Part 43

My soule more scruple breeds than my bloud sinne, Vertue imposeth more than any stepdame.

186-187 Come . . . plaints. A omits.

192 [are]. Added by Dilke; Qq omit.

196 enterd. A; B, enterr'd.

201 a. A omits.

EPILOGUE

With many hands you have seene D'Ambois slaine; Yet by your grace he may revive againe, And every day grow stronger in his skill To please, as we presume he is in will. The best deserving actors of the time 5 Had their ascents, and by degrees did clime To their full height, a place to studie due. To make him tread in their path lies in you; Hee'le not forget his makers, but still prove His thankfulnesse, as you encrease your love. 10

FINIS.

LINENOTES:

Epilogue Not found in A.

Notes To Bussy D'Ambois

For the meaning of single words see the Glossary.

=Prologue.= The allusions in these lines can be only partially explained. The play had evidently been performed, not long before 1641, by a company which had not possessed original acting rights in it. The performance had been successful (cf. ll. 3-4 "the grace of late It did receive"), and the "King's men," while not claiming a monopoly in it, nor seeking to detract from their rivals' merits, felt bound to revive the play on their own account, lest they should seem to be letting their claim go by default. It is possible that in ll. 11-12, they refer to a performance that in vindication of this claim they had given at Court, while, as further evidence of their priority of interest, they remind the audience of the actors belonging to the company who had appeared in the title-role. Nathaniel Field (l. 15), born in 1587, had as a boy been one of the "Children of the Queen's Revels," and had performed in Jonson's Cynthia's Revels, 1600, and Poetaster, 1601. He seems to have joined the King's players soon after 1614, and his name appears in the list of "the principall actors in all these playes" prefixed to the first Shakespearean Folio of 1623. Not long after this period, Field, who by his Woman is a Weathercock (1612) and his Amends for Ladies (1618) had made a reputation as a dramatist as well as an actor, is believed to have retired from the stage, though he lived till 1633. If, however, he did not appear as Bussy till after 1614, when the play had already been at least seven years, perhaps considerably longer, on the boards, it can scarcely be said with truth that his "action first did give it name" (l. 16). His successor in the part, whom the "gray beard" (l. 18) of advancing years had now disqualified, cannot be identified; but the "third man" (l. 21) is probably Ilyard Swanston, who, according to Fleay (Biog. Chron. of Drama, vol. I, p. 60), was one of the "King's men" from 1625 to 1642. His impersonation of Bussy is favourably referred to by Edmund Gayton in his Festivous Notes upon Don Quixote (1654), p. 25 and his previous role of "Richard" (l. 23) may have been that of Ricardo in Massinger's Picture, which he had played in 1629 (cf. Phelps, Geo. Chap. p. 125). The earlier editors thought that Charles Hart was here alluded to, but Wright in his Historia Histrionica states it was the part of the Duchess in Shirley's Cardinal, licensed 1641, that first gave him any reputation. Hence he cannot at this date have performed Bussy; his fame in the part was made after the Restoration (cf. Introduction, p. xxv).

=5-6=, 1-33. =Fortune . . . port.= This opening speech of Bussy illustrates the difficult compression of Chapman's style and the diversion of his thought from strictly logical sequence by his excessive use of simile. He begins (ll. 1-4) by emphasising the paradoxical character of human affairs, in which only those escape poverty who are abnormal, while it is among the necessitous that worthily typical representatives of the race must be sought. The former class, under the designation of "great men," are then (after a parenthetical comparison with cedars waxing amidst tempests) likened to statuaries who are satisfied if the exterior of the Colossus they are creating is sufficiently imposing; they are then (by an awkward transition of the imagery) likened to the statues themselves (l. 15) "heroique" in form but "morter, flint, and lead" within. Chapman's meaning is here obvious enough, but it is a singular canon of aesthetics that estimates the worth of a statue by the materials out of which it is made. In l. 18 a new thought is started, that of the transitoriness of life, and the perishable nature of its gifts, and as the ocean-voyager needs a stay-at-home pilot to steer him safely into port, so the adventurer in "the waves of glassie glory" (ll. 29-30) is bidden look to "vertue" for guidance to his desired haven--not exactly the conclusion to be expected from the opening lines of the speech.

=6=, 23. =To put a girdle . . . world.= The editors all compare Mid. Night's Dream, I, 1, 175, which Chapman probably had in mind.

=7=, 34. =in numerous state.= A play of words, apparently, on two senses of the phrase: (1) the series of numbers, (2) a populous kingdom.

=8=, 59. =gurmundist.= The N. E. D. quotes no other example of the form "gurmundist" for "gurmond" = "gourmand."

=9=, 86-87. =set my looks In an eternall brake:= keep my countenance perpetually immoveable. A "brake" is a piece of framework for holding something steady.

=15=, 187. =I am a poet.= This is historically true. A poem of some length, Stances faictes par M. de Bussy, is quoted by Joubert in his Bussy D'Amboise, pp. 205-09.

=15=, 194-95. =chaine And velvet jacket:= the symbols of a steward's office.

=16=, 207. =his woodden dagger.= The Elizabethan jester carried the wooden dagger or sword, which was often one of the properties of the "Vice" in the later Moralities and the Interludes.

=17=, =Pyra.= Though this character is mentioned here and elsewhere among the Dramatis Personae, she takes no part in the dialogue.

=17=, 2. that English virgin: apparently Annable, who is the Duchess of Guise's lady-in-waiting (cf. III, 2, 234-40).

=18=, 15. =what's that to:= what has that to do with.

=18=, 16-27. =Assure you . . . confusion to it.= With this encomium on Elizabeth and her Court compare Crequi's account of Byron's compliments to the Queen (Byron's Conspiracie, IV, 1).

=19=, 36. =Which we must not affect:= which change, however, we must not desire to take place.

=19=, 39-43. =No question . . . as they.= The travelled Englishman's affectation of foreign attire is a stock theme of Elizabethan satire. Cf. (e. g.) Merch. of Ven. I, 2, 78-81.

=19=, 44. =travell.= A pun on the two senses, (1) journey, (2) labour, the latter of which is now distinguished by the spelling "travail."