"Here was thy father's bed, here in my breast; 1 Immure, shut in. 359 1189 NOTES TO VENUS AND ADONIS. Pocula Castaliis plena ministret aquis." The couplet, by the way, is from Ovid's Amores, bk. I. Elegy xv. lines 35, 36, a poem which, as Professor Baynes notes, had not been translated into English; when Marlowe's Version first appeared is not certain, perhaps, as Gifford thinks, in 1598. The rendering of this particular Elegy (xv.) was evidently by Ben Jonson; see the Poetaster, i. 1 (page 107 in Routledge's edition), where the poem has undergone some revision and alterations from its original form as published in Marlowe's volume. Thus the first version of the present couplet runs: Let base-conceited wits admire vild things; while in The Poetaster it stands, quaintly enough: Kneel hinds to trash: me let bright Phoebus swell -Ben Jonson, Works, p. 107. Marston is probably sneering at Shakespeare when he says in the poem to the third book of his Satires: I invocate no Delian deitie, No sacred ofspring of Mnemosyne; I pray in aid of no Castalian muse. -Works, edn. 1856, iii. p. 285. 2. Dedication: the first heir of my INVENTION. -So Marston describes his Pigmalion as being a "young newborn invention;" and again in the lines To his Mistres writes: I invocate no other saint but thee, -Works, iii pp 200, 202. Some critics regard Marston's Pigmalion (1598) as a parody of Venus and Adonis; others, as an imitation of Shakespeare's poem. For myself, I must confess I cannot trace the supposed resemblance. Shakespeare, by the way, may conceivably be the fifth poet described in the sixth satire of the Scourge of Villanie (1598) (Works, iii. pp. 275, 276). 3. Dedication: and never after EAR.-See note on unear'd, Sonnet iii. 5. 4. Lines 1, 2: Even as the sun, &c.-One of Gullio's pla | giarisms in The Returne from Parnassus, iii. 1. 1052, 1053 (Parnassus, Three Elizabethan Comedies, 1597–1602, ed. Macray, p. 58). 5. Line 3: ROSE-CHEEK'D Adonis. -Perhaps Shakespeare owed this beautiful epithet to Marlowe; cf. Hero and Leander, the first sestiad, 93: Rose-cheek'd Adonis kept a solemn feast. -Bullen's Marlowe, iii g It found favour with Burton; see The Anatomy, p 511. Chatto & Windus' Reprint, 1881. Compare, too, Weever's 22nd epigram: Rose-checkt Adonis with his amber tresses and Timon of Athens, iv 3 86. 6. Lines 5, 6: Sick-thoughted Venus, &c.—This couplet, too, is quoted in The Returne from Parnassus, iii. 1 1006, 1007: Gull. Pardon, faire lady, thoughe sick-thoughted Gullio maks amaine unto thee, and like a bould-faced sutore 'gins to woo thee. -Parnassus, ed. Macray, p. 56. 7. Line 9: STAIN to all nymphs.-That is, eclipsing all nymphs; so in Coriolanus, i. 10. 18: "suffering stain"= being surpassed. See note on Sonnet xxxiii. 14. 8. Lines 11, 12: Nature that made thee, &c.-See again The Returne, iii. 1. 1022, 1023, p 57 9 Line 26: The PRECEDENT of pith -So Malone Quartos all have president. The 13. Line 125: These BLUE-VEIN'D violets whereon we lean. I find the same graceful epithet applied to the violet by Day in The Parliament of Bees, Character i. line 7: The blue-veined violets, and the damask rose. So in a charming lyric in England's Helicon: Express When she doth walk? Scarce she does the primrose head Depress, Or tender stalk Of blue-vein'd violets, Whereon her foot she sets, -Bullen's Reprint, p. 88. 14. Line 130: Beauty within itself, &c.-Compare Sonnet ix. 11, 12: But beauty's waste hath in the world an end, 15. Line 140: Mine EYES are GRAY.-See Two Gentlemen of Verona, note 111; also Titus Andronicus, ii. 2. 1. 16. Line 147: Or, like a nymph, &c.-These lines are not unsuggestive of Midsummer Night's Dream, ii. 1. 85, 86. 17. Line 157: Is thine own heart to thine own face affected?-This curious idea of self-love meets us in Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdess, iv. 4: Dearer than thou canst love thyself though all The self-love were within thee that did fall With that coy swain that now is made a flower. -Beaumont & Fletcher, in Mermaid Series, vol. ii. p. 383: the swain in question being, of course, Adonis. Compare, too, a stanza in Bullen's Lyrics (1887), pp. 63, 64: O let not beauty so forget her birth That it should fruitless home return to earth! Love is the fruit of beauty, then love one! Not your sweet self, for such self-love is none. 18. Line 161: NARCISSUS so himself, &c. -For similar references cf. Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 5. 96: "Hadst thou Narcissus in thy face;" and The Faithful Shepherdess, i. 3: See Two Gentlemen of Verona, note 22. 