9–10 qui . . .
nihil "Cast your venomous spite upon those who admire
themselves; I know these things to be of no value" (Martial,
13.2.7–8).
Title Twelfth
Night The masque was not, in fact, performed on 6 January but
delayed to 19 January, because the King was ill, and because he wished
to avoid extending an official invitation to the masque to ambassadors
visiting from Holland (whose mission he did not want to seem to endorse
publicly). It was hoped that the masque might be put off until the Dutch
departed; in the event, several members of the embassy attended in a
private capacity (Finett,
Finetti philoxenis,
1656, 115–16). Q’s
date (1622) really means 1622/3: it is calculated by the legal calendar,
in which the new year was reckoned to begin on 25 March.
Title 1623] F2;
1622 Q
0 TIME . . .
HONOURS]
TIME VINDICATED Q, F2 (half-title)
0 qui . . . nihil ‘Keep your venom for those poets who admire
themselves; I know that these verses are nothing’: Martial, 13.2.7–8
(trans. Orgel), lines responding to a critic who had complained about
the slightness of verses written by the poet to accompany trifles given
as presents at festival times. Unusually for Jonson, the epigraph
appears to echo the sentiments of those, such as Francis Bacon and
Samuel Daniel, who belittled the value of masques. However, the epigraph
is chosen not as a comment on the masque but to reflect on the poet
George Wither, whose self-regard and mediocre verses are satirized in
the antimasque.
1–2 Inigo Jones’s design for the first scene (
Illustration 87;
Orgel and Strong,
1.356–7) depicts the exterior of the newly completed
Banqueting House, the building in which the masque actually took place.
A related costume design (
Illustration 88; Orgel and Strong, 1.355) shows four
fantastically dressed male figures, two of whom have eyes and ears drawn
on their breasts, although the ‘Eyed’ character does not wear
spectacles, as the dialogue seems to require (43). The other two have
few distinguishing features, and neither obviously corresponds to the
‘Nose’. One wears a seemingly feline headpiece, which Orgel and Strong
link to the Cat at 216. Alteratively, he could be Chronomastix, although
he has neither bays nor a whip (see
55,
64).
1 trumpet Carried by Fame. See 24, and Jones’s designs for Chloridia (Illustration 118; Orgel and Strong,
2.450–1). Fame is female; see 64–5.
1 sounded, fame] sounded. / FAME Q, F2
1 curious:]
Nichols; Curious, Q, F2
1 CURIOUS
The ‘Curious’, as an abstract entity, appears in no other masque by
Jonson or anyone else. Its conception is rooted in the contemporary
upsurge of popular interest in politics, and in such texts as King
James’s poem on the prodigious comet of 1618, which complains about the
quantity of public gossip provoked by such events as the comet’s
appearance, and admonishes ‘the curious man’ to keep his ‘rash
imaginations’ to himself (James VI and I,
Poems, ed.
Craigie,
1955–8,
2.172). Cf.
Forest 6.19, and Madam Curiosity in
Staple.
3 the worthy
Fame’s words are directed to the spectators, but she is immediately
swamped by the Curious, over whom Time will have to ‘vindicate’ himself.
The Curious prove themselves to be ‘unworthy’ auditors of Fame, since
the pleasure they take is in infamy.
3 Fame] F2;
Time Q
3 Fame F2’s
correction to Q, which prints ‘Time’. H&S retain
Q’s reading, arguing that Time is the ultimate source of the message.
However, Fame needs to identify herself, and the verb ‘proclaims’ is
appropriate for her. The Nose’s question at 11 suggests that he does not
yet understand that Fame comes from Time.
7 inquisitors busybodies.
8 Is . . . so] Q;
not in F2
11 scent] Q, F2 (sent)
12 come] Q; came
F2
12 Saturn
Roman god, father of Jupiter, identified with the ancient Greek god
Kronos, father of Zeus and first among the Titans.
13 Protestant
Not a sectary but a member of the established church; hence (in the view
of the disaffected and puritanical) a ‘time-server’. In
Britain’s Remembrancer (
1628), George Wither listed ‘church
papists’ and ‘time-observing Protestants’ as ‘ambodexters’ of religious
strife (H&S).
