Eds. 1600, 1606, 1613, "Sea-borders."—Ed. 1598, according to Malone, has "sea-borderers;" and so eds. 1629, 1637.
1
The Arguments are by Chapman, who also divided Marlowe's portion of the form into the First and Second Sestiad.
2
Eds. 1600, 1606, 1613, "Sea-borders."—Ed. 1598, according to Malone, has "sea-borderers;" and so eds. 1629, 1637.
3
Some editions give "wore."
4
Some eds. have "rockt," which may be the right reading.
5
So ed. 1637.—The earlier editions that I have seen read "may."
6
Cf. Venus and Adonis (l. 3)—
"Rose-cheek'd Adonis hied him to the chace."7
So Hamlet i. 1—
"The moist star,Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands."8
"Thrilling—tremulously moving."—Dyce. Perhaps the meaning rather is penetrating—drilling its way through—"the gloomy sky."
9
Variegated (Lat. discolor).
10
Dyce quotes a passage of Harington's Orlando Furioso where "flowre" (floor) rhymes with "towre."
11
Ed. 1600 and later 4tos. "Tail'd." For the coupling of "Vailed" with "veiling," cf. 2. Tamb. v. iii. 6. "pitch their pitchy tents."
12
This line is quoted in As you like it, iii. 5:—
"Dead shepherd, now I find thy saw of might,—Who ever lov'd, that lov'd not at first sight."13
"A periphrasis of Night." Marginal note in ed. 1598.
14
Lines 199-204, 221-222, are quoted, not quite accurately, by Matthew in Every Man in his Humour, iv. 1.
15
Some eds. give "between."
16
Cf. Shakespeare, Sonnet cxxxvi.—
"Among a number one is reckoned none."17
Some eds. read "sweet."
18
Cf. Second Sestiad, l. 73—
"She with a kind of granting put him by it."19
This line is quoted in England's Parnassus with the reading "ripest."
21
"To the 'beldam nurse' there occurs the following allusion in Drayton's Heroical Epistle from Queen Mary to Charles Brandon:—
'There is no beldam nurse to powt nor lowerWhen wantoning we revell in my tower,Nor need I top my turret with a light,To guide thee to me as thou swim'st by night.'"—Broughton.22
So the old eds.—Dyce reads "about."
23
We are reminded of Lycidas:—
"Comes the blind Fury with the abhorrèd shearsAnd slits the thin-spun life."24
Omitted in ed. 1600 and later 4tos.
25
This word cannot be right. Query, "high-aspiring?"
26
Cf. Rom. and Jul. v. 1—
"I dreamed my lady came and found me dead,Strange dream that gives a dead man leave to think!—And breathed such life with kisses in my lips,That I revived and was an emperor."27
Omitted in eds. 1600, 1606, 1613, and 1637.
29
Rooms were strewed with rushes before the introduction of carpets. Shakespeare, like Marlowe, attributed the customs of his own day to ancient times. Cf. Cymb. ii. 2—
"Our Tarquin thusDid softly press the rushes ere he wakenedThe chastity he wounded."31
Some eds. give "O, none have power but gods."
32
"In ages and countries where mechanical ingenuity has but few outlets it exhausts itself in the constructions of bits, each more peculiar in form or more torturing in effect than that which has preceded it. I have seen collections of these instruments of torments, and among them some of which Marlowe's curious adjective would have been highly descriptive. It may be, however, that the word is 'ring-led,' in which shape it would mean guided by the ring on each side like a snaffle."—Cunningham.
33
Some eds. give "so faire and kind." Cf. Othello, iv. 2—
"O thou windWho art so lovely-fair and smell'st so sweet."34
Ed. 1613 and later eds. "upstarting."
36
Some eds. give "shallow."
37
In the old eds. this line and the next stood after l. 300. The transposition was made by Singer in the edition of 1821.
38
Old eds.—"then … displaid," and in the next line "laid."
39
Old eds. "heare" and "haire."
41
Pluto was frequently identified by the Greeks with Plutus.
42
Old eds. "day bright-bearing car."
43
Dinged, dashed. Some eds. give "hurled."—Here Marlowe's share ends.
44
This Epistle is only found in the Isham copy, 1598.
46
"He calls Phœbus the god of gold, since the virtue of his beams creates it."—Marginal note in the Isham copy.