27. Line 310: She puts on outward STRANGENESS. -See note on "look strange," Sonnet lxxxix. 8. 28. Line 319: His TESTY master.-Compare Sonnet cxl. 7,8: As testy sick men, when their deaths be near, No news but health from their physicians know, Testy comes from O.F. teste = head, i.e. tête: Cotgrave gives testu heady. Tester is from same root; see Skeat, s.v. 29. Line 331: An oven that is STOPP'D.-Compare Titus Andronicus, ii. 4. 36, 37: Sorrow concealed, like an oven stopp'd, Doth burn the heart to cinders. -Leopold Shakspere, p. 101& 19. Line 163: TORCHES are made to LIGHT.-Compare Measure for Measure, i. i. 33, 34: Heaven doth with us as we with torches do, 20. Line 171: By law of nature thou art bound to breed. -See note 1 on Sonnets. 21. Line 177: TIRED in the midday heat.-Collier read 'tired attired. 22. Line 189: I'll SIGH celestial BREATH. - Compare Coriolanus, iv. 5. 120, 121: A red sky at night 's a shepherd's delight; A red sky at morning's a shepherd's warning. And another version says: If red the sun begins his race, This, of course, is the reference in St. Matthew xvi. 2, 3: "When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather; for the sky is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day; for the sky is red and lowering." According to Thiselton Dyer, the notion is "common on the Continent. Thus, at Milan, the proverb was, 'If the morn be red, rain is at hand"" (Folklore of Shakespeare, p. 62). 33. Line 469: all-AMAZ'D.-So Q. 1, Q. 2, Q. 3. The others have in a maze. 34. Line 481: The NIGHT OF SORROW now is turn'd to day.-Compare Sonnet cxx. 9, 10: O, that our night of woe might have remember'd 35. Line 482: Her two blue WINDOWS faintly she upheaveth.-See note on Sonnet xxiv. 11. 36. Line 500: SHREWD tutor.-Q. 1 and Q. 2 give shrowd. 37. Line 506: their crimson liveries WEAR, wear away; so Sonnet lxxvii. 1: Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear. Wear= 44. Line 589: whereat a sudden PALE.-That is, paleness; for substantival use of adjectives see Troilus and Cressida, note 186. 45. Line 602: Do surfeit by the eye and PINE the maw. -For pine-starve, used, however, intransitively, compare Sonnet lxxv. 13. 46. Lines 631-634: Alas, he naught esteems, &c.—This, as Professor Baynes says (Fraser's Magazine, vol. ci. pp. 631, 632) is extremely suggestive of Ovid, Metamorphoses, X. 547-549: Non movet ætas, Nec facies, nec quæ Venerem movere, leones, 47. Line 632: Love's eyes PAY.-So Malone. Q. 1 and Q. 2 have eyes paies; Q. 3, eyes payes. 48. Line 656: Love's tender SPRING. That is, love's young shoot or blossom. Compare Comedy of Errors, iii. 2. 3: Even in the spring of love, thy love-springs rot? 49. Line 657: This carry-tale, DISSENTIOUS Jealousy.— Dissentious seditious: so Coriolanus, iv. 6. 7: "Dissentious numbers pestering streets." For carry-tale compare Love's Labour's Lost, v. 2. 463. 50. Line 673: But if thou needs wilt hunt, &c.-Probably few people know that Sir Charles Sedley-risum teneatis-attempted a Venus and Adonis; or the Amour of Venus; it is "after" Shakespeare, as Mr. Punch would say, and at a respectful distance. This is a sample of the paraphrase perpetrated by Dryden's Lisideius: Forbear, regardless youth! at length forbear; Is still to Vig'rous Sylvan Sports inclin'd, Or chace the crafty Fox, or tim'rous Hare: And ne'er approach where Danger may arise. 51. Line 680: to OVERSHOOT his troubles.-Q. 1, Q. 2, and Q. 3 give ouer-shut. The reading in the text is due to Steevens. 52. Line 682: He CRANKS and crosses, &c.-For crank =run crookedly, cf. I. Henry IV. iii. 1. 98: See how this river comes me cranking in. Everyone will recollect Milton's "quips and cranks," L'Allegro, 27, where cranks is equivalent to sharp turns of wit; and an equally good illustration of the use of the word occurs in The Faerie Queene, bk. vii. c. vii. st. lii. 9: So many turning cranks these have, so many crookes. -Globe ed. of Spenser, p. 435 Compare also Coriolanus, i. 1. 141. 53. Lines 695, 696: Echo replies, &c.-In the Fortune's Tennis-ball, or Pocula Castalia (1640), of Robert Baron several very daring appropriations of lines in Venus and Adonis occur. For instance, the present couplet appears in this form: The airy queen (sounds child) each cell replies, -Stanza xviii. See the Shakespeare Centurie of Prayse, in the publications of the New Shakspere Society, p. 231. 54. Line 697: By this, poor WAT, &c.