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The Chariot in 'II Tamburlaine', 'The Wounds of Civil War', and 'The Notes and Queries Advance Access published July 14, 2016 2016 NOTES AND QUERIES 1 Notes and Queries ß Oxford University Press 2016; all rights reserved Beastes and Oxen, thereby to content his Notes unbrideled ambitious desire’.2Allyna Ward argues that the dumb show worked to establish audience expectations of a ‘spectacle of un- THE CHARIOT IN ‘II TAMBURLAINE’, bridled ambition in the first act’, reinforced ‘THE WOUNDS OF CIVIL WAR’, AND by the fact that Servus describes Jocasta’s war- ‘THE REIGN OF KING EDWARD III’ ring son’s ‘thunbridled mindes of ambicious 3 Four references to a full-sized chariot property men’. Ward concurs with earlier critics, includ- on the Elizabethan stage have been identified ing Charles W. Whitworth, J. Churton Collins, thus far. Explicit stage directions in George and N. Burton Paradise, that this is likely the Gascoigne and Francis Kinwelmershe’s Gray’s torture chariot’s first use on the English stage. Inn drama Jocasta (1566), Christopher The conversation surrounding the chariot on Marlowe’s II Tamburlaine (c. 1588), Thomas the English stage has been largely in service of Downloaded from Lodge’s The Wounds of Civil War, or Marius dating Marlowe’s primacy and innovation over and Scilla (c. 1587–92), and a property descrip- Lodge rather than the semiotic work of the 4 tion in Philip Henslowe’s Diary each call for a object itself. The infamous moment takes spectacular prop harnessed to either two or four place in II Tamburlaine, when the title charac- players.Nottobeconfusedwithalittersus- ter calls for the yoking of two conquered kings pended between poles nor draw-and-quartering to his chariot, to be replaced by two other http://nq.oxfordjournals.org/ punishments, the torture chariot of early English kings later in the play once the initial pair theatre seems to have had a very different his- has died in their harnesses: torical precedent and may have been a more fre- [Enter] TAMBURLAINE drawn in his cha- quent feature of the Lord Admiral’s Men riot by TREBIZON and SORIA with bits in repertory than hitherto supposed. their mouths, reins in his left hand, in his The ancient Greek historian Siculus right hand a whip, with which he scourgeth Diodorus (c. 60–30 BCE) refers to the particular them. TECHELLES, THERIDAMAS, use of war chariots closely associated with the UMUCASANE, AMYRAS, CELEBINUS; rule of early Egyptian king, Sesoosis, in his by guest on July 15, 2016 ¨ [ORCANES, King of] Natolia, and Bibliotheca historica. The story goes that when- JERUSALEM, led by five or six common ever Sesoo¨sis conquered a new city or paid a soldiers. (IV.iii.0. 1–6)5 visit to a venerable temple: Tamburlaine mocks Trebizon and Soria, calling he would remove the horses from his four- them ‘pampered jades of Asia’ for only being horse chariot and in their place yoke the able to carry their great ‘coachman’ a mere kings and other potentates, taking them ‘twenty miles day’ (IV.iii.1–4) despite being four at a time, in this way showing to all ‘fed with flesh as raw as blood’ (IV.iii.17). men, as he thought, that, having conquered Marlowe follows Diodorus, Gascoigne, and the mightiest of other kings and those most Kinwelmershe only insofar as the titled status renowned for their excellence, he now had of the two made to draw the chariot. Lodge, on no one who could compete with him for the other hand, calls for the full four men, like the prize of excellence.1 An English translation of the Bibliotheca was 2 George Gascoigne, Jocasta, ed. John W. Cunliffe (New circulating in London at least by 1569. The York, 1969), 246, quoted in Allyna E. Ward, ‘ ‘‘If the Head dumb shows from Jocasta suggests that the Be Evill the Body Cannot Be Good’’: Legitimate Rebellion in Gascoigne and Kinwelmershe’s Jocasta’, Early Modern ‘hystorie of Sesostres’ was possibly part of Literary Studies, xiv.1 (May 2008), 3.15. the regular law curriculum, calling for ‘in like 3 Ward, ‘ ‘‘If the Head Be Evill’’ ’, 3.15. maner cause those Kinges whom he had so 4 See William A. Armstrong, ‘Tamburlaine and The overcome, to draw in his Chariote like Wounds of Civil War’, N&Q, v (1958), 381–3; and N. B. Paradise, Thomas Lodge: The History of an Elizabethan (New Haven, CT, 1931), 129–34. 1 Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca historica, trans. C. H. 5 I refer to Anthony B. Dawson’s edition of Christopher Oldfather, vol. 1, 12 vols., Loeb Classical Library Marlowe’s Tamburlaine, Parts One and Two, New Mermaids (Cambridge, MA, 1978), 204. (New York, 2014). 