Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay
Scene 1* Video Sc. 1*
Enter Prince Edward*
, malcontented*, with Lacy, earl of Lincoln*, John Warren, earl of Sussex*, and Ermsby*, gentleman, and Rafe Simnell*, the king’s fool.
1.Sp1Lacy
Why looks my lord like to a troubled sky
When heaven’s bright shine is shadowed with a fog?
That scudded ’fore the teisers* like the wind.
So lustily pulled down by jolly mates*,
Nor shared the farmers such fat venison,
So frankly dealt this hundred years before;
Nor have I seen my lord more frolic in the chase,
And now changed to a melancholy dump*.
1.Sp2Warren
After the prince got to the Keeper’s lodge*
And had been jocund* in the house awhile,
Tossing of ale and milk in country cans*,
Whether it was the country’s sweet content,
Or else the bonny damsel filled us drink
That seemed so stately in her stammel red*,
Or that a qualm* did cross his stomach then,
1.Sp10Rafe
1.Sp12Rafe
1.Sp13Edward
1.Sp16Rafe
He says all England hath no such, and I say, and I’ll stand to it, there is one better
in Warwickshire.
1.Sp18Rafe
Why, is not the Abbot a learnèd man and hath read many books, and thinkest thou he
hath not more learning than thou to choose a bonny wench? Yes, I warrant thee, by
his whole grammar.
*1.Sp20Edward
I tell thee, Lacy, that her sparkling eyes
, Lacy, that her sparkling eyesDo lighten forth* sweet love’s alluring fire,
And in her tresses she doth fold the looks
Of such as gaze upon her golden hair*;
Her bashful white mixed with the morning’s red
Luna doth boast upon her lovely cheeks;
*
Her front is beauty’s table, where she paints
The glories of her gorgeous excellence;
*
Her teeth are shelves of precious margarites*,
Richly enclosed with ruddy coral cleaves*.
Tush, Lacy, she is beauty’s overmatch*,
If thou survey’st her curious imagery*.
1.Sp21Lacy
1.Sp22Edward
Ah, Ned, but hadst thou watched her as myself,
And seen the secret beauties of the maid,
Their courtly coyness were but foolery.
*
1.Sp24Edward
When as she swept like Venus* through the house,
And in her shape fast folded up my thoughts,
Into the milk-house went I with the maid,
And there amongst the cream bowls she did shine
As Pallas* ’mongst her princely huswifery.
She turned her smock over her lily arms
And dived them into milk to run her cheese;
*
But whiter than the milk her crystal skin,
Checked with lines of azure, made her blush,
That art or nature durst bring for compare.*
Ermsby, if thou hadst seen, as I did note it well,
How beauty played the huswife*, how this girl
Like Lucrece* laid her fingers to the work,
Thou wouldst with Tarquin hazard Rome and all
To win the lovely maid of Fressingfield.
1.Sp29Rafe
1.Sp31Rafe
1.Sp33Rafe
Marry, sirrah, if thou be’st a silken purse full of gold, then on Sundays she’ll hang
thee by her side, and you must not say a word. Now, sir, when she comes into a great press of people, for fear of the cutpurse on a sudden she’ll swap thee into her placket*; then, sirrah, being there you may plead* for yourself.
; then, sirrah, being there you may plead* for yourself.1.Sp36Rafe
1.Sp40Edward
Lacy, the fool hath laid a perfect plot
For why* our country Margaret is so coy
And stands so much upon her honest points*
That marriage or no market* with the maid.
Ermsby, it must be necromantic spells
spellsAnd charms of art that must enchain her love,
Or else shall Edward never win the girl.
Therefore, my wags, we’ll horse us in the morn,
And post to Oxford to this jolly friar.
Bacon shall by his magic do this deed.
1.Sp41Warren
1.Sp42Edward
I am unknown*, not taken for the prince;
They only deem us frolic courtiers
That revel thus among our liege’s game*;
Therefore I have devised a policy.
Lacy, thou know’st next Friday is Saint James’s*,
And then the country flocks to Harleston Fair*;
Then will the Keeper’s daughter frolic there,
And overshine the troupe of all the maids
That come to see and to be seen that day.
Haunt thee, disguised among the country swains;
Feign* thou’rt a farmer’s son, not far from thence;
Espy her loves, and who she liketh best;
Say that the courtier tirèd* all in green,
That helped her handsomely to run her cheese*
And filled her father’s lodge with venison,
Buy something worthy of her parentage,
Not worth her beauty, for, Lacy, then the fair
Affords no jewel fitting for the maid.
And when thou talkest of me, note if she blush;
Oh, then she loves; but if her cheeks wax* pale,
Disdain it is. Lacy, send how she fares*,
And spare no time nor cost to win her loves.
1.Sp47Rafe
Marry, every time that Ned sighs for the Keeper’s daughter, I’ll tie a bell about
him, and so within three or four days I will send word to his father, Harry, that
his son and my master Ned is become Love’s morris dance*.
1.Sp48Edward
Exeunt.
Well, Lacy, look with care unto thy charge*,
And I will haste to Oxford to the friar,
That he by art and thou by secret gifts
Mayst make me lord of merry Fressingfield.
Scene 2* Video Sc. 2*
Enter Friar Bacon* with Miles, his poor scholar*, following* with books
under his arm; with them Burden, Mason, Clement*, three doctors.
2.Sp5Friar Bacon
2.Sp6Burden
2.Sp8Miles
2.Sp9Burden
I tell thee, Bacon, Oxford makes report,
Nay England, and the court of Henry says
Thou’rt making of a brazen head by art,
Which shall unfold strange doubts and aphorisms*
And read* a lecture in philosophy,
And by the help of devils and ghastly* fiends,
Thou mean’st, ere many years or days be past,
To compass England with a wall of brass*.
2.Sp11Miles
2.Sp12Clement
Bacon, we come not grieving at thy skill,
But joying that our academy yields
A man supposed the wonder of the world*;
For if thy cunning work these miracles,
England and Europe shall admire thy fame,
And Oxford shall, in characters of brass
And statues such as were built up in Rome,
Eternize Friar Bacon for his art.
2.Sp14Friar Bacon
Seeing you come as friends unto the friar,
Resolve you doctors, Bacon can by books
Make storming Boreas* thunder from his cave,
And dim fair Luna* to a dark eclipse;
The great arch-ruler, potentate of hell,
Trembles when Bacon bids him or his fiends
Bow to the force of his pentageron*.
What art can work the frolic friar knows,
And strain out necromancy to the deep.
*
to the deep.I have contrived and framed* a head of brass
(I made Belcephon* hammer out the stuff)
And that by art shall read philosophy;
*
And I will strengthen England by my skill
That if ten Caesars lived and reigned in Rome,
With all the legions Europe doth contain,
They should not touch a grass of English ground.
The work that Ninus reared at Babylon,
The brazen walls framed by Semiramis,
*
Carved out like to the portal of the sun,
Shall not be such as rings the English strand*
From Dover to the marketplace of Rye.
2.Sp19Mason
No doubt but magic may do much in this,
For he that reads but mathematic rules
Shall find conclusions that avail* to work
Wonders that pass the common sense of men.
2.Sp20Burden
But Bacon roves a bow beyond his reach*,
And tells of more than magic can perform,
Thinking to get a fame by fooleries.
Have I not passed as far in state of schools
And read of many secrets? Yet to think
That heads of brass can utter any voice,
Or more, to tell of deep philosophy—
This is a fable Aesop had forgot.
2.Sp21Friar Bacon
Burden, thou wrong’st me in detracting thus;
Bacon loves not to stuff himself with lies.
But tell me ’fore these doctors, if thou dare,
Of certain questions I shall move to thee.
2.Sp23Miles
Marry, sir, he’ll straight be on your pick-pack* to know whether the feminine or the masculine gender be most worthy.
2.Sp31Miles
Nay, Master Burden, my master, ere he hath done with you, will turn you from a doctor
to a dunce, and shake you so small that he will leave no more learning in you than
is in Balaam’s ass*.
2.Sp32Friar Bacon
Masters, for that* learned Burden’s skill is deep,
I’ll show you why he haunts to* Henley oft,
Not, doctors, for to taste the fragrant air,
But there to spend the night in alchemy,
To multiply with secret spells of art;
Thus private steals he learning from us all.
To prove my sayings true, I’ll show you straight
The book he keeps at Henley for himself.
2.Sp34Friar Bacon
Enter a woman with a shoulder of mutton on a spit and a devil.*
Masters, stand still; fear not. I’ll show you but his book.
(Here he conjures.)
magic book
Per omnes deos infernales Belcephon.*
2.Sp35Miles
Oh, master, cease your conjuration or you spoil all, for here’s a she-devil come with
a shoulder of mutton* on a spit. You have marred the devil’s supper; but no doubt he thinks our college
fare is slender and so hath sent you his cook with a shoulder of mutton to make it
exceed.
2.Sp40Hostess
As I was in the kitchen ’mongst the maids,
Spitting the meat against* supper for my guests,
,A motion* moved me to look forth of door.
No sooner had I pried* into the yard
But straight a whirlwind hoisted me from thence,
And mounted me aloft unto the clouds.
As in a trance, I thought nor feared naught*,
Nor know I where or whether I was ta’en,
Nor where I am, nor what these persons be.
2.Sp42Hostess
Oh yes, good sir, he is my daily guest.
What, Master Burden, t’was but yesternight
That you and I at Henley played at cards.
2.Sp45Friar Bacon
2.Sp46Miles
I’ll warrant you, master, if Master Burden could conjure as well as you, he would
have his book every night from Henley to study on at Oxford*.
2.Sp47Mason
2.Sp48Friar Bacon
Exeunt Hostess and the devil.
Well, mistress, for I will not have you missed,
You shall to Henley to cheer up your guests
ʼFore supper ʼgin.— Burden, bid her adieu;
Say farewell to your hostess ’fore she goes.—
To the devil
Sirrah, away, and set her safe at home!
Sirrah, away, and set her safe at home!2.Sp53Miles
Marry, sir, now that my hostess is gone to provide supper, conjure up another spirit
and send Doctor Burden flying after.
2.Sp54Friar Bacon
Exeunt omnes.
Thus, rulers of our academic state,
You have seen the friar frame his art by proof*,
And as the college called Brazennose
Is under him and he the master there,
So surely shall this head of brass be framed*
And yield forth strange and uncouth* aphorisms;
And hell and Hecate shall fail the friar
But* I will circle England round with brass.
Scene 3* Video Sc. 3*
Enter Margaret and Joan, with Thomas, Richard, and other clowns following, and Lacy disguised in country apparel.
3.Sp1Thomas
3.Sp2Margaret
Thomas, maids when they come to see the fair
Count not to make a cope for dearth of hay.
*
When we have turned our butter to the salt*
And set our cheese safely upon the racks,
the racks,Then let our fathers price it as they please.
it as they please.We country sluts* of merry Fressingfield
And look that young men should be frank* this day
And court us with such fairings* as they can.
Phoebus* is blithe and frolic looks from heaven
As when he courted lovely Semele*,
Swearing the peddlers shall have empty packs
If that fair weather may make chapmen buy.
*
3.Sp3Lacy
But, lovely Peggy, Semele is dead,
And therefore Phoebus from his palace pries*,
And, seeing such a sweet and seemly saint,
Shows all his glories for to court yourself.
3.Sp4Margaret
3.Sp5Joan
Margaret, a farmer’s daughter for a farmer’s son;
I warrant you, the meanest* of us both
Shall have a mate to lead us from the church.—
But, Thomas, what’s the news? What, in a dump?
Give me your hand, we are near a peddler’s shop.
Out with your purse, we must have fairings now.
3.Sp6Thomas
All this while Lacy whispers Margaret in the ear.
Faith*, Joan, and shall. I’ll bestow a fairing on you, and then we will to the tavern and
snap off a pint of wine or two.
3.Sp8Lacy
Faith, lovely girl, I am of Beccles* by,
Your neighbor, not above six miles from hence,
A farmer’s son that never was so quaint*
But that he could do courtesy to such dames.
But trust me, Margaret, I am sent in charge
From him that reveled in your father’s house
And filled his lodge with cheer and venison,
Tirèd in green. He sent you this rich purse,
in green. He sent you this rich purse,His token that he helped you run your cheese*
And in the milk-house chatted with yourself.
3.Sp11Margaret
Oh, pardon, sir, I call to mind the man.
’Twere little manners to refuse his gift,
And yet I hope he sends it not for love,
For we have little leisure to debate of that*.
3.Sp14Richard
Sirrah, are you of Beccles? I pray, how doth Goodman Cob*? My father bought a horse of him.— I’ll tell you, Margaret, ’a were good to be a
gentleman’s jade*, for of all things the foul hilding* could not abide a dung-cart.
*.3.Sp15Margaret
Aside
How different is this farmer from the rest,
That erst as yet* hath pleased my wandering sight!
His words are witty, quickened with a smile,
His courtesy gentle, smelling of the court;
Facile and debonair in all his deeds,
Proportioned as was Paris when in gray
He courted Oenone in the vale by Troy*.
Great lords have come and pleaded for my love,
Who but the Keeper’s lass of Fressingfield?
And yet methinks this farmer’s jolly* son
Passeth the proudest that hath pleased mine eye.
But, Peg, disclose not that thou art in love,
And show as yet no sign of love to him.
Although thou well wouldst wish him for thy love,
Keep that to thee till time doth serve thy turn
To show the grief* wherein thy heart doth burn.—
Come, Joan and Thomas, shall we to the fair?—
You, Beccles man, will not forsake us now?
3.Sp17Margaret
Exeunt omnes.
Scene 4* Video Sc. 4*
Enter King Henry the Third* of England, the Emperor of Germany*, the King of Castile*, Eleanor his daughter*, Jaques Vandermast, a German*, and other lords and attendants.
4.Sp1King Henry
Great men of Europe, monarchs of the West,
Ringed with the walls of old Oceanus*,
Whose lofty surge is* like the battlements
* like the battlementsThat compassed high-built Babel* in with towers,
Welcome, my lords, welcome brave western kings,
To England’s shore, whose promontory cliffs
Shows Albion* is another little world.
Welcome, says English Henry to you all,—
Chiefly unto the lovely Eleanor,
Who dared for Edward’s sake cut through the seas
And venture as Agenor’s damsel* through the deep
To get the love of Henry’s wanton* son.
4.Sp2King of Castile
England’s rich monarch, brave Plantagenet,
The Pyren Mounts*, swelling above the clouds,
That ward the wealthy Castile in with walls,
Could not detain the beauteous Eleanor;
But hearing of the fame of Edward’s youth,
She dared to brook Neptunus’s haughty pride*,
Then may fair England welcome her the more.
4.Sp3Eleanor
After that English Henry, by his lords,
Had sent Prince Edward’s lovely counterfeit*,
A present to the Castile Eleanor,
The comely portrait of so brave a man,
The virtuous fame discoursed of his deeds,
Edward’s courageous resolution
Done at the Holy Land ’fore Damas’s* walls,
Led both mine eye and thought in equal links
To like so of the English monarch’s son
That I attempted perils for his sake.
4.Sp5King Henry
4.Sp6Emperor of Germany
Nay, rather, Henry, let us as we be*
Ride for to visit Oxford with our train*.
Fain* would I see your universities
And what learnèd men your academy yields.
From Hapsburg have I brought a learnèd clerk
To hold dispute with English orators.
This doctor, surnamed Jaques Vandermast,
A German born, passed into Padua,
To Florence, and to fair Bologna,
To Paris, Rheims, and stately Orleans,
And talking there with men of art, put down*
The chiefest of them all in aphorisms*,
In magic, and the mathematic rules.
Now let us, Henry, try him in your schools.
4.Sp7King Henry
Exeunt.He shall, my lord; this motion likes* me well.
We’ll progress straight to Oxford with our trains,
And see what men our academy brings.—
And, wonder* Vandermast, welcome to me.
In Oxford shalt thou find a jolly friar
Called Friar Bacon, England’s only* flower;
Set him but nonplus* in his magic spells
And make him yield in mathematic rules,
And for thy glory I will bind thy brows,
Not with a poet’s garland made of bays,
But with a coronet of choicest gold.
Whilst then we set to* Oxford with our troops,
* Oxford with our troops,Let’s in and banquet* in our English court.
Scene 5* Video Sc. 5*
Enter Rafe Simnell in Edward’s apparel, Edward disguised as Rafe*, Warren and Ermsby, disguised.
5.Sp1Rafe
Posing as Prince Edward Where be these vagabond knaves, that they attend no better on their master?
Where be these vagabond knaves, that they attend no better on their master?5.Sp5Rafe
Marry, sir, I’ll send to the Isle of Ely* for four or five dozen of geese, and I’ll have them tied six and six together with
whipcord. Now upon their backs will I have a fair field bed with a canopy; and so
when it is my pleasure, I’ll flee into what place I please. This will be easy.
5.Sp6Warren
Your honor hath said well, but shall we to Brazennose College before we pull off our
boots?
5.Sp7Ermsby
Warren, well motioned; we will to the friar
Before we revel it within the town.—
Rafe, see you keep your countenance* like a prince.
5.Sp8Rafe
Enter Bacon and Miles.
5.Sp11Friar Bacon
5.Sp12Miles
No, sir? Yes; what is this else? Ego sum tuus homo: “I am your man.” I warrant you, sir, as good Tully’s phrase* as any is in Oxford.
Ego sum tuus homo: “I am your man.” I warrant you, sir, as good Tully’s phrase* as any is in Oxford.5.Sp18Edward
Come, let us break off this dispute between these two.—
To Miles
Sirrah, where is Brazennose College?
Sirrah, where is Brazennose College?5.Sp25Rafe
Sirrah, I am the master of these good fellows. Mayst thou not know me to be a lord
by my reparel*?
5.Sp26Miles
Bacon charms them by magic, so that they are powerless to draw their swords.
5.Sp30Miles
A company of scabs*. The proudest of you all draw your weapon, if he can.—
To the audience
See how boldly I speak now my master is by.
See how boldly I speak now my master is by.5.Sp31Edward
I strive in vain, but if my sword be shut*,
And conjured fast by magic in my sheath,
Villain, here is my fist.
Strike him a box on the ear.
5.Sp32Miles
Oh, I beseech you, conjure his hands, too, that he may not lift his arms to his head,
for he is light-fingered*!
5.Sp38Friar Bacon
Could you not judge when all your swords grew fast
That Friar Bacon was not far from hence?
Edward, King Henry’s son and prince of Wales*,
Thy fool disguised cannot conceal thyself.
I know both Ermsby and the Sussex earl*,
Else Friar Bacon had but little skill.
Thou comest in post* from merryFressingfield,
Fast fancied to* the Keeper’s bonny lass,
To crave some succor* of the jolly friar;
And Lacy, earl of Lincoln, hast thou left
To treat* fair Margaret to allow thy loves;
But friends are men, and love can baffle lords.
The earl both woos and courts her for himself.
and courts her for himself.5.Sp41Edward
I stand amazed to hear this jolly friar
Tell even the very secrets of my thoughts.
But learnèd Bacon, since thou knowest the cause
Why I did post so fast from Fressingfield,
Help, friar, at a pinch*, that I may have
The love of lovely Margaret to myself;
And, as I am true prince of Wales, I’ll give
5.Sp43Rafe
Why, servant Ned, will not the friar do it? Were not my sword glued to my scabbard
by conjuration, I would cut off his head and make him do it by force.
5.Sp44Miles
In faith, my lord, your manhood and your sword is all alike: they are so fast* conjured that we shall never see them.
5.Sp45Ermsby
What, doctor, in a dump? Tush, help the prince,
And thou shalt see how liberal he will prove.
5.Sp46Friar Bacon
Aside
Crave not such actions greater dumps than these?*—
Crave not such actions greater dumps than these?*—
To Edward
I will, my lord, strain out* my magic spells,
I will, my lord, strain out* my magic spells,For this day comes the earl to Fressingfield,
And ’fore that night shuts in the day with dark
They’ll be betrothed each to other fast*.
But come with me; we’ll to my study straight,
And in a glass prospective* I will show
What’s done this day in merryFressingfield.
5.Sp48Friar Bacon
But send your train, my lord, into the town;
My scholar shall go bring them to their inn.
Meanwhile we’ll see the knavery of the earl.
5.Sp49Edward
Warren, leave me; and Ermsby, take the fool;
Let him be master and go revel it
Till I and Friar Bacon talk awhile.
5.Sp51Rafe
Exeunt all except Bacon and Edward.Faith, Ned, and I’ll lord it out ’til thou comest. I’ll be prince of Wales over all
the black pots* in Oxford.
Bacon and Edward go into the study*.
5.Sp52Friar Bacon
Enter Margaret and Friar Bungay* visible through the glass, though Edward cannot hear them.
5.Sp56Edward
I see the Keeper’s lovely lass appear,
As brightsome as the paramour of Mars*,
as the paramour of Mars*,Only attended by a jolly friar.
5.Sp58Margaret
5.Sp59Friar Bungay
5.Sp60Margaret
5.Sp62Margaret
5.Sp63Friar Bungay
Hath not each eye that viewed thy pleasing face
Surnamèd thee fair maid of Fressingfield?
5.Sp66Edward
Enter Lacy disguised as before
To Bacon
I think the friar courts the bonny wench;
I think the friar courts the bonny wench;Bacon, methinks he is a lusty churl*!
.
They stand aside and watch Lacy.
5.Sp71Lacy
Daphne, the damsel that caught Phoebus fast
And locked him in the brightness of her looks,
Was not so beauteous in Apollo’s eyes
*
As is fair Margaret to the Lincoln earl.
Recant thee, Lacy! Thou art put in trust.
Edward, thy sovereign’s son, hath chosen thee
A secret* friend to court her for himself,
And darest thou wrong thy prince with treachery?
Lacy, love makes no exception of a friend,
of a friend,Nor deems it of a prince but as a man.
*
Honor bids thee control him in his lust.
His wooing is not for to wed the girl,
*
But to entrap her and beguile the lass.
Lacy, thou lovest. Then brook* not such abuse,
But wed her, and abide thy prince’s frown;
For better die than see her live disgraced.
see her live disgraced.5.Sp72Margaret
Come, friar, I will shake him from his dumps.
She steps forward.
How cheer you, sir? A penny for your thought?
You’re early up. Pray God it be the near*.
What, come from Beccles in a morn so soon?
5.Sp73Lacy
5.Sp74Margaret
5.Sp75Lacy
5.Sp76Margaret
You are very hasty, for to garden well
Seeds must have time to sprout before they spring;
Love ought to creep as doth the dial’s shade,
For timely ripe is rotten too too soon.
5.Sp77Friar Bungay
5.Sp79Friar Bungay
Hear you not how the pursuivants* do post
With proclamations through each country town?
5.Sp81Friar Bungay
Dwell’st thou in Beccles and hear’st not of these news?
Lacy, the earl of Lincoln is late fled
From Windsor court* disguised like a swain,
And lurks about the country here unknown.
Henry suspects him of some treachery,
And therefore doth proclaim in every way
That who* can take the Lincoln earl shall have
5.Sp82Lacy
The earl of Lincoln? Friar, thou art mad.
It was some other; thou mistakest the man.
The earl of Lincoln? Why, it cannot be.
5.Sp83Margaret
Yes, very well, my lord, for you are he.
The Keeper’s daughter took you prisoner.
Lord Lacy, yield. I’ll be your jailer once*.
5.Sp87Margaret
5.Sp88Lacy
Believe me, lass, I am* the Lincoln earl.
I not deny but tirèd thus in rags
I lived disguised to win fair Peggy’s love.
5.Sp94Lacy
They kiss.The Lincoln countess, for it shall be so.
I’ll plight the bands* and seal it with a kiss.
Edward threatens to stab the prospective glass.
5.Sp98Friar Bacon
’Twere a long poniard*, my lord, to reach between
Oxford and Fressingfield. But sit still and see more.
5.Sp99Friar Bungay
5.Sp104Edward
Bacon, I see the lovers hand in hand,
The friar ready with his portace there
To wed them both; then am I quite undone.
Bacon, help now, if e’er thy magic served!
Help, Bacon, stop the marriage now,
If devils or necromancy may suffice
And I will give thee forty thousand crowns!
5.Sp105Friar Bacon
Bacon puts a spell on Bungay.
Bungay is mute, crying “Hud, hud*!”
5.Sp107Margaret
5.Sp108Lacy
He’s dumb indeed. Bacon hath with his devils
Enchanted him, or else some strange disease
Or apoplexy* hath possessed his lungs.
But, Peggy, what he cannot with his book,
We’ll ’twixt us both unite it up in heart.
5.Sp111Friar Bacon
I have struck him dumb, my lord, and if your honor please,
I’ll fetch this Bungay straightway from Fressingfield,
And he shall dine with us in Oxford here.
5.Sp113Lacy
Enter a devil who carries Bungay away on his back.
5.Sp115Margaret
Exeunt* Margaret and LacyOh help, my lord, a devil! A devil, my lord!
Look how he carries Bungay on his back!
Let’s hence, for Bacon’s spirits be abroad.
.
5.Sp116Edward
Bacon, I laugh to see the jolly friar
Mounted upon the devil, and how the earl
Flees with his bonny lass for fear.
As soon as Bungay is at Brazennose
And I have chatted with the merry friar,
And quite these wrongs on Lacy ere it be long.
5.Sp117Friar Bacon
Exeunt*.
So be it, my lord. But let us to our dinner,
For ere we have taken our repast awhile,
We shall have Bungay brought to Brazennose.
Scene 6* Video Sc. 6*
Enter three doctors*: Burden, Mason, and Clement.6.Sp1Mason
6.Sp2Burden
6.Sp3Clement
To welcome all the western potentates.
But more, the king by letters hath foretold
That Frederick, the Almain Emperor,
Hath brought with him a German of esteem
Whose surname is Don Jaques Vandermast,
Skillful in magic and those secret arts.
6.Sp4Mason
Then must we all make suit unto the friar,
To Friar Bacon, that he vouch* this task,
And undertake to countervail in skill
The German, else there’s none in Oxford can
Match and dispute with learnèd Vandermast.
6.Sp5Burden
Bacon, if he will hold the German play*,
Will teach him what an English friar can do.
teach him what an English friar can do.The devil, I think, dare not dispute with him.
6.Sp6Clement
Indeed, Mas* Doctor, he displeasured you,
you,In that he brought your hostess with her spit
From Henley posting unto Brazennose.
6.Sp7Burden
A cry of voices.A vengeance on the friar for his pains!
But leaving that, let’s hie to Bacon straight,
To see if he will take this task in hand.
Enter a Constable, with Rafe, Warren, and Ermsby all three disguised as before
and Miles.
6.Sp9Constable
Nay, masters, if you were ne’er so good, you shall* before the doctors to answer your misdemeanor.
6.Sp11Constable
6.Sp12Miles
6.Sp14Miles
6.Sp16Rafe
I am, father doctor, as a man would say, the bellwether* of this company. These are my lords, and I the prince of Wales.
6.Sp18Rafe
6.Sp22Warren
Why, and thinkest thou, doctor, that he is not so?
Dar’st thou detract and derogate* from him,
Being so lovely and so brave a youth?
6.Sp23Ermsby
*
Whose face shining with many a sugared smile
Bewrays* that he is bred of princely race?
6.Sp24Miles
*
And yet, master doctor, to speak like a proctor*,
And tell unto you, what is veriment* and true,
To cease of this quarrel, look but on his apparel,
Then mark but my tales, he is great prince of Wales,
, he is great prince of Wales,The chief of our gregis, and filius regis*.
Then ’ware what is done, for he is Henry’s white* son.
6.Sp25Rafe
Doctors, whose doting nightcaps* are not capable of my ingenious dignity, know that I am Edward Plantagenet, whom
if you displease will make a ship that shall hold all your colleges, and so carry away the Niniversity with a
fair wind to the Bankside in Southwark*.— How say’st thou, Ned Warren, shall I not do it?
6.Sp26Warren
6.Sp27Ermsby
And I, my lord, will have pioneers* to undermine the town, that the very gardens and orchards be carried away for your
summer walks.
6.Sp28Miles
*
Will conjure and charm, to keep you from harm,
Like Bartlet’s ship*, from Oxford do skip,
With colleges and schools, full loaden with fools.
6.Sp29Clement
6.Sp32Miles
6.Sp34Warren
Well, doctors, seeing I have sported me
With laughing at these mad and merry wags,
Know that Prince Edward is at Brazennose,
Pointing to Rafe
And this, attired like the prince of Wales,
Is Rafe, King Henry’s only lovèd fool;
I, earl of Sussex*, and this, Ermsby,
, and this, Ermsby,One of the privy chamber* to the king,
Who, while the prince with Friar Bacon stays,
Have reveled it in Oxford as you see.
6.Sp35Mason
My lord, pardon us, we knew not what you were.
But courtiers may make greater scapes* than these.
Will’t please your honor dine with me today?
6.Sp36Warren
I will, master doctor, and satisfy the vintner for his hurt. Only I must desire you
to imagine him
pointing to Rafe
all this forenoon the prince of Wales.
all this forenoon the prince of Wales.6.Sp38Rafe
Exeunt omnes.*
And upon that I will lead the way; only I will have Miles go before me because I have
heard Henry* say that wisdom must go before majesty.
Scene 7* Video Sc. 7*
Enter Prince Edward with his poniard in his hand, Lacy, and Margaret.7.Sp1Edward
Lacy, thou canst not shroud thy traitorous thoughts,
Nor cover, as did Cassius*, all thy wiles,
wiles,For Edward hath an eye that looks as far
Did not I sit in Oxford by the friar
And see thee court the maid of Fressingfield,
Sealing thy flattering fancies with a kiss?
