Footnotes:
[1] Quotations taken, with a few obvious emendations, from Mr. Farmer’s reproduction in the Tudor Facsimile Texts.
[2] The hurt of impurity, not of death.
[3] Altered unnecessarily to out after by Mr. Carew Hazlitt in his edition of Dodsley’s Old English Plays. Appius’ words imply that the two principles pass from his life, and the spectators are asked to imagine that they actually see the process.
[4] Text, Mansipula.
[5] Altered by Hazlitt to “brave.” It probably means “embrace.”
[6] A horse that does not see where it is going.
[7] In original, he.
[8] Heed.
[9] Make me detestable.
[10] Professor Butler, to whom I am indebted for other emendations of the passage, which is very corrupt in the printed text, suggests Palladis, which gives a meaning, the Virgin goddess, and saves the metre. But I am not sure that R. B. had any bigoted objection to false quantities.
[11] I.e. “whoever.”
[12] Fall, causative; “the tears she copiously shed.”
[13] Charybdis.
[14] Original, was.
[15] So Hazlitt; in the original Adrice.
[16] In the original, Lacefaer.
[17] It is from this that I quote. I have not been able to see either the first edition or the reprint for the Spenser Society.
[18] Exchanged.
[19] Has small consideration.
[20] Mad.
[21] Statues.
This is now assigned to the chorus.
[25] Guiding to ruin.
[28] Destruction of fair buildings.
[30] At once.
[32] Altars.
[33] Than.
[35] The original author has a right to complain:
[36] “Jodelle’s und Garnier’s Dramen sind reicher an Sentenzen als die Seneca’s, Jodelle hat mehr als doppelt so viel.” Gedankenkreis ... in Jodelle’s und Garnier’s Tragödien, by Paul Kahnt, who gives the results of his calculations in an interesting table.
{note} Insert ex.
[50] I am quite unable to agree with Herr Collischonn’s view that Muret’s play is more republican in sentiment than that of Grévin. In both there is some discrepancy and contradiction, but with Muret, Caesar is a more prominent figure than Brutus, taking part in three scenes, if we include his intervention after death, while Brutus appears only in two, and to my mind Caesar makes fully as sympathetic an impression. On the other hand, the alleged monarchic bias of Grévin’s work cannot be considered very pronounced, when, as M. Faguet mentions in his Tragédie française au XVIͤ Siècle, “it was reprinted in the time of Ravaillac with a preface violently hostile to the principle of monarchy.” But see Herr Collischonn’s excellent introduction to his Grevin’s Tragödie “Caesar,” Ausgaben und Abhandlungen, etc., LII.
[51] See Ruhnken’s edition of Muretus. For the text I have generally but not always used Collischonn’s reprint.
[52] Ancien Théatre François, Tome iv. ed Viollet Le Duc.
[53] As he puts it, rather comically to modern ears:
[54] Enumerated by Collischonn in his excellent edition, see above. He has, however, overlooked the one I give.
[55] Tragédie Française au XVIͤ Siècle.
[56] Garnier’s Tragédies, ed. Foerster.
[57] Works of Sir William Alexander, Glasgow, 1872. Julius Caesar, II. i.
[58] Apologie for Poetrie, Arber’s reprint.
[59] There is an edition of this by Miss Alice Luce, Literarhistorische Forschungen, 1897, but I am told it is out of print, and at any rate I have been unable to procure it. The extracts I give are transcripts from the British Museum copy, which is indexed thus: Discourse of Life and Death written in French by P. Mornay. Antonius a tragedie, written also in French by R. Garnier. Both done in English by the Countesse of Pembroke, 1592. This edition has generally been overlooked by historians of the drama, from Professor Ward to Professor Schelling (probably because it is associated with Mornay’s tract), and, as a rule, the translation of Garnier is said to have been first published in 1595. That and the subsequent editions bear a different title from the neglected first; the Tragedie of Antonie, instead of Antonius.
