Multorum pallor in ore

Mortis venturæ est.

651-655. The thought here is very similar to a bit from Lucan, Phars. I. 100-107:

Qualiter undas

Qui secat et geminum gracilis mare separat Isthmos
Nec patitur conferre fretum, si terra recedat,
Ionium Aegæo frangat mare: sic, ubi sæva
Arma ducum dirimens miserando funere Crassus
Assyrias Latio maculavit sanguine Carras,
Parthica Romanos solverunt damna furores.

659. They knew not, what a crime their valour was. Cf. Lucan, Phars. 6. 147:

Et qui nesciret in armis

Quam magnum virtus crimen civilibus esset.

663. ENYO. A name given to Bellona, the goddess of war, who drove Mars' chariot. Here the word is war itself, personified.

668. Couer'd that earth... with their trunks. Sed confecto prœlio tum vero cerneres, quanta audacia quantaque animi vis fuisset in exercitu Catilinæ. Nam fere quem quisque vivos pugnando locum ceperat, eum amissa anima corpore tegebat' (Sallust, Cat. 61).

669-689. Sallust gives the following account of Catiline's death: 'Catilina postquam fusas copias seque cum paucis relictum videt, memor generis atque pristinæ suæ dignitatis in confertissumos hostis incurrit, ibique pugnans confoditur' (Cat. 60); 'Catilina vero longe a suis inter hostium cadavera repertus est, paululum etiam spirans, ferociamque animi, quam habuerat vivus, in voltu retinens' (Cat. 61). Cf. this last passage especially, with 685 in the text. 672. Like a Lybian Lyon. See Lucan, Phars. 1. 206 ff.:

Sicut squalentibus arvis,

Aestiferæ Libyes viso leo comminus hoste
Subsedit dubius, totam dum collegit iram;
... Tum torta levis si lancea Mauri

Hæreat, aut latum subeant venabula pectus,
Per ferrum tanti securus volneris exit.

697-698. Only the memorie of this glad day. Cf. quotations in note on 610-616, supra.

678. MINERVA holding forth MEDVSA'S head. See Ovid, Met. 4. 12. 769 ff.

The story of Minerva's fight with the giant Enceladus is told by Claudian, Carm. 53. 91 ff., in a passage which Jonson here closely imitates. Cf.

Tritonia virgo

Prosiliit ostendens rutila cum Gorgone pectus;
Ille procul subitis fixus sine vulnere nodis

Ut se letifero sensit durescere visu. . . .

(Et steterat iam pæne lapis)—Quo vertimur? inquit,
Quæ serpit per membra silex? quis torpor inertem
Marmorea me peste ligat? Vix pauca locutus,
Quod timuit, iam totus erat.

In this connection, cf. also Lucan, Phars. 9. 638-642, 654-658:

Quem, qui recto se lumine vidit,

Passa Medusa mori est? rapint dubitantia fata,
Prævenitque metus: anima periere retenta
Membra; nec emissæ riguere sub ossibus umbræ. . .
Coloque timente

Olim Phlegræo, stantis serpente gigantes,

Erexit montes, bellumque immane deorum
Pallados in medio confecit pectore Gorgon.

Multis

688-691. A braue, bad death, etc. Cf. Florus, Epit. 4. 1: 'Pulcherrima morte, si pro patria sic concidisset.' 694-695. All my labours... and my dangers. meis laboribus et periculis'-a common phrase in Cicero. See 3 Cat. 1; Pro Mur. 2.

The principall Tragoedians. These were all members of Shakspere's company. For detailed accounts of their lives and activities, see Collier, Hist. of Eng. Dram. Poetry 3. 257 ff.

Master of Revells. At first a mere professional organizer of court-amusements (Stowe, Survey of London, ed. Morley, p. 122), the master of revels came later to be an absolute censor and dictator (see Camb. Hist. of Eng. Lit. 6. 276). Jonson is thought by some to have coveted the office (see Dekker, Satiromastix, ed. Scherer, p. 47, and note).

IF

APPENDIX

A.

COMMENDATORY VERSES AND MEMORANDA INQ I.

To my friend Mr. Ben Ionson,
vpon his Catiline.

IF thou hads't itch'd after the wild applause
Of common people, and hads't made thy Lawes
In writing, such, as catch'd at present voyce,

I should commend the thing, but not thy choyse.
But thou hast squar'd thy rules, by what is good;
And art, three Ages, yet, from vnderstood:
And (I dare say) in it, there lies much Wit
Lost, till thy Readers can grow up to it,
Which they can nere outgrow, to find it ill,
But must fall backe againe, or like it still.
Franc: Beaumont.

