COMMENTARY NOTES
Dedicatory
epistle Sir Ralph Freeman [floruit 1610 - 55],
civilian and author of the tragedy Imperiale (1635): life
in D. N. B. Alabaster supplied gratulatory epigrams prefacing
his translations of Seneca’s Consolatio ad Martiam (1632)
and de Brevitate Vitae (no copy of the first edition survives,
second edition 1663); these are registered as Alabaster’s
poems XXXV and XXXVI.
this
stillborn abortion of two weeks’ growth Throughout
this letter Alabaster playfully writes of Roxana as if the
play were his daughter. The conceit is suggested by the similar
one in Luigi Grotto’s Prologue to La Dalida (114
- 6) in which he writes of this play as a daughter born from
his brain, as Minerva was from that of Jove.
which
bears my name, if not on its front, at least on its back? I do not understand this remark. Crook’s volume,
to be sure, contains a printer’s identifying page at the back,
but at least in the copy selected for microfilming in the Early
English Books series, Alabaster’s name does not appear
there.
You
are admonished to recite this stuff in a frothy tone I
have seen this sentence quoted out of context, as if it were Alabaster’s
injunction to reciters or even actors on how the lines ought to
be delivered. Nothing could be farther from the truth. He is saying
that bad playwrights read their work in mock-impressive tones in
order to make it sound better than it is, whereas Freeman, a good
playwright, has no need for such tricks. One of the epic similes
in the Elisais (661f.) begins “Thus when a noble tragedy
thunders with its grandiloquent voice…”
First
gratulatory epigram Hugh Holland was a lifelong friend of Alabaster’s
and the probable addressee of Alabaster’s Conversion. He
is best known for contributing gratulatory verses for the First
Folio and Sejanus His Fall. For a biographical sketch cf. Guiney, Recusant Poets 361
- 7. The present poem is something of a tour de force, a
Latin poem with the rhyme-scheme of an English sonnet.
5
pear-shaped tones Obviously both Holland and Farnaby
had seen Alabaster’s dedicatory epistle; Alabaster, like Freeman,
is a good poet who need not recite his work in a forced, mock-impressive
manner. Perhaps Holland also recollected Elisaeis 661, just
quoted.
10
Thetfield’s elderly minister Clearly Alabaster
is meant. Most likely the allusion of the Lat. Clarii…vetus minister is to the Roman place-name of Therfield, Herts.,
where Alabaster was rector of the local church, although so far
I have not been able to verify that this is so. (The reference
is not to Clare Hall, Cantab., the present Clare College, which
which, as far as I am aware, Alabaster never enjoyed any association.)
12
this amazing construction The present volume.
Second
gratulatory epigram Thomas Farnaby was a distinguished schoolmaster
and classicist (although he led an abnormally colorful life for
a man of that calling — he accompanied Drake and Hawkins on their
last expedition). There is a life in the Dictionary of National
Biography. The contributors of these gratulatory verses are
not without interest for a student of Alabaster’s biography.
Hugh Holland was converted to Cathoicism at about the same time
as Alabaster, and they turned up at Rome together. Holland was
converted by Father John Wright, who conspired with Alabaster to
make a Catholic of Essex in exchange for Spanish support for the
crown. Wright also converted Ben Jonson (for whom, as we have seen,
Holland wrote a dedicatory poem, and it seems likely that his one
for the First Folio was elicted by Jonson’s efforts in connection
with that project). Farnaby was a Jesuit-educated Catholic, and
the D. N. B. article presents evidence for his links to
Jonson. There is a certain interest in the fact that Alabaster
maintained (and did not bother to disguise) his association with
this Anglo-Catholic circle long after his return to the Anglican
fold.
Argument
10 Lingring ms.
I.1
In academic Seneca-imitating tragedy, it was all but obligatory
to begin with the apparition of a ghost, personified abstraction,
or an infernal being. The monologues of the Ghost of Moleon and
his interviews with Death and Suspicion comprise an elaborated
counterpart to the dialogue of the equally revenge-hungry Ghost
of Tantalus and the Fury at Seneca, Thyestes 1 - 121. More
immediately, the first two scenes are based on Act
I, scene i of Grotto’s La Dalida.
25
The Oxford Latin Dictionary lists no definition of “strait” employed
as a substantive which satisfactorily explains the present usage. Evidently
it is to be considered an extension of O. E.
D. def. B 1, “A narrow confined place or space or way
generally,” so that “mans straight” means “human limitations.”
Rather
more comprehensibly, in La Dalida Pluto has authorized Moleonte’s
revenge ordered Death and Jealousy to serve him (23
- 8). In the Latin (30) it is the
Fate rather than Pluto who permits the revenge; Pluto is restored
in the English translation, a possible sign that the translator
was familar with La Dalida (hence further evidence that
Alabaster was the translator).
I.2 Alabaster’s “scenes” are
not scene divisions in the modern sense of the word; they do not necessarily
indicate any discontinuity
of time or location, or any other kind of break in the action.
Rather, according to the standard system employed by academic drama,
derived from the manuscripts of Terence, each scene indicates
a new grouping of speaking characters currently on the stage. Very
often the identification of such scenes functions as a somewhat
crude way of marking entrances and exits.
42
seek’st to Furies ms.
49The revised version substitutes for this line a passage (53
- 61) “Indeed, a great troop of physicians is at my service,
the industry of the Schools tickles my fancy, and I profess myself
a student of Machaeon [a physician in Greek mythology].
I should walk a simpler path, if the medicos did not offer me their
canny advice, so that life itself is an antidote to life: I am
more pleasantly swallowed in that elixir. The rest of death’s
rigamarole is unwelcome, but medicine tempers perdition with its
pleasures.”