[60] That is, in the original version. Subsequently Daniel threw a later narrative passage describing Cleopatra’s parting from Caesarion and Rodon into scenic form, introduced it here, and followed it up with a discussion between Caesar and his advisers. This seems to be one of his attempts to impart more dramatic animation to his play, and it does so. But as dramatic animation is not what we are looking for, the improvement is doubtful.
[61] Dr. Grosart’s Edition.
[62] Kyd, ed. Boas. The Cornelia has also been edited by H. Gassner; but this edition, despite some considerable effort, I have been unable to procure.
[63] The last point is mentioned by Mr. Furness (Variorum Edition), who cites others, of which one occurs in Plutarch and the rest seem to me untenable or unimportant.
[65] Étude sur Garnier, 1880.
[66] I quote from Dodsley’s Old English Plays, ed. Hazlitt.
[67] Professor Ward calls attention to the stage direction(Act iii.): “Enter Sylla in triumph in his chair triumphant of gold, drawn by four Moors; before the chariot, his colours, his crest, his captains, his prisoners; ... bearing crowns of gold and manacled.” This, he points out, seems a reminiscence of the similar situation in Tamburlaine II., Act iv. sc. 3.: “Enter Tamberlaine drawn in his chariot by the Kings of Trebizon and Soria, with bits in their mouths, reins in his left hand, and in his right hand a whip with which he scourgeth them.” From this Professor Ward infers that Lodge’s play belongs approximately to the same date as Marlowe’s, possibly to 1587. It may be so, but there are some reasons for placing it later. The mixture of rhyme and prose instead of the exclusive use of blank verse would suggest that the influence of Tamburlaine was not very immediate. It has some points of contact with the Looking Glass which Lodge wrote along with Greene. It has the same didactic bent, though the purpose is political rather than moral, for the Wounds of Civill War enforces on its very title page the lesson that Elizabethans had so much at heart, the need of harmony in the State. Like the Looking Glass it deals rather with an historic transaction than with individual adventures, for it summarises the whole disastrous period of the conflict between Marius and Sulla. And like the Looking Glass it visualises this by scenes taken alike from dignified and low life, the latter even more out of place than the episodes of the Nineveh citizens and peasants in the joint work. In so far one is tempted to put the two together about 1591. And there is one detail that perhaps favours this view—the introduction of the Gaul with his bad English and worse French. In Greene’s James IV. (c. 1590) the assassin hired to murder Queen Dorothea is also a Frenchman who speaks broken English, and in that play such a personage is quite in keeping, violating the probabilities neither of time nor of place. It is, therefore, much more probable that, if he proved popular, Lodge would reproduce the same character inappropriately to catch the applause of the groundlings, than that Lodge should light on the first invention when that invention was quite unsuitable, and that Greene should afterwards borrow it and give it a fit setting. In the latter case we can only account for the absurdity by supposing that Lodge carried much further the anachronism in Cornelia of “the fierce and fiery-humour’d French.”
[68] Floor.
[69] Probably: “Qui est lá?” the misprint of i for l is common.
[70] Pink eyes.
[71] It is in the Dyce Collection in South Kensington and is inaccessible to me. It is described as claiming sympathy for Antony’s neglected wife.
[72] I.e. more tragic in the technical sense. Of course Mr. Bradley is quite aware that as it stands Coriolanus is “a much nobler play.” It is right to add that he expresses no opinion whether the actual close of Shakespeare’s play “was due simply to his unwillingness to contradict his historical authority on a point of such magnitude.” At any rate, I am convinced that in his eyes that was a sufficient ground.
[73] Of course Shakespeare could not be expected to anticipate the later theories and researches that go to prove that the political power of plebs and tribunate has been considerably antedated.
[74] Even the intervention of the Bastard in King John was guaranteed by the old play and was doubtless considered authentic by Shakespeare.
[75] See Plutarch’s works passim, especially North’s version of the Lives reprinted in the Tudor Translations, and the Morals translated by Philemon Holland (1603). See also Archbishop Trench’s Lectures on Plutarch.
[76] Instructions for them, etc.
[77] Life of Demosthenes.
[78] Love.
[79] Love.
[80] = Coax.
[81] Dolls.
[82] Epistle to Wife.