Did not proud Bungay draw his portace forth,
And, joining hand in hand, had married you,
If Friar Bacon had not struck him dumb
And mounted him upon a spirit’s back
That we might chat at Oxford with the friar?
Traitor*, what answer’st? Is not all this true?
7.Sp2Lacy
Truth all, my lord, and thus I make reply:
At Harleston Fair, there courting for your grace,
And drew the beauteous glory of her looks
To dive into the center of my heart,
Love taught me that your honor did but jest,
That princes were in fancy but as men,
How that the lovely maid of Fressingfield
Was fitter to be Lacy’s wedded wife
Than concubine unto the prince of Wales.
*
7.Sp3Edward
Injurious Lacy, did I love thee more
Than Alexander his Hephestion*?
Did I unfold the passions* of my love
of my loveAnd lock them in the closet of thy thoughts?
Wert thou to Edward second to himself,
Sole friend, and partner of his secret loves?
And could a glance of fading* beauty break
The enchained fetters* of such private friends?
Base coward, false, and too effeminate*
To be corrival* with a prince in thoughts!
From Oxford have I posted since I dined
To quite a traitor ’fore that Edward sleep*.
7.Sp4Margaret
’Twas I, my lord, not Lacy, stepped awry;
For oft he sued and courted for yourself,
And still wooed for the courtier all in green,
But I, whom fancy made but overfond*,
Pleaded myself with looks as if I loved.
*
I fed mine eye with gazing on his face,
My heart with sighs, mine eyes pleaded with tears,
My face held pity and content at once,
And more I could not cipher out by signs*
But that I loved Lord Lacy with my heart.
Then, worthy Edward, measure with thy mind
If women’s favors will not force men fall,
If beauty and if darts of piercing love
Are not of force to bury thoughts of friends.
not of force to bury thoughts of friends.7.Sp5Edward
I tell thee, Peggy, I will have thy loves.
Edward or none shall conquer Margaret.
In frigates bottomed with rich sethin* planks,
planks,Topped with the lofty firs of Lebanon*,
Stemmed and incased with burnished ivory,
And overlaid with plates of Persian wealth,
Like Thetis* shalt thou wanton on the waves
And draw the dolphins to thy lovely eyes
England and England’s wealth shall wait on thee;
Britain shall bend unto her prince’s love,
And do due homage to thine excellence
If thou wilt be but Edward’s Margaret.
*
7.Sp6Margaret
*
Pardon, my lord. If Jove’s great royalty
Sent me such presents as to Danaë*,
If Phoebus, tirèd in Latona’s webs*,
in Latona’s webs*,Came courting from the beauty of his lodge,
courting from the beauty of his lodge,The dulcet tunes of frolic Mercury*
Nor all the wealth heaven’s treasury affords
all the wealth heaven’s treasury affordsShould make me leave Lord Lacy or his love.
7.Sp7Edward
7.Sp8Lacy
Kneeling
Rather than live and miss fair Margaret’s love,
Rather than live and miss fair Margaret’s love,Prince Edward, stop not at the fatal doom*,
But stab it home. End both my loves and life.
7.Sp9Margaret
Kneeling
Brave prince of Wales, honored for royal deeds,
Brave prince of Wales, honored for royal deeds,’Twere sin to stain fair Venus’s courts with blood.
Love’s conquest ends, my lord, in courtesy.
ends, my lord, in courtesy.Spare Lacy, gentle Edward; let me die.
For so both you and he do cease your loves*.
7.Sp14Margaret
Why, thinks King Henry’s son that Margaret’s love
Hangs in the uncertain balance of proud time?
That death shall make a discord of our thoughts?
No! Stab the earl and ’fore the morning sun
Shall vaunt him thrice over the lofty east,
Margaret will meet her Lacy in the heavens.
7.Sp15Lacy
7.Sp18Margaret
7.Sp19Edward
Aside*
Edward, art thou that famous prince of Wales
Edward, art thou that famous prince of WalesWho at Damascus beat the Saracens*
And brought’st home triumph on thy lance’s point,
And shall thy plumes* be pulled by Venus down?
Is it princely to dissever lovers’ leagues*,
,To part such friends as glory in their loves?
Leave, Ned, and make a virtue of this fault*,
And further Peg and Lacy in their loves.
So in subduing fancy’s passion*,
Conquering thyself, thou get’st the richest spoil*.—
Lacy, rise up.— Fair Peggy, here’s my hand.
The prince of Wales hath conquered all his thoughts,
*
And all his loves he yields unto the earl.
Lacy, enjoy the maid of Fressingfield;
Make her thy Lincoln countess at the church,
And Ned, as he is true Plantagenet*,
Will give her to thee frankly for thy wife.
7.Sp20Lacy
Humbly I take her of my sovereign,
As if that Edward gave me England’s right,
And riched me with the Albion diadem*.
7.Sp21Margaret
And doth the English prince mean true?
Will he vouchsafe* to cease his former loves,
And yield the title of a country maid
Unto Lord Lacy?
7.Sp23Margaret
*
7.Sp24Edward
Gramercy, Peggy. Now that vows are past,
And that your loves are not to be revolt*,
revolt*,Once, Lacy, friends again, come, we will post
To Oxford, for this day the king is there,
And brings for Edward Castile Eleanor*.
Peggy, I must go see and view my wife;
I pray God I like her as I loved thee.
Beside, Lord Lincoln, we shall hear dispute
’Twixt Friar Bacon and learnèd Vandermast.
Peggy, we’ll leave you for a week or two.
7.Sp25Margaret
As it please Lord Lacy; but love’s foolish looks
Think footsteps miles and minutes to be hours.
7.Sp26Lacy
I’ll hasten, Peggy, to make short return.—
But please, your honor, go unto the lodge.
We shall have butter, cheese, and venison,
And yesterday I brought for Margaret
A lusty* bottle of neat claret wine.
Thus can we feast and entertain your grace.
7.Sp27Edward
Exeunt.
’Tis cheer, Lord Lacy, for an emperor
If he respect the person* and the place.
Come, let us in, for I will all this night
Ride post until I come to Bacon’s cell.
Scene 8* Video Sc. 8*
Enter King Henry, the Emperor of Germany, the King of Castile, the Duke of Saxony*, Eleanor, Vandermast, Bungay, and other lords and attendants.
8.Sp1Emperor of Germany
8.Sp2Vandermast
8.Sp3Friar Bungay
King Henry and the nobles sit*.
8.Sp7Vandermast
Before rich Europe’s worthies put thou forth
The doubtful* question unto Vandermast.
8.Sp8Friar Bungay
Let it be this: whether the spirits of pyromancy or geomancy* be most predominant in magic.
8.Sp11Vandermast
The cabbalists* that write of magic spells,
As Hermes, Melchie, and Pythagorus*,
Affirm that ’mongst the quadruplicity
Of elemental essence,* Terra is but thought
To be a punctum squarèd to the rest;
And that the compass of ascending elements
Exceed in bigness as they do in height,*
Judging the concave circle of the sun
To hold the rest in his circumference.
If then, as Hermes* says, the fire be greatest,
Purest, and only giveth shapes to spirits,
Then must these demons that haunt that place*
Be every way superior to the rest.
8.Sp12Friar Bungay
I reason not of elemental shapes,
Nor tell I of the concave latitudes,
Noting their essence nor their quality,
But of the spirits that pyromancy calls*,
And of the vigor of the geomantic fiends.
I tell thee, German, magic haunts the grounds*,
And those strange necromantic spells
That work such shows and wondering* in the world
Are acted by those geomantic spirits
That Hermes calleth terrae filii*.
The fiery spirits are but transparent shades
That lightly pass as heralds to bear news;
But earthly fiends, closed in the lowest deep,
Dissever mountains if they be but charged*,
Being more gross and massy* in their power.
8.Sp13Vandermast
Rather these earthly geomantic spirits
Are dull and like the place where they remain;
For when proud Lucifer fell from the heavens*,
The spirits and angels that did sin with him
Retained their local essence* as their faults,
All subject under Luna’s continent*.
They which offended less hung in the fire,
in the fire,And second faults did rest within the air;
But Lucifer and his proud-hearted fiends
Were thrown into the center of the earth,
Having less understanding* than the rest,
As having greater sin and lesser grace.
Therefore, such gross and earthly spirits do serve
Whereas the pyromantic genii*
Are mighty, swift, and of far-reaching power.
But grant* that geomancy hath most force;
Bungay, to please these mighty potentates,
Prove by some instance what thy art can do.
8.Sp15Emperor of Germany
Now, English Harry, here begins the game;
We shall see sport between these learnèd men.
8.Sp17Friar Bungay
Here Bungay conjures* and the tree appears with the dragon shooting fire.
8.Sp19King Henry
What say you, royal lordings, to my friar?
Hath he not done a point* of cunning skill?
8.Sp20Vandermast
Hercules appears in his lion’s skin.
8.Sp22Vandermast
Here he begins to break the branches.
Jove’s bastard son, thou Lybian Hercules,
Pull off the sprigs from off the Hesperian tree,
As once thou did’st to win the golden fruit.
8.Sp24Vandermast
Now, Bungay, if thou canst by magic charm*
The fiend appearing like great Hercules
From pulling down the branches of the tree,
Then art thou worthy to be counted learned.
8.Sp26Vandermast
Enter Bacon.
Cease, Hercules, until I give thee charge.
Hercules ceases.
To King Henry Mighty commander of this English isle,
Henry, come from the stout Plantagenets,
Bungay is learned enough to be a friar,
But to compare with Jaques Vandermast
Oxford and Cambridge must go seek* their cells
To find a man to match him in his art.
I have given non-plus to* the Paduans,
And now must Henry, if he do me right,
8.Sp27Friar Bacon
All hail to this royal company
That sit to hear and see this strange dispute!—
Bungay, how stand’st thou as a man amazed?
What, hath the German acted more* than thou?
8.Sp30Vandermast
Lordly thou lookest, as if that thou wert learned;
Thy countenance, as if science* held her seat
Between the circled arches of thy brows.
8.Sp32Emperor of Germany
8.Sp34Friar Bacon*
No, unless he were more learned than Vandermast;
For yet tell me, what hast thou done?
8.Sp37Vandermast
Now, Hercules, I charge thee to thy task.
Pull off the golden branches from the root.
8.Sp38Hercules
I dare not. See’st thou not great Bacon here,
Whose frown doth act more than thy magic can?
8.Sp39Vandermast
By all the thrones and dominations,
Virtues, powers, and mighty hierarchies,*
I charge thee to obey to Vandermast.
8.Sp40Hercules
8.Sp42Vandermast
Never before wast known to Vandermast
That men held devils in such obedient awe.
Bacon doth more than art*, or else I fail.
8.Sp43Emperor of Germany
Why, Vandermast, art thou overcome?
Bacon, dispute with him and try his skill.
8.Sp44Friar Bacon
Exit the spirit with Vandermast and the tree.
I come not, monarchs, for to hold dispute
With such a novice as is Vandermast.
I come to have your royalties to dine
With Friar Bacon here in Brazennose;
And for* this German troubles but the place,
And holds this audience with a long suspense,
I’ll send him to his academy hence.—
Thou, Hercules, whom Vandermast did raise,
Transport the German unto Hapsburg* straight,
More secret dooms* and aphorisms of art.
Vanish the tree and thou away with him!
8.Sp46Friar Bacon
To Hapsburg. There your highness at return
Shall find the German in his study safe.
8.Sp47King Henry
Bacon, thou hast honored England with thy skill,
And made fair Oxford famous by thine art;
I will be English Henry to thyself.
But tell me, shall we dine with thee today?
8.Sp48Friar Bacon
Enter Edward, Lacy, Warren, and Ermsby.
With me, my lord; and while I fit my cheer*,
See where Prince Edward comes to welcome you,
Gracious as the morning star of heaven.
Exit.
8.Sp49Emperor of Germany
8.Sp51Edward
At Framlingham*, my lord, to try your bucks
But hearing of these lordly potentates
Landed and progressed* up to Oxford town,
I posted to give entertain* to them—
And joint with* him, Castile and Saxony
Are welcome as they may be to the English court.
Thus for the men.— But see, Venus appears*,
Or one that over-matcheth* Venus in her shape.
Sweet Eleanor, beauty’s high swelling pride,
Rich nature’s glory and her wealth at once,
Fair of all fairs*, welcome to Albion;
Welcome to me, and welcome to thine own,
If that thou deign’st the welcome from myself.
8.Sp52Eleanor
8.Sp53King of Castile
To King Henry
Fear not, my lord, this couple will agree,
Fear not, my lord, this couple will agree,If love may creep into their wanton eyes;—
And therefore, Edward, I accept thee here,
Without suspense, as my adopted* son.
8.Sp54King Henry
Enter Miles* with a cloth and trenchers* and salt.
8.Sp55Miles
8.Sp58Miles
Exit Miles.
8.Sp59King of Castile
Enter Miles with a mess of pottage* and broth, and after him Bacon.
8.Sp60Miles
8.Sp61Friar Bacon
Lordings, admire not if your cheer be this,
For we must keep our academic fare.
No riot where philosophy doth reign,
And therefore, Henry, place these potentates,
And bid them fall unto their frugal cates*.
,
And therefore, Henry, place these potentates,
And bid them fall unto their frugal cates*.8.Sp62Emperor of Germany
Presumptuous friar! What, scoff’st thou at a king?
Why dost thou taunt us with thy peasants’ fare,
And give us cates fit for country swains?—
Henry, proceeds this jest of thy consent?
To twit* us with a pittance of such price?
Tell me, and Frederick will not grieve thee long.
dost thou taunt us with thy peasants’ fare,
And give us cates fit for country swains?—
Henry, proceeds this jest of thy consent?
To twit* us with a pittance of such price?
Tell me, and Frederick will not grieve thee long.8.Sp63King Henry
By Henry’s honor and the royal faith
The English monarch beareth to his friend,
I knew not of the friar’s feeble fare,
Nor am I pleased he entertains you thus.
8.Sp64Friar Bacon
Content thee, Frederick, for I showed these cates
To let thee see how scholars use* to feed,
How little meat refines our English wits.—
Miles, take away, and let it be thy dinner.
To let thee see how scholars use* to feed,
How little meat refines our English wits.—
Miles, take away, and let it be thy dinner.8.Sp65Miles
Exit Miles*.
Marry, sir, I will. This day shall be a festival day with me, For I shall exceed in
the highest degree.
8.Sp66Friar Bacon
Exeunt.I tell thee, monarch, all the German peers
Could not afford thy entertainment such,
So royal and so full of majesty,
As Bacon will present to Frederick.
The basest waiter that attends thy cups
Shall be in honors greater than thyself.
And for thy cates rich Alexandria drugs*,
Found in the wealthy strand* of Africa,
Shall royalize the table of my king.
Wines richer than the Gyptian courtesan*
Quaffed to Augustus’s kingly countermatch*
Shall be caroused in English Henry’s feasts.
Candy shall yield the richest of her canes;*
Send down the secrets of her spicery;
The Afric dates, myrobalans* of Spain,
of Spain,Cates from Judea, choicer than the lamp
That fired Rome with sparks of gluttony,*
Shall beautify the board* for Frederick;
And therefore grudge not at a friar’s feast*.
Scene 9* Video Sc. 9*
Enter two gentlemen, Lambert and Serlsby, with the Keeper.9.Sp1Lambert
Come, frolic keeper of our liege’s game,
Whose table spread* hath ever venison
And jacks* of wines to welcome passengers;
Know I am in love with jolly Margaret,
That over-shines our damsels as the moon*
Darkeneth the brightest sparkles of the night.
In Laxfield* here my land and living lies;
I’ll make thy daughter jointer* of it all,
So thou consent to give her to my wife*,
And I can spend five hundred marks* a year.
9.Sp2Serlsby
9.Sp3Keeper
Now, courteous gentles, if the Keeper’s girl
Hath pleased the liking fancy of you both,
And with her beauty hath subdued your thoughts,
’Tis doubtful* to decide the question.
It joys me that such men of great esteem
Should lay their liking on this base estate,
And that her state should grow so fortunate
To be a wife to meaner men than you,*
I will, to avoid displeasure of you both,
Call Margaret forth, and she shall make her choice.
Exit the Keeper.*
9.Sp4Lambert
Content, Keeper, send her unto us.
Why, Serlsby, is thy wife so lately dead?
Are all thy loves so lightly passèd over
As thou canst wed before the year be out*?
9.Sp5Serlsby
Enter Margaret.
I live not, Lambert, to content the dead,
Nor was I wedded but for life to her.
The grave ends and begins a married state.
ends and begins a married state.9.Sp6Lambert
Peggy, the lovely flower of all towns,
Suffolk’s fair Helen* and rich England’s star,
Whose beauty tempered with her huswifery
Makes England talk of merry Fressingfield!
9.Sp7Serlsby
I cannot trick it up with poesies*,
Nor paint my passions with comparisons,
Nor tell a tale of Phoebus and his loves*,
But this believe me: Laxfield here is mine,
Of ancient rent seven hundred pounds* a year,
And if thou canst but love a country squire,
I will enfeoff thee, Margaret, in all.
I cannot flatter. Try me, if thou please.
9.Sp8Margaret
9.Sp10Margaret
9.Sp11Serlsby
Let it be me; and trust me, Margaret,
The meads* environed with the silver streams,
Whose battling pastures fatt’neth all my flocks,
all my flocks,Yielding forth fleeces stapled* with such wool
As Lempster* cannot yield more finer stuff,
And forty kine with fair and burnished heads,
heads,Shall serve thy dairy if thou wed with me.
9.Sp12Lambert
Let pass the country wealth as flocks and kine,
And lands that wave with Ceres’s* golden sheaves,
Filling my barns with plenty of the fields;
But, Peggy, if thou wed thyself to me
Thou shalt have garments of embroidered silk,
Costly shall be thy fair habiliments*,
If thou wilt be but Lambert’s loving wife.
9.Sp13Margaret
9.Sp14Serlsby
Lambert, I tell thee thou art importunate.
Such beauty fits not such a base esquire.
It is for Serlsby to have Margaret.
9.Sp15Lambert
9.Sp16Serlsby
I’ll answer, Lambert, what I have avouched.—
Margaret, farewell. Another time shall serve.
Exit Serlsby.
9.Sp17Lambert
I’ll follow.— Peggy, farewell to thyself;
Listen how well I’ll answer for thy love.
Exit Lambert.
9.Sp18Margaret
Enter a Post with a letter and
a bag of gold.
How Fortune tempers lucky haps* with frowns
And wrongs me with the sweets of my delight!
Love is my bliss, and love is now my bale*.
Shall I be Helen in my froward* fates,
As I am Helen in my matchless hue*,
And set rich Suffolk with my face afire*?
If lovely Lacy were but with his Peggy,
The cloudy darkness of his bitter frown
Would check the pride of these aspiring squires.
Before the term of ten days be expired,
Whenas they look for answer of their loves,
My lord will come to merry Fressingfield
And end their fancies and their follies both;
Till when, Peggy, be blithe and of good cheer.
9.Sp19Post
Fair lovely damsel, which way leads this path?
How might I post me unto Fressingfield?
Which footpath leadeth to the Keeper’s lodge?
9.Sp20Margaret
Your way is ready* and this path is right.
Myself do dwell hereby in Fressingfield,
And if the Keeper be the man you seek,
I am his daughter. May I know the cause?
9.Sp21Post
9.Sp22Margaret
The scrolls that Jove sent Danae,
Wrapped in rich closures of fine burnished gold,
Were not more welcome than these lines to me.*
Tell me whilst that I do unrip the seals,
Lives Lacy well? How fares my lovely lord?
9.Sp24Margaret
The letter*, and Margaret reads it.
“‘The blooms of the almond tree grow in a night and vanish
in a morn. The flies hemerae* (fair Peggy) take life with
the sun and die with the dew. Fancy*, that slippeth in with a
gaze, goeth out with a wink*, and too timely* loves have ever the
shortest length. I write this as thy grief and my folly, who at Fressingfield loved
that which time hath taught me to be but mean
dainties.* Eyes are dissemblers and fancy is but queasy*. Therefore
know, Margaret, I have chosen a Spanish lady to be my wife,
chief waiting woman to the Princess Eleanor, a lady fair
and no less fair than thyself, honorable and wealthy. In that* I
forsake thee, I leave thee to thine own liking, and for thy dowry
I have sent thee a hundred pounds and ever assure thee of my
favor, which shall avail* thee and thine much. Farewell.
Not thine nor his own*,
Edward Lacy.'”
(fair Peggy) take life with
the sun and die with the dew. Fancy*, that slippeth in with a
gaze, goeth out with a wink*, and too timely* loves have ever the
shortest length. I write this as thy grief and my folly, who at Fressingfield loved
that which time hath taught me to be but mean
dainties.* Eyes are dissemblers and fancy is but queasy*. Therefore
know, Margaret, I have chosen a Spanish lady to be my wife,
chief waiting woman to the Princess Eleanor, a lady fair
and no less fair than thyself, honorable and wealthy. In that* I
forsake thee, I leave thee to thine own liking, and for thy dowry
I have sent thee a hundred pounds and ever assure thee of my
favor, which shall avail* thee and thine much. Farewell.
Not thine nor his own*,
Edward Lacy.'”
Fond Ate, doomer of bad-boding fates,
fates,That wraps proud Fortune in thy snaky locks,*
Did’st thou enchant my birthday with such stars
As lightened mischief* from their infancy?
If heavens had vowed, if stars had made decree,
To show on me their froward influence*,
If Lacy had but loved, heavens, hell, and all
Could not have wronged the patience of my mind.
9.Sp26Margaret
9.Sp28Margaret
First, for thou cam’st from Lacy whom I loved—
Ah, give me leave to sigh* at every thought!—
Take thou, my friend, the hundred pound he sent,
For Margaret’s resolution craves no dower.*
The world shall be to her as vanity,
Wealth, trash; love, hate; pleasure, despair;
For I will straight to stately Framlingham,
And in the abbey there be shorn a nun*,
And yield my loves and liberty to God.
Fellow, I give thee this, not for the news,
For those be hateful unto Margaret,
But for th’art Lacy’s man, once Margaret’s love.*
thought!—
Take thou, my friend, the hundred pound he sent,
For Margaret’s resolution craves no dower.*
The world shall be to her as vanity,
Wealth, trash; love, hate; pleasure, despair;
For I will straight to stately Framlingham,
And in the abbey there be shorn a nun*,
And yield my loves and liberty to God.
Fellow, I give thee this, not for the news,
For those be hateful unto Margaret,
But for th’art Lacy’s man, once Margaret’s love.*Scene 10* Video Sc. 10*
Enter Friar Bacon, drawing the curtains* with a white stick*, a book in his hand and a lamp lighted by him, and the brazen head*, and Miles with weapons* by him.10.Sp4Miles
Think you that the watching of the brazen head
craves no furniture*? I warrant you, sir, I have so armed myself that if all your devils come I will not
fear them an inch.
10.Sp5Friar Bacon
Here he falleth asleep.
Miles, thou knowest that I have dived into hell
And sought the darkest palaces of fiends,
That with my magic spells great Belcephon
Hath left his lodge and kneelèd at my cell.
The rafters of the earth rent* from the poles
And three-formed Luna* hid her silver looks,
Trembling upon her concave continent*,
When Bacon read upon his magic book.
With seven years’ tossing necromantic charms,
Poring upon dark Hecate’s principles,
I have framed out* a monstrous head of brass
That by the enchanting forces of the devil
Shall tell out strange and uncouth aphorisms,
And girt* fair England with a wall of brass.
Bungay and I have watched these threescore days,
And now our vital spirits crave some rest.
If Argus* lived and had his hundred eyes,
They could not overwatch Phobeter*’s night.
Now, Miles, in thee rests Friar Bacon’s weal*;
The honor and renown of all his life
Hangs in the watching of this brazen head.
Therefore, I charge thee by the immortal God
That holds the souls of men within his fist,
This night thou watch; for ere the morning star
Sends out his glorious glister on the north,
The head will speak. Then, Miles, upon thy life*,
Wake me; for then by magic art I’ll work
To end my seven years’ task with excellence.
If that a wink but shut thy watchful eye,
Then farewell Bacon’s glory and his fame.
Draw close the curtains. Miles, now for thy life,
Be watchful and—
10.Sp6Miles
With this a great noise. The head speaks.*
So, I thought you would talk yourself asleep anon; and ’tis no marvel, for Bungay
on the days and he on the nights have watched just these ten and fifty days. Now this
is the night, and ’tis my task* and no more. Now, Jesus, bless me! What a goodly head it is, and a nose! You talk
of nos autem glorificare, but here’s a nose that I warrant may be called nos autem popelare* for the people of the parish. Well, I am furnished with
weapons. Now, sir, I will set me down by a post*, and make it as good as a watchman to wake me if I chance to slumber. I thought, Goodman Head, I would call you out of your memento*— (
He falls asleep and knocks his head*.
)
Passion o’ God, I have almost broke my pate! Up, Miles, to your task. Take your brown bill* in your hand. Here’s some of your master’s hobgoblins abroad.
*.
)
Passion o’ God, I have almost broke my pate! Up, Miles, to your task. Take your brown bill* in your hand. Here’s some of your master’s hobgoblins abroad.10.Sp8Miles
“Time is”? Why, Master Brazen Head, have you such a capital* nose, and answer you with syllables? “Time is”? Is this all my master’s cunning,
to spend seven years study about “Time is”? Well, sir, it may be we shall have some
better orations of it anon. Well, I’ll watch you as narrowly as ever you were watched,
and I’ll play with you as the nightingale with the slow-worm. I’ll set a prick against my breast.*
He leans against the spear-point of a halberd.
Now, rest there, Miles.
He sleeps again and falls down.
Lord have mercy upon me, I have almost killed myself! (
Noise again.
) Up Miles! List how they rumble!
Now, rest there, Miles.
He sleeps again and falls down.
Lord have mercy upon me, I have almost killed myself! (
Noise again.
) Up Miles! List how they rumble!10.Sp10Miles
Here the head speaks and a lightning flasheth forth, and a hand appears that breaketh down the head with a hammer.*
Well, Friar Bacon, you spent your seven years’ study well that can make your head
speak but two words at once. “Time was.” Yea, marry, time was when my master was a
wise man, but that was before he began to make the brazen head. You shall lie* while your arse ache and your head speak no better. Well, I will watch, and walk
up and down, and be a peripatetian* and a philosopher of Aristotle’s stamp. (
Noise again.
) What, a fresh noise? Take thy
pistols in hand, Miles!
10.Sp12Miles
Master, master, up! Hell’s broken loose! Your head speaks, and there’s such a thunder
and lightning that I warrant all Oxford is up in arms! Out of your bed and take a
brown bill
in your hand! The latter day* is come!
10.Sp13Friar Bacon
Miles, I come. Oh, passing warily* watched!
Bacon will make thee next himself in love.
When spake the head?
10.Sp14Miles
When spake the head? Did not you say that he should tell strange principles of philosophy?
Why, sir, it speaks but two words at a time.
10.Sp16Miles
Oft? Ay, marry, hath it thrice. But in all those three times it hath uttered but seven
words.
10.Sp18Miles
10.Sp19Friar Bacon
’Tis past indeed. Ah, villain! Time is past:
My life, my fame, my glory, all are past.
Bacon, the turrets of thy hope are ruined down.
Thy seven years’ study lieth in the dust.
Thy brazen head lies broken through a slave
That watched, and would not when the head did will*.
What said the head first?
10.Sp21Friar Bacon
Villain, if thou hadst called to Bacon then,
If thou hadst watched and waked the sleepy friar,
The brazen head had uttered aphorisms
And England had been circled round with brass.
But proud Astaroth*, ruler of the north,
And Demogorgon*, master of the fates,
Grudge that a mortal man should work so much.
Hell trembled at my deep commanding spells;
Fiends frowned to see a man their overmatch.
Bacon might boast more than a man might boast,
But now the braves* of Bacon hath an end;
Europe’s conceit* of Bacon hath an end.
His seven years’ practice sorteth to* ill end;
And, villain, sith my glory hath an end,
I will appoint thee fatal* to some end.
.Villain, avoid*! Get thee from Bacon’s sight!
Vagrant, go roam and range about the world,
And perish as a vagabond on earth!
10.Sp23Friar Bacon
My service, villain, with a fatal curse
That direful plagues and mischief fall on thee!
10.Sp24Miles
Exit Miles.
10.Sp25Friar Bacon
Exit.
Scene 11* Video Sc. 11*
Enter the Emperor of Germany, the King of Castile, King Henry, Eleanor, Edward, Lacy, and Rafe.11.Sp1Emperor of Germany
To Edward
Now, lovely prince, the prince of Albion’s wealth,
Now, lovely prince, the prince of Albion’s wealth,How fares the Lady Eleanor and you?
What, have you courted and found Castile fit
To answer England in equivalence?
Will’t be a match ’twixt bonny Nell and thee?
11.Sp2Edward
Should Paris enter in the courts of Greece
And not lie fettered in fair Helen’s looks?
Or Phoebus scape those piercing amorets
That Daphne glancèd at his deity?
Can Edward then sit by a flame and freeze,
Whose heat puts Helen and fair Daphne* down?
Now, monarchs, ask the lady if we gree.
11.Sp4Eleanor
Seeing, my lord, his lovely counterfeit*,
And hearing how his mind and shape agreed,
I come not trooped with all this warlike train
Doubting of love, but so affectionate
As Edward hath in England what he won in Spain.
11.Sp5King of Castile
To King Henry
A match, my lord! These wantons needs must love.
A match, my lord! These wantons needs must love.Men must have wives and women will be wed.
Let’s haste the day to honor up the rites.
11.Sp8Rafe
Marry, Harry, follow my counsel: send for Friar Bacon to marry them, for he’ll so conjure him and her with his necromancy that they shall love together like
pig and lamb* whilst they live.
