COMMENTARY NOTES

DRAMATIS PERSONAE I have discussed the inclusion of these two extra characters, who do not appear in the play, in the Introduction.
18ff. Evidently the author could write of Jesus still living when taken from the cross without any fear of getting in trouble.
37 St. Alban, the first British martyr (early 4th c. A. D.).
64 Earlier in this same year (1170) Henry II had allowed his second son Henry, a fifteen-year old boy, to be crowned as king, so at this time England legally had two kings.
66ff. This passage, describing the heraldic devices of the three sins characteristic of a royal court, probably also owes a lot to the contemporary enthusiasm for emblems.
74 Lerna was a Greek swamp, the home of the Hydra.
I.ii A street in Canterbury
114 Sicca = “dry-eyed.”
133 The incomplete lines of this play are discussed in the Introduction.
I.iii The setting remains the same. As was the custom in academic drama of the time, the five Acts of the play are subdivided into numbered scenes. Each of these, prefaced by a list of the speaking parts in it, is precipitated either by a change in the grouping of characters or when the stage is momentarily cleared. As such, these scene-divisions often serve as a rather imperfect means of indicating entrances and exits, and no discontinuity of time or place is necessarily implied.
I.iv The scene shifts to the court of the younger King Henry. The stage indicates this was intended to be played as an interior scene.
232ff. The Plantagenet dynasty were descended from the Dukes of Anjou (Henry II was the son of Geoffrey of Anjou). Young King Henry recounts their rise to power.
242 Henry II’s mother was Matilda, daughter of Henry I.
259 As preserved in the ms. (Insigne frontis cingit hunc mundi typum), this line makes no sense: Henry’s crown does not encircle his orb. It is likely that this line is produced by the conflation of two original ones by haplography (a fault to which the copyist is otherwise prone), e. g.:

Insigne frontis cingit unicum caput,
Manus sinistra cingit hunc mundi typum.

287 Glocernia, I presume, is the playwright’s idiosyncratic Latinization of Gloucester. It is a place-name not registered in Graesse’s Orbis Latinus.
306 Simon Montfort, the Earl of Leicester (not to be confused with the later and more famous Simon de Montfort).
320ff. Meter: Alcaic stanzas. The numbers indicate assignment of stanzas to individual choristers.
II.i The first three scenes of Act I take place at young Henry’s court.
II.ii Although no stage direction says so, it would appear that between the first two scenes was inserted a lively dumb show showing the dancers disporting themselves. The martial dance of armed men was probably necessitated by the same consideration that excluded the use of female characters in the play: the use of female parts had been forbidden by Rule 13 of the 1591 Jesuit Ratio Studiorum. McCabe discusses this issue in his Chapter 15 (particularly pp. 178f.) and mulls the reason for this injunction. Oddly, perhaps, he failed to consider the possibility that the reason was the same aversion to transvestitism that motivated contemporary Puritan objections to the theater. But the wording of the rule (neque ullus muliebris habitus…introducatur in scenam) seems to suggest that this was indeed the issue.
378 Peter of Blois, the famous statesman-historian. His presence in this play seems to be an anachronism. Becket was martyred in 1170, but Blois evidently did not come to England until several years later (in 1176 he became Chancellor to the Archbishop of Canterbury).
467The origin of the proverbial phrase “crocodile tears” seems to be Sir John Mandeville, Travels, chapter. 31:

In that country and by all Ind be great plenty of cockodrills, that is a manner of a long serpent, as I have said before. And in the night they dwell in the water, and on the day upon the land, in rocks and in caves. And they eat no meat in all the winter, but they lie as in a dream, as do the serpents. These serpents slay men, and they eat them weeping; and when they eat they move the over jaw, and not the nether jaw, and they have no tongue.

