Item 11b - Notes on McKerrow’s edition of the Works of Nashe, by G. C. Moore Smith

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Transcript

Nashe. {1}

III {2}

147. 20. too. I suppose this is ‘to’—and that you take it so.

154. 21. Nashe seems to understand istic as = hic, instead of being opposed to it. In his age hic and iste were thought to be synonymous.

162. 9. Is emendation needed? May not ‘Madam Amphitrite’ {3} simply mean ‘the sea’?

163. 5. Cp. Silius 5. 396 | latrantes undae

168. 15. I suppose ‘vernaculum’ is due to Plautus, Poenulus IV. 2. 105.

—. 32. Should it be ‘to them lurtched’? The sense is still not clear.

171. 27. ? Essæx-surprised? or last-surprised? Might not the attack on Gadiz be taken as a surprize?

173. 19. ? ‘Maiden-piece’—‘our maiden paragon’ = Elizabeth.

177. 20. ‘of an enflamed zeale to copper-smithes hal’?

178. 10. should not ‘shee’ be ‘hee’? (the country gentleman)

179. 32. laborathro. {3} The Spanish form seems to be laboradór—and a medial ‘d’ often in Spanish has the sound ‘th’. That would give ‘laborathór’.

180. 10. ‘it gives their handfuls to’—? it keeps their hands fully employed.

184. 2. Was the Lord Mayor that year a Fishmonger?

186. 21. arming forth, though it be but a catch . . . . . . . bowle, to impe-the-winges-of his convoy—‘to speed his convoy.’

186. 29. What had the bailies of the Cinque Ports to do in Yarmouth?

188. 31. 200 witches are however said to have been executed in Scotland in 1590 for causing a storm the year before.

191. 32. Is ‘clumme’ a variant of ‘glum’?

210 8. This seems to come from an etymology of ‘absurdus’—I suppose not in Isidorus Hispalensis?

217. 9. Query, a parody of a legal phrase such as in the ‘particular strict and usual’ meaning of the word.

[217.] {5} 20. Does this mean in Armado-language— ‘was no breathe-able (or acceptable) scent to the channel of her ear’

244. 358. Solstitium, come into the court without. I suppose the play was not acted in the Court-yard of the Archbishop’s Palace? I am rather surprized at yr statement that the usual supper time was 9—and that the play was presumably acted still later. In Ascham’s time at Cambridge dinner was at 10 & supper at 5 I think and Nashe says the feast at a Commence-ment was held about 3.

249. 491. I dont feel sure that these lines are corrupt—‘when he returns to the sea from which he rose, then he assumes the god’—Or do you think the word ‘dawns’ implies a description of his rising?

250. 530. I should think ‘woods’ must stand for ‘words.’ Is there some definition of Poetry to correspond to this? Or would you prefer ‘woods’ because the Phaethontidae were turned into poplars?

[250.] {5} 533–5. I dont see any corruption here. The rocks do not refuse to be the source of streams And a stony heart cannot object to a cry of woe from those whom it has oppressed.

252. 615-7. These lines seem to me corrupt.

253. 630. Is Vertumnus humorously made to say | Orĭon Vrĭon Arĭon

258. 799. ‘I print this as prose.’ In my copy it looks like verse.

[258.] {5} 804. I suppose the last line of Collier’s note contains an error. ‘Town’ in the song means ‘homestead’ I suppose.

267. 1049. Can it be ‘flye fiue meale in the Element’ = fly in five pieces

270. Is a line wanting before l. 1160? Or should 1160 and 1161 be inverted?

285. l. 1654. If ‘me’ can be the Ethic Dative, the text may stand.

272. 1215. something must be wanting. Perhaps the whole Latin quotation

Where on the contrary ‘servitutem servi
Risci jocisque ulciscuntur mali’

which is then (incorrectly) translated.

291. 1836 &c. Some emendation seems necessary. I can only suggest

My murmuring springs, musicians of sweete sleepe,
2) Channel’d in a sweete falling quaterzaine,
1) To murmuring male-contents, with their well-turn’de aires {6}
To lull their eares (or cares) {7} asleepe, listning themselves

292. 1884. ‘This lowe built house.’ I am rather doubtful if actors would have spoken of the Arch-bishop’s Palace in these terms. And if so, I dont know what the line means. May they not mean the grave to which they are carrying Summer? & the words be sung, as the procession has already passed out of sight of the company?

250. 545 etc. You dont say these lines are corrupt—but they surely are. It seems to me that a line is wanting before 547—such as

‘And this same stream that now lies waterless’

In 550 ‘ran’ should probably be ‘run.’ But even so, the whole passage is very clumsy.

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{1} The succeeding notes relate to Nashes Lenten Stuffe and Summer’s Last Will and Testament.

{2} This volume number appears only before the first entry, but the rest are indented to show that it was intended to relate to all of them.

{3} ‘Madona Amphitrite’ in McKerrow’s edition.

{4} ‘laboratho’ in McKerrow’s edition. Cf. MCKW A2/15.

{5} The entry is indented to show that the page number of the preceding entry relates to this one as well.

{6} Numbers are braced to these two lines to indicate that their order should be reversed.

{7} ‘or cares’ added below ‘eares’. Brackets supplied.

Sent with MCKW A2/11a.