Selimus: Annotations
Prologue
Speaking Prologue characters can be found in a number of plays from the period.
See, for example, the beginning of The True Tragedy of Richard III and David and Bethsabe.
No … reward.
These fourteen lines constitute a sonnet rhymed ababbcbcdedeff, like the prologue
in Romeo and Juliet.
No … view
Compare with the prologue in The Three Ladies of London and in 1 Tamburlaine:
From iygging vaines of riming mother wits, / And such conceits as clownage keepes in pay, / Weele lead you to the stately tent of War(A3r).
toy
a foolish idle tale (OED n.3)
forgèd
fabricated, made up (OED adj.3)
last age
the early sixteenth century
character
imprint, reproduce
implacable
not appeasable
obstant lets
opposing barriers
Bajazeth
Bajazethrefers to the historical Bayezid II, Ottoman Emperor ruling from 1481 to 1512. He was the eldest son of Mehmed II.
The form here of
Bajazeth,as opposed to
Bajazetin other modern editions, is taken from Marlowe’s Tamburlaine plays, first published by Richard Jones in 1590.
Janissaries
The first standing army in Europe, the Janissaries were elite infantry troops conscripted
to serve the household of the Ottoman Emperor. Established in the mid 14th century,
they were a formidable force, often wielding significant political power.
Exeunt all but Bajazeth
As McMillin and MacLean point out, the exit of such a large group immediately after
its entrance underscores the symbolic importance of this procession.
So … are.
These lines are organized into a sestain stanza rhyming ababcc.
So … breast
Compare to Shute where Bajazeth’s ruminations are mainly sparked by premonitions of
his own mortality (N1v).
unrip
open, unseal
descry
describe
regiment
rule or governance (OED adj.1)
Why … evermore.
These lines are the first instance in the play of ottava rima (abababacc), a verse
stanza form associated in England with the epic poetry of Boccaccio, Ariosto, and
Tasso.
The rest of Bajazeth’s speech (Sc1 Sp2) along with much of the rest of the scene is divided into this heightened language.
scruple
doubt, hesitation
make extent
make an assessment (as property)
northern bears
the northern constellations of Ursa Major and Ursa Minor
mantle
loose sleeveless cloak (OED n.)
cark
burden of responsibility (OED n.)
bark
small sailing vessel
He knows … thing.
In 1600, the booksellers Nicholas Ling, Cuthbert Burby, and Thomas Hayes published
an octavo edition of Robert Allott’s England’s Parnassus, an extensive collection of quotations from the drama and poetry of the time. This
and five other passages are taken from Selimus; each is ascribed to Robert Greene.
Compare with the version of these lines in England’s Parnassus:
He knowes not what it is to be a King, / That thinkes a Scepter is a pleasant thing(L7r).
Latona’s son
Apollo, son of Jupiter (Zeus) and god of the sun. His mother, Latona, is goddess of
the moon.
Bajazeth has been Ottoman Emperor for thirty years.
Compare with 1 Tamburlaine:
Or as Latonas daughter bent to armes, / Adding more courage to my conquering mind(F2r).
Twice fifteen … Since I began
It has been 30 years since I became emperor.
It is 1511. Bayezid II became Ottoman emperor in May 1481.
Cynthia
Greek personifying name for the moon goddess
adamant
incredibly hard rock
The Persian Sophy, mighty Ismael
A title for the supreme ruler of Persia.
The next seven lines closely follow Ashton F7v-8v.
Mighty Ismaelrefers to the Persian Emperor Ismael Safi, ruler of what was a new, eponymous Safavid state, who rose to power at the end of the fifteenth century as a teenager and ruled until 1524.
Ismael was an active supporter of the minority Shia branch of Islam in opposition
to the Ottoman’s Sunni branch. Historically, Bayezid II had sympathy with Ismael’s
more mystical brand of Islam, even while Selim waged constant battles with Ismael
from his adjoining province of Trabzon (i.e. Trebisond). According to Çipa, these
campaigns made Selim a hero among the common people and soldiers alike (Çipa 36–37). At the same time, Ahmed (i.e. Acomat in the play) saw Selim’s actions as insubordination
in the face of his more nonconfrontational father, and he used these to gradually
turn Bayezid II against Selim.
Did take the Levant clean away from me
The Levant is a region of the Eastern Mediterranean that today together consists of
Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, and Palestine.
Bajazeth here alludes to the early-sixteenth-century rise of Ismael as leader of the
new Safavid state.
Ashton describes Ismael’s early successful military encroachments upon the Levant
beginning in a short section dedicated to Ismael (Ashton H8v-I1r).
Did take
Metrically, the addition of
Didregularizes the pentameter line.
Caraguis Bassa
Caraguis Bassa here refers to Goragnes Bassa, the Ottoman commander and governor of
Karaman, a city in south central Turkey.
It is from Ashton that the play derives Bajazeth’s description of Ismael’s defeat
and execution of Caraguis Bassa (Ashton G3r-v).
Hali Bassa
Hali Bassa here refers to the Turkish statesman and commander Hadim Ali Pasha; he
is the father of the play’s Hali Bassa.
Hadim Ali Pasha was a strong supporter of Ahmed, and he died in 1511 while leading
a force against a Shia uprising inspired by Ismael’s religious teachings.
Charactering
stamping
Ramirchan
Vitkus (144) has suggested that Ramirchan might refer to Ramazan-oghlu, a Turkoman leader.
Tatarian
(of the
Tatars) nomadic horsemen-warriors supporting Selimus (Vitkus 144)
hapless
unlucky
and there … slain
This account of the death of Bayezid II’s eldest son is neither in Ashton, Shute,
nor Whetstone. As it contains over a dozen references to Alemshae and his fate, the
play may possibly be drawing from another unknown source.
Well … grave
The Christian … peace
Bayezid II signed a peace treaty with the Hungarians in 1495, this after losing campaigns
and territory in Belgrade, Transylvania, and Croatia (Riad 95). He also suffered setbacks against Venetian forces during his sultanship.
As Dimmock has pointed out (Dimmock 171), though, Bajazeth’s lament about his losses to Christian forces is greatly overstated
here.
assays
trials
victorious father
Mehmet II (i.e.
Mehmet the Conqueror) who ruled from 1444 to 1446 and then from 1451 to 1481.
Throughout his reigns, Mehmet II led a series of successful campaigns against Christian
forces, including the defeat of Byzantium (then renamed
Istanbul) and the Byzantine Empire in 1453.
uncontrollèd
undisputed (OED adj.3).
garrisons
body of soldiers positioned for defensive purposes
die
singular form of dice
Corcut … laws
These descriptions of Corcut and Acomat closely follow Ashton G5r-v, I4v-I5r. In Shute, Ahmed is described as
a man of no trauayle nor vnderstandinge of the warres(Ashton O2v).
Historically, Korkud (i.e. Corcut in the play) was in fact an active Ottoman general
like his brothers, leading a number of military campaigns for his father.
Selim
Metrically, the shortened form of the name is preferable.
Magnesia
southeastern area of the Thessaly region in central Greece
Mahound’s
Mahomet’s (Muhammed’s).
Mahound’s dreaded lawsrefers to the strictly observed religious beliefs and practices of Islam.
Acomat … pause
Historically, Ahmed was in fact an active general like his brothers, leading a number
of military campaigns before turning against his father.
Compare with Ashton which describes Acomat as
delighting more in ease & pleasure then in battaill(Ashton G5r).
For I … Acomat
In 1510, Bayezid II planned to abdicate in favor of Ahmed.
The Janissaries … smart
In Ashton, the Janissaries recoil from the
quiet kynde of lyfe of Selimus’s brothers(Ashton G5v); whereas in Shute, Selimus actively wins the Janissaries over with
liberalitie and actiuitie(Shute N2v).
chivalry
men-at-arms (OED n.1)
Then … crown
Compare with The True Tragedy of Richard III:
Or ile make them hop without their crownes that denies me(B4r).
runagate
can refer to an apostate, a vagabond, or a deserter (OED n.1–3)
bassas
Turkish officers of high rank, as military commanders or provincial governors (OED n.1). Variously rendered as
bashawsor pashas.
law of nature
love of family
peers
Members of a rank of hereditary nobility (OED n.4).
This is not a term used to describe the Ottoman elite and thus, like the play’s use
of
seigniory,betrays a particularly English perspective on the play’s social hierarchy.
tenebrious
dark
holt
hold, as in the interior cavity of a ship of vessel
occident
the west
steeds
horses pulling the chariot of the sun, as often represented in Greek and Roman mythology
against Persians’ tent
the forces of Ismael, the Persian Sophy
his
Ismael’s, the Persian Sophy
ruinate
destroy, reduce to ruins
great Nero’s fen
low lying swampy area surrounding Rome, here being associated with the Roman Emperor
Nero
that first nourished them.
It was proverbial that new-born snakes consumed their own mother after birth. Bajazeth
frequently effeminizes himself in the play. It is ironic that he identifies himself
here with the despot Nero.
eld
old age
battellous
warlike, bellicose, pugnacious (OED adj.)
’gins to prick
begins to spur on
Soldan
supreme ruler of a Muslim state, often spelled
sultan
great Trebisond
Trabzon, an empire running along the southeastern coast of the Black Sea.
Historically, Bayezid II appointed Selimus governor of this distant province in 1487.
The great distance between Trabzon and Istanbul strongly suggests that Bayezid II
was trying to keep Selim from obtaining the Ottoman emperorship after he died.
In 2 Tamburlaine, the
King of Trebizonis a supporter of Callapine against Tamburlaine.
Tatary
An exonym for a region comprised of land that includes parts of what is now known
as Siberia and northeastern China.
Ashton recounts Selimus marrying the daughter of the Tatar king (Ashton G3v-G4r).
Selim’s
Metrically, the shortened form
Selim'sregularizes the pentameter line.
he is a sea
To which
Metrically, the shortened
To whichregularizes the pentameter line.
luckless messenger
a messenger not bringing luck
Does Selim … of Tatary?
Both Ashton and Whetstone mention this marriage (Ashton G4r, Whetstone E6r).
Ramir
Ramirchan. See Sc1 Sp2.
besprent
besprinkle, connoting wastefulness (OED besprent, v.)
misconsters
misreads
forward
ardent, spirited, eager, zealous (OED adj.6c)
reaches
ploys
complots
designs of a covert nature (OED n.)
Perhaps, my lord, Selimus
It makes more sense that Mustaffa is addressing Bajazeth here with
my lordthan calling Selimus his
lord.
prologue
beginning
meditated
calculated
plaudity
approval
unacquainted
with whom Bajazeth is unaquainted
to whom … Trebisond,
See Sc1 Sp6 n.
recomfort
sooth, console, or comfort (OED v.1)
Now, Selimus, consider who thou art:
As pointed out by many commentators, this long Machiavellian monologue and Selimusʼs
comments to his followers thereafter are reminiscent of a number of speeches in other
professional plays of the period.
Compare with Richard III’s opening soliloquy in Richard III, the Prologue in The Jew of Malta, and Tamburlaine’s
sweet fruition of an earthly crownspeech in 1 Tamburlaine B5v. In Shute, the machinations of Selimus come later, directly inspired by Acomat visiting with Bajazeth (Shute N2r).
Aside
This is the first of many unmarked asides in the play. Here, Selimus is directing
this long speech to himself. As McMillin and MacLean point out, the large processional
entrance here (
and the soldiers) is used to signify Selimus’s power at this point. That the entrance is immediately followed by an aside underscores its symbolic importance.
Selimus … thy desire
Compare with Doctor Faustus’s opening soliloquy in Doctor Faustus, Barabas’s opening soliloquy in The Jew of Malta, the Guise’s soliloquy at the end of the second scene in The Massacre at Paris, and Richard III’s opening soliloquy in Richard III. Each of these long speeches launches the arc of a dominant and destructive tragic
hero.
Think … merit.
These lines constitute the first instance in the play of rhyme royal (ababbcc). The
rest of Selimus’s speech (Sc2 Sp1) is divided into stanzas of this rhyme scheme.
to thee there is no worse reproach
there is no worse reproof to be directed at him
abroach
flowing freely, as from a broached cask (OED adv.1)
Mahound’s laws
Muhammad’s laws, the tenets of Islam
be locked up in their case
Selimus here imagines that a copy (or copies) of the Quran can be locked up, presumably either by a binding clasp or in a trunk or a press (i.e.
cupboard).
Ophir
an area referenced by the Old Testament as renowned for its gold
He means to … give.