11.Sp12Rafe
That she will never scold with* Ned, nor fight with me.— Sirrah Harry, I have put her down with a thing unpossible.
11.Sp14Rafe
The King of Castile and Lacy stand apart and speak privately.Why, Harry, did’st thou ever see that a woman could both hold her tongue and her hands?
No, but when egg-pies grow on apple-trees, then will thy gray mare prove a bagpiper.*
11.Sp15Emperor of Germany
What say the lord of Castile and the earl of Lincoln, that they are in such earnest and secret talk*?
the lord of Castile and the earl of Lincoln, that they are in such earnest and secret talk*?11.Sp16King of Castile
I stand, my lord, amazèd at his talk,
How he discourseth of the constancy
Of one surnamed for beauty’s excellence
The fair maid of merry Fressingfield.
11.Sp17King Henry
11.Sp19Lacy
Or else Lord Lacy is unfit to live.—
May it please your highness give me leave to post
To Fressingfield, I’ll fetch the bonny girl,
And prove in true appearance at the court
What I have vouchèd often with my tongue.
11.Sp20King Henry
11.Sp21Eleanor
We Castile ladies are not very coy*;
Your highness may command a greater boon.
And glad were I to grace the Lincoln earl
With being partner of his marriage day.
11.Sp25Rafe
Why, his love is like unto a tapster’s glass that is broken with every touch, for
he loved the fair maid of Fressingfield once out of all ho*.— Nay, Ned, never wink upon me. I care not, I.
11.Sp26King Henry
Exit Lacy.
Rafe tells all; you shall have a good secretary* of him.—
But, Lacy, haste thee post to Fressingfield,
For ere thou hast fitted all things for her state
The solemn marriage day will be at hand.
thou hast fitted all things for her state
The solemn marriage day will be at hand.11.Sp29King Henry
Exeunt.
To horse, my lord. The day is passing fair;
We’ll fly* the partridge or go rouse the deer.—
Follow, my lords. You shall not want for sport.
Scene 12* Video Sc. 12*
Enter Friar Bacon with Friar Bungay to his cell.12.Sp1Friar Bungay
12.Sp2Friar Bacon
Ah, Bungay, my brazen head is spoiled,
My glory gone, my seven years’ study lost.
The fame of Bacon bruited* through the world
Shall end and perish with this deep disgrace.
12.Sp3Friar Bungay
12.Sp4Friar Bacon
Knock.Bungay, sit down, for by prospective skill
I find this day shall fall out ominous.
Some deadly act shall ’tide* me ere I sleep,
* me ere I sleep,But what and wherein little can I guess.
12.Sp8Friar Bacon
Bid them come in.
Enter two Scholars, sons to Lambert and Serlsby.
Now, my youths, what would you have?
Now, my youths, what would you have?12.Sp91 Scholar
12.Sp112 Scholar
Hearing your worship kept within your cell
A glass prospective wherein men might see
Whatso* their thoughts or hearts’ desires could wish,
We come to know how that our fathers fare.
12.Sp12Friar Bacon
Enter as in the magic glassMy glass is free for every honest man.
Sit down and you shall see ere long
How or in what state your friendly fathers live.
.Meanwhile, tell me your names.
Lambert and Serlsby, with rapiers and daggers*.
12.Sp16Lambert
Serlsby, thou hast kept thine hour like a man.
Th’art worthy of the title of a squire
That durst for proof of thy affection,
And for thy mistress’s favor, prize* thy blood.
Thou knowst what words did pass at Fressingfield,
Such shameless braves as manhood cannot brook*.
Ay, for I scorn to bear such piercing taunts,
Prepare thee, Serlsby; one of us will die.
12.Sp17Serlsby
12.Sp18Lambert
And, Serlsby, I have there a lusty boy
That dares at weapon buckle* with thy son,
And lives in Broadgates too, as well as thine.
But draw thy rapier, for we’ll have a bout.
.12.Sp19Friar Bacon
Now, lusty younkers*, look within the glass
And tell me if you can discern your sires.
12.Sp212 Scholar
Lambert, thou liest. My father’s is the abuse,
And thou shalt find it, if my father harm*.
12.Sp25Lambert
They fight*.Why stand’st thou, Serlsby? Doubt’st thou of thy life?
A veny*, man. Fair Margaret craves so much.
*, man. Fair Margaret craves so much.
They Lambert and Serlsby fight and kill each other.
The two Scholars stab one another.
12.Sp34Friar Bacon
See, friar*, where the fathers both lie dead.
Bacon, thy magic doth effect this massacre.*
This glass prospective worketh many woes,
And therefore, seeing these brave lusty brutes*,
These friendly youths, did perish by thine art,
End all thy magic and thine art at once.
The poniard that did end the fatal* lives
Shall break the cause efficiat* of their woes.
So fade the glass, and end with it the shows*
That necromancy did infuse the crystal with!
He breaks the glass*.
12.Sp36Friar Bacon
Exeunt Bacon and Bungay with the bodies.I tell thee, Bungay, it repents me sore
That ever Bacon meddled in this art.
The hours I have spent in pyromantic spells,
The fearful tossing in the latest night
Of papers full of necromantic charms,
Conjuring and adjuring devils and fiends
With stole and alb* and strange pentaganon,
pentaganon,The wresting of the holy name of God,
As Sother, Eloim, and Adonai,
Alpha, Manoth, and Tetragrammaton,*
With praying to the five-fold powers of heaven,
Are instances that Bacon must be damned
For using devils to countervail his God.
Yet, Bacon, cheer thee, drown not in despair.
Sins have their salves; repentance can do much.
Think mercy sits where Justice holds her seat,
And from those wounds those bloody Jews did pierce,
Which by thy magic oft did bleed afresh,*
From thence for thee the dew of mercy drops,
To wash the wrath of high Jehovah’s ire
And make thee as a newborn babe from sin*.
Bungay, I’ll spend the remnant of my life
In pure devotion, praying to my God
That he would save what Bacon vainly lost.
Scene 13* Video Sc. 13*
Enter Margaret in nun’s apparel, the Keeper, her Father, and their Friend*.13.Sp1Keeper
Margaret, be not so headstrong in these vows.
Oh, bury not such beauty in a cell
That England hath held famous for the hue!
Thy father’s hair, like to the silver blooms
That beautify the shrubs of Africa,*
Shall fall before the dated time of death,
Thus to forego his lovely Margaret.
13.Sp2Margaret
Ah, father, when the harmony of heaven
, father, when the harmony of heavenSoundeth the measures* of a lively faith,
The vain illusions of this flattering world
Seem odious to the thoughts of Margaret.
odious to the thoughts of Margaret.I loved once*. Lord Lacy was my love,
And now I hate myself for that I loved,
And doted more on him than on my God.
But now the touch of such aspiring sins
Tells me all love is lust but love of heavens,
That beauty used for love is vanity.
The world contains naught but alluring baits,
Pride, flattery, and inconstant thoughts.
To shun the pricks of death* I leave the world,
And vow to meditate on heavenly bliss,
To live in Framlingham a holy nun,
Holy and pure in conscience and in deed,
And for to wish all maids to learn of me
To seek heaven’s joy before earth’s vanity.*
13.Sp4Margaret
Enter Lacy, Warren, and Ermsby, booted and spurred*.
Now, farewell world, the engine of all woe;
Farewell to friends! And father! Welcome, Christ.
Adieu to d ainty robes! This base attire
Better befits an humble mind to God
Than all the show of rich habiliments.
Love, oh love, and with fond love, farewell!
, and with fond love, farewell!Sweet Lacy, whom I loved once so dear,
Ever be well, but never in my thoughts
Lest I offend to think on Lacy’s love.
But even to that, as to the rest, farewell!
13.Sp5Lacy
Come on, my wags, we’re near the Keeper’s lodge.
Here have I oft walked in the watery meads,
And chatted with my lovely Margaret.
13.Sp9Lacy
Keeper*, how farest thou? Holla, man, what cheer?
How doth Peggy, thy daughter and my love?
13.Sp10Keeper
Ah, good my lord. Oh, woe is me for Peg!
See where she stands, clad in her nun’s attire,
Ready for to be shorn in Framlingham.
She leaves the world because she left your love.
Oh, good my lord, persuade her if you can!
13.Sp11Lacy
Why, how now, Margaret; what, a malcontent?
A nun? What holy father taught you this,
To task yourself to such a tedious life
As die a maid? ’Twere injury to me
To smother up such beauty in a cell.*
13.Sp12Margaret
13.Sp13Lacy
13.Sp15Lacy
’Twas but to try sweet Peggy’s constancy*.
But will fair Margaret leave her love and lord?
13.Sp16Margaret
Is not heaven’s joy before earth’s fading bliss,
And life above sweeter than life in love?
13.Sp19Warren
We cannot stay, my lord, an if* she be so strict.
* she be so strict.Our leisure grants us not to woo afresh.
13.Sp20Ermsby
Choose you, fair damsel. Yet* the choice is yours:
Either a solemn nunnery or the court,
God or Lord Lacy. Which contents you best?
To be a nun, or else Lord Lacy’s wife?
13.Sp22Margaret
The flesh is frail.* My lord doth know it well
That when he comes with his enchanting face,
Whate’er betide I cannot say him nay.
betide I cannot say him nay.
Removing her nun’s apparel.
Off goes the habit of a maiden’s heart,
Off goes the habit of a maiden’s heart,And seeing Fortune will, fair Framlingham
And all the show of holy nuns, farewell!
Lacy for me, if he will be my lord.
13.Sp23Lacy
Peggy, thy lord, thy love, thy husband!
Trust me, by truth of knighthood, that the king
Stays for to marry matchless Eleanor
Until I bring thee richly to the court,
That one day may both marry her and thee.—
How say’st thou, Keeper? Art thou glad of this?
13.Sp26Warren
To see the nature of women, that be they never so near God, yet they love to die* in a man’s arms.
13.Sp27Lacy
What have you fit for breakfast?* We have hied and posted all this night to Fressingfield.
13.Sp28Margaret
Butter and cheese and humbles* of a deer,
Such as poor keepers have within their lodge.
13.Sp31Lacy
Exeunt.
Come, Sussex, let’s in. We shall have more, for she speaks least to hold her promise
sure.
Scene 14* Video Sc. 14*
Enter a devil* to seek Miles.14.Sp1Devil
Enter Miles with a gown and a corner cap*.
How restless are the ghosts of hellish spirits,
,When every charmer* with his magic spells
Calls us from nine-fold trenched Phlegeton*,
*,To scud and over-scour* the earth in post
Upon the speedy wings of swiftest winds!
Now Bacon hath raised me from the darkest deep
To search about the world for Miles his man—
For Miles, and to torment his lazy bones
For careless watching of his brazen head.
See where he comes. Oh, he is mine.
14.Sp2Miles
A scholar, quoth you? Marry, sir, I would I had been made a bottle-maker when I was made a scholar, for I can get neither to be a deacon, reader, nor schoolmaster; no, not the clerk of a parish.* Some call me a dunce, another saith my head is as full of Latin as an egg’s full of oatmeal*. Thus I am tormented that the devil and Friar Bacon haunt me.— Good Lord, here’s one of my master’s devils! I’ll go speak to him.— What, Master Plutus*, how cheer you?
me.— Good Lord, here’s one of my master’s devils! I’ll go speak to him.— What, Master Plutus*, how cheer you?14.Sp4Miles
Know you, sir? Why, are not you one of my master’s devils that were wont* to come to my master Doctor Bacon at Brazennose?
14.Sp6Miles
Good Lord, Master Plutus, I have seen you a thousand times at my master’s, and yet
I had never the manners to make you drink*. But, sir, I am glad to see how conformable you are to the statute*.
To the audience*
I warrant you, he’s as yeomanly a man as you shall see; mark you, masters, here’s
a plain honest man, without welt or guard*.—
To the devil.
But I pray you, sir, do you come lately from hell?
*
I warrant you, he’s as yeomanly a man as you shall see; mark you, masters, here’s
a plain honest man, without welt or guard*.—
To the devil.
But I pray you, sir, do you come lately from hell?14.Sp8Miles
14.Sp10Miles
You are for me, friend, and I am for you. But I pray you, may I not have an office* there?
14.Sp12Miles
By my troth, sir, in a place where I may profit myself. I know hell is a hot place,
and men are marvelous dry, and much drink is spent there. I would be a tapster.
14.Sp14Miles
There’s nothing lets* me from going with you but that ’tis a long journey and I have never a horse.
14.Sp16Miles
He puts on spurs.
14.Sp22Miles
Exeunt roaring.*
Marry, friend, I put on my spurs. For if I find your pace either a trot or else uneasy, I’ll put you to a false gallop*. I’ll make you feel the benefit of my spurs.
Scene 15* Video Sc. 15*
Enter the Emperor of Germany with a pointless sword*, next the King of Castile carrying a sword with a point*, Lacy carrying the globe*, Prince Edward, Warren carrying a rod of gold with a dove on it*, Ermsby with a crown and scepter, Princess Eleanor* with Margaret the fair maid of Fressingfield and countess of Lincoln on her left hand, King Henry, Bacon, with other Lords attending.
15.Sp1Edward
He rises.
Kneeling
Great potentates, earth’s miracles for state,
Great potentates, earth’s miracles for state,Think that Prince Edward humbles* at your feet,
And for these favors, on his martial
He vows perpetual homage to your selves,
Yielding these honors unto Eleanor.
15.Sp2King Henry
Gramercies, lordlings. Old Plantagenet
That rules and sways the Albion diadem,
With tears discovers these conceivèd joys,
And vows requital if his men-at-arms,
The wealth of England, or due honors done
To Eleanor, may quite his favorites.*
But all this while, what say you to the dames
That shine like to* the crystal lamps of heaven?
15.Sp3Emperor of Germany
If but a third were added to these two,
They did surpass those gorgeous images
That gloried Ida with rich beauty’s wealth.*
15.Sp4Margaret
She rises.
Kneeling
’Tis I, my lords, who humbly on my knee
’Tis I, my lords, who humbly on my kneeMust yield her orisons to mighty Jove
For lifting up his handmaid to this state;
Brought from her homely cottage to the court
And graced with kings, princes, and emperors,
To whom (next to the noble Lincoln earl)
I vow obedience and such humble love
As may a handmaid to such mighty men.
15.Sp5Eleanor
Thou martial man that wears the Almain crown,
And you, the western potentates of might,
The Albion princess, English Edward’s wife,
Proud that the lovely star of Fressingfield,
Fair Margaret, countess to the Lincoln earl,
Attends on Eleanor—gramercies, lord, for her—
’Tis I give thanks for Margaret to you all,
And rest, for her, due bounden to yourselves.*
15.Sp6King Henry
Seeing the marriage is solemnized,
Let’s march in triumph to the royal feast.—
But why stands Friar Bacon here so mute?
15.Sp7Friar Bacon
Repentant for the follies of my youth
That magic’s secret mysteries misled,
And joyful that this royal marriage
Portends* such bliss unto this matchless realm.
15.Sp8King Henry
Why, Bacon, what strange event shall happen to this land?
Or what shall grow from Edward and his queen*?
15.Sp9Friar Bacon
I find by deep prescience* of mine art,
Which once I tempered* in my secret cell,
That here, where Brut did build his Troynovant,*
From forth the royal garden of a king
Shall flourish out so rich and fair a bud,
Whose brightness shall deface proud Phoebus’s flower*
And overshadow* Albion with her leaves.
Till then, Mars shall be master of the field,
But then the stormy threats of wars shall cease;
The horse shall stamp as careless of the pike*;
Drums shall be turned to timbrels* of delight.
With wealthy favors plenty shall enrich
The strand that gladded wandering Brut to see,
And peace from heaven shall harbor in these leaves
That gorgeous beautify this matchless flower.*
this matchless flower.*Apollo’s heliotropian* then shall stoop,
Juno shall shut her gillyflowers up,*
15.Sp10King Henry
Exeunt omnes.
This prophesy is mystical*.—
But, glorious commanders of Europa’s love,
That make fair England like that wealthy isle
fair England like that wealthy isleCircled with Gihon and first Euphrates,*
Euphrates,*In royalizing Henry’s Albion
With presence of your princely mightiness,
Let’s march*. The tables all are spread,
And viands such as England’s wealth affords
Are ready set to furnish out the boards.*
You shall have welcome, mighty potentates;
It rests* to furnish up this royal feast
Only* your hearts be frolic, for the time
Finis Friar Bacon, made by Robert Greene,
Master of Arts.
Omne tulit punctum qui miscuit utile dulci.*
Notes
Annotations
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Scene 1
wags(Sc1 Sp40) seem more distasteful in their desires and in their attitudes towards women at this early stage. The play later challenges their attitude towards women through Lacy’s resistance to the prince, although Lacy himself then later plays fast and loose with Margaret’s emotions. In our production, Julian DeZotti’s performance of Margaret also offered resistance to the objectifying attitudes of the
wags.
Prince Edward
Prince of the royal house of Plantagenet, eldest son of King Henry III, later crowned
King Edward I (r. 1272–1307).
Edward’s tall and slender physique famously earned him the moniker
Longshanks(Holinshed 223). He is said to have been a wayward and brutal youth; the thirteenth-century chronicler Matthew Paris tells of an altercation in which he casually ordered his entourage to cut away the ear and eye of another young man (Prestwich 3). However, a contemporary song claims he tempered his viciousness with virtue, combining the pride and ferocity of a lion with the changeability of a leopard:
Leo per superbiam, per fercitatem; / Est per inconstantiam et varietatum / Pardus(Wright 93). Lauded in maturity as an eloquent and pious ruler, he retained his bellicose edge, ruthlessly dispossessing and banishing Jews from England in 1290 and leading punishing military campaigns against France, Wales, and Scotland. The epithet Scottorum malleus (
hammer of the Scots) inscribed on his Westminster tomb speaks to the intensity with which he prosecuted his northern wars in particular. Greene’s characterization glances at this mercurial and often violent reputation—our first impression of the character is that of a joyous venison hunter suddenly transformed into a
melancholy dumpand
like to a troubled skyready to storm (Sc1 Sp1).
malcontented
Disturbed or distracted.
On the Elizabethan stage, conventional signifiers of the erotic melancholia from which
Edward suffers included crossed arms and a disarrayed costume. The disposition is
cued again at Sc1 Sp1 and Sc1 Sp1.
made of sighs and tears(AYL 5.2.65). Since our Prince Edward’s melancholy is the premise of the opening scene, the company devised means to make it apparent to their modern audience. Prior to their entrance the company sang the sorrowful madrigal
I go before my darlingand then burst into wild joyful applause and laughter. Hopkins (Prince Edward) then entered slowly and crossed to front stage right where he sighed and put the back of his hand up to his head. His companions followed him, still laughing but gradually let their Prince’s somber mood change their own. The fact that the Prince’s melancholy is spoiling their aristocratic fun is the spur to the action of the scene and this staging, developed independently by the company under Hopkins’ leadership as master actor, made the central conflict of the scene clear from its first moment.
Lacy, earl of Lincoln
A pseudo-historical character probably inspired by Edmund de Lacy (d. 1258), a courtier
and heir of John de Lacy, second earl of Lincoln (d. 1240).
Holinshed states that both
William earle Warren and John earle of Lincolndied in 1240 (Holinshed 225). The chronicler’s pairing of these magnates may have inspired Greene to include their heirs as members of Edward’s entourage (Round 20). Greene seems unaware of the fact that the younger Lacy died before he could inherit the earldom of Lincoln, which (suo jure) remained invested in his mother the countess Margaret de Lacy (Wilkinson 121–122).
John Warren, earl of Sussex
John de Warenne, sixth earl of Surrey and Sussex (1231–1304).
Holinshed describes
John de Warren erle of Surrey and Sussexas Edward’s longtime companion and a leader in Henry III’s military conflict against his barons (Round 19). He fought for the Plantagenets at the Battle of Lewes in 1264 where he
did manfullie resist the enemies(Holinshed 264–267) and he later joined King Edward’s campaigns against Wales and Scotland in the 1280s and 1290s.
Ermsby
William Ormsby, English justiciar of Scotland at the time of William Wallace’s insurrection
of 1296–1297.
Like John de Warenne, Ormsby was one of Edward I’s chief administrators in Scotland.
He is said to have narrowly escaped when William Wallace and his followers attacked
his court in Scone in 1297 intent on capturing or killing him.
Rafe Simnell
A fictitious character, Edward’s licensed fool.
Rafe’s surname evokes that of Lambert Simnell, the Oxford youth conscripted by Yorkist
loyalists in 1487 to impersonate the royal claimant Edward Plantagenet. Aiming to
depose the newly-crowned Tudor monarch Henry VII, conspirators
caused young Lambert to be proclaimed and named king of England after the solemne fashion, as though he were the verie heire of bloud roiall lineallie borne and descended.His handlers were defeated at the Battle of Stoke and Simnell was deemed sufficiently harmless to relegate to the king’s kitchens as a menial
turnebroch,or spit-turner (Holinshed 765–767). A droll parallel informs Greene’s use of the surname: like the historical pretender, Rafe exchanges roles with an earlier Edward Plantagenet and enacts misrule in Scene 1, Scene 5, and Scene 6.
Alate
Lately.
launds
Open spaces among woods, or untilled pastures (OED laund, n.).
Compare with Shakespeare’s usage in Venus and Adonis:
With this he breaketh from the sweet embrace / Of those fair arms which bound him to her breast, / And homeward through the dark Flaund runs apace, / Leaves love upon her back, deeply distressed(Ven 811–814).
Stripped
Outran.
frolic
Joyous, sportive (OED frolic, adj. 1.a).
One of Greene’s favorite terms, spoken thirteen times in the play.
scudded ’fore the teisers
Fled the first brace of deerhounds let loose during the chase (OED teiser, n.).
George Gascoigne’s The Noble Art of Venery or Hunting (1575) distinguishes
teisers(greyhounds used to rouse game) from
sidelaysand
backsets(dogs used to take game down):
By this word teisers is meant the first greyhound, or brace or lease of greyhounds, which is let slip either at the whole herd to bring a deer single to the course, or else at a low deer, to make him strain before he come at the sidelays and backsets(Gascoigne 244).
was the deer
Were the deer.
Both was and were indicate the plural past in Early Modern English.
Fressingfield
A rural town in northeast Suffolk, about twenty miles south of Greene’s birthplace
in Norwich.
lustily … mates
Lacy likens the pleasure of the aristocratic deer hunt to the pursuit of an erotic
partner, a common metaphor in Elizabethan love poetry.
a melancholy dump
A state of lethargic self-absorption.
Here, and for much of this scene, Edward ignores efforts to divert him. Elizabethan
melancholy was not dissimilar to modern depression and thought to result from a chemical imbalance
(an excess of black bile, the melancholic humor). Medical writings of the period point to unrequited love as a common cause and hint
at how its symptoms may have been represented theatrically. Timothy Bright’s A Treatise of Melancholy (1586) describes the melancholic as
dull, both in outward senses and conceitand
of pace slow, silent, negligent, refusing the light and frequency of men(Bright 124). Andre De Lauren’s A Discourse of the Preservation of the Sight (1599) is even more fastidious in cataloguing erotic melancholy’s
signs and tokens: the sufferer is
quite undone and cast away, the senses are wandering to and fro, up and down, reason is confounded, the imagination corrupted, the talk fond and senseless; the silly loving worm cannot anymore look upon anything but his idol; all the functions of the body are likewise perverted, he becometh pale, lean, swooning, without any stomach to his meat, hollow and sunk-eyed ... weeping, sobbing, sighing, and redoubling his sighs, and in continual restlessness, avoiding company, loving solitariness, the better to feed and follow his foolish imaginations(De Laurens 118).
the Keeper’s lodge
The residence of an officer appointed to manage a royal hunting ground and prevent
the poaching of its game.
jocund
Mirthful, merry, cheerful (OED jocund, adj. a).
cans
Drinking cups.
stately … stammel red
Noble-looking in her red woolen attire.
Stammel may refer to a course woolen cloth often dyed red, or to the reddish shade of the
dye itself (OED stammel, n.1 1–2). Elizabethans were carefully attuned to social distinctions and would be alert to
the paradox of associating common worsted with stateliness. Edward’s erotic imagination
is elevating Margaret here, projecting onto her an aristocratic status she does not
in fact possess.
a qualm
A sudden impulse or pang of sickening fear or despair (OED qualm, n.3 1.a).
straight
At once.
passions
Mental anguish and erotic suffering (OED passion, n. 1.3, 2.6.a, 2.8.a).
Sirrah
A term of address expressing the assumption of social superiority, often used playfully.
Rafe’s subversion of social and political decorum is consistent with his license as
a court fool.
all amort
Dispirited, dejected (a corruption of the French à la mort).
Greene’s is the first recorded usage in the OED.
Hearest thou, Ned?
The familiarity implied by Rafe’s use of the informal pronoun
thouand the diminutive
Nedagain reflect his linguistic and social license as a court fool (see Sc1 Sp3 above).
How if
Marry
By the Virgin Mary (an exclamatory oath).
my cap … dagger
Fool’s hat, suit, and weapon.
Artificialfools conventionally wore coxcombs (hats resembling the comb of a rooster, decorated with bells) and coats of motley (different-colored materials patched together). Rafe’s dagger may be a jester’s bauble, or perhaps a dagger of wood or lath, a stage property associated with the morality play Vice and braggart clowns of the later commercial stage.
beguile Love
Perplex or evade Eros (or Cupid), the personification of sexual desire.
scab
Rascal or scoundrel, a common Elizabethan term of abuse (OED scab, n. 4.a).
lively
Vigorous, animated, fresh.
Dyce views Q1’s liuely as a misreading of
louely,a recurrent word in the text. Grosart, Ward, and Dickinson follow suit. But Greene’s idealized portrayal of Margaret’s health and physical beauty warrants Collier’s proposed retention of
lively.
country weeds
Rustic clothing.
Why … whole grammar
Doesn’t the Warwickshire abbot have more sexual experience than you? And so isn’t
he better qualified to determine the most attractive woman in England? Yes, he’s well-prepared
to do so.
Rafe’s innuendo mocks the hypocrisy of a supposedly celibate clergy: the abbot’s pursuit
of
books(women) ensures his depth of
learning(sexual knowledge). The metaphors appear again in Scene 2 (see Sc2 Sp26 and Sc2 Sp32). Rafe also plays the wise fool here, counseling Edward to expose himself to a greater number of amatory possibilities. Like Lacy, who advises Edward to pursue a more courtly partner (Sc1 Sp20), Rafe thinks Margaret’s low social standing disqualifies her as a royal consort and he aims to check Edward’s idealization of her.
lighten forth
Cause to flash out like lightning (OED lighten, v.2 6), a conventional Petrarchan conceit.
In the elevated rhetoric that follows, Edward reveals that his erotic conception of
Margaret effaces the reality of who she is.
golden hair
Mention of Margaret’s hair draws the audience’s attention to her virginity; unmarried
Elizabethan women conventionally wore their hair loosely whereas wives kept it bound
beneath a cap, hat, or headdress.
Her bashful … cheeks.
The paleness of her complexion is like moonlight merged with her dawn-colored blushing.
White and red hues were conventional aspects of facial beauty in Petrarchan poetry.
Ironically, the prince’s invocation of the Roman goddess
Luna,believed to be a protector of women and children, contradicts his own unrealistic and possessive desire. It also initiates a sustained pattern of allusion to powerful female deities associated with the moon, wisdom, virginity, and the protection of women. References to
Luna,
Pallas Athena,
Diana,and
Hecate(who after Virgil was represented as having a triple-body, what Ovid terms a diva triformis) underscore Greene’s thematic interest in the contest between feminine power and self-sufficiency and the threat of aggressive masculine conquest. In the political and artistic discourse of the 1580s and 1590s, Queen Elizabeth I was often referred to in similar coded terms, as, for instance, in the epithet Cynthia (a name derived from Diana’s birthplace, the Cynthian Hill); c.f. John Lyly’s comedy Endymion and Sir Walter Ralegh’s poem
The Ocean to Cynthia.Such allusiveness appears calculated to appeal to the ear of the
Virgin Queenwho sponsored the acting company for which Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay was written.
Her front … excellence
Her forehead is a painter’s canvas upon which the artist Beauty brushes its self-portrait.
A
tablemay refer either to a canvas board upon which a picture is painted or the picture itself, as in Shakespeare’s Sonnet 24:
Mine eye hath played the painter and hath steeled / Thy beauty’s form in table of my heart(Shakespeare 1–2). Edward continues to project an embellished idea of beauty upon a woman he barely knows.
margarites
Pearls.
The Latin term for pearls (margaritae) here enables a pun on Margaret’s name.
ruddy coral cleaves
Reddish cliffs (her lips).
overmatch
Superior.
survey’st … imagery
Examine her intricate and beautifully wrought features.
The Petrarchan poetic framework used to describe Margaret had become cliched by Greene’s
time and potentially communicates the emptiness of Edward’s erotic fascination, a
strategy Shakespeare would later employ in his representation of Romeo’s superficial
attraction to Rosaline in Romeo and Juliet (Rom 3.41–99).
homely
Humble, unsophisticated, rustic (OED homely, adj. 2.a).
in the court
In the powerful and socially elevated circles surrounding the royal family.
quainter dames
More elegant and fashionable ladies.
Quaint and cunt were homophones in Early Modern English and sometimes inspired obscene puns. Lacy
may be picking up Rafe’s cue at Sc1 Sp18 and trying to entice Edward to turn his attention from Margaret to courtly partners
whose coyness,
enriched with honor’s taint(Sc1 Sp21), belies easy sexual availability.
taint
Color, hue (OED taint, n. 2.4).
