumably just before the exit of Palamon and his knights.

  31 turn turn away and depart. They will not meet again until the (offstage) combat.

  * * *

  17 SD Exeunt] 1711 subst.; Exit Q

  34 my sacrifices ‘alluding to the fact that, if defeated, they were to be put to death’ (Skeat). Arcite sees them as sacrifices on the altar of Mars.

  36–7 the seeds … of it anything that could give rise to fear, such as apprehension (awareness) of a reason for it

  37 still always

  38 profession what we profess (soldiership)

  39 Require ask

  39–40 hearts … tigers courage and endurance. (Breath means the ability not to get ‘out of breath’.)

  41 go on go forward

  42 Else otherwise (they are to be quick to advance and slow to retreat)

  43 feat warlike deeds. Q’s feate may be a misreading of feats.

  44 garland the victor’s wreath, but also Emilia, the prize

  where (possibly two syllables)

  44–5 she sticks … flowers Various emendations (see t.n.) have attempted to regularize the metre and grammar of these lines. Both Emilia (whom Arcite called a queen in 3.1.4) and the rose (which, as Skeat thinks, he heard her praise in 2.1.136) are the queen of flowers – the most beautiful flower in the garland with which she will crown him if he wins. If where is taken as ‘whereas’, the lines could also point a contrast between the ‘force and great feat’ of Mars and the softer rewards of Venus; her statue, if it is visible, might be the she of 44.

  45 intercession prayer

  46–7 that makes … of men Cf. the ‘blood-sized field’ (1.1.99).

  * * *

  33 SD Exeunt … knights] Seward; after coz Q SD Arcite … knights] this edn; not in Q 34 sacrifices –] 1711 subst.; Sacrifices Q 37 father of] Weber (Theobald); farther off Q; farther of 1711 44 on] Q; on me Littledale she sticks] Q; she will stick Seward; she sticks, Bawcutt 46 cistern] (cestron)

  47 Brimmed with brimming over with

  48 *SD Q has only ‘they kneele’; but Theseus’ commands at 13, 61 SD and 129 SD indicate a more elaborate ritual.

  49–61 This long, sustained, carefully controlled sentence (like the one that follows the sound effects at 61 SD) requires a delivery quite unlike Arcite’s previous style. The intention may be to transform him into an embodiment of the qualities associated with Mars.

  49–50 an obvious reminiscence of ‘The multitudinous seas incarnadine, / Making the green one red’ (Mac 2.2.59–60)

  50 Neptune the sea

  *whose approach Seward’s addition (see t.n.), filling an obvious gap in sense and metre, has been generally accepted.

  51 prewarn forecast (Comets were omens of war, among other disasters.)

  52 Unearthed unearthèd; excavated (as Waith (Oxf1) notes, the earliest use in this sense recorded by OED). If it also means unburied, as Bawcutt suggests, it may be another echo of 1.1.

  53 teeming Ceres the fertile goddess of fruits and grain

  foison harvest

  53–5 who … turrets Arcite may visualize the kind of emblematic picture where divine action is shown by a hand coming from a cloud (as on the title-page of Beaumont and Fletcher’s King and No King, pub. 1619).

  54 *armipotent mighty in arms: see KT, 1982. Leigh Hunt (1855) noted that Chaucer took the adjective from Boccaccio’s la casa del suo Dio Armipotente (‘the house of the battle-strong god’ (Teseida, 7.32)), which in turn derives, as Skeat points out, from Statius’ Armipotens (Thebaid, 7.78). The phrase ‘armipotent Mars’ is used in LLL 5.2.651.

  blue clouds clouds of smoke (Proudfoot)

  55 masoned built by masons; cf. ‘And broils root out the work of masonry’ (Son 55) and Saturn’s lines in KT, 2463–5: ‘Mine is the ruin of the high hals, / The falling of the toures and of the wals / Upon the minor, or on the carpenters.’

