Title-page 9 Jonson’s epigraph (‘Thalia [the muse of comedy]
did not blush to be a forest-dweller’) comes from Virgil, Eclogue, 6.1–2, and justifies
Jonson’s turn to pastoral drama for the stage.
11 M.DC.ⅩⅬⅠ.
The Sad Shepherd is one of
two works in the folio printed (at least in part) in 1641. See the
Introduction for a discussion of the date of the play and the Textual
Essay, Electronic Edition, for the date of its printing.
The Persons of the Play 2–10 The names of Robin, Marian, and the members of
their ‘family’ are all present in traditional Robin Hood tales, ballads,
and older plays. ‘Scarlet’ and ‘Scathlock’, however, are usually
alternative designations for the same individual. Anthony Munday and
Henry Chettle did split them up into two brothers in The Downfall of Robert, Earl of
Huntingdon and The Death of
Robert Earl of Huntingdon (1598), plays Jonson will have
known, and by which he was apparently influenced.
2 woodman one skilled in woodcraft,
forestray.
3 mistress female head of the
household.
4 Family Household.
6 LITTLE
JOHN An ironic soubriquet. He was reputed to be seven feet
tall.
6 bow-bearer Under-officer who guarded
against infringements of forest law (OED, 2). The term does not
imply that Little John carries a bow.
9 GEORGE A
GREEN Hero of an anonymous comedy of that name performed in
1588/9, and of Robin Hood ballads about ‘The Jolly Pinder of Wakefield’.
He acquired his surname because he lived on the town green before being
persuaded to leave his employment as the official charged with
impounding Wakefield’s stray cattle and join Robin and his fellows in
the greenwood.
9 usher doorkeeper.
9 usher]
F2 (Huisher)
10 bailiff estate-manager (OED,
3).
10 acater purchaser of provisions,
caterer.
11–19 All characters invented by Jonson. The epithets
he attached to their names here are not etymologies, although he later
plays on Mellifleur’s name (
mellis (Lat.) +
fleur (French) = ‘honey-flower’) and on Clarion’s (
clarus (Lat.) = bright) at
1.4.1: ‘Welcome,
bright Clarion and sweet Mellifleur’. Earine, ‘the beautiful’, in fact
derives her name from ἐαρινός, the Greek word for spring, an association
reiterated throughout Jonson’s play but obscured in F2’s list of
characters by being mistakenly printed as ‘Larine’, a spelling that does
not occur elsewhere in the play. Jonson may have remembered ‘Eglamour’
from Shakespeare’s
TGV, but the two characters
have nothing but a lost beloved in common, and that is not signalled by
the name. See Barton (
1984), ch. 16, for
a detailed consideration of the names in the play.
15 eglamour] F2 (Aeglamour),
spelling used throughout F2
16 karolin Usually called ‘Karol’
in the play’s dialogue.
19 earine]
Wh; Larine F2
19–23 Also Jonson’s additions to the Robin Hood
material. ‘Lorel’ (from OED: ‘a worthless person’) is
a defining character name, but ‘Maudlin’ is not, and ‘Douce’ (though she
was perhaps to become ‘gentle’ in the reconciliations of the last act,
as she does in Waldron’s continuation) in itself does not signify ‘the
proud’. ‘Puck Hairy or Robin Goodfellow’ is unlike these in that both
are names for a traditional, folk character, although not one previously
connected with Robin Hood. Jonson had already introduced Robin
Goodfellow in his masque Love
Rest. A country spirit or goblin, primarily associated,
like Puck in Shakespeare’s MND, with village cottages,
he sweeps hearths and performs other domestic services, usually while
the household is asleep. He also likes to make mischief. Jonson’s
elaboration ‘Puck Hairy’ is physically descriptive, and would presumably
have been reflected in his stage appearance. H&S point to ‘the
German “Pickle härin”, a merry
andrew so called from his hairy or leafy dress’.
21 envious malicious, spiteful (OED,
†2).
21 Papplewick Village north of
Nottingham, near Newstead Abbey. At 2.8.17 Maudlin is said to live
‘Close by the ruins of a shaken abbey’.
23 lorel] F2 (Lorell), both
spellings used throughout F2
23 rude ignorant,
uncivilized.
23 swineherd] F2 (Swine’ard)
24 hind servant.
24 hind]
Wh; Hine F2
25 The Reconciler Reuben, the devout
hermit, is the only character not to appear in Jonson’s play as we have
it. His name does not suggest qualities of reconciliation; he must,
however, have been instrumental in creating harmony and forgiveness at
the end.
26 hermit religious recluse. The
non-religious sense was not current in the seventeenth
century.
28–31 All the action of the play occurs in the
forest, or at Lorel’s house and grounds on its outskirts, but Jonson
wanted to locate Sherwood against a visual panorama of the surrounding
countryside: the Vale of Belvoir, the River Trent, cottages, even what
must have been either Belvoir or Nottingham Castle seen in the distance.
This scene must have been intended for a painted back-cloth or, more
likely, for painted shutters closing off a perspective stage equipped
with moveable side wings. The five specific locations listed next (the
bower, well, dimble, oak, and cell) were probably to be represented on
individual wings, or else (as with the oak that imprisons Earine) as
three-dimensional cut-outs, or ‘relieves’. Inigo Jones had initially
developed such designs in England (following the work of the Italian
architect Sebastiano Serlio) for the great court masques (cf. ‘The Court
Masque’, vol. 1).
Chlor. (1631),
Jones’s last collaboration with Jonson before they quarrelled, employs
the descriptive term ‘Land-shape’ (see 17, 186, collations), and the
term is also used in
Theobalds,
27 and n., and
Blackness, 16;
Jonson may have associated the term with Serlian wings. Throughout the
1630s, Jones and his associate John Webb were also creating sets like
this for plays: at Whitehall, the Paved Court Theatre at Somerset House,
or the Cockpit at Court. Jonson apparently had in mind this kind of
performance space and scenic resource, not one of the public theatres,
for his pastoral. For considerations of the performance contexts, see
Orrell (
1985) and Peacock
(
1995).
28 Sherwood
Sherwood Forest, the traditional home of Robin Hood, is located to the
south of Nottingham.
29 landscape] Wh;
Landt-shape F2
31 dimble Deep hollow in the woods, a
place traditionally associated with supernatural beings. See
2.8.15–23 for a
detailed description of Maudlin’s dimble.
31 swineherd’s] F2 (Swine’ards)
The Prologue ] 1716 positions The Prologue here; Prologue follows The Argument of the First Act in F2
0 SD ] G (subst.);
not in F2
0 SH ] this edn; not
in F2
1 these forty
years The earliest payment Jonson received as a playwright
was on 28 July 1597 (though he may have begun writing for the stage a
little earlier), suggesting that this Prologue was written around 1637,
the year of his death. Cf. Life Records, 7, Electronic Edition, for the
1597 payment.
2 fables A
surprising word for Jonson to use, as he typically associates it with
lies or low literature. But see
Discoveries, 1914–19,
where Jonson defines ‘fable’ as a perfectly crafted plot.
2 your finer
ears i.e. those of better poetic judgement. Jonson may be
recalling the ‘long ears’ (i.e. of asses) of ignorant readers in his
Epistle to
Epigr. 25, which is
itself an allusion to Persius,
Sat., 1.121 (as Ian Donaldson has pointed out
privately).
3 hit the
bore i.e. fit the measure (from ‘bore’ as the calibre of a
gun). Cf.
Ham., 4.6.21–2: ‘yet are
they much too light for the bore of the matter’. H&S’s reading of
‘bore’ as ‘the mark’ of a target seems unfounded.
4–6 Among Jonson’s early plays, neither Cynthia at court nor Sej. at the Globe seems to have been
liked. EMO was almost certainly far more successful in print than
on the stage, while the reception of Poet. provoked him into an angry defence. It seems
nevertheless like wishful thinking for him to suggest here that the
Caroline audience which had rejected New
Inn out of hand and been only tepid in its response to his
other late plays, by comparison with the popularity of Volp., Alch., and Bart. Fair, should now be
congratulated on having finally come to value and understand him
truly.
9–10 wool . . .
English flocks The play is unusual (perhaps unique), as
Jonson knew, in having both a geographically precise English location
and (unlike Lyly’s Lincolnshire pastoral Galatea) introducing no classical deities (‘mere’ here
means ‘pure’). Cf. Introduction. Jonson’s metaphor works through the
long-standing association between weaving and crafting a
narrative.
11 cloth] F2 (Cloath)
12 curious
careful, particular.
14 or those
either those.
14 Sicily or
Greece Referring primarily to Theocritus, the Sicilian-born
originator of Greek pastoral poetry, and to Virgil, whose Eclogues, set in Greek Arcadia (a
province in the central Peloponnese), rapidly and enduringly made that
imaginary locale virtually synonymous with pastoral.
17 Belvoir
Pronounced beaver, as F2’s
spelling (Be’voir) suggests. The area is east of Nottingham and Sherwood
Forest. Belvoir Castle, home of the Earl of Rutland, was situated here,
and it was the setting for the second performance of Jonson’s Gypsies. It may be the castle
referred to in Jonson’s location, The Persons of the Play,
29.
17 Belvoir] F2 (Be’voir)
17 shepherds] F2 (Shep’ards)
17–18 feast . . .
guest Jonson employs this rhyme again at
1.2.20–1 and
2.6.34–5, and it
was an acceptable rhyme in the period.
18 casual
chance.
20 i.e. As much sadness is shown as passion can
manage on the stage.
21 shepherd] F2 (Shep’ard)
22 SD] this edn; in margin of F2 with note marker
‘(p)’
in margin and at the beginning of line
22
22 Like . . .
figure ‘It appears that Eglamour wore blacks, and was further
distinguished by a wreath of cypress and yew’ (Gifford).
23 Trent
Major river stretching from Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, through
Sherwood Forest, to the River Humber above Hull.
24 miscarried died.
25 feet
i.e. turbulent sections downstream from the ‘head’, or source. Recalling
Donne,
Satires (ed. Milgate,
1967), 5.28–30:
‘Greatest and fairest Empress, know you this? / Alas, no more than
Thames’ calm head doth know / Whose meads her arms drown, or whose corn
o’erflow.’
27 the end . . .
all i.e. everything becomes settled in the end. Proverbial
(
Dent,
E116).
28 scope . . .
chance The entire action is to unfold within the
neoclassical limits of a single day.
29 Old
Trent i.e. The source of the play, Jonson.
30 SD] this edn; in margin of
F2
31 Castelain proposes that the Prologue as we have
it is a combination of two prologues, with the second beginning here. He
also suggests that this second half may have come from Jonson’s lost
pastoral, The May-lord (1907a,
459–60n.). Although it is possible that this short section may derive
from earlier work, it seems unlikely that Jonson would take pains to
incorporate, with an elaborate stage direction, sentiments about ‘late’
(31) or recent tastes from over twenty years earlier.
31–2 heresy . . .
pastoral Jonson is thinking of the kind of elevated and
humourless pastoral (plays like Montagu’s
The Shepherds’ Paradise) then in vogue at court. ‘Of late’
conflicts with Drummond’s report in 1619 that Jonson claimed his lost
The May-lord was unique
among all other pastorals because it introduced ‘mirth and foolish
sports’ (
Informations, 311–12).
Jonson must have been aware of Philip Sidney’s introduction of such
foolish lower-class characters as Dametas, Miso, and Mopsa in his prose
romance
Arcadia, as he would
have been of the ‘mirth’ generated by bewildered servants like Robin,
Rafe, Peter, and Dick in Lyly’s
Galatea.
35 The sock
The light shoe worn by ancient comic actors, used here for ‘comedy’ in
general.
35 in kind
(1) of this type, i.e. the pastoral genre (OED,
Kind n. Ⅰ 9); (2) naturally
(Greg, line 62n.). Cf. line 45 below.
36 rural . . .
families Literally ‘country groups and households’, but
‘rout’ and ‘families’ also suggest people of low and high stature
respectively (OED, Rout n.1 Ⅱ 6 and Family n. Ⅰ 4 a). Cf. Forest
3.53–4: ‘The rout of rural folk come thronging in / (Their rudeness then
is thought no sin)’.
39 distaste
displease.
41 fore-wits Those first to express a critical
opinion.
41 draw . . .
liking lead others to follow their judgments.
44 weigh] Wh; weigh;
F2
45 Whether each individual work fits the generic
conventions. ‘Whe’er means ‘Whether’.
46 in
themselves . . . find he finds differences from other works
(of the same genre).
47 if . . .
stood if the differences fit the circumstances.
52 affections (1) emotions; (2) good dispositions. Jonson
also posits the stirring of affections as an aim of comedy in
Volp., Epistle,
91–2.