-Dyer (Folklore, p. 178) suggests that the name comes from the long ears or wattles of the hare, though properly, according to Skeat, a wattle is "the fleshy part under the throat of a cock or turkey." In any case, Wat is a recognized term for a hare; cf. Drayton's Polyolbion, xxiii.: The man whose vacant mind prepares him to the sport, 55. Line 724: Rich preys make true men thieves.-The sentiment is that of Sonnet xlviii. 14: For truth proves thievish for a prize so dear. 56. Line 757: a SWALLOWING GRAVE.-Compare "mouthed graves " in Sonnet lxxvii. 6. 57. Line 765: Or theirs whose desperate hands THEMSELVES do slay.-For Shakespeare's sentiments on this subject we may turn to Cymbeline, iii. 4. 78-80: Against self-slaughter There is a prohibition so divine That cravens my weak hand. Compare, too, Hamlet, i. 2. 131, 132. 58. Line 768: But gold that's put to use, &c.-See note on Sonnet vi. 5. 59. Line 773: this black-fac'd NIGHT, DESIRE'S foul NURSE. Compare Lucrece, 673, 674: This said, he sets his foot upon the light, For light and lust are deadly enemies. 60. Line 782: Into the quiet CLOSURE of my BREAST.Compare Sonnet xlviii. 11: Within the gentle closure of my breast. Closure inclosure is used in one other passage in the plays-Richard III. iii. 3. 10: Within the guilty closure of thy walls. Furnivall, in his introduction to the Leopold Shakespeare (p. xxxii), notes Shakespeare's predilection for words in ure, at least in his early works. 61. Lines 815, 816: Look, how a bright star shooteth from the sky, So glides he in the night from Venus' eye. "How many images and feelings are here brought together without effort and without discord, in the beauty of Adonis, the rapidity of his flight, the yearning, yet hopelessness of the enamoured gazer, while a shadowy ideal is thrown over the whole" (Coleridge, Lectures on Shakspere, Bohn's ed. pp. 220, 221). Peele has a fine use of the same simile in The Tale of Troy. Speaking of the sailing of the Greek fleet, he says: Away they fly, their tackling toft and tight, As shoots a streaming star in winter's night. -Peele's Works, p. 554. 62. Line 825: Or stonish d as NIGHT-WANDERERS often are. Compare Midsummer Night's Dream, ii. 1. 39: Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm. 63. Line 842: For LOVERS HOURS are LONG.-Compare the remarks upon "lovers' absent hours" in Othello, iii. 4. 174, 175, and see note on that passage. 64. Line 870: she COASTETH to the cry.-Coasteth to= makes towards. See Troilus and Cressida, note 261. See 65. Line 871: And as she runs, &c.-This stanza receives the honour of quotation from Democritus Junior. The Anatomy (reprint, 1881), p. 511. 66. Lines 887, 888: Finding their enemy, &c.-Reproduced almost verbatim in Pocula Castalia, stanza 17. 67. Line 899: BIDS them fear no more. Some of the later Quartos have will's. 68. Line 901: BEPAINTED all with red.-Compare Romeo and Juliet, ii. 2. 86: Else would a maiden blush bepaint my cheek. 69. Line 908: that she UNTREADS again.-For untread =retrace, see King John, v. 4. 52; and Merchant of Venice, ii. 6. 10. 70. Line 916: the only SOVEREIGN plaster.-Compare Sonnet cliii. 8: Another couplet which Baron conveyed more or less bodily, stanza 21 of Pocula Castalia. 72. Line 936: Gloss on the ROSE, SMELL to the VIOLET.We may compare Sonnet xcix. 73. Line 949: Dost thou DRINK TEARS.-Compare Titus Andronicus, iii. 2. 37: She says she drinks no other drink but tears. 74. Line 993: call'd him ALL TO NOUGHT.-So Q. 1, Q. 2, Q. 3. Dyce reads (in his second edition) all to naught. 75. Line 996: IMPERIOUS supreme of all mortal things. -Imperious imperial; see Troilus and Cressida, note 271. 76. Line 1010: Her rash SUSPECT she doth extenuate.— Suspect suspicion, as in Sonnet lxx. 13: If some suspect of ill mask'd not thy show. 77. Line 1020: And, beauty dead, BLACK CHAOS COMES AGAIN. Compare Othello, iii. 3. 91, 92: Wrapt in the bowels of a freezing cloud, Fighting for passage, makes the welkin crack. 80. Line 1053: whose wonted LILY WHITE.-Lily-white occurs as an adjective in Midsummer Night's Dream, iii. 1. 95: Most radiant Pyramus, most lily-white of hue. 81. Line 1054: With PURPLE tears.-See note on Sonnet xcix. 3, 4: The purple pride Which on thy soft cheek for complexion dwells. 82. Line 1072: Mine EYES are TURN'D to FIRE.-SO Lucrece, 1552: "His eyes drop fire;" and Heywood's Rape of Lucrece, v. 1: "turn your funeral tears to fire" (Mermaid ed. of Heywood, p. 408). 83. Line 1080: But TRUE-SWEET beauty. - First hyphened by Malone. 84. Line 1114: But by a KISS THOUGHT to persuade him thus.-Did Milton remember this passage when he wrote the first stanza of his poem On The Death Of A Fair Infant? The parallel, at any rate, is worth noting: |