[252] Ben Jonson opens his “Catiline” with the ghost of Sylla “ranging for revenge,” and he was only thirteen years old, when “The Misfortunes of Arthur” was performed at Greenwich before the Queen. Hughes, doubtless, had the commencement of Seneca’s “Thyestes” in his mind, and throughout he has been indebted more or less to that and other classical authorities. The ghost of Polydorus opens the “Hecuba” of Euripides. The ghost of Gorlois in this instance speaks the prologue to the tragedy.
[253] Pheer is companion, and is most ordinarily applied to the male sex: Gorlois, however, refers to the infidelity of his wife.
[254] Unwieldy or unmanageable of herself—not having any control over her actions. The sense is a little constrained.
[255] These lines as they stand in the original are nonsense—
“Whether to dround or stifll up his breath,
On sorcing blood to dye with dint of knife.”
[256] Milton has this thought, almost in the same words, allowing for the difference of an interrogation.
“For where no hope is left, is left no fear.”
—Par. Reg. III. 206.
[257] The word should is accidentally repeated in this line in the old copy.