What speech my good Lord?
Neuendorffer
[Hamlet (Quarto 2) 2.2]
Player. What speech my good Lord?
Ham. I heard thee speake me a speech once, but it was neuer acted,
or if it was, not aboue once, for the play I remember pleasd not
the million, t'was cauiary to the generall, but it was as I receaued
it & others, whose iudgements in such matters cried in the top
of mine, an excellent play, well digested in the scenes, set downe
with as much modestie as cunning. I remember one sayd there
were no sallets in the lines, to make the matter sauory, nor no
matter in the phrase that might indite the author of affection,
but cald it an honest method, as wholesome as sweete, & by very
much, more handsome then fine: one speech in't I chiefely loued,
t'was Aeneas talke to Dido, & there about of it especially when he
speakes of Priams slaughter, if it liue in your memory begin at
this line, let me see, let me see, the rugged Pirbus like Th'ircanian
beast, tis not so, it beginnes with Pirrhus, the rugged Pirrhus, he
whose sable Armes, Black as his purpose did the night resemble,
When he lay couched in th'omynous horse,
Hath now this dread and black complection smeard,
With heraldy more dismall head to foote,
Now is he totall Gules horridly trickt
With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sonnes,
Bak'd and empasted with the parching streetes
That lend a tirranus and a damned light
To their Lords murther, rosted in wrath and fire,
And thus ore-cised with coagulate gore,
With eyes like Carbunkles, the hellish Phirrhus
Old grandsire Priam seekes; so proceede you.
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<<The first player delivers a long speech from this play-about the siege
of Troy, Priam, Pyrrhus, and Hecuba. At once we realize what the play is
called - Troilus and Cressida. The speech is not in the printed [T&C]
version: it was probably cut during rehearsal. Nobody liked the play: it
was never "clapper-clawed" by the mob. But Shakespeare still thinks it a
fine piece of work, and he is determined to impose that excised speech
on players and public alike. Good work must not be wasted.>> -
_Shakespeare_ by Anthony Burgess p.180
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_The History of Troylus and Cresseida_ (1609)
A never writer, to an ever reader.
NeWeS.
<<Eternall reader, you have heere a new play, never stal'd with the
Stage, never clapper-clawd with the palmes of the vulger, and yet
passing full of the palme comicall; for it is a birth of your braine,
that never undertooke any thing commicall, vainely: And were but the
vaine names of commedies CHANGDE for the titles of Commodities, or of
Playes for Pleas; you should see all those grand censors, that now
stile them such VANITITES, flock to them for the maine grace of their
gravities: especially this authors Commedies, that are so fram'd to the
life, that they serve for the most common Commentaries, of all the
actions of our lives, shewing such a dexteritie, and power of witte,
that the most displeased with Playes, are pleasd with his Commedies.
And all such dull and HEAVY-WITTED WORLDLINGS,
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NeWeS => Nee: W(illiam) S(tanley)
Stanley motto:
"SANS CHANGER (MA VERITE)"
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"vaine names . . . CHANGDE"
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"HEAVY-WITTED WORLDLINGS"
W D O
H E D W
I V L
S T A N L E Y
G R
I
(f)
T V
G L A D D
N
I
W T
W R I O T H E S L E Y
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PSALM 31
5 Into thine hand I commit my spirit:
thou hast redeemed me,
O LORD God of truth.
6 I have hated them that regard lying VANITIES:
but I trust in the LORD.
7 I will be GLAD and rejoice in thy mercy:
for thou hast considered my trouble;
thou hast known my soul in adversities;
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GLAD, a. [{Gladder}; {Gladdest}.] [AS. gl[ae]d bright, glad;
akin to D. glad smooth, G. glatt, OHG. glat smooth, shining, Icel.
gla?r glad, bright, Dan. & Sw. glad glad, Lith. glodas smooth, and
prob.to L. glaber, and E. glide.] 1. Pleased; joyous; happy; cheerful;
gratified; -- opposed to sorry, sorrowful, or unhappy; -- said of
persons, and often followed by of, at, that, or by the infinitive, and
sometimes by with, introducing the cause or reason.
A wise son maketh a glad father. --Prov. x. 1.