53–4 Thought by Greg (ed.,
The Sad Shepherd,
1905) and H&S
to be a gibe at Samuel Daniel, whose pastoral drama
Hymen’s Triumph (1614) contains a
large number of these exclamations. The lines are more likely to have
gestured at the languishing style of Caroline pastoral generally –
especially if the actor playing the Prologue briefly mimed it.
Sad Shep. itself is not without ‘Ah’
and ‘Oh’: cf. 2.4.24, 2.4.27, and 2.6.76.
56 character distinguishing feature (from ‘character’ as
‘handwriting’).
58 made . . .
flight i.e. produced but one literary work.
61 like
poet like an idealized version of the perfect
poet.
62 Jonson regaled Drummond with a longer account
of a very un-versatile painter of this sort (
Informations, 385–8).
Compare also Jonson’s translation of Horace’s painter who paints only
cypress trees (Horace, 24–5).
63 chance
fortune.
65 contemn
scorn.
66 Artificers Artists (OED, †5). The accent here is
on the second syllable.
66 SD] this edn; not in F2
Argument The arguments are arranged in F2 before each
act, except for this one, which appears before the Prologue (see
collation to the Prologue). They loosely summarize the action to come,
often supplying details of staging, but they are a readerly convention
(having no place in performance) which may initially have been a part of
Jonson’s writing process. Like the Arguments for Jonson’s other
unfinished play, Mortimer, they
read like prose outlines for further development, and there are
occasional contradictions which suggest an ongoing process. They are
thus very unlike the more polished Arguments of Sej., New Inn, and Volp.
Argument 1 shepherds and shepherdesses] F2 (Shep’erds and Shep’erdesses)
2 Belvoir] F2 (Be’voir)
2 mistress
i.e. sweetheart, but with additional registers of ‘female head of
household’ and ‘mistress of a feast’.
3 against
in time for (OED, 19).
8 shepherd] F2 (Shep’ard)
8 fallen] F2 (falne)
9 passing
over crossing, either by bridge or boat.
10 in . . .
can as far as they are able.
12 lovers
This word does not necessarily imply a sexual relationship.
14 at force
using hounds to run down the game (OED, Force n.1 Ⅲ †22 a).
14 he the
deer.
14 stood
endured (the onslaught of the hounds). This word has an additional
hunting sense of ‘standing at bay’, but Jonson seems not to use it in
this way, as the deer is said to have stood for over five hours (see
1.6.27–8).
14 head
antlers.
15 breaking him
up dismembering the deer (according to strict
protocol).
15–16 raven . . .
bone See 1.6.42ff. for a full account of the
raven.
16 The
suspect . . . to be The suspicion was that that raven
was.
17 rousing . . .
deer causing of the deer to rise from his lair (OED,
Rouse v.1 2).
18 Robin
Hood’s . . . chimney-corner Such civilized amenities as a
kitchen, a chimney-corner, and later (1.6.51) a kitchen ‘dresser’, may
seem at odds with a predominantly outdoor existence in the forest. Yet
the Gest of Robyn Hoode (printed
from the late fifteenth century onwards), the longest and most important
of the traditional Robin Hood poems, and probably known to Jonson, on
three occasions refers to his ‘lodge’ or ‘lodge door’, as though he
enjoyed the sort of abode a considerable forest official might have (cf.
Introduction).
19 quarry
Place where the deer is broken up, its parts being laid out on its own
skin (OED, n.1 †2 a).
19 fall
i.e. place where the deer fell.
23 shepherds] F2 (Shep’erds)
23 wonder
amazement.
1.1 ] Act Ⅰ.
Scene Ⅰ. F2
1.1 1–9 Jonson had already suggested in Chlor., his masque of spring, that
the Queen’s feet, touching the earth, made ‘various flowers to grow’
(179). A longer passage, elaborating on this idea, in Goffe’s The Careless Shepherdess (1619) is
sometimes cited as the source of Eglamour’s speech. Goffe’s play,
however, was not printed until 1656, and Jonson’s indebtedness is not
striking. The idea was fairly widespread.
5–6 Lines taken from Virgil’s Aeneid, 7.808–9, which Jonson had
cited in Queens,
506–7.
6 blow-ball Seed-head of the dandelion.
9 As As
if.
9 odorous
sweet-smelling.
1.2 ] Act Ⅰ.
Scene Ⅱ. F2
1.2 0 sd.2 woodmen,
etc. This
direction seems to imply that a larger retinue of woodmen or servants
should be onstage if possible.
0 SD] Marian, Friar Tuck, John, George-a-Green,
Much,Woodmen, &c. G;
Marian. Tuck. Iohn. Wood-men, &c. F2
4 madam
Accent on the second syllable.
8 In
threaves i.e. In masses, like threaves (large measures of
straw). Jonson uses this term similarly in
Alch.,
5.2.19.
9 harboured . . .
deer ‘The process of woodcraft whereby the lair of the
largest stag discoverable in a wood is ascertained, so that he and no
other may be hunted’ (Fortescue,
1916,
335).
10 tackling
gear (
OED,
vbl. n. †2
a). Little John is carrying the tools of his trade, probably including a
huntsman’s horn. H&S suggest that he should also carry bow and
arrows, but this is by no means certain, as no direct reference is made
to the bow, and hunting at force was often done without guns or bows
(see E. Berry,
2002,
17–18).
10 hart
male red deer of at least six years, considered the ‘largest and
noblest’ animal to be hunted in England (E. Berry,
2002,
17).
10 of ten
with a ten-point rack of antlers, i.e. a fairly large deer. Jonson’s
source for most of his hunting terms and etiquette is George
Turberville’s
The Noble Art of Venery or
Hunting (
1575), which refers
to large deer as ‘harts of ten’. Fortescue demonstrates clearly that
Jonson knew nothing at first hand about stag-hunting (
1916). Jonson
frequently misapplies what he gleaned from Turberville, assembling a
contradictory set of facts about this particular deer, and the ways of
assessing it, so that Little John first relies on the traces left by the
deer (such as dung and marks left by antlers) to determine its size, and
then suggests that he has seen it, rendering such traces inconsequential
(lines
10–15).
11 trow
believe.
12 his slot . . .
port his footprints, his entrances into wooded areas, and
the marks left by his antlers as he passes. All of these signs help
determine the size of a deer. See Turberville, Noble Art, ch. 8, 22, 24, and
25.
13 frayings
Marks left upon a tree by a deer’s new horns as he scrapes off the
velvet. Bigger deer leave higher marks on a tree (Turberville, Noble Art, 69–70).
13 fumets
dung. Fumets are discussed by Turberville in Noble Art, ch. 23.
14 standing
holding out (OED, Stand v. Ⅵ 69 e). ‘By the gait and going
of an hart the huntsman may know if he be great and long and whether he
will stand long up before his hounds or not’ (Turberville, Noble Art, 67).
15 well
beamed The ‘beams’ are the main trunks of the antlers
(Turberville, Noble Art,
53).
15 rights
branches of the antlers (OED, Right n.1 Ⅱ 11 e).
15 summed
numbered, completely grown. Compare Turberville: ‘by the midst of June,
their heads will be summed of as much as they will bear all that year’
(Noble Art, 47).
15 spread
Well-above spaced antlers characterize an old deer in Turberville: ‘when
harts have their heads large and open, it signifieth that they are old,
rather than when they are crooked and close bowed’ (Noble Art, 53).
16 rouse
make the deer leave his lair (cf.
Argument 17n.
above,
1.6.48–9).
18 they’ve] F2 (they’ave)
19 pound
‘position from which escape is impossible or difficult’ (OED,
n.2 Ⅰ 2).
20 SH
marian] F3 (subst.); Mor. F2
21 SD
woodmen If
George a Green and Much are onstage at this point, they do not exit with
any other woodmen (as Waldron has it, see
collation 1.3.0sd); they are present in the
next scene.
1.3 ] Act Ⅰ.
Scene Ⅲ. F2
0 SD] this edn; Tuck. George a Greene. Much.
Aeglamour. F2; Manet Tuck,
George a Green, and Much / Waldron
1.3 2 in fee
i.e. as part of your duty as servants.
3 don] F2 (d’on)
3 liveries
servants’ garments.
3 see . . .
dressed The conviction that Robin Hood had a bower (or
arbour) in Sherwood is reflected in a number of early place names
scattered across England. Like ‘Robin Hood’s Well’, also a common
placename (see
Introduction), it
is one of the stage localities for which Jonson intended some visual
realization.
4 devices
entertainments, shows.
5 baldric
Ornamental belt or girdle. This, like the garland, rewards the shepherd
with ‘the earliest lamb’ (see 1.7.27–8).
5 trim
neatly prepared.
9 greensward turf. H&S direct attention to Drayton’s
The Muses’ Elizium and ‘our
shepherds’ board that’s cut out of the ground’ (Works, ‘Sixth Nimphall’, line 219).
Jonson’s Robin Hood may have a house and kitchen, but a picnic (although
a very elaborate one) is being planned here, complete with a carefully
sculpted grassy table, made of cut turf stacked to form the table and
seating.
9 greensward] G; greene sword F2
13 bullèd
nosegays ‘a nosegay of flowers that are full blown’
(Whalley). Waldron, in an annotation of his personal copy, proposes that
‘bullèd’ may derive from the Latin bullatus, meaning ‘buttoned’, or budded, instead of ‘full
blown’ (Waldron, BL
643.g.15).
14 A verb to explain what George must do to create
a ‘pipers’ bank’ is missing here. Waldron offers, as a line to follow
13, ‘Raise, where the stately beech her branches spreads’ (Waldron,
BL
C.45.c.4).
15 dial
sundial, possibly made of flowers to be highlighted or shaded by the
sun’s passage. Compare Marvell’s ‘The Garden’: ‘How well the skilful
gard’ner drew / Of flow’rs and herbs this dial new; / Where from above
the milder sun / Does through a fragrant zodiac run; / And as it works,
th’industrious bee / Computes its time as well as we’ (Marvell, Poems, ed. Smith lines
65–70).
15 mete] F2 (meete)
16 want
lack.
18 Ay] F2 (I)
19 acates
‘all provisions except the home produce of the baker and brewer’
(
OED, Acate †2), hence the ‘fowl, feather, fish, or fin’,
but not the ‘bread’ or ‘wine’. Much is called ‘
acater’ in
The Persons of the Play, line
10.
20 my
father’s Much’s father was a miller; see
25 below.
20 SD] this edn; in margin of
F2
20 SD Like Shakespeare’s Hamlet
in 1.2, the sad shepherd has for some time now been a silent presence to
one side, in mourning garb, a man unnoticed by the others, but not by
the theatre audience. Only Much’s chance reference to the Trent impels
him at last to step forward and briefly join the others. It is
characteristic of him throughout the play to appear suddenly and then
disappear without explanation.
22–4 Earine . . .
Earine? Here, at
lines 28,
29,
46,
64, and elsewhere in
the play, the verse lines containing Earine’s name are metrically
problematic. The name itself sometimes requires to be pronounced as if
it had two syllables, sometimes three, or even on occasion four, as it
seems to be here, if the line in question is to scan regularly.
Waldron’s continuation employs the same latitude.
25 Just . . .
mills Earine was supposedly drowned very close to the
watermill of Much’s father, as explained in 28–9 below.
27 bailey
bailiff.
34 keep your
way go about your business.
34 toys (1)
amusements (OED, n. †2); (2)
trifling speeches (n.
3a).
35 poesies
(1) nosegays (OED, Poesy †4); (2) poems
(OED, 1).
37 cypress
wreath Garland of cypress worn as a sign of
mourning.
41 SD] this edn; not in F2
41 fantasy
mental apprehension, understanding (OED, n. 1 †a).
42 searching examining, probing.
42 SD] Waldron; not in F2
43 Searching Eglamour picks up the irony of Tuck’s term, as
he is looking helplessly for his lost love.
44–5 dark . . .
brows ‘the wreath of cypress he has on’
(Waldron).
50 abate
degrade, devalue.
51 SD] Waldron (subst.); not in
F2
52 knit . . .
brows i.e. fabricate clouds to set about my head, as a more
pronounced sign of mourning than the cypress wreath.
53 Swithin
St Swithin was associated with weeping and rain. ‘This name hath been
taken up in honour of [St] Swithin, the holy Bishop of Winchester, about
the year 860, and called the weeping [St] Swithin, for that about his
Feast Præsepe and Aselli, rainy Constellations arise cosmically and
commonly cause rain’ (Blount, EMEDD). St Swithin’s Day is
15 July. Jonson mentions St Swithin’s presence in almanacs in EMO,
1.3.22.
53 wat’ry
signs constellations bringing rain; see Blount’s quote
above. Blount names Aquarius as a rainy constellation, and Cotgrave
associates rain with Taurus (cf. Blount, Aquarius, LEME
and Cotgrave, Hyades, LEME).