Taintcan also refer to a moral blemish or stain that brings one to disgrace (OED taint, n. 3.5.a); c.f. Viola’s claim to
hate ingratitude more in a man / Than […] any taint of vicein Twelfth Night (TN 3.4.299–301). There is the potential again for innuendo if Lacy is implying that superficial courtly honor often masks sexual eagerness and accessibility.
vaunt their trophies
Proudly parade their beauties.
And seen … foolery.
For Edward, the lively and unadorned attractiveness of an obscure young woman is superior
to the cosmetic beauty of the falsely modest courtly elite. Ermsby’s response to the
prince’s enthusiasm in the next line (
Why, how watched you her, my lord?) suggests that
secret beautiesmay carry the bawdy sense of nakedness. Note the mention of her
lily armsbelow (Sc1 Sp24).
fooleryof their
courtly coyness.The moment got a big laugh in our final performance where the seating behind the stage was populated by dignitaries from the university in full regalia. The audience—on stage and out in the
pit—enjoyed the actors using the hierarchical structure of the theatre architecture to bring out the issues of social class in the scene.
Venus
Roman goddess of love and sexual desire.
Pallas
Pallas Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom, virginity, the household, and domestic crafts.
Audiences alert to classical allusion would recognize here Greene’s motif of the powerful
female deity (often associated with the triple Hecate) who stands for wisdom and chastity.
For its echoing of the contemporary mythography of Queen Elizabeth I, see the note
at Sc1 Sp20.
She turned … cheese
Edward’s heated imagination warps Margaret’s practical labor into an erotic act of
undressing.
made her … compare
Put to shame by comparison other women’s beauty, be it cosmetic or unadorned.
The contest between artificial and natural beauty was an early modern commonplace,
as in Polixenes’ postulation:
But nature makes that mean. So over that art / Which you say adds to nature is an art / That nature makes(WT 4.4.90–92). From Edward’s fetishistic perspective, Margaret’s beauty transcends both art and nature.
huswife
A woman, married or unmarried, who manages a domestic space; from the Old English
hus = house and wif = woman/wife (OED wife, n. 1; OED housewife, n. 1).
Edward compliments Margaret’s domestic expertise, but his tone and earlier reference
to
huswifery(Sc1 Sp24) indicate condescension and an underlying sexual motivation. By the late sixteenth-century, the word huswife had begun to acquire the derogatory sense of its later abbreviation hussy, i.e., a low and disreputable woman prone to improper behavior (OED hussy, n. 2). Florio’s A World of Words (1598) is unequivocal in defining a
foolish idle huswifeas
a sluttish driggle draggle(LEME).
Lucrece
Legendary Roman matron whose rape by the tyrant Tarquin and principled suicide provoked
the rebellion that established Republican Rome.
This is the first of several allusions to ancient narratives of rape. Edward’s reference
to Tarquin’s hazarding of
Rome and allin the next line (Sc1 Sp24) hints at the abandon soon to characterize his menacing desire for Margaret.
wouldst fain
Would you gladly.
an learn me
If you teach me (an idiomatic expression).
brave necromancer
Powerful conjurer of spirits.
Q1’s Nigromancer describes Bacon accurately as a practitioner of
blackarts, while necromancer technically refers to one who divines by conjuring the dead. Hunter argues against modernizing on this basis (Hunter 81–82, n6) and Seltzer accordingly retains original spelling. However, the two terms were interchangeable in Early Modern English (OED nigromancer, n. 1) and Collier’s emendation better reflects modern usage.
he can … costermongers
He can raise devils in the shape of women and transform cats into fruit-sellers using
magic (OED juggle, v. 4.b).
Rafe claims that Bacon can procure a concubine for Edward, either by raising a devil
in the shape of a woman or by purchasing her services in the marketplace (cat and costermonger were slang terms for prostitute and pimp).
prince it out
Disguise myself in your fine clothes and enjoy the courtly lifestyle.
make thee
Transform you into.
wrought smock
Woman’s embroidered undergarment.
But … maid?
placket
Slit cut into a woman’s garment, offering access to a pocket (OED placket, n.1 2).
The sexual suggestion is obvious. Compare with Thersites’ use of the conceit in Troilus and Cressida:
After this, the vengeance on the whole camp—or rather, the bone-ache, for that, methinks, is the curse dependent on those that war for a placket(Tro 6.13–15).
wags(Sc1 Sp40) on stage joined in with his sexual fantasy. This moment is a good example of how the all-male company affected the representation of sex and gender in the SQM performance.
plead
Make suit, wrangle.
Properly a legal term,
pleadhere takes on a sexual connotation.
policy
Stratagem, trick (OED policy, n.1 1.3).
But … wrought smock
policy(Sc1 Sp34). The SQM performance created a powerful sense of homosociality for the play’s group of wags.
lay … lavender
Set you aside for future use.
The expression
lay up in lavendercomes from the practice of using lavender stocks to preserve stored linens from damage by moths (OED lavender, n.2 2).
from … man
From something soft into something hard.
Wonderfully wisely … Rafe
God … Ned.
I.e., I will thank you when I’m actually wearing it.
Rafe implies that the prince will never keep his promise to give him a new coat.
For why
Because (OED forwhy, conj. 1.a).
honest points
Chastity.
marriage … market
Without a wedding there can be no sex.
This is the only known use of this phrase, though it sounds proverbial. It was commonplace
to represent the sexual pursuit of women in terms of commercial bargaining, as when
Imogen suspects that Iachimo has come to Britain
to mart / As in a Romish stew(Cym 1.6.150–151). Both mart and market derive from the Latin mercari (to do business, to trade).
To wean … teat
To break the will of these conceited and obstinate young women.
I am unknown
We’ll go disguised, all unknown to any(Sc21 Sp21). His series of characters, the young princes, all share a love of disguise. The cross-referencing of characters in this way was a notable feature of the SQM performances.
liege’s game
Animals on a royal hunting preserve.
Edward’s metaphor hints unpleasantly at his assumed right to hunt the young women
of Fressingfield.
See note at Sc1 Sp41.
Saint James’s
The feast of Saint James, July 25 on Catholic and some Protestant liturgical calendars.
Harleston Fair
The parish of Harleston is four miles north of Fressingfield on the border of Norfolk
and Suffolk. Its annual fair was a place to see and to be seen (as Edward says at
Sc1 Sp42) and encouraged rituals of youthful courtship. Stow tells of a popular uprising in
1569
made by certain gentlemen and others in the county of Norfolk, whose purpose was on midsummer day at Harleston fair, with sound of trumpet and drum, to have raised a number and then to proclaim their devilish pretense against strangers and others(Stow 1147). The fair’s association with social disorder could inform Greene’s conception of Edward’s disruptive desire for Margaret.
Feign
Contrive, pretend.
Cote
Go beyond, surpass.
Dyce’s reading of Q1’s coat relies upon the French verb cotoyer (to move alongside, to coast). But in Early Modern English cote could also describe an act of surpassing, as Edward intends it here. Compare with
Rosencrantz’s account of passing Elsinore’s traveling players on the road:
We coted them on the way, and hither are they coming to offer you service(Ham 7.265–266).
clown
Rural person, or peasant.
Does Edward refer here to one of the imagined suitors from the previous line (Sc1 Sp42), or to Margaret herself? In either case, his possessiveness is plain, as is his
belief that his gift of venison warrants sexual recompense.
tiréd
Attired, dressed.
run her cheese
Generate cheese curd from warm milk.
Commends him
Conveys his compliments (OED commend, v. 5).
fairings
Gifts or compliments bestowed at a fair.
wax
Grow increasingly (OED wax, v.1).
send … fares
Report on how she feels about me (OED fare, v.1 2.4.a).
The request reflects Edward’s inability to interpret Margaret’s demeanor. Blushing
may equally suggest discomfort or anger at the prince’s aggressive gaze and tacit
sexual expectation.
As if … her.
A moment of irony if Lacy has already become romantically attracted to Margaret. His
vow to court her on behalf of the prince
as ifhe loves her presents the actor with the opportunity to communicate a sudden conflict of interest.
morris dance
Rural folk dance performed on festive occasions such as May Day at which participants
wore colorful costumes adorned with jangling bells, ribbons, and scarves.
Participants in the morris sometimes dressed as emblematic characters, hence Rafe’s
allusion to the personification of
Lovewho has overmastered the prince’s will and now leads him in a carnivalesque round among villagers below his social standing.
look … charge
Attend carefully to the order you have been given.
Scene 2
Friar Bacon
Roger Bacon (c.1214–1292), Franciscan friar and Oxford master of theology known for
his studies of mathematics, alchemy, astrology, and natural philosophy, notably the
science of perspectiva (optics).
Bacon’s writings hint that his family suffered for its loyalty to Henry III during
the king’s war with Simon de Montfort. Upon becoming a Master of Arts at Oxford, Bacon
traveled to Europe in search of materials for experimental study. Periods of seclusion
followed, and when he was imprisoned for
suspected novelties(i.e. heresy) rumor spread that he had immersed himself in the occult (Thorndike 238–239, 245). Mandated by the papacy to produce a comprehensive philosophical work, Bacon completed three treatises in the later 1260s, his Opus Maior, Opus Minus, and Opus Tertium, which sought to demonstrate the practical value of natural philosophy in attaining
sacred wisdom(Thorndike 246). The distinction between theologically sanctioned investigations of nature and the illicit practice of magic was not always clear in the thirteenth century, and Bacon’s necromantic reputation grew (Thorndike 476–479). By the early sixteenth century, he was seen as a praestigiator ac Magus necromanticus, non in virtute Dei, sed operatione malorum spirituum (conjurer, magician, and necromancer, not by God’s power, but by the operation of evil spirits) (Bale 114v). Chronicles by Holinshed and others enabled Greene to situate Bacon accurately in the reign of Henry III, but his depiction of the Oxford friar is chiefly indebted to the fanciful prose work The Famous History of Friar Bacon (see the Supplementary Materials).
Miles … poor scholar
In The Famous History of Friar Bacon, Miles is said to be
none of the wisestand depicted as a glutton for humiliation meted out by his master (The Famous History of Friar Bacon B1v). Greene evidently appreciated the irony of Miles’ name, which in Irish means “servant” and in Latin “soldier”: the character’s ludicrous bravado when in academic company and his cowardly juggling of weapons in Scene 10 owe something to the dramatic archetype of the miles gloriosus, or braggart soldier. The impoverishment of scholars is a signature topic in Greene’s work, and to a greater degree than in The Famous Historie the play emphasizes Miles’ stature as a
subsizar(see Sc5 Sp11), a student expected to perform domestic service at the college in return for his maintenance.
following
Miles’ entrance is delayed as he lags behind lazily or perhaps struggles comically
to prevent the stack of books in his arms from falling to the floor (hence Bacon’s
question at Sc2 Sp1).
Burden, Mason, Clement
It has been suggested that Greene modeled the three doctors on actual Oxford scholars
(Ardolino 21–23), though there are hints of allegorical significance as well (see note at Sc2 Sp31).
Hic … doctor
I am here, learned and reverend doctorteacher.
Attulisti … necromantia
Have you brought my books of sorcery?
Ecce … unum.
See how good and how pleasant it is to live together among books.
Seltzer detects a parody of Psalm 133: Ecce quam bonum et quam jucundum habitare fratres in unum (Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity).
Miles’ comic mishandling of the books—whether dropping or tumbling down amongst them—provides
the more immediate source of theatrical humor.
viceroys
Administrators.
liberal arts
The trivium (grammar, logic, rhetoric) and the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music,
astronomy), the conventional courses of medieval university study.
Bacon’s
Bacon uses the third-person pronoun when speaking of himself, a mark of his egotistical
pride.
secret cell
Secluded dwelling, private study.
stalled
Appointed to an academic position, but with a strong second sense of being installed, or formally inducted like a nobleperson, into an office of high dignity (OED stall, v.1 1.3).
Brazennose
Brasenose College, Oxford (Brazennose in Q1, the spelling of which is here retained).
Founded in 1509, Brazennose is thought to derive its name from grotesque sculpted
heads of bronze that once adorned its hall and gate. It has furthermore been suggested
that the enormous noses of the Brasenose sculptures may have informed the representation
of the brazen head on stage in Scene 10 (Lagrandeur 48–50). The historical Bacon is said to have lived in the Franciscan House near Folly Bridge.
See also the note at 10.
that … suspect
What we have long suspected.
art read
Are deeply learned.
pyromancy
Divination by fire.
This terminology points to Greene’s familiarity with the Corpus Hermeticum, a set of mystical texts attributed to the ancient Egyptian magus Hermes Trismegistis
(see Shumaker 201–205, 236–248, and the note to Sc8 Sp11). The idea of harnessing the power of spirits (or
daemons) inhabiting the elements of fire, water, air, and earth was disseminated also by the natural philosopher Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa of Nettesheim (1486–1535) in De Occulta Philosophia, a book popular among Greene’s university-educated contemporaries (c.f. Lyly’s Campasape, Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, and Nashe’s The Unfortunate Traveller in which Agrippa appears as a courtly conjuror).
tell
Reckon or foretell (OED tell, v. 2.17).
hydromancy
The art of prophesying from water.
aeromancy
The art of divination by air.
discover doubts
Bring to light hidden answers to mysteries.
plain out
Explain or expound, from the Latin explanare (to make plain, interpret).
as Apollo did
Apollo is the ancient Greek god of divination. His priestess at the oracular shrine
at Delphi was renowned for expounding the mysteries of the future.
he … these names
By parroting all these terms so sarcastically, he has only shown himself to be an
example of the fable of the fox and the grapes.
the fable … grapes
The narrative attributed to the fifth-century Greek slave Aesop, in which a fox is
unable to reach a bunch of grapes in a tree and so departs saying he did not want
sour grapes anyway.
Miles’ quip responds to Burden’s tone of back-biting sarcasm. He is, in effect, accusing
Burden of disparaging Bacon because he envies him, having no magic ability himself.
pertains … us
Contains secret matters into which the unlearned should not pry (derisively implicating
Burden).
strange … aphorisms
Unsolved mysteries and scientific principles.
read
Teach by reciting aloud (OED read, v. 4.18.a).
ghastly
Terrifying, with the suggestion of being ghostly (OED ghastly, adj. 1–2).
wall of brass
Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus (Marlowe Q1604, A3v) and Spenser’s 1590 edition of The Fairie Queene (Spenser 428) also refer to brazen walls that encircle cities. Those texts, like Greene’s play,
may be indebted to a lost Elizabethan version of The Famous History of Friar Bacon (see Sc2 Sp14 and the Supplementary Materials in this edition). Greene may also have in mind the Lord’s promise to fortify the
spirit of the prophet Jeremiah:
For, behold, I have made thee this day a defensed city, and an iron pillar, and walls of brass against the whole land(Jeremiah 1:18). The aspiration to raise impenetrable walls thus reflects a proud desire to assume god-like power. At the same time, the notion of fortifying England by magic must have fascinated Elizabethans in the tense atmosphere surrounding the Spanish Armada and the threat of Catholic invasion.
Mother Waters’
Presumably an actual Elizabethan tavern hostess.
copper nose
Reddened with capillaries broken by alcohol consumption (see also Sc5 Sp19).
the wonder … world
Bacon came to be known posthumously as Doctor mirabilis (the wonderful doctor).
Boreas
The north wind, enclosed in the Cave of Winds by its mythical ruler Aeolus.
Luna
The moon.
Another of the play’s allusions to the beauty and power of the moon, an aspect of
the triple Hecate. In this instance, Bacon boasts of his own superior masculine power.
As Greene may have gleaned from Holinshed, portentous natural events occurred with
unusual frequency during Roger Bacon’s lifetime. These
strange wondersincluded eclipses of the moon, as in March of 1252 when
for the space of fifteen days […] the sun, the moon, and stars appeared of a red colorand
the whole face of the earth seemed as it had been shadowed with a thick mist or smoke, the wind notwithstanding remaining north and northeast(Stow 245, and see Stow 239, 241, 243–244, 247, and 251). Shakespeare perhaps recalls this moment in The Tempest when Prospero claims to have
bedimmed / The noontide sun(Tmp 5.1.41–42).
pentageron
Pentagram, a five-pointed star thought to be imbued with magical power.
turn
Resort to, turn the pages of.
my magic books
Manuscript collections of necromantic spells and other arcane texts (grimoires) circulated
under Bacon’s name in the sixteenth century, written by authors eager to capitalize
on his reputation as a magus. John Bale’s Illustrium Maioris Brittaniae Scriptorum (Bale 1548) contains a catalogue of such works featuring titles such as De necromanticis imaginibus (Of Magical Images), Practica magiae (Practical Magic), and De occultis operibus naturae (The Secret Works of Nature). One such book of incantations and diagrams compiled between 1577 and 1583 and now
at the Folger Shakespeare Library (MS V.b.26) invokes the names of both Bacon and
Bungay in passages detailing the conjuration of spirits. For digital images of this
text, search the Folger Library database. For transcribed excerpts see the Supplementary Materials.
And … deep
And forcefully squeeze from magic all the power it contains.
framed
Constructed.
Belcephon
The pagan thunder deity Baal-zephon (Hebrew for “lord of the north”) whose idols were
worshipped in the ancient world.
The Puritan preacher Jeremiah Burroughs offers a suggestive gloss on the name’s appearance
in Exodus (Exodus 14:2–4):
This Baal-zephon it was a god that the Egyptians worshipped upon this ground, they had an idol set in that place at the going out of Egypt that was to watch those that were to go out […] that he would stop them, and stay them, and he was set in that place for that very purpose; […] As conjurers by their magic arts will have their spells, spirits that shall stop men in such a place, they shall not go out of such an orchard or such a yard where they come in, so the Egyptians had there by their magical arts, they got (as it were) a spell, a Baal-zephon, a god to stop people in that place where they would have them stopped(Burroughs 300).
And … philosophy.
And the brazen head will magically reveal to us the secrets of nature (see note at
Sc2 Sp9).
The work … Semiramus
Ancient historians credit Ninus and his wife Semiramus with founding the Assyrian
empire. Semiramus is said to have built the city of Babylon and encircled it with
a massive, hundred-gated wall.
strand
Coast or shore.
avail
Have force or efficacy (OED avail, v. 1.1.a).
roves … reach
Uses a bow too long for his arms, i.e., tries to exceed his capacity.
on your pick-pack
On your shoulders and back (i.e., piggyback).
Henley … Thames
Henley-on-Thames, a riverside town and parish about twenty miles south of Oxford.
book
touch
Three senses of this verb may apply: a) strike one in a fencing match; b) rebuke or
censure; c) stir feeling or move to anger (OED touch, v. 1.3.b; 3.31.b; 3.33).
pass not of
Care nothing for.
Balaam’s ass
An animal capable of speech but lacking reason.
In Numbers (Numbers 22:21–34), Balaam sets out on a mission to curse the Israelites. On the
road, his beast of burden senses the invisible presence of the Angel of the Lord and
refuses to cross its path. Balaam beats the donkey until the intervening angel endows
the creature with the miraculous ability to speak. Recognizing the warning, Balaam
is brought low by the fear of God and his donkey reverts to its former state. The
insinuation is that Bacon’s magic will similarly overawe the brutish Burden.
for that
Because (a common early modern conjunction).
And … doubts
And because he is so utterly skeptical.
cabalism
Occult doctrine or mystery (the first recorded use of this sense in the OED).
haunts to
Quietly resorts to.
Enter … devil
mutton
Literally the flesh of a sheep, but as Miles’ joke implies slang also for a prostitute
(OED mutton, n. 4).
See also Sc13 Sp8.
the Bell
A tavern in Henley.
against
In preparation for (OED against, conj. 4.10).
motion
Inner prompting or impulse (OED motion, n. 2.12.a).
pried
Looked out, peered.
I thought … naught
I experienced neither thought nor fear.
perform
Execute the creation of.
post
Speed or haste (OED post, adv.1 1).
have … Oxford
Magically transport his sexual partner to Oxford rather than venturing all the way
to Henley to meet her (continuing the innuendo begun at Sc2 Sp26).
mated
Made helpless, overthrown (OED mate, v.1 3).
bash
Shrink with shame (OED bash, v.1 2.b).
motion
Proposition or proposal (OED motion, n. 2.13.a).
frame … proof
Demonstrate the benefit of his magic.
be framed
Be used to our advantage (see OED frame,v. 1.1–2).
uncouth
Unfamiliar, marvelous (OED uncouth, adj. 3.a).
And hell … But
And even if Hell and Hecate should fail me.
Bacon’s reference to Hecate develops one of the play’s central patterns of allusion.
A goddess of great antiquity, Hecate is usually represented as a woman with three
joined bodies (the triple Hecate, or triple Diana) standing as though at a crossroads,
incorporating aspects of Selene (or her Roman equivalent Luna), Artemis (or Diana),
Pallas (or Minerva), and the Erinyes (also known as the Furies). In this way, Hecate
interweaves traditions of veneration for the moon, female power, wisdom, fertility,
virginity, and the punishment of rapists or unfaithful men. By the sixteenth century,
a more frightful variation of Hecate was evolving, more closely associated with necromancy,
witchcraft, and lunacy (dramatized most famously in Macbeth). It is this more sinister version that Bacon appears to have in mind.
et nunc … semper
Both now and always (travestying the Gloria Patri and other doxologies).
Scene 3
frolicworld of the English countryside (to borrow Greene’s favorite term) and introduces us to the brightest flower the national garden: Margaret, the Fair Maid of Fressingfield. Working with the dance instructor Emily Winerock the company created a dance to open the scene intended to generate some of the fun and excitement of a country fair. Margaret has already been praised for her beauty in the opening scene and here we discover that her command of language is also remarkable as she scatters classical allusions through her speech. Margaret was the last of the female roles developed by Julian DeZotti and worked to redefine the other two. DeZotti gives Margaret a generous, fun-loving quality from the outset of this scene and reveals her to be a woman with her own desires and convictions. The scene establishes that Margaret is a cut above the other country folk and the supporting actors in the scene made their country folk as ridiculous as possible to emphasize the difference between the disguised Lacy and the real farmers at the fair.
here’s … father whoreson
This weather is so good it could cause a farmer to behave madly in frustration.
Thomas complains that an overabundance of crops produced by the fair weather is going
to drive market prices down, to the disadvantage of frustrated sellers.
whoresonwhile he was trying to impress her. Aside from the comic effect, this approach served to make Lacy’s comparative sophistication more obvious and justify the fact that Thomas later is said to be
in a dump(Sc3 Sp5).
good cheap
At a low price; idiom for a market favorable to consumers when commodities are in
abundance.
The opposite is dear cheap, a high market price brought about by scarcity, which favors the seller (OED cheap, n.1 6.a).
bear no price
Fail to interest potential buyers, even at such a low price.
Count not … hay
Do not wish to spend time wrangling about the price of hay.
Margaret is saying that she and the other young women have come to enjoy themselves,
not quibble over the price of commodities.
turned … salt
Salted the butter we have finished making.
sluts
Idle young women; a playful way of describing their being on holiday from the consuming
responsibilities of domestic work (OED slut, n. 1.2.b).
needless naughts
Unnecessary trifles.
fine
Attractive (OED fine, adj. 2.9–10).
frank
Liberal, generous (OED frank, adj.2 2.a).
fairings
Gifts or souvenirs.
Phoebus
Apollo (i.e., the sun).
Semele
A Theban priestess who was seduced by Zeus, not Apollo.
When Semele demanded to see her divine and invisible lover, Zeus appeared to her in
the form of lightning and incinerated her. Margaret’s interpretation of the Semele
myth sounds naive, and Greene may intend his audience to detect the irony. In the
speech that follows, Lacy points out that
Semele is dead(Sc3 Sp3) and flatters Margaret by saying that the sun now woos her, thereby insinuating that Prince Edward covets her. Like Semele, Margaret cannot yet fathom the destructiveness inherent in such attraction.
Swearing … buy
Promising that traders will sell all their wares to those out enjoying the pleasant
weather.
pries
Peers out.
fairing
Fair-day gift; beautifying.
soothe me up
Humor me.
scoffs … before
Earlier jokes too provocative or suggestive in meaning (for decent young women).
Julian DeZotti made this refer to Thomas’ earlier attempt to engage with her, although this does
not really make grammatical sense. In response, Thomas turned away in a huff and walked
off to sulk in the corner of the stage, frustrated by the intervention of this smooth-talking
Beccles man(Sc3 Sp15).
our beauties … turn
Our humble beauty must suffice (spoken in playful self-deprecation).
meanest
Humblest, lowest in social standing.
Faith
In faith, truly.
Beccles
A Suffolk market town a short distance northeast of Harleston.
quaint
Proud, fastidious.
run your cheese
Make cheese out of warm milk by separating curds from the whey (see note at Sc1 Sp42).
forget yourself
Must not be remembering correctly.
we have … that
Our hard work leaves little time to pursue love.
Margaret’s statement politely communicates her lack of romantic interest in Edward.
The sudden change in her demeanor that follows seems to express her dawning attraction
to Lacy, but also perhaps anger (see Sc3 Sp13) at Edward’s token with its insinuation that she prostitute herself.
paleface as anger (Sc3 Sp13) but DeZotti’s choice to have her paleness represent her love worked well to motivate her next line:
How different is this farmer from the rest(Sc3 Sp15). In the SQM interpretation, Thomas’ suggestion she is angry became wishful thinking
Sirrah … dung-cart
How different is this farmer from the rest(Sc3 Sp15) extremely funny. There is no textual justification for Richard’s exit at this point but Krist had to exit early from this scene because he (a) needed to enter as Rafe following the next short scene and (b) needed time for an extensive costume change. For a discussion of doubling in the SQM productions visit the Performing the Queen’s Men website.
Goodman Cob
Cob may refer either to a large-bodied man or a miserly one (OED cob, n.1 1.1.a), perhaps glancing at the greedy nature of the man who sold Richard’s father a useless
horse.
gentleman’s jade
A horse that does no work, like a gentleman.
hilding
A horse of no value.
erst as yet
Before now.
Paris … Troy
Paris, the son of Priam and Hecuba, lived as a shepherd on Mount Ida before the Trojan
war, and there loved and abandoned the nymph Oenone.
Margaret again alludes with apparent naivete to a troubling mythological situation
that threatens to become her own (see also Sc3 Sp2).
jolly
Fresh, handsome (OED jolly, adj. 1.2).
grief
A conventional term for love sickness (OED grief, n. 7.a).
quaint
Pretty, dainty.
woodmen
Rural residents.
Butter … fat venison
Beccles man.While this business might have overstepped conservative notions of female modesty in Elizabethan England it worked to make Margaret an active agent in her own fate, as well as increasing our sense of her and therefore England’s desirability. While the all-male cast generated a locker-room atmosphere at times, DeZotti’s commitment to this role suggests that the Elizabethan boy actors would have brought more than patriarchal stereotypes to their performances of women.
store, and welcome
Abundant hospitality, with perhaps the insinuation of love and a rich country dowry.
Gramercies
Thanks.
Scene 4
England’s rich monarchgenerously hosting
[g]reat men of Europeand graciously welcoming Eleanor as suitor to his son. The company devised a stately pavanne with dance instructor Emily Winerock to open the scene and provide some sense of the visual spectacle associated with the original Queen’s Men (McMillin and MacLean 125). Don Allison (King Henry) also found some fun in the idea that he was aware that his son was doing more than sporting
himself amongst his fallow deer(Sc4 Sp5). The university stage proved challenging in this scene as awareness of the complex sightlines made it difficult to compose compelling stage pictures that could conjure a better sense of England’s grandeur.
Henry the Third
Henry III, king of England (1207–1272) and Prince Edward’s father.
Henry III is remembered for his piety, which led him to collect religious relics and
build a magnificent tomb in honor of Edward the Confessor at Westminster Abbey. He
sought to harmonize his court and assert royal authority in Ireland, Wales, and Scotland,
but economic and political instability troubled his reign: taxes alienated his subjects,
compelling Henry to cede power to a strengthened parliament; he was forced to resign
English claims to Normandy, Anjou, and Poitou, ending the Angevin empire; and factionalism
at his court culminated in armed baronial warfare. Greene had access to this history
in Holinshed, yet shows little interest in representing it with veracity, obscuring
especially the era’s internecine violence. Of greater interest to Greene is Henry’s
reputation as a patron of the arts and admirer of luxury: not surprisingly the character
more closely resembles an idealized Tudor monarch than a Plantagenet one. Henry’s
primary function in the play is to project an image of English sovereignty (
Albion is another little worldSc4 Sp1) and magnificence in an international context (
Thus glories England over all the westSc15 Sp10).
Emperor of Germany
Q1 later identifies this character as
Frederick(see Sc6 Sp3, Sc8 Sp62, Sc8 Sp64, Sc8 Sp66). Greene appears to have in mind Frederick II (1211–1250), the emperor of Germany and Italy who became King Henry III’s brother-in-law when he married Henry’s sister Isabella in 1235. However, the events in this scene took place in 1254 by which time both Frederick and his imperial claim on the Hohenstaufen dynasty had expired. There followed an interregnum (1250–1308) during which no Holy Roman Emperor was universally recognized. Again, because Greene is working primarily within the genre of romance and not chronicle history, biographical accuracy is not his priority.
King of Castile
Ferdinand III of Castile and Leon (1199–1252).
Like the emperor Frederick II, Ferdinand III was deceased at the time of Edward and
Eleanor’s marriage negotiation. His son and Eleanor’s half-brother Alfonso X (1221–1284)
had succeeded him and presided over the marriage ceremony in Castile (not England)
as part of a treaty of alliance between the two countries (Holinshed 249–250).
Eleanor his daughter
Ferdinand III’s only daughter (1240–1290) by his second wife Joan, Countess of Ponthieu.
