Bussy D'Ambois and The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois - Part 52
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Part 52

29 _Cler._ _Here, then._ Placed by Q at the end of l.

29.

44 _bravos_. Emended by ed.; Q, braves.

73-74. Three lines in Q, broken at _conquest_, _it_, and _fortune_.

88-89. Three lines in Q, broken at _yet_, _him_, and _me_.

125 _Shattilions_. Ed.; Q, Shattilians.

144 _accursed_. Shepherd, Phelps; Q, accurst.

201 _none_. Added by ed.

210 _Char_. Shepherd, Phelps; Q, Cler.

Notes to The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois

_For the meaning of single words see the Glossary._

=168. To the right vertuous . . . Sr. Thomas Howard, &c.= Thomas Howard, born before 1594, was the second son of the first Earl of Suffolk. He was created a Knight of the Bath in January, 1605, and in May, 1614, was appointed Master of the Horse to Charles, Prince of Wales. In 1622 he became Viscount Andover, and in 1626 Earl of Berkshire. He held a number of posts till the outbreak of the Civil War, and after the Restoration was appointed Gentleman of the Bedchamber to Charles II, and Privy Councillor. He died on July 16, 1669. His daughter Elizabeth married Dryden, and his sixth son, Sir Robert Howard, became distinguished as a dramatic writer and critic. Chapman addresses to this patron one of the Sonnets appended to his translation of the _Iliad_, in which he compares him to Antilochus, and calls him "valiant, and mild, and most ingenious."

=169=, 35-36. =the most divine philosopher.= The reference is doubtless to Epictetus, the influence of whose _Discourses_ appears throughout _The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois_.

=174=, 70. =That thinke . . . that=, that do not consider heavenly bliss complete folly, when compared with money.

=175=, 71-2. =Well . . . arise.= A hypocritical appeal by Baligny to the absent Duke of Guise, of whose ambitious schemes he suspects Renel to be a supporter.

=175=, 79-82. =My brother . . . brother.= Cf. _Introduction_, p. x.x.xvii.

=176=, 97. =stands now on price with him:= is now the subject of bargaining between him and me.

=178. Monsieur taking leave of the King.= Henry apparently leaves the stage, after this formal ceremony of farewell, without speaking, for he takes no part in the dialogue, and he is not mentioned among those who _exeunt_ at l. 290.

=178=, 145. =See . . . Brabant.= The expedition of the Duke of Anjou here alluded to is that of 1582, when he was crowned Duke of Brabant at Antwerp.

=181=, 202-4. =durst . . . lady.= Cf. _Bussy D'Ambois_, I, ii, 96-179.

=181=, 204-8. =emptied . . . were.= Cf. _Bussy D'Ambois_, III, ii, 478-515.

=182=, 234-5. =When . . . commanders.= Monsieur's description in these and the following lines of Clermont's and Bussy's first appearance at Court is purely fict.i.tious.

=183=, 254. =a keele of sea-coale.= A keel was a flat-bottomed boat, used in the northeast of England, for loading and carrying coal.

Afterwards the word was also used of the amount of coal a keel would carry, i. e. 8 chaldrons, or 21 tons 4 cwt. Sea-coal was the original term for the fossil coal borne from Newcastle to London by sea, to distinguish it from _char-coal_. Cf. Shakespeare, _Merry Wives of Windsor_, I, iv, 9, "at the latter end of a sea-coal fire."

=184=, 267. =a poore knights living.= The knights of Windsor, a small body who had apartments in the Castle, and pensions, were often known as "poor knights."

=185=, 278. =But killing of the King!= Cf. _Bussy D'Ambois_, III, ii, 411.

=188=, 332-3. =Why, is not . . . worthily.= If this is a complimentary allusion to Jaques' speech in _As You Like It_, II, vii, 140-166, it is remarkable as coming from the writer whom Shakespeare at an earlier date had probably attacked in his _Sonnets_.