54 kids ‘a
pair of small stars in the constellation
Auriga’ (
OED, Kid
n.
1 4). Hester Lees-Jeffries points out (in private
correspondence) that Jonson may be recalling Ovid’s
Met., 3.593–5, in which the Olenian
goat, a cluster of stars in Auriga, is called ‘rainy’. A note in George
Sandys’s translation of Ovid (
1632), which seems
to be a source for the play (cf. .), makes
the connection between this goat and her ‘kids’ (i.e. the two stars next
to her which Ovid does not himself mention) even more explicit: ‘This
goat with her two kids are placed in the shoulder of
Aurigo’ (Sandys,
Met., p. 94n.).
57 I did I
would do.
58 to . . .
breaches i.e. to overflow her banks.
59 corn
grain, wheat.
62 Wrought into
water i.e. Drowned.
63 I’d] F2 (I’ld)
65 their
body Whalley and others change this to ‘her body’, but
Earine’s body here belongs to ‘the torrent and . . . whirls of Trent’ –
to which ‘their’ refers throughout this passage – so the sense does not
need emendation.
65 their] F2; her Wh
68 For
Despite.
70 the looks] F2 (the lookes); her
looks Wh
72 of] F2; off Wh
72 And . . .
malice? And what effect can the malice of Trent’s waters
have on me?
73 sousing
drenching (in their waters), i.e. drowning (OED,
Souse v.1 3 a).
74 study
meditate upon, plot.
76 pipes,
tabors small flutes and drums, played together by one
musician (Sadie, New Grove,
‘Pipe and tabor’).
76 tambourines It is difficult to determine what instrument
is meant by F2’s ‘Timburines’ (cf. OED, Tambourine). Possibly it
is a drum without the metal jingles of a modern tambourine.
76 tambourines] F2 (Timburines)
1.4 ] Act Ⅰ.
Scene ⅢⅠ. F2
0 sd.1
Eglamour, enter] this edn; him F2
1.4 0 sd.2 SERVANTS. . . sorts Servants enter playing
music, probably on a variety of instruments, such as those Eglamour
complains about two lines earlier.
0 sd.3 Eglamour stays apart Eglamour
remains unnoticed for the entire scene (probably sitting ‘upon a bank
[near
]by’,
1.5.0
SD).
0 sd.3
Eglamour stays apart.] Waldron
(subst.); not in F2
4 greenwood
walks A forest ‘walk’ was not just a path but a division
made to facilitate administration.
6 washed
Sheep were washed before shearing.
6 lighted
of made lighter (by the removal) of.
7–8 ewes . . .
rams This phrase recalls ‘So may our ewes receive the
mounting rams’ from Jonson’s
Pan’s
Ann., 211, which Jonson adapted in 1635 for
Und. 79.
9 As As
if.
9 either
‘each of the two’ (OED, A I).
10 eaning
lambing.
10 lusty
vigorous, healthy.
14 hornpipe
wind instrument made partially from horn. It is an instrument local to
Sherwood in Welbeck,
238.
14 tambourine] F2 (Timburine)
16 triumph-bough i.e. garland, as worn by victorious Roman
generals when returning ‘in triumph’ to Rome.
16 triumph-bough?] F3; Triumph-bough.
F2
17 were
Waldron, Gifford, and H&S adopt ‘are’ here, but the past tense makes
sense if Robin is speaking of traditional ‘rites’ allowed by the
season.
17 were] F2; are Waldron
conj., G
18 gay
jolly.
18–56 sourer . . .
lust Here, for the first and only time, Jonson’s play
engages (like Spenser’s Shepherd’s
Calendar and other pastorals of the period) in religious
controversy. His target is those extreme puritan sects whose disapproval
of country games and festivities, already manifest under Elizabeth, had
greatly increased under James, provoking that king’s defiant Declaration of Sports (1617/18).
Jonson’s poem congratulating his friend Sir Robert Dover for overcoming
‘the spite of hypocrites’ in establishing the Cotswold Games, with their
‘Hunting and Dancing’, was
published in 1636 (‘Dover’, 6.699).
19 disclaim
in renounce.
23 covetise
covetousness.
24 eanling
young lamb.
25 fell
skin (OED, n.1 1). Cf. Discoveries: ‘a prince is the pastor
of the people. He ought to shear, not to flay his sheep; to take their
fleeces, not their fells’ (896–8).
26–33 Friar Tuck describes greedy shepherds’ attempts
to sabotage their fellow shepherds’ flocks.
26 prickly
weed eryngo, or sea-holly. Jonson may be translating a
source he used for the masques, Martino Antonio del Rio,
Disquisitionum Magicarum Libri Sex
(Louvain,
1599; rpt.
[Ursellis
], 1606):
eryngium caprae sumtum
ore, greges totos sistere (Book 1, p. 53), ‘Eryngo,
touching a she-goat’s mouth, causes the entire flock to stop
(feeding)’.
28 tods’
foxes’. Foxes were held, like badgers (cf.
32
below), to bring harm to
sheep.
28 their
foxes’.
29 doff put
off.
29 doff] F2 (d’off)
30 neat
cattle.
32 brock
badger.
33 worry
harass.
34 not seen
The faults are concealed, criminal behaviour, unlike the innocence and
unconcealed pleasures of country folk.
35 been
are. The addition of ‘-en’ to make the plural is a conscious anachronism
for the sake of the rhyme (see Grammar, 1.16.23–7).
35 been:] F2 (beene.)
44 neatherds] F2 (Neat’ards)
45 kit
‘small bowed unfretted fiddle, generally with four strings’ (Sadie,
New Grove).
45 crowd
crwth, a Welsh plucked lyre (Sadie, New
Grove). Cf. Wales,
230.
46 tabret
small tabor, or drum.
49 dart . . .
daisies i.e. Presumably to show off his skill with the
hook.
50 wrestle] F2 (wrastle)
51 new
garment i.e. Because her garment would be stained green by
the grass. The games being played in the grass are country games (see
.), but here
the language is, perhaps mildly, sexually suggestive.
52 course
at game of.
52 barley-break ‘An old country game, varying in different
parts . . . originally played by six persons (three of each sex) in
couples; one couple, being left in a middle den termed “hell,” had to
catch the others, who were allowed to separate or “break” when hard
pressed, and thus to change partners, but had when caught to take their
turn as catchers’ (OED).
52 base A
game ‘played by two sides, who occupy contiguous “bases” or “homes”; any
player running out from his “base” is chased by one of the opposite
side, and, if caught, made a prisoner’ (OED, n.2).
57–8 Clarion’s anxiety that no time should be wasted
embarking on festivities now seems oddly prescient of a future Jonson
did not live to see. Dover’s Cotswold Games were suppressed during the
Interregnum, and the theatres closed by Act of Parliament in
1642.
58 SD] Potts; not in F2
58 SD Tuck speaks no more in this
scene, and, as he is not included in
1.5.0 SD, it seems
that he must exit before that scene begins. Potts’s stage direction is
appropriate here, as Clarion’s insistence that they lose no more time is
a good opportunity for Tuck to slip off and ‘see the bower dressed’
(
1.3.3).
59 allay
abatement, a check (OED, n.1 Ⅱ 8, 9).
63 tread
With perhaps an mild double entendre, as ‘tread’ is a verb used of
copulating fowl. See . above.
65 melancholy
turtle Turtle doves were held to mourn after losing their
mates; cf. Lyly’s Euphues: ‘the
turtle having lost her mate wandreth alone, joying in nothing but in
solitariness’ (H2).
67 yew and
cypressa Traditional markers of mourning, here said to be
worn by Eglamour as a garland. ‘Cypressa’ is cypress. The term may be a
printer’s error as it is not used elsewhere, and it makes the line
metrically irregular.
67 cypressa] F2 (Cypressa); Cypress F3
68 physic
medicine.
68 fit i.e.
melancholy.
71 pleasing
frenzy i.e. ‘the merry moods of his distracted state’
(Greg,
1905).
72 sought
looked for.
74–5 that . . .
doubt so large an increase that we fear.
76 cross
oppose.
77 fant’sy
Jonson’s term, one he uses often, suggests both ‘fantasy’ and ‘fancy’.
‘Fancy’ originated as a shortened form of ‘fantasy’, but the words ‘had
in the time of Shakespeare become more or less differentiated in sense’
(OED, Fantasy, phantasy n.). The word means both (1) ‘mental apprehension’ or
understanding; and (2) ‘illusion of the senses’ (OED,
Fantasy n. 1 †a; Fancy n. and a. †2).
77 fant’sy] F2 (Phant’sie)
79–80 Nay . . .
shepherd According to Drummond, ‘Alken’ was the name Jonson
reserved for himself in
The
May-lord (
Informations, 307). F2’s
‘
Alhen’ (cf. collation)
appears to be a printer’s error, as the name appears as ‘
Alken’ in the speech heading at the
end of the scene.
79 Alken] F2 (Alhen)
82 forward
fry brash young men.
82 their
lore of their wisdom in such matters.
85, 86 him, him,
he’s i.e. Eglamour, Eglamour’s.
86 t’offend] F2 (to’offend)
86 Sure
Surely.
86 sh alken Gifford assigns this
speech to Karolin, but Alken and the others are looking for Eglamour,
too, so emendation is unnecessary.
1.5 ] Act Ⅰ.
Scene Ⅴ. F2
0 SD] this edn; Robin-hood. Clarion. Mellifleur. Lionel. Amie. Alken.
Karolin. Aeglamour, sitting upon a banke by. F2
1.5 1–26 Eglamour seems at first to be meditating
privately on his grief and anger, but at 27ff. he has been heard by the
others, and then he addresses them.
2 exquisite Accent on the first syllable.
4 afore
before (Partridge, 1953a, §58c).
6 greenswarth greensward.
6 greenswarth] this edn; greene sworth F2
8–10 Eglamour intends to spell out his tale with
stones that are set into the ground to form letters and then surrounded
with moss to offset them.
9 pebble
The word could be used as a collective noun in the period (Partridge,
1953a, §5).
12 complexion physical nature (i.e. from fresh to brackish
water).
14 rigid
stiff (from age).
15–16 that . . .
As such a sudden and sharp cold throughout
that.
16 virtue
beneficial properties (OED, n. Ⅱ 9 b).
16 nymphs
i.e. water nymphs.
17 nymphs
pulled nymphs (that) pulled.
18 curled . . .
ice Eglamour seems to imagine the nymphs as frozen waves,
or frozen in waves. To curl water is to make it ripple (cf. OED,
Curl v.1 3 a), but Jonson may be
recalling Horace’s rugosus
frigore, ‘wrinkled with cold’, which is translated as
‘curled’ in the Dubia poem, ‘Part of Horace Epistles 1.18 translated’, line 66
(Electronic Edition).
21 dog-star
Sirius, in the constellation Greater Dog, or Procyon, in the Lesser Dog.
Both were thought to bring hot days when rising in conjunction with the
sun (OED, 1).
21 foams
i.e. causes liquid to foam; also punning on dogs foaming at the
mouth.
21 stream] F3; streames F2
22 sparkle
emit itself, i.e. boil.
25 Blue A
blue flame burns with special intensity.
25–6 Scamander . . .
consume him Scamander, or Xanthus, was the river of Troy,
which tried to protect its city by attacking Achilles in the Trojan War.
Vulcan set fire around the river to tame it, but he did not leap in or
consume it (Homer, Iliad,
21.342–82). The river is here described as being consumed by
particularly intense, ‘blue’ flames. Spenser writes of the river being
‘purpled yet with blood / Of Greekes and Trojans’ (Faerie Queene, 4.11.20).
27, 64 fant’sy] F2 (Phant’sie)
29 gratulate congratulate.
32 proffered . . .
spring consolation offered by the spring season. A
particularly poor choice of words, given Earine’s name, as Eglamour
points out in 43–5 below.
34 burs
Plants which produce prickly seed-heads.
34 docks
Name specifically given to the dock plant used to soothe nettle stings,
but also commonly applied to other coarse weeds.
34 docks] F3; Dorks F2
35 hemlock . . .
box ‘Hemlock’ and ‘yew’ are poisonous; ‘mandrake’, a member
of the nightshade family with a forked root, was held to shriek when
pulled out of the ground, killing those who heard it. The ‘box’ was not
generally thought to be malicious, but was known to stink. Gerard’s
Herbal notes: ‘the leaves of
the boxtree are hot, dry, and astringent, of an evil and loathsome
smell, not used in medicine . . .’ (John Gerard, The Herbal; or, General History of
Plants, 1226).
36 beside
besides. See Partridge for Jonson’s use of ‘beside’ for ‘besides’
(1953a, §58a i).
42 put . . .
upon i.e. put these things to.
