Volume II Part 85 (2/2)

The pa.s.sage of Harington seems to amply vindicate Marlowe.

[469] This epithet alone would show that the pa.s.sage is Marlowe's.--Cf.

_Edward II._ v. i. l. 44,

”Heaven turn it to a blaze of _quenchless fire_!”

[470] We have had the expression ”ring of pikes” in _2 Tamburlaine_, iii. 2. l. 99.

[471] Mr. Symonds has an excellent criticism on this pa.s.sage in _Shakespeare's Predecessors_, 664-5. He contrasts Virgil's reserve with Marlowe's exaggeration; and remarks that ”even Shakespeare, had he dealt with Hector's as he did with Hamlet's father's ghost, would have sought to intensify the terror of the apparition at the expense of artistic beauty.”

[472] Armour.

[473] Old ed. ”wound.” The emendation was suggested by Collier.

Shakespeare certainly glanced at this pa.s.sage when he wrote:--

”Unequal match'd Pyrrhus and Priam drives, in rage strikes wide; But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword The unnerved father falls.”

Very slight heightening was required to give a burlesque turn to this speech of aeneas.

[474] Old ed. ”Fawne.”

[475] Old ed. ”And after by that.”

[476] Cease speaking.

[477] We must suppose that Venus had borne the sleeping Ascanius to Cyprus.--Cf. Virg. _aen_. i. 680-1:--

”Hunc ego sopitum somno super alta Cythera Aut super Idalium sacrata sede recondam.”

[478] Sentinels. The form ”centronel” (or ”sentronel”) occurs in the _Tryal of Chevalry_ (1605), i. 3:--”Lieutenant, discharge Nod, and let Cricket stand Sentronell till I come.”

[479] Old ed. ”Citheida's.”

[480] Grandson (Lat. _nepos_).

[481] Scene: a room in Dido's palace.

[482] The same form of expression occurs in the _Jew of Malta_, iii. ll.

32, 33:--

”Upon which _altar I will offer up_ My daily sacrifice of sighs and tears.”

[483] ”_I.e._ (I suppose) twisted.”--_Dyce_.

[484] ”The blank verse, falling in couplets, seems to cry aloud for rhymes.”--_Symonds_.

[485] Ballast.

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