15 he’s] he is F2; he’ is Q
15 Kronos] F3 (subst.); KRONOS Q, F2
16 Chronos
Literally, time (Gr.). The god Kronos was originally an agricultural
deity and had nothing to do with time, but his name became
etymologically conflated with
χρόνος in the late classical period, and was thereafter
treated as identical with it. Jonson’s double spelling Kronos/Chronos
(see collation) seems to acknowledge the historical difficulty. See also
his note to
Hym., marginal note 64, which implicitly alludes to
it, and the discussions in
Cicero, De natura
deorum (The Nature of the Gods), 2.25.64, and Panofsky
(
1939), 73–4.
A further, unrelated group of stories associated the time of Kronos’s
rule with the Golden Age (Hesiod,
Works and Days,
111), another of the key myths in Jacobean panegyric. See . below,
and the full treatment in
Gold. Age.
16 Chronos] Q, F2 (Chronos)
17 You’re] F2;
You’are Q
18 eats . . .
children Kronos was warned by a prophecy that one of his
children would dethrone him, and so he ate them as they were born. Zeus
(who would eventually displace his father) escaped being eaten because
his mother Rhea substituted him with a stone wrapped in a blanket.
19 travel] F2;
trauaile Q
19 scythe The
traditional attribute of Time the destroyer.
19 scythe] Q (sith)
20 long-sword
heavy, old-fashioned sword.
21 lord of
misrule Christmas prince; temporary leader of seasonal
festivities (see .).
21 Cincinnatus A model of republican frugality. According to
tradition, in 458
bc Cincinnatus was called
from his tiny farm and appointed dictator in order to save Rome from the
Aequi. Sixteen days later, having defeated the Aequi, he immediately
resigned his power and returned to private life. His story is told in
Livy,
3.26.
23 interpreter The primary meaning is ‘translator’, but a
‘truchman’ or presenter of the action may be implied, like Leatherhead
and the puppets in
Bart. Fair, 5.4. Cf.
Ham.,
3.2.256: ‘I could interpret between you and your love, if I could see
the puppets dallying’; and
TGV, 2.1.84.
27 T’exhibit] F2; To’ exhibite Q
28 Saturnalia
Roman midwinter festival of Saturn. In the Renaissance this was often
seen as a precursor of contemporary Christmas festivities, for during
the Saturnalia exceptional liberties could be taken: in particular,
slaves were temporarily allowed to change places with their masters and
to speak and act with impunity. See Macrobius, Saturnalia, 1.10.
32 lavish
unrestrained (referring to speech).
33 brave
grand.
34 peace! All] F2 (subst.)
; peace, all Q
38 affections
passions.
40 pining
languishing; fretting.
41 scent]
Wh; sweat Q, F2
45 room The
Banqueting House, imagined as being invaded by a crowd of curious
impertinents from the world outside. In fact, since Jones’s scenic
setting showed the exterior of the Banqueting House, ‘this room’ has to
be metatheatrical, ‘the space of performance’. Given the text’s
vagueness about settings, here and subsequently, one wonders whether
Jonson really knew what Jones’s designs were going to be.
46 CHRONOMASTIX Literally, ‘whipper of the times’ (Gr.): a
caricature of the poet George Wither (1588–1667), who offended James
with his constant satirical sniping against church and state, and was
imprisoned for libel in 1614 and 1621 (see the headnote). Wither’s
Abuses Stripped and Whipped (
1613) contained a poem called ‘The
Scourge’; the 1615 edition prefaces it with a picture of a hairy satyr
carrying a trumpet and a whip. His most recent book,
Wither’s Motto (1621), was a disaffected but astutely
unspecific broadside against injustices and abuses of power at all
levels of society, in one section of which he complains that men cannot
safely say what they really think about the times: ‘For now, these
guilty Times so captious be / That such, who love in speaking to be free
/ May, for their freedom, to their cost be shent, / How harmless e’er
they be in their intent; / And such as of their future peace have care /
Unto the Times a little servile are’ (sig. A6). Jonson’s masque could be
seen as essentially an extended response to this claim. His parody of
Wither was devastatingly effective: in
Britain’s
Remembrancer (1628), 205, Wither acknowledged that now his
enemies ‘in scorn do style me the Chronomastix’.