See Sc1 Sp2 n.
votaries
people bound or devoted to religious lives (OED n.1)
my forward mind
reck not of
do not worry or care about
And … catch overgone
Occasion was sometimes personified as a woman with a lock of hair hanging down from
the front of her forehead while otherwise bald; in order to catch her by the hair,
you needed to act quickly before she passed you by (Vitkus 69).
that virtue … mold.
Selimus is reminded that some see virtue as being like a mirror by which one can both
see one’s failings and fashion one’s self virtuously within it along the lines of
ancientwisdom.
Perhaps you think … prattling shade.
After
digging deep with learning’s wonder-working spade,Selimus’s imagined interlocutor now rests with him (the
grave wizard) and
prattles(talks foolishly or gossips) in the shadows.
forsooth
truly
Avaunt
an order to leave, here to leave such virtue-seeking
glassesbehind
seigniory
Lordship.
This is a term often associated with feudalism and thus not one usually applied to
the Ottoman empire.
Faith
In faith, truly
bookish ordinance
an authoritative moral decree derived from books
stand on a sententious guard
be armed with a tight argument (Riad 295)
without far-fetched cicumstance
Without hollow excuses.
An almost identical version of the following lines (76–138) appeared in two 1603 manuscripts
entitled
Certaine hellish verses devysed by that Atheist and traitor Ralegh.They were likely recorded around the same time as Sir Walter Ralegh’s arrest for treason in July.
Some have argued that these lines were derived from an original, now-lost poem by
Ralegh, others that they were derived from the play and falsely attributed to Ralegh.
Selimus’s articulation of a Golden Age myth here has been connected with similar passages
in Hesiod’s Works and Days and to Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
circled round, this building fair
Earth.
Also,
circled roundconnotes an amphitheatre playhouse.
dition
rule, sway, jurisdiction, command (OED n.1)
And everyone his life in peace did pass.
This line is missing from the
hellish versesof 1603.
the share
an allotted part or portion (OED n.3), property
tantara
a fanfare or fluorish of trumpets (OED n.)
There needed them in awe.
These lines have been condensed to
they neided then nothing of whom to stand in awein the
hellish versesof 1603.
unknown armor
armor that was not yet known (a new phenomenon)
Ninus
Ninus is the mythical inventor of warfare as well as the founder of Nineveh (a city
in Iraq near Mosul) and the Babylonian Empire.
warray
make war upon, ravage by war (OED n.1)
Then they … bloody fights.
These lines are missing from the
hellish versesof 1603. In their stead are
and with a common muttering discontent / gave that to tyme which tyme cannot prevent(Jacquot 1).
vulgar
common people
gan
began
were just mere
Metrically, the addition of
justregularizes the pentameter line.
bugbears
imaginary terrors (OED n.)
bauble
a small ornament of little value
like
Though the meaning of Q1’s
loueis here preferable, the
likeof the
hellish versesrhymes with
likeand
strike,thus regularizing the rhyme scheme of the rhyme royal.
policy
a strategem, a trick (OED n.3)
others
Selimus is thinking of a plurality here.
parricides
children who kill their fathers
void
deserted
No more than him that dies in doing right.
This line is missing from the
hellish versesof 1603.
snatch
an unexpected and quick robbery (OED n.3d)
uneath
with difficulty (OED adv.1a).
gout
A very painful form of arthritis.
In Ashton, Bajazeth is described as
olde and unweldy, yea and gowtye also(Ashton G2r).
unmanurèd wit
uncultivated mind
To draw out time, an unlooked for mutation.
Garbled syntax here. Either this line translates to
To draw out time because of an unlooked for mutationor
To draw out time so long that an unlooked for mutation occurs.
kiss his hands
Ashton also has Selimus asking to kiss his father’s hand (Ashton G4v); in Shute, however, Selimus ends up kissing Bajazeth’s feet (Shute N2r).
chivalry
a body of men-at-arms (OED n.1a)
seigniory
The territory under the dominion of a lord (OED n.3).
See Sc1 Sp3 n. Similarly, Ashton has Selim at this point assuring Bayezid II that he only comes
with an army to request that he be given territories closer to
the enemyes of Mahometans fayth(Ashton G4r).
period
time of negotiation with Bajazeth
venture
risk
I’d dart … ground.
Selimus promises to unleash his armies as so many lightning strikes. Compare with
Locrine:
How brauely this yoong Brittain, Albanact, / Darteth abroad the thunderbolts of warre, / Beating downe millions with his furious mood(Anonymous D4v).
heartless
cowardly
school conditions
prohibitions set by school theologians (Vitkus 73)
Sisyphus
King of Corinth who was punished by Zeus in Hades by forever having to push a boulder
(
stone) up a steep hill. At the top, it rolled back to the bottom, forcing him to roll it up again.
Ixionʼs
Greek King who was punished by Zeus by being attached to a fiery wheel that was forever
rolling.
Like devils’ faces scored on painted posts
Scored: drawn or carved.
Painted devils could still be found within medieval churches, even after the Reformation.
Or feignèd circles in our astrolabes
Astrolabes were portable instruments used for making astronomical measurements (OED n.).
Selimus may be suggesting here that the heavenly spheres (
circles) that astrolabes measured were imaginary.
But go we … attire.
This is an example of what McMillan and MacLean describe as the Queen’s Men’s dramaturgical
strategy of
narrative overdetermination,Selimus here predicting the action of a scene to come.
solace
recreate (OED v.1)
Enter Bajazeth, Mustaffa, Cherseoli, Occhiali, and the Janissaries.
This scene takes place within the town of Andrianople in Northwest Turkey. See Sc3 Sp4 n.
Even as … with me:
Crocodiles were long thought to use tears and baby-like cries to draw in their prey.
This is one of a number of epic similes (or extended metaphors) to be found in the
play.
The prevalence of such figurative language is reminiscent of David and Bethsabe. While Selimus is most often compared with the two Tamburlaine plays, the play has much in common
with Peele’s biblical drama where Absalom, like Selimus and Acomat, rises up against
his own father King David. Most commentators believe that Peele’s play was written
a year or two before Selimus.
Wanting
lacking
His haughty … to majesty.
Compare with Orlando Furioso:
A Scepter then comes tumbling in my thoughts. / My dreames are Princely, all of Diademes(Greene B3v).
diadems
crowns
the Phoenix
The phoenix was a mythological bird associated with the worship of the sun that, after
living 500 years (five ages), collected aromatic plants and perfumes for its nest.
It then burst into flames at its death and was reborn from its own ashes.
In one tradition, it was reborn from its own ashes after its corpse was laid on a
sun altar by Egyptian priests. Compare with England’s Parnassus:
The Phaenix gazeth on the sunnes bright beames, / The Echinaeus swims against the streames(Allott Kk6v).
echeneis
Sucking fish.
During the period, the echeneis was thought to have incredible strength, able to pull
large ships. Here, in imagining that Selimus like this fish swims against the streams,
Bajazeth is suggesting the power and rebelliousness of his son.
His meaning … weakly stands
his real intentions are barely perceptible in his words
Syrtis boiling sands
Two Mediterranean inlets in North Africa known for quicksand.
hie
go quickly (OED v.2)
fawning
showing servile deference, cringing, flattering (OED v.2)
He craves … seigniory,
Here, Ochiali delivers a slightly different message from what he was given by Selimus
above.
Historically in 1511, Selim requested governorship of a province in Rumelia (a territory
in southeastern Europe consisting mostly of the Balkan Peninsula). This would have
given Selim closer access to Istanbul. See Sc2 Sp11 n.
scourge
A person that is an instrument of divine chastisement (OED v.2).
In Marlowe’s Tamburlaine plays, Tamburlaine is often called a
scourge of god,by himself and by other characters.
burning brands
[Aside]
The next two-dozen lines are self-directed speech.
spare
conserve
antidotus
Latin for antidote
He that … his banks.
With this image, Bajazeth accuses his son of destructive ambition.
Compare with England’s Parnassus:
He that will stop the brooke must then begin / When sommers heat hath dried vp the spring: / And when his pittering streames are low and thin, / For let the winter aid vnto them bring, / He growes to be of watry flouds the king: / And though you damme him vp with loftie rankes, / Yet he will quickly ouerflow his bankes(Allott E4r).
pittring
small, insignificant
ranks
Bajazeth here fashions a mixed metaphor,
lofty ranksof soldiers attempting to damn up Selimus who, in this extended metaphor, is being imagined to be a river.
Messenger
the character Occhiali
Samandria
Territory surrounding the fortress city of Smederevo in Serbia.
Historically, Bayezid II gave Selim a choice of governorships; Selim chose Samandria
(Çipa 41). This gift frustrated Ahmed, as it was very close to Istanbul (Çipa 42).
Ashton has Bayezid II at this point giving Selim Samandria (Ashton G4v); Bayezid II’s conferring of Samandria is not in Shute.
Hungaria
Latin for Hungary
Cherseoli
The 1594 quarto mistakenly prints this as a speech prefix.
a royal present
In Ashton, Bayezid II’s
royall rewardeis
great treasure, costlye apparell, horses, and seruantes(Ashton G4v).
reck’ning
consideration of a matter (OED v.4b)
Adrianople
City in Northwest Turkey now called Edirne
Byzantium
Constantinople, or now Istanbul
take
settle in
celerity
speed
wingèd coursers
swift footed horses
Enter Selimus, Sinam [Bassa], Occhiali, Otrante, and their soldiers.
Though Cherseoli is sent by Bajazeth with Occhiali to deliver a gift to Selimus in
the previous scene (Sc3 Sp3), he does not enter with Occhiali in this stage direction. Presumably, we are to
assume that Cherseoli delivered the item off stage before this exchange.
corsive
substance that corrodes, a corrosive (OED v4b)
Emperor Mahomet … with shame.
Mahomet, i.e. Mehmet II, Bajazeth’s father.
Mehmet II was defeated in 1456 at the Battle of Belgrade and forced to retreat.
steer
lead
Polonian
Polish person
hurtling
rushing in noisily (OED v.6).
Here … again.
See Sc3 Sp3 n.
Basilius
Vasili (Basil) III, czar of Russia, who ruled from 1479 until 1533.
slave-born
This was a common epithet directed at Russian people during the period.
Termagant
Perjorative Christian name for a Muslim god who was thought to be violent and overbearing.
stop my mouth with gold or pearl
silence (as a result of bribery)
rusty jades from Barbaria
old, decrepit horses from the Northeast (Barbary) coast of Africa
Acomat and Corcut
Parallelism here requires brothers be listed in this order.
his bastards’
Acomat’s and Corcut’s
Pegasus
mythical winged flying horse
Alarum within.
According to Ashton (Ashton G5v-6r), Selim waylaid Bayezid II in Chiurlu (i.e. Corlu), a city in Northwest Turkey about
75 miles from Istanbul.
In Shute, he attacked his father fifty miles outside of the capital (Shute N3r-v). Historians, however, disagree about whose forces were the first to engage the other
(Çipa 50).
Ottrante
Ottrante is called a Tatarian in the following scene. He presumably joined Selimus
after the marriage of Selimus.
level
aim at with a weapon (OED v.8a)
Ramirchan
For more on this figure, see Sc1 Sp2 n.
those base … sword.
Persians
For an earlier reference to the Persians, see Sc1 Sp2 .
polypus
A
polypusis a cephalopod having eight or ten tentacles (OED).
Octopuses, a cephalopod with eight tentacles, have long been known for self-cannibalism.
Titan
Hyperion, the sun god
enterprise thy journey from the West
Embark on a journey back from the West (i.e. reverse course).
The 1594 quarto has
East,but as Hopkinson pointed out (105), this makes little sense. Bajazeth’s is calling on Titan to reverse the natural course of things just as Selimus is doing in trying to depose his father.
For that … Corcut and Acomat.
This is another garbled sentence. Selimus seems to be saying here that he would not
have tried to kill his father because (
For that) the attempt or result would have led to
spightbeing directed at him from his brothers.
Should sit … In spite
the crown would sit in spite
span
a short space of time (OED n.4a)
enterprise
undertake or attempt (OED v.1)
in piecemeal
into separate pieces
unkind
unsympathetic, perhaps with a pun on
kind(i.e. kin) suggesting unnatural
thoughtst scorn
scornfully thought
prince’s due reward
become emperor
Prester John
Mythical Christian King from Asia who was believed to have become the King of Ethiopia.
The various accounts arise from popular collections of medieval romance, depicting
Prester John as a descendant of the Three Magi. See Prester John.