HE

To his worthy friend Mr. Ben Ionson.

E, that dares wrong this Play, it should appeare
Dares vtter more, then other men dare heare,
That have their wits about 'hem: yet such men,
Deare friend, must see your Booke, and reade; and then,
Out of their learned ignorance, crie ill,
And lay you by, calling for mad_Pasquill,
Or Greene's deare Groatsworth, or Tom Coryate,
The new Lexicon, with the errant Pate;
And picke away, from all these severall ends,
And durtie ones, to make their as-wife friends
Beleeue they are transslaters. Of this, pitty,
There is a great plague hanging o're the Citty:
Vnlesse she purge her iudgment presently.
But, O thou happy man, that must not die
As these things shall: leaving no more behind
But a thin memory (like a passing wind)
That blowes, and is forgotten, ere they are cold.
Thy labours shall out live thee; and, like gold

Stampt for continuance, shall be currant, where
There is a Sunne, a People, or a Yeare.

HAD

Iohn Fletcher.

To his worthy beloued friend Mr.

BEN IONSON.

AD the great thoughts of Catiline bene good,
The memory of his name, streame of his bloud,
His plots past into acts, (which would haue turn'd
His infamy to Fame, though Rome had burn'd)
Had not begot him equall grace with men,
As this, that he is writ by such a Pen:
VVhose aspirations, if great Rome had had,
Her good things had bene better'd, and her bad,
Vndone; the first for ioy, the last for feare,
That such a muse should spread them, to our Yeare.
But woe to vs then for thy laureat brow
If Rome enioy'd had, we had wanted now.
But, in this Age, where ligs and dances move,
How few there are, that this pure worke approve!
Yet, better then I rayle at, thou canst scorne
Censures, that die, ere they be throughly borne.
Each Subiect thou, still thee each Subiect rayses.
And whosoeuer thy Booke, himselfe disprayses.
Nat. Field.

In a copy of this Quarto in the possession of W. Bang, on the last leaf, occur some interesting memoranda. I here reproduce the parts concerning Catiline. These same memoranda are found in a Dulwich College Ms., in the London, etc., of David Hughson (Edward Pugh), 1805-09. Although the memoranda are not in Jonson's hand, the existence of two copies argues for their authenticity. The script, says Bang, is of the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century. The 'Ld. T-r' is undoubtedly Thomas Sackville, Earl of Dorset and Baron Buckhurst (see D.N.B.). The parts to the left of the parentheses are Bang's conjectures-the edge of the sheet having been cut into by the binder.

Me)m. I laid the plot of my Volpone, & wrote most of it, after a present of 10 dozen of

)sack, from my very good Ld T-r; that Play I am positive will last to Posterity,

)d when I & envy are friends, with applause.
Me)m. The first speech in my Cataline, spoken by
Scylla's Ghost, was writ after I parted from
my) Boys at the Devil-Tavern; I had drunk well that
night, and had brave notions. There is one
scen)e in that Play which I think is flat; I resolve to mix
no more water with my wine.

(For the remainder, and discussion, see Mod. Lang. Rev. I. III ff.)

B.

PROLOGUE AND EPILOGUE TO Q3.

A

PROLOGUE

ΤΟ

CATILINE,

To be merrily spoken by Mrs. Nell,
In an Amazonian Habit.

A Woman's prologue! This is vent'rous News;
But we, a Poet wanting, Crav'd a muse.
Why should our Brains lye fallow, as if they
Without His fire, were mere Promethean Clay?
In Natur's Plain-Song we may bear our parts;
Although we want choise Descant from the Arts.
Amongst Musicians; so the Philomel
May in Whild-Notes, though not in Rules excell.
And when i' the weaker Vessel Wit doth lye ;
Though into Froth it will work out and flye.
But Gentlemen, you know our formal way,
Although we're sure 'tis false, yet we must say,
Nay Pish, Nay Fye, in troth it is not good,
When we the while, think it not understood:
Hither repair all you that are for Ben:
Let th' House hold full, We're to carry't then.
Slight not this Femal Summons; Phoebus-rayes,
To Crown his Poets turn'd our sex to Bayes.
And Ladies sure you'l vote for as entire,
(This plot doth prompt the prologue to conspire)
Such inoffensive Combination Can

But show, who best deserve true worth in Man.
And You, with Your great Author taking Part:
May chance be thought, like him to know the Art,