53, 54 satyr] Q, F2 (Satyre)
53 satyr
Woodland figure of Greek myth, part human, part goat. In the
Renaissance, confusion over the etymology of ‘satire’ led to the belief
that satire was so called because it originated in the impudence and
rudeness of satyrs – hence Wither the satirist is represented as
half-savage. Cf. the satyrs in Oberon, which are
presented more positively, if still with some ambivalence.
54 cares for
nobody This alludes to the ‘motto’ that Wither’s
Motto devotes itself to expounding: nec habeo, nec
careo, nec curo (‘I neither own [anything], nor need [anything], nor care [for anything]’). Wither means that his satire is truthful because the poet had
separated himself from dependence on worldly needs or favours, though
clearly Jonson did not agree with this. Chronomastix is buoyed up by his
fame among the vulgar.
55 bays
laurel; the trophy of poetic accomplishment.
58 we’re]
Wh; we’are Q; we
are F2
60 liberty . . .
licence Crucial terms for Jonson in drawing the line between
legitimate and illegitimate satire. Cf. 180, and
Bart. Fair, Epilogue,
3–8.
67 more . . .
accurst Cf.
EMO, Induction, 112. An
affected and outdated phrase.
69 To have]
this edn; To’haue Q; T’have F2
69 giv’n the
stoop bowed.
70 to
beside.
70 flirts
giddy sluts.
72 have have
that.
76 mountebank
charlatan.
77 Self-loving Cf. the masque’s epigraph. Wither had dedicated
his Abuses Stripped and Whipped to himself, explaining
that because his verses were so free in their opinions, they could not
be dedicated to anyone else, who might be offended with them.
78 Infamy] F2;
infamy Q
82 Breathe] Q, F2 (Breath)
83 tumour
passion.
85 rid
ridden; imagining the muse as a rider and the verse as her horse.
85 in rapture
Because of the often prophetic and apocalyptic strain in which Wither’s
satire is couched.
86 soft ambling
verse Wither adopted a deliberately loose verse, fluid,
talkative, and spontaneous, quite unlike the more disciplined and
structured aesthetic favoured by Jonson. Chronomastix’s speeches are a
pastiche of this stream-of-consciousness style. See Norbrook (
1984a), 212.
87 guard
Presumably, this means any member of the bodyguard serving in the royal
household (cf.
Christmas, 1n.;
Neptune, 119), or a
similar military figure. The ‘strong guard’ is named not for any
specific satirical purpose but to create an antithesis with ‘weak
child’; hence, all people, from the strongest to the weakest.
93 front
Wither’s Motto has an engraved frontispiece, depicting
the poet sitting naked upon a rock, crowned with laurel, and spurning
the world with his foot. The emblems that accompany him – a pillar
(suggesting fortitude), and a cornucopia (= contentment) – convey the
notion that he carries within himself everything that he needs in order
to feel at peace.
93 word the
‘motto’, which the frontispiece illustrates; see .
above.
94 at . . .
charge Not explained: perhaps Chronomastix means that the
expenses of his publications (such as the engraved frontispiece) are
born by his patrons, or that his works are so popular that they bring
him (or his publisher) huge returns. Wither’s Motto
certainly was a publishing sensation, and sold clandestinely despite
being published without licence. See . below.
96 happy he
happy is he who.
98 journeyman
skilled labourer; no longer an apprentice, but not yet a master.
99 unlettered
illiterate.
99 Major . . .
poet For ‘poet-major’, as an insulting phrase meaning ‘civic
poet’, cf.
EMI (F),
1.2.71n.
100 sempster
seamstress.
103 trench
delve. Presumably the idea is that these small citizens draw on Wither’s
verses in order to supply themselves with sentiments or phrases that
will help their trade or reinforce their seditious views. Jonson
represents Chronomastix’s admirers as vulgar or ignorant, and as putting
his verses to demeaning use.