Compare with 2 Tamburlaine:
And I haue martch’d along the riuer Nile / To Machda, where the mighty Christian Priest / Cal’d Iohn the great, sits in milk-white robe(Marlowe G2v).
stripped … of his camp
As Riad points out (119), this appears to be an anachronistic claim as the Ottomans’ defeat of the
Egyptian Soldandid not occur until years after Selimus had become emperor (i.e. in 1516 and 1517).
sword and shield
Words appear to be missing from Q1.
fearst
fears that Selimus means to dispossess him of the crown
unbridled
not restrained or held in check (OED adj.1)
Ah, bassas
Ashton also describes Bayezid II eloquently addressing the Janissaries at this point
(G6r).
ought
had to pay (money, goods, etc.); was under obligation to pay or render; owed (OED v.3a)
Non timeo … auctor.
I do not fear death: it is the cause of death that distresses me (Latin).
Alarum … then Ottrante
Q1 does not include an entrance stage direction for Mustaffa and Selimus. It stands
to reason that they would enter through different doors, as Ottrante and Cherseoli
do.
Upon … my caitiff breast.
caitiff
vile, base, mean, basely wicked (OED adj.3)
Tiring
exhaust through eating
broke our ranks
disrupted military formations
ne’er drunk in the Tatarian blood
that has never yet shed Tatarian blood
Nay … on the plains.
See Sc1 Sp2.
matched
to encounter as an adversary, to fight (obselete) (OED v.3a)
blindful mistress of mishap
the goddess Fortune who was sometimes represented as blind and spinning a wheel that
could randomly land on a good or bad fate
Rhamnus’ golden gates
An allusion to the town of Rhamnous in Greece where the sanctuary of Nemesis, a goddess
of retribution, was located.
ever-turning wheel
the wheel of Fortune
Mars
Roman god of war
Termagant
perjorative Christian name for a Muslim god who was thought to be violent and overbearing
Minerva
Roman goddess of wisdom and military strategy
rend
tear
fain
glad under the circumstances (OED adj.2)
[the Janissaries a] … Cherseoli
It stands to reason that the Janissaries would also enter at this point in order to
celebrate their victory. Also, Cherseoli’s body would need to be removed at the end
of scene 6 as Selimus does not refer to the body in scene 7. Q1 does not include a
stage direction managing the removal.
luckless fault of
luckless in the absence of
Chief captain of the Tatar’s mighty host.
sire
father
spoil
strip
The unrevengèd … fields.
Alemshae’s initial fate as described by Bajazeth here is reminiscent of the wandering
of Andrea at the beginning of The Spanish Tragedy. His resting in Elysian fields, equating death with relief, is very much a Senecan
sentiment.
Stygian banks
In Greek mythology, these were the banks of the Styx, a river dividing earth from
the underworld.
Elysian fields
In Greek mythology, this was the joyous realm of the blessed in the underworld.
Constantine’s great tower
A tower (or column) in Byzantium (i.e. Istanbul) built by Constantine in the fourth
century to commemorate the city’s founding.
Perhaps you
Like Bajazeth’s and Selimus’s, Acomat’s first entrance is marked by his delivering
a long speech. Unlike his father and brother, he speaks to his followers.
dulcet
sweet
Hymen
Greek goddess of marriage
Bellona
Roman goddess of war.
Compare with 2 Tamburlaine:
As if Bellona, Goddess of the war, / Threw naked swords and sulphur bals of fire, / Upon the heads of all our enemies(H2v).
votary
one bound by vows to a religious life (OED adj.1a)
iron wall
armor
for long enough
Metrically, the addition of
forregularizes the pentameter line.
surfeited
indulging in something to excess (OED v.3)
surquidry
Excess (OED n.2).
Ashton uses this rare word to describe the excess of one of Selimus’s governors (N2r).
A field of dainties
Things, fine, pleasing, and/or delightful (OED n.5).
Acomat talks here of things like food, wine, erotic pleasure, and song.
champion
one who fights on the behalf of someone
Cytheria
another name for Venus or Aphrodite, classical goddesses of love
in dolorous vermeil
in grief-inducing red, in blood
What lets in all memory?
Another garbled sentence. Acomat is asking here what prevents (
lets) him from abandoning his pleasurable indulgences (i.e. keeping him in
vain slumber) and achieving glory on the battlefield.
Fortune favors mine intent
broach seditious jar
spur on rebellious discord
perturbation
disturbance
danger may not take it unprovided
danger will not arrive unprepared for
peace from whence your riches spring
Visir suggests that, unlike peace that can create favorable economic conditions, war
and uncivil unrest are expensive for an emperor.
good
justifiable
immortal lines
as rendered in books, possibly through inheritance (
lines)
lustful game
amorous pursuits
fond
insipid (OED adj.1)
captive mind
captive because driven by amorous desire
’pass
compass, reach
Indian mines
Indian mines refers to the lucrative mines in Peru (
Indian,i.e. Incan) operated by the Spanish.
stout obedience
prideful though obedient
close and circumspect
secret and cautious
holy vows
In act 1, Bajazeth tells us that he has
reserve[d]the crown for Acomat. Acomat here suggests that this involved some kind of
holy vow.
election
Bajazeth choosing Acomat as the next emperor.
In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the Ottoman Empire did not have a rationalized
system of succession unlike in England where primogeniture dictated that the crown
be passed to or through the line of the eldest male heir.
Instead, succession was assumed to be dictated by fortune which was in turn dictated
by god. In practice, this meant the successful occupation of the Ottoman throne in
Byzantium by a male in the Osman line after an emperor’s death. This system has been
called
unigeniture.An emperor could manipulate the process by granting a prince or favorite a governorship close to the Ottoman capital and by political machinations. Mehmed II made it common practice for Ottoman Emperors to eliminate all rivals to the throne.
erection
installation on the throne
As yet is pent:
Regan reminds Acomat that his election to the throne is not yet completed and as such
he is not in a position to plan for his future as emperor.
regiment
rule or governance (OED adj.1)
Aside
Though the 1594 quarto does not indicate an aside here, Acomat’s
Advise thee, Acomatsuggests a self-directed speech.
will
Q1’s
willas in an exertion of will makes sense here.
a timely largition
A well timed bestowal of gifts.
Metrically, the addition of
aregularizes the pentameter line.
premunition
preventive action (OED n.2)
he will think
Metrically, the addition of
willregularizes the pentameter line.
factious
mutinous, inclined to rebel
suffrages
support
insolence
Metrically, the shortened form is preferable.
overhardiness
too bold
assay
attempt
unsettled wit
restless, turbulent mind
alway
Always.
Archaic form is meant to rhyme last word of next line.
embay
bathe
leads the dance
takes the lead, takes preeminance
What prince … alterations
Compare with Locrine:
What prince so ere, adornd with golden [crown] / Doth sway the regall scepter in his hand: /And thinks no chance can euer throw him downe, / Or that his state shall euerlasting stand(G3r).
lest
Bajazeth is imagining here a prince who does not fear the
lourof Fortune.
so many
Metrically, the addition of
soregularizes the pentameter line.
lour
frown
acceptable
agreeable
rate
judgment, estimation (Vitkus 87)
So that … prince’s throne.
Bajazeth complains that his authority, because dependent upon the people’s
rate,hangs by a thin thread.
Too true … horse’s hair.
Damocles, a flatterer, having extolled the happiness of Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse,
was placed by him at a banquet with a sword suspended over his head by a hair to impress
upon him the perilous nature of that happiness (
Damocles,OED).
Compare with England’s Parnassus:
Too true that tyrant Dyonisyus / Did picture out the image of a king: / When Damocles was placed in his throne, / And ore his head a threatening sword did hang, / Fastened vp only by a horses haire(N7v).
awful
arousing or inspiring awe (OED adj.1)
lay wait
lay in wait
did suck
Metrically, the substitution of
did suckregularizes the pentameter line.
From whom … vital air.
curtains
A number of plays in the 1580s and 1590s include stage directions having to with curtains
on stage (e.g. David and Bethsabe, Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, Old Wives Tale, and A Looking Glass for London and England). In this case, the directions seem to be referring to fabric that could be drawn
across an opening in a tiring-house wall.
Eunuchs
Castrated males.
Compare with A Looking Glass for London and England:
And let the Eunickes plaie you all a sleepe(F4r).
Music within.
This is one of the rare instances of a stage direction in an early modern play specifying
the location of musicians. Here, the implication is that musicians were located somewhere
within a tiring house or behind some kind of screen.
Yet we will … to ruinate.
Hali Bassa argues here that he cannot support Bajazeth’s disinheritance of Selimus
because Selimus as emperor would, through his martial exploits, ensure that Hali Bassa’s
wealth will remain intact.
overslipped
let pass (OED v.1)
the fruit that he had labored for
the crown
sophister
one who makes use of fallacious arguments, a specious reasoner (OED v3a).
subject prince
a prince who is also subject to a king
against
Metrically, the two-syllable
againstregularizes the pentameter line.
Selim’s
Metrically, the shortened form of Selimus regularizes the pentameter line.
Selim
Metrically, the shortened form of Selimus regularizes the pentameter line.
Our father … degenerate.
See Sc1 Sp2.
we would not … lascivious pomp,
Cali Bassa declares that he will not accept Acomat who still pursues splendid celebrations
and entertainments.
Compare too with Shute where the Janissaries oppose Acomat not just because he was
addicted to
ease and pleasuresbut because he was
not liberalland
a fatte manwho could not well handle a horse (N4r-v).
Compare with Edward II when the Mortimers at the end of the fourth scene discuss Edward’s failing as a king.
foeman’s
foe’s
… pen.
For an earlier description of Corcut, see Sc1 Sp2 above.
guide the crown
inform his decisions as emperor
Princes
rulers, commanders, governors (OED n.3a)
He gave … my thoughts.
Bajazeth gave his daughter in marriage to Mustaffa.
I love … Selimus
Compare with Cornelia:
I loue, I loue him deerely. But the loue, / That men theyr Country and theyr birth-right beare / Exceeds all loues(G1r).
How now
How is it now?
Hath the Egyptian … again?
For an earlier reference to past Ottoman encounters with the Egyptians, see Sc5 Sp2 above.
Amasya
An area in north central Turkey.
Historically, shortly after he became Emperor in 1481, Bayezid II conferred the governorship
of this coveted province onto Ahmed. This was a clear sign of Bayezid II’s preference
for Ahmed over his other sons.
’gratulates
congratulates
Acomat … lifetime.
See Sc9 Sp3 above.
Aside
The preceding stage direction makes it clear that this is an aside.
make it sure to him
pass it on to him
And thou shalt have it
Bajazeth is pressured by Acomat days later in Byzantium. This stresses Acomat’s ambition
as well as Bajazeth’s passivity.
buried in the bosom
Become the responsibility and continual worry.
This ironically foreshadows future scenes in the play involving Aga.
Sound … Corcut.
In Ashton, Korkud only asserts his claim to the throne after Ahmed rages against his
father (H2r-v).
certify
attest to
therewithal
over and above that (OED adv.1)
invest
install
Aside
Almost the entirety of this speech is self-directed.
by right
Corcut may be reminding Bajazeth that he is his eldest surviving son and thus has
a
rightto the throne. This claim founded in primogeniture, however, derives not from the Ottoman but the English system of monarchy.
Under the terms of this system, it is Alemshae’s eldest son, Mahomet, who in fact
enjoys this
right.He might also be referring to Bayezid II promising the emperorship to him after his death when Korkud was young. See Ashton E6v-E7r where Bayezid II promises to eventually cede the throne to a thirteen-year-old
Corcuthuswhen he is older.
sailing without the stars
Metrically, the addition of
theregularizes this pentameter line.
Like to a ship … betwixt love and right.
Reminiscent of Wyatt’s extended metaphor in
My Galleywhich had been in print since 1557, this is the first in a number of maritime epic similes in the play.
While Q1 does not label this speech an aside, Mustaffa’s following lines make no
reference to what Bajazeth has just said.
Compare with James IV:
Like to an ship vpon the Ocean seas, / Tost in the doubtfull streame without a helme(E1r).
And at my death … to him.
This is not exactly what Corcut’s messenger relates above. Compare with Sc10 Sp12.
Bassas, how counsel you your emperor
In Shute (N4r-v), the Janissaries riot in favor of Selim, and they end up forcing Bayezid II to name
Selim heir. In Ashton (G7r-8r), the Janissaries are moved to advise Bayezid II to retain the emperorship by the
possibility of Ahmed being made Emperor.
Ashton will later record that Korkud asked his father for the emperorship (H2r-v). Corcut’s offer here, then, is an addition.
brethren disinherited
Selimus and Corcut
flesh their anger
rend the bowels of this mighty realm
To cut into or tear (OED v4).
The play four times forwards different versions of this image (see also Sc12 Sp1,Sc15 Sp23, and Sc27 Sp4).
