The Complete Plays (78 page)

84    
Darts forth her light… shore
: Looks forward to the shore of Lavinium (where Lavinia, his future wife, awaits). The soul was usually thought of as feminine, and vision was supposed to involve light being directed from the eye to its object.

85    
divorce
: Dissolve, put an end to (as a divorce ends a marriage).

86    
weary… thoughts
: As the following lines suggest, Juno intends to wear out Aeneas' thoughts of Lavinia and his promised kingdom as his body is tired by the hunt and by love-making.

91    
Silvanus' dwellings
: The forests (home of the wood-god).

96    
savour of
: Have some of the characteristics of, ‘have a smack of.

97    
have it
: Absent from Q, ‘it' seems necessary to grammar and metre.

99    
Ida
: (Here, apparently) Venus' groves near Idalium in Cyprus.

100   
Adonis' purple down
: Probably a bed of the purple anemones which sprang from the blood of Adonis.

Scene
3

4     
Diana's shrouds
: Hunting clothes.

5     
All fellows
: All equals (proverbial, Tilley F182–3).

24   
otherwhile… out of joint
: He is sometimes not his normal self.

26   
man of men
: Any man, however great.

29   
given… in gage
: Wagered, i.e. risked.

30   
pitch… toils
: Set snares.

45   
And dead… brought me up
: (Perhaps) and dead to the honour on which my life has been based.

59   
a winter's tale
: An adventure story suitable for long winter evenings.

61   
soil
: Marshy area where wild animals wallow.

64   
forfeit to
: For Q's
far fet to.

77   
very
: Mere.

79   
fancy's shapes
: Objects of desire.

84   
That resteth… pain
: Which my rival presently enjoys, in contrast with my pain.

Scene
4

0.1   SD
The storm
: Probably the occasion for spectacular sound-effects, see 4.1.1–13.

0.1–0.2  SD
at several times
: I.e. they enter separately.

4      
in a net
: Vulcan caught Venus and Mars in a net as they made love.
where
: Whereas.

19    
butts his beams
: Casts his rays.

20–21  
Prometheus… burning arms
: Dido's burning passion is so intense that it is as though the fire-bringer Prometheus (N) had disguised himself as the god of love. There is an echo of the myth of Semele, who was consumed in the flames when she requested that her lover, Jupiter, should appear before her in his true form.

35    
Whose… content
: Who, being both royal and desirable, could match my desire and royalty.

37    
for me
: Instead of me.

38    
to Sirens' eyes
: Aeneas prefers to be at sea, where he can be admired by the alluring but dangerous Sirens (N); ‘to' is omitted in Q.

45    
Paphos
: A town in Cyprus, the home of Aeneas' mother Venus.

51    
Delian
: From Delos, the birthplace of Apollo, the god of music.

55    
made disdain… fancy's lap
: Made coldness turn (for childlike comfort, or adult love) to love's own lap.

ACT 4

Scene
1

11    
Apollo's axle-tree
: The axis on which the sphere carrying the sun was thought to revolve
or
the axle of the sun-god's chariot.

12    
Atlas'… out of joint
: Such an injury to Atlas (N) would shake the heavens.

19    
Typhoeus' den
: Mount Etna in Sicily, under which Typhoeus was imprisoned. Q's
Tiphous
may be a compositor's error for Marlowe's usual spelling Typhon (N).

24    
sporting
: (Here) copulating.

35    
cares
: Oliver 1968 justifies Q's
eares
as a reference to larbas' eavesdropping. But larbas has not known Dido's whereabouts.

Scene
2

1–22  
Come… eyes
: Modelled on larbas' reaction in Virgil to the rumour of Dido's liaison with Aeneas (
Aeneid
IV, 198–218). Marlowe
adds the sacrificial ritual (compare 5.1) and the dialogue with Anna.

2–3  
gloomy Jove… ills
: larbas supposes that Jupiter is punishing him for neglecting to worship him.

10    
Eliza
: Dido was also called Elissa. The spelling here may indicate a compliment to Queen Elizabeth, but the reminiscence which some detect here to Spenser's
Epithalamion
(composed for his wedding on 11 June 1594, more than a year after Marlowe's death) is chronologically impossible unless the line is post-Marlovian.

13    
hide of ground
: When Dido arrived in Africa, larbas offered her as much land as could be covered by an ox-hide. She cut a hide into strips and marked out the boundary for a city which became Carthage. A ‘hide' was also an Old English measure (approximately one hundred acres) of land.

27    
partake
: Share, hence impart, communicate.

32    
coloured
: (Here) specious.

39    
numbers
: (i) Quantity, (ii) songs (cf. line 45).

44    
In this… pensiveness
: ‘Luxuriating in this swooning [‘dying'] self-pity' (Oliver 1968).

56    
dishevelled hair
: (Q's spelling
discheveld
is etymological) emblematic of emotional disturbance.

Scene
3

6     
my Phoenissa
: Dido (the Virgilian epithet
Phoenissa
means ‘Phoenician').

8     
clogged
: Burdened, weighted down.

9–11  
immortal house… glassy fields
: Fame and honour are given allegorical dwellings, the sea is thought of as land to be worked.

18   
realms
: For Q's
beames.

22–4  
slice the sea… the deep
: The black (‘sable') ships will move so fast that the winds will follow after them like servants.