[83] Noctes Atticae, i. xxvi.
[84] Cato Major.
[85] Polypes.
[86] That a man cannot live pleasantly, etc.
[87] Instructions for them, etc.
[88] Even in the narrative passages one is conscious that the descriptions have been worked up. Take, e.g. the following passage from the Life of Marius:—
Ἐπεὶ δὲ πολλοὺς τῶν Ἀμβρώνων οἰ Ῥωμαῖοι διαφθείραντες ἀνεχώρησαν ὀπίσω καὶ σκότος ἐπέσχεν, οὐχ ὥσπερ εὐτυχήματι τοσούτῳ τὸν στρατὸν ἐδέξαντο παιᾶνες ἐπινίκιοι καὶ πότοι κατὰ σκηνὰς καὶ φιλοφροσύναι περὶ δεῖπνα, καὶ, τὸ πάντων ἥδιστον ἀνδράσιν εὐτυχῶς μεμαχημένοις, ὕπνος ἤπιος, ἀλλ’ ἐκείνην μάλιστα τὴν νύκτα φοβερὰν καὶ ταραχώδη διήγαγον. Ἦν μὲν γὰρ αὐτοῖς ἀχαράκωτον τὸ στρατόπεδον καὶ ἀτείχιστον, ἀπελείποντο δὲ τῶν βαρβάρων ἔτι πολλαὶ μυριάδες ἀήττητοι καὶ σνμμεμιγμένων τούτοις, ὅσοι διαπεφεύγεσαν, τῶν Ἀμβρώνων ὀδυρμὸς ἦν διὰ νυκτὸς, οὐ κλαυθμοῖς ούδὲ στεναγμοῖς ἀνθρώπων ἐοικῶς, ἀλλὰ θηρομιγής τις ὠρυγὴ καὶ βρύχημα μεμιγμένον ἀπειλαῖς καὶ θρήνοις ἀναπεμπόμενον ἐκ πλήθους τοσούτου τά τε πέριξ ὄρη καὶ τὰ κοῖλα τοῦ ποταμοῦ περιεφώνει. Καὶ κατεῖχε φρικώδης ἦχος τὸ πεδίον.
Or take this from the Life of Sulla:—
Τὴν δὲ κραυγὴν καὶ ἀλαλαγμὸν οὐκ ἔστεγεν ὁ ἀὴρ ἐθνῶν τοσούτων ἅμα καθισταμένων εἰς τάξιν. Ἤν δὲ ἅμα καὶ τὸ κομπῶδες καὶ σοβαρὸν αὐτῶν τῆς πολυτελείας οὐκ ἀργὸν οὐδὲ ἄχρηστον εἰς ἔκπληξιν, ἀλλ’ αἵ τε μαρμαρυγαὶ τῶν ὅπλων ἠσκημένων χρνσῷ τε καὶ ἀργύρῳ διαπρεπῶς αἵ τε βαφαὶ τῶν Μηδικῶν καὶ Σκυθικῶν χιτώνων ἀναμεμιγμέναι χαλκῷ καὶ σιδήρῳ λάμποντι πυροειδῆ καὶ φοβερὰν ἐν τῷ σαλεύεσθαι καὶ διαφέρεσθαι προσέβαλλον ὄψιν, ὤστε τοὺς Ῥωμαίους ὑπὸ τὸν χάρακα συστέλλειν ἑαυτοὺς καὶ τὸν Σύλλαν μηδενὶ λόγῳ τὸ θάμβος αὐτῶν ἀφελεῖν δυνάμενον βιάζεσθαί τε ἀποδιδράσκοντας οὐ βονλόμενον ἡσυχίαν ἄγειν καὶ φέρειν βαρέως ἐφυβρίζοντας ὁρῶντα κομπασμῷ καὶ γέλωτι τοὺς βαρβάρους.
This is very different from the unstudied charm of Herodotus. Even in North’s translation, though something of the cunning has been lost in the selection and manipulation of the words, it is easy to see that the pictures are elaborate both in their general effect and their details.