Marlowe’s Edward II famously ends with Edward being murdered by a hot poker thrust into his anus, and
the play was likely written a year before Selimus. Compare too with David and Bethsabe:
Souldiers of Israel / That haue contended in these irksome broiles, / And ript old Israels bowels with your swords(H1r).
puissance
power, strength
great puissance
Metrically, the addition of
greatregularizes the pentameter line.
enhancèd
lifted, raised (OED adj.)
thrust out their heads
decapitate Selimus and Acomat
strong to fortify
strongly fortify
loth
Disinclined, unwilling (OED adj.1).
In Ashton, Bayezid II retains the crown partly because he was moved by a
certen inward & sweete lust to reigne al his lyfe(G8r).
But we … Selimus.
This is an example of what McMillin and MacLean describe as the Queen’s Men’s dramaturgical
strategy of
narrative overdetermination,Bajazeth here predicting the action of a scene to come.
and then rent[s it.]
Q1’s unusual stage-direction command
sayis repeated in the 14th scene below.
Thus will I … head
In Ashton, Ahmed
conceyued a grudge and malice(G8r) but did not attempt to depose his father. In Shute, Ahmed does not seek revenge against his father. Instead, he holes up in a fortified city, resolving to wait on God to depose Selim for his wicked deeds. In Whetstone (E6r), however, it is suggested that Ahmed, like he does here in the play, violently revolted against his father.
What?
Why did my father do this?
wipe me clean forever
keep me forever from
prize
value
promise, and religious oaths
See Sc9 Sp3 above.
president
presiding god (OED n.1b)
challenge
to assert ones title to, to lay claim to (OED v.5a)
detains
keeps
Haply
possibly (OED n.1b)
forepassed
previously passed (OED v)
supply
supply of soldiers
Natolia
Anatolia.
Previously known as Asia Minor, this large peninsula is bounded by the Black Sea to
the north and the Mediterranean to the south. Here and below, Acomat is referring
to Iconium (now
Kolya), one of Anatolia’s principle cities, as
Natolia.
make a preface to
begin
My nephew my wrath.
Iconium
Konya.
A large city south of Ankara in central Turkey. In these confusing lines, Acomat seems
to be suggesting that Alemshae lately died (
departed) in the city.
one or two soldiers
These kinds of permissive stage directions have long been taken as indicators that
a printed play was derived from an authorial manuscript. Paul Werstine and others
have recently questioned such claims.
embowellèd
To put, to convey into the bowels (OED v.3).
tofore
before
would to God with
wishes to God for
by right
The Beylerbey assumes that Mahomet is now the rightful heir of the Turkish emperorship
because he is the eldest son of Bajazeth’s eldest son Alemshae. This primogeniture
practice in fact was not followed by the Ottomans.
Armenian tiger
Now extinct, the Armenian (or
Caspian) tiger was thought to have been especially fierce.
venge
revenge
forward
ready, prompt, eager (OED adj.6)
Now, fair Natolia … ground.
This scene is vaguely reminiscent of Richard III’s murder of his two nephews in Richard III. It is also the first of two siege scenes (see also scene 27 below) which feature
characters appearing above, which in the amphitheatre playhouses likely would have
been the lords’ rooms. A number of plays during the period like David and Bethsabe, Edward I, Orlando Furioso, James IV, and 1 and 2 Tamburlaine had similar scenes.
put up
put up with
sure
safe
Weakened … sword.
Acomat is suggesting here that Mahomet’s
forcesaided Bajazeth’s early defeat of Selimus.
parley
a meeting between opposing sides in a dispute (OED n.2a)
walls
This is a fictional designation for a level above the main platform (Dessen and Thomson). See 27 and 27 below.
wondrous tomb
This probably refers to the belief that Muhammad’s tomb levitated in the air after
he was entombed within it.
Alcoran
another word for the Qu’ran, the sacred book of Islam
e’en
Metrically, the shortened form of
evenregularizes the pentameter line.
You do us wrong … at your hands.
kin
Metrically, the shortened form of
kinsmanregularizes the pentameter line.
Why, I am thy nephew; doest thou frown?
Metrically, the deletion of
forregularizes this pentameter line.
Why, I am thy nephew. … the crown.
The first instance of stichomythia in the play whereby rhymed lines of dialogue are
split between two characters, the responding character often expressing an antithetical
or repetitive sentiment.
Here, this stichomythian exchange between Acomat and Mahomet will continue for almost
twenty lines. Some of Acomat’s following exchange with Zonara also deploys stichomythia.
See also Acomat’s exchange with Aga in scene 15 below.
hinderers
agents who stand in the way of Acomat’s ambitions
do bear an equal eye
Mahomet suggests that
the godswill ensure that justice is served.
Acomat
The 1594 quarto mistakenly substitutes
Mahomethere.
Beshrew
an expression, like, for example,
the devil take me
Phlegethon
a fiery river in Hades, the classical underworld
scale
Climbing of walls using a ladder (Dessen and Thomson).
Q1 does not indicate that the characters exit above. 2 Tamburlaine contains a similar scene (K3r).
shook your plumèd crest
Acomat accuses Mahomet of defiantly shaking a heraldic emblem at him and his forces
(figured as a
shield), a prideful gesture.
How … to Bajazeth.
Acomat again points out how near Mahomet is to the emperorship, in this case even
looking like Bajazeth.
for
because
compendium
an abridgement or condensation (OED n.2)
Regan, go … fall.
There is no stage direction suggesting that this horrific punishment was meant to
be staged. Compare with The True Tragedy of Richard, Duke of York:
Had I beene there, the souldiers should have tost / Me on their launces points(274–275).
fear
scare
O … my father’s purse.
Acomat sarcastically responds to Mahomet’s curse.
Zonara
Zonara is not to be found in the play’s sources and as such is most likely an imaginative
addition. This entrance marks the first appearance of a female character in the play.
kin
Q1’s article is unnecessary, and cutting it regularizes the pentameter line.
wants so long thy company.
lacks your company in the afterlife.
groom
A man of inferior position, a serving-man (OED n.3).
Zonara suggests that Acomat is a lower-order imposter.
Caucasus
An area between the Caspian and Black Seas. In the period it was associated with wildness.
Hyrcanian
A desolate area south of the Caspian Sea.
They strangle her
This vague direction was common in plays of the time. In rare instances, a cord is
specified. In the next scene, the Beylerbey of Natolia recounts that Zonara was strangled
by Acomat’s barbarous soldiers.
rate
berate
Mustaffa, [Aga,] and the Janissaries.
Though Bajazeth sends him as a messenger to Acomat at the end of this scene, Aga is
mistakenly not included in the group entrance here.
Methinks … in my ears
chair
A chair used to transport the sick, wounded, or dying (Dessen and Thomson).
A number of plays during the period employ such chairs (e.g. Edward I, The Battle of Alcazar, and Locrine).
coffins
Coffins sometimes appear in professional plays before the 17th century (e.g. Titus Andronicus.) For examples in later plays, see Q1 Hamlet, A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, and The Witch of Edmonton.
presages me
predicts
exequy
funeral rite
hearse
a hearse cloth (OED n.6)
nephews
This refers to both Mahomet and Zonara. In the sixteenth century,
nephewcould apply to a male or a female (OED n.2b).
ayrie
The nest of a bird of prey, figuratively used here to suggest a high vantage point
(OED n.1a, 1b).
Compare with Arden of Faversham:
Oh that some ayrie spirit, / Would in the shape and liknes of a horse / Gallope with Arden cross the Ocean(A3r).
luckless maid
This addition to what is a short line was first suggested by Grosart in the 19th century.
swoon
A fainting fit (OED n.) indicating a figure falling to the stage (Dessen and Thomson).
Compare with The first part of the contention betwixt the two famous houses of Yorke and Lancaster:
The King falls in a sound(E2v).
dispensers of our hapless breath
the gods,
hapless: unlucky
glut your eyes
overly fill your eyes with
occasion
An occurence giving grounds for an action (OED n.2a).
Bajazeth is referring to his refusal to admit Selimus into his presence. See Sc3 Sp3 above.
froward
pervese, difficult to deal with, hard to please (OED adj.)
And so prevented
Alemshae’s death on the field of battle meant that he did not end up having to see
the horrible spectacle of his childrens’ murdered bodies.
dreariment
dreary or dismal condition (archaic) (OED)
But I have lived … pieces torn,
See Sc1 Sp2 above.
seed
children
channels
water courses, river beds (OED n.)
riverets
Small rivers, streams (OED n.).
Bemangled and dismembered
cut and mutilated
doth stand before, ready to strike.
Metrically, addition of
dothregularizes the pentameter line.
Avernus jaws … Acomat.
Bajazeth’s invocation here is reminscent of similar speeches of declamatory furor
in Seneca, who is a significant influence on the play.
Avernus
Volcanic crater in Italy that was thought in classical times to be an entrance to
the underworld.
Taenarus
A town in Greece in which there is a cavern that was thought in classical times to
be an entrance to the underworld.
Demogorgon
a powerful god or demon, associated with hell or the underworld (OED n.)
Furies
Roman demons of the underworld, avenging deities (OED n.5)
Erinyes
Another name for the furies.
Compare with Locrine:
Come fierce Erinnis horrible with snakes, / Come vgly Furies, armed with your whippes(G1r).
thou
the
all-beholding heavens(see below)
lightning brand
lightning as a weapon (OED n.3b)
Enrolled
Wrapped up or enfolded in (OED n.7b).
Jove
another name for Jupiter, Roman supreme deity
perceant
Penetrating, sharp, keen, piercing (OED adj.)
Go thou … relent.
Bajazeth’s sending a messenger to Acomat is neither in Ashton nor Shute. In Ashton,
Acomat ends up catching Bayezid II’s
oratour(G8v).
wit
understanding
Speak him fair
speak to him with pleasing words
princes’
This refers to both Mahomet and Zonara. During the period,
princewas used to refer to a male or female.
Tityus
The giant son of Zeus, Tityus was forever punished in the underworld by his father
for trying to kill Leto, the mother of Apollo and Artemis. There, his liver was continually
devoured, in this version of the myth, by a vulture.
Acomat’s analogy is one of many epic similes in the play. Compare with A Looking Glass for London and England:
Slaues fetch out tortures worse than Titius plagues(E3r).
tireth
to tear at food (OED v.2.2a)
civil
of or relating to citizens or people who live together in a community (OED adj.3)
Just sent
Metrically, the addition of
Justregularizes the pentameter line.
and one with him
Another permissive stage direction. See the beginning of Sc12 above.
Wonders … so much
Metrically, the addition of
whyregularizes the pentameter line.
and thought … of the crown,
See Sc1 Sp2.
mortal hate
of enmity, hatred, etc.: pursued to the death; unappeasable, unrelenting, deadly (OED adj.1c)
I am not … shall stain.
In this strained extended metaphor, Acomat asserts that he is not like uncultivated
land in that Bajazeth’s
greedyactions in withholding the crown have succeeded in growing hatred in him. He promises that his actions against Bajazeth will bear fruit.
Honor’s
Acomat offers a garbled analogy here (he’s either the
landor the sower). His
Honorhere refers either to Bajazeth or to some generalized country lord.
hasty purposes have hated ends
Aga points to Selimus’s defeat at the hands of his father earlier in the play.
To set … first brunt.
to set his sights immediately on Bajazeth during his attack
confines
region, territory (OED n.2)
with his teeth
Acomat is referring to Selimus here, and as such it should be
his.
color his strong hands
Acomat is still referring to Selimus here, and as such it should be
his
fell
treacherous, deceitful, false (OED adj.2)
unkind
unkindly
the man that first gave life to you
the people’s adverse fame
a reputation with the people that is harmful
Whom fear … feeds.
In yet more lines of garbled syntax, Aga warns that subjects who are forced to praise
their leaders through fear will necessarily hate these leaders.
Compare with England’s Parnassus:
Whom feare constraines to praise their Princes deeds, / That feare eternall, hatred in them feeds(G5r-v).
sway
wield
mace
staff of office
grace
the condition or fact of being favored (OED n.7)
What though
What would happen if
peculiar to
Particularly associated with (OED adj.2c).
Compare with England’s Parnassus:
Hate hits the hie, and windes force tallest towers / Hate is peculiar to a Princes state(K1r). A version of the first line (
Hate climes vnto the head; winds force the tallest towers) appears in Thomas Lodge’s Wit’s Misery which was first printed in 1596.
state
circumstances
That state … integrity
Another instance of stichomythia in the play whereby rhymed lines of dialogue are
split between two characters, the responding character often expressing an antithetical
or repetitive sentiment.