44–5 H&S note that these lines follow Martial’s
epigram on Earinos: Nomen cum violis
rosique natum, / quo pars optima nominatur anni, ‘A name
born with the violets and the roses, after which the year’s best part is
called’ (9.11.1–2).
45 knots
new shoots.
45 buddings
buds.
48 The three Graces were said to be the daughters
of Venus by the god Dionysus. Jonson describes Venus leading the Graces
to dance in
Epigr. 105.11–12. In
Spenser’s
Faerie Queene,
6.10.6–18, they are surprised by Sir Calidore dancing on Mount Acidale,
sacred to Venus.
49 sweets
‘fragrant flowers or herbs’ (OED, n. 7).
52–3 Dove . . .
Soar Tributary rivers running into the River Trent. As
H&S point out, Jonson probably took this list of the Trent’s
tributary streams from song 26 of Drayton’s
Poly-olbion (
1622), a volume in
Jonson’s library.
53 Erewash] F2 (Erwash)
57 cope
cope (or vault) of heaven, i.e. the sky.
60 screeching] F2 (scritching)
62 wicker
wings A phrase seemingly coined by Jonson, and associated
with the flight of sinister creatures (OED, Wicker, n. 4 b).
63 screech] F2 (scritch)
64 SD] this edn; in margin of
F2
65–80 Karolin’s song seems to have been written
before the rest of the play and survives in several contemporary
manuscript miscellanies (see Textual Essay, Electronic Edition). Two
contemporary musical settings for the song exist, one by Nicholas Lanier
and one by John Wilson (see Music Edition, Electronic
Edition).
67 darts
Cupid’s arrows are the darts of love, while Death was traditionally held
to carry darts. Richard Barnfield’s
1594
Affectionate Shepherd has Love
and Death exchange darts: ‘Love took up Death’s dart, / And Death took
up Love’s arrow (for his part)’ (A4), and the comparison of Love’s and
Death’s darts is a common trope. See Panofsky (
1972),
124–5.
70 heat] F3; heart F2
70 as] F2 (as);
and / Benson12mo.
72 to touch
to meet.
73–4 ruin . . .
fall i.e. The term ‘ruin’ applies both to buildings that
blow up and to those that collapse. Jonson puns on the Latin
ruo, -ere, ‘to fall’ (cf.
Cat.,
1.1.7).
74 or] F2 (or);
and / Benson12mo.
75–6 Or just as we may die by lightning flash or by
drowning.
77 brand] F2 (brand); band / Benson12mo.
78 May] F2 (May);
Will / Benson12mo.
79–80 After presenting love and death as potentially
destructive opposites, the lyric ends by according love and warmth a
capacity to defeat death and cold. Eglamour, however, finds this
difficult to believe.
86 kiss.] F2 (kisse,)
89 mine . . .
her i.e. the number of potential kisses we would have
shared had she lived.
89 SD] this edn; ‘Hee forces Amie to kisse him.’ in margin of lines 87–8 in
F2
90 Now . . .
you i.e. Like Karolin, I have to be satisfied with no more
kisses.
90 And . . .
wretch The only indication that, like Amie herself, Karolin
is struck by Love’s dart as a result of the enforced kiss.
91 Yet
Still.
91 SD] this edn; in margin of F2
92 generous
noble.
95 Look
Look at.
95 Look] F3; Lookes F2
96–7 Heliodore’s . . .
Prodomi All were authors of celebrated and widely
translated late Greek romances. Heliodorus (c. ad 220–50) was famous for his
Aethopica, Achilles Tatius
(second century ad) for
Leucippe and Clitophon,
Longus (dates unknown) for his pastoral Daphnis and Chloe, Eustathius (twelfth century ad) for Hysmine and Hysminias, and Prodromus
(also medieval) for his verse narrative Rhodantes. It was characteristic of the genre to inflict
terrible sufferings (often including the supposed death of the beloved)
upon its protagonists but to win through – as Sad Shep. was apparently to do – to
a happy ending at last. Examples of works by Heliodorus, Longus, and
Eustathius survive from Jonson’s library.
99 who’ve] F2 (wh’have)
101 story
i.e. exemplary model.
103 wold
countryside.
103 wold] Wh; world F2
108 Belvoir] F2 (Be’voir)
108 Vale.] Wh; Vale? F2
108 SH
lionel] Waldron; Kar. F2
108 sh lionel F2’s ‘Kar.’ is incorrect, as Karolin exits
at line 91.
108 billing
Turtle doves ‘bill’ or caress each others’ beaks, as a sign of
affection.
110 simple
pure.
110 sampled
exemplary.
111 envied
Pronounced with accent on second syllable, and rhymed with
‘beside’.
112–14 Alken’s ‘moral’ suggests that Robin and Marian
do not need pity, as they are virtuous, and pity by others might lead to
scorn.
1.6 ] Act Ⅰ.
Scene Ⅳ. F2
0 SD] this edn; To Robin, &c. Marian. Iohn. Scarlet. Scathlock.
F2
1.6 2 at full
i.e. complete (two halves have come together).
5 so] F3; so so F2
6 she i.e.
the morning.
7–8 sweet . . .
inchpin Jonson found this list of the choicest parts of a
deer in Turberville: ‘as for the dainty morsels . . . our use . . . is
to take the caul, the tongue, the ears, the doucets, the
tenderlings . . . and the sweet gut, which some call the inchpin’
(Noble Art, 134). Based on
this passage, Potts emends F2’s ‘called’ to ‘caul’, a fatty membrane
around the intestines (OED, n.1 5 a). This emendation improves the metre and sounds more
idiomatic than ‘called . . .’. ‘Doucets’ are deer testicles, considered
a delicacy; the ‘inchpin’ is the sweetbread, but as Greg hints, this
word probably suggests ‘penis’ as well.
7 caul] Potts; call’d F2; calle H&S
9–10 One . . .
wanted Robin puns on ‘wanton’ as ‘want one’. ‘On’ and ‘one’
were pronounced the same in this period.
11 grow to
‘be an organic or integral part of’ (OED, Grow v. Ⅰ 3 †b), but also punning on
tumescence.
13 spirit
‘essence or extract from some substance, esp. one obtained by
distillation’ (OED, n. Ⅴ 21 a). Jonson also puns on
‘spirit’ as ‘soul’ (OED, n. Ⅰ 2 a) and ‘breath’ (OED,
n. Ⅳ 15 †b).
14 Breathe,
breathe i.e. Take a rest from kissing.
20 i.e. We use our time in the spirit of
schoolboys at play.
23 In . . .
cry In full pursuit. Commonly said of hounds (OED,
Cry n. Ⅰ 12 b).
23 hunted
change followed the wrong scent (OED,
Change n. 9).
24–5 staunch . . .
friends From Turberville: ‘for old staunch hounds which
will not hunt change, when they see an hart roused and before them, they
never call on nor once open: but if they be young rash hounds they will
run with full cry and so take change’ (Noble Art, 112).
26 relays
sets of fresh hounds (OED, Relay n.1 1).
27 SH
scarlet] F2 (Sca.)
29 Forkèd
Said of antlers that fork to form a ‘Y’ shape at the top, resembling a
double-pronged pitchfork (Turberville, Noble Art, 58). Deer with such antlers were especially
prized.
30 i’the
blood ‘in full vigour’ (OED, Blood n. Ⅱ 7), ripe for
eating.
33 SD] this edn; in margin of F2 with note marker ‘∗’ in text and before the
direction
34 SD] this edn; in margin of F2 with note marker ‘∗’ in text and before the
direction
36 assay
initial cut, ‘drawn alongst the brisket of the deer, somewhat lower than
the brisket towards the belly. This is done to see the goodness of the
flesh, and how thick it is’ (Turberville, Noble Art, 134).
36 SD] this edn; in margin of F2 with note marker ‘∗’ in text and before the
direction
37 take the
assay i.e. claim my share (in a kiss), punning on ‘assay’
from the previous line.
38 ’em
According to the rules of modern grammar, ‘one’ should be used here,
but, as Partridge notes: ‘The use of the plural pronoun they, them, their after one was quite frequent from the 17th
c[entury]’ (1953b, §15).
38 arber’s
made cut is made to take out the windpipe (‘arber’). Then,
as Robin explains, the arber is ‘pulled down’, in language that is
suggestive of undressing a lover.
38 arber’s] F2 (Arbors)
39 paunch
stomach. According to Turberville, this is given in the field to the
hounds as a reward (Noble Art,
135).
40–2 brisket-bone . . . raven’s bone From Turberville: ‘There
is a little gristle which is upon the spoon of the brisket, which we
call the raven’s bone, because it is cast up to the crows or ravens
which attend hunters. And I have seen in some places, a raven so wont
and accustomed to it, that she would never fail to croak and cry for it,
all the while you were in breaking up of the deer’ (Noble Art, 135). The ‘spoon’ is a
spoon-shaped cavity in the bone.
42 sat] F2 (sate)
43 sere
bough withered branch.
49 made
shift hurried.
50 sunk
felled.
51 o’the] F2 (ô the)
55 Marian appears to address Lionel here,
advising him to look after his shepherd friends (including, perhaps,
Eglamour), while she tends to Amie. The addressee might, on the other
hand, be Scathlock, because she refers to the deer that he has
brought.
55 SD] Waldron (subst.); not in
F2
56–60 Ay, qua . . .
language Despite being brothers, Scathlock occasionally
speaks in dialect but Scarlet never. None of the other members of Robin
and Marian’s ‘family’, or ‘the guests invited’, employ it. Apart from
Scathlock (and Earine at one moment (
2.2.43–4) when she
is ridiculing her unwelcome swineherd suitor), these northern speech
forms are reserved for Maudlin, her son Lorel, and her daughter Douce,
and serve to set them apart from the others.
56 qua suld
let who should hinder. (Northern forms; see OED,
Who.)
56 qua] F2 (qu’ha)
57 o’you] F2 (ô you)
59 give
concede, yield.
59 them
Robin draws a distinction between woodmen and shepherds
here.
62 wise
woman white witch (OED, 1), i.e. one who does
good for a community; fortune-teller.
66 chimley
chimney.
66 nuik
Scotch form of ‘nook’ (OED).
1.7 ] Act Ⅰ.
Scene Ⅶ. F2
0 SD] Waldron (subst.); To them / Marian. F2
1.7 0 sd Marian Given that in F2 no mention
of Maudlin or disguise is made in the Argument or entry direction and
that the speech headings of this scene all refer to Marian, it seems
possible that the actor playing Marian enters here. If so, the audience
will be as confused as the on-stage characters. In
3.4, the speech
headings for Maudlin dressed as Marian also indicate that Marian speaks,
until Maudlin returns in her own shape after line 45, but contrast the
direction for Maudlin to enter ‘
like
Marian’ at
3.4.19. Jonson may
have been influenced by Fletcher’s pastoral
The Faithful Shepherdess (cf.
Introduction), in which, through sorcery, the voice and exact appearance
– although not the characteristic attitudes – of the virtuous Amoret are
usurped by the lecherous Amaryllis, to the disgust of Amoret’s chaste
suitor Perigot. Like Amaryllis, Maudlin (although she does temporarily
shed her usual dialect forms) behaves in a way inconceivable as that of
the Marian in whose likeness she appears. And it is significant that in
both cases magic is used to simulate an exact likeness, not a mere
disguise. It would be difficult for the actor playing Maudlin to signify
this transformation by changing costume, as the stage business at
3.4.44ff. offers
only one half of a line to effect such a change. It seems that Maudlin’s
‘magic’ transformation is either not rendered through a full change of
costume, or that Jonson is exploring a sophisticated use of doubling.
Such doubling would be dramatically economical, as simply having
Maudlin-as-Marian played by the actor normally representing Marian would
involve less effort than a series of quick costume changes. However, it
should be noted that such potentially confusing doubling was not typical
of stage practice in this period.
1 hunt
huntsman.
1 holds
continues.
2, 3, 19 SH
maudlin] this edn; Mar. F2
2 cloudy
frowning, threatening.
4 ranger
forest officer, gamekeeper (OED, n.1 2 a), not usually pejorative, but here with a possible
subtext of a male who ranges in pursuit of women or ranges with his
hands over their bodies.
4 SD] this edn; in margin of
F2
4 Sirrah
Form of address to servants, often expressing contempt.
7 thank
Singular form of ‘thanks’, now obsolete (Partridge, 1953a, §9b
i).
11 ’turn
return, give.
11 groom
servant.
11 SD] Potts; not in F2
15 fear
doubt.
20 spied
espied, discovered.
24–31 Maudlin’s insults focus on rustic pursuits;
she is jibing at the social standing of the huntsmen.