Now the Romaines, after they had overcome the most parte of the Ambrons, retyring backe by reason the night had overtaken them, did not (as they were wont after they had geven such an overthrow) sing songes of victory and triumphe, nor make good chere in their tentes one with an other, and least of all sleepe: (which is the best and sweetest refreshing for men that have fought happely), but contrarily they watched all that night with great feare and trouble, bicause their campe was not trenched and fortified, and bicause they knewe also that there remained almost innumerable thowsandes of barbarous people, that had not yet fought: besides also that the Ambrons that had fled and scaped from the overthrow, did howle out all night with lowd cries, which were nothing like men’s lamentacions and sighes, but rather like wild beastes bellowing and roaringe. So that the bellowinge of such a great multitude of beastly people, mingled together with threates and waylinges, made the mountains thereabouts and the running river to rebounde againe of the sounde and ecco of their cries marvellously: by reason whereof, all the valley that lay between both, thundered to heare the horrible and fearfull trembling.
The ayer was even cut a sunder as it were with the violence of the noyse and cries of so many sundry nations, which altogether did put them selves in battell ray. The sumptuousness of their furniture moreover, was not altogether superfluous and unprofitable, but served greatly to feare the beholders. For the glistering of their harnesse, so richly trimmed and set forth with gold and silver, the cullers of their arming coates upon their curaces, after the facion of the Medes and Scythians, mingled with the bright glistering steele and shining copper, gave such a showe as they went and removed to and fro, that made a light as clere as if all had bene on a very fire, a fearfull thing to looke upon. In so much as the Romaines durst not so much as once goe out of the trenches of their campe, nor Sylla with all his perswasion coulde take away this great conceived feare from them: wherefore, (and bicause also he would not compell them to goe forth in this feare) he was driven not to stirre, but close to abide, (though it grieved him greatly) to see the barbarous people so proudly and villanously laugh him and his men to scorne.
[89] There are so many good things, despite all the inevitable mistakes, in Dryden’s Life of Plutarch, that one half regrets that Professor Ker’s plan did not allow him to include at least part of it in his admirable selection. Thus, in excuse for omitting the catalogue of Plutarch’s lost works, which had been given in full in the Paris edition: “But it is a small comfort to the merchant to pursue his bill of freight when he is certain his ship is cast away; moved by the like reason, I have omitted that ungrateful task.”
[90] De Quincey says: “Nor do I believe Wordsworth would much have lamented on his own account if all books had perished, except the entire body of English poetry and Plutarch’s Lives.... I do not mean to insinuate that Wordsworth was at all in the dark about the inaccuracy or want of authentic weight attaching to Plutarch as historian, but his business with Plutarch was not for purposes of research; he was satisfied with his fine moral effects.” So too one of Plutarch’s latest editors, Mr. Holden, says in a similar sense: “Plutarch has no idea of historic criticism.... He thought far less of finding out and relating what actually occurred than of edifying his readers and promoting virtue.”
[91] Johnson’s Life, ed. B. Hill, i. 31.
[92] Life of Alexander.
[93] See De Blignières’ Essai sur Amyot, and Amyot’s translations passim, with the prefatory epistles.
[94] ii. viii., De l’affection des pères aux enfants.
[95] Froude, Council of Trent, chap. xii.
[96] See M. de Job’s remarks in Petit de Julleville’s Littérature Française.
[97] Twelve volumes!
[98] Vive Dieu! vous ne m’auriés sceu rien mander qui me fust plus agréable que la nouvelle du plaisir de lecture qui vous a prins. Plutarque me soubrit toujours d’une fresche nouveauté; l’aymer c’est m’aymer, car il a esté longtemps l’instituteur de mon bas age: ma bonne mère à laquelle je doibs tout, et qui avoit une affection si grande de veiller à mes bons deportmens, et ne vouloit pas (ce disoit-elle) voir en son filz un illustre ignorant, me mist ce livre entre les mains, encores que je ne feusse à peine plus un enfant de mamelle. Il m’a esté comme ma conscience et il m’a dicté à l’oreille beaucoup de bonnes honestetés et maximes excellentes pour ma conduite, et pour le gouvernment de mes affaires.