Bare
simple (OED adj.11)
poor integrity
a poor person’s integrity
Beseems
it befits
sacrilegious
intent on the injurious treament of a holy person, site, or object
graybeard
old man
wiped
permanently removed
did hear
Metrically, the addition of
didregularizes the pentameter line.
Preferred … to my request?
See Sc10 Sp13 above.
tapers
Acomat speaks figuratively of the eyes as candles that bring the light of vision.
Acomat pulls out his eyes.
As no command is given here, it seems most likely that Acomat himself blinds Aga.
Years later, Shakespeare may have been influenced by this violent scene when having
Cornwall blind Gloucester in King Lear. In Ashton, Ahmed only cuts off the nose and ears of Bayezid II’s
oratour(G8v). Dessen and Thomson calls this a
distinctive actionas far as a stage direction goes (173).
felicity
Happiness.
Acomat sarcastically laments that Aga will not be able to enjoy seeing him kill Bajazeth.
rend out Bajazeth’s dim eyes
blind Acomat, metaphorically suggesting murder
anthropophagi
Cannibals.
Compare with Locrine:
Or where the bloodie Anthropomphagie / With greedie iawes deuours the wandring wights(G1r).
at his ease
without the embarassment of sins
Death … greatly please.
Acomat refuses to kill Aga because death would be welcome to a
wretched caitifflike him.
They … hands
Presumably,
theyhere refers to Regan’s soldiers.
This scene is reminiscent of Aaron cutting Titus Andronicus’s hand off in Titus Andronicus. Though it’s impossible to know the direction of influence, most theatre historians
have dated the plays to have been written and staged within a year or two of one another.
Disturbing violence and grim humor (i.e. Acomat’s confusion over which hand he holds)
are characteristics of both scenes. Compare with the second act of Edmund Ironside.
in that sort
mutilated
tenfold crystal orbs
In the sixteenth century, it was widely thought that the planets and stars were variously
distributed onto a series of rotating spheres.
Peter Apian in his Cosmographia (1539) theorized that there were ten such spheres, with the closest to earth containing
the moon, the second closest Mercury, and so on.
smoldʼring flame
Lightning bolt.
brinish
salty
pearlèd
pearl-like, round
watry
watery
Come, lead me back again to Bajazeth.
Though Q1 does not indicate it, Aga’s exiting at this point is a staging possibility
here.
Why so
an expression of contentment
music
Aga’s laments
Into … hands,
Compare with 2 Tamburlaine:
I long to pierce his bowels with my sword, / That hath betraied my gracious Soueraigne(H4v).
clear declining vault
Acomat describes the sky descending to the horizon.
faitour
an imposter, cheat, esp. a vagrant who shams illness or pretends to tell fortunes
(OED n.1)
pillars
legs
lodges
sockets
trunkèd
lopped, mutilated (OED n.1)
gyre
a circular or spiral turn (OED n.1)
hurtle
Brandish, wave.
so to cut
Metrically, the addition of
toregularizes the pentameter line.
With purpose … from thee.
See Sc16 Sp3.
Let women weep
Ashton records that Bayezid II here was
wrothe and angryand called for an army to be sent to Anatolia (H1r). He was not overwhelmed by grief.
bootless
unavailing, useless, unprofitable (OED adj.3)
stern-born sons of Mars
Sons born steadfast, fiercely brave, bold (OED adj.2a).
Phoeb’
Phoebus, the sun
wain
A large open vehicle, drawn by horses or oxen (OED n.1a).
Mustaffa alludes to the classical image of the sun god driving a horse-drawn carriage
across the sky.
prince
the chief, the greatest, the best (OED n.2a)
Stygian meadows
These were along the river Styx in the classical underworld. This image of unrevenged
souls was recurrent in Elizabethan and Jacobean revenge tragedy (Riad 152), a genre derived from Seneca.
Thou knowst … mighty Ottoman.
It was a practice of the Janissaries to go into battle led by a decendent of Osman
I, founder of the Ottoman empire. Such a practice is described in Ashton H1r-v.
And who … Selimus
Similarly, in Ashton it is Mustaffa who counsels Bayezid II to pardon Selim and appoint
him captain of his forces (H1v).
I cannot kill myself
This is presumably because Bajazeth is too old to fight himself. There is also an
ironic second meaning in this line: if Bajazeth cannot kill himself, Selimus will.
Will Fortune …
Q1 does not indicate that this speech is delivered as an aside. In plays of this period,
it was conventional for messengers to be present when characters delivered confidential
musings.
cards
A deck of cards representing the randomness of fortune. In the this extended metaphor,
Selimus’s possession of these signifies his control over fate.
And will … myself a king.
Compare with The Massacre at Paris:
Then Guise since thou hast all the Cardes / Within thy hands to shuffle or cut, take this as surest thing, / That right or wrong, thou deale thy selfe a King(A6r).
reconciling lines
lines asking for reconciliation
captain general
chief commander of force (OED n.)
courtesy
the ceremonious expression of apology (OED n.7)
policy
scheme
device
plan, project
like Antaeus quelled by Hercules
Son of Poseidon and Gaia (the earth), Antaeus was a giant who was energized by contact
with his mother; thus, if he were thrown to the ground in combat (
overthrown) he would immediately be reenergized.
The Greek hero Hercules defeated the monster by choking it to death on his shoulders.
sure
safe in one’s possession or keeping (OED adj.4)
signet
a small seal to give authentication or authority to a document (OED n.1)
hardly
barely
the cause
Bajazeth’s offer; also Selimus’s kingly ambitions
have at
make an attempt at
Exit
Q1’s
Exeuntis redundant.
Come, mournful Aga
The beginning of this scene is reminiscent of Titus Andronicus 3.2 when Titus addresses his mutilated daughter Lavinia.
grieved
afflicted with pain (OED adj.2)
in this light
In this circumstance.
Bajazeth here is suggesting that the lit world is now an unfamiliar place for the
blind Aga.
In all humility
Compare with Ashton which has Bayezid II pardon Selimus after being swayed by two
of his counsellors (H1v).
In Shute (N4v-O1r), the Janissaries, fearing that Bayezid II intended to make Ahmed emperor, reach
out to the defeated Selim to return to Istanbul and be crowned emperor.
open unto you my breast
Selimus lays bare his breast so that he might be stabbed at Bajazeth’s command. This
is reminiscent of Richard III baring his breast to Queen Ann in the second scene of
Richard III.
unfeignèd
sincere
inglorious
humbled
thrice as
very, highly, greatly (OED adv.3b)
common
shared, also undistinguished by any superior characteristics (OED adv.11a)
Aside
Selimus is plotting to himself at this point.
in regard of
on account of
Offer to me
Metrically, the addition of
toregularizes the pentameter line.
ebb
decline, decay (OED n.2b)
Janissars
Janissaries
Do rest … heart,
An elusive expression, Bajazeth’s sentiment here stresses the new
restingof his thoughts.
consuming
destroying
leese
To set free, deliver, release (OED v.1).
Bajazeth assures Aga that Selimus will kill Acomat, thus setting free Acomat’s
ghostfrom his body.
grace
forgiveness (OED n.5)
Enter Mustaffa.
Q1 contains no stage direction for Mustaffa’s reentry after exiting at line 54. Bajazeth’s
How nowappears to be directed at him, and as such it makes the most sense to have him enter after the shouting within.
triumph
public festivity or joyful celebration (OED n.4)
Ah, gracious lord … Selimus,
In Ashton, it is Mustaffa who entreats Bayezid II to give up the emperorship (H3r).
host
army
unwieldy
weak, impotent, feeble, infirm (OED adj.1)
younger
youngest
the Sophy and his Persians
See Sc1 Sp2 below.
victorious Soldan Tonombey
See Sc5 Sp2 above. Historically, Tonombey (i.e. Tuman Bey II) was the last Egyptian sultan to
rule before Egypt was defeated by Selim I in 1517.
As he did not rise to power until 1516, years after the death of Bayezid II, this
is yet another anachronistic reference. A few years before Selimus was first staged, George Saltern wrote the Latin closet drama Tomumbeius about Selim I’s defeat of Tuman Bey II.
Here, Selimus … unto me.
Bajazeth ironically refers to the fact that his father Mehmet II favored his brother
Cem over him as his heir, suggesting his frustration.
Contemporary accounts, however, disagree about the course of Bayezid II’s abdication,
some argue that Bayezid II resigned quickly and willingly (Shute O1r-v), others that he was forced to resign against his will, still others that his resignation
was the product of a lengthy negotiaton (Çipa 54–55).
sets it on his head
For a comparable deposition scene, see Alphonsus King of Aragon D3r, D3v.
Dimoticum
Dimoticum is a City in Turkey that was the birthplace of Bayezid II. Compare with
Ashton H4r, from which this detail seems to have been drawn.
Now, sit I … Jove
Compare with Edward II (
As for my selfe, I stand as Ioves huge tree, / And others are but shrubs compard to me, / All tremble at my name, and I feare none, / Lets see who dare impeache me for his death?[M1r]) and Locrine (
The armestrong offspring of the doubted knight, / Stout Hercules Alcmenas mightie sonne, / That tamde the monsters of the threefold world[F4r] and
Now sit I like the mightie god of warre[F3v]).
arm-strong
strong armed
son of Jove
Hercules
after he had all his monsters quelled,
An allusion to the twelve labors of Hercules which he successfully completed. See
Sc28 Sp1.
Hebe
The personification of youth, Hebe was the daughter of Zeus and Hera. She married
Hercules after he was made a god and entered the heavens.
attainèd
reach, arrive at, gained (OED v7)
This
Selimus gestures at the crown, symbol of his emperorship.
he’s
Metrically, the contraction
he’sregularizes the pentameter line.
broil
turmoil, confrontation
To make that sure … cut off.
that
his emperorship
platform
The ground, foundation, basis of an action, event, calculation, condition, etc. (OED n.3).
Compare with Arden of Faversham:
heeres the Angels downe, / And I will lay the platforme of his death(C4v).
physic
medicine
Withal
in addition
stout
rebellious (OED adj.4b)
resolute
slack, lacking in firmness (OED adj.2c)
intoxicated
poisoned (OED adj.1)
Hydra’s heads
Hydra was a many-headed monster killed by Hercules as one of his twelve labors. As
its heads regrew if cut off, Hercules had to burn every neck-stump with a fiery torch
in order to kill it.
Selimus understands that Bajazeth is only one of the Hydra’s heads that he will have
to deal with as Emperor. In the following lines he describes the other
principleheads (Sc18 Sp14). Contemporary accounts and histories of Selim’s reign have mostly absolved the historical Selim of responsibility for his father’s death, either attributing it to natural causes or glossing over it all together (Çipa 57–58). Shute, for example, vaguely imagines that Bajazeth died suddenly of sickness brought on
by thought, or els of poyson(O1v).
fetch here
Metrically, the addition of
hereregularizes the pentameter line.
one
Yet another permissive stage direction. One of the Janissaries could exit at this
point.
pageant
a part played by someone in a situation (OED n.1b)
Mahomet’s dreaded laws
as written in the Qu’ran
Razi’s toys
Selimus refers to the writings of Abu Bakr Muhammed al-Razi, a Persian philosopher,
alchemist, and physician of the ninth and tenth centuries.
Avicenna’s drugs
Selimus refers to the medicines of Persian astronomer and physician Ibn Sina who lived
in the tenth and eleventh centuries.
necromancy
sorcery, witchcraft
the devil
Corcut
Do strangle
Metrically, the addition of
Doregularizes the pentameter line.
And hearest thou, Hali? Do strangle him.
Metrically, the addition of
Doregularizes the pentameter line.
shipwrack
shipwreck
shelf
a sand bank in the river or the sea (OED n.1)
Abraham the Jew
This representation of a Jew is vaguely reminscent of representations in professional
plays of the period like The Three Ladies of London and The Jew of Malta.
Moreover, Abraham’s initial entrance late in the play is somewhat akin to Lightborne’s
in Edward II. Historically, Bayezid II is famous for welcoming Jewish people into his Ottoman
territories after they were outlawed by Spain in the early 1490s, and thus it is ironic
that his murderer here will be a Jew.
on your life
on penalty of your life
afford them you
provide (OED v.3) them to you
make a conscience
to make something a matter of conscience, of morality (OED conscience vP4)
Lysander’s counsel
Selimus invokes the proverbial counsel of the Spartan admiral who forced the Athenians
to capitulate at the end of the Peloponnesian War. His point was that cunning is sometimes
better than force.
