O decus mundi, radiate Titan,
Cujus ad primos Hecate vapores
Lassa nocturnæ levat ora bigæ,
Dic sub Aurora positis Sabæis,
Dic sub Occasu positis Iberis,
Quique ferventi quatiuntur axe,
Quique sub plaustro patiuntur Ursæ;
Dic ad æternos, properare Manes
Herculem.
[137], [110-111]. may . . . funerall: may celebrate fittingly my unworthy end with such a funeral volley as it deserves.
[138], [135-40]. My sunne . . . bloud. In these lines the killing spectacle, the prodigie, of [l. 134], and its effect are described. Tamyra, the light of D'Ambois's life, with her reddened bosom and hands, is likened to a sun whose beams have turned to blood. So far the imagery is clear, but it is difficult to extract a satisfactory sense from what follows. What do Pindus and Ossa symbolize, and what exactly does their melting mean? This seems one of the few passages in the play which really deserve Dryden's stricture for "looseness of expression and gross hyperboles."
[139], [146]. struck. The Qq, and all editors, read stuck, but the word seems inapplicable to a thunderbolt. The editor has conjectured struck, which, with a minimum of change, gives the sense required.
[139], [149] Joine flames with Hercules. Here the quartos of 1607 and 1608 contain the right reading. D'Ambois, who has met death in the spirit of Hercules (cf. [ll. 100-108]), is now to share his translation to the skies. For the description of Hercules as a star see Seneca, Her. Oet. 1564-1581.
[142], [211-14] as . . . dies. The reference is to the wax in the taper, which retains in its savour the mark of its origin in the hive, till transient as life, it glances with the eye of a flame, and, so doing, expires.
THE TEXT
The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois was printed in quarto in 1613 by T. S. for John Helme. No reprint appeared till 1873, when it was included in the edition of Chapman's Tragedies and Comedies published by J. Pearson. The text of the quarto was reproduced, with the original spelling and punctuation, but with a few errors. There have been two later editions in modernized spelling, and with slight emendations, by R. H. Shepherd in 1874, and W. L. Phelps in 1895.