Jaques Vandermast, a German
By adding
Jaquesto the surname Vandermast (the only name that appears in The Famous History of Friar Bacon), Greene accentuates his non-Englishness. Seltzer senses a derogatory pun on
jakes(toilet), and Greene may have recognized the corresponding scatological pun on
Vandermast(mast is German for master but the similar sounding mist means dung). This character returns to antagonize Bacon in the sequel to Greene’s play, John of Bordeaux.
old Oceanus
The Atlantic ocean; also, the Titan in Greek mythology associated with the primeval
river thought to surround the earth.
lofty surge is
High waves are.
An emendation of Q1’s loftie surges is necessary here to make grammatical sense of the line.
Babel
Babylon, famed for its impenetrable walls.
Albion
The ancient name of Britain, derived from its white cliffs (the Latin albus meaning white).
venture … Agenor’s damsel
Europa, daughter of the Phoenecian king Agenor, assumed the shape of a white bull
and was carried by Zeus through the sea to Crete.
Eleanor of Castile never ventured to England for the marriage negotiation in 1254;
in fact, Edward traveled to Castile (Holinshed 249). However, Greene’s modification of history and invocation of Europa allows him to
expand the play’s pattern of allusions to mythological women forcibly seized by powerful
male rulers.
wanton
Jovial, but with the unintended sense of his being undisciplined, unruly, or unlawful
(OEDwanton, adj. 1–3).
Pyren Mounts
The Pyrenees mountains in Spain and France.
brook … haughty pride
Endure the high-reaching waves. Neptune is the Roman god of the sea.
froward
Harsh, violent (OED froward, adj. 2).
Aeolus
The ruler of the winds in Greek myth.
counterfeit
Painted portrait.
Miniature portraits were sent in anticipation of elite marriages to give impressions
of physical appearance and as tokens of love. See The Merchant of Venice (MV 3.2.115).
Damas’s
Damascus’.
An anachronism: Edward’s three-year crusade to the Middle East began in fact in 1270,
sixteen years after his marriage to Eleanor in 1254. The death of his father interrupted
his venture and he never traveled to Syria.
He posted down
brave Plantagenetcomplicit in the frollicking England that Greene makes so attractive in his play.
Suffolk side
That part of the county adjacent to the sea.
Framlingham
Market town in central Suffolk, about ten miles south of Fressingfield.
packets
Wrapped parcels, packages.
Hampton House
Hampton Court.
Another anachronism: Cardinal Wolsey built this Tudor palace and presented it as a
gift to Henry VIII in 1526.
will
Bid.
as we be
In our present condition.
train
Entourage.
Fain
Gladly.
put down
Bested in disputation.
aphorisms
Scientific principles (see Sc2 Sp9).
likes
Pleases.
wonder
Wondrous, marvelous (OED wonder, adj.).
only
Greatest.
Set … nonplus
Make it impossible for him to proceed in speech or action; perplex him (see OED nonplus, n. 1).
set to
Direct our minds and intentions toward (OED set, v.1 9.113); plan to travel.
banquet
Partake in a course of sweetmeats (sugared cakes and pastries), fruit, and wine (see
OED banquet, n.1 3.a).
The SQM actors off-stage took this line as their cue to launch into a rousing chorus
of
Pastime with Good Company,a popular folk song, that served to create a sense of the king’s promised banquet towards which the nobles were exiting and helping to establish the riotous atmosphere of the following scene.
Scene 5
disguised as Rafe
Rafe has dressed himself in Edward’s princely attire. Has Edward donned Rafe’s coxcomb
and motley in turn? Seltzer thinks so (Seltzer 28) and Bevington emends the stage direction in agreement (Bevington 145). The same decision was taken in the Shakespeare and the Queen’s Men performances in 2006, which finds support in the Elizabethan commonplace that fools
could never pass as princes, but princes could play the fool. Lavin proposes alternatively
(Lavin 27) that Edward disguises himself as one of the company’s
cutting knaves,as they are described at Sc5 Sp8.
ready … inch.
Near at hand and prepared to serve.
Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles by the Protestant reformer Jean Calvin influenced the Elizabethan usage of this phrase:
Hereby it appeareth how watchful the wicked be: because they are always ready at an inch to stop the mouths of the servants of Christ(Calvin 85) The phrase thus refers to the short distance between sinful human impulse and reprobate action. The context suggests that Edward utters it playfully and ironically.
I’ll … ride on
Matthew Krist (Rafe) did a wonderful job making the premises of his character’s comedy accessible
to an audience less familiar with the words on which his humor depends. Here prior
to speaking the line he made it clear that he was saddlesore.
another fetch
Something else conveyed to me that I desire (OED fetch, v. 1).
Considering the speaker, a secondary sense of a stratagem or trick is also appropriate
(see OED fetch, n.1 2).
Isle of Ely
A fenland region in Cambridgeshire, the rivers of which were a source for eel and
fowl in Greene’s time.
but shall we to Brazennose College before we pull off our boots?(Sc5 Sp6).
keep your countenance
Maintain your demeanor, with the additional sense of a feigned appearance or pretense
(OED countenance, n.1 1.1–2.b).
cutting knaves
Wayward or blustering rogues unafraid to use their daggers (see Sc5 Sp28).
countenance
Body or person; also, pretense (see Sc5 Sp7).
bucklers
Shields.
Aha!This piece of business was originally developed for Prince Harenry and his highway companions at the beginning of Famous Victories. The spirit of masculine camaraderie generated by the all-male cast came to define the SQM performance and arose in part from the number of scenes like this in the repertoire that feature young men having a riotously good time.
errant
Notorious (applied derisively to criminals).
subsizar
University undergraduate expected to perform menial service in return for financial
assistance (see 2).
Greene had firsthand experience as a poor scholar, having matriculated as a sizar
at St. John’s College, Cambridge on November 26, 1575.
greatest blockhead
greatest blockheadwere a compliment and won himself a laugh from the audience. The sequence of gags that follows is a great example of how the Elizabethan clown could play lines to the audience even when engaged in dialogue with another character.
Tully’s phrase
Sophisticated classical Latin modeled on that of the Roman orator Marcus Tullius Cicero.
nomen substantivo
Noun substantive.
William Lily’s Short Introduction of Grammar was many times reprinted in the sixteenth century and provides the context for what
must have been a popular joke among Tudor school children (Lily). Miles is equating nouns with penises, both of which can be
heard(hard),
felt(stroked), and
understood(apprehended or grasped):
A noun is the name of a thing that may be seen, felt, heard, and understoodwhile
a noun substantive is that which standeth by himself(Lily A7r). For a bawdy echo, see John of Bordeaux (Renwick l.373–378). Miles’ rehearsal of the joke may have been accompanied by obscene gestures, which spur Bacon to beat him at Sc5 Sp17.
heard
Q1 reads hard, a variant spelling of Miles’ intended word
heard.The homophone activates the implicit bawdy pun.
Without the homophone the potentially bawdy gag was difficult to communicate to our
contemporary audience.
Coppersmiths’ Hall
The guildhall of craftsmen who worked in copper and brass, making cups, cans, and
pots.
It was commonplace to liken the reddish nose of the habitual drinker to copper or
brass (see also Sc2 Sp11), and Edward obviously detects Miles’ insinuation. A similar allusion appears in
Greene and Lodge’s A Looking Glass for London and England in which the clown Adam is said to have
a nose autem glorificam, so set with rubies that after his death it should have been nailed up in Coppersmith’s Hall for a monument(Greene and Lodge B2r). The humor depends upon the image of an alcoholic’s nose on display in the guildhall as a craftsman’s masterpiece for apprentices to study.
reparel
Clothing, attire (OED reparel, n. 1.b).
good game … hawk
Easy prey for a sharp-eyed predator.
covey
A hatch of birds huddling together in their first season (OED covey, n.1 1).
spring
Surprise and flush from cover.
Gog’s wounds
By God’s wounds.
kill him
unintentionallyresulted in physical business resembling an act of fellatio. The SQM company were allowed free reign to develop comic business on the basis that the original Queen’s Men were largely made up of actors skilled in comedy. There is textual justification for their invented business in the phallic meanings attached to weapons and swords in the play (eg. Sc5 Sp44).
Why, Ned … dagger.
Similar arresting of weapons occurs in Greene’s King James IV (Greene A3v), John of Bordeaux (Renwick l.150–168) and in Shakespeare’s The Tempest when Prospero charms Ferdinand’s sword (Tmp 1.2.468–473).
scabs
Scoundrels, rascals (compare with Sc1 Sp12).
shut
Fastened in place.
light-fingered
Dexterous (OED light-fingered, adj.); slang for a cutpurse’s agility.
To whom
prince of Wales
Another of the play’s anachronisms: Edward’s son, the future Edward II, would be the
first Plantagenet invested with this title in 1301. From thenceforth it denoted the
heir apparent to the English throne.
Sussex earl
Warren
in post
In haste.
Fast fancied to
Firmly (and perhaps also suddenly) infatuated with.
succor
Aid or assistance.
treat
Negotiate with.
at a pinch
In an emergency.
strength
Strengthen.
college state
Brasenose’s financial condition.
fast
Firmly, fixedly (OED fast, adj. 1.1.a).
Crave … these?
A rare moment of introspection by Bacon? Although he regards male erotic pursuits
as trivial, he begrudgingly sets aside his more philosophical ambitions for the time
being.
strain out
Exert to the utmost.
fast
With firm attachment, securely (OED fast, adj. 2.a).
glass prospective
Mirror, scrying stone, or telescopic device through which distant events may be seen
(OED perspective glass, n.).
For further discussion of this property see the note at Sc5 Sp52 and the Textual Introduction.
quite thy pain
Requite or pay you for your care and skill.
black pots
Leather-bound drinking vessels (and in this instance, those drinking from them).
into the study
When the Queen’s Men performed in a London playhouse like the Rose, they may have
relied upon curtains to delineate Bacon’s study (see the stage direction at 10). Such hangings are called for explicitly in other company plays, such as Peele’s
The Old Wives’ Tale (link) and Greene and Lodge’s A Looking Glass for London and England (Greene and Lodge 2.352–353). But since the players often toured and were versatile at adapting to different
venues, they may also have represented Bacon’s study by having the actors simply stand
apart from the concurrent action in whatever space an inn-yard or municipal hall might
afford.
studyhidden behind curtains in the tiring house. In the
tavernstaging Bacon could bring the prince into his study simply by pulling the curtain back and revealing the desk with the brazen head above it. In the
universitystaging, this proved more awkward because the desk was not visible unless pushed out onto the stage. The economic stage magic as time and place are translated through the simple drawing of a curtain is curtailed in the performance recorded on video. Since The Old Wives’ Tale is another Queen’s Men play featuring a study we experimented with the possibility that the company travelled with a portable structure for use as a mansion house.
tempers … toys
Bacon contrives many fantastic devices.
The verb
temperssuggests the use of alchemical compounds, heated and cooled to arrive at the desired substance.
consistory court
Ecclesiastical court presided over by a bishop’s chancellor.
Consistory courts had jurisdiction over marriages and wills. Bacon is thus claiming
the authority to preside over central matters of life and death.
plead homage
Give loyal service.
glass prospective
See note at Sc5 Sp46. What exactly is Bacon’s
glass prospective? A crystal ball such as Spenser ascribes to Merlin in The Faerie Queene?
It vertue had to shew in perfect sight / Whatever thing was in the world contaynd, / Betwixt the lowest earth and heavens hight, / So that it to the looker appertained; / Whatever foe had wrought, or friend had faynd, / Therein discovered was, naught mote pass, / Naught in secret from the same remaynd; / Forthy it round and hollow shaped was / Like to the world itself and seemed a world of glass(Spenser 416). The scholars and actors involved in the Shakespeare and the Queen’s Men symposium in 2006 followed editorial tradition by imagining a magical mirror resembling a contemporary dressing-table vanity. Alternatively, Greene may have had in mind a supernatural artifact akin to the obsidian scrying stone once owned by the Elizabethan magus John Dee. Made of volcanic glass polished to mirror smoothness, these shew-stones were believed to have the power to conduct spirits and provide secret glimpses into the past, present, and future. Dee’s stone was famous in its day and even captured the imagination of Queen Elizabeth during a visit to Dee’s home in 1575 (see the Supplementary Materials). Yet another possibility is that Greene and the Queen’s Men modeled their stage property on the nascent technology of the reflecting telescope. In The Famous History of Friar Bacon, Bacon professes expertise in the art of perspectiva, or optics, declaring that
perspects may be so framed that things far off shall seem most nigh unto us(The Famous History of Friar Bacon C4r).
Glass prospectiveand
perspective glasswould eventually become standard terms for English, Dutch, and Italian telescopes in the early seventeenth century (OED perspective glass, n.). However, as early as the 1570s English polymaths such as Dee and his pupil Thomas Digges were discussing the way convex lenses and concave mirrors might be used to magnify objects great distances away, espousing the use of glasses as a means of terrestrial and astronomical observation three decades before Galileo would turn his more refined telescope toward Jupiter’s moons in 1609 (see the Supplementary Materials). When Bacon directs Edward to
Sit still, and keep the crystal in your eye(Sc5 Sp57) we may imagine the actor peering into either an arcane occult artifact or, perhaps, a state-of-the-art technological apparatus (the crystal being the magnifying lens at one end).
try … meaneth
Test Lacy’s loyalty.
Stand there
The question of where onstage Edward is to stand and peer into Bacon’s glass has divided
editors. Collier situates him upstage with all action viewed through the glass taking
place immediately before the audience. Dyce proposes the opposite, envisioning the
glass downstage closer to the audience, with the action spied through it being unveiled
by a drawn curtain near the tiring house wall.
sitdownstage left. Friar Bacon’s later instruction to
sit still(Sc5 Sp57) gives some justification for this choice. Lacy and Maragaret appeared behind him and crossed to upstage right to play out their scene. In the tavern setting we followed Collier’s suggestion, situating Edward upstage and having him view the action through Bacon’s glass. I enjoyed the way the angle of the prince’s sightline crossed in front of the lovers while it remained clear he was not actually looking at them. The arrangement also allowed the audience to process the action in Fressingfield and the prince’s reactions simultaneously.
Friar Bungay
The Famous History of Friar Bacon characterizes Bungay as
a great scholar and a magician (but not to be compared to Frier Bacon)(The Famous History of Friar Bacon B4v-C1r). The character is modeled loosely on Thomas de Bungeye (fl.1270–1283), an Oxford-educated Franciscan minister from Suffolk, known to have lectured and disputed theological questions at Cambridge in 1282 and 1283 (ODNB; Moorman 32–34). His skill as a mathematician stirred suspicions of necromancy and this is perhaps the sole historical basis for his subsequent fictional association with Bacon. The OED notes the term bungie bird as a late sixteenth-century pejorative for “friar”, as for instance in The Troublesome Reign of King John when Philip assaults the abbey, saying:
Now bald and barefoot bungie birds / When up the gallows climbing / Say Philip he had words enough / To put you down with rhyming(The Troublesome Reign of King John E4v).
What sees
brightsome … Mars
As bright-looking (OED brightsome, adj.) as Venus.
Greene uses the word similarly in Ciceronis Amor (1589):
Brightsome Apollo in his richest pomp / was not like to the trammels of her hair(Greene 30).
nigh
Nearby.
Lincolnshire
The coastal county in northeastern England associated with the earldom of Lincoln
(expanded here by Greene to maintain his pentameter line).
for my life
As I hope to live, a common emphatic statement meaning
under any circumstances.
cunning
Occult knowledge, magical skill (OED cunning, n.1 4).
procure
Plead for or obtain, with the connotation of gaining illicit possession (OED procure, v. 1.a; 3.a).
Bungay’s choice of verb hints at apprehensiveness regarding Edward’s desire, which
Margaret then expresses more explicitly in the next line.
holp … cheese
Helped you produce cheese by separating the curds from the whey.
lure
Bait (such as feathers) used in falconry to tempt the hawk to stoop for food (OED lure, n.2 1.a).
great wealth
An ambiguous phrase in this context in that Margaret does not apparently wish to marry
for money; she likely means the treasure of love and happiness.
quite
Requite.
pride of vaunting Troy
I.e., Paris.
avouch
Prove by his own authority (OED avouch, v. 1.1).
shadow
Justify, screen from blame (OED shadow, v. 3.a-b).
scape
A reckless transgression, or an escape from moral restraint, often applied to a breach
of chastity (OED scape, n.1 2).
Helen of Sparta’s erotic affair with Paris of Troy humiliated her husband Menelaus
and provoked the legendary war between the Trojans and Greeks. Margaret’s sexual forthrightness
sounds appealingly healthy when compared to Edward’s possessive desire, but her allusion
hints ominously at a disaster to come. Q1’s
capemay be a compositor’s error as Greene uses
scapesagain in the sense implied here at Sc6 Sp35. Note also Greene’s description of Helen in Orlando Furioso:
That left her lord Prince Menelaus / And with a swain made scape away to Troy(Greene Bijr).
conceit
Apprehension, understanding (OED conceit, n. 1.2.a).
Compare with Rosalind’s compliment to Orlando,
I know you are a gentleman of good conceitin As You Like It (AYL 5.2.41–42).
chiefest prime
Height of ancient greatness.
paramour
Object of devotion (OED paramour, n. 2.a).
in esse
In actuality; a medieval Latin phrase in which the infinitive esse (to be) is used as a noun (OED esse, n. 1).
be behind
Be slow.
lusty churl
Villain full of desire.
Some in Greene’s audience may have shared Edward’s instinct to suspect Bungay of lustfulness
as this was a standard charge leveled against Catholic friars in post-Reformation
polemic. See, for instance, the depiction of wayward friars in the Queen’s Men’s The Troublesome Reign of King John (The Troublesome Reign of King John E4v). Ironically, it is Edward’s lust that is most clearly on display here.
Sit still
Continue to sit.
The prince has jumped to his feet at Lacy’s entrance.
comedy
Play, or more specifically a performance designed to provoke laughter and tending
toward a harmonious conclusion.
Greene begins to draw a parallel between images spied through the magic glass and
the visual field of his own theatrical medium. Both afford spectators privileged access
to knowledge but share an alarming power to excite the emotions (see also Bacon’s
use of the word
tragedyat Sc12 Sp15).
Daphne … eyes
For offending Cupid, Phoebus Apollo was struck by a golden arrow that stirred in him
an aggressive desire for the forest nymph Daphne. A leaden arrow in turn caused Daphne
to flee Apollo until she was transformed into laurel tree. Lacy appears to catch himself
uttering another of the play’s disturbing allusions to myths of male desire and attempted
rape. He promptly bridles his feelings and vows to check Edward’s lust.
secret
Intimate, trusted.
Nor … man
Nor does love permit exceptions in the case of a prince; honorable behavior is expected
of every man.
His … girl
Prince Edward has not commissioned me to arrange for Margaret to marry him.
brook
Tolerate.
the near
Nearer your purpose (
Early up and never the nearerwas proverbial).
watchful
Sleepless.
brook … sleep
Must make do with wakefulness instead of quiet rest.
passions
Overpowering thoughts and emotions (OED passion, n. 2.6.a).
A trusty … friend.
You show yourself to be a trustworthy man indeed by wooing on your friend’s behalf.
sues
Pleads.
wag
Mischievous young boy, in this case Cupid.
shrine
Enshrine.
Deus hic
God is here.
The phrase appears in the Vulgate translation of Genesis (Genesis 28:16) following Jacob’s beatific vision of a stairway to heaven. Although
a conventional clerical greeting, its use to address Margaret and Lacy helps to emphasize
their mutual goodness.
Room
Make way.
This was a standard call during the performance of medieval drama for the audience
to allow an actor through the crowd.
No, friar … news?
Q1 assigns this line to Margaret but Dyce argues it should be spoken by Lacy, whom
Bungay has just addressed as the
youth of Beccles.
pursuivants
Messengers.
Windsor court
The court at Windsor Castle, located on the Thames twenty miles west of London.
who
Whoever.
the Exchequer
The royal treasury.
twenty thousand crowns
Coins valued at 5 shillings a piece and totaling #5000, a princely sum in Greene’s
time.
once
For the time being.
For why
For which reason (OED forwhy, conj. 1.a).
Flatter … ill
Deceive and lie about their intentions, ruining the reputations and happiness of women.
Alliteration here and at Sc5 Sp87 underscores the significance of what Margaret is saying: social stratification facilitates
the abuse of power, and women of lower standing in particular suffer easily at the
hands of predatory men who make false vows only to gratify themselves sexually.
I am
That I am.
so please himself
If it pleases you.
plight the bands
Pledge myself to the bonds of marriage.
Choler
Anger, produced by red bile in the Galenic medical theory of the humors.
gree
Be in accord or connect romantically (OED gree, v.).
shadows
Unreal or insubstantial images in the glass.
Shadowswas also notably a common term for stage players (OED shadow, n. 6.a-b), as in Puck’s epilogue to A Midsummer Night’s Dream:
If we shadows have offended, / Think but this, and all is mended: / That you have but slumbered here, / While these visions did appear(MND 8.53–56). A similar moment occurs in Doctor Faustus when the Emperor mistakes a conjured image of Alexander the Great for reality (Marlowe E1r). Like Shakespeare and Marlowe, Greene is attentive to shared capacity of magic and theatre to make audiences
think the shadows substances.
poniard
Dagger.
jars
Strife, contention.
hamper up
Bind or make fast (OED hamper, v.1 1.a); make official.
portace
Portable prayer book.
handfast hand
Join your hands in an act of engagement.
For mumbling … orisons
From speaking the prayers for the marriage service.
this day
Hud, hud
A rendering of Bungay’s effort to speak.
The disabling of Bungay’s tongue resembles a scene in Greene’s King James IV in which Oberon magically mutes Nano and Slipper (Greene A4v). The motif appears also in The Famous History of Friar Bacon wherein Bacon cuts off Miles’ speech by plugging his mouth with an unmovable black
pudding, a punishment for hoarding food on a day of fasting (The Famous History of Friar Bacon B1v-B2r).
Huds. The simplicity of the magic was again theatrically satisfying, making Bacon’s powers highly amusing and attractive.
Reft
Bereft.
dumb
Incapable of speech.
passions
Mortifying afflictions or ailments (OED passion, n. 4.a).
apoplexy
Sudden disabling malady, a stroke.
miscreant
Heretic or unbeliever (OED miscreant, adj. 1), here used in terms of romantic devotion.
Bungay
Q1 prints the name Bacon, but as Collier notes the context demands that Bungay stand amazed.
Of courtesy
For courtesy’s sake.
hapless
Unlucky, unfortunate.
passing
Exceedingly.
Exeunt
in … hie me
Hastily travel.
Exeunt
Comparatively speaking this transition was clumsy as Friar Bacon (Jason Gray) had to move a chair off-stage before exiting. In the original staging conditions,
it is possible that joint stools might have remained on stage throughout performances
to be used or ignored as the scenes required, thus allowing for a much smoother transition
to the next scene.
Scene 6
narrative over-deteriminationwhich carries an implied criticism of this technique (McMillin and MacLean 133–138). In plays so packed full of variety and unfolding so many plots, however, the strategy is of great value as otherwise the audience may lose the thread of the action. Furthermore, the scene is an excellent example of the Queen’s Men commitment to variety over unity. It is tenuously connected to the plot of the play through the doctor’s concern about the arrival of the king but ultimately it fails the modern normative test for unity of action because, if removed, the story would still be told. But plot was not paramount in Queen’s Men entertainment and removing the scene would make the play less rich and less fun. By committing to the text of the scene and unearthing the comic action it implied, the SQM company developed comic business that brought the misbehavior of the prince’s wags to theatrical life and engaged our audience with the idea of order and misrule laying the thematic groundwork for the prince’s conversion in the next scene. The SQM principal clown (Alon Nashman) and Matthew Krist (Rafe) had developed an improvisatory spirit through the rehearsals which bore fruit in this scene, as the actors found new comic business in every live performance.
doctors
Scholars.
Regent House
Meeting place for the governors of the university.
repair
Journey here.
trooped
Traveling in military procession.
alongst … by east
Baltic seaport near modern Gdansk, on the waters northeast of Germany (encompassing
modern Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia).
Poland was geographically larger in Greene’s time than today, and under Johann Sigismund
III Vasa (r. 1566–1632), ruler of the united Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth allied
to Spain, it was a political and economic rival to England (see Shakespeare Around the Globe). As in Scene 4, Greene here represents European monarchs as essentially benign and subject to English
power.
The Almain monarch
The Emperor of Germany, introduced in Scene 4.
On the ambiguous nature of this character’s historical identity, see the note at 4.
the Saxon duke
A non-speaking character identified as Scocon in Q1, an obvious misprint; he was presumably among the royal guests introduced in
Scene 4 and is addressed again by name in Scene 8 (see Sc8 Sp51 and Sc8 Sp55). In the period dramatized, Albert I of the house of Ascania (c. 1175–1260) governed
the duchy of Saxony. However, for Greene and his audience the Saxon dukes of the later
sixteenth-century perhaps came more readily to the mind. Johann Friedrich I (1503–1554)
had championed Luther’s Reformation and in seeking to reestablish his family’s claim
to the electorship of Saxony he fiercely opposed the Holy Roman Emperor, for which
he was long imprisoned. His sons Johann Freidrich II (1529–1595), Johann Wilhelm (1530–1573),
and Johann Friedrich III (1538–1565), and his grandson Friedrich Wilhem, the duke
of Saxe-Weimar (1562–1602) were all prominent Protestants, with Johan Friedrich II
at one time considered a potential suitor to Elizabeth I.
jests
Revels.
Strange
Foreign, unfamiliar (OED strange, adj. 1.a).
Roscius
Quintus Roscius Gallius (d. 62 B.C.), a Roman actor celebrated for both his comic
and tragic performances.
Vaunted
Proudly displayed (OED vaunt, v. 4).
vouch
Deign or think fit to do (OED vouch, v. 12.a).
hold … play
Occupy with matching skill, as in a duel.
Mas
Master (informally shortened).
rumor
Clamor, outcry, disturbance (OED rumor, n. 5–6).
hurly-burly
Commotion, tumult, uproar (OED hurly-burly, n. a).
you shall
You will appear.
rufflers
Rogues, swaggerers (OED ruffler, n.1 2).
vintner
Tavern-keeper.
Salve
Save you, greetings.
lubberly lurdan
Coarse, clumsy fool (OED lumberly, adj.; OED lurdan, n.).
Miles’ speech throughout this scene adopts the pattern of stress, caesura, and rhyme
known as
Skeltonics,a verse style popularized by the Tudor poet John Skelton (1463–1529). The style is closely associated with satire and therefore well suited to the energetic patter of the Queen’s Men’s stage clown.
hurly-burly.
unto vobis … nobis
He is lying to you about us.
Ecce … rotundi
See, the round-shaped ass of the world.
sheat
Trim (OED sheat, adj.).
bellwether
First sheep in a flock, around whose neck hangs a bell (OED bellwether, n. 1).
king’s son
tapster … wine
Tavern-keeper who served the drinks.
broke his head
Drew blood with a blow to his head.
prince
Why … princely race?
princeand Rafe’s actual appearance. Matthew Krist (Rafe) therefore worked hard to physicalize their words but in grotesque fashion. The comic inversion again raises questions about nobility that are important to the play.
derogate
Detract from one’s excellency or privilege (OED derogate, v. 2).
Bewrays
Reveals, divulges (OED bewray, v. 2.a).
And yet … son
apparel(Sc6 Sp24) that speaks directly to the issues of nobility Rafe’s impression of the prince raises in the play.
proctor
Academic officer tasked with disciplinary and administrative duties (OED proctor, n.1 5.a).
Miles’ speech continues to imitate the Skeltonic verse pattern (
doctor/
proctor). See note at Sc6 Sp12.
veriment
Correct, accurate.
gregis … regis
Company and son of the king.
With the Latin gregis (flock or company), Miles may intend a pun on
rigs,which in early modern English referred both to people of small stature and to lively, jesting types (OED rig, n.5 3).
white
Highly-prized, dear (OED white, adj. 2.9).
doting nightcaps
Round, brimless caps were indeed worn by sixteenth-century academics but Rafe is also
invoking an Elizabethan biggin, or child’s bonnet, thus insulting the doctors’
doting(weak or simple) minds.
a ship … Southwark
An allusion to Alexander Barclay’s 1509 translation of Sebastian Brant’s Ship of Fools (1494). See also Sc6 Sp28. A ninny is a fool, hence Niniversity, a nest of fools that migrates en masse to the riverside
district of south London where theatre, bear-baiting, and less reputable pleasures
were enjoyed.
pantofles
Slippers or soft overshoes with cork soles.
To
stand upon one’s pantofleswas to behave pompously (as Rafe is doing in his affected performance as the prince). Greene may also have known that pantofles were worn by the foolish old dottore and pantalone of Italian commedia dell’arte. Warren’s remark can thus be read as a good-natured jab at Rafe’s status as a fool.
pinnace
Small sailing ship.
A five hundred ton pinnace!after Ermsby’s line which was funny in performance largely, I think, because no-one knew what a pinnace was. As the SQM clowns gained confidence they all proved likely to speak more than was set down for them.
pioneers
Soldiers who tunneled beneath fortress walls to plant explosives during sieges (hence
the verb
underminewhich follows).
And I … Dawcock
scientia
Knowledge.
utrum horum mavis
Whichever you prefer.
navis
Ship; also fool.
Bartlet’s ship
Barclay’s ship of fools (see Sc6 Sp25).
Quid … hoc
What do you say to this.
Domine Dawcock
Master Jackdaw (i.e., master fool).
Daw was a common early modern term for fool and as Dyce notes, Greene borrowed the phrase
from Skelton’s satiric poem Ware the Hawke:
Whereto should I rehearse / The sentence of my verse? / In them be schools / For brainsick frantic fools: / Costruas hoc Domine Dawcocke! / Ware the hawke(Skelton Iiiiiv).
scurrility
Crude jocularity and indecent language (OED scurrility, n. a).
fop
Fool.
beadles
University constables.
