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The Elizabethan Stage, Vol. 3

Note 191 — NOTE ON SYMBOLS (continued 2)

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Wounds of Civil War, III. ii, 913, ‘Enter old Marius with his keeper, and two souldiers’. There is (965) ‘this homely bed’, on which (972) ‘He lies downe’ (s.d.), and when freed (1066) ‘from walls to woods I wend’. In Edw. II, 2448–2568 (at Kenilworth), keepers say that the King is ‘in a vault vp to the knees in water’, of which (2455) ‘I opened but the doore’. Then (2474) ‘Heere is the keyes, this is the lake’ and (2486), ‘Heeres a light to go into the dungeon’. Then (2490) Edward speaks and, presumably having been brought out, is bid (2520) ‘lie on this bed’. He is murdered with a table and featherbed brought from ‘the next roome’ (2478), and the body borne out. In 1 Tr. Raigne, sc. xii, Hubert enters, bids his men (8) ‘stay within that entry’ and when called set Arthur ‘in this chayre’. He then bids Arthur (13) ‘take the benefice of the faire evening’, and ‘Enter Arthur’ who is later (131) bid ‘Goe in with me’. K. J. IV. i has precisely analogous indications, except that the attendants stand (2) ‘within the arras’, until Hubert stamps ‘Vpon the bosome of the ground’. In Rich. III, I. iv, Clarence talks with his keeper, and sleeps. Murderers enter, to whom the keeper says (97), ‘Here are the keies, there sits the Duke a sleepe’. They stab him, threaten to ‘chop him in the malmsey but in the next roome’ (161, 277), and bear the body out. In Rich. II, V. v (at Pontefract) Richard muses on ‘this prison where I liue’. He is visited by a groom of his stable (70), ‘where no man neuer comes, but that sad dog, That brings me foode’. Then (95) ‘Enter one to Richard with meate’ and (105) ‘The murderers rush in’, and (119) the bodies are cleared away. Sir T. More, sc. xvi, ‘Enter Sir Thomas Moore, the Lieutenant, and a seruant attending as in his chamber in the Tower’; Lord Cromwell, V. v, ‘Enter Cromwell in the Tower.... Enter the Lieutenant of the Tower and officers.... Enter all the Nobles’; Dead Man’s Fortune, plot (Henslowe Papers, 134), ‘Here the laydes speakes in prysoun’; Death of R. Hood, IV. i:

Brand. Come, come, here is the door. Lady Bruce. O God, how dark it is. Brand. Go in, go in; it’s higher up the stairs.... He seems to lock a door.

In Old Fortunatus, 2572, Montrose says of Ampedo, ‘Drag him to yonder towre, there shackle him’. Later (2608) Andelocia is brought to join him in ‘this prison’ and the attendants bid ‘lift in his legs’. The brothers converse in ‘fetters’. In 1 Oldcastle, IV. iv, v (a continuous scene), ‘Enter the Bishop of Rochester with his men, in liuerie coates’. They have brought him ‘heere into the Tower’ (1965) and may ‘go backe vnto the Porters Lodge’ or attend him ‘here without’. But they slip away. The Bishop calls the Lieutenant and demands to see Oldcastle. A message is sent to Oldcastle by Harpoole. Then (1995), ‘Enter sir Iohn Oldcastle’, and while the Bishop dismisses the Lieutenant, Harpoole communicates a plot ‘aside’ to Oldcastle. Then the Bishop addresses Oldcastle, and as they talk Oldcastle and Harpoole lay hands upon him. They take his upper garments, which Oldcastle puts on. Harpoole says (2016) ‘the window that goes out into the leads is sure enough’ and he will ‘conuay him after, and bind him surely in the inner room’. Then (2023) ‘Enter seruing men againe’. Oldcastle, disguised as the Bishop, comes towards them, saying, ‘The inner roomes be very hot and close’. Harpoole tells him that he will ‘downe vpon them’. He then pretends to attack him. The serving-men join in, and (2049) ‘Sir John escapes’. The Lieutenant enters and asks who is brawling ‘so neare vnto the entrance of the Tower’. Then (2057) ‘Rochester calls within’, and as they go in and bring him out bound, Harpoole gets away; cf. p. 62, n. 2. Look About You, sc. v, is a similar scene in the Fleet, partly in Gloucester’s chamber (811), the door of which can be shut, partly (865) on a bowling green. Analogous to some of the prison scenes is Alarum for London, sc. xii, in which a Burgher’s Wife shows Van End a vault where her wealth is hid, and (1310) ‘She pushes him downe’, and he is stoned there.

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