24–5 cheesecakes . . . ale Rustic dishes. ‘Curds’ were eaten as
food, and ‘fools’ differed from modern fools, as they were made of
clotted cream or custard, and apparently without fresh fruit (OED,
Fool n.2 †1). ‘Flawns’ are flat custards
or cheesecakes. F2’s spelling, ‘flaunes’, might point to a disyllabic
pronunciation. Barnfield’s Affectionate
Shepherd has a larder ‘Of cheese, of . . . curds and
clotted cream’ (sig. C1v) and ‘syllabubs’ (sig. C2).
25 flawns] F2 (flaunes)
27 syllabubs Dishes ‘made of milk . . . or cream, curdled by
the admixture of wine, cider, or other acid, and often sweetened and
flavoured’ (OED, Sillabub 1 a).
28 fleece
sheep (OED, n.
4).
29 baldric
‘A belt or girdle, usually of leather and richly ornamented, worn
pendent from one shoulder across the breast and under the opposite arm,
and used to support the wearer’s sword, bugle’ (OED,
1). Here it is worn to honour a guest.
29 baldric] F2 (Baudrick)
29 board
table. Here Maudlin refers specifically to the rustic table made of turf
(cf. .).
30 go
whistle proverbial for pursuing a fruitless labour (
Dent,
W313).
31 This
Possibly referring to the hunt, or the rustic celebrations more
generally.
31 foot it
move your feet.
31 SD] this edn; in margin of
F2
38 SD] G;
not in F2
Argument 1 abuse
deceive.
4 jealous
suspicious.
8 shut . . .
tree Although Ariel in
Temp. is forcibly imprisoned in a pine by Sycorax and
unhappy about it, certain forest nymphs (dryads and hamadryads) were
supposed to inhabit trees by their own choice, free to come and go at
will. Alken refers to such spirits at 2.8.52: ‘There in the stocks of
trees white fays do dwell.’ Humans magically imprisoned in this way are
invariably victims, and unhappy about their situation. Bagoa is forcibly
incarcerated in Lyly’s comedy
Endimion (1588), then released at the end by the power of
Cynthia, a surrogate for Queen Elizabeth. As stage properties, hollow
trees (some, as in William Percy’s
The
Faery Pastoral; or, Forrest of Elves (
1603), equipped not
only with doors, but with ‘a vice of wood to shut to’), appear in Revels
accounts from the 1570s onward, and also in a number of stage
directions. Jonson was clearly falling back on this long theatre
tradition, but adapting it to his own elaborate perspective
scene.
9 swineherd] F2 (swine’ard)
11 move
not have no effect (on Earine).
11–22 such . . .
with that he esteems.
13 rates
berates.
15 broidered embroidered.
16 shepherdess] F2 (sheep’ardes)
22 farther] F2 (farder)
23 like
herself i.e. not in disguise.
25 it the
venison.
25 inwardly Implying that Maudlin does not opently disclose
her anger, but also suggesting ‘with a low voice that does not pass the
lips; in low tones spoken to oneself’ (OED, adv. 1 b). Cf. Maudlin’s mumbled
chant at 2.6.56ff.
27 discovereth reveals.
28 mean
means. ‘Mean’ could be singular or plural in the period (Partridge,
1953a, §9a i).
28 the sage
shepherd Alken.
2.1 ] Act. Ⅱ.
Scene. Ⅰ. F2
0 SD ] G
(subst.); Maudlin, Douce, F2
2.1 1 brave
excellent.
5 close
end.
8 i.e. Their sharpest or most immediate
senses.
10 solemn
ceremonious.
11 sic
such. This and other northern dialect forms are used throughout the
passage.
11 sic] F2 (syke)
12 albe’
albeit (Partridge, 1953a, §69b iii). Disyllabic.
13 vaulting Turberville’s term for the male mounting the
female deer in the rutting season (‘Of the rut and vault of harts’,
Noble Art,
44–5).
13 vaulting] F2 (vauting)
13 venting
giving off the scent (of a female deer in season). Turberville discusses
the importance of scent to mating deer, and uses the term ‘vent’
(Noble Art, 45).
13 hind
female deer.
14 ne’er] F2 (nêre)
14 fra
northern dialect for ‘from’ (Partridge, 1953a, App. Ⅰ §9).
14 nese . . .
wind smell her (nese = nose).
14 nese] F2 (neis)
15 distaste
him cause displeasure in him.
15 distaste] Wh; distate F2
16 bate] F2 (’bate)
19–20 The idea of deceiving even the person being
imitated is similarly expressed by Jonson in
Volp.,
2.4.34–6.
20 Whether
Which.
20 liker
more alike (Partridge, 1953a, §37).
20 of] F2 (off)
20 twa
Arguably this could be ‘tway’, following the long ‘a’ in F2’s ‘twâ’, but
‘twa’ is used in the rest of F2 by Maudlin and Lorel (cf.
2.2.28,
40).
20 twa] F2 (twâ)
22 dight
dressed.
22 out-dress outward dress, clothes.
24 weeds
clothes.
25 ken
range of sight.
26 show
appear.
26 slippery (1) bright; (2) deceptive to appearances. Jonson
uses the same phrase in
Gypsies
(Burley), 366, and
Staple, 4.2.73,
translating from Horace,
Odes,
1.19.8:
vultus nimium lubricus
aspici.
28 rin
run.
28 wage the
odds wager.
29 ye are] F2 (yee’are)
30 stocked
confined (as if she were in stocks), but also punning on ‘stock’ as ‘the
trunk or stem of a (living) tree’ (OED, n.1 2 a).
31 largesse generosity.
32 lotted
allotted.
32 mistress ‘woman who is loved and courted by a man’
(OED, n. Ⅰ 10
a).
33 Gif If.
Dialect form.
33 reclaimed reduced to obedience, tamed (OED,
v. Ⅰ 3 a).
34 claithèd clothed.
35 swineherds] F2 (Swine’ards)
35 sic] F2 (sike)
35–6 i’the . . .
feeds i.e. in pigskin.
37 comand
coming. It is characteristic of Maudlin’s northern dialect to use ‘–and’
for the ‘–ing’ ending (Partridge, 1953a, App. Ⅰ §13b).
37 comand] G,
Waldron BL 643.g.15; command F2
38 The entrance described here would seem the
normal place to commence scene 2.2, but is here as in F2, in accord with
Jonson’s convention of placing the scene heading prior to the first
speech of the entering person or persons.
38 opes
opens.
40 ’ray
array, dress.
2.2 ] Act Ⅱ.
Scene Ⅱ. F2
2.2 This scene is modelled on Polyphemus’s wooing
of Galatea in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, perhaps as translated by Sandys in 1632 a
translation owned by Jonson. H&S claim that Jonson ‘did not use’
Ovid, but it seems likely, given the play’s other allusions to Sandys
(cf. ., .), that
Jonson used it instead of, or as well as, Theocritus’s Idyll, 11 (Ovid’s source), which
H&S put forward as Jonson’s only source.
0 SD ] this end;
Lorel. Earine. Maudlin. Douce. F2
2 Deft
Pretty (OED, 3).
2–3 cheese . . .
curds Polyphemus brags of his ‘fresh curds and cream, with
cheese well pressed’, and calls Galatea ‘softer than tender curds’ in
Sandys (442, 441).
5 rents
properties.
6 kye
Northern form of ‘kine’, cows (Partridge, 1953a, App. Ⅰ §2). Lorel
speaks, like his mother in the previous scene, a string of dialectical
forms.
7 nase
nose.
7 nase] F2 (na’se)
7 camussed ‘pug-nosed’ (OED, †Camois, camus, a. (and n.) 1).
8 bristled Sandys’s Polyphemus argues, ‘A manly face / A
beard becomes; the skin rough bristles grace’ (442).
8 Pan
Greek god of shepherds, with the upper body of a man and the lower body
of a goat. ‘Great’ is an adjective often associated with him (cf.
Pan’s Ann., 55,
203).
10 na
no.
10 fay
fairy.
10 incubus
devil that seeks intercourse with women while they sleep.
10 changelin’ ‘child (usually stupid or ugly) supposed to
have been left by fairies in exchange for one stolen’ (OED,
Changeling A n. 3).
11 o’ my awn
gear of my own possessions (cf. OED,
Gear n. iii 9 †b Sc. and north. dial.).
12 stock
livestock (OED, n.1 Ⅵ 54).
17 cloy
satiate.
17 mercats
markets. This is not necessarily dialect, as the word is spelled this
way frequently in Jonson (cf.
Und. 61.3;
Devil, 1.1.10). Even so,
it fits well with the many northernisms in this speech.
18 Whilk
Which.
19 by live
quickly (OED, Belive adv.
1).
20–3 H&S note that Jonson here follows
Spenser’s Shepherd’s Calendar:
‘There grewe an aged Tree on the greene, / A goodly Oake sometime had it
bene . . . / Whilome had bene the King of the field, / And mochell mast
to the husband did yielde, / And with his nuts larded many swine’
(‘February’, 102–3, 109–10).
21 dur
door.
22 mickle
great. Although this term was in use in the period (cf. Grammar, 1.4.45 and n.), Jonson
might have considered it dialectical, as his character that ‘Northern’
uses it in Bart. Fair,
4.4.95.
22 mast
beech nuts (fed to swine) (OED, n.2 1).
22 ferm
farm.
23 larded
fattened.
23 mony
many.
23 mony] F2 (money)
24 fra
from.
25 kervèd
carved.
27 gaing
going. The word, used four times in the play, appears to be pronounced
as a monosyllable, as reflected in F2’s spelling here (cf. collation),
which becomes ‘gaing’ or ‘gaang’ at
2.3.28,
43, and
3.5.17.
27 gaing] F2 (gang)
28 Twa trilland
brooks Two trilling, flowing brooks. These meeting brooks
perhaps allude again to the Galatea myth. Galatea was a sea nymph, who
turned her lover, Acis, into a stream after he was killed by Polyphemus.
Sandys’s notes situate this transformation as an eternal mingling: ‘by
the jealousy and envy of Polyphemus their happy union is divorced, yet
now a river makes haste (for Acis signifies ‘swift’) to mingle his stream with Galatea,
nor are they in their immortal parts to be separated’ (453).
31 Sandys’s Polyphemus says ‘my image in the
brook / I lately saw, and therein pleasure took’ (442).
33 swineherds] F2 (Swine’ards)
34 Straight Straightaway.
37 SD] this edn; in margin of
F2
39 bauson’s badger’s. This would be a particularly loathsome
gift to a shepherdess, whose job it was to keep badgers away from her
flock (cf.
1.4.32 and
note). Polyphemus
produces ‘a rugged bear’s rough twins’ for Galatea (Sandys,
442).
39 grice . . .
grey cub of a badger.
40 urchins
hedgehogs.
40 urchins] F2 (Urshins)
40 gay
lively looking (OED, a., adv., and n. A 3).
41 Out An
expression of indignation and reproach.
43 the fiend . . .
thee Earine swears by ‘the fiend’ and Lorel, as if he is
some kind of devil.
43 Gar . . .
hence Cause them to be taken hence. ‘Gar’ means ‘to cause
something to be done’ (OED, v. 2 †c). Waldron and Gifford
mistakenly emend this to ‘Gae’, i.e. ‘go’.
43 fewmand
soil, or cause to stink. ‘The form appears to be pseudo-dialectical, due
to confusion with the Northern present participle’ (Partridge, 1953a,
App. Ⅰ §12).
44 prick
i.e. with their bristles.
44 limmer
knavish (OED, n. and
a. B).
44 lown
loon, Scottish and northern dialect for a ‘worthless person’ (OED,
Loon n.1 1). The phrase ‘limmer lown’
appears in the northern dialect of a contemporary witchcraft play,
Late Lancashire Witches
(Heywood and Brome, line 494).
45 thyself!] F2 (thy selfe,)
46 Ay,] Waldron; I F2
46 i.e. I’d rather be in the tree than have to
endure your company.
46 SD] Waldron (subst.); not in
F2
2.3 ] Act Ⅱ.
Scene Ⅲ. F2
0 SD ] Waldron
(subst.); Lorel. Maudlin. Douce. F2
2, 22 too] F2 (tu)
2.3 3 wishend
wished. According to Partridge, this form is ‘pseudo-dialect’ (1953a,
App. Ⅰ §11).
3 dritty
dirty.
4 Gud A
dialectical form of ‘good’.
4 duils
Scottish form of ‘doles’, meaning ‘grieves’ (OED).
7 stinkand stinking.
7 polecat
brown variety of ferret (OED, 3).
7 howlet
owl.
8 madge-owl barn owl.
9 Thou’dst] G; Tho’ hadst F2
9 owl-spiegle owl-glass: ‘English rendering of Eulenspiegel, the name of a German
jester of medieval times, the hero of an old German jest-book translated
into English c1560; a prototype
of roguish fools; hence, a jester, buffoon’ (OED, Owl-glass). Cf. Poet., 3.4.117, Fort. Isles, 145–6.