104 pudding-wife female sausage seller.
106 with . . .
chambermaid Probably something is meant like ‘caused them to
sink into the chambermaid’s mind’; alternatively, but less likely,
‘expounded them to the chambermaid’, or ‘rushed off to share them with
her’.
113 approve
vindicate.
116 favourers
Wither claimed that his
Motto sold 30,000 copies.
Although this was an exaggeration, eight editions were rushed out in
1621 and it certainly reached a very large readership (O’Callaghan,
2000, 181–2).
117 unctuous
bounty greasy well-built woman (literally, ‘good thing’).
117 boss fat
woman. Cf. Lyly,
Works, ed. Bond,
1902 1.254: ‘if
she be well set, then call her a boss’. The ‘boss of Billingsgate’ was
the nickname of a city fountain, one of London’s principal waterworks
and tourist sights (
OED, Boss,
n.
2). Wynkyn de Worde published a
Treatise of a Gallant, with the Marriage of Fair Pusel the Boss of
Billingsgate unto London Stone (
c. 1520);
H&S note that in 1603 Henslowe paid for a play,
The
Boss of Billingsgate, now lost.
117 Billingsgate] Q, F2 (Belinsgate)
118 his
Chronomastix’s.
119 satire] Q (Satyr)
119 Goes
Gestates.
120 lies in of
is pregnant with.
123 neigh
sulphur voice inflammable views.
124 quondam former, dismissed.
125 discarded
(figuratively) sacked. The image is of a pack or hand of playing cards,
from which unwanted cards have been removed. The pack ‘o’the peace’
refers to the bench of magistrates, or justices of the peace, from which
this gentleman has been cashiered. As we learn in the next line, he was
removed for ‘levity’, i.e. for conduct unbecoming the gravity of his
office.
126 in
capite in his head; quibbling on the legal phrase ‘tenure in capite’, property held directly from the crown.
128 charge
instruction to the jury (OED, 15b).
128 out of by
quoting from.
129 carries
him carries Chronomastix’s poems.
130 Philip’s
son Alexander the Great, who found a rich casket intended for
perfumes among the trophies he had seized from Darius. Disdaining to
keep perfumes himself, he used it as a case for Homer’s books (
Pliny, Natural History, 7.29). Cf.
1H6, 1.6.25.
131 ‘O happy
man!’ According to
Cicero, Pro Archia
Poeta (‘In Defence of the Poet Aulus Licinus Archias’),
24, these were the words used by Alexander at Sigeum, at the tomb of
Achilles: ‘O happy man, who found Homer to proclaim your valour.’ The
justice inappropriately applies the phrase to the poet.
131 ‘O happy man!’]
after G; O happy Man Q
132 he i.e.
Alexander.
134 You’d] F2 (you’ld); you’ world Q
134 ’em] Q; them
F2
135–7 The printer is unlicensed, and works
clandestinely on a secret press. In 1621, the publisher John Marriott
and others were censured by the Stationers’ Company for producing Wither’s Motto without a licence; Wither subsequently
had a tract printed by George Wood, who was censured in 1622 for the
clandestine printing of texts by other authors (H&S, 10.653).
136 him
himself.
137 open
public; bright.
138 rag shred,
worthless rascal. ‘Zealous’ further implies that he is a puritan.
139 angle
obscure corner: cf.
Temp., 1.2.223, ‘In an odd angle of the
isle’.
140 emblems . . .
labours The industry (and mindlessness) of ants was
proverbial.
142 Strange . . .
love It is tempting to suppose that these four words were
really intended to be spoken by Fame, as an ironic rather than admiring
comment.
142 schoolmaster Possibly Alexander Gil the Elder (1565–1635),
high master of St Paul’s School, and schoolmaster to John Milton. In his
book on phonetics,
Logonomia Anglica (1619), 93, Gil
called Wither ‘our Juvenal’, and made similar comparisons between Daniel
and Lucan, Sidney and Anacreon, etc. In 1632 his son lampooned
Mag. Lady. Jonson’s reply is printed in ‘
Gil’, 6.541–2.