Bocardo
A prison located in the old North Gate of Oxford.
roisters
Boisterous or riotous revelers (OED roister, n.1).
Close … bolts
Tightly shackled.
hamper these jades
Restrain these old men.
Have a flirt
Offer a sudden blow (OED flirt, v. 2); also gibe, flout, or scoff (OED flirt, v. 4.a).
revel-dash
Playful brawling.
sacerdos
Priests.
elves
Small or poor creatures, said disparagingly (OED elf, n.1).
meet
Suitable, fitting.
Sussex
All early quartos of the play (Q1–3) read Essex, an error first emended by Collier.
One … privy chamber
A gentleman of the Tudor privy chamber was a high-ranking court servant appointed
by the Lord Chamberlain to wait on the king and queen privately and on courtly occasions.
By implication, Ermsby, reveling in the company of Rafe and Warren, is neglecting
his duties at Henry’s court.
scapes
Escapades, transgressions (see note at Sc5 Sp62).
Exeunt omnes
Miles (Alon Nashman) led the company off as instructed by Rafe. He began singing the tune of his song
again and the company joined in ending the scene with same sense of lively riot that
defined it. This choice increased the sense of contrast with the high drama of the
scene that follows. By this stage of the process, the SQM company knew that variety and contrast are more important to the Queen’s Men dramaturgy than unity.
Henry
King Henry III.
Scene 7
Cassius
Gaius Cassius Longinus, a Roman senator and one of the conspirators who assassinated
Julius Caesar, invoked here as a symbol of treachery.
Traitor
Lynceus
An Argonaut with penetratingly sharp eye-sight.
Grecia
Greece.
Whenas
When.
curious
Elaborately or beautifully wrought (OED curious, adj. 2.7.a).
strange, or unusual.I doubt the line was intended to be comic, or that an Elizabethan audience would have thought a man playing a woman to be a
curiousthing.
Love taught … Wales
Scott Clarkson (Lacy) increased the intensity of his defense at this point, sharpening his articulation
and attack, which highlighted this argument that picks up on the play’s questions
about the nature of love and nobility.
Hephestion
One of Alexander the Great’s generals and his most intimate friend.
When Hephestion died, Alexander built great monuments in his honor and ceased to show
mercy to non-combatants during military campaigns.
passions
Intense erotic desires (OED passion, n. 2.8a-b).
fading
Transient, fleeting; here used derisively, drawing a contrast with the idealized bond
of male friendship invoked in the next line.
enchained fetters
Durable bonds, with the ironic suggestion of shackles used to bind.
effeminate
Lacking in self-control, weak, or unmanly.
Ironically, it is Edward who lacks self-possession, and we sense Greene applying pressure
to the conventional gender binary. Margaret is ultimately the most self-controlled
character in the scene, delivering a clear-sighted argument on friendship and love
that inspires Edward’s reformation.
effeminate,since calmness and rationality were commonly thought to be masculine traits.
corrival
Equal partner.
’fore … sleep
Before I sleep.
whom fancy … overfond
Who was driven to foolishness by erotic imagination.
Pleaded … loved
Urged myself to understand Lacy’s passionate feelings from his perspective.
still
Continuously.
looks
Amorous glances.
more … signs
And I could conclude nothing else from the cryptic expressions by which we communicated
(OED cipher, v. 2–3).
In frigates … Margaret
sethin
Wood from the shittah tree, or acacia wood (OED shittim, n.).
Edward vows to lavish wealth and pleasure upon Margaret, but hints of darker intentions
shadow his lyricism. Greene’s prose work Philomela (1592) invokes the hard and tenacious roots of the acacia treewhen describing a jealous
man’s mistreatment of a woman: it was
as if he had ... eaten of the sethin root, that maketh a man to be as cruel in heart as it is hard in the rind(Greene F3v).
firs of Lebanon
Cedars of the Lebanon mountains.
In scripture, Lebanese cedar symbolizes strength and righteousness: it is used to
build Solomon’s Temple, for instance (1 Kings 5:13–24). But Greene also intends irony
since Edward blindly overlooks its spiritual significance. The prince is behaving
like the
unwise manand not the
righteouswho
shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon(Psalm 92:6, 12).
Thetis
a Nereid, or sea nymph, and in older mythology a goddess of the sea.
Another ominous allusion: struck by the beauty of the nude Thetis riding a dolphin,
Jupiter’s grandson Peleus seized her as she slept in a grove of myrtle. She escaped
him for a time by transforming into different creatures, but when Proteus told Peleus
of her ability, he trapped, raped, and married her. It was at their wedding feast
that Eris, the goddess of strife, introduced the apple of discord, which precipitated
the judgment of Paris and the Trojan war, where Thetis and Peleus’ son Achilles would
perish.
lavoltas
Courtly dance steps involving skillful leaps and turns.
purple streams
Seas dark like wine; also the color of the wave-like bed covering associated with
Thetis, the sea goddess mentioned at Sc7 Sp5.
Sirens
Mythical creatures, part human, part bird, whose enchanting singing lured sailors
to their destruction.
The Sirens’ capacity to wreck the ships of sea voyagers against the rocky shores of
their island is most famously described in book twelve of Homer’s Odyssey. The irony here is that Edward has himself become Siren-like, intent on seducing
Margaret with his elevated rhetoric.
psalteries
Ancient dulcimer-like instruments (OED psaltery, n. 1).
wait
Attend.
stem
Curved timber at the bow of a ship (OED stem, n.2 1).
their
Q1 reads her.
lays
Songs.
Pardon … his love
Jove’s … Danaë
Zeus appeared to Danae, princess of Argos, as a shower of gold, and the product of
their union was the hero Perseus.
tiréd … Latona’s webs
Dressed in the bright apparel woven for Apollo by his mother Latona (or Leto), renowned
for her golden spindle.
Seltzer’s reading of
weeds(or clothes) is plausible, though Q1’s webs arguably communicates a better sense of the divine artistic craftsmanship and luxury that Margaret’s allusion intends (OED web, n. 1.a-c; 2.a).
Mercury
Winged Roman god and inventor of the lyre and the pipe.
Mercury was a god of eloquence and Margaret’s readiness to reject his
dulcet tunescan be read as a pointed refutation of Edward’s attempt to seduce her with language.
point of schools
Topic for disputation.
Ablata … effectus
Remove the cause, take away the effect.
stop … doom
Do not stop at the sentencing, but follow through with the punishment.
loves
Erotic passions.
betides
Happens, befalls.
overlive
Continue in life (OED overlive, v. 1).
short
Cut short.
Rid me
Dispose of me, kill me.
blazed
Made publicly known, trumpeted.
fancy
Erotic fantasy (OED fancy, n. 8.b), with an additional sense of capriciousness (OED fancy, n. 7.a).
Edward is wavering between stabbing either Lacy or Margaret. Margaret implores him
to kill them both.
knit
Join, combine.
Aside
at Damascus … Saracens
The historical Edward did lead a crusade to Tunis and Acre in 1270, but the death
of his father interrupted his exploits in 1272 and he never traveled to Damascus,
the capital of Syria. As Round notes, Greene may have in mind a passage from Holinshed
narrating an earlier crusade by Edward’s uncle Richard earl of Cornwall, who in 1240
with a navy of ships sailed into Syria, where in the wars against the Saracens he greatly advanced the part of the Christians(Holinshed 225).
plumes
Feathers on a soldier’s helmet, here a metonym for proud glories.
leagues
Compacts entered into for mutual protection (OED league, n.2 1.a).
Some editors prefer the emendation introduced by Q2 (loues), but
leaguesbetter expresses the practical and emotional solidarity (as opposed to mere physical attraction) that Edward is slowly recognizing to be necessary for a healthy love relationship.
make … fault
Turn a momentary lapse in reason into a victory by conquering this erotic passion.
fancy’s passion
Intense erotic desire stirred by the imagination (OED fancy, n.; OED passion, n. 8.a-b).
spoil
Prize plundered from a defeated enemy.
The prince … thoughts
The play takes an important turn as the melancholy Edward composes himself to become
the powerful historical figure of popular Elizabethan imagination. Of the mature prince,
Stow writes:
Of stature he was tall, and mighty of body, nothing gross; his eyes somewhat black and in time of anger fierce, of such noble and valiant courage that he never fainted in the most dangerous enterprises; of excellent wit and great towardness(Stow 296). Stoic self-composure interested Greene, possibly because he was not predisposed to it himself, as suggested by anecdotes of his reckless living. A similar instance of magnanimity occurs in Greenes Orpharion when the martial Acestes also subdues his
fancy’s passion:
Is it Acestes’ love that troubles thee? Why, thou art a soldier, sworn to arms, not to armour; to encounter foes in the field, not to court ladies in the chamber: Hercules had almost performed his twelve labours, ere he durst find leisure to love, and thou art scarce acquainted with Mars, but thou seekest to be private friend to Venus: away, fond fool(Greene C2v).
true Plantagenet
diadem
Crown.
And doth … heart
vouchsafe
Graciously grant.
Aspatia
Concubine of the ancient Persian conqueror Cyrus the Younger, who was allured by her
modesty and chastity.
Greene’s sometime collaborator Thomas Lodge relates Aspatia’s story in his 1593 prose
work The Life and Death of William Longbeard (Lodge F2v-F4v). She is Margaret’s archetype in many respects: she is of humble origins;
her unadorned beauty endears her to courtly men; her modesty and chastity distinguish
her from women of the court and fascinate an obsessive prince; and for her constancy
and moral strength, she and her impoverished father are rewarded with wealth and elevated
status.
second secret
Second most intimate person.
not … revolt
Not to be overturned or disputed.
Q1’s not be reuolt is a printer’s error which Q2 corrects by reestablishing the infinitive verb. It
is conceivable that Q1’s compositor saw reuolt where the copy read reuokt (i.e., revoked) but emending the line would not substantially change its meaning.
Castile Eleanor
lusty
Strong, pleasing (OED lusty, adj. 2).
respect the person
Scene 8
Duke of Saxony
A non-speaking character (see note at Sc6 Sp1), Saxony is mentioned twice in this scene and logically enters as a member of the
king’s entourage.
Due to the pressures of the doubling scheme, the SQM production cut this silent character.
fat and fallow
Fatted and brownish-red, fit for slaughter (OED fallow, adj.1 1).
battling
Nourishing or fattening to cattle (OED battling, adj.2 1).
laid … flocks
Laden with cattle and sheep.
scholars … grave attire
university settingthe seats behind the stage, reserved for the privileged, brought into play a dynamic based on the social stratification of the space.
searching
Penetrating (OED searching, adj. 1).
rooms
Estates (OED room, n.1 2.6.a).
meanly
Poorly, without distinction (OED meanly, adv.2 3).
German
Hud! Hud!in Scene 4 being carried back to Oxford on the devil’s back, but Matthew Krist here developed a graver side to his friar, demonstrating the range of characterization achievable within the SQM clowning style. He slowly removed his hood at this point and made the word German carry with it the disdain of an English nationalist. This proved amusing for our contemporary audience but one can imagine different audiences past and present responding un-ironically to the intense patriotism. Krist cleverly established the contrast and conflict in this speech between Oxford and Germany that informs the scene as a whole.
read so deep
So profoundly learned.
Oxenford
A variation of Oxford.
Belgic
German.
Stand to
Stand up to, challenge.
King Henry … sit
At Sc8 Sp27 Bacon will refer to the courtly guests as spectators seated before Bungay and Vandermast’s
contest, so this action is implicit.
doubtful
Unsettled, uncertain (OED doubtful, adj. 1.a).
spirits … or geomancy
Daemons,or inherent potencies, conjured from the elements of fire or earth (compare with Sc2 Sp6).
And I … geomancy
Matthew Krist (Bungay) picked up quickly sharply on his cue here and gave the moment the feeling
of two boxers facing off in the ring. It was funny but also established the premise
of the debate as competition which was key to leading the audience through the obscure
subject matter.
cabbalists
Experts in occult philosophy.
The term derives from the tradition of Jewish mysticism concerned with the nature
of divinity and its relationship with the finite universe.
Hermes … Pythagorus
Hermes Trismegistus (
thrice-great Hermes), a legendary Egyptian magus from the time of Moses to whom early modern scholars attributed a group of texts on cosmology and mysticism known as the Hermetica; Malchus Porphyrius, a third-century Neoplatonist (also known as Porphyry of Tyre); and Pythagorus of Samos, an Ionian Greek philosopher and mathematician of the sixth century B.C.
quadruplicity … essence
Gur essential components of nature (earth, air, fire, water).
Terra … height
Earth is held to be a mere point (punctum) in space and other elements exceed it by degrees both of size and importance.
Hermes
See note at Sc8 Sp11.
that place
I.e., the fire of the sun.
calls
Summons, conjures.
grounds
Soils and rocks (geomancers customarily tossed dirt in the air in acts of divination).
shows and wondering
Awe-inspiring spectacles.
terrae filii
Sons of the earth.
charged
Ordered to do so.
gross and massy
Enormous and dense.
when proud … heavens
Pride was held to be the greatest of sins byearly modern moralists and precipitated
catastrophic falls in the era’s de casibus theory of tragedy. The allusion thus underscores the perilous egotism bound up with
the necromantic project of seeking god-like power, teasing a potentially grim outcome
for Greene’s own play. The popular narrative of Lucifer’s rebellion in heaven and
the fall of his fellow conspiring angels had been widely disseminated by civic biblical
pageants in York, Chester, and other cities. Greene may be recalling this theatrical
tradition, or perhaps glancing at Lucifer’s more recent stage appearance in Doctor Faustus if indeed Marlowe’s play debuted before Friar Bacon (on this question see the Textual Introduction).
local essence
Defining characteristic that determines whether they become spirits of earth, air,
fire, or water.
Luna’s continent
All that is beneath the moon.
Ptolemaic cosmology, still influential in Greene’s day, posited that the moon’s sphere
turned in closest proximity to the earth with all things below it subject to decay
and finitude. Things nearer the moon’s sphere were held to be less corruptible than
things nearer the earth.
understanding
Capacity for reason (OED understanding, n. 1.c).
jugglers
Not nimble entertainers in the modern sense but those who work marvels by the aid
of magic, or who perform tricks by sleight of hand (OED juggler, n. 2).
vile
Common, base, depraved.
genii
Spirits, daemons.
grant
Let us grant only for the sake of argument.
fearful
Terror-inspiring, dreadful (OED fearful, adj. 1.a).
Hesperides
A mythical garden where priceless golden apples were said to grow, guarded by the
dragon Ladon and the giant Atlas; Hercules’ eleventh labor was to acquire one of these
prizes, which he did by deceiving Atlas.
The conjuration of the Hesperidean tree is adapted from The Famous History of Friar Bacon (see the Supplementary Materials). Greene uses the moment, however, to extend the play’s web of thematic allusion.
On one hand, the golden apples recall Eris’ apple of discord, which triggered the
rape of Helen and the destruction of Troy (see Sc7 Sp5); on the other, it evokes the fruit of the tree of knowledge in Genesis, the pursuit of which resulted in the fall of humanity from grace (for further discussion,
see the General Introduction).
Well done.
Stage directions in early modern printed plays are sometimes only approximately situated
in relation to the action they signal. Here Vandermast responds to the elaborate stage
business described in the subsequent line (8).
Ohbefore it and delivered the line with dripping sarcasm which earned him a laugh, and made the audience desire all the more to see the German’s downfall.
Bungay conjures
point
Feat, accomplishment.
Alcmena’s bastard
Hercules.
Hercules was conceived when Zeus seduced Alcmena, having taken the form of her husband
Amphytrion—another of the play’s many allusions to the seduction/rape of women by
powerful male figures.
razed
Cut away or shaved off, plundered (OED raze, v. 1.a).
prodi, prodi
Come forward, come forward.
Quis me vult?
Who calls for me?
Fiat
Let it be done.
charm
Prevent.
I cannot
Mighty commander … done
seek
Search.
given non-plus to
Perplexed, confounded.
Siena
The Italian city in Tuscany.
Florence, and Bologna
Cities located in Tuscany and the Emilia-Romagna regions of Italy.
Florence was at the center of the Italian Renaissance, while Bologna was recognized
as home to Europe’s oldest university.
Rheims
French city in the Champagne-Ardenne region, home to the cathedral of Notre Dame de
Rheims where the kings of France traditionally were crowned.
Rheims was controversial in Greene’s time for its Catholic seminary which trained
missionary priests outlawed in England.
Louvain
The city of Leuven, now in Belgium, but part of the Netherlands in Greene’s time.
The Catholic University of Leuven was the oldest institution of its kind in the Low
Countries.
Rotterdam
City in the Netherlands and home of the famed Dutch humanist Desiderius Erasmus (1466–1536).
Greene may also be gesturing here to Leiden University, newly established a day’s
ride north of Rotterdam in 1575.
Frankfurt
City in the Hessen region of Germany where in the later sixteenth century German kings
and emperors were elected and crowned.
Utrecht
City in the Dutch province of the same name, known to Greene’s contemporaries as a
stronghold of Dutch Protestant resistance to Catholic Spain.
Orleans
French city on the Loire river.
The university in Orleans, founded in the early fourteenth century, was an institution
of great prestige in Greene’s time.
laurel
Laurel leaves, a conventional emblem of victory.
acted more
Performed more by magic.
What
Who.
Men … Bacon
What, wench, the king of England?(Sc21 Sp19)—a bravura line he uses to persuade the princess Katherine he his is a worthy match for her. Our contemporary audiences found such moments of overt patriotism amusing in an ironic way, although they were not intended to be so.
science
Knowledge.
Bestir thee
Rouse yourself.
foil
Fall; a term from the sport of wrestling (OED foil, n.2 1).
foretime
Up to now, previously.
Friar Bacon
Raised Hercules … spells
gardening or something.The SQM work with clowning generated an improvisatory spirit in performance that increased as the ensemble became comfortable with the material and the interactive quality of the performance environment.
thrones … hierarchies
Angels and devils of varying ranks and powers.
Belcephon
See note at Sc2 Sp14.
Astaroth
A spirit who appears often in early modern demonological texts, described by Reginal
Scot as
a great and strong duke coming forth in the shape of a foul angel, sitting upon an infernal dragon and carrying in his right hand a viper; he answereth truly to matters present, past, and to come, and also of all secrets […] He maketh a man wonderful learned in the liberal sciences […] Let every exorcist take heed that he admit him not too near him because of his stinking breath […] let the conjuror hold near his face a magical ring and that shall defend him(Scot 384).
See also Sc10 Sp21. In John of Bordeaux, a spirit variously named
Astrowgh,
Astrow,and
Astroappears onstage and is likewise identified as
lord of the north(Renwick l.1134–1159).
doth more than art
Transcends the known limits of magic.
for
Because.
Hapsburg
The Holy Roman Empire, perhaps specifically Hapsburg Castle in Switzerland.
The medieval fortress of Hapsburg was the ancestral home to the ascendant Hapsburg
dynasty in the mid-thirteenth century. For Elizabethan audiences, the name would probably
call to mind Emperor Rudolf II (1552–1612), an avid collector of natural curiosities
and patron to revolutionary astronomers such as Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler. In
an effort to discover the philosopher’s stone, Rudolf also sponsored occultists and
alchemists such as John Dee, Elizabeth I’s court mathematician and advisor. For further
discussion of Dee, see the note at Sc5 Sp52 and the Textual Introduction.
travail
Labor, with a pun on
travel.
’gainst the spring
Before the new year begins.
secret dooms
Occult judgments, hidden wisdom.
fit my cheer
Prepare my banquet.
Is this … amorets
amorets
Loving glances or looks that inspire love (OED amoret, n. 4).
Framlingham
In Suffolk (see note at Sc4 Sp5).
teisers
Deerhounds (see longer note at Sc1 Sp1).
toil
Nets into which hunters drive their game (OED toil, n.2 1).
progressed
Traveled ceremoniously with the court.
Sixteenth-century royal progresses were opportunities to project power in different
parts of the realm through displays of magnificence.
entertain
Pleasure, entertainment; an obsolete noun (OED entertain, n. 2.a).
Chief
Especially.
him
The
Almain monarchreferred to earlier in the line (i.e., the Emperor of Germany).
joint with
Equal to, or united with.
Venus appears
parttells you your character is lying. Here, therefore, Paul Hopkins (Prince Edward) committed fully to his new-found love for Eleanor.
over-matcheth
Excels, surpasses (OED overmatch, v. 1.a).
Fair … fairs
Most beautiful of all beautiful women.
high-minded
Principled (OED high-minded, adj. 2), though perhaps with a hint of the word’s other major connotation: haughty, proud,
arrogant (OED high-minded, adj. 1).
Eleanor’s marriage to Edward is above all a political union. They have never met before
and Edward has arrived late. The public declarations of love they are compelled to
make are perhaps not without a certain awkward artificiality.
I … that “so”,
I love you as much as I may in so short a period of time, yet this love is so great
that time will never diminish it.
The contortions of Eleanor’s rhetoric underscore the strict formality of the arranged
political union, in contrast to the emotional honesty of Margaret and Lacy’s loving
language.
adopted
Prospective.
Let me … all
joy
Rejoice.
consorting greets
Harmonious greetings.
Enter Miles
trenchers
Wooden plates.
Salvete omnes reges
Hail you kings.
Miles’ speech contains a vestige of his Skeltonic rhythm and rhyming pattern from
Scene 6.
broth(Sc8 Sp55) to comic effect.
rabble
Pack of animals, or unruly mob.
look for
Prepare to receive.
pleasant
Jocular, foolish-seeming.
My master … behind?
Alon Nashman (Miles) directed these lines of explanation to the audience, but due to his constantly
close relationship with the audience as principal clown it did not read as an aside.
sewer
A court officer responsible for setting places and attending at feasts (OED sewer, n.2 a).
as serviceable … tree
Literally
to ready to do service(OED serviceable, adj. 1.a) but, as the simile also implies, Miles is uncouth and ready to eat up whatever he can in the process.
cheer
Food, drink, provisions, everything needed for hospitable entertainment (OED cheer, n.1 6).
what skills … before
What does it matter where I set the salt on the table, since we have no intention
of observing social decorum anyway.
Yeoman who served aristocratic feasts placed the salt ceremoniously on the table before
of the person of greatest estate. The salt’s position then determined where others
were to be seated along the board in accordance with their social ranking.
sophistry
Fallacious reasoning or deliberately deceptive argument (OED sophistry, n. 1.a), so-named for the Sophists, ancient teachers of the art of persuasion.
cover courtly
Set a table in a courtly manner.
pottage
Stew, often of vegetables.
Nearly dropping … dishes
Miles’ remark about nearly spilling the food suggests that he balances his dishes
precariously upon entering, comically threatening the scene’s decorum.
two-penny chop
Stew made with cheap ingredients.
nobile decus
Worshipful honor.
pecus
Beast of burden.
cates
Delicacies (with obvious irony).
twit
Taunt, upbraid, reproach (OED twit, v. 1.a).
use
Are accustomed.
Exit Miles
I tell … feast
drugs
Spices.
carvels
Light, fast ships.
Egypt’s richest straits
Perhaps a reference to the point at which the Gulf of Suez meets the Red Sea, or to
the eastern Egyptian straits separating the Sinai and Arabian peninsulas.
strand
a shore or port on navigable water (OED strand, n.1 1.c-e).
Gyptian courtesan
Cleopatra, the last Ptolemaic queen of Egypt (d. 30 BC).
Augustus’s kingly countermatch
Mark Antony, Roman general and Cleopatra’s lover, defeated by Octavius (later Augustus)
Caesar at the battle of Actium in 31 B.C.
Candy … canes
Candia, or the island of Crete, was where Europeans purchased sugar cane grown in
Crete and Cyprus. These canes were the basis of English sweets, prepared with nuts, peppermint, and berries and
served as digestives. Compare with Barabas’ description of his wealth in Marlowe’s
The Jew of Malta:
Mine argosies from Alexandria / Loaden with spice and silks, now under sail, / Are smoothly gliding down by Candy shore / To Malta, by Mediterranean sea(Marlowe B2r).
Persia
Not a strict geographical term in this context, but an evocation of the Ottoman Empire,
which in the sixteenth century extended eastward to the Caspian Sea (hence the reference
to the Volga river later in the line).
Volga
Europe’s longest river, reaching from central Russia to the Caspian Sea; a key route
for traffic and trade between early modern Europe and the Middle East.
canoes
Early boats without keels, propelled by paddles (OED canoe, n. 1).
Canoe was a new word in Greene’s day, having entered the language after the Spanish encounter
with aboriginal peoples of the West Indies.
myrobalans
Plum-like fruits.
Q1’s mirabiles may be a printer’s error. Compare with Greene’s A Notable Discovery of Cozenage (1591):
I have eaten Spanish myrobalans, and yet am nothing the more metamorphosed(Greene A2v).
Conserves and suckets
Candied fruit and nuts.
Tiberias
A town in Galilee.
the lamp … gluttony
The allusion is obscure. Seltzer agrees with Ward in reading lamp to mean
lamprey eel,an item on the menu of decadent Romans; Lavin interprets it as a metaphoric torch giving fire to Roman gluttony.
board
A wooden table, or the meal served on it (OED board, n. 6.a-7.a).
Scene 9
Whose table spread
Whose well-provided feast table.
jacks
Black-jacks, leather-bound drinking vessels (OED Jack, n.2 22).
moon
Laxfield
Suffolk village a short distance southeast of Fressingfield.
jointer
One who holds a jointure (OED jointer, n.1 cites Greene’s obsolete usage).
Lambert vows to give Margaret joint possession of his estate and the legal authority
to maintain it should she be widowed (OED jointure, n. 4a-b).
give her … wife
Give her to me as my wife.
five hundred marks
A mark was valued at 13 shillings, 4 pence (or 2/3 of #1), a considerable sum in Greene’s
time.
holds
Land holdings, tenancies.
By copy
By copyhold, a feudal arrangement in which a tenant is granted a copy of the deed
to a parcel of land, with tenure dependent upon the will of the manor’s lord (OED copyhold, n. 1.a).
lies in me
Is part of my estate.
my due
The rents owed to me.
enfeoff
Transmit legal possession of property to a person forever (OED enfeoff, v. 1.a).
So
On the condition that.
squire
Esquire, a feudal social rank describing a man of gentle birth who aspires to knighthood;
increasingly used in the early modern period to refer to land-holding country gentlemen.
doubtful
Challenging, difficult.
And that … you
And that my daughter would be so fortunate to marry into a social rank below you (let
alone to marry a man of your standing).
sith
Since.
stoop … keeper’s fee
Profess interest in an estate beneath their social standing.
The term fee refers to an estate given by a feudal lord in return for homage and service. The
Keeper’s use of the verb stoop (to bow down or descend) has a double meaning (OED stoop, v.1 1.1.a): (a) as lords pleading to marry a vassal’s daughter, Lambert and Serlsby are deferentially
stooping to a social inferior; (b) stoop was also a falconer’s term, describing the rapid descent of a hawk, suggesting an
unpleasant metaphor that figures Margaret as a lure in her father’s effort to master
two birds of prey (OED stoop, v.1 1.6.a).
Exit the Keeper
The next line by Lambert is presumably addressed to the Keeper as he makes this exit.
before … be out
When a man’s wife died, it was Elizabethan custom to wear mourning clothes and desist
from marrying again for a year. Margaret’s powerful effect on Serlsby would be visually
reinforced if he is still dressed in widower’s attire.
Helen
trick … with poesies
Decorate my speech with poetic language.
seven hundred pounds
A very considerable income.
stay
Support, buttress (OED stay, n.2 1.a).
clime
Region.
gree
Degree, social standing.
hath little stay
Is unstable, and by extension unpredictable; a stay is anything that steadies, supports, or holds another thing in place (OED stay, n.2 1.a).
maid’s reply
doubtful
Hesitant, uncertain (OED doubtful, adj. 1.a).
meads
Meadowlands.
stapled
Stocked or readied for sale; typically said of sheep (an adjective modifying fleeces; see OED stapled, adj.1 1.a).
Lempster
Leominster in Herefordshire, known for its production of wool.
strutting
Swelling or bulging with fullness (OED strutting, adj. 1.a).
paggle
Bulge, swell like a bag, hang loosely (OED paggle, v.).
Ceres’s
Belonging to the Roman goddess of agriculture (Demeter in Greek mythology), referring
in particular to her
golden sheavesof wheat.
The mother of Persephone/Proserpina (who was kidnapped, raped, and married to Hades
in the underworld), Ceres/Demeter is among the goddesses depicted in representations
of the triple Hecate.
Lawns
Fine white linens.
networks
Interlaced threads of silk or metal used in decorative head attire.
habiliments
Clothing and accoutrements (OED habiliment, n. 1).
first assault
myself affectionates
I feel affection.
brook … country braves
Tolerate your crude and parochial boasting (OED brook, v.1 3.a; OED brave, n.).
At dint
By means of.
haps
Occasions, occurrences.
bale
The pain and misery of hell, conventionally contrasted with bliss, the pleasure of heaven.
froward
Perverse, ungovernable (OED froward, adj. A.1).
hue
Form, shape, appearance.
set … face afire
Likening Margaret to Helen of Troy, Greene makes explicit an analogy hinted at throughout
the play. The competing desires of men in the lives of both of these women threaten
to release destructive violence. If, as some conjecture, Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay was staged after Doctor Faustus, then this line could have recalled for audiences Marlowe’s famous question:
Was this the face that launched a thousand ships? / And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?(Marlowe E4v).
ready
Close by.
once beloved … lord
In her excitement to receive news from Lacy, Margaret appears at first not to register
the messenger’s pity.
When … heavens
When there is no brighter beauty in the heavens than this woman.
just … hundred pounds
Precisely this amount.