12 witty
wise.
13 whame
whom.
14 He A
resourceful wooer.
14 them
i.e. the women being wooed.
14 mare
pleasand more pleasing.
15 woeman
women.
16 the common . . .
all i.e. the male reproductive organs. Perhaps also an
allusion to Adam, who is often represented nude.
17 twire
peep.
18 With
which (That) with which.
18 gat
got, begot.
18 he’s he
shall.
20 gelden
gelding.
20 Gang thy
gait Go thy ways. This becomes a catchphrase for
Maudlin.
21, 25 do] F2 (du)
21 turns
business.
21–2 I’s . . .
thee I shall see to it that your new breeches are taken
from you.
21, 35 I’s] F2 (I’is)
22 breeks] F2 (breikes)
22 duiblet
doublet.
23 tallor
tailor.
23 tallor] F2 (Talleur)
23 sowter
souter, cobbler.
23 undo] F2 (undu’)
24 except
unless.
24 SD] this edn; in margin of
F2
25 wairs
worse.
26 geif
give.
26 devil’s
erse devil’s arse, a common vulgarity. It is also the name
of a nearby cavern in the Peak District, which Jonson describes in
Gypsies (Burley), 54 and n.,
(Windsor), 53–4, 742–3.
26 erse] F2 (eirs)
27 yoursel’] F2 (your sell)
28 To] F2 (Tu)
28 sheep’ards shepherds. F2’s spelling here differs from the
‘shep’ards’ appearing elsewhere for this play.
28 baudly
boldly.
28 gaing
(when you are) going.
29 frequent familiar (OED, a. 6 †c).
29 fugeand
possibly ‘an alteration of figent’, meaning ‘restless’ (OED).
Greg suggests that this might be dialect for fuging, or fleeing.
31 ga’ ’em
gave them (to).
33 loom] F2 (Luime)
33 sall gar
’em shall cause them (to).
35 I’s pu’
I shall put, or pull. Maudlin is threatening to bring a world of trouble
onto the shepherds’ heads. She may refer to ‘Nature’, because black
magic includes the manipulation of natural events.
36 because] F2 (bycause)
37 today] F2 (tu day)
38 browdred embroidered.
38 characters letters, symbols.
39 Gypsan
Gypsy, from ‘Egyptian’. Egyptian symbols supposedly related magical
formulas. Cf. Alch.: ‘Was not
all the knowledge / Of the Egyptians writ in mystic symbols’
(2.3.202–3). Sewing magic into fabric recalls also Othello’s
handkerchief (Oth.,
3.4.52ff.).
39 right
beldam true witch.
40 starlight by starlight.
41 gran’am’s grandmother’s.
42 earthed
interred.
42 shades
shadows, dark of night.
42 Hecate
Goddess of witchcraft. Disyllabic.
43 gaing-night night of visitation (by flying through the
air). Cf. Queens, 48–52 and
marginal notes 6 and 8.
43 kirkyard churchyard (northern and Scottish).
44 With all] F3; Withall F2
44 barkand
barking.
44 barkand] Wh; barke and F2
44 tykes
dogs.
45 sat
whirland sat whirling. Jonson says of spindles in his note
to Queens, ‘the spindle, in
antiquity, was the chief’ tool of the witch (marginalium, 11). F2’s
‘sate’ is Jonson’s preferred spelling for sat and is probably not dialectical (Partridge, 1953a,
§101d i).
45 sat] F2 (sate)
45 spindle
short stick upon which thread was wound after it spun off the
distaff.
46–9 Maudlin describes how, as she sat spinning
near a turnstile (turnpike), her distaff (rock) whirled about with every
twisting of the thread, feeding wool to the gypsy seamstress who sat
beside her, enabling the gypsy to embroider a magical spell into the
work.
46 thrid
thread. This spelling is used in Jonson’s autograph MS of Queens (BL Royal 18.A.ⅩⅬ Ⅴ, fol. 4)
and so might not be dialectical.
46 rock let
fly distaff released some thread (OED,
Rock n.2).
47 sewster
person who sews.
48 turnpike ‘horizontal cross of timber turning on a vertical
pin, set up to exclude horse-traffic from a foot-way: a turnstile’
(OED, n. Ⅰ
†2).
50 take
tent take heed.
50 ken (1)
understand; (2) recognize (Maudlin in disguise).
50 SD] Waldron; not in F2
2.4 ] Act Ⅱ.
Scene Ⅳ. F2
2.4 6 beat
labour, thresh out (OED, Ⅰ †8).
9 vermin
beasts, like wolves, that prey upon flocks. Compare Pan’s Ann., where it is said that
Pan ‘Driv’st hence the wolf, the tod, the brock, / Or other vermin from
the flock’ (217–18).
10 rot
liver disease affecting sheep (OED, n.1 2).
11 fighting ‘feighting’ in F2, which H&S take to be ‘a
misprint or inadvertently dialectal’, but Jonson uses ‘feight’ in Grammar, 1.4.25.
11 fighting] F2 (feighting)
12 bag
udder.
15 razed
scratched.
16 nigher
closer, presumably to her ‘self’.
21 Alas A
sigh. This and those at lines 24, 27, and 31 are
extra-metrical.
23 somewhat
higher Perhaps alluding to Amie’s awakening sexual
desire.
25 curst
angry.
30 print
imprint, mark.
32 birth
offspring.
33 cleft the
earth i.e. cracked the soil.
37 purling
rippling (OED, ppl. a.).
41 drave
drove. This form is used by Jonson in
Sej., 4.190, and
Queens, 540 (Partridge, 1953a,
§88).
42 fells
skins with wool (
OED,
n.
1 1 a), unlike
1.4.25, where
‘fell’ refers to the skin alone.
44–5 Amie’s complaint remembers and applies to
herself the imagery of the song Karolin sang in 1.5 about the extremes
of love’s heat and death’s cold.
2.5 ] Act Ⅱ.
Scene Ⅴ. F2
1, 4 SD] this edn; in margin of F2 as one direction
1, 23, 41 Oh,] F2 (O’)
2.5 3 Marian’s metaphor is that of the planets and
heavenly bodies, each moving obediently in its proper sphere around the
sun.
4–8 Robin recalls the taunts that ‘Marian’ had
spoken,
1.7.4–3.
6 Thrice
Most. ‘Thrice’ was a stock intensifying adverb.
7 starved] F2 (sterv’d)
9 Unfold
Explain.
13 charge
command.
14 Both
The word can have more than two objects (cf. OED,
a. and adv. B 1 b).
15 shepherds] F2 (Shep’ards)
17 Be . . .
made Do not allow yourselves to be compelled.
22 off] F2 (of)
22 since
(1) since then; or, (2) because (if printed without a comma as in
F2).
22 since,] F2 (Since)
23 SD] this edn; in margin of
F2
25 I’ (1)
In; or, (2) Ay (if printed without apostrophe and with comma, as in
F2).
25 I’] F2 (I); Ay, Waldron; I, F3
25 madam
Accent on the second syllable, as at
2.5.27,
2.6.2, and
3.5.1.
26–8 ha’ you . . .
commaunds Marian takes up Scathlock’s accent in repeating
his words to him.
27 hests
behests.
29 kennel
i.e. take shelter.
30 read
‘teach . . . by (or as by) reading aloud’ (OED,
v. Ⅰ †12 a).
31 countenance sanction, encourage.
32–3 Or . . .
jealousies Or are these imagined jealousies sports to
entertain your friends?
33 formèd
imagined (OED, Form v.1 4
b†).
37 SD] this edn; in margin of
F2
40–1 What . . .
good Do whatever you have decided to do with
me.
42 is, is
Gifford emends this to ‘is’, but both metre and sense are stronger as it
stands.
42 is, is] F2; is G
46 SD]
G (subst.); not in
F2
2.6 ] Act Ⅱ.
Scene Ⅵ. F2
0 SD] To them] this edn; flush right in
F2
2.6 1 SD after i.e. later in the scene, at 46
sd.
2 late
recent.
2 received,] F2 (receiv’d)
3 crakes
(1) boasts (OED, Crake v.2); (2)
utters a grating cry like a crow (OED, v.1 1).
5 SD] this edn; in margin of
F2
5 Send
i.e. How kind of you to send. (Maudlin is not requesting that Marian
send a stag.)
8–9 ] lineation F3; one line
in F2
11 beadswoman (1) ‘one paid or endowed to pray for others’
(OED, Beadsman n.
2), i.e. Maudlin will pray for Marian in return for the venison; (2)
‘humble servant’, said by inferiors to patrons (OED,
n. †5).
12 owe
own, acknowledge.
13 do] F2 (du)
13 go
round spin round.
14 toy (1)
‘odd conceit’ (OED, n. Ⅰ †4 a); (2) ‘sportive or frisky
movement’ (OED, n. Ⅰ
†2).
14 toy] F2; joy G; Waldron (conj.) (p. 137)
14 turn
(1) deed; (2) literally, the turning around which accompanies her
song.
14 SD] this edn; in margin of F2; ‘while . . . lines’ Waldron BL c.45, c.4
14 SD
turns
round Circular and spinning movements seem to have been
associated with the black arts. See Richard Brathwaite’s
The Complete Gentlewoman (
1631), which
describes ‘the Devil’s procession, where the dance is the circle, whose
centre is the Devil’ (77, suggested by Barbara Ravelhofer in private
correspondence).
16 I’m] Wh;
I’ am F2
20–1 to fume . . .
brain Alcohol was held to rise or ‘fume up’ to affect the
brain (cf. OED, Fume v. 3
†b).
22 swoon
faint. Jonson rhymes ‘swoun’ (‘swoon’) with ‘groun’ similarly in Horace,
Art of Poetry,
613–14.
22 swoon] F2 (Swoune)
22 groun’] F2 (growne)
26 wildings crab apples.
26 scald
‘heat liquid to a point just short of boiling point’ (OED,
v. Ⅰ 4 a). The idea for this
dish seems to come from Sandys’s (1632) translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses (a book in Jonson’s
library), which mentions ‘scalded wildings’ in the wooing of Galatea by
the Cyclops (441). Sandys felt the need to defend his rustic translation
of Ovid’s arbuteus foetus to
‘wildings’ as ‘a familiar word, [but] not less agreeable to the
subject’. Wildings are also the ‘strawberries of the wood’ in Sandys’s
translation (and in Ovid’s original), probably providing the association
between the two fruit to Jonson (Sandys, 3 and note).
27 Maudlin
Waldron conjectures ‘Maud’ for the metre and the rhyme with ‘scald’
(Waldron, pp. 135–6). The manuscript behind the printed text may have
confusingly written ‘Maud.’ for ‘Maud’, as F2 prints the diminutive name
with a full stop at
3.1.6 and
3.2.11. But note
that lines 28–9 are not rhymed as a couplet.
29 SD] this edn; not in F2
33 take
i.e. retain.
34 we’d] F2 (wee’lld)
36 knaw
know.
38 departit parted, divided. Maudlin’s pretence that she
charitably distributed the venison among her ‘poor neighbours’ is
revealed almost at once as a lie when Scathlock enters carrying on his
shoulders the entire stag, as it originally lay in Robin Hood’s
kitchen.
39 speak your
largesse proclaim your generosity.
43 ravished seized.
44 I lose . . .
thanks Maudlin’s thanks are here rejected by Marian, an
unwilling giver. For this obsolete, active sense of ‘lose’, cf.
OED,
†2 a. Compare also
Und. 13, Jonson’s
remodelling of Seneca’s ‘Of Benefits’: ‘Can I owe thanks for courtesies
received / Against his will that does ’em
[?
]’ (25–6).
44 lose] F3; loose F2
45 quest
line of enquiry.
46 quality
sort.
46 SD] this edn; in margin of
F2
49 two
legs Turberville describes the shoulders being taken out in
the field (Noble Art, 134–5), so
Scathlock is referring to the rear legs, or haunches, which, together
with the sides, make up the best parts of the deer (cf. 58
below).
49 dress
prepare.
50 ’Slid
By God’s eyelid (an oath).
50 swineherd] F2 (Swine’ard)
51 big
strong.
51 carl
churl, ‘fellow of low birth’ (OED, n.1 2).
51 lewd
base, ill-bred.
51 SD] this edn; in margin of
F2
54–5 Marian’s point is that Maudlin has no right to
upbraid her for giving while also taking, since Maudlin had supposedly
given some of the deer to her neighbours. Marian’s sarcasm here picks up
and emphasizes Maudlin’s lie.
55 SD] this edn; in margin of
F2
56 broaches spits (OED, Broach n.1 Ⅰ 2).
60 devil’s
paternoster ‘murmured or muttered imprecation’ (OED,
Paternoster n. 2), but here also
literally a witch’s inversion of prayer.