143 his
Chronomastix’s.
145 learn
memorize.
146 Hangs up his pithy sententious verse all about
the school.
147 execution
place punishment corner.
148 infantry
school children.
149 man of war
From a reference in a satirical poem ‘On Doctor Gil, master of Paul’s
School’ (in James Smith,
The Loves of Hero and
Leander,
1653, 54–6), H&S suggest that this may allude to
Cornelius Waller, a captain in the city Artillery Company mentioned in
Und.
45. However, the poem merely tells us that Waller had attended
St Paul’s School, and a specific identification seems unnecessary, since
Chronomastix’s readers are mostly types rather than particular
individuals.
149 i’the rear
at the back of the pack (the Curious are still describing the crowd of
antimasquers who have entered at 114).
150 champion
to defender of.
152–3 swears . . .
sword makes a name for him by swearing oaths in praise of his
abilities. The cross-like shape of a sword made it a suitable object on
which to swear oaths (cf. Ham., 1.5.156) – though this
soldier uses it to threaten others who don’t share his admiration for
Chronomastix (see ).
153 for . . .
youth solely for Chronomastix (
Orgel).
155–8 militant . . .
article . . . faithful These terms all belong to the language
of godliness, and imply that the soldier is a fanatic.
158 you’ve]
Wh; you’haue Q;
you’ave F2
161 Satyr] Q, F2
(Satyre)
161 come
up come forward (in order to continue the dialogue). The
direction ‘up’ implies a movement across the dancing
space towards the throne on which the monarch sat to view the
masque.
163 He
Chronomastix.
164 Has] F3; H’as
Q, F2; He has G;
He’s Orgel
166 Αποθέωσις
Apotheosis (Gr.).
167 pompion
pumpkin. The apotheosis will prove an Apokolokyntosis
(literally, ‘Being Turned into a Pumpkin’) – the title of a short skit
by Seneca poking fun at the deification of the Emperor Claudius.
169 devices
masquerades. In courtly festivity, the ‘device’ was the central conceit
or governing idea of a show. See
Neptune, 78 and
n.
176 Paul’s St
Paul’s cathedral, the centre of London gossip (as depicted in Act 3 of
EMO).
178 meet they
may they meet.
182 hold
enjoy; take possession of.
184 black
sanctus burlesque mass: a horrible noise. H&S compare
Fletcher’s Mad Lover, 4.1.101–2: ‘Let’s sing him a
black sanctus, then let’s all howl, / In our own beastly voices.’
184 on his
head upside down.
186 a coranto
a swift running dance.
186–7 bush, dog
Traditional attributes of the Man in the Moon, as in
MND,
5.1.135.
187 back afire]
Wh; backe, a fire Q, F2
187 Lachrimae ‘Tears’ (Lat.). The title of a famous tune by John
Dowland, written first as a pavane for lute, then adapted as a song
‘Flow, my tears’ in his Second Book of Airs (1600),
then printed as the first item in his collection of consort music, Lachrimae, or Seven Tears Figured in Seven Passionate
Pavans (1604).
191 this —] Q;
this. F2
192 monstrous —]
G; monstrous: Q,
F2
193 Babel
Confusion: after the Tower of Babel, when the confusion of languages
began.
194 Ay] Q (I); And F2
199 answer
satisfy.
201 Not upon
what Perhaps, ‘not even about what the theme ought to be’. The
underlying idea is that the Curious will disagree about everything, even
when they’re given their free choice of any subject to decide upon. Ian
Donaldson (privately) compares the game of vapours in Bart.
Fair, 4.4, where the object is to be as contradictory as
possible, even if the result it produces is just nonsense.
205 become
suit.
206 as . . .
it as you will have to answer for it.
207 mere
absolute.
209 Shrove
Tuesday An annual Mardi Gras-style holiday for London
apprentices, celebrating the last day before the diet restrictions of
Lent came into force. It was often marked with violent horseplay, such
as rough attacks against brothels.
211 wakes
merrymaking.