The scrolls … me
A challenging and ironic passage: Margaret’s statement refers to the myth of Princess
Danae of Argos. The Oracle of Delphi told Danae’s father, King Acrisius, that his
daughter’s future son would destroy him. Seeking to escape this fate, he had Danae
imprisoned in a brazen cell. But Zeus came to desire Danae and after visiting her
sexually in the form of golden rain, the child of their union, Perseus, fulfilled
the Oracle’s prophecy by overthrowing Acrisius. Greene’s
scrolls that Jove sent Danae(Sc9 Sp22) does not reflect a misunderstanding of the myth of the shower of gold but rather a nuanced comprehension of the way oracular wisdom was transmitted in sealed epistles. Thus, in Greene’s prose romance Pandosto (1588), a priest of Apollo instructs questioners to take up
a scroll of parchmentfrom behind an altar upon which a divine revelation is written
in letters of gold(Greene C2r). Margaret’s reference to
the scrollsis therefore a metonym for the larger oracular prophecy which foresaw Danae’s liberation from a condition of imprisonment, and the phrase that follows,
Wrapped in rich closures of fine burnished gold(Sc9 Sp22), refers to the golden letters that contain this divine foreknowledge. Greene’s dramatic irony lies in the way Margaret excitedly imagines the letter carrier to be a priest of Apollo bringing her a prophecy of freedom and sexual union with a deity (i.e. Lacy); in fact, the information imparted by the scroll/letter will be heart-breaking, and the divine shower of gold merely a bag of money, crudely intended to test her affection.
The letter
Lacy’s letter adopts the fashionably ornate style known as Euphuism, which Greene
had mastered writing his prose romances in the 1580s.
hemerae
Or ephemerae, insects with a lifespan of a single day (OED ephemera, n.2 1).
Fancy
Amorous inclination or desire (OED fancy, n. 8.b).
wink
Short sleep (OED wink, n.1 1.a).
timely
Early flowering or ripening (OED timely, adj. 1.b).
mean dainties
Momentary and (adding insult to injury) socially inferior pleasures (OED mean, adj.1 3.a; OED dainty, n. 5.a).
fancy … queasy
The erotic imagination is unsettled and capricious.
In that
Insofar as.
avail
Benefit.
Not thine … own
He who is no longer engaged to you, and who no longer knows himself.
The conclusion of Lacy’s letter allows the audience to appreciate the inner conflict
created by his loyalty to Edward and his genuine affection for Margaret. If the wording
betrays genuine guilt at abandoning his love, it does little to ease Margaret’s shock
and suffering.
Fond Ate … locks
Ate was an ancient deity of delusion, infatuation, and blind folly who urged both
gods and human beings to make rash and ruinous decisions—hence Margaret’s epithet
fond,which means
foolish.According to the Hesiod, Até was the daughter of Eris, the goddess of strife whose apple of discord set in motion the Judgment of Paris and the rape of Helen (see the notes to Sc7 Sp5 and Sc8 Sp17). The allusion thus extends the play’s intricate web of references to Helen and the disastrous Trojan War. In the Oresteia, Aeschylus associates Até with the vengeful Erinyes, the Furies (hence Margaret’s reference to her
snaky locks), referring us again to the play’s central motif ofthe triple-bodied Hecate, held to redress harms done to women by thoughtless men (see notes at Sc1 Sp20, Sc2 Sp54, and Sc10 Sp5).
lightened mischief
Emitted evil like lightning.
The word mischief carried the strong connotation of harmfulness and misfortune in Early Modern English
(OED mischief, n. 1.1.a).
froward influence
Perverse effects (in an astrological sense).
The wealth … lord
shelves
Rocky shores.
sigh
Sob, gasping tears.
Take thou … dower
Action is here implied: Margaret returns the bag of gold to the messenger, resolved
to accept no gift of money for a dowry because she intends never to marry.
The world … love
shorn a nun
The novitiate’s act of cutting her hair symbolized the renunciation of her worldly,
gendered self and dedication to her holy order. The shorn hair that broadcast chaste
religious piety differentiated nuns from virgins who wore their hair loosely, and
from married women whose hair was conventionally bound.
passions
Martyr-like suffering (OED passions, n. 1.2.a).
Say that … hers!
In a seemingly selfless utterance, Margaret claims to be content that Lacy’s premarital
desires (
fancies) for her have ended, and that she wishes him no ill will. But speaking of herself in the third person has the effect of distancing her from the sentiment. Is she trying to persuade herself to believe these words? Does she intend for the exiting messenger to report her troubled emotions to Lacy?
Scene 10
mightymagic but, rather than meeting the heroic expectations raised in Scene 2, this climactic scene presents an opportunity for virtuoso clowning. Alon Nashman’s performance of this scene is an excellent example of the clowns’ ability to construct a sequence of comic action that is absurd but at the same time logical. Nashman developed the physical routine through close attention to the textual evidence and a creative exploration of his props and the stage environment. He worked alone, feeling his way through the text and the physical logic of the action he was creating. The result was an extended scene, the longest in the play, which for me was a virtuoso example of contemporary clowning but reminded others of complaints of clowns speaking more than was set down for them. The speaking head is the culmination of Bacon’s
seven years task(Sc10 Sp5), but it comically misfires thanks to the sleeping clown. At the end of the scene Jason Gray (Bacon) is left with the task once again of shifting the treatment of the magic back into a stately, tragic tone, completing the dual affect of the magic in the SQM production.
curtains
If Greene was writing with a purpose-built playhouse such as the Rose in mind, he
may have anticipated the availability of a traverse and curtains (or perhaps a bed)
for use in a discovery scene (see also Sc10 Sp5). Touring demanded that the Queen’s Men also use whatever entrance-ways were available
to them in provincial venues, some of which would be covered by tapestries to prevent
drafts.
tavernsetting where the study set piece was hidden at the back of the stage, it was not necessary to push the desk forward and the curtains could simply be drawn as per the stage direction and was immediately visible. In our
university settingthe study had to be pushed on from behind a curtain to make it more visible but sightlines were still not ideal.
white stick
conjurer’s magical staff or wand.
This is the sole reference to this magical property, though Bacon probably carries
it for the duration of the play. The Famous History of Friar Bacon mentions it during the contest with Vandermast:
As Hercules was going to pluck the fruit, Friar Bacon held up his wand, at which Hercules stayed and seemed fearful(The Famous History of Friar Bacon D2v).
brazen head
Magical head of brass.
Animated heads possessing secret knowledge were a prominent motif in medieval and
early modern romances such as Valentine and Orson, in which a necromancer forges a brass head that reveals the royal lineage of twin
princes separated at birth. The Queen’s Men acted a lost play dramatizing that story,
likely employing the stage property audiences saw in Friar Bacon. Greene’s Alphonsus, King of Aragon and Peele’s The Old Wives’ Tale also feature talking heads and probably utilized the same prop. For further discussion,
see the Textual Introduction.
Alon Nashman (Miles) used weapons already available from the other SQM productions—his wooden
dagger and one of the halberds to serve as the
brown bill(Sc10 Sp6) that is necessary for one of the gags. He also added a string of garlic around his neck to defend himself from Bacon’s devils.
craves no furniture
Requires no weapons for protection.
rent
Have been torn.
three-formed Luna
concave continent
Lunar sphere (see also Sc8 Sp13).
framed out
Constructed, fabricated.
girt
Surround, girdle.
Argus
The hundred-eyed creature tasked by Hera with guarding Io following her transformation
into a heifer.
Phobeter
God of nightmares, an aspect of Morpheus, the god of sleep and dreams.
weal
Wealth, well-being, happiness (OED weal, n.1 in its various senses).
upon thy life
As though your life was at stake.
’tis my task
The sequence of comic business Alon Nashman developed for Miles was structured around a central conflict: Miles has been given
the
taskof watching the brazen head, but he is tired. His body’s desire to sleep works against his wish to fulfil his master’s instructions. The core physical business he created shares that structure and here at the outset of the sequence Nashman cleverly established the premise before it began, pausing after saying
no moreto watch the brazen head, and then nodding a couple of times to establish that he was in danger of falling asleep. Nashman had a highly trained awareness of how clown comedy depends on common, causal structures of action.
nos autem … populare
A contorted parody of the language of Vespers: Nos autem gloriari oportet in cruce Domini nostril Jesu Christi (We should glorify in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ). Similar wordplay appears
in Greene and Lodge’s A Looking Glass for London and England (see note at Sc5 Sp19). Miles’ pun on the Latin nos suggests that the stage property of the brazen head had a grotesque proboscis-like
nose. The comic use of popelare (Latin for democracy) implies that it equals the size of all the noses in the parish.
by a post
Perhaps one of the fixed columns supporting the cantilevered roof over a London stage;
on tour this post might be any column found in a room, like the one supporting a minstrel’s
gallery in a great hall.
memento
Miles begins to say memento mori before falling asleep. The brazen head presumably bears a resemblance to the skulls
that adorned the studies of scholars, serving to remind the pious of mortality and
the afterlife. Compare with Falstaff’s comical description of Bardolph’s nose in 1 Henry IV:
I make as good use of it as many a man doth of a death’s head, or a memento mori. I never see thy face but I think upon hell-fire, and Dives that liued in purple—for there he is in his robes, burning, burning(1H4 3.3.22–25).
He falls … head
Miles falls asleep and his head knocks against a table or post, waking him. For further
discussion of this stage direction, which is uniquely positioned in the margin of
Q1 (G2v), see the Textual Introduction.
The stage direction in the quarto,
Sit down and knock your head,reads like an instruction to an actor rather than information for a reader. Alon Nashman (Miles) took it as a cue to develop more business but adapted the idea to his performing circumstances and expanded creatively on the basic idea. Having no chair to hand, he leant against against the tiring house frame and slowly mimed falling asleep. Once asleep he pulled the tiring house curtain over himself like a bedcover and started sucking his thumb. Only after this extended sequence did he knock his head and wake up.
brown bill
Halberd, a watchman’s weapon combining aspects of a spear and a battle-axe.
The head speaks.
There was a tradition of emitting voices and sounds mechanically from such contrivances.
According to the Elizabethan writer William Bourne:
As touching the making of any strange works that the world hath marveled at, as the brazen head that did seem for to speak […] the voice that they did hear may go with bellows in some trunk or trunks of brass or other metal with stops to alter the sound, may be made to seem to speak some words according unto the fancy of the inventor, so that the simple people will marvel at it […] thinking that it is done by enchantment, and yet is done by no other means but by good arts and lawful(Bourne 98–99).
capital
Prominent (OED capital, adj. 2.6.d).
as the … breast
The nightingale singing with its breast against a thorn was proverbial and a conventional
image of poetic creation. The
slow-worm(or blindworm) is a small-eyed, serpentine reptile that Greene associates with poor vision. Compare with Menaphon (1589):
Thine eyes are like the slow-worm’s in the night(Greene K3v).
prickhe is setting against his breast is the point of his
brown bill(Sc10 Sp6) or haldberd. Nashman once more expanded on the basic idea. As he fell asleep his halberd which was supposed to wake him became a lover that he was fantasizing about in his sleep. He added a bit of dialogue in his sleep mumbling
Bouncing Bess. Jolly buttocks,a name he took from Scene 4 of Famous Victories and the character of Derrick, his role in that play—a good example of the kind of interplay that was created by the company for those who saw all the plays in their repertoire. Nashman then slowly slides down the halberd until he drops to the floor and wakes up. The sequence is absurdly far-fetched but follows the perverse logic of clowning which makes it funny rather than nonsensical.
lie
Lie in bed.
peripatetian
A corruption of Peripatetic, the epithet given to followers of Aristotle known to
promenade under the
peripatoi,or colonnades, of the Lyceum in Athens.
Here … a hammer
The SQM company attmpted to give this moment an awe-inspiring grandeur but in performance
it always got a laugh. The performance of magic in the play remained comically ambiguous in spite of our efforts to make it impressive.
Time is past.
The head’s utterance expresses the ancient dictum that because time is fleeting one
must seize opportunities before they forever disappear. Medieval and early modern
moralists regarded this basic philosophical insight as a warning against sin and impetus
to repent. In the context of Greene’s play, the words apply both to the morally regenerate
paths that Edward and Bacon choose and to the secular romantic concerns of Margaret
and Lacy. As early modern plays often acknowledge, the human impulse to grasp the
moment (carpe diem) could be as forceful as any moralistic urge.
The latter day
The day of Judgment (Revelations 20:11–12).
passing warily
With exceeding care.
Fabius Cumentator
A corruption of Quintus Fabius Maximus, also known as
Cunctator(the Delayer), a Roman general and dictator whose military strategies famously confounded his enemies.
choler
Anger.
would not … will
Failed to call me when the chance came to hear the head speak.
Astaroth
A demonic spirit (see longer note at Sc8 Sp40).
Demogorgon
An occult deity or spirit invoked by magical rites and associated with chaos and hell.
Demogorgon is a linguistic corruption of the Greek demiourgos (or artisan), originally said by Neoplatonists to have fashioned the universe and
its destiny. In Greene’s Orlando Furioso, the villainous Sacripant describes Demogorgon as
ruler of the fatesand the force that sets a
baleful periodon human life (Greene G4r).
braves
Boasts.
conceit
Favorable estimation (OED conceit, n. 2.5.a).
sorteth to
Arrives at, concludes with.
fatal
Destined, doomed (OED fatal, adj. 1).
avoid
Begone.
I am … you
I counter, reply.
want
Fail to achieve.
quick
Rapidly, but with the sense also of being alive and sensitive to pain (OED quick, adj. A.1.3).
his head
Great and admired intellect.
Scene 11
Helen … fair Daphne
Rather disconcertingly, Edward continues to allude to myths of raped women as he praises
Eleanor’s beauty.
counterfeit
A miniature portrait sent as a token of affection (see note at Sc4 Sp3).
he’ll so … lamb
His magic will cause them to live together disharmoniously like separate species (a
sly and ambiguous jest).
lady
Consort of the future king, your master.
so
So long as.
scold with
Quarrel with, verbally abuse.
when egg-pies … bagpiper
I.e., that is something that will never happen.
earnest … secret talk
The actors playing Castile and Lacy have begun to pantomime a private conversation.
Mars’s paramour
Venus.
Vesta’s
Roman goddess of virginity and domesticity.
querry
Equerry, the body of officers responsible for maintaining the royal stables (OED equerry, n. 1).
coursers
Large powerful race-horses, usually stallions.
for
Because.
One day … her.
You shall both be married on the same day.
coy
Proudly disdainful (OED coy, adj. 3).
Gramercy
Many thanks.
I do … love
I admire Lacy, who is almost as deeply in love with Margaret as I am in love with
you.
out … all ho
Immoderately, without restraint.
secretary
One entrusted with private matters, a confidant (OED secretary, n.1 A.1.a).
fly
Hunt with hawks (OED fly, v.1 3.a).
Scene 12
prospective glassfrom Scene 4 but this time the attitude towards the magic changes. Having celebrated the English magician’s ability to trounce the German scholar Vandermast, the play now has Bacon reject his power and dedicate himself to a profoundly more Protestant life of personal prayer. Jason Gray’s somber interpretation of Friar Bacon worked extremely well in these final stages. The audience found the extremely sudden deaths of characters so recently introduced inescapable funny—a
strange stratagemindeed (Sc12 Sp33)—but Gray was still able to turn the mood to a more profound reflection on his use of magic.
To sit … cell
Q1’s compositor has set this line twice on opposing pages (G4v-H1r).
As if … today?
As if entirely distracted from the world?
bruited
Loudly proclaimed or reported (OED bruit, v. 1–2).
acting
Performing.
uncouth
Unfamiliar, marvelous (OED uncouth, adj. 3.a).
’tide
Betide, happen to.
lusty
Cheerful, jocund (OED lusty, adj. 1.a).
Crackfield
Cratfield, a farming village about two miles northeast of Laxfield and four miles
southeast of Fressingfield.
Whatso
Whatever.
tragedy
For the second time in the play the view through the magical glass is described in
terms of theatrical spectacle (see also Sc5 Sp69). For further discussion, see the General Introduction.
rapiers and daggers
Weapons customarily wielded by Elizabethan duelists.
prize
Risk.
brook
Endure, tolerate (OED brook, v.1 3.a).
single thee … field
Draw you out like a hunted animal separated from its pack (i.e., face you man to man).
scold it out
Wrangle verbally like a combative woman.
Serlsby resorts to the verb
scoldto needle Lambert. The term refers to the invective of an ungovernable Elizabethan woman (see also Rafe’s use of the word at Sc11 Sp12).
think
Remember that.
Broadgates Hall
University lodging built for law students and so-named for its wide entrance gates;
part of Pembroke College since 1624.
buckle
Grapple at close quarters (OED buckle, v. 3.b).
lusty younkers
Eager young gentlemen (OED younker, n.1).
harm
Is harmed.
veny
Bout or turn in fencing (OED veny, n.2 1.a).
They fight
ward
Parry or fend off; a protective maneuver in fencing (OED ward, v.1 6.a).
ward that
En garde.
stratagem
Deed of blood or violence (OED stratagem, n. 3).
See, friar
Bacon … massacre
Bacon addresses the remainder of this speech to himself as he comes to recognize the
ramifications of his actions.
brave lusty brutes
Eager and unreasonable men; brutes can also refer to worthy Britons (after the legendary founder Brut); it is possible
Greene intends a combination of the two meanings (OED brute, n.1 2.a).
fatal
Doomed, ill-fated.
cause efficiat
One of Aristotle’s four causes, the primary cause of a change.
shows
Images, illusions.
breaks the glass
threwthem off-stage. The stage was thereby cleared allowing for a smooth transition at the end of the scene.
stole and alb
Ceremonial clerical vestments, worn in this case while conjuring.
Sother … Tetragrammaton
Variations and translations of the Hebrew word for God, believed to be imbued with
occult power.
The names of Bacon and Bungay took on a similar incantatory power during the Elizabethan
era, as evidenced by the book of magic excerpted in the Supplementary Materials.
Which … afresh
An ambiguous statement: is Bacon claiming to have used his magic in a
showrecreating the spectacle of Christ’s suffering on the cross? If so, it is heresy. Or, is he saying figuratively that his many magical transgressions have made the need for God’s mercy all the more necessary to avoid damnation?
as … from sin
As free of wrongdoing as an infant.
Unlike Marlowe’s Faustus, who feels incapable of accessing the redemptive power of
Christ’s bloodas it
streams in the firmament(Marlowe F2r), Bacon has confidence in his capacity for spiritual renewal. In the New Testament, those who set aside
all maliciousness, and all guile, and all dissimulation, and envy, and all evil-speakingare likened to
newborn babeswho crave
the sincere milk of the wordso that they may
grow thereby(1 Peter 2:2). Claudius alludes to the same verse in his (less assured) repentance scene in Hamlet:
Bow stubborn knees; and heart with strings of steel / Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe(Ham 10.70–72).
Scene 13
their Friend
Q1 ascribes no identity to this character, who is conceivably Joan, Thomas, or Richard
from Harleston Fair in Scene 3.
like to … Africa
The Keeper’s elevated rhetoric expresses the intensity of his feeling. A similar conceit
appears in Greene’s Alcida:
her hair as white as the down found upon the shrubs of Arabia(Greene B2v).
measures
Tunes or melodies, or the relation of musical notes to the timed rhythm of a composition
(OED measures, n. 3.14).
The immediate musical sense of
measureschimes with the previous line’s reference to the
harmony of heaven.However, other possible meanings put ironic pressure on Margaret’s stated intention to mortify her worldly self. To keep
measurecan also mean to act moderately or with restraint (OED measures, n. 1.1.e), which, at least in the eyes of her family and friends, Margaret is failing to do by wholly renouncing her body and the world.
Measurescan also refer to standards against which other things are valued or judged (OED measures, n. 6.a): does Margaret understand the donning of
nun’s apparelto be such a measure? And, if so, is she as susceptible in this moment to the self-regarding and self-destructive pride demonstrated throughout the play by others? Interpretive complications of this sort appear to have fascinated Greene’s contemporaries, especially Shakespeare who would soon place them at the center of uncomfortable comedies such as Measure for Measure.
I loved once
scourge
Whip.
repents
Acts of repentance or self-mortification.
the pricks … death
The instigators or wounds of sinfulness that lead to spiritual death.
In Early Modern English, prick could refer to a weapon’s point (as in Miles’ usage at Sc10 Sp8). But for Greene’s scripturally literate audience it would also evoke Christ’s words
as heard by Saul/Paul on the road to Damascus:
It is hard for you to kick against the pricks(Acts 26:14). A prick, in that context, is a goad used to motivate oxen and by metaphoric extension the spurs of sin that drive fallen humanity toward unregenerate behavior. As Greene writes in The Spanish Masquerado (1589):
So shall confusion come to all that with Saul kick against the pricks(Greene C3r-C3v). The pricks of original sin and the peril of spiritual death will shortly be contrasted with the literal spurs of Lacy’s boots, which compel Margaret to choose between a life of religious self-renunciation or secular (and sexual) fulfillment.
To live … vanity
to wish all maidsdirectly to the audience as if establishing a sense of solidarity with the women present. This began his close relationship with the audience that surfaced later in the scene and bolstered DeZotti’s performance choices that emphasized Margaret’s active agency (see note at Sc13 Sp2). Right from the start of the scene, it was apparent that she wanted to be with Lacy.
Friend
The effect of this line could conceivably differ depending on whether Margaret’s unnamed
friend is female or male.
booted and spurred
The sight and sound of Lacy’s boots indicate that he has journeyed by horse to find
Margaret (compare with King Leir 5) while also emphasizing his aristocratic status. His claim to have
posted with coursers(large, powerful horses of great endurance) makes clear his urgency (Sc13 Sp13) and carries a strong erotic charge. See Greene’s Menaphon (1589):
and as the horse starteth at the spur, so love is pricked forward with distress(Greene C4v). The spurs of Lacy’s riding boots are a vivid material counterpoint to the spiritual
pricks of deathfrom Margaret’s earlier speech (Sc13 Sp2). As a visual metaphor, they underscore the choice that Margaret must make either to renounce the world and marry the church or to strive for emotional and sexual fulfillment in an imperfect patriarchal world.
holy mutton
Mutton is the flesh of a sheep, an animal
shornlike a novice entering a religious order; in disrespectful slang it meant
prostitute(OED mutton, n. 4).
Ermsby exhibits here precisely the crude tendency to denigrate women that Margaret
is rejecting by donning a nun’s habit.
Keeper
Why … a cell
Lord Lacy … Him
thy former miss
Your earlier error, or offence (OED miss, n.4).
The pronoun thy, as printed in Q1 and retained here, was reset as my by Q3’s compositor. The result is a crux: in the first reading, Margaret assigns
blame to Lacy for seemingly abandoning her; in the second, she blames herself.
fond
Foolish.
Whose … eye
Whose existence depends upon faulty impressions of the eye.
metamorphosis
Transformation.
Metamorphoses is notably the title of Ovid’s epic anthology of mythological tales of love and change.
It deeply influenced poets and playwrights of Greene’s generation and informs the
larger narrative trajectory of Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay.
coursers
Large, powerful horses of great endurance (OED courser, n.2 1.a).
On the sexual suggestiveness of Lacy’s spurred boots and nocturnal ride to Fressingfield,
see the note to 13.
kept
Celebrated.
Thy … tailor’s hands
Lacy takes granted his betrothal to Margaret on the basis of their hand-fasting (Sc5 Sp102). It was customary for a groom to meet his bride at her father’s household and present
her with bridal clothes (usually bright in color, white being atypical before the
nineteenth century).
peremptory
Decisive, admitting no debate, with the implied sense of stubborn (OED peremptory, adj. adv. A.1.1).
to try … constancy
To test your faithfulness to me.
The justification given for Lacy’s
testsounds disingenuous but was perhaps less absurd to a culture obsessed with the fidelity and chastity of women. Tests of virginity are common in early modern drama, partly owing to the frequent use of romance as source material (Loughlin).
Why then … nun?
an if
If (OED if, conj. and, n. 8b).
Yet
Still.
A good motion
A good question or proposition; well said.
The flesh … frail.
Does Margaret deliver her proverbial answer with comic eagerness? Or is there a deliberative
pause as she weighs the stakes of her decision? As so often in Greene’s plays, different
dramatic effects appear possible.
in … brown study
Distracted by serious or gloomy thoughts (OED brown study, n.).
die
Climax, both in a mortal and a sexual sense.
Warren’s remark is antifeminist in tone, implying that women cannot control their
sexual impulses. But it also underscores questions that have preoccupied Greene throughout
the play: what constitutes strength in an Elizabethan woman? How does one attain fulfillment
in a patriarchal social order? Is an exemplary but dehumanizing religious life the
appropriate course for an intelligent and vigorous young woman such as Margaret? Will
marriage to a man offer a better opportunity for a meaningful and fulfilling life?
What … for breakfast
humbles
Or umbles, the edible entrails of an animal (OED humble, n.2).
Scene 14
a devil
Stage devils were a hallmark of sixteenth-century drama but our knowledge of their
appearance is limited to shorthand stage directions calling for
devil’s attireandoccasional adjectives such as
horrid(Dessen and Thomson 68). Devil costumes owned by the Queen’s Men probably resembled those of medieval civic pageants and Tudor morality plays, fashioned out of animal skins, fur, and horns. The parodic tone of Miles’ interaction with the devil echoes that of Adam’s encounter with a fiend in Greene and Lodge’s A Looking Glass for London (Greene and Lodge G2v), suggesting Greene may have written both with a double act of Queen’s Men’s clowns in mind.
charmer
Necromancer.
nine-fold trenched Phlegeton
A river of fire in Hades, the epithet deriving from Virgil’s description of Styx in
The Aeneid.
scud and over-scour
Move briskly from place to place and seek energetically (OED scud, v.1 1.a).
gown … corner cap
Traditional academic gown and the three-cornered hat of a poor scholar.
deacon, reader … parish
Ordained minister, university lecturer, grammar school teacher, and parish record
keeper, all offices requiring the ability to read and write in Latin.
as an … oatmeal
That is, containing none at all.
Master Plutus
Or Ploutos, the ancient Greek god of wealth.
Wealth is undoubtedly a matter of concern for Miles, though he may also be misconstruing
the name Pluto, the ruler of the underworld in Greek mythology.
wont
Accustomed.
make you drink
Offer you a drink.
the statute
Tudor sumptuary law that determined the articles of clothing and kinds of fabric that
could legally be worn in accordance with one’s social rank.
To the audience
The clowns of Elizabethan acting companies often addressed audiences directly during
performances. The Queen’s Men’s most celebrated comic performer, Richard Tarlton,
was especially adept at witty interaction and improvised banter. If Greene wrote the
play prior to Tarlton’s death in September 1588, he may have conceived the role of
Miles with the actor in mind (for a discussion of the play’s date, see the Textual Introduction).
mastershowever was sure to be turned directly to the audience as indicated in the additional stage direction here.
without welt … guard
Without ornamental trimmings of gold or silver thread; comically understated since
it was customary to dress stage devils in leather skins, furs, horns, and feathers.
Greene also uses the phrase in A Quip for an Upstart Courtier:
they were a plain pair of cloth breeches, without either welt or guard(Greene B1r).
tippling houses
Alehouses.
a swingeing … chalk
A huge tab for food and drink consumed on credit.
Food and drink consumed on credit in Tudor alehouses were customarily summed up using
chalk and slate. The gargantuan (
swingeing) piece that Miles envisions implies both the extent of his poverty and his appetite.
brown toast
Stale bread for dipping in ale, customary tavern fare.
clap … waistcoat on
Put on a layer of foam.
office
Position of employment.
lets
Hinders, prevents (OED let, v.2 1.a).
stick
Hesitate.
jade
Worn-out or vicious horse.
goodman
Householder; ironically, a respectful form of address used between equals (OED goodman, n.2 1–2).
a trot … amble
An ground-covering jog or a slower-paced, walking gait.
take heed … trot
It is worth wondering why Miles wants to avoid the speedier trot. Would the jostle
threaten to spill a drink in his hand, or upset a stomach already filled with alcohol?
Or is he, on some level, uncomfortable about his descent into hell and interested
in delaying it?
What dost?
spurs(Sc14 Sp22) in preparation for mounting the devil.
false gallop
Also known as a canter, a gait faster than a trot, but not yet a full gallop.
rides … devil’s back
Damnation was one of the possible outcomes for the protagonists of moral interludes,
and being carried away against one’s will on the back of the devil became a conventional
mode of exit. This is the fate, for instance, of Worldly Man in Wager’s Enough is as Good as a Feast (1560), which directs the devil to
Bear him out up on his back(Wager G1v). Over time, the terrible spectacle of eternal punishment seems to have given way to a more burlesque aesthetic. According to Harsnett’s Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures (1603),
It was a pretty part in the old church plays, when the nimble Vice would skip up nimbly like a jack-an-apes into the devil’s neck, and ride the devil a course and belabor him with his wooden dagger till he made him roar, whereat the people would laugh to see the devil so vice-haunted […] with a pair of horns on his head, and a cow’s tail at his breech(Harsnett 114–115).
roaring.
A conventional term marking the exit of a stage devil in early modern playbooks (Dessen and Thomson 182–183). However, in Greene’s pastiche the tone feels as comic as it does terrible, with
Miles actively making noise and goading the devil forward with his spurs.
roaringwas extremely high-pitched. It sounded either like a scream of fear or a shriek of glee, and these two interpretations are a clear example of the dual affect in the SQM production and the contradictions between Nashman’s interpretation of the scene and my own. Fear makes Miles look like the victim, while glee makes him the secular victor spurring the devil off to his new job as tapster in hell. The effect can be judged by watching the video below.
Scene 15
pointless sword
Edward the Confessor’s blunted weapon, an emblem of mercy.
sword … point
An emblem of justice.
globe
The orb belonging to the monarch’s regalia, a symbol of earthly political power.
rod … on it
Emblems of equity, peace, and the holy spirit.