31   
Banish
…
your mouth
: Achates reacts punningly to the erotic extravagance of line 29.

32   
follow… stars
: Navigate by the stars in which your future is written.

50   
accustom
: Customarily do.

55   
dure this female drudgery
: Endure this enslavement to a woman,
or
stand these laborious female contrivances (tears, kisses, etc.).

Scene
4

6     
drift
: Purpose, with a pun on the ships' motion.

11   
Circe
: See (N). The suggestion of an association between the
enchantress and Dido's late husband seems to be Marlowe's invention.

13   
how might I… chide?
: What can I do to chide them?

19   
How haps… not
: How happens Achates not to bid me…

29–30  
Hath not… leave him here
: Either Aeneas was prepared to abandon Ascanius, or this is bare-faced bluff.

50   
clouds… thou fled'st
: Various myths describe Aeneas being hidden by a cloud sent by a god, but not his fleeing in one.

fled'st
: Q's
fleest
may be merely a variant form of the past tense.

57   
Destinies
: Fates.

62   
Moors
: Dido's north African subjects.

64   
make experience of
: Test, demonstrate.

68   
my guard
: Probably a guard of honour, but the hint of preventing another attempted escape is not uncharacteristic of the play.

92   
fire proud Lacedaemon
: Burn Sparta (in revenge for the burning of Troy).

104      
prevent
: Forestall, act first.

105      
take young Ascanius
: Dido's plan to keep Ascanius (here, of course, Cupid) hostage is Marlowe's invention.

127      
Packed
: (i) Conspired, compacted, (ii) hoisted full sail.

151      
not… base tackling
: Nothing, not even so humble a thing as these ropes.

157      
to chastise shipboys
: The knotted ropes (155) could serve as whips.

159      
favours
: Ribbons given as love-tokens (and useless as sails).

Scene
5

This comic scene, with his first pastiche of ‘The Passionate Shepherd to his Love', is entirely Marlowe's invention.

5          
services
: (Here) a type of pear.

6          
Dewberries
: Blackberries or gooseberries.

20        
twigger
: (Affectionately) a good breeder, a rake.

28        
our
: Emended from Q's
your
, but her pronouns are becoming confused in her excitement.

36–7  
Well… say him nay
: The Nurse remembers a rejected suitor, who would succeed (‘speed') better now.

ACT 5

Scene
1

11   –15  
The sun… her fumes
: Like bees bearing the sweet honey of Hybla (N), the sun's beams will carry the perfumes of the east, and
shed them on the new town. ‘Wherewith' (12) is syntactically ambiguous.

38–9  
Ascanius' prophecy… thousand years
: ‘The prophecy was that Ascanius would found Alba Longa, and that he and his descendants (lulus was the son of Ascanius, born in Lavinium) would rule the empire for centuries to come' (Gill 1977). Virgil treats lulus and Ascanius as identical, using both names to refer to the son of Aeneas. Cf. 1.1.96–108.

89        
road
: Roadstead, sheltered water just beyond the harbour.

106      
use to quit
: Make a practice of leaving.

110      
‘Let me go… hence'
: Q gives this line to Aeneas, but Dido is echoing his words, as in line 124.

114      
chained
: Q's
chaungd
is possible but weak.

116      
for grief of thee
: Caused by my grieving over you.

117      
thy
: For Q's
my.

136–8  
Si bene… mentem
: ‘If I have deserved anything from you, or anything about me has been dear to you, take pity on a falling house; and I beg this – if there is still
[adhuc
for Q's
ad haec]
any place for prayers – abandon this purpose',
Aeneid
IV, 317–19.

139–40  
Desine
…
sequor
: ‘Stop inflaming both of us with your laments. Against my will, I must go to Italy',
Aeneid
IV, 360–61.

156–9  
Thy mother… gave thee suck
: Close to
Aeneid
IV, 365–7. The mountains of the Caucasus were famed for their harshness, as were the tigers of Hercynia in Persia for their ferocious cruelty.

162      
fisher swain
: Poor fisherman.

165–8  
O serpent… thee
: An elaboration on the almost proverbial dangers of nurturing a serpent in one's bosom.

171      
at large
: Fully.

201      
mermaid's eye
: Mermaids allured sailors with their looks, as sirens did with their voices.

202      
Aulis' gulf
: Where the Greek fleet assembled before it sailed for Troy.

215      
fairies
: Fairies were said to spirit away human children, and replace them with changelings (which, like Cupid, might then disappear).

234      
heart's of adamant
: (Aeneas') heart is made of impenetrable stone (Q's
heart
leaves the sentence without a main verb).

247      
Triton's niece
: Marlowe confuses the sea-monster Scylla (N), a relative of Triton (N), with Scylla the daughter of King Nisus, who swam after her lover Minos' boat.

248      
Arion's harp
: The musician Arion (N) was robbed and thrown overboard by pirates, but rescued by a dolphin which had been
charmed by his music (Q's
Orions
is a confusion with the mythological hunter and his constellation).

268      
my
: For Q's
thy
.

271      
straight
: Straightaway, very soon.

274–7  
Not far… relics
: In
Aeneid
IV, 478–502, Dido's invented sorceress is an Ethiopian priestess of the Hesperides (N).

275      
arts
: Magical skills.