211 strutting
swaggering. Bear-baiting was a noisy, vulgar entertainment.
215 fit find
something to suit. Cf. Kyd,
Spanish Tragedy (ed.
Edwards,
1959),
4.1.70.
216–17 brought . . . away] F2;
who abuse the Curious, and driue them away: led in by the
Cat and fiddle Q
216–17 CAT
and
fiddle Characters
from the children’s nonsense rhyme, ‘Hey diddle diddle’.
218 kindly (1)
appropriately (‘after their kind’); (2) generously (ironic).
220 The . . .
ill-natured Echoing Plautus, Stichus, 208:
‘no one is curious without hoping for the worst’.
221 parts] F2;
part Q
221 blow lay
eggs (as in ‘flyblown’).
225 scene Sir John Astley reported that the second scene showed
‘the masquers in a cloud’ (see Masque Archive). Harris
et
al. (
1973), 133, link this with a Jones design showing a
colonnaded structure borne on a cloud, at the back of which is the
outline of a building resembling a Palace of Fame surrounded by zodiacal
emblems and surmounted by time (see Orgel and Strong, 1.358–9). However,
this identification is incorrect, for the design has now been identified
with Chapman’s
Masque of the Twelve Months (1619): see
Butler (
2007a).
Once again, Jonson’s account of the stage action is vague. He implies
that there was a two- or three-level arrangement, and a mysterious
darkness that concealed the masquers (231, 256), but says little
specific about the design. Perhaps he was unaware of precisely what
Jones was planning.
226 which . . . chorus This direction cannot be right, for in the ensuing
speech headings a distinction is made between the Chorus and the
Votaries. Perhaps the Votaries were a subset of the Chorus. Orgel and
Strong print a costume design which they conjecturally identify with the
Votaries (1.360).
229 Love i.e.
Venus.
230 Prepares . . .
to Creates a display appropriate to (Orgel). ‘Object’ =
something that is looked at, i.e. the masque itself.
231 yond] Q, F2 (yond’)
232 Hecate
Formidable goddess of death, associated with witchcraft and the uncanny.
Her functions overlapped with those of Diana, particularly the power
that Diana held over the dead (see
Queens, marginal note,
31). She is thus the moon-goddess’s dark aspect, Diana as she
is manifested in the underworld. In this masque, Diana herself will
descend at 364. Hecate’s name is usually pronounced as two syllables;
perhaps (as Orgel suggests) the metre requires the final ‘e’ to be
sounded, though this is not necessary if we take the line as having a
marked caesura.
232 Hecate] Q, F2; Hecatè Orgel
233, 264, 275, 389 Glories] glories Q, F2
235 Endymion A
mortal shepherd with whom the moon fell in love; she put him into a
perpetual sleep, so that she could embrace him every night. Cf.
Haddington,
150–1 and n.,
Oberon, 187 and n., and the play
Endymion (1588) by Lyly.
236 ‘Time has promised to free these Glories of the
Time at Love’s request.’
238 his own
the Golden Age, over which Saturn presided. Jonson works out these
tropes fully in Gold. Age.
240 which his
whose.
241 votes
prayers (from Latin,
votum); and cf. the now obsolete
meanings of ‘vote’ as ‘petition’, or ‘desire’ (
OED, 2,
3). The ‘votes’ are the wishes expressed by the Votaries. Cf. also below; and
Neptune, .
243 begins to
i.e. who begins to address.
243 Expect Pay
attention (from Lat. expecto, –are, to look out
for).
244–428 verses in italics, Q, F2
251 vow
prayer.
255 lights
luminaries, i.e. the Glories which illuminate the time (as at 231–5 and
368). Cf. Discoveries, 789–90: ‘Good men are the
stars, the planets of the ages wherein they live, and illustrate the
times.’
256 that . . . them The ‘darkness’ (231) or ‘shade’ (263) –
though Jonson’s description of precisely what scenic effect was involved
is not at all specific.
260 A pause.]
in margin of 260 and bracketed, Q, F2
260 A
pause See .