=188=, 335-42. =what the good Greeke moralist sayes . . . of both.= This pa.s.sage is based upon the _Discourses_ of Epictetus, bk. IV, vii, 13, which, however, Chapman completely misinterprets. Epictetus is demonstrating that a reasonable being should be able to bear any lot contentedly. "???e?? pe??a?? f??e ?a? ???s? t? ?st?? pe??a t????sa ?a???

?p????t??. ???e?? ?????? f??e, ?a? p?????."

?p????t?? is used here metaphorically, of one who acts a part in life, not, as Chapman takes it, of an actor in the professional sense.

=188-189=, 354-5. =The splenative philosopher . . . all.= Democritus.

=189=, 356-74. =All objects . . . they were.= These lines are suggested by Juvenal's _Satire_, X, ll. 33-55, but they diverge too far from the original to be merely a paraphrase, as they are termed by the editor of the 1873 reprint.

=191=, 17-18. =That . . . fire.= Cf. _Bussy D'Ambois_, V, iv, 148-53.

=194=, 75. =These . . . armes.= Cf. _Bussy D'Ambois_, V, i, 128-154.

=200-201=, 40-3. =Since they . . . wrong'd:= since these decrees ensure the performance of that guardianship, so that earth and heaven are kept true to their original order and purpose, in no case must the wrong suffered by an individual man, as he thinks, be considered really a wrong done to him.

=203=, 105. =Euphorbus=, son of Panthous, a Trojan hero, who first wounded Patroclus, but was afterwards slain by Menelaus. Pythagoras, as part of his doctrine of the transmigration of souls, is said to have claimed to have been formerly Euphorbus.

=204=, 113-22. =What said . . . power.= The reference is to Sophocles'

_Antigone_, 446-457, where the Princess justifies herself for burying her brother's body in defiance of Creon's edict.

=205=, 135-6. =For . . . authoritie.= The lines here paraphrased, to which Chapman gives a marginal reference, are from the _Antigone_, 175-7.

???a??? d? pa?t?? ??d??? ??a?e??

????? te ?a? f????a ?a? ?????, p??? ??

???a?? te ?a? ????s?? ??t???? f???.

=205=, 141. =virtuosi.= The word is here used not in the sense of _connoisseurs_, but of _devotees of virtue_. The editor has not been able to trace any other instance of this.

=206=, 157-60. =that lyons . . . prey.= Adapted and expanded from the _Discourses_ of Epictetus, bk. IV, i, 25. The original of the words quoted marginally by Chapman in a Latin version is, ???? d' ?s?

a?a??te??? d?e???e?, t?s??t? d??????te????

=207=, 181. =Simil[iter].= By this marginal reference Chapman seems to indicate that ll. 176-181 are drawn from the same source--the _Discourses_ of Epictetus--as ll. 157-160, to which the previous marginal note refers. But no such pa.s.sage occurs in the _Discourses_.

=209-210=, 205-34 =The Ma.s.sacre . . . never ma.s.sacerd.= On this strange _apologia_ for the Guise's share in the Ma.s.sacre of St. Bartholomew, see _Introduction_, pp. x.x.xix-xl.

=209-210=, 211-32. =Who was in fault . . . lost.= Freely adapted and transposed from the _Discourses_ of Epictetus, I, xxviii, 11-20.

=210-211=, 246-9. =your brave . . . deere.= Cf. Appendix B, where De Serres mentions the Count of Auvergne's "Scottish horse (which Vitry had given him) the which would have outrunne all the horses of France."

=213=, 5-6. =th'insulting Pillars Of Bacchus and Alcides.= These "Pillars" are mentioned together by Strabo (bk. III, vi), who relates that during Alexander's expedition to India the Macedonians did not see them, but identified those places with them, where they found records of the G.o.d or the hero.

=216=, 69-70. =What thinke . . . lackies coates.= Cf. Appendix B, where Nerestan has _three_ "lackquaies," who are in reality "soldiars so attyred" for the purpose of arresting the Count of Auvergne.