169 northern parts Scotland, to judge from the accent. Parodies of Scottish accents, reflecting on James I and his Scottish favourites (including Robert Carr), got several playwrights (e.g. Jonson, Chapman and Marston, the authors of Eastward Ho!, and John Day, author of The Isle of Gulls) into serious trouble. The joke is more obtrusive here given that the notional setting is Ravenna.

173 heal varray well ‘health very well’ in phonetically spelt joke Scottish

176 preferment advancement

182 down I must I must undergo childbirth

183 speed success

193 conceit opinion

198 have … health drink a health

201 a reference to her pregnancy

206 It takes! the spell is working

208 cold disease lack of sexual fulfilment

211 throughly thoroughly

220 red sighs lovelorn sighs

229 i.e. I have successfully assalted a fortress in war; Isabella will be easier to overcome than that was

this’s ed. (this’ MS)

[Act II,] Scene ii

1 toy foolish, fantastic notion

4 to … then from what I (in my drunken state) could make sense of

5 Ate ed. (Eat MS)

spoiled messed up

7 hungry Scot 3.2 reports that after witches’ banquets ‘at their return home they are like to starve for hunger’.

foot-post foot courier

8–15 For this section see Introduction, p. xiii.

11 Necte … colores Virgil, Eclogues 8.77–8. Middleton substitutes ‘Amoretta’ for ‘Amaryllis’. The Loeb Virgil gives the translation ‘Weave, Amaryllis, three hues in three knots; weave them, Amaryllis, I beg, and say, “Chains of love I weave”’. Mistranslation jokes were generally popular in plays; for an example in Middleton’s work see CM I.i.65–77.

13 bouts knots or twists

14 Nodo Virgil has ‘modo’, but the ‘mistake’ is needed for the joke on ‘noddy’.

necte Virgil has ‘necto’.

15 dead flesh bawdy, i.e. the flesh will rise to the occasion

16 construe explain, translate

21 noddies fools, simpletons

22 The twisted colours of the ribbon will make Amoretta turn her colours, i.e. surrender to Almachildes.

23 venery See I.i.88.

24 vintner wine-merchant

29 with a vengeance! an expletive. Almachildes rejects these gifts as filthy: the ribbon is clean.

30 nethermost ed. (hethermost MS) The phrase ‘the nethermost part of a wolf’s tail’ appears in Scot 6.7, a section which includes ‘the brain of a cat’ (see 1. 28) and ‘a little fish called Remora’ (see I.ii.206–8).

31 this the ribbon charm

32 cleanly neat

38 s.d. 2 bosom the bodice, part of dress which covers the breast, and which was sometimes used as a place to put money or letters

40 gallery an indication of where the scene is supposed to be taking place

41 bosom See 1. 38 s.d.

42 rudest roughest, most barbarous

45 split break up, become wrecked

49 take capture

when while

50 catched in marriage

56 He the duke

62 my … scorn i.e. in scorn of my dead father

64 his the duke’s

confusion overthrow, ruin

65 him Almachildes

70 entertainment welcome, attention

78 one entertainment

95 then if that were true

96 forbear endure, submit to

105 In the source the duchess is named Rosamunda. Middleton’s change of name results in an extremely strained effect. See Introduction, p. xvi.

113 MS has Almachildes enter here.

114 list like

116 have in marriage

117 s.d. placed after 1. 112 in MS