  mak’st because walls were built for war, to keep enemies out

  56 stony girths walls

  58 laud praise

  * * *

  47 Brimmed] (Brymd) 48 SD] Dyce; subst.; They kneele. Q 50 whose approach] Seward; not in Q 54 armipotent] Seward; armenypotent Q

  59 streamer banner

  60 styled called

  61.1–3 The sound-effects need to be recognizable as those of a battle (compare the offstage ‘noise of a sea-fight’ in AC 3.10.0.3–4). They may be combined with some visual effect corresponding to the signs offered to Palamon and Emilia later in the scene. Perhaps the statue of Mars extends a garland to Arcite, signifying his triumph (the garland is referred to at 44, above, and later at 5.3.130–1 and 5.4.79–80). Chaucer describes a voice saying, ‘Victory!’; this will become the offstage shouting at 5.3.91 SD.

  61.1 as formerly See, 48 SD.

  62–6 See headnote on 1.2 for this view of war as a cure for decadent societies and cf. 1.2.23–4.

  62 enormous times ages full of enormities (crimes)

  63 o’er-rank overripe – that is, rotten

  64–5 heal’st … sick bleeding was recommended as a treatment for illnesses caused by excess. Waith (Oxf1) compares 3.1.114.

  66 pleurisy excess; a metaphorical reference to the lung condition pleurisy, sometimes spelled ‘plurisy’, which was mistakenly derived from Latin plus, pluris (more) and thought to result from a harmful excess of humours

  68.2 with … observance i.e., with whatever rituals have already been performed by Arcite and his knights

  69 Our stars fates; also, perhaps, a reference to their costumes (see Appendix 4, pp. 396–7). Cf. 5.3.19–20.

  70 argument subject of contention

  * * *

  65 cur’st] Seward; curst Q 66 pleurisy] Seward; pluresie Q; plurisy Weber 68 design march boldly.] 1711; designe; march boldly, Q

  72 blend Oxf1’s bend makes sense, as a parallel to 48, and in view of the stress both Arcite and Palamon give to proper obeisance, but so does the Q reading. The dramatists may have intended to make the two invocations exemplify, respectively, Strife and Love, the two principles that, according to Empedocles, cause the separation or blending of elements. At Ashland Palamon and his knights blended their voices, speaking the first lines of the invocation in unison.

  73 free generous. See 2.2.182n.

  do Though the subject is nobleness, the verb agrees with you (the three knights).

  77 secrets because love, especially courtly love, depended on secrecy

  78–9 To … a girl to make him weep in front of a girl (presumably because she has rejected his love). Theobald suggested into for Q’s unto (i.e., until he became as weak as a girl).

  80 choke silence

  81 alarm a call to arms, often with a roll of drums – perhaps similar to the sound-effects heard from Mars’ altar at the end of Arcite’s invocation whispers perhaps of secrets (77) or the talk of lovers in bed?

  82 flourish … crutch wave his crutch in the air. RP compares AWW 2.3.39–43; see also 83–5.

  83 Before Apollo sooner even than Apollo, the god of healing

  85 Stale gravity the grave, elderly man polled bald

  86–7 Whose … flame who in his youth leaped over (avoided) the flames of love as boys do the flames of bonfires. The verb agrees with boys rather than its actual subject, youth.

  86 bonfires (pronounced with three syllables: bon-fi-ers; see 3n.) The word still had its etymological meaning of ‘bone fires’: fires to burn bones and other rubbish, lighted at a time of peace-making (to bury the bone of discord) or of celebration (from which resulted a false etymology from the French bon (good)). Proudfoot cites Frazer, The Golden Bough (abridged edn, London, 1957, ch. 62) for the practice of jumping over them.

  * * *

  79 And] Q; To Seward unto] Q; into (Theobald) 85 polled] (pould)

  87 seventy T. Spencer comments on the fact that Palamon’s three examples of the power of Venus refer to a man of seventy, a man of eighty (108), and a man of ninety (130): ‘The result is that what impresses us … is not the power of love, but a series of images of decay’.

  88–9 make … love make a fool of himself by murdering youthful love songs with his hoarse voice (Skeat). This description (and 107–15) recalls Chaucer’s account of the elderly hero of The Merchant’s Tale, who croaks out a song to his young wife on his wedding night (1844–54).