Compare with Alphonsus Emperor of Germany:
I’l imitate Lysander in this point, / And where the lion’s hide is thin and scant, / I’l firmly patch it with the Foxes fell(B2v).
complots
covert plans
wrought
brought about (OED v9)
open
out-in-the-open
meditation
plotting
Or fox’s skin or
either … or
Abraham the Jew with a cup.
As he is not noticed by them until he speaks at line 81, Abraham probably needs to
be imagined to be at some distance from Bajazeth and Aga at the beginning of this
scene.
Come, Aga, let us mourn awhile
This scene is reminiscent of Marlowe’s Edward II when towards the end of the play Edward II mourns his fate with Spencer and Baldock
(
come sit downe by me.[H4v]).
A similar scene can be found in Shakespeares Richard II (
Many commentators have also argued that the scene is a source for King Lear’s madness scene in the third act.For Gods sake let vs sit vpon the ground, / And tell sad stories of the death of Kings[1515–1516]).
cross
angry
That woeful emperor … kingdom so.
Bajazeth here refers to his grandfather (historically,
Bayezid I) who ruled the Ottoman Empire from 1389 to 1402 and who was defeated by the Tatar conqueror Timur the Lame in 1402 at the Battle of Ankara.
In calling him
woeful,Bajazeth alludes to his defeat, capture, humiliation, and torture by Tamburlaine that was famously staged in the of Marlowe’s 1 Tamburlaine. The myth of Timur emerged in England at the end of the fifteenth century. Of Marlowe’s invention was that Tamburlaine was a thief from Scythia (a large region in Eurasia) before rising to power.
in a cage
Metrically, the addition of
aregularizes the pentameter line.
great scourge
Metrically, the addition of
greatregularizes the pentameter line.
reckon in my plaint
consider in my complaint
From my … to be rent.
Yet another instance of a character considering his fate with a maritime analogy (Compare
with Sc1 Sp2; Sc2 Sp1; Sc10 Sp13).
This extended metaphor is particularly reminiscent of Wyatt’s
My Galley,a sonnet he adapted from Petrarch.
boisterous billows
rough swelling waves
hugy
huge (OED adj.)
And cruel wrath; within me rage is rife.
Adding semicolon to the line and replacing
rages rifewith
rage is rifeclarifies the meaning. Metrically, the addition of
isregularizes the pentameter line.
rage is rife
rage is in abundance
flashing buffets
strokes; flashing because quick and lightning-like
immure
wall in (OED v)
It shall … shallows.
Metrically, the addition of
Itregularizes the pentameter line.
boatswain
ship’s officer in charge of equipment (OED n.1)
stirreth nothing sure
does nothing with certainty
stars
guidance
out
an exclamation expressing grief (OED int.C1)
vails
can cast down (OED v4b)
stent
stop
blind procurer of mischance
Fortune
stayst
relies (OED v3b)
enhance
lift up, raise (OED v1)
thrillant steel
Thrilling sword.
The obselete word
thrillantcomes from Spenser.
The while
while
brought me to the world
gave birth to me
rulèd
dominated
poor estate
economic condition
exalted him
elevated him in rank
fair
pleasant
cruel Persians
See Sc1 Sp2.
Now … all the world.
Compare with Locrine:
Where may I finde some hollow vncoth rocke, / Where I may damne, condemn and ban my fill, / The heauens, the hell, the earth, the aire, the fire, / And vtter curses to the concaue skie, / Which may infect the airey regions(F4v).
ban
curse, imprecate damnation upon (OED v.2a)
another while
again
regions of the air
portions into which the atmosphere is divided according to height (OED regions n.3a)
Night … my stomach dry.
Bajazeth’s invocation and curses here are reminscent of similar speeches of declamatory
furor in Seneca.
Night
Bajazeth summons Nyx, Roman goddess of night.
Compare with Arden of Faversham:
Black night hath hid the pleasurs of ye day, / And sheting darknesse ouerhangs the earth, / And with the black folde of her cloudy robe, / Obscure vs from the eiesight of the worlde(D1v).
mantle
cloak
Lethe
Lethe was a river in the classical underworld associated with forgetfulness.
pitchy steeds
Black horses.
Bajazeth here draws on the conventional image of night as traveling across the sky
in a
wain(carriage) pulled by horses.
coal-black silence
Bajazeth fashions a synaesthetic image, mixing sight and sound.
lamps of ever-burning light
eyes
cursed my stomach dry
Bajazeth imagines cursing as an act of purgation (i.e. throwing up).
of noble worth
worthy of noblemen
Aside
The next three lines are clearly self-directed speech.
old as well as
as old as
care not much
am willing
Proserpina
Latin for Persephone.
Greek goddess of the underworld, daughter of Zeus.
Destins
the Destinies, the Fates
If Ismael … iron spears
See Sc1 Sp2.
Or had … Mamelukes
Mamelukes were slave warriors who established powerful knightly castes in places like
Egypt and India.
crocodilus
Latin for crocodile
calmy
calm
What greater … his face?
Aga compares his own fate to that of Priam, King of Troy during the Trojan War with
the Greeks.
Homer’s Iliad describes the course of the war, including Priam’s son Hector being killed in one-to-one
combat with Achilles, his last remaining son Polites being killed by Neoptolemus before
him, and the Greeks’ destruction of his city.
did it behold
Metrically, the addition of
itregularizes the pentameter line.
boon
gift
He dies.
This scene ends with three bodies on the stage. Though Q1 offers no direction, these
somehow need to be removed from the stage before the start of the next scene.
Enter Bullithrumble … running
Energetic first entries were one of the calling cards of the Elizabethan clown (i.e.
foolish rustic), made famous by comic actor Richard Tarlton. See, for example, Derrick’s
opening entrance in The Famous Victories of Henry V as well as Subtle Shift’s in Clyomon and Clamydes. Throughout his two appearances in this play, Bullithrumble is very much an English
rustic, not a Turkish one. The play’s pastoral setting here might have been taken
from Shute, who in describing his escape, writes that Korkud was ultimately betrayed
by certayne men of the countre(O3r).
Marry
expression, mild oath used to give emphasis to one’s words (OED int.1)
an
if
were … again
Bullithrumble’s reference to the beginning of society offers an ironic counter to
Selimus’s own ruminations on the same subject in the second scene.
set a tap abroach
To let ale or wine flow freely from a cask (OED adv.1).
Bullithrumble says he would drink excessively and without reservation.
breach
violation
ten commandments
Ten fingers and the set of ten moral principles that occur twice in the Old Testament.
Compare with Locrine (
fearing she would set her ten commandements in my face[H2r]) and 2Henry VI 2.1 (
Could I come neare your dainite vissage with my nayles, Ide set my ten commandments in your face).
proper
apt, skilled
wasters
Fencing with wooden swords (OED n.3).
A wooden sword was a common clown prop during the period.
club’s trump
Possibly an ironic reference to a card game of the period. Here, Bullithrumble refers
to it figuratively to describe his wife beating him with a club.
to sing
Bullithrumble would have sang the following rhymed lines. Singing was usually part
of the clown’s performative routines.
hap
luck
shrew
a woman given to railing or scolding (OED n.2)
even
evening
lies
lies silent
talents
talons, with a pun on
talents,skills
fro
from
knave
a cunning, unscrupulous rogue (OED n.1)
lays it on my skin
hits me
Sir John
Sir John was a stock name for a rural Anglican priest.
joined
married
I’ll tell you what
Bullithrumble is addressing the audience. Elizabethan clowns frequently broke the
fourth wall in their performances. In his injunction to the players in Shakespeare’s
Hamlet, Hamlet complains about this and other clown practices.
holly wand
a branch from a holly shrub, with a pun on holy (Vitkus 121)
blessed
Swatted.
Bullithrumble frequently refers to the various religious practices of Anglican minsters
in the two scenes in which he appears. Here, he ironically refers to their blessings
in rituals like the eucharist.
whole alphabet of faces
Bullithrumble uses
whole alphabetto describe his range of faces in response to being beat by his wife. Below he goes into more detail about this.
cammock
A stick or club with a crooked head, used in games to drive a ball (OED n.1).
Bullithrumble describes his wife’s crooked face as well as suggests that she is the
stick, he the ball.
criss-cross row
the alphabet, so named from the figure of a cross prefixed to the alphabet in hornbooks
and primers for teaching children to read (OED Christ-cross-row n.1)
While he … his Page.
Bullithrumble should be sitting at a distance from where Corcut and his Page enter
so that they do not immediately notice him. As Hopkinson and others have pointed out,
the rest of this scene is very similar to a late scene in Locrine where the defeated and starving Scythian king Humber asks the clown Strumbo for some
meat.It is also reminiscent of a scene in King Leir where Leir and Perillus are wandering in a forest, searching for meat that is subsequently provided by a disguised Cordella. Historically as reported by Ashton, Korkud was present when Selimus deposes Bayezid II in Istanbul. He then
fled awaye priuilye wyth his gallayes in to his prouince(H4r). In Shute, Korkud is not present in Istanbul when Bayezid II is deposed. Later, he is forced into hiding by Selim and then executed (O2v).
disguised like mourners
wearing some kind of black costume (Dessen and Thomson)
Tartary
Tartarus.
In classical mythology, the deepest level of the underworld where the gods locked
away their enemies.
O hateful hellish … on the grass.
Much of Corcut’s account of his escape from Selimus appears to have been taken from
Ashton (I4v-I5v), including his escape with servants from Magnesia to Smyrna as well as his desire
to find a ship to take him to Rhodes.
In Shute’s account, neither Smyrna nor Rhodes are mentioned, and Korkud is not said
to have been accompanied by servants (O2v-O3r).
fen
swamp
animatest
to fill with boldness, courage, spirit (OED v.1)
ends
goals
so nor so
in any way
Old Hali’s sons
Hali Bassa and Cali Bassa.
Much of the rest of this speech is adapted from Ashton I4v.
companies
Corcut is referring to plural groups here.
barded
armed covered with bards (metal plates) (OED adj.1)
should have befell me
Metrically, the removal of
toregularizes the pentameter line.
thus disguisèd
Corcuts escape in disguise is mentioned in Shute (O2v).
Smyrna
Greek port city on the Aegean Sea
dark cave
Historically, Korkud was captured by his brother while hiding in a cave.
transfrete
to pass over a narrow straight or sea (OED v.)
Rhodes
large Greek island and name for its capital city
crossed
thwarted
Kept
controlled
brigantines
Small vessels equipped both for sailing and rowing (OED n.1).
These two days … on the grass.
For similar scenes of a character attempting to elude discovery, see Locrine H3r-v and Alphonsus King of Aragon E2v.
in good time
in the nick of time
hungry
small, insufficient (OED adj.3a)
felonians
Comic form of felons.
Clowns often trafficked in malaprops and neologisms.
creep into kindred
get intimate, get too close
you are … Master Bullithrumble
Bullithrumble disputes that he is simply a
groom,asserting that he is a
Master.Compare with Locrine:
O alasse sir, ye are deceiued, I am not Mercury, I am Strumbo(H2v). Elizabethan clowns frequently disputed their lower-order stations as part of their routines. Slipper, for example, in James IV tells Sir Bartram that he
is a gentleman(E4r). Mouse in Mucedorus claims that
A Lord at the least I am(F2r). Derrick in The Famous Victories of Henry V protests,
Am I a clown? Zounds, masters, do clowns go in silk apparel?(146). Ralph in Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay declares his own superiority because he is a king’s clown.
Aside
Bullithrumble clearly speaks the next sentence to himself.
cozening conicatching crossbiter
All terms in Robert Greene’s conicatching pamphlets, the first of which was his Notable Discovery of Coosenage published in 1591.
Conicatcherswere mostly urban criminals that used card scams to steal from
conies(rabbits, i.,e. prey).
Crossbiterswere essentially pimps who used sex workers to blackmail customers. Compare with The Taming of the Shrew:
Take heede signior Baptista, least you be conicatcht in this business: I dare sweare this is the right Vincentio(T6r).
’tence
pretence
uncle
victuals
food
godfathers and godmothers
Godfathers and godmothers are traditionally present at christenings where the name
of a baby is announced.
BULLITHRUMBLE
In the 1594 quarto, the Bullithrumble speech prefix recurs redundantly at the top
of H2v before
Mass.Riad has argued that there may be a Corcut speech that is missing here, but because the unnecessary prefix occurs at the top of a page, this was in all likelihood a compositor’s mistake.
Aside
Bullithrumble’s next two sentences here are clearly self-directed.
church book
the parish register where christenings, marriages, and deaths were recorded
Mass
by the mass, an oath
ad quorum and omnium populorum
Latin phrases used in commissioning a Justice of the Peace to do his work (Vitkus 123).