260 pass
away Presumably this means that Saturn and Venus, who were
‘discovered above’ at 226, would be concealed by
having clouds drawn around them again. But the SD is not accurate, for
they both contribute to the dialogue at 275 and subsequently.
(Alternatively, if the concealed masquers were on the same level as
Saturn and Venus, the gods might just stand aside to make room for them
to descend, but the SDs remain vague and non-prescriptive about the
nature of the action that is imagined.) Like the misleading statements
at 45 and 225–6, this inconsistency suggests some uncertainty in the
conception, as if the printed text represents a draft written before all
the details of the action had been agreed.
267 SH FIRST
VOTARY]
this edn; VOTARIES. / 1 Q, F2
267 takes
enchants.
268 SH SECOND
VOTARY]
this edn; 2 Q, F2
269 SH THIRD
VOTARY]
this edn; 3 Q, F2
273 figure formal arrangement.
273 entry This technical term for the masquers’ formal opening
dance, used for the first time in
Lovers
MM, 83, was an anglicization
of the ‘entrée’ from the Parisian
ballet de court. See
also
Neptune, 296;
Fort. Isles, 380; and Walls (
1996), 231.
277 I’m]
Wh; I’am Q, F2
282 Cupid Son
to Venus. His ‘fire’ is his torch, emblem of love’s ardour.
283 jocund
Sport In Horace, Odes, 1.2.34, Cupid is
paired with Iocus (Sport, or Play) as attendants on Venus. Cf. Spenser,
Muiopotmos, 189–90: ‘Love, / With his young
brother Sport’; and Milton, L’Allegro, 31–2: ‘Sport,
that wrinkled Care derides, / And Laughter holding both his sides’.
285 the nobler
sort (1) those of good birth; (2) those whose responsiveness
to love proves their nobility.
289 there . . .
Love Possibly proverbial: cf.
Tilley, L523 (Love makes one fit for
any work).
290 goes
out i.e. comes forward from the scene. Cupid moves down onto
the dance floor and mingles with the masquers and audience.
291–363 This dialogue between Cupid and Sport was
presumably sung. It is tempting, because of its length, to suppose it
was spoken, but since the pattern for all Jonson’s later masques was to
have a completely sung main masque (Walls,
1996, 84), Cupid and Sport must have
been two boy singers (cf. 292–3, ‘whilst we go sing / Fresh charges’).
Its punctuation with pauses is an unusual feature and is rare in masques
of the period. It was customary for main masques to use the songs to
cover pauses between the dances, allowing the masquers time for ‘breath’
(291); see, for example,
Oberon, 310–12, News
NW, 287–91, and Campion’s
Lords’ Masque (in
Works, ed. W. R.
Davis,
1967),
255, 258. However, the pauses in
Time Vind. do not
seem to be part of a dance sequence; rather, the dialogue must have been
semi-continuous for its meaning to be maintained across the breaks.
Since the pauses correspond with changes of address by the singers, they
were perhaps inserted to allow for Cupid and Sport to reposition
themselves as they directed parts of their dialogue to different groups
arrayed around the hall. As they have ‘gone out’ (290) from the stage
and sing from the middle of the dance floor itself, they could have
moved around a large space; and since the lutenists or other musicians
accompanying them would have to follow, it was maybe necessary for the
performers to regroup between the different sections of the dialogue,
hence producing the need to insert pauses. The only comparable SD in
Jonson comes in
Gold. Age, 129, where ‘
A pause’ is
inserted just after the discovery of the scene of light, allowing the
audience time to enjoy the spectacle before the masquers move into their
first dance. The pause at 260 above seems to be of this kind.
291, 305, 319, 334 SD]
in margin and bracketed, Q, F2
293 charges to
assaults on.
304, 318 ]
in margin and bracketed, Q, F2
309 doubt
suspect.
310 He . . .
eyes i.e. He is a ‘seeing’ Cupid, not a Cupid who instils
blind and indiscriminate desire. See the full discussion in Panofsky
(
1939).
