60

They tumble headlong down: that point I toucht,
And, seeing there was no place to mount up higher,
Why should I grieve at my declining fall?
Farewell, fair queen; weep not for Mortimer,
That scorns the world, and, as a traveller,
Goes to discover countries yet unknown.
King. What! suffer you the traitor to delay?

65

[MORTIMER is taken away. Queen. As thou receivedest thy life from me, Spill not the blood of gentle Mortimer.

King. This argues that you spilt my father's blood, Else would you not entreat for Mortimer.

Queen. I spill his blood? no.

King. Ay, madam, you; for so the rumour runs.
Queen. That rumour is untrue; for loving thee

Is this report raised on poor Isabel?

King. I do not think her so unnatural.

70

Second Lord. My lord, I fear me it will prove too true. 75 King. Mother, you are suspected for his death,

And therefore we commit you to the Tower,

Till farther trial may be made thereof;

Think not to find me slack or pitiful.

If you be guilty, though I be your son,

80

Queen. Nay, to my death, for too long have I lived, Whenas my son thinks to abridge my days.

King Away with her, her words enforce these tears,

And I shall pity her if she speak again.

Queen. Shall I not mourn for my beloved lord,

85

And with the rest accompany him to his grave?

Lord. Thus, madam; 'tis the king's will you shall hence,
Queen. He hath forgot me; stay, I am his mother.
Lord. That boots not; therefore, gentle madam, go.
Queen. Then come, sweet death, and rid me of this grief.

Re-enter a Lord, with the head of MORTIMER.

[Exit.

Lord. My lord, here is the head of Mortimer.
King. Go fetch my father's hearse, where it shall lie;

91

And bring my funeral robes. Accursed head,

Could I have ruled thee then, as I do now,

Thou hadst not hatcht this monstrous treachery.

95

Here comes the hearse; help me to mourn, my lords.
Sweet father, here unto thy murd'red ghost
I offer up this wicked traitor's head;

And let these tears, distilling from mine eyes,
Be witness of my grief and innocency.

NOTES.

In the text of this play I have introduced the following diacritical marks:

1. All resolutions of diphthongs into two distinct vowel sounds are marked with a diæresis, thus-Edward (Ed-ou-ard), licentious. 2. All syllables (especially the 'èd' in passive participles and past tenses), not usually sounded separately now, but required by the metre to be so pronounced in this play, are marked with a grave accent, thus-cursèd, safety.

3. All elisions are marked by the ordinary apostrophe, thuswhi'er (whither), fa'er (father).

4. Where either the accent or the emphasis differs from our present use, it is indicated by an acute accent, thus—exíle, tóme.

I have also ventured to spell the past tenses and passive participles of verbs more in accordance with their pronunciation and with the spelling of the Elizabethans than is customary now, thus-recal'd, pitcht, confest; not recall'd, pitch'd, confess'd.

I have also indicated in the notes, by an inverted apostrophe (thus), all words in which a vowel sound must be inserted in pronunciation. As this kind of insertion is disputed by some critics, I here append a list of those instances that occur in this play. also note on I, i, 46.

See

II, iv, 9. Lor'd (and II, v, 25, 107;
IV, i, 12; IV, iii, 7; V,

II, v,

iii, 1).

21. Warning.

II, v, 48. G'ratify.

IV, vi, 37. Mor'timer (and V, ii, 110;

V, iv, 85).

III. B'rother.

113. Sis'ter.

116. Killingworth.

53. Thur'st.

28. Secret (and V, vi, 5).

V, 43. G'racious.

V, 109. Har'd.

V, 112. B'ravely.

V, vi, 37. S'corn.

I have not thought it necessary to encumber the edition with explanations of matters accessible in any ordinary book of reference, such as mythological allusions to Circe, Elysium, and the like.

14. Die.

ACT I.--SCENE I.

Altered unnecessarily by editors to lie.

To die often

means in old writers to swoon either with pleasure or pain. 22. Tanti. This expression is used in Fuimus Troes.

Ib. Fawn. The quartos read fanne. This emendation by Dyce is the best yet proposed, but questionable. The line still wants a foot. 28. At my trencher. These words are probably an insertion; they spoil the metre.

29. Discoursing.

Accented on the first syllable, proparoxyton. All words accented differently from the present usage are marked in the text, and will receive no further notice in these comments.

46. Court.

Two syllables-almost courut. In the rest of these notes this insertion of a vowel sound between two consecutive consonants will be marked thus-court, 'being the converse of', which marks elisions: it was thought too bold an innovation to introduce this sign in the text.

55. Sylvian. Altered to sylvan by the editors wrongly. Such words are sometimes important, as, for instance, jealious in Othello, which has been similarly altered, and caused much idle guess-work to complete the deficient metre.

66. The construction is, 'shall be

transform'd
and

(pulled down,

and seem to die.'

Editors not understanding this have altered to 'shall seem to die.' 68. Here comes my lord the king. This is Dyce's reading. The quartos have, 'My lord, here comes the king,' which is absurd, as Gaueston is alone. Cunningham reads, 'By'r lord,' an utterly inadmissible lection. Marlow never uses such an expression.