61 SD] Potts; 2. in margin of F2
62 swilland swilling, drenching (cf. OED,
Swill v. 1).
62 dropsy
‘morbid condition characterized by the accumulation of watery fluid in
the serous cavities or the connective tissue of the body’ (OED,
n. (a.) A 1 a).
63 cuke
cook.
64 mortmal
mormal, an inflamed sore (OED, Mormal 1).
65 withouten
blin without end.
66 we (so
that) we.
66 matins
morning prayers. Compare ‘devil’s paternoster’, .
above.
66 SD] Potts; 3. in margin of F2
67 pain] F2 (Pæne); Pœne
H&S
67 Saint Anton’s
fire St Anthony’s fire, ‘a popular name of erysipelas’, a
skin inflammation (OED, Anthony
(St)).
76 Oh, oh!] F2 (O’, ô.)
77–117 H&S point out that Jonson’s source for
this passage is Henri Estienne’s
Moschi,
Bionis, Theocriti idyllia aliquot ab Henrico Stephano Latina
facta (
1555), sigs. C1v–2,
which Jonson follows closely.
77 Oh,] F2 (O’)
77 sh maudlin Gifford argues that
‘the speeches given to Maudlin in this part of the dialogue, do not seem
to belong to her. There is indeed a spirit of contradiction in them; but
of far too gentle a nature for the witch. I believe that they should be
set down to Marian’s account.’ The text might be corrupt here, but as
Greg (
1905) points out,
the Argument of the Act and the speech headings assign the mocks to
her.
79 Ay] F2 (I’)
81 Karol . . .
me In my eyes, Karol is the only handsome man.
83 Perhaps playing on his name; cf.
3.4.12.
86 angel
‘harbinger’ (Whalley).
87 nightingale A bird that sings at night, and thus is
appropriate for Amie’s love melancholy.
88 agone
ago (A poetic form; Partridge, 1953a, §60.)
95 This . . .
but Just this very morning (cf. OED,
But prep., conj., adv. B 6 b).
97 silly
simple.
97 silly] F2 (seelie)
98 wish
desire.
101 relish
taste.
108 roe
fawn fawn of the roe deer, a smaller species than the red
deer hunted in the play.
109 out-skipping
bounds large, frolicking leaps.
111 his
i.e. his kisses.
112–13 for . . .
dull i.e. because the deer’s kisses were so lacking in the
feeling that Karolin’s kiss gave.
113 wish no
more i.e. do not desire any more (of them).
119 This line is apparently not fully heard by
those onstage.
119 off] F2 (of)
119 SD] this edn; in margin of
F2
122 shrewd
malignant.
122 piece
Depreciatory term for a woman (OED, n. Ⅱ 9 b).
125 really
Trisyllabic.
2.7 ] Act Ⅱ.
Scene Ⅶ. F2
0 SD
To them] this edn; flush right in
F2
2.7 3 Laces used to fasten clothing.
4 rack
acute pain.
5 spondyles vertebrae (OED, †1).
6 now at
one moment.
8 his either
hand both his hands (Partridge, 1953b, §77b).
9 Than . . .
office Than a dead stump could manage to do his
cooking.
10 an
argument evidence.
12 device
scheme.
14 shepherd] F2 (Shep’ard)
15 walks
frequented paths, part of the administrative divisions of a
forest.
16–21 prick . . .
starting Witches were thought to transform themselves into
hares and other animals to elude their pursuers. As a beast to be hunted
at force (i.e. with hounds) the hare was almost as highly esteemed as
the hart, principally because of its intelligence and skill at laying
false trails and baffling the dogs. A great many folk beliefs clustered
around it: that it was a powerful trickster, deceiving animals much
larger and more powerful than itself (including humans), that it changed
its sex every year or contained both sexes in one, and, especially, that
witches frequently took this shape. In the seventeenth-century Scottish
witch trials, it emerged that the hare was the animal into which the
accused were said most often to transform themselves.
16 prick
look for the tracks of a hare (OED, v. B Ⅰ 6b). Compare Turberville:
‘find the footing of the hare (which we call pricking)’ (Noble Art, 169). Here and throughout
the search for Maudlin, Turberville’s hunting terms are
used.
17 creature of
melancholy Cf. Turberville: ‘The hare first taught us the
use of the herb called wild succour, which is very excellent for those
which are disposed to be melancholic. She herself is one of the most
melancholic beasts that is, and to heal her own infirmities, she goeth
commonly to sit under that herb . . .’ (Noble Art, 160). ‘Creature’ is trisyllabic.
18 or
either.
18 form
lair of a hare (OED, n. Ⅱ 21 a).
19 at
relief seeking food (said of hares) (OED,
Relief2 †8
a).
19 relief
Perhaps accented on the first syllable here.
21 starting forcing (a hare) to leave its lair (cf. OED,
Start v. Ⅱ 17 a).
21 SD
the rest
i.e. Amie, Mellifleur, and Lionel.
21 SD] this edn; in margin of
F2
25 SD] Waldron (subst.); not in F2
2.8 ] Act Ⅱ.
Scene Ⅷ. F2
2.8 0 SD These foresters remain onstage till the end of
the scene, at which point they and Alken will go to hunt for the hag as
Robin has just instructed (
2.7.21–2).
0 SD] Waldron (subst.); John. Scarlet. Scathlock.
George. Alken. F2
2 advise
upon’t consider it.
3 An
If.
4 SH
scathlock] F2 (Sca.); Scat. F3; Scar. / Potts
4–5 formeth . . .
south ‘. . . a huntsman must mark in what place the hare
sitteth, and upon what wind she made her form. For if she form either
upon the north wind, or upon the south wind, she will not willingly run
into the wind, but will run upon a side wind, or else down the wind’
(Turberville, Noble Art,
163).
6 A witch . . .
hare Throughout this scene, in which the hunting of Maudlin
is discussed and planned, Jonson deliberately confuses her animal with
her human identity. Robin Hood’s men plan to track down a creature which
is not simply a woman, nor simply a hare, but mysteriously and
simultaneously both. In this way, he manages to deflect the revulsion
that might be felt at the idea of a human, however wicked, being hunted
at force like an animal.
6 marks the
weather Cf. Turberville: ‘The hare’ doth naturally know the
change of weather from 24 hours to 24 hours’ (Noble Art, 160).
7 SD] this edn; in margin of
F2
8–12 I have . . .
hairs Alken, ‘the sage’, the only elderly character in the
play, has previously been kept in the background. Now, and throughout
this scene, he moves forward into what was clearly going to remain a
dominant position. Remembering what Jonson told Drummond in 1619 about
the lost May-lord – that his own
name in that pastoral was ‘Alken’ – it is tempting to see the old
shepherd here as a kind of authorial surrogate.
10 Father
A respectful address to an old man.
11 more
courtesy more courtesy than to jeer at honoured
age.
12 eld old
age.
12 peels . . .
hairs i.e. strips himself of his beard (by being
childlike). Compare Thomas D’Urfey, Don
Quixote, part Ⅱ (1694): ‘. . . the hairs shall peel from
these disconsolate faces, and every chin be smooth as infant beauty’
(sig. F1).
12 off] F2 (of)
13 dell
pit.
15–68 Alken’s description of Maudlin’s home and
powers accords with traditional witchcraft lore. See in particular
Queens, details of which
Jonson recycles in this play.
15 dimble
See ‘The Persons of the Play’,
31 and
note.
16 brakes
thickets.
17 shaken
earthquake-damaged.
19 grots
grottos, caves or dens (cf. Florio, ‘Grotta’, LEME).
21 melancholic Accent on the second syllable.
21–2 that . . .
about i.e. her business, witchcraft.
22 kells
cocoons (OED, 3 b).
23 rounded in
with surrounded by.
26 Lincolnshire This low-lying county is prone to
flooding.
27 cast
give birth prematurely to (OED, v. Ⅲ 21).
27 farrow
young pigs (OED, n.
1).
28 tun
brewing-vat (OED, n. 1 c).
29 Writhe . . .
wrists Twist children’s wrists to cause them serious
injury.
29 suck . . .
sleep Behaviour Jonson ascribes to witches in Queens, 468 and marginalium 23,
giving notes for his sources.
30 Get . . .
blood The blood would be used to cast spells.
31–2 weed . . . locks
with H&S cite Gerard’s Herbal, which says of moonwort: ‘It hath been used among
the alchemists and witches to do wonders withall, who say, that it will
loose locks . . . and [it] hath been called of them Martagon’ (329). Pliny also mentions
‘onothuris’ as a plant by which ‘all things shut are opened’ (Nat. Hist., 26.9). The witches
apparently need to open door locks to gain access to their
victims.
32 rivet
fix, make permanent.
33 feat
performance.
36 witch’s
banks Because Maudlin lives in a ‘dimble’ or ‘pit’ (15, 16
above), her home is surrounded by rising ground. The staging of the play
requires ‘a piper’s
bank’ (
1.3.14) and
‘
a bank’ for Eglamour to sit
upon (
1.5.0 SD). It seems
likely that these banks might also be employed as the setting for
Maudlin’s dimble.
38 Yes . . .
more Scarlet replies to George that Maudlin’s pranks are
done with malice, and are therefore more dangerous.
39 SH
scathlock] F2 (Sca.); Scat. F3
40 his
i.e. Alken’s.
40 collects collections (of knowledge about
witchcraft).
40 good
F2’s ‘gud’ (cf. collation) is a dialectical form in the play, but George
does not otherwise speak dialect, and F2 has him say ‘good’ at
1.3.8.
40 good] F2 (gud)
41 shifts
evasions.
44 dead-numbing] F2 (dead-numming)
44 nightshade Often known as ‘deadly nightshade’, this plant
is very poisonous if ingested: ‘this kind of nightshade causeth sleep,
troubleth the mind, bringeth madness if a few of the berries be inwardly
taken, but if mo[re] be given they also kill and bring present death’
(Gerard, Herbal,
270).
45 hemlock
‘Hemlock is a very evil, dangerous, hurtful, and poisonous herb,
insomuch that whosoever taketh of it into his body dieth remediless’
(Gerard, Herbal,
904).
45 adder’s
tongue Beneficent plant, probably mentioned for its
sinister-sounding name, which derives from a tonguelike stalk which
grows from the leaf (Gerard, Herbal, 327).
46 martagon This may be the Turk’s-cap lily, as F. E.
Schelling ed.,
Typical Elizabethan
Plays (
1926), and H&S
have it. Gerard’s
Herbal,
however, describes this ‘lily of Constantinople’, coupled with the white
garden lily, as generally beneficent, as it ‘expelleth poison of the
pestilence’ (147). Jonson here seems to use ‘martagon’ as another name
for ‘moonwort’, as he does in
Queens, marginalium 27, which also lists adder’s tongue as
a plant appropriate for black magic. See also Gerard’s mention of
‘martagon’ as a common name for moonwort (in .
above).
46 martagon] F2 (Martagan)
46 luckless
owls owls (traditionally harbingers of ill) that forebode
bad luck.
48 blue
‘said of a pale flame . . . without red glare’, and also the colour of
burning brimstone, and hence connected with the devil (OED,
a. Ⅰ 1 c).
48 firedrakes dragons. Witches are said to turn into blue
drakes in Queens,
260.
49 flitter-mice bats.
50 habergeons jackets of mail, i.e. wing-cases.
53 span-long hand-high.
56 sphere of
fire empyreum, highest heaven. This was thought to be the
sphere between the air (of earth) and the moon.
58 ] this edn;
brackets surrounding ‘o’re . . . crept’ in F2
58 rotten
wood Rotten wood glows because of the bioluminescence of
fungus growing on it. It was thought that glow-worms touching the wood
caused it to glow.
59 nocent
harmful.
61 puppets
dolls used to cast spells.
61 sigilla
‘the plural of the diminutive of signum, used for small images such as the Romans gave one
another at the feast of the Sigilaria . . . Here used for the waxen
images which played so important a rôle in black magic’ (Greg, 1905). The
OED suggests that this term is not otherwise used in
English. Jonson’s witches in Queens also use ‘pictures full of wax and of wool’ for
their charms (line 84).
63 you her] F2 (you’her)
64 scut
tail (of a hare). ‘If when a hare riseth out of the form, she set up her
ears, and run not very fast at the first, and cast up her scut upon her
back, it is a token that it is an old and crafty hare’ (Turberville,
Noble Art, 161). The term
also suggests ‘pudendum’.
66 law
‘allowance in time or distance made to an animal that is to be hunted’
(OED, n.1 Ⅳ 20 a). Turberville emphasizes
that the hunter must hold back: ‘When a hare is put up, you must give
her ground (which is called law) twelve-score yards or more, according
to the ground and country where she sitteth, and then let slip your
greyhounds’ (Noble Art,
246).