51
That is to dye ms.
69The translation omits Latin vv. 80 -
85: “I was not minded to break my faith or muddy the straight
line of succession out of a crooked greed for power. Rather, this
concern was steadfast in my actions, that in his comportment the
boy be worthy of his father’s rule, and come of age.”
I.iii
This scene is based on La
Dalida I.ii.
146 The Latin adds (167) “(a
sweet and friendly little hope)”.
I.iv This scene is based on La
Dalida
I.iii.
189
This statement makes no sense and on the basis of line 208 of
the Latin text it would appear a line has dropped out, in which Suspicion
states that she has a neck turned backward like the blade
of Death’s scythe (she is always looking over her shoulder).
201 In Alabaster’s printed text the following passage is added
(221 - 6): “DEATH He is a king,
a king may have no witnesses. SUSP. But for royal advantage kings
do much that does not befit them. DEATH Why do you spring from
your home? SUSP. I am a-tremble lest gunpowder be under it. DEATH Why look at a building from which nothing evil will come? SUSP.
Raining Jupiter has entered through its roof.” These lines obviously
contain a humorously irreverent allusion to the Gunpowder Plot.
203 After “Hid’st a worse hell within thee” the translation
omits the statement “Abandon these light excursions of a clever,
suspicious mind. Why rage against yourself?” (229f.)
206 A more accurate translation of line 233 of
the Latin would be “A scorned Queen, unaware that she’s
been scorned.”
213.
The Latin text (240) makes it clear
that “the Greek queen” is the daughter of Leda, i. e., Helen.
She ran away from her husband Menelaus; the Belides (the daughters
of Danaus) murdered their husbands on their wedding night. Rather
more plausibly, however, at La
Dalida
104 the murderously vengeful Procne is mentioned in place
of Leda.
218.
After this the English version fails to translate Latin line
245, “Or against myself, as long
as I rage against an enemy.”
232
A more accurate translation of Latin line 258 is “Which
could impede this wicked enterprise.”
Act I chorus For some reason, the Latin text specifies that this
chorus is to be performed by three choristers, although others
in the play require four. It cannot be demonstrated that the chorus
is continually onstage during Acts I - III, in the manner of a
Greek (although not necessarily a Senecan) one, although it remains
onstage and engages in dialogue with actors in the course of Acts
IV and V. The onstage presence of the chorus in Roxana is
probably suggested by Grotto’s La Dalida, in which the
chorus is frequently present during acted portions of the play.
II.i
This scene is based on La
Dalida II.i - ii.
311 to much ms.
330 More accurately, the Latin (351f.)
has “That which you tell a blabbermouth becomes common knowledge,
but loyalty locks it up as a secret.”
335
A more accurate translation of Latin line 357 is “Loquacious
boldness rarely keeps its trust concealed.”
346f.
The Latin description (367 - 70) is
more detailed: “Just now she seemed so fretful and anxious,
speaking ambiguous words, nor was her anger articulated in her
broken words; this vexation is characteristic of Atossa, characteristic
of her jealousy.”
351
This simplifies the Latin (374f.): “Fortune,
agreeable to the man in misery, fickle for the man in prosperity, heavy
on them an calamity, you who always seizes
the things we have seized.”
375f. The
Latin provides a better match to the invocation of Fortune at the
beginning of the scene (399f.): “Desire,
nothing to the man in misery, light for the man of moderate means,
heavy on the man who flows with prosperity.”
407
After “to trifle thus” the Latin adds (425) “I’ve
need of shrewd counsel.”
II.iii
This scene is based on La
Dalida II.iii - v.
475.
of his owne ms.
503 = “flirt.”
505 The English version fails to translate lines 517f. of
the Latin, “If I were not despised and worthless in the
eyes of my husband, Bessus would not have had these thoughts.”
537 lives ms.
542
In classical mythology, Encleladus was one of the giants
who waged war against the Olympian gods. Laid low by Minerva, his
corpse was transformed in to Sicily.
549 In
mythology, Vulcan’s smithy was located on the island of
Lemnos.
552 rupture ms.
554
hindreth ms.
560
crowne of Scepter ms. | I have for thee ms.
587 now though I be barren ms.; the Latin is (594) “When
some malign god brought it about that I was complained to be barren.”
594
- 96. This list of physical impossibilities in the natural
world (adunata ) is a stock feature of Senecan rhetoric.
602
Hercules fought the Hydra as his second labor.
605
The ms. has Of drunken Iuno, but cf. Latin line 611.
Alabaster was wrong: Agave was Pentheus’ mother and rent him
apart in a bacchic frenzy, whereas his aunt Ino and her husband
Athamas had reared Bacchus in his infancy.
III.1 This scene is ultimately based on the dialogue between Atreus
and the Satelles at Seneca, Thyestes 204 - 335, and is immediately
based on La
Dalida III.i.
641
not for ms.
644 And boldly dare ms.
686
Roxana contains several references to the Thyestes myth
(including references to the sun turning back in its course in
horrified reaction to his involuntary cannibalism,
as described by Seneca, Thyestes 789 - 821), which,
in view of the play’s dénouement, have
a decidedly proleptic value. The other allusion is of course to
the Oedipus myth.
697 The Latin (705f.) adds “and
the people, a censor of princes, and the iron might that goes
with the scepter.”
III.ii
This scene is based on La
Dalida III.iii.
761 the fresh bosome ms.
762
winds ms.
802 This
tasteless image recalls the English version of Alabaster’s
poem *LXVII.6f. in the Huntington collection: