COMMENTARY NOTES

Title page theatrali coryphoeo The coryphaeus was the first chorister of a Greek dramatic chorus. It seems impossible to ascertain what, if anything, specific is denoted by this word in an English academic context. Perhaps Ryley just selected it because of its impressive sound. Or possibly he confused the coryphaeus with the choregus, the individual responsible for subsidizing dramatic performances; in a collegiate context this could mean “the man responsible for selecting and putting on plays.”

Dedication ALEXANDRO RADCLIFFE Sir Alexander Radclyffe of Ordsall Hall, Salford, Lancs. I am supplied with this information about him by Michael Lawson, Secretary of the Chadderton Historical Society:

OMNIBUS ET UNIVERSI Noverint universi per praesentes In Common Law of the time, first words describing an obligation in a bond.
summoenianis The first of a number of un-Classical Latin words used in this play (horales directly below is another). I assume this adjective comes from sub + moenia and means “right under the city walls.”
Hinc illae lachrymae Horace, Epistulae I.xix.41.

17 Prae fluxu The idea, evidently, is that other spectators’eyes will not be able to see these audience-members misbehaving because their eyes are brimming with tears of laughter (and maybe also caused by the tobacco-smoke).
Actus I, scaena i All of Acts I - IV takes place before Cornelius’ house. The only other necessary structure is the arbor mentioned at 596, 1272 and 1280. The stage “house” used for this purpose is the kind fitted with a curtain that can be drawn to reveal interior scenes, although this feature is not employed until Act III, when the curtain is drawn to reveal Cornelius in the barrel.
41 Priscianum didascalum This character is named after the late Latin grammarian whose work was still used as a textbook in English universities.
55 de profundis The first words of Psalm 129 in the Vulgate.
64ff. te pastorem magis pecorum In the contemporary Church of England, a clergyman was expected to be learned (ideally to the university level), and Latin was the hallmark of the educated man. Hebrew was taught in the universities, so Scripture could be read in the original. What Priscianus says by way of reproach, in suggestum prorupisti non aliter instructus quam ut privatus spirtus tibi suggesserit, would of course be a Nonconformist preacher’s boast.
71 plagiarium From line 2865 it is clear that Ryley thought this word came from plagus, and so it means “whipping-stock,” not “plagiarist.”
73 si succenseas A Latin rendition of the English proverb “if you be angry, you may turn the buckle of your belt behind you” [The aim of turning one’s belt is apparently to provide a harmless outler for one’s anger].
79 In nomine Dominus The humor, of course, is that Opilio has got the genitive wrong.
97 cum virga et ferula The badges of the schoolmaster: his wand of office and the rod with which he beats his students.
114 Dic amodo Not a misprint: the same phrase is used at 994 and 1202.
132 ostium apertum Evidently another proverb.
147f. Ne Damon et Pytheas The first two pairings are celebrated friendships from the ancient world. The third is evidently an item of mythological misinformation (a common form of humor in academic drama).
189 togam primam His best gown (cf. Shakespeare’s second-best bed).
210 Tubercula et Ciatica According to the OED, ciatica or cyatica is an attested orthographic variant of sciatica. Nevertheless for the benefit of the modern reader I have written the name Sciatica in the translation.
246 Heu dolor invasit I cannot identify the source of this hexameter line (it is not by a classical Roman poet).
253 Heret lateri Aeneid IV.73.
260 ac facundi […] calices The printer has obviously omitted a substantive.
403 Centum liberi The humor of this passage is that Opilio’s Latin is so bad that he confuses libri (“pounds”) with liberi (“children”).
405 aestivis baiis in Somersetensi An allusion to the city of Bath and the thermal baths that have existed there since Roman times (in contemporary times perhaps syphilitics went there in search of a cure).
417 Parsque tui latitat Ovid, Heroides vii.134 (with lateat altered to latitat to suit the context).
422 Vix Priamus Ib. i.4.
434 Polipater I. e., Polypater, “Many-fathered.” His mother’s name, Clea, means “Repute.”
445 centepede…mutuo Neither the Oxford Latin Dictionary nor the OED gives an example of “centipede” employed in an obscene sense, as the present context appears to require.
452 cerussam novit et fucum No doubt white lead and rouge.
454f. Aretinae . . . tabulae The notorious erotic engravings of Pietro Aretino [1492 - 1556].
458f. Cinyram nepe senem In mythology Cinyras had an incestuous relation with his daughter Myrrha.
464 Venerem…et Adonidem The poem by Shakespeare.
465 multo peritior evasit quam probae necesse est An echo of Sallust’s description of Sempronia (Bellum Catilinae xxv), litteris Graecis et Latinis docta, psallere, saltare elegantuis quam necesse est probae.
469 quosdem Probably not a typographical error for quosdam: cf. quasdem at 1034.
482 eramenta Another example of our author’s proclivity for using un-classical words. Absent a lexicon of Neo-Latin, I can only guess its meaning from context.
497 Suavis odor lucri A statement of the emperor Vespasian (Suetonius, Vespasian xxiii.3, echoed at Juvenal xiv.204).
501 Tarandulae doctori Presumably a doctor of Tarento.
544 O Mercuriale cerebrum! Mercury was the god of thieves and in mythology is often represented as sly and shifty.
574 mortis emblema nostrae Cornelius seems to mean this in the special Renaissance sense, discussed extensively on this site.
576 Haemonios Thessalian. The stranger’s seemingly eccentric claims translate into an assertion that he has received a university education (in academic literature of the time the universities were routinely described as homes to the Muses).
639 Amalthaei maris Amalthea was the nymph who nursed the infant Jupiter on Crete. Presumably, therefore, he means the waters off that island.
665 in plata argentaria I have discussed this joke in the Introduction.
714 lycitho I assume that this is Ryley’s eccentric spelling of lecytho.
717 Aesonis…vitales herbas An allusion to Ovid’s rather unusual version of Medea gaining revenge on Aeson (VII.297ff.), in which she mendaciously promised to rejuvenate him by the use of a magic elixir rather than by the more familiar method of draining his blood, carving him up and boiling him.
735 ficum…meruit “Giving someone the fig” was the Roman equivalent of our “giving someone the finger.”
799 Scirrosem Another unusual vocabulary item. This one is evidently derived from the Greek word for a tumor, and presumably designates a protrusion or bulging of the eyes.
II.vii SIMPLICIUS ET BALBUTIUS The names describe the characters: Simplex is a simply good man, Balbutius a stammerer.
875 ampullas This = “big words,” a meaning taken from Horace, Ars Poetica 97.
876 Rabbanos…nobis alienos See the note on 64ff.
901 Arminianas Not members of the ancient Ariminian heresy, but followers of James Harmens, a leader of the Calvinist Amsterdam sect in the 1590’s (who were given this name by their opponents). John Wesley explains this movement here.
935 fames auri sacra Aeneid III.57.
936 vitam cervi…longiorem For the allegedly long life of the stage, cf. such sources as Theophrastus ap. Cicero, Tusculan Disputations III.lxix.7, Columella De Re Rustica IX.i.8, and Pliny, Naturalis Historia VIII.cxix.1.
955 Vulpes nunquam melius This would appear to be a Latin equivalent of the Dutch proverb, “the fox never fares better than when he’s banned.”
991 Archiatus The Court of Arches, the consistory of the Archbishop of Canterbury, is described by the Catholic Encyclopedia here.
1014 hippodidascale I have explained this joke in the Introduction.
1017 foenum in cornu habet Thus a Roman farmer would mark a dangerous bull: cf. Horace, Sermones I.iv.34.
1018 vicariam in cornagio tenes Cornage or “horn-service” was kind of tenure in grand serjeanty. The service required was to blow a horn when any invasion of the Scots was perceived. “Cornagium” was money paid instead of the old service. Evidently Syringius’ is already aware of Prunella’s infidelity, of which we are subsequently informed.
1034 quasdem See the note on 496.
1036 Exoptato This adverb is another idiosyncratic vocabulary item (or is it a printer’s error for exoptate?).
1037 olei et operis incassum absumpsi Oleum et operam perdere appears to have been a proverbial Roman phrase: cf. Plautus, Poenulus 332 and Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares VIII.i.3.
1043f. ut ius postulat So said because the law is defined as suum cuique ius tribuens at the beginning of Justinian’s Code.
1051 Frontisterium In Aristophanes’ Clouds Socrates’ establishment is called the phrontisterion.
1085 Graecas Calendas “The Greek Kalends” was an expression used by the emperor Augustus to mean “never” (Suetonius, Augustus lxxxvii.i.4).
1096 Venetiae generali ea historia Thomas Fougasses, The general history of Venice (1612).
1098 Hippocrates narrat In the course De Aeris, Aquis et Locu iv, Hippocrates tells of this phenomenon among the Scythians For archaeological confirmation of his report see here.
1117 coaetaneis Another word not in the classical Latin lexicon, where the meaning must be guessed fromt he context.
1122 Cornelius imo ille Agrippa Henricus Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim [d. 1535], the inventor of the sweating tub.
1137 Vincit qui patitur Whatever the origin of this phrase may have been, it achieved prominence when John Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury, adopted it as his motto, as Camden informs us in his account of the events of 1583 here.
1157 Phalaridis…iste taurus The cruel Greek tyrant Phaleris of Tarentum is supposed to have had built for himself a bronze bull in which he roasted his victims alive. This mixed mention of two Greek forms of execution is peculiar.
1160 cornea fibra Cf. Persius i.47, neque enim mihi cornea fibra est.
1166 Quis videat siccis Source unknown.
1187 sciole A rather common Neo-Latin word for “fool,” of Italian derivation.
1193 Pistrinum promereris Relegation to service in a mill is a form of condign punishment frequently threatened in Roman comedies.
1123 Tuumne est, adventite This interesting passage reflects the friction between university-trained physicians and pragmatic barber-surgeons, who were disdained for their lack of education but who frequently had more practical experience and ability in dealing with patients. The treatment of this controversy may be compared with similar one between university-educated lawyers and practitioners of the Common Law that forms the basis for George Ruggle’s 1615 comedy Ignoramus. In the present speech it is amusing to hear Syringius hotly accuse the educated Neapolitan of being an empiric.
1226 Ioannes Baptista Succa I cannot identify any writer of this name. Was he invented for the sake of the following joke?
1246 Heus Gallicane “Sufferer from the French disease.”
1248 Sinon The inventor of the Trojan Horse.
1250 Lectella, Spitella, Lazarella Three invented whores’ names, chosen for their resemblance to “bed,” “hospital,” “lazaret” (and, as such, forming a nice progression).
1267 In noxam sectatur et umbra Evidently this is a proverb, but I cannot identify the source.
1284 gens viperarum Evidenty Ryley’s variant of the Vulgate progenies viperarum (Matthew 3:7 and 12:34).
1292 usque ad aras A friend even to the altar (of sacrifice); i.e., to the last extremity.
1321 lupus est in fabula “Talk of the devil and he will appear.”
1329 glebam The land held by the parish. The vicar would rent it out and live on its rents.
1333 Nullimodo Another of Ryley’s idiosyncratic vocabulary items (as also is laciniis in the next line).
1343 candidissimi In both sense of the word: the ghosts are both honorable and also white.
1375 Megaera, Tisiphone, Erynnis The three Furies (or at least nearly so).
1382 Imo dolore eum The book has Imo olere eum which makes a certain amount of sense in view of the play’s other references to bad smells of the diseased, but dolere is preferable since it continues the punning started in the preceding line.
1397 In pistrinum See the note on 1193.
1416ff. A larvis et lemuribus This incantation seems somewhat influenced by the Litany in the Book of Common Prayer.
1420 ephyialtis I. e., ephialtis. This is a transliteration of the Greek word for “nightmare.”
1446 viola In the book this word is written Viola. But so many common nouns are similarly capitalized that I am not sure whether Prunella is being compared to the flower or to the Shakespearean character.
1482ff. Hic Cuculi Portus The cuckold’s horns humor in these lines is presented in such a baroque way that, although the general point is obvious enough, it is difficult to understand in detail.
1517 carbone notatus As a Roman Censor crossed out a man’s name from the roster of the Senate when removing him for his moral turpitude.
1540f. Non hasce lares Source unknown.
1564 togam…primam See the note on 195.
1596 Curculio The devious and rascally title character in the comedy by Plautus.
1644 Actaeon Diana, angry that he had witnessed her bathing, transformed Actaeon into a stag so that he would be ripped apart by dogs. Stags have horns.
1671 Meandro The river Meander in Asia Minor was famous for its windings and twistings.
1733 herotina There is no such Latin word. It is tempting to think this is a printing error for hesterna, but in view of Ryley’s proclivity to using unusual and un-Classical vocabulary items I have refrained from introducing the change.
1769 Frontisterium See the note on 1051.
1774 Ambidextri personam Discussed in the Introduction.
1857 Lupum auribus tenere A Latin proverb (Varro, De Lingua Latina VII.xxi.4, Suetonius, Tiberius xxv.1). We would say “to hold a tiger by the tail.”