Princess Eleanor
Eleanor is described in Q1 as
The queeneupon entering; however that title has yet to be bestowed upon her.
humbles
Kneels.
may quite … favorites
May repay his loyal followers for their favors.
like to
Like.
They … beauty’s wealth
They would exceed in beauty Juno (Hera), Pallas (Athena), and Venus (Aphrodite), who
demanded that Paris adjudicate on Mount Ida which goddess was most attractive.
A final indirect allusion to the Trojan War: when Paris singled out Venus as the most
beautiful goddess and awarded her the golden apple, he inadvertently set in motion
the awful destruction to come. Given how overtly Queen Elizabeth is glorified in what
follows, the Queen’s Men may have taken this opportunity to gesture deferentially
to their patron as they performed before her, articulating that she is, in fact, the
fairest
thirdwho, if
added to these two,would win the contest.
And rest … yourselves
And, for her sake, consider myself eternally grateful to you.
Portends
Presages, predicts supernaturally (OED portend, v.1 1.a).
Edward … queen
Edward and Eleanor are not yet king and queen of England. Rather, King Henry is imaginatively
projecting them into the future, eager to glimpse, through Bacon’s prophesy, the English
monarchs that their union will one day produce.
I find … rose
prescience
Foreknowledge.
tempered
Brought to a state of due proportion (OED tempered, v. 5).
Bacon’s word choice suggests that he has deployed his magic modestly and in a controlled
manner, not driven purely by a proud desire for worldly fame. The prophetic statement
that follows is thus distinct from his earlier selfish acts of necromancy.
where Brut … Troynovant
Brut, the great-grandson of Aeneas, voyaged from Italy to Britain and founded London,
naming it
Troynovant,or New Troy. The principle of translatio imperii (transfer of rule) underlying this legend was critical to England’s proud self-identification with the Roman past.
Phoebus’s flower
The sunflower.
overshadow
Protect.
careless … pike
Without fear of war.
timbrels
Tambourines (OED timbrels, n.1 a)).
this matchless flower
heliotropian
Like
Phoebus’s flower(Sc15 Sp9), the sunflower.
Venus’s hyacinth
Lavin notes that while myrtle, rose, apple, and poppy were sacred to Venus, hyacinth
was not.
vail her top
Bow in subservience.
Juno … gillyflowers up
Lavin notes that gillyflowers (carnations) were not sacred to this figure.
Pallas’s bay
The laurel, sacred to Pallas Athena.
shall bash … green
Shall blush and shrink back for shame (OED bash, v.1. 2.b).
Compare with Terentia in Greene’s Ciceronis Amor:
tempering the porphyry of her face with vermilion blush, looking like Diana when she bashed at Acteaon’s presence(Greene 8).
Ceres’s carnation
Another misattributed flower, according to Lavin.
in consort
Acting in concert.
Diana’s rose
The Tudor rose of Elizabeth I, who admirers likened to Diana for her reputed wisdom
and chastity (see note at Sc1 Sp20).
This is the play’s most unconcealed moment of praise for the Queen’s Men’s nominal
patron.
mystical
Powerful in its symbolic suggestiveness, though ultimately incomprehensible (OED mystical, adj. 1a-c).
that wealthy … Euphrates
The Garden of Eden, out of which flowed the river Gihon (Genesis 2:13).
Most editors follow Dyce and emend Q1’s first Euphrates, preferring the adjective swift because a similar phrase appears in Greene’s Orlando Furioso:
From whence floweth Gihon and swift Euphrates(Greene A4r). A case may be made for retaining first, however, as it emphasizes the primal perfection of Eden to which England is being compared.
Let’s march
The tables … boards
Tables were composed of trestles topped by loose boards, which could be turned over
to refresh the table. Round thinks Bacon’s promise of a sumptuous feast was inspired
by Holinshed’s description of Henry III’s marriage to Eleanor of Provence:
At the solemnity of this feast and coronation of the queen, all the high peers of the realm, both spiritual and temporal, were present there to exercise their offices as to them appertained […] The feast was plentiful, so that nothing wanted that could be wished(Holinshed 219–220).
rests
Remains.
Only
Only that.
jouissance
Pleasure, merriment.
Thus glories … west
Omne … dulci
He wins universal praise who mixes what is useful with what is pleasurable.
Greene’s motto is drawn from Horace’s Ars Poetica (Horace l.343) and appears also (in full or in part) in his Arbasto (1584), Penelopes Web (1587), Pandosto (1588), Ciceronis Amor (1589), Menaphon (1589), Never Too Late (1590), James IV (1598), and Orpharion (1599). In Perimedes (1588), he identifies it as his
old poesy(Horace A3r).
Collations
Prince Edward
thee
nigromaticke
Cote
following
doctissime
hydromancy
hydromatic
Hadromaticke
Mother Waters’
Mother Water’s
mother waters
necromancy
two
Enter Margaret and Joan, with Thomas, Richard, and other clowns following, and Lacy disguised in country apparel.
Enter Margaret the faire mayd of Fresingfield, with Thomas and Ione, and other clownes:
Lacie disguised in countrie apparell.
Enter MARGARET the fair maid of Fressingfield, with THOMAS [RICHARD] and JOAN, and
other clowns: LACY disguised in country apparel.
Enter MARGARET and JOAN; THOMAS, RICHARD, and other Clowns; and LACY disguised in
country apparel.
To the devil
cheese safely upon
cheese safely vpon
cheese vpon
dung-cart
King Henry the Third of England
Henry the third
of Germany
and other lords and attendants
lofty surge is
loftie surges
lofty surges
set to
fit to
sit to
sit at
Exeunt.
disguised as Rafe
Posing as Prince Edward
As Rafe
To the others
To Miles
No, sir? Yes; what is this else?
No sir, yes what is this els;
No sir, what is this else,
No sir? yes, what is this else?
heard
To Miles
Pointing to Rafe
Bacon charms them by magic, so that they are powerless to draw their swords.
To the audience
Aside
To Edward
Exeunt all except Bacon and Edward.
Exeunt.
visible through the glass, though Edward cannot hear them
Helen’s scape
Hellens cape
Hellins cape
Helen’s cape
Helen’s rape
To Bacon
disguised as before
They stand aside and watch Lacy.
[Retires with Margaret.]
exception
Stepping forward
Margaret
feign
They kiss.
Edward threatens to stab the prospective glass.
Bacon puts a spell on Bungay.
Bungay
Enter a devil who carries Bungay away on his back.
Enter a deuill, and carrie Bungay on his backe.
Enter a devil who carries off Bungay on his back.
Enter a devil, and carry [off] Bungay on his back.
Margaret and Lacy
Saxon
A cry of voices.
all three disguised as before
Pointing to Rafe
To Rafe
Wales
Sussex
pointing to Rafe
thy
passions
Are
their
tiréd
tied
tyed
try
webs
Came
Nor
Ablata
Kneeling
Kneeling
conquest
Aside
To part such friends as glory in their loves?
To part such friends as glorie in their loues,
not to be
and other lords and attendants
King Henry and the nobles sit.
hung
vile
Hercules ceases.
Utrecht
spring
To King Henry
the
Aside
know
Nearly dropping the dishes
with a
thee
Exeunt.
landlord
landslord
Lands-lord
enfeoff fair Margaret
infeofe faire Margret
fatt’neth
hemerae
Hæmere
Hæmeræ
Hæmera
He falls asleep and knocks his head
Sit down and knocke your head.
He leans against the spear-point of a halberd.
He sleeps again and falls down.
Exit Miles.
Exit.
To Edward
prince
To King Henry
The King of Castile and Lacy stand apart and speak privately.
For ere
To sit as melancholy in his cell
To sit as melancholie in his cell
The line is mistakenly printed twice in Q1 (Sp462) and corrected in Q2–3.
of
whatsoe’er
what so ere
whatsoere
Opening the door.
desire
Enter two Scholars, sons to Lambert and Serlsby.
friendly fathers live
friendly father liues
as in the magic glass
a bout
They fight.
The two Scholars stab one another
Lambert and Serslby’s dialogue exchange continues for a line after the printing of
this stage direction in Q1. The phrase has thus been repositioned to maintain a logical
sequence of action.
the fatal lives
the fatall liues
the fatall lives
Exeunt Bacon and Bungay with the bodies.
Exit.
Exeunt.
Ah
Love, oh love
Loue, oh Loue
Love, oh Love
an if
Whate’er
What so ere
Whatsoere
Whatsoe’er
Removing her nun’s apparel.
haunt
To the audience
To the devil.
He puts on spurs.
Princess Eleanor
The queene
the Queene
Princess Elinor
Margaret … Fressingfield and countess of Lincoln
the faire maide of Frisingfield
the faire maide of Fresingfield
the fair maide of Fresingfield
the fair maid of Fresingfield
Kneeling
He rises.
Kneeling
She rises.
beautify
make
first
Characters
Edward Lacy, earl of Lincoln
A pseudo-historical character evidently inspired by Edmund de Lacy (d. 1258), youthful
heir to the extensive estate of courtier John de Lacy, third earl of Lincoln (d. 1240).
John Warren, earl of Sussex
John de Warenne, sixth earl of Surrey and Sussex (1231–1304), who during the course
of a long political career sustained the trust of both Henry III and Edward I.
Will Ermsby, gentleman and courtier
Another pseudo-historical figure, inspired by Sir William Ormesby (d. 1387), a justice
of the king’s bench in the reign of Edward I and England’s chief minister of Scotland
at the time of William Wallace’s rebellion in 1296–1297.
Rafe Simnell, the court fool
This fictitious jester’s surname evokes that of the notorious pretender Lambert Simnell,
a simple Oxford youth conscripted by Yorkist loyalists into impersonating the royal
claimant Edward, earl of Warwick and spear-heading an insurrection against the newly
crowned Henry VII in 1487. Rafe’s license as a court fool permits him to imitate royal
authority in a more benignly comic echo of his historical namesake.
Prince Edward, son of King Henry
Heir of the royal house of Plantagenet, born in 1239; Q1 introduces him as
Edward the first,though he would not be crowned until 1274, following his father’s death in 1272. He reigned thereafter until his own death in 1307.
Friar Bacon, a necromancer and master of Brasenose College, Oxford
Roger Bacon (c. 1214–1292), a Franciscan friar and Oxford master of theology, known
for his studies of Aristotle, mathematics, linguistics, alchemy, astrology, and natural
philosophy (notably the science of optics). Greene’s stage character more closely
resembles the fanciful magician forged by popular legends in the wake of the historical
Bacon’s life, especially as portrayed in the anonymously authored prose work The Famous Historie of Fryer Bacon (see the notes at 2, Sc5 Sp52, 10, and the Supplementary Materials included in this edition).
Miles, his poor scholar
Adapted directly from the contemporary prose work The Famous Historie of Fryer Bacon, the character perhaps appealed to Greene personally, given the author’s sometimes
cynical attitude towards the impoverishment of Elizabethan scholars. The word miles means “servant” in Irish, which offers a potential clue about the dialect in which
the part was originally performed. Miles’s name also means “soldier” in Latin, and
his comic bravado links him genetically to the theatrical archetype of the miles gloriosus, or braggart soldier.
Hostess of the Bell at Henley
Margaret, a dairy maid of Fressingfield
King Henry the Third of England
First monarch of the Plantagenet dynasty, born in 1207; he reigned as King of England,
Lord of Ireland, and Duke of Aquitaine for a period of fifty-six years, from 1216
until his death in 1272.
King of Castile
Like Emperor Frederick II, Ferdinand III of Castile and Leon (1201–1252) died before
the historical events dramatized in the play actually took place. His son and successor,
Alfonso X (1221–1284), in fact presided over the diplomatic marriage between Prince
Edward and Eleanor of Castile.
Eleanor, daughter of the King of Castile
Born in 1241, Eleanor of Castile was King Ferdinand III’s only daughter by his second
wife Joan, countess of Ponthieu. She arrived in England in 1255 as Prince Edward’s
consort and, after accompanying him on a short-lived crusade, she was crowned Queen
of England in 1274. She bore Edward sixteen children, including the future Edward
II.
Duke of Saxony
A non-speaking character whose historical identity is ambiguous; Q1 records no explicit
entrances or exits, however characters address him as both
the Scocon dukeand
Saxonie,suggesting his distinctive place amid the emperor’s continental entourage. During the time in which the play is ostensibly set, the duchy of Saxony was governed by Albert I of the house of Ascania (c. 1175–1260).
Emperor of Germany
Greene appears to have in mind Frederick II (1211–1250), emperor of Germany and Italy
and brother-in-law of King Henry III by his marriage to Henry’s sister, Isabella,
in 1235. Frederick died, however, and his Hohenstaufen dynasty’s imperial claim had
ended before the play’s major historical events took place—such as Edward and Eleanor’s
marriage negotiations in Sc4 and Sc11. Greene, working primarily within the genre of romance and not chronicle history,
was not much troubled by the inaccuracy.
Friar Bungay
A pseudo-historical figure also adapted from The Famous Historie of Fryer Bacon. Thomas de Bungeye (fl. 1270–1283) was an Oxford-educated Franciscan minister from
Suffolk and a contemporary of Bacon’s whose mathematical skill similarly earned him
a legendary reputation as a magician.
A Constable
Jaques Vandermast, a German necromancer
A fictional character adapted from The Famous Historie of Fryer Bacon. Q1 depicts him as German, however Greene gives him the additional name
Jaques,associating him with a wider community alien to England.
A Spirit in the shape of Hercules in his lion’s skin
The Keeper of Fressingfield, father of Margaret
A Post, serving Lacy
The Voice of the Brazen Head
Three devils
Lords and Attendants
Rural Folk of Fressingfield
Joan
Thomas
Richard
A Friend of Margaret and the Keeper
An unnamed character who accompanies Margaret and the Keeper onstage in Scene 13:
Q1 identifies the figure simply as
their friend.This may refer to Joan, Thomas, or Richard, if not to a distinct rural companion from Fressingfield.
Doctors of Oxford
Burden
It has been noted that Burden, Mason, and Clement are names of actual scholars who
attended Oxford at different times between the medieval period and the sixteenth century
(Ardolino). However, the three doctors’ names are perhaps better understood as having allegorical
significance of the sort common to early Tudor drama. The clearest case is Burden,
whose name is insistently spoken on stage as his sinful extracurricular activities
are exposed in Scene 2. According to Q1, the names Mason and Clement are never spoken
on stage, but they nevertheless also carry hints of conceptual design, gesturing respectively
towards a stone-cutter and a state of tolerant mildness. Taken together, they may
stand for three related stages of spiritual being, each very familiar to Greene’s
Protestant audience: the first can be characterized as the painful recognition of
innate human sinfulness, a
burdenthought to be a consequence of humanity’s fall from divine grace; the second evokes (indirectly) the flinty heart of the sinner that may only be broken and made contrite by a divine stone-worker; the third then points to the redemptive clemency that the Protestant faithful believed to be mysteriously granted by a merciful God (c.f. Ezekiel 36:26; Psalm 51).
Mason
Clement
Country Gentlemen of Suffolk
Lambert
Serlsby
Two Scholars, sons of Lambert and Serlsby
Prosopography
Adam Fraser
Adam Fraser was an actor with Shakespeare and the Queenʼs Men Project. He played
John Warrenand
2 Scholarin Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (2006) and
Second Receiverand
Oxfordin Famous Victories (2006).
Alon Nashman
Alon Nashman was an actor and musical director with Shakespeare and the Queenʼs Men
Project. He played
Keeperand
Milesin Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (2006) and
Derrickin Famous Victories (2006).
Andrew Griffin
Andrew Griffin is an associate professor in the department of English and an affiliate
professor in the department of Theater and Dance at the University of California,
Santa Barbara. He is general editor (text) of Queen’s Men Editions. He studies early
modern drama and early modern historiography while serving as the lead editor at the
EMC Imprint. He has co-edited with Helen Ostovich and Holger Schott Syme Locating the Queen’s Men (2009) and has co-edited The Making of a Broadside Ballad (2016) with Patricia Fumerton and Carl Stahmer. His monograph, Untimely Deaths in Renaissance Drama: Biography, History, Catastrophe, was published with the University of Toronto Press in 2019. He is editor of the
anonymous The Chronicle History of King Leir (Queen’s Men Editions, 2011). He can be contacted at griffin@english.ucsb.edu.
Christopher Matusiak
Christopher Matusiak (Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay) is an Associate Professor of English at Ithaca College in New York where he teaches
courses on Shakespeare and early modern drama. His research on seventeenth-century
theatre management at the Drury Lane Cockpit has appeared in Early Theatre and Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England, and in Shakespeare Quarterly on the use of John Aubrey’s manuscripts in studies of Shakespeare’s life. He is currently
writing a book (with Eva Griffith) about Christopher Beeston and the Cockpit playhouse,
and researching another on the persistence of illegal stage-playing during the English
Civil Wars, Shakespearean Actors and their Playhouses in Civil War London. He also prepared REED London: The Cockpit-Phoenix: an edited collection of seventeenth-century manuscripts and printed documents illustrating
the history of the Cockpit-Phoenix playhouse in Drury Lane (for The Records of Early English Drama). He can be contacted at cmatusiak@ithaca.edu.
Daniel Levinson
Daniel Levinson was a fight director with Shakespeare and the Queenʼs Men Project.
He worked on Famous Victories (2006).
David Kynaston
David Kynaston was an actor with Shakespeare and the Queenʼs Men Project. He played
Jaques Vandermast,
Burden,and
Serlsbyin Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (2006) and
Jockey,
Lord Chief Justice,
Constable,
Burgundyin Famous Victories (2006).
Don Allison
Don Allison was an actor with Shakespeare and the Queenʼs Men Project. He played
King Henryand
Voice of the Brazen Headin Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (2006) and
King Henryand
Charles VIin Famous Victories (2006).
Emily Winerock
Emily Winerock was a choreographer with Shakespeare and the Queenʼs Men Project. She
worked on Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (2006) and Famous Victories (2006).
Helen Ostovich
Helen Ostovich, professor emerita of English at McMaster University, is the founder
and general editor of Queen’s Men Editions. She is a general editor of The Revels Plays (Manchester University Press); Series
Editor of Studies in Performance and Early Modern Drama (Ashgate, now Routledge),
and series co-editor of Late Tudor and Stuart Drama (MIP); play-editor of several
works by Ben Jonson, in Four Comedies: Ben Jonson (1997); Every Man Out of his Humour (Revels 2001); and The Magnetic Lady (Cambridge 2012). She has also edited the Norton Shakespeare 3 The Merry Wives of Windsor Q1602 and F1623 (2015); The Late Lancashire Witches and A Jovial Crew for Richard Brome Online, revised for a 4-volume set from OUP 2021; The Ball, for the Oxford Complete Works of James Shirley (2021); The Merry Wives of Windsor for Internet Shakespeare Editions, and The Dutch Courtesan (with Erin Julian) for the Complete Works of John Marston, OUP 2022. She has published
many articles and book chapters on Jonson, Shakespeare, and others, and several book
collections, most recently Magical Transformations of the Early Modern English Stage with Lisa Hopkins (2014), and the equivalent to book website, Performance as Research in Early English Theatre Studies: The Three Ladies of London in Context containing scripts, glossary, almost fifty conference papers edited and updated to
essays; video; link to Queenʼs Mens Ediitons and YouTube: http://threeladiesoflondon.mcmaster.ca/contexts/index.htm, 2015. Recently, she was guest editor of Strangers and Aliens in London ca 1605,
Special Issue on Marston, Early Theatre 23.1 (June 2020). She can be contacted at ostovich@mcmaster.ca.
Janelle Jenstad
Janelle Jenstad is a Professor of English at the University of
Victoria, Director of The Map
of Early Modern London, and Director of Linked Early Modern Drama
Online. With Jennifer Roberts-Smith and Mark Kaethler, she
co-edited Shakespeare’s Language in Digital Media: Old
Words, New Tools (Routledge). She has edited John Stow’s
A Survey of London (1598 text) for MoEML
and is currently editing The Merchant of Venice
(with Stephen Wittek) and Heywood’s 2 If You Know Not
Me You Know Nobody for DRE. Her articles have appeared in
Digital Humanities Quarterly, Elizabethan Theatre, Early Modern
Literary Studies, Shakespeare
Bulletin, Renaissance and
Reformation, and The Journal of Medieval
and Early Modern Studies. She contributed chapters to Approaches to Teaching Othello (MLA); Teaching Early Modern Literature from the Archives
(MLA); Institutional Culture in Early Modern
England (Brill); Shakespeare, Language, and
the Stage (Arden); Performing Maternity in
Early Modern England (Ashgate); New
Directions in the Geohumanities (Routledge); Early Modern Studies and the Digital Turn (Iter);
Placing Names: Enriching and Integrating
Gazetteers (Indiana); Making Things and
Drawing Boundaries (Minnesota); Rethinking
Shakespeare Source Study: Audiences, Authors, and Digital
Technologies (Routledge); and Civic
Performance: Pageantry and Entertainments in Early Modern
London (Routledge). For more details, see janellejenstad.com.
Jason Gray
Jason Gray was an actor with Shakespeare and the Queenʼs Men Project. He played
Friar Baconin Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (2006) and
John Cobbler,
Bruges,and
Captainin Famous Victories (2006).
Joey Takeda
Joey Takeda is LEMDO’s Consulting Programmer and Designer, a role he
assumed in 2020 after three years as the Lead Developer on
LEMDO.
Julian DeZotti
Julian DeZotti was an actor with Shakespeare and the Queenʼs Men Project. He played
Margaretin Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (2006) and
Lawrence Costermonger,
Clerk,
First French Soldier,and
Katherine of Francein Famous Victories (2006).
Kate LeBere
Project Manager, 2020–2021. Assistant Project Manager, 2019–2020. Textual Remediator
and Encoder, 2019–2021. Kate LeBere completed her BA (Hons.) in History and English
at the University of Victoria in 2020. During her degree she published papers in The Corvette (2018), The Albatross (2019), and PLVS VLTRA (2020) and presented at the English Undergraduate Conference (2019), Qualicum History
Conference (2020), and the Digital Humanities Summer Institute’s Project Management
in the Humanities Conference (2021). While her primary research focus was sixteenth
and seventeenth century England, she completed her honours thesis on Soviet ballet
during the Russian Cultural Revolution. She is currently a student at the University
of British Columbia’s iSchool, working on her masters in library and information science.
Martin Holmes
Martin Holmes has worked as a developer in the
UVicʼs Humanities Computing and Media Centre for
over two decades, and has been involved with dozens
of Digital Humanities projects. He has served on
the TEI Technical Council and as Managing Editor of
the Journal of the TEI. He took over from Joey Takeda as
lead developer on LEMDO in 2020. He is a collaborator on
the SSHRC Partnership Grant led by Janelle Jenstad.
Matthew Krist
Matthew Krist was an actor with Shakespeare and the Queenʼs Men Project. He played
Rafe Simnell,
Richard,
Friar Bungay,and
Devilin Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (2006) and
Ned,
Cobblerʼs Wife,and
Drummerin Famous Victories (2006).
Navarra Houldin
Project manager 2022-present. Textual remediator 2021-present. Navarra Houldin (they/them)
completed their BA in History and Spanish at the University of Victoria in 2022. During
their degree, they worked as a teaching assistant with the University of Victoriaʼs
Department of Hispanic and Italian Studies. Their primary research was on gender and
sexuality in early modern Europe and Latin America.
Nicole Vatcher
Technical Documentation Writer, 2020-present. Nicole Vatcher completed her BA (Hons.)
in English at the University of Victoria in 2021. Her primary research focus was womenʼs
writing in the modernist period.
Paul Hopkins
Paul Hopkins was an actor with Shakespeare and the Queenʼs Men Project. He played
Prince Edwardand
Other Clownsin Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (2006) and
Prince Henryin Famous Victories (2006).
Peter Cockett
Peter Cockett is an associate professor in the Theatre and Film Studies at McMaster
University. He is the general editor (performance), and technical co-ordinating editor
of Queen’s Men Editions. He was the stage director for the Shakespeare and the Queen’s Men project (SQM),
directing King Leir, The Famous Victories of Henry V, and Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (2006) and he is the performance editor for our editions of those plays. The process
behind those productions is documented in depth on his website Performing the Queen’s Men. Also featured on this site are his PAR productions of Clyomon and Clamydes (2009) and Three Ladies of London (2014). For the PLS, the University of Toronto’s Medieval and Renaissance Players,
he has directed the Digby Mary Magdalene (2003) and the double bill of George Peele’s The Old Wives Tale and the Chester Antichrist (2004). He also directed An Experiment in Elizabethan Comedy (2005) for the SQM project and Inside Out: The Persistence of Allegory (2008) in collaboration with Alan Dessen. Peter is a professional actor and director
with numerous stage and screen credits. He can be contacted at cockett@mcmaster.ca.
Phillip Borg
Phillip Borg was an actor with Shakespeare and the Queenʼs Men Project. He played
Thomas,
Lambert,
Constable,and
Spiritin Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (2006) and
Lord Mayor,
Porter,
Captain,
Third French Soldier,
English Soldier,and
French Secretaryin Famous Victories (2006).
Robert Greene
Rylyn Christensen
Rylyn Christensen is an English major at the University of Victoria.
Scott Clarkson
Scott Clarkson was an actor with Shakespeare and the Queenʼs Men Project. He played
Edward Lacyin Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (2006) and
First Receiver,
Cutbert Cutter,
Canterbury,
Herald,and
Frenchmanin Famous Victories (2006).
Scott Matthews
Tracey El Hajj
Junior Programmer 2019–2020. Research Associate 2020–2021. Tracey received her PhD
from the Department of English at the University of Victoria in the field of Science
and Technology Studies. Her research focuses on the algorhythmics of networked communications. She was a 2019–2020 President’s Fellow in Research-Enriched
Teaching at UVic, where she taught an advanced course on
Artificial Intelligence and Everyday Life.Tracey was also a member of the Map of Early Modern London team, between 2018 and 2021. Between 2020 and 2021, she was a fellow in residence at the Praxis Studio for Comparative Media Studies, where she investigated the relationships between artificial intelligence, creativity, health, and justice. As of July 2021, Tracey has moved into the alt-ac world for a term position, while also teaching in the English Department at the University of Victoria.
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Orgography
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University of Victoria (UVIC1)
https://www.uvic.ca/Witnesses
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Tudor Period. New York:
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Robert. The Honorable
History of Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay.
English Renaissance Drama: A Norton
Anthology. Ed. David
Bevington. New York:
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2002. 134–181.
Greene, Robert. The Honorable History of Friar Bacon and
Friar Bungay. London:
Adam Islip,
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S105968.
Greene, Robert. The Honorable History of Friar Bacon and
Friar Bungay. London:
Elizabeth Allde,
1630. STC 12268. ESTC S103422.
Greene, Robert. The Honorable History of Friar Bacon and
Friar Bungay. London:
Jean Bell, 1655.
Wing G1828. ESTC R23419.
Grosart, A.B., ed.
General Index.The Life and Complete Works in Prose and Verse of Robert Greene. Vol. 15. New York: Russell & Russell, 1881–1886. 1–185.
Lavin,
J.A., ed. Friar Bacon and
Friar Bungay. By Robert
Greene. London:
Ernest Benn Ltd.,
1969.
Seltzer,
Daniel, ed. Friar Bacon
and Friar Bungay. By Robert
Greene. Lincoln:
University of Nebraska Press,
1963.
This edition, edited by Christopher Matusiak.
Ward, A.W.
Marlowe, The Tragical History of Doctor
Faustus; Greene, Honorable History of Friar Bacon
and Friar Bungay. 2nd ed.
Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1887.
Ward, A.W.
Marlowe, The Tragical History of Doctor
Faustus; Greene, Honorable History of Friar Bacon
and Friar Bungay. 4th ed.
Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1901.
Woodberry, G.E.
Greene’s Place in Comedy: A Monograph.Representative English Comedies. Ed. Charles Mills Gayley. New York: MacMillan, 1916. 385–394.
Metadata
| Authority title | Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay |
| Type of text | Primary Source Text |
| Short title | FBFB: M |
| Publisher | University of Victoria on the Linked Early Modern Drama Online Platform |
| Series | Queenʼs Men Editions |
| Source |
This modern text was prepared by Christopher Matusiak. First published in the QME 1.0 anthology on the ISE platform. Converted to TEI-XML
and remediated by the LEMDO Team for republication in the QME 2.0 anthology on the LEMDO platform
|
| Editorial declaration | Edited according to the ISE Editorial Guidelines |
| Edition | Released with Queenʼs Men Editions 2.0 |
| Sponsor(s) |
Queenʼs Men EditionsThe Queen’s Men Editions anthology is led by Helen Ostovich, General Editor; Peter
Cockett, General Editor (Performance); and Andrew Griffin, General Editor (Text).
|
| Encoding description | Encoded in TEI P5 according to the LEMDO Customization and Encoding Guidelines |
| Document status | published, peer-reviewed |
| Licence/availability | Intellectual copyright in this edition is held by the editor, Christopher Matusiak. The XML files of the semi-diplomatic transcription and the modern texts are licensed for reuse under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license, which means that they are freely downloadable without permission under the following conditions: (1) credit must be given to the editor, QME, and LEMDO in any subsequent use of the files and/or data; (2) derivatives (e.g., adapted scripts for performance) must be shared under the same CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license; and (3) commercial uses are not permitted without the knowledge and consent of QME, the editor, and LEMDO. Production photographs and videos on this site may not be downloaded. They appear freely on this site with the permission of the actors and the ACTRA union. They may be used within the context of university courses, within the classroom, and for reference within research contexts, including conferences, when credit is given to the producing company and to the actors. Commercial use of videos and photographs is forbidden. |