How he famines me.
Bullithrumble complains that Corcut is making him hungry by keeping him from his meat.
Ironically, Bullithrumble is the one who is doing most of the talking here.
an it please you
an if it please you
do believe
have faith in god
and it please you
if it please you
catechism
An elementary treatise for instruction in the principles of the Christian religion,
in the form of question and answer (OED n.2).
Bullithrumble comically describes his so-far short interaction with Corcut as a kind
of catechism.
sovereign
supreme
O lord … and goblins.
Listening to the language of Corcut’s oath, Bullithrumble comically confuses it with
a demonic invocation.
This is reminiscent of the clowns’ fear in Doctor Faustus that Mephistophilis will have him torn to pieces.
Aside
Bullithrumble clearly speaks the next sentence to himself.
stately
princely, noble, majestic (OED adj.1)
Maister Pigwiggen
Maister (i.e. Master).
Maister Pigwiggenis a comic name for a rural justice of the peace
entertain
Provide for (OED v.1c).
Bullithrumble thinks that Corcut and his page are asking to be taken into his service
as servants.
Around this time, there were a number of plays with such comic recruitment scenes.
See, for example, Mucedorus, James IV, Doctor Faustus, and Edward II.
A good … Maister
Compare with Mucedorus:
I wil tell you what I can doe, I can keepe my tougue from picking and stealing, and my hands from lying and slaundering, I warrant you(B2v).
nutrimented
Well bred (OED adj.).
keep
watch
keeping … stealing
Bullithrumble confuses the actions of hands and tongues here.
picking
pickpocketing
servitures
servants
tripes
intestines
society
A group, collective.
The joke here and below seems to be that
societyis anything but a
well-used metaphor,nor is
company.
The brethren
Hali Bassa and Cali Bassa
portagues
Portuguese gold coins
Enter Selimus
Compare with Ashton which recounts Selimus hiring
a greate route of mourners, with all pompe and solempnitiein order to cloke his murder of Bajazeth (I3r).
corses
corpses
[Bajazeth]
The 1594 quarto mistakenly substitutes
Mustaffa.It is clearly the corpse of Bajazeth with that of Aga that is being carried in here.
with funeral pomp
a public procession involving mourning figures, costumes, and music (Dessen and Thomson)
[Aside]
The large processional entrance here is used to signify the stakes of Selimus’s actions
at this point. That the entrance is immediately followed by an aside underscores its
symbolic importance. Selimus’s speech here is clearly self-directed.
I made of him away
Metrically, the addition of
ofregularizes the pentameter line.
Why
an interjection
thus must Selim blind his subjects’ eyes.
Similarly, Ashton describes Bayezid II’s grand funeral as an underhanded attempt by
Selim to
cloke the most cruel & manyfest murther of his father(I3r).
Richard III in Richard III deploys comparable strategies in 3.7.
made of him away
killed him
pomp
ceremony
mortuary
a funeral, obsequies (OED n.2)
dram
bit
Phoenix
See Sc3 Sp1.
pavilion
a large, stately, or ornamental tent (OED n.1a)
in this ancient monument
The Temple of Mahomet.
[Bajazeth placed in]
The original stage direction dictates
Suppose the Temple of Mahomet.This is apparently a direction for the actors, intended to cue them to treat the space as if it were a pagan temple, one dedicated to Muhammed. Vitkus (146) points out that it was common for English texts to mistake mosques for temples. According to Dessen and Thomson, this is the only instance of
supposeused as an imperative in a stage direction.
Thou wert … of ours
Selimus is setting himself up as the reborn Phoenix, born from his father’s ashes.
And didst thou die
Metrically, the substitution of
didst thou dieregularizes the pentameter line.
magnific
renowned, glorious (OED adj.)
Mounteth highest heaven
Metrically, the removal of
toregularizes the pentameter line.
Princes
rulers commanders, governors (OED n.3a)
Macedonia
a kingdom of ancient Greece
reward
See Sc20 Sp16.
high exalted
Honored.
The ironic implication here is that the page will end up being hanged for his labor.
That same
his master Corcut
The sweet … affords
there
the life of a king
harborèd
lodged within
from
Bullithrumble ironically makes the excuse of his familial responsibilities here.
sure
an expression of certainty (OED int.P1)
Ay me
a spontaneous expression of regret (OED int.1)
the governor of Magnesia
In the tenth Scene, a messenger calls Corcut the
Soldan of Magnesia.Nowhere in the play do we see Hali Bassa having this governor position being conferred upon him.
wrath
angry
Thus I … as she.
Amphiaraus was a seer and warrior beloved of Zeus and Apollo. His wife Eriphyle, bribed
with a gold necklace, convinced him to join a disastrous expedition of the seven against
Thebes.
Eriphyle was ultimately murdered in revenge by one of her sons at the bidding of Amphiaraus.
No one has yet identified the source of Corcut’s allusion to Amphiaraus’s disguise.
sorrowst
Metrically,
sorrowstregularizes the pentameter line.
profession
occupation
charge
responsibility
stealing from them closely away
moving stealthily, secretly away (Dessen and Thomson)
closely
secretly, covertly (OED adj.3)
The more’s the pity.
expression of regret about a statement just made
preferment
Bullithrumble ironically calls his punishment a
prefermentin that he would be raised up by the gallows.
down Holburn up Tyburn
Bullithrumble refers to the infamous path of criminals to execution in London. They
first passed down Holburn street to the village of Tyburn, just north of London where
the gallows were located. Of course, a Turkish shepherd would not be talking about
London here.
Compare with The Life and Death of Jack Straw:
Tyborn stand fast, I feare you will be loden ere it be long(B1v).
my best joint
his head
strappado
The strappado was a form of torture in which the victim was raised on a pulley by
his hands that were tied behind his back. Bullithrumble imagines the strappado as
equivalent to the gallows here.
running away
Bullithrumble exits with the same energy that he first entered the play. His running
away also enacts his escape strategy outlined at Sc20 Sp3 above. Such exits and entrances were part of the conventional routines of Elizabethan
clowns.
Persian Ismael … our chief foes.
succor
assistance
potentates
Monarchs, princes, rulers, especially autocratic ones (OED n.1).
down
An elevated stretch of open, uncultivated land with gently rolling hills (OED n.2).
bold
brave
condign
Fitting, appropriate (OED adj.3a, b).
Starvation is fitting presumably because the Page betrayed Corcut while he was feeding
his sheep.
your philosophy
See Sc18 Sp14.
Old Gyges’ wond’rous ring
Gyges was an old shepherd living in what is now western Turkey who discovered a magical
ring that rendered its wearers invisible. He used the ring to depose a king and marry
his widow (Vitkus 128).
In comparing Corcut to Gyges, Selimus subtly accuses Corcut of having designs on the
throne.
jest
joke
Upbraidst
to bring forward, adduce as a ground for reproach (OED v.1)
whit
not in the least (OED adj.1b)
no otherwise
not any differently
leave
permission
Ay
Acomat agrees to let Corcut speak here, so
Aymakes more sense here than Q1’s
Nay.
divine
predict
I have conversed with Christians
Corcut’s spiritual conversion to Christianity as he will describe in this speech is
not to be found Ashton or Shute and was likely added for the benefit of the play’s
Christian audiences.
please
gratify, satisfy (OED v2a)
crystalline vault
a sphere in the Ptolemaic system located beyond the stars (OED chrystalline adj.1)
treads
Beats down.
Corcut seems to be suggesting something to the effect that god minimizes our sins
while we are still alive on earth.
wink
turn a blind eye to
But it is
Metrically, the addition of
itregularizes the pentameter line.
hearken
listen
give us over to our wicked choice
damn us
offences
sins
Chiurlu
A city in northwest Turkey, near Byzantium (i.e. Istanbul).
See Scene 5 to Scene 8. Selim died on the road from Edirne to Istanbul in September, 1520, not in Chiurlu.
Corcut’s prediction could be taken as further evidence of a planned sequel. See Conclusion.
In Chiurlu … death.
Corcut’s prediction is prophetic. Selim died near the city of Chiurlu in 1520.
[Selimus] strangles him.
The original stage direction does not identify who strangles Corcut, but because no
command is given, it is most likely Selimus who was meant to carry out the deed. In
Ashton, Korkud is executed by Selim by being
trussed up in a bowstryng(I5v). Shute does not specify how Korkud was killed (O2r). Corcut’s body will somehow need to be removed before the next scene.
corrivals
One of several competitors having equal claims (OED n.1).
As Selimus explains below, Acomat is not a corrival because he is too weak to resist
Selimus.
Persian aid
See Sc23 Sp1.
immures herself
shuts herself up in
girt
surround
They say … girt Amasya.
Similarly, Ashton describes how Selim resolved to murder both of Ahmed’s sons (I3v-I4r). Selimus’s attack on Solyma is apparently an invention of the play.
bastard
Selimus suggests that Amurath and Aladin are not the true children of Acomat (i.e.
the products of adultery) and thus not legitimate rivals to the Ottoman throne.
officiousness
Readiness in doing good offices, performing one’s duty (OED n1).
Though not listed, this would be, according to the OED, the earliest use of the term in this sense.
souls
Selimus is referring to the plural
soulsof Amurath and Aladin here.
keep
govern
Mustaffa [and a Janissary]
Q1 indicates that only Mustaffa remains on stage even while he sends
onewith a message to Amurath and Aladin below.
It grieves my soul
Mustaffa’s worry about the Ottoman line can also be found in Ashton (I4r).
eclipsèd
cast a shadow upon, obscured (OED v.3a)
Ottoman’s fair race
the heirs of Osman I, founder of the Ottoman Empire
Yet for
because
dear
dearly
sirrah
a term of address expressing authority (OED int.1)
post
ride, run, or travel with haste (OED v.2a)
Go, sirrah … Amasya.
This is an example of what McMillin and MacLean describe as the Queen’s Men’s dramaturgical
strategy of
narrative overdetermination,Mustaffa here predicting the action of a scene to come.
do put them
Metrically, the addition of
doregularizes the pentameter line.
put them to the sword
kill them
crabbèd
cross, ill tempered (OED adj.2b)
repine
grumble, complain (OED v.1a)
To be the brother of their emperor
Mustaffa was offered the hand of Bajazeth’s sister, Solyma, in marriage.
Enter Solyma
Solyma is neither in Ashton nor Shute and is thus likely an invention. She is the
second of three female characters to appear in the play.
grace
kindly regard (OED n.2b)
This night … to me
Compare with Richard III where prophetic dreams occur in a number of scenes.
Lucinae’s shining wain
The chariot of the moon.
Lucina was the goddess of childbirth and often linked to the moon (Riad 181).
Cassiopeia
This is a constellation named after Cassiopeia, the mother of Andromeda, who boasted
of her and her daughter’s unrivaled beauty and who for her arrogance was punished
by being exiled to the sky. The stars in the constellation form the shape of a chair.
a fearful vision
A number of plays during the period like Shakepeare’s Richard III and the anonymous Arden of Faversham include such prophetic dreams.
of bassa’s fair degree
of the bassas’ elite status
halter
noose
A greedy lion … all to nought.
Solyma has a premonition of her coming death at the hands of her brother Selimus.
nought
nothing
vain
idle, unprofitable, useless (OED adj.1a)
disjoin
separate
bounds
boundaries
this
Amurath gives the messengers some coins.
let us depart
Compare the following with Ashton which has the brothers fleeing together to the mountains
(I4r).
the windows of the morn be ope
morning
ope
open
Aegyptus
Latin for Egypt
I’ll to Aegyptus … I to Persia.
In Shute (O4r-v), Acomat’s sons fight in their father’s last battle against Selimus, fleeing at its
conclusion.
they
Amurath and Aladin
did move them
Metrically, the addition of
didregularizes the pentameter line.
him
Hali Bassa only meets with one messenger.
certified
informed
abye
pay the penalty for (OED v.2)
pitiful
merciful, also pathetic
him
Mustaffa
mean
means
secrecies
secrets
So help me God and holy Mahomet.
One of the rare religious oaths in the play. See Sc25 Sp4.
for
because
famous stock
royal line of the Ottomans
battle of Chiurlu … by flight
hedged
surrounded
danger
vulnerability
’scape
escape
dignity
high estate, position, or estimation (OED n.2)
sons
Hali Bassa and Cali Bassa
bend their brows
frown
Janissars do mourn
Metrically, addition of
doregularizes the pentameter line.
ever subject
ever any subject has been
holy protestation
Selimus refers to Mustaffa’s vow,
So help me God and holy Mahomet,above.
merchantman
merchant
ware
merchandise
gracious
generous (OED adj.2a)
be in the selfsame
be guilty of the same
he made thee emperor
See Sc16 Sp3. Though we do not actually see him support Selimus’s usurpation of the throne, Mustaffa
is apparently present when the Janissaries crown Selimus offstage.
benefits
kind deeds, kindnesses, favors (OED n.2a)
after live
live after
’Twere pity … husband.