315 draught
bowshot (
OED, Draught
n. 10). The
ladies will reward Cupid if he strikes the King – a widower since 1619 –
in love with them. In 1622–3, court gossips reported that James had
entangled himself in unusually affectionate relationships with three
young ladies: Catherine Villiers, Cicely Crofts, and Mademoiselle St Luc
(the French ambassador’s niece). See Willson (
1956), 426, 462, and E. Duncan-Jones
(
1996),
150.
317 deacon
master. The ‘deacon of a craft’ is a Scots dialect phrase, used for the
president of an incorporated trade in any town (OED,
n.1 3a).
323 the boy
Cupid.
325 pensioner
retainer. (Hence the implied sense of arrest by an official.)
326 gyves
shackles.
332 ]
this edn; placed by 335, in margin and bracketed Q,
F2
332 This direction seems to be misplaced in Q and F2,
as it interrupts both the action and the rhyme. I have placed it in its
more obvious dramatic position.
333 coarse] Q (course)
335 Love] F2;
loue Q
340 One beauty
Possibly a reference to the French ambassador’s wife? According to Sir
John Astley, she and Prince Charles led the revels (see
Masque Archive, Time
Vind., 2). More than any other of Jonson’s Whitehall
masques, the dialogue acknowledges the presence of particular
individuals in the audience.
344 they’ve]
Wh; they’haue Q;
they have F2
347 of a sort
of equivalent beauty. If Cupid makes invidious distinctions by singling
out an individual, he will insult all the other court ladies.
350 Idalian
brawls Dances sacred to Venus. See
Vision, 216n.
351 danced . . .
down outdid even Venus in dancing.
353 Young
bloods ‘Hot sparks, men of fire’ (OED,
Blood, n. 15a).
362 See so
Ensure that.
363 that . . .
fires in order to avoid drinking down burning passions.
365 HIPPOLYTUS
Son of Theseus, renowned as a hunter. He was a victim of misplaced
desire, for his stepmother fell in love with him, and when he resisted
caused him to be exiled. Killed by a sea-monster, he was revived and put
under the protection of Diana, in her aspect as patron of virginity, and
given the name Virbius (‘twice a man’). See Donaldson (
1997a), 1–2.
365 the whole . . . comes] F2;
not in Q
368 these
lights the Glories of the Time (see and note above).
371 orbs The
hollow and concentric spheres on which the planets and fixed stars were
at this time believed to move.
373 Cephalus
Another huntsman, who remained chaste when Aurora attempted to seduce
him. He doubted the fidelity of his wife, Procris, who took refuge with
Diana. Later he accidentally killed her while out hunting, with magical
weapons that Diana had given them (Ovid, Met.,
7.670–862).
375–6 Referring to Venus’s accusation that Hecate (one
of Diana’s three aspects) had obscured the Glories of the Time, as
reported by Fame, 231–5.
382 Belike] Q, F2 (By
like)
384 prevent
anticipate.
389 Glories] Q, F2 (glories)
391 study.] F2;
study, Q
393 honour]
Wh;
honor, Q, F2 (subst.)
398 Perseus, Castor,
Pollux Mythical heroes; Castor and Pollux were turned into
stars (the Dioscuri). Castor was renowned for horsemanship, and Perseus
had associations with Pegasus. See Wheeler (
1938), 84–5, 162–3, and
Und.
53.
405 ‘All our wishes are of one accord.’ For ‘votes’,
cf. .
406–28 This moralized praise of hunting is a graceful
compliment to the King, who was notoriously keen on the sport. It
projects an ideal of active masculinity and noble athleticism, while
insisting that such ‘warfare’ is consistent with James’s ideological
commitment to peace; it underlines James’s continued refusal to be drawn
into the continental war (422–6).
409 laborious
industrious.
414 search
inquisitiveness: a legitimated version of the impertinent curiosity that
the antimasque attacks.
421 all . . .
blood any pursuit of things that is motivated by ill-will or
blood-thirstiness.
423 in breath
breathing freely; not exhausted.
429 a
note on the masquers Aside from Prince Charles, the only
masquer recorded by name is the minor courtier James Bowey, whose
costume costs were partially underwritten by the crown. See ‘Masquers
and Tilters’ in vol. 1.