67 leaps . . .
paths These descriptions of the hare’s subtlety come from
Turberville: ‘For when she [the hare] goeth to her form, she doth
commonly beat the highways . . . doubling, crossing, and leaping as
lightly as she can’ (Noble Art,
174). ‘Doubling’ is turning back on the same course; ‘crossing’ is
turning to bisect a previous track. Both methods can deceive dogs
following a scent.
71 blast
trumpet call, i.e. noteworthy event.
72 stinking Turberville writes that some hares have
particularly strong scents, and are therefore easier to hunt: ‘. . .
also you have some hares, which naturally give some of them greater
scent than some others, and are much more eagerly hunted and chased by
the hounds, as these great wood hares, and such as are foul and measled’
(Noble Art,
168).
73 her] F3; heir F2
73 heir
Scathlock presumably means Maudlin’s son Lorel, who threatened him when
he came to recover the venison.
74 so haw
Correct hunting cry for when a hare is started: ‘at the hallow to an
hare you say, Haw, haw, haw, here, haw,
here, etc. Whereas in hallowing of a deer you say when the
hounds come in, That’s he, that’s he, to
him, to him, to him, etc.’ (Turberville, Noble Art, 169).
75 I’m] F2 (I’am)
75 SD] G; not in F2
Argument 1 discovers
himself is revealed to be onstage.
1–2 discourseth . . . briefly i.e. briefly soliloquizes on his
role and duties, and why they are important.
2 habit
costume.
The Argument of the Third Act 6, 26 fant’sy] F2 (phantsie)
8 of . . .
still i.e. because Eglamour is still mistaken in thinking
that Earine is alive.
9 regret] F2 (regreet)
18 daughter] F2; goblin Waldron
18 daughter Waldron suggests this might be ‘goblin’ or
similar, to match the action of the play, in which Puck rescues Maudlin.
The Argument here perhaps reflects an earlier design for the scene, but
the Argument itself is not accurate as a synopsis of what occurs in Act
3 as we have it.
19 make the
relation tell the story.
22 footing
footsteps.
24 superstitious idolatrous, in the tradition of worshipping
one’s love.
27 make love
to woo.
27–8 there . . .
suddenly This kind of stage effect (probably produced by
smoke) seems to have been possible to achieve even in the public
theatres at the time. Cf.
Cat.,
1.1.312.
36 simples
medicinal herbs.
36–7 prevents . . .
still i.e. Puck Hairy will sabotage Maudlin’s intentions to
show the error of her ways.
37 shows her] F2; shows <her> her H&S
38 track] F2 (tract)
38 takes her
form hides herself in her lair.
38 Enter Alken] F2 (Enter, Alken);
Enter [the huntsmen,] Alken G; Enter <the Hunts-men,
led by Alken>, Alken / H&S
39 images
the ‘puppets’ and ‘sigilla’ of
2.8.61.
42 overhasty to
apprehend Compare Turberville’s advice in .
above.
3.1 ] Act Ⅲ.
Scene Ⅰ. F2
3.1 1–3 The joke here seems to reside in Puck Hairy’s
elevation of his clandestine and mischievous meddling in the affairs of
grammar schools, ordinary families, and even places of higher education
(academies), to a burdensome but necessary task undertaken for the good
of all concerned.
2 father . . .
family A similar parodic usage is employed in
Volp., 1.5.47–8: ‘The
dwarf, the fool, the eunuch are all his; / He’s the true father of his
family.’
5 turns
changes of events.
6 This . . .
mine This witch whom I serve. (Puck Hairy does not mean
that Maudlin is his mother.)
6 Maud] F2 (Maud.)
10 still
always.
11 divers] F2 (diverse)
11 divers
(1) various; (2) diverse (the F2 spelling).
13 catch
pursuit (OED, n.1 †4 Sc.).
15 firk it
jerk about in a lively manner.
19 SD] Waldron (subst.); not in
F2
3.2 ] Act Ⅲ.
Scene Ⅱ. F2
0 SD ] this edn;
Karol. Douce, to them Aeglamour. F2
1, 10, 13, 37 SH
KAROLIN] F2 (Kar.)
3.2 1 Sure
Surely.
3 ’gainst
in anticipation of.
5 t’enjoy] F2; to enjoy G
6 acceptable gladly received. Accent on the first and third
syllables.
8 garland] F3; Ghirland F2
10 bade] Wh; bad F2
10 goodwoman] F2 (good Woman)
10 goodwoman mistress of a household.
11 Maud] F2 (Maud.)
11 SD, 12
SD]
separated in G; run together at line
11 in margin F2 (Aeglamour enters, and Douce goes out.)
21 majesties . . .
violated i.e. kingliness not questioned. Perhaps Eglamour
believes that kingliness is sustained because the lust is committed
secretly, or because no one is prepared to challenge it.
22 SH
KAROLIN] F2 (Car.)
22 SD] this edn; in margin of
F2
23 as chaste . . .
Earine i.e. as pure as a spring.
24–32 And now . . .
planeting In the old Ptolomaic model of the universe (by
this time disproved by Copernicus and Galileo, but still a fruitful
source of imagery for poets like Jonson and Donne, even if they no
longer actually believed it) the heavenly bodies were mounted on
interlocking, transparent concentric spheres, all of which ceaselessly
orbited the earth, which was stationary at the centre. In Eglamour’s mad
imagination, Earine’s spirit has joined them and restored the heavenly
music which the spheres were said once to have produced as they circled
the earth. Also see
2.5.2–3, where
Marian, running into Robin’s arms, sees them as the sphere in which she,
like an astral body, is properly contained.
27 whisper
whisper to.
30 Just . . .
midst Heavenly bodies were thought to be distant from the
earth in this order: the moon, Mercury, Venus, the sun, Mars, Jupiter,
Saturn. ‘Phoebus’, or the sun, is fourth of seven, or ‘just in the
midst’.
32 planeting Jonson here gives the noun ‘planet’ a verb form,
meaning ‘singing of the planets’ (cf. Partridge, 1953b,
§10).
33 Oh,] F2 (O’)
35 speculation (1) contemplation (OED, Ⅱ
4); (2) ‘observation of the heavens’ (OED, 2 Ⅰ †2 b).
36 SD] this edn; in margin of
F2
37 cogitation thought.
40 spece] F2 (speece)
40 spece
species, sort.
42 this eighth
sphere i.e. a new sphere, represented by Earine, existing
alongside the seven listed in lines
26–31.
43 lose] F2 (loose)
43 SD] this edn; in margin of
F2
3.3 ] Act Ⅲ.
Scene Ⅲ. F2
0 SD] this edn; Clarion. Lionell. Karol.
F2
1 Oh,] F2 (O’,)
3 SH
KAROLIN] F2 (Kar.)
3 lost] Waldron; last F2
3.3 3 lost
man i.e. Eglamour. Waldron, Gifford, and H&S change
F2’s ‘last’ to ‘lost’. Only if ‘last’ is taken to mean ‘utmost’, or
‘unsurpassed’ does the passage makes sense as it stands in F2, but this
seems unlikely given Robin’s social superiority to Eglamour.
5 starts . . .
hand Eglamour darts away from any gentle touch. The
metaphor is from handling horses or hawks.
8 haggard or
unmanned wild or untamed. (Hawking terms.)
9 Eglamour seizes upon every wild, fanciful
notion that comes into his imagination.
9 fant’sy] F2 (phantsy)
14 he’s . . .
hearers he’s adopted the strange ideas that they are
auditors (as opposed to producers of heavenly sound).
15 strained overwrought.
15 fant’sy] F2 (phant’sie)
18 accident event, happening.
19 desires
requires (OED, v.
†3).
19 SD] Waldron; not in F2
3.4 ] F2 (Act Ⅲ. Scene
Ⅳ.); no new scene in
G
3.4 F2’s placement of this scene division appears
out of keeping with the folio’s normal practice, in which scenes change
when new characters enter. Following this convention, the entry of
Maudlin and Douce at line 19 below may be a more apt point for the
division, as Gifford suggests.
0 SD] this edn; Karol. Lionell.
F2
1 SH
KAROLIN] F2 (Kar.)
3–4 ‘The metaphor borrowed from measuring things
with a compass, which hath one foot fixed, and the other extended to
form the circle’ (Whalley).
5 window . . .
bosom Alluding to the myth of Momus, a minor god known for
his railing, who accused Vulcan of folly for not placing a window in
men’s breasts, to reveal their inner thoughts.
6 thorough through (Partridge, 1953a, §66e).
7–8 liver . . . live
is In this period the ‘liver’ was thought, with the heart,
to be the seat of love.
8 is,] this
edn; is. F2; is: Wh
8 whence
from where.
14 stand
hunting stand, where the archer awaits prey.
15 runs . . .
divisions sings his melodies (OED,
Division Ⅰ †7).
19 SD] this edn; in margin of
F2
20, 31, 44, 45 SH
maudlin] Wh; Mar. F2
20 Whither . . .
you Where are you going?
22 This
maiden i.e. Douce.
25 Have
That have.
28 to a] F2 (to’a)
29 feared
were apprehensive about (OED, Fear Ⅱ 8
a†).
33 deft
skillful.
36 SD] this edn; ‘They goe out.’ in margin of F2
37 her
extremes i.e. the extremes of (natural) pining for a
lover.
38 SH
KAROLIN] F2 (Kar.)
38–9 Then . . .
deficient i.e. Art seems most necessary when nature cannot
effect its own cures. ‘Real’ is ‘having an absolute and necessary, in
contrast to a merely contingent, existence’ (OED,
a.2, adv., n.3 A. Ⅰ. 1. b).
39 SD] this edn; in margin of
F2
43, 45.1–2, 45.3 SD] this edn; in margin as one direction
in F2
45 SD
run but … runs
in It appears that both ‘out’ and ‘in’ refer to the same
offstage space here.
45 my
friend i.e. Lionel.
46 outlaw
Maudlin’s accusation here – and again at
3.5.3, where she
terms him ‘the strong thief, Robin outlaw’ – constitutes the only
indication in Jonson’s play of Robin Hood’s traditional status. See
Introduction.
48 gripe] F2 (gripe)
48 gripe
grip.
48 charmèd
circle It was common for sorcerers and conjurors of both
sexes to make use in some way of a circle, a geometric form widely and
long believed to possess magical properties.
49 The
copy i.e. (That which is responsible for) the copy (of
Marian).
49 cozened
cheated, deceived.
51 upon the
start ‘suddenly, without warning’ (OED,
Start n.2 4†c).
52 course
pursue (as if game), hunt.
54 stiles
steps for passing over fences.
56 SD] Waldron (subst.); not in
F2
57 piecing
of mending.
3.5 ] Act Ⅲ.
Scene Ⅴ. F2
0 SD]
G; Maud. Puck. F2
4 They are] F2 (They’are)
3.5 4 clouds
Punning on ‘clouts’, or strips of cloth (like the belt).
4 threat
that threaten.
9 occasions good opportunities.
10 Sail . . .
eggshell Referring to the belief that witches sail in
eggshells. Cf. Queens: ‘We all
must home i’the eggshell sail; / The mast is made of a great pin, / The
tackle of cobweb, the sail as thin’ (250–2). Cf. Macbeth, 1.3.8: ‘in a sieve I’ll
thither sail’.
11 cloth
sail.
15 pilot
helmsman, continuing the metaphorical positioning of Maudlin as a ship
at sea.
17 Lucky
Form of address showing endearment (OED, a. 6 Sc.).
16 SD] this edn; in margin of
F2
17 gaing] F2 (gaang)
17 gaing
F2’s ‘gaang’ may be one of Jonson’s pseudo-dialect forms, but ‘ga’ing’
is used elsewhere in the dialect of F2 (
2.2.27,
2.3.28,
2.3.43).
18–19 Gang . . .
luck i.e. Go on your way and try your chances to better
effect.
20 THE END Presumably meaning the
end of the play as it survived and was printed in F2, although it breaks
off abruptly in the middle of the third act, not even completing the
action described in its Argument. See
Introduction.
To see how I will hug it
in mine arms,
See moreYou will not rob me,
See moreOf Robin Hood and to the
See moreSend forth your woodmen,
then, into the
See morePoor Tom, the cook, is
taken! All his joints
See moreBorn with the primrose and
the violet,
See moreWelcome, bright Clarion
and sweet Mellifleur,
See moreAs presents,
mistress.
See moreWho pineth with the
languor of your love.
See moreOr, with pretence of
chasing thence the
See moreBoth fleece and carcass,
not gi’ing him the
See moreHath he forsook
me?
See moreSweet singing Karol, the
delicious Karol,
See more
1.5 [Enter] KAROLIN. Eglamour sitting upon a bank
by.
See more
Good Father Tuck, at your
commands I am
See moreAnd thence can see
See more