2 NOTES AND QUERIES 2016 Diodorus, Gascoigne, and Kinwelmershe, but been used from both Tamburlaine plays and changes the status of the subjected: Wounds.9 Additionally, ithe inventory includes several properties (‘j helmet with a dragon; j Enter Scilla in triumph in his chare triumphant shelde, with iii lyons’, ‘j greve armer’, and ‘viij of gold, drawen by foure Moores, before the lances’10) required for a unique stage direction chariot: his colours, his crest, his captaines, his in the anonymous Admiral’s play The Reign of prisoners: Arcathius Mithridates son, Ariston, King Edward III:‘FoureHeraldesbringingina Archelaus, bearing crownes of gold, and coate of armour, a helmet, a lance, and a shield’ manacled. After the chariot, his souldiers (l. 2426. 1)11. By taking a repertory approach to bands, Basillus, Lucretius, Lucullus: besides these plays, II Tamburlaine, Wounds,and prisoners of diuers Nations, and sundry dis- Phaeton together alongside Henslowe’s prop guises. (ll. 1003. 1–4)6 inventories suggest that the spectacular display Alan Dessen and Leslie Thomson point to a of a tyrant’s torture chariot was a distinctive number of Jacobean and Caroline stage plays feature of the Admiral’s house style. Downloaded from that also may have made use of a chariot stage Furthermore, as implied by Henslowe’s in- property.7 John Fletcher’s masque Four Plays in ventory, other plays may have made use of a One (c. 1608–13) includes four dumbshows chariot prop within the Admiral’s repertory. I including chariots, one of which is specifically would like to posit that the anonymous drawn by Moors like Lodge’s play. Other Edward III also made use of a chariot prop plays calling for a chariot in their stage direc- as a sign of global conquest and tyranny over- http://nq.oxfordjournals.org/ tions include Fletcher’s masque, AWifefora thrown. The dearth of scholarship and poor Month (1624), Thomas Heywood’s The Silver printing history of the play—likely because it Age (1613), as well as Philip Massinger’s The is anonymous in authorship and does not treat Roman Actor (1626) and The Bashful Lover a historical subject with which William (1636). For all of these but Fletcher’s first Shakespeare was interested—means the edi- masque it is unclear as to how many players tions that do survive are inconsistent. The would have been required. first edition from 1590 is particularly poor in While Jacobean and Caroline stage chariots that there are several instances of missing stage were used at Court as well as by more than one directions for entrances and exits, as well as by guest on July 15, 2016 playing company, the Elizabethan references to many extraneous speech prefixes for characters this property are contained to that of Admiral’s already speaking. (Nor are scene and act div- and their close associate, playhouse landlord isions overtly marked, although this was in fact Henslowe. Included in an appended inventory normal for drama printed before the mid- of ‘properties for my Lord Admeralles men’ kept 1590s.) Stage directions embedded in dialogue in the Rose’s tiring house and recorded in become increasingly important to envision the Henslowe’s Diary are several props including a necessary stage actions called for in order to ‘charete’ for a 1598 Thomas Dekker play, no make sense of, in particular, battle and con- longer extant, called Phaeton.8 The appendix quest scenes. Because of the lack of easily (whose 35 entries comprise 139 items) also in- searchable stage directions and the nature of cludes ‘j cage’, ‘Tamberlyne[’s] brydell’, ‘iij these publication conditions, the inclusion of Imperial crownes; j playne crowne’, and some- a chariot has yet to be acknowledged. At this thing labelled ‘Sittie of Rome’, which, being moment in question, the English forces assume grouped together, strongly suggest as having their Prince Edward has been killed in battle against the French when a herald interrupts: 6 I refer to Thomas Lodge’s The Wounds of Civill War, After a flourish sounded within, enter an herald. Lively Set Forth in the True Tragedies of Marius and Scilla, Text Creation Partnership digital edition, Early English Books Online (London: John Danter, 1594). 9 Henslowe, Henslowe’s Diary, 320–1. 7 Alan Dessen and Leslie Thomson, A Dictionary of 10 Henslowe, Henslowe’s Diary, 319–21. Stage Directions in English Drama, 1580–1642 (New York, 11 I refer to the anonymous The Raigne of King Edward 1999), 47–8. the Third as It Hath Bin Sundrie Times Plaied about the Citie 8 Phillip Henslowe, Henslowe’s Diary, ed. R. A. Foakes of London, Text Creation Partnership digital edition, Early (New York, 2002), 319. English Books Online (London: Cuthbert Burby, 1596). 2016 NOTES AND QUERIES 3 HERALD: Reioyce my Lord, ascend the imperial throne large chariot property drawn not by animals The mightie and redoubted prince of Wales, but by players during the Renaissance. Half Great seruitor to bloudie Mars in armes, The French mans terror and his countries fame, of these took place during the Elizabethan Triumphant rideth like a Romane peere, period, four of which were part of the and lowly at his stirop comes a foot Admiral’s repertory.
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