1887 sive Latinam The point of this joke can be learned from an anecdote about Shakespeare. Cf. Samuel Schoenbaum, William Shakespeare: A Compact Documentary Life (New York, 1977) 257:

Shakespeare, standing godfather to one of [Ben] Jonson’s children, and faced with the necessity of thinking of an appropriate christening gift, comes out of “a deep study” inspired. “I’ll e’en give him a dozen good latten spoons,” he tells Ben, “and thou shalt translate them.” For modern readers this feeble jest requires a gloss: latten was a brass or brass-like alloy.

1920 Heri in dolium This is the first evidence for the play’s internal time-scheme, there being no previous indication that a night has intervened between Acts III and IV.
1939 Sinon See the note on 1248.
1965ff. Quod arti compar This and the following scene end with passages spoken by the stranger in a kind of quasi-verse.
1990f. Difficilius imo est This observation is discussed in the Introduction.
2009 Schola Salerni Arnaldus de Villa Nova’s Regimen sanitatis salernitanum, a famous medical treatise on the preservation of health (first printed 1480).
2039 Statuae Mercurii Athenian herms.
2086 virgas in urina paratas The idea, evidently, is that urine-soaked rods become harder and therefore more suitable for administering a whipping.
2099 Foenum et flos foeni This phrase (which Cornelius accurately predicts Opilio will use — he in fact uses it repeatedly) alludes to Psalm cii.15, homo sicut faenum dies eius tamquam flos agri sic efflorebit quoniam spiritus pertransivit in illo et non subsistet (“As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.”)
2130 Thraso An allustion to the character in Terence’s Eunuchus, a somewhat boastful soldier.
2132 A suspendio Because he can read his neck-verse.
2154 Galenum in Anglica lingua He could have read, for example, John Jones’ 1574 translation of the Elementa and Thomas Gale’s 1586 translation of the Methodus Medendi. Since he could only read English, his sole choice among the works of Albertus Magnus [1193? - 1280] would have been The Boke of Secrets (1595), which does happen to be in octavo. Antonio Musa [1500 - 1555] Brassavola wrote various works on medicine and pharmacology, but none had been translated into English by the time this play was written. John Gerard [1545 - 1612] published his The herball or Generall historie of plantes in 1597.
2161 decimo sexto Sarcastic: such a book would be impossibly small to contain this mass of information.
2227 electuarium An electuary was a compound of various ingredients mixed with honey so as to form a syrup. As such, it would be a good way to administer poison.
2340 alumno He can be designated by this word since he is a son of the Church.
Actus V, scaena i Act V is set in front of a “house” representing the church or chapel within which Cornelius has been buried. The only other visible stage feature is some sort of podium on which Grinchamus stands when he is playing the part of a judge (2714f.)
2485 Democritus The laughing philosopher.
2528 novos cuneos excudendos This seemingly odd phrase is probably to be explained with reference to Plautus, Pseudolus 614, nam haec mihi incus est: procudam ego hodie hinc multos dolos.
2548 Marcello I cannot identify any ancient or Renaissance writer on agriculture named Marcellus or Marcello. Could this be a reference to Marcus Porcius Cato’s De Re Rustica?
V.vii Although the stage directions do not so indicate, evidently this “house” too is fitted with a curtain that can be drawn to represent interior scenes, and scenes vii and viii are played as such. Then the curtains are closed and the remainder of the act is performed in front of the structure.
2610 Theomantii porticum The only Theomantius I can identify is the early British king (Tenuantius), whose name was thus Latinized. He is described by Holinshed (I.46), “our histories do affirme, that as well this Kymbeline, as also his father Theomantius, lived in quiet with the Romans, and continually to them payed the tribute which the Britons had covenanted with Julius Caesar to pay.” Are we to imagine that here (as at several other points in the play) the pretence of a Mantuan setting is dropped, and we are to visualize an ancient church with this old king’s tomb near one of its doors?
2646 annulo Gyges The story of Gyges and his invisibility-conferring ring is told byPlato in Book II of the Republic (pp. 359D - 360B).
2653f. In the book this and the following line are written Sed amor & odor, lucrandi, labor, / Tenebrae, quies lumine capti. It is difficult to extract any coherent sense out of them, but the repunctuation introduced here appears to help.
2714 scabellum In Classical Latin word indicates a percussion instrument employed in dramatic performances. Here it probably some kind of designates drum-shaped podium.
2830 Perillum The architect who designed the brazen bull for Phaleris (see the note on 1157).
2865 plagiario A place where he will be whipped (see the note on 71).