  89–90 What godlike … upon? The list of gods vanquished by Cupid recalls the procession in The Faerie Queene, 3.11.

  90 Phoebus Apollo, in his role as sun god

  92 his mortal son Phaeton (see 1.2.85–7n.) was scorched by Jupiter’s thunderbolt; Apollo burned with love for many mortal women, such as Daphne. the huntress Diana. Palamon’s tentative reference to the well-known story of her love for the shepherd Endymion may be motivated by respect for the goddess whom Emilia serves.

  93 moist The moon is called ‘the moist star’ in Ham 1.1.118 because of its relation to the tides.

  cold chaste

  96 a wreath of roses In VA, Venus says that she led Mars ‘captive in a red rose chain’ (110).

  is (‘it’, the yoke, is?…)

  98 thy law in particular, secrecy, according to the rules of courtly love. Most of Palamon’s speech is about the importance of not talking about one’s sexual experiences. Many editors have pointed out the contrast with 3.3, where Palamon and Arcite reminisce about conquests that appear to have been common knowledge (‘I have heard’; ‘Else there be tales abroad’). At least, Palamon’s insistence in 100–1 may be true: the women mentioned by the two cousins in 3.3 do not appear to have been married. Littledale points out a close parallel to Fletcher’s Women Pleased, where the hero tells his best friend, ‘I never lov’d him, / Durst know his name, that sought a Virgin’s ruin, / Nor ever tooke I pleasure in acquaintance / With men, that give as loose raynes to their fancies / As the wilde Ocean …’ (Bowers, 5: 1.1.137–41).

  * * *

  91 his:] Seward subst.; his Q

  100 kenned … were known ‘all secrets in existence’ (Leech)

  100–1 practised / Upon tried to seduce

  101 libels attacks on women in general or particular

  102 liberal licentious

  103 betray a beauty (by talking about her in public)

  105 large confessors men who boast – both much and grossly (Riv, paraphrase) – of their sexual triumphs hotly angrily

  106–7 If … wronged Palamon is quoting his own words.

  106 If … mothers a proverbial rebuke, used only by men, to remarks that, by degrading all women, ultimately reflect even on the legitimacy of the speaker’s birth (Dent, M1201.1). Cf. Troilus’ refusal to believe that he has just heard Cressida betraying him: ‘Think we had mothers’ (TC 5.2.130).

  109 brided married

  thy Venus’

  110 To put … dust not only to breathe life into the half-dead old man (as God created Adam from dust: Genesis, 2.7), but to create new life from him by making his bride pregnant

  aged cramp the rheumatism incident to old age

  111 screwed … round twisted his straight (or sturdy) foot; perhaps alludes to squaring the circle

  113–14 Torturing … spheres His eyes rolled in his head until they seemed ready to come out of their sockets. Cf. Ham 1.5.17.

  114–15 what … torture In so far as he moved, it was with the jerks and twitches of someone being tortured.

  115 anatomy skeleton

  116 fere wife

  * * *

  104 simpering] (simpring)

  118 And … her? Many commentators take this to be sarcastic and it is often cut in performance. But RSC’s Gerald Murphy spoke with excited intensity, as if describing a miracle.

  Brief in short

  118–21 *I am … rejoicer Q’s punctuation (see t.n.) makes sense until the last two words, which are left dangling. Seward’s emendation seems to restore the intended parallelisms: Palamon claims to avoid the rake, who actually has done what he boasts of; to defy the slanderer, who gratuitously harms women’s reputations; and to sympathize with the unsuccessful (perhaps impotent?) lover, even the old man of 107–18. The implied verb with the auxiliaries have not, would and cannot is ‘do’ in the sense of ‘have sex with’.

  121 rejoicer OED defines this as ‘one who causes rejoicing’, but cites no other example from the period. The context suggests ‘encourager’.