He that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished. --Prov. xvii. 5.
The Trojan, glad with sight of hostile blood. --Dryden.
He, glad of her attention gained. --Milton.
As we are now glad to behold your eyes. --Shak.
Glad am I that your highness is so armed. --Shak.
{Glad on 't}, glad of it. [Colloq.] --Shak.
2. Wearing a gay or bright appearance; expressing or exciting joy;
producing gladness; exhilarating.
Her conversation More glad to me than to a miser money is.
--Sir P. Sidney.
Glad evening and glad morn crowned the fourth day. --Milton.
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Glad, v. t. [{Gladded}; {Gladding}.] [AS. gladian.]
To make glad; to cheer; to gladden; to exhilarate. --Chaucer.
That which gladded all the warrior train. --Dryden.
Each drinks the juice that glads the heart of man. --Pope.
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Vanity, n.; [OE. vanite, vanit['e], L. vanitas, fr. vanus empty, vain.]
1. The quality or state of being vain; want of substance to satisfy
desire; emptiness; unsubstantialness; unrealness; falsity.
Here I may well show the vanity of that which is reported
in the story of Walsingham. --Sir J. Davies.
3. That which is vain; anything empty, visionary, unreal, or
unsubstantial; fruitless desire or effort; trifling labor productive of
no good; empty pleasure; vain pursuit; idle show; unsubstantial
enjoyment.
Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher. --Eccl. i. 2.
Vanity possesseth many who are desirous to know
the certainty of things to come. --Sir P. Sidney.
[Sin] with vanity had filled the works of men. --Milton.
Think not, when woman's transient breath is fled, That all her vanities
at once are dead; Succeeding vanities she still regards. --Pope.
4. One of the established characters in the old moralities and puppet
shows.
King Lear Act 2, Scene 2
KENT Draw, you rascal: you come with letters against the
king; and TAKE VANITY THE PUPPET'S PART against the
royalty of her father: draw, you rogue, or I'll so
carbonado your shanks: draw, you rascal; come your ways.
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from http://www.bibliomania.com/Reference/PhraseAndFable/
<<Menecrates. A physician of Syracuse, of such unbounded vanity that he
called himself Jupitèr. Philip of Macedon invited him to a banquet, but
served him with incense only.>>
“Such was Menecrates of little worth,
Who Jove, the saviour, to be called presumed,
To whom of incense Philip made a feast.”
Lord Brooke: Inquisition upon Fame, etc.
<<Thenot: An old shepherd who relates to Cuddy the fable of
The Oak and the Briar, with the view of curing him of his vanity.
(Spenser: Shepherd's Calendar.)>>
<<Vanity Fair: A fair established by Beelzebub, Apollyon, and Legion,
for the sale of all sorts of vanities. It was held in the town of
Vanity, and lasted all the year round. Here were sold houses, lands,
trades, places, honours, preferments, titles, countries, kingdoms,
lusts, pleasures, and delights of all sorts. (Bunyan: Pilgrim's
Progress, pt. i.) Faithful is seized at Vanity Fair, burnt to death, and
taken to heaven in a chariot of fire. A Puritan used to be called
Brother Faithful.>>
<<Paradise Lost (by Milton): Satan rouses the panic-stricken host of
fallen angels to tell them about a rumour current in Heaven of a new
world about to be created. He calls a council to deliberate what should
be done, and they agree to send Satan to search out for the new world.
Satan, passing the gulf between Hell and Heaven and the limbo of Vanity,
enters the orb of the Sun (in the guise of an angel) to make inquiries
as to the new planet's whereabouts; and, having obtained the necessary
information, alights on Mount Niphates, and goes to Paradise in the form
of a cormorant. Seating himself on the Tree of Life, he overhears Adam
and Eve talking about the prohibition made by God, and at once resolves
upon the nature of his attack. Gabriel sends two angels to watch over
the bower of Paradise, and Satan flees. Raphael is sent to warn Adam of
his danger, and tells him the story of Satan's revolt and expulsion out
of Heaven, and why and how this world was made. After a time Satan
returns to Paradise in the form of a mist, and, entering the serpent,
induces Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit. Adam eats “that he may perish
with the woman whom he loved.” Satan returns to Hell to tell his
triumph, and Michael is sent to lead the guilty pair out of the
garden.>>
<<Asmodeus: The demon of vanity and dress, called in the Talmud "the
king of devils." The Asmodeus of domestic peace (in the Book of Tobit).