Selimus sarcastically suggests that the lonely Solyma should join Mustaffa in the
afterlife.
unmanly
Lacking fortitude and courage.
Selimus ironically suggests that Solyma’s forces are
unmanlybecause led by a woman.
Exeunt
Mustaffa’s and Solyma’s bodies will somehow have to been removed from the stage before
the start of the next scene.
my native soil
Turkey
by right
Acomat refers to the fact that now, after his killing of Corcut, he is the eldest
son of Bajazeth.
He was … bassas’ will
See Scene 18.
enthronized
Enthroned.
Compare with Locrine:
Right noble father, we will rule the land, / Enthronized in seates of Topace stones, / That Locrine and his brethren all may know(C3r).
made good Bajazeth to die
See Scene 19.
strangled Corcut
See Scene 22.
exiled me
We never see Selimus formally do this in the play.
raise
remove
Nilus
Latin for the Nile river
Usumcasane
Usumcasane is a supporter of Tamburlaine in Marlowe’s Tamburlaine plays. During the
course of these plays, Tamburlaine crowns him king of Morocco. The historical Usumcasane,
Uzun Hasan, was a Persian King who lived decades after Timur the Lame, the historical
source of Marlowe’s Tamburlaine (Vitkus 147). The historic record is unclear as to whether Uzun Hasan was related to Tuman Bey
(the historic namesake of the play’s Tonombey). Ashton, though, records that the Persian
leader Ismael was the grandson of Uzun Hasan (G2v).
From whom my father lineally descends
This appears to be a fictional lineage.
Fortune shall show
even if Fortune shall show
too cross
opposed
revest
reinvest
uncontrollèd
not to be controlled
policy
course of action (OED n.4)
mushrooms
walls
This is the second scene to make use of a platform above the main stage. See Sc13 Sp1.
parricide
murderer of his own father
lukewarm blood
This was a common phrase in professional plays of the period.
your robberies
Metrically, the addition of
yourregularizes the pentameter line.
equal
just
Euripus of swift Euboea
Euripus is a strait between the Greek island of Euboea and the Boeotian peninsula
known for its swift current
Phoeb’s
Phoebus’s, the sun’s
bring the day … Eastern sea.
rise in the west and set in the east
Thy bloody … What security?
Solyma sarcastically asks Selimus what hope of mercy can she have given the violent
past actions of him and his soldiers.
ungracious
wicked, possibly low born (as an insult)
of all thy dearest friends
Metrically, the addition of
allregularizes the pentameter line.
death
forms of death
sturdy
rebellious, disobedient (OED adj.5a)
Though you braved us
Metrically, the addition of
youregularizes the pentameter line.
braved
challenged, defied (OED v.1)
Melanippe … great Hercules
Daughter of the Greek god of war Ares, Melanippe (in Q1
Menalip) was an Amazonian queen, sister to Hippolyta who appears in A Midsummer Night’s Dream as captive to Theseus.
Hercules fought Melanippe and the Amazons along the river Thermodon while retrieving
Hippolyta’s girdle, one of his twelve labors.
haughty plumes
prideful feathers
take
capture
Thou hast not Fortune tièd in a chain
You do not control Fortune.
wary pilot
cautious sea captain
this all containing barge
earth
scold
to behave as a scold; to quarrel noisily, to brawl said chiefly of women (OED v.1)
bug
a self-important, conceited, or pompous person (OED n.2)
Usumcasane’s
See Sc26 Sp2 above.
tempered
brought to the required degree of hardness (OED adj.3)
burgonets
helmets with visors (OED n.1)
Were they … Minerva’s shield.
Compare with Edward I (
Or shouldst as Briareus shake at once, / A hundred bloudie swordes, with bloudie hands,) and Locrine (
How brauely this yoong Brittain Albanact / Darteth abroad the thunderbolts of warre, / Beating downe millions with his furious moode; / And in his glorie triumphs ouer all, / Mouing the massie squadrants of the ground; / Heape hills on hills, to scale the starrie sky, / When Briareus armed with an hundreth hands / Floong forth an hundreth mountains at great Ioue, / And when the monstrous giant Monichus / Hurld mount Olympus at great Mars his targe, / And shot huge caedars at Mineruas shield[D4v]).
fell
treacherous, deceitful, false (OED adj.1d)
earth-bred brethren
The giants.
In the classical tradition, the giants were children of Gaia, earth. Here, Selimus
refers to the revolt of the giants against the gods (Riad 189).
Heaped hill on hill to scale the starry sky
Briareus
Briareus was one of titans, children of Gaia (earth), who was said to have a hundred
arms or hands. In one tradition, Briareus fought with the titans against the gods.
Monichus
Monichus was a centaur and a giant (Riad 190).
Mars his targe
Mars’s shield
darted
hurled
Minerva
Roman goddess associated with wisdom and war
urchins
hedgehogs
porcupine
Selimus, in calling Acomat a
porcupine,accuses him of being prickly and difficult to deal with.
masketh in our looks
Selimus tells Acomat that courage makes masks of his soldiers’ faces, suggesting that
all of his men look courageous.
white-winged
morally pure, right
Victory sits on our swords
Captain of Egypt
Tonombey
vauntst
boasts
Sprung … Scythian thief,
bade thee enterprise
encouraged you to pursue
Trebisond
See Sc1 Sp6.
squarèd
elusive, meaning possibly carefully chosen (Hopkinson 122) or ready to fight (Vitkus 139)
broad-mouthed
insolent (OED broad n.C2)
detain
keep
crest
head
I dare and chellenge thee.
Selimus challenges his brother to single combat.
unripe
immature
Phaeton
In his adolescence, Phaeton asked his father to let him drive his sun chariot across
the sky. After receiving permission to do so, he lost control of the horses, and because
he then came too close to earth, threatening it with destruction, Zeus struck the
boy down with a thunderbolt.
In classical mythology, Phaeton was the son of Helios, the sun.
t’undertake
to undertake, to take in hand
resolv’st
resolves, decides
peremptory
decisive
cope with
face
bragging
Boastful, swaggering (OED adj.).
Compare with Locrine:
And but thou better vse thy bragging blade, / Then thou doest rule thy ouerflowing toong, /Superbious Brittaine, thou shalt know too soone / The force of Humber and his Scithians(D4r).
overflowing
too loquacious, talkative
Exeunt all but Tonombey.
There are soldiers from both sides still on the stage when Tonombey reenters. His
final speech, however, is delivered with only him on stage, and as such an added stage
direction is needed here.
Dings
knocks
Persians
The Persians were also Acomat’s allies.
occision
killing, slaughter (OED n.)
Sinam Bassa with Acomat prisoner
Thus, when … of Troy.
Selimus compares his victory over Acomat to a victory in the Iliad of the Trojan Hector, son of King Priamus, over the Greeks in the Trojan War.
Eventually, of course, the Greeks would kill Hector and win the war, and as such,
this is an ironic allusion. For an earlier reference to the Trojan War, see Sc19 Sp12.
gallant
excellent, splendid (OED adj.4a)
never-foilèd
never-beaten
raving for
wandering in search of (Vitkus 141), or deleriously, madly (OED v.1c)
drove
herd (OED n.2a)
Or Mars … of blood.
In a second epic simile in this speech, Selimus cites an elusive myth involving the
Roman god of war fighting with the Thracians, a group of Indo-European tribes occupying
southeastern Europe. The Hebros is a river running through Greece and emptying into
the Aegean Sea.
adamantine
made of a hard rock or mineral, unbreakable (OED adj.1a)
Beylerbey of fair Natolia
The previous beylerbey died in scene 14 above.
rev’rence
Metrically, this abbreviated form of
reverenceregularizes the pentameter line.
contentation
satisfaction
them
the assembled bassas who fought for Selimus
wanted
lacked
Now, as … to crowns.
Monster-gardensmay be a reference to the Garden of Hesperides or to the Garden of Eden (Riad 194).
Selimus delivers his third epic simile in this scene, here comparing himself to the
many classical heroes like Hercules and Odysseus who had successfully completed challenging
tasks and journeys.
Ind
India
trod
walked
Like the … territories.
In his fourth and longest epic simile in this scene, Selimus compares his history
to the myth of Egyptian Ibis.
sweltring
sweltering, oppressively hot
earth’s green children
plantlife, possibly young animals
band
to join or form together (OED v.4)
array
an arrangement in lines or ranks (OED n.1a)
them
the ibises
basilisk
A mythological serpant whose look and breath was fatal.
lifted ungracious hands
Metrically, the removal of
hisregularizes the pentameter line.
rid
gotten rid of
cockatrice
another word for basilisk
consumèd
destroyed
And now … emperors
Tonombey and Ismael among others.
Here again, the play suggests a coming sequel. See Sc23 Sp12 and the Conclusion below.
those soldans … hell
Selim I attacked and defeated the Persians and their leader Ismael in 1514. He defeated
the Egyptians and their leader Tuman Bey in 1517.
These encounters presumably would have been the subject of Selimus’s sequel if it had been written. As Vitkus has pointed out (22), Selimus’s reference here to a
lowest hellis ironic given his rejection of either a heaven or a hell in his long opening speech in the play’s second scene.
quell
kill, put to death (OED v.1)
Zephyrus
the west wind, indicating the arrival of Spring
blast
a strong gust of wind (OED n.1)
meads
meadows
fling
attack (OED n.2)
Enter Conclusion.
Like the Prologue, the following choral speech would have been delivered by one of
the actors to the audience. Dessen and Thomson list no other instance of a
Conclusionspeaking part in an early modern English professional play.
Arabia
In fact, Selimus has become the undisputed Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. He actually
does not wear the crown of Arabia.
Next
Here is famously promised a sequel, like the second part of Tamburlaine. As far as we know, this sequel was never written and therefore never staged.
warlike
Naturally disposed to warfare (OED adj.1).
Compare with 1 Tamburlaine:
Wel, here is now to the Souldan of Egypt the King of Arabia, and the Gouernour of Damascus. Now take these three crownes, and pledge me, my contributorie Kings. / I crown you here (Theridamas) King of Argier: Techelles, king of Feste, and Vsummeasane King of Morocus(D8v).
Giving
The form
Givingis parallel with
Dividingin the preceding line and also makes the lines here clearer in meaning.
do like you well
you do like well
Prosopography
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.
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.
Kirk Melnikoff
Kirk Melnikoff is Professor of English at UNC Charlotte and a past president of the
Marlowe Society of America. His research interests range from sixteenth-century British
Literature and Culture, to Shakespeare in Performance, to Book History. His essays
have appeared in a number of journals and books, and he is the author of Elizabethan Book Trade Publishing and the Makings of Literary Culture (U Toronto P, 2018). He has also edited four essay collections, most recently Christopher Marlowe, Theatrical Commerce, and the Book Trade (Cambridge UP, 2018), and published an edition of Robert Greene’s James IV in 2020. He is currently co-editing a collection of early modern book-trade wills
which will be published by Manchester UP, editing Marlowe’s Edward II for the Oxford Marlowe: Collected Works project, and working on a monograph on bookselling in early modern England.
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.
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.
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.
Bibliography
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fourth. London:
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Orgography
LEMDO Team (LEMD1)
The LEMDO Team is based at the University of Victoria and normally comprises the project
director, the lead developer, project manager, junior developers(s), remediators,
encoders, and remediating editors.
Queenʼs Men Editions (QME1)
The Queen’s Men Editions anthology is led by Helen Ostovich, General Editor; Peter
Cockett, General Editor (Performance); and Andrew Griffin, General Editor (Text).
University of Victoria (UVIC1)
https://www.uvic.ca/Metadata
| Authority title | Selimus: Annotations |
| Type of text | Annotation |
| Short title | Sel: Annotations |
| Publisher | University of Victoria on the Linked Early Modern Drama Online Platform |
| Series | Queenʼs Men Editions |
| Source |
Annotations written by Kirk Melnikoff to accompany his modern text of Selimus
|
| 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, Kirk Melnikoff. The critical paratexts, including this Annotation, are licensed under a CC BY-NC_ND 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) the content cannot be adapted or repurposed (except for quotations for the purposes of academic review and citation); and (3) commercial uses are not permitted without the knowledge and consent of QME, the editor, and LEMDO. This license allows for pedagogical use of the critical paratexts in the classroom. 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. |