  122 Yea an intensifier, as if Palamon thought this behaviour even more meritorious than what he had previously described

  close offices secret functions. Both close and office have the double meaning of ‘privy’; hence, perhaps, the occurrence of foulest in the next line, with the added double meaning of ‘muddiest road’ (RP).

  123 concealments things that should be concealed

  127 question quarrel

  128 true love’s merit the reward of the true lover

  129 thy great pleasure thy greatness’s, or thy grace’s, will

  129.1 doves birds sacred to Venus. They may have been held by someone behind the altar (or by an actor representing a statue of Venus) so that they would flutter but not fly away.

  131–2 RP notes a parallel with Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde: ‘But O Fortune … Soth is, that under God ye bene oure hierdes, / Though to us bestes ben the causes wrie’ (3.617–20).

  131 chase hunting-ground

  * * *

  118 am,] Seward; am Q 119 companion;] Seward; Companion Q 120 defier;] Seward; defyer Q 121 rejoicer.] Seward; Rejoycer, Q 129.2 rise to] this edn; on Q

  133 laid unto added to: Palamon is armed both with the consciousness of the purity of his love and the confidence of Venus’ favour, as shown by the music and the doves. The token might also be some small object to wear near his heart (as Emilia wears the men’s pictures).

  136 Time comes on Our time is up, or, the hour of the combat is at hand.

  136.1–6 The procession recalls the opening of the play (1.1.0.1–7), with Emilia, in her bridal dress, taking the place of Hippolyta.

  136.1 Still soft

  *recorders a contrast with the martial music for Arcite and his knights and the soft music (perhaps of a lute) accompanying the signs from Venus

  136.3 stuck adorned

  136.4 silver because appropriate to Diana, the moon goddess: the moon’s metal, according to astrology and medical theory, was silver (Proudfoot). See 146.

  hind a female deer; sometimes a symbol of virginity, and thus doubly appropriate to a procession to Diana’s altar. As the hind is being symbolically sacrificed to Diana, there is also the suggestion that Emilia, like Arcite’s three friends, is herself to be a sacrifice.

  136.6 aloof at a slight distance

  139–40 pure … snow Cf. ‘the fann’d snow that’s bolted / By th’ northern blasts twice o’er’ (WT 4.4.363–5). Most descriptions of the goddess Diana are equally applicable to the moon.

  * * *

  136 SD] Oxf; They bow after 134 Q 136.1 recorders] Littledale subst.; records Q 136.2 wearing] Dyce; not in Q maid] this edn; not in Q 136.3 maid] this edn; not in Q

  140 female knights Skeat compares ‘virgin knight’ in MA 5.3.13. The most famous female knight of the period was Spenser’s Britomart, the defender of chastity and married love, who appears in Books 3–5 of The Faerie Queene; she literally fights for chastity, but Diana’s knights normally are only metaphorical warriors.

  140–2 to thy … robe ‘Fullness of the blood’ was associated with an excess of the sanguine (sensual) humour; hence the association of whiteness with virginity, and the fascination with blushing as a symbol both of modesty and of the potential for sensuality.

  144 green eye This term puzzled Seward, who suggested ‘sheen [extremely shining]’. Weber argues, with examples, that ‘Green eyes were considered as peculiarly beautiful.’ One reason might be the association of green with youth, immaturity and innocence (RP notes the phrase ‘green-sickness’ for the illness of adolescent virgins). In Oth, green eyes are associated with jealousy (3.3.166). Emilia appears anxious that Diana not be jealous of her decision to marry.

  145 maculate spotted, impure

  146 silver mistress Diana, in her role as moon goddess

  147 scurrile scurrilous

  port short for portal: entrance

  148 wanton lewd

  149–50 my last … office my last duty as a virgin (though not strictly a vestal, or worshipper of Vesta)

  150 bride-habited dressed as a bride

  151 maiden-hearted Proudfoot (‘New’, 257–8) notes the contradiction with 4.2.46 (‘My virgin’s faith has fled me’). But the flight may have been temporary.

  a … ‘pointed I have a husband who is fated (appointed) to me (cf. 1.1.29–30).