Asmodeus falls in love with Sara, daughter of Raguel, and causes the
death of seven husbands in succession, each on his bridal night. After
her marriage to Tobit, he was driven into Egypt by a charm, made by
Tobias of the heart and liver of a fish burnt on perfumed ashes, and
being pursued was taken prisoner and bound.>>
"Better pleased
Than Asmodeus with the fishy fume
That drove him, though enamoured, from the spouse
Of Tobit's son, and with a vengeance sent
From Media post to Egypt, there fast bound."
Milton: Paradise Lost , iv. 167--71.
<<Abolla: An ancient military garment worn by the Greeks and Romans,
opposed to the toga or robe of peace. The abolla being worn by the lower
orders, was affected by philosophers in the vanity of humility.>>
<<Democritos: The laughing philosopher of Abdera. He should rather be
termed the deriding philosopher, because he derided or laughed at
people's folly or vanity. It is said that he put out his eyes that he
might think more deeply.>>
<<Freyja's necklace (Brisingamen) made by the fairies. Freyja left her
husband Odin in order to obtain this necklace; and Odin deserted her
because her love was changed into vanity. It is not possible to love
Brisingamen and Odin too, for no one can serve two masters. As a moral
tale this is excellent. If Freyja personifies “the beauty of the year,”
then the necklace means the rich autumn tints and flowers, which (soon
as Freyja puts on) her husband leaves her- that is, the fertility of the
genial year is gone away, and winter is at hand.>>
<<Pearl For Cleopatra melting her pearl in honour of Antony, see
Cleopatra. A similar act of vanity and folly is told by Horace (2
Satire, iii. verse 239). Clodius, son of AEsop the tragedian, drew a
pearl from his ear of great value, melted it in a strong acid, and drank
to the health of Cecilia Metella. This story is referred to by Valerius
Maximus, Macrobius, and Pliny.
Horace says,
“Qui sanior, ac si
Illud idem in rapidum flumen jaceretve cloacam!'
Sir Thomas Gresham, it is said, when Queen Elizabeth dined with him at
the City banquet, melted a pearl worth 15,000, and drank to her health.
“Here fifteen thousand pounds alone clap goes
Instead of sugar, Gresham drinks the pearl
Unto his queen and mistress.”
Thomas Heywood.>>
<<Limbus of the Moon In the limbo of the moon. Ariosto (in his Orlando
Furioso, xxxiv. 70) says, in the moon are treasured up such stores as
these: Time misspent in play, all vain efforts, all vows never paid, all
intentions which lead to nothing, the vanity of titles, flattery, the
promises of princes, death-bed alms, and other like vanities.>>
“There heroes' wits are kept in ponderous vases,
And beaux' in snuff-boxes and tweezer-cases;
There broken vows and death-bed alms are found,
And lovers' hearts with ends of ribbon bound;
The courtier's promises and sick man's prayers,
The smiles of harlots, and the tears of heirs.”
Pope: Rape of the Lock, 115-120.
<<Marquis of Carabas: A fossil nobleman, of unbounded pretensions and
vanity, who would fain restore the slavish foolery of the reign of Louis
XIV.; one with Fortunatus's purse, which was never empty. The character
is taken from Perrault's tale of Puss in Boots. Wishing-cap Fortunatus
had an inexhaustible purse and a wishing-cap, but these gifts proved the
ruin of himself and his sons. The object of the tale is to show the
vanity of human prosperity.>>
<<Died for want of lobster sauce. Died of mortification at some trifling
disappointment. Died from pique, or wounded vanity. At the grand feast
given by the great Condé to Louis XIV., at Chantilly, Vatel was told
that the lobsters for the turbot sauce had not arrived,
whereupon this chef of the kitchen retired to his private room, and,
leaning on his sword, ran it through his body, unable to survive
such a dire disgrace as serving up turbot without lobster sauce.>>
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Art Neuendorffer