70. Lancaster.

77. This earl, namely Warwick. Sworn. 105, 106. Peircy

Mowbray.

Moubery. Commonly spelled Percy,

109. Spray Generally one syllable in the Elizabethan

writers.

123. Love. So quartos; altered by Dyce to leave: in like manner he altered Gaueston in line 124 to Lancaster, not seeing that these speeches are ironical. So again in line 195 Dyce would alter true, true,' into 'prut, prut,' to the utter perversion of the sense.

121. Parley.

Dyce makes a distinction between parle and parley, parle being simply to speak (Fr. parler). This is very

doubtful.

126, 127. See the throne. . . . to float. The infinitive in the sixteenth century frequently retains this gerundive prefix (to) where we omit it.

132. Bandy-'oppose with all my force: totis viribus se opponere — DYCE, quoting Skinner.

135. Welcome. Marlow's usual pronunciation.

139. Q. I reads 'mourn'd for Hercules;' Q. 2, Q. 3, ‘for of.' 146. 'Joy-enjoy.

151. Earl.

158. Envied-hated.

160. Regiment-rule.

161. Fear'st thou thy person?-for thy person, as to thy person: a common construction in Marlow's time.

183. Channel-kennel.

190. Chaplain.

So in 3 Henry VI, II, ii, 141.

195. Convey means remove; but the bishop in his answer, 'true, true,' interprets it in the sense of 'steal.' Compare Richard II, IV, i, 313:

'Bol.
Go, some of you, convey him to the Tower.
King. Oh good! convey! conveyers are you all,"
That rise thus nimbly by a good king's fall.'

201. May beseem.

So Q. 1. Editors from Q. 2, Q. 3, read may best beseem, unnecessarily.

I. True.

6. Timeless-untimely.

SCENE II.

7. Peevish-subtle, rather than fretful.

19. Vailing-doffing, taking off.

Ib.. Bonnet-cap.

20. The king and he doth. The use of a plural subject with a singular verb is very common with the Elizabethans, whenever the notions of the persons or things indicated by the subject in any way suggest unity of actions. Many of the verbs thus used in the singular when they end in s have been explained as plurals, and dialectic plural forms in s alleged to justify the explanation. I do not believe in such a mixture of dialectic inflections as this would require, and take these verbs to be all singular.

25. Take exceptions at-object to.

26. Stomach. Are angry with, stomachari. So in II, ii, 252. 29. We'ld. Quartos, weele. The misprint of e for d is very common. The abbreviation we'd of modern editors is almost unknown in Elizabethan English.

44. What else certainly.

46. Whi'er-whither. The old forms vary between whither and whether, where and whe'er. To avoid confusion, I have used whi'er whenever whither is contracted into one syllable.

It is difficult to understand to what forest the queen could be 'walking' in Westminster. But all through this play Marlow is utterly careless as to time and place. No changes

For the

of scene are sufficient to explain his inconsistencies. manner in which plays in his time were put on the stage, and the consequent confusions of place in many of them, see P. Chasles, Collier, Malone, or my own Shakespeare Manual. 49. My lord the king. Editors, my lord, the king, as if my lord meant Gaueston. Wrongly.

54. Seeing, one syllable.

71. Banish is often one syllable-S. WALKER.

76. [Archbish.] A necessary insertion by Dyce. All such insertions are marked in [brackets] in the text.

SCENE IV.

Instead of the 'nobiles' in the stage direction, I have here and elsewhere inserted the names of the earls that come on the stage. 7. Be declined-separate either in locality or mind.

8. Moved-angry.

13. Quam male, etc.

20, 21. Traitor.

49. Fleet-go floating.

So in 1. 43.

Ovid, Metam., ii, 84 b. Quam bene c.

56. There it goes-that's the end, result.

82. Lown-loon, base fellow.

92. Common sort-common kind of people.

98. Dyce, etc., strangely alter for (in the place of) into with. 101. Compare Massacre of Paris near the end:

'The papal towers to kiss the lowly earth.'

Marlow and Peele frequently repeat their own lines in this way; Peele also repeats those of others.

102. Make. Quartos, may, a common misprint.

124. Whe'er-whether; old spelling, where.

136. The construction is, 'a tear of mine drops down for every look (of yours).' Modern editors have altered lord into love unnecessarily.

142. Pass not-care not.

172. Quartos read Circes.

173. At-on.

195. Cry quittance-pay him tit for tat, and cry we are quits. 204. Madame. So quartos, showing the pronunciation.

214. P'lead.

220. Prevail; that is, 'avail.'

227. As would be in modern usage that.

248. Respect-consideration.

265. Easely-a common form of easily.

282. Of our side-on our side. And so read Q. 2, Q. 3. 284. Mush rump. Old spelling of mushroom.

288. Buckler-uphold.

293. Penbroke.

299. Ha'ing, to be pronounced as one syllable. So seeing, doing,