474 Cf. Seneca, Hercules Furens 385, sequitur superbos ultor a tergo deus.
477 Henry’s younger brother Richard, Duke of Aquitaine (the future Richard I).
II.iv The scene of the remainder of Act II is Thomas’ episcopal palace.
626 For Sana meditare incipe cf. Seneca, Medea 537.
642 Mala parta male labuntur is a tag from a lost tragedy by Naevius (fr. 25), quoted as a proverb by Cicero, Philippics II.lxv.10. See also Erasmus, Adagia I.vii.82.
667 Cf. Seneca, Medea 558f.: fervidam ut mentem regas / placideque tractes.
679 He means princes of the Church (so also at 1408).
661ff. Meter: anapaestic dimeters with a concluding Adonic.
681Omninumeris is a neologism, perhaps the playwright’s own invention.
687 Cf. et magnas ridebam fulminis iras at Statius, Thebais XI.91.
III.i A Canterbury street (Henry II is currently in France, the knights are coming from him there). The four knights who killed Thomas were Richard Brito, William de Tracy, Reginald Fitz-Urse, and Hugh de Moreville.
750 Cf. Seneca, Troades 448, non ille vultus flammeum intendens iubar.
752 For firmat gradum cf. Statius, Silvae II.v.23 and Thebais II.586.
753  For the idiom acuit iram cf. (e. g.) Aeneid IX.464, XII.590, and Seneca, Troades 834.
781 Perhaps suggested by Statius, Thebais V.468, detumuere animi maris.
793 For noctis vices cf. Seneca, Agamemnon 53 and Ps.-Seneca, Octavia 388.
807 Cf. Ovid, Metamorphoses II.397, precibusque minas regaliter addit.
III.2 The rest of Act III is set in a park where young Henry has come to hunt.
814 So far the play has provided no evidence for an internal time-scheme. This line shows that action of the play covers at least two days, so that the canon of the Aristotelian Unities is not being observed.
818ff. This description of hunting dogs at work is suggested by Seneca, Phaedra 37ff.:

Cum latratu
cava saxa sonent.
nunc demissi nare sagaci
captent auras lustraque presso
quaerant rostro, dum lux dubia est,
dum signa pedum roscida tellus
impressa tenet.

828 For volucer canis see Vergil, Georgics I.470, Ovid, Metamorphoses VII.549, and Statius, Thebais X.353.
831f. Cf. Aeneid VII.808f.:

illa vel intactae segetis per summa volaret
gramina nec teneras cursu laesisset aristas

834 The horseman is presumably shining because he is wearing armor.
835 In antiquity the Cretans were famous for their archery.
846 For praedae signa cf. Ovid, Ars Amatoria I.114.
849 For pectus urit cf. Ps.-Seneca, Hercules Oetaeus 620.
850 For medullas vorat cf. Seneca, Phaedra 282.
864 Cf. compesce dementem impetum at Seneca, Hercules Furens 975.
882 For o fallax bonum! cf. Seneca, Oedipus 6.
941ff. In this speech Richard manifests the qualities that will later make him a great crusading king.
947 Cf. Seneca, Phaedra 31f., At vos laxas canibus tacitis / mittite habenas.
949 For voce nota cf.Seneca, Agamemnon 367.
969 The ms. has Et taminavit. This is not a copying error, since the same neologistic verb tamino (which I assume = contamino) appears in the Act I Chorus of the 1612 Thomas Morus.
981f. Cf. Seneca, Phoenissae 59ff.:

non si revulso Iuppiter mundo tonet
mediumque nostros fulmen in nexus cadat,
manum hanc remittam. prohibeas, genitor, licet.

1001 Cf. Ps.-Seneca, Hercules Oetaeus 1414, gravique anhelum pectus impulsu quatit.
1023ff. Meter: First Asclepeadians.
1031 The Parthians were also famed for their archery.
1052 A favorable day was marked with a white stone on a Roman calendar. Cf. Martial, Epigrams IX.liii, diesque nobis signanda melioribus lapillis. Contrariwise, unfavorable days were marked with a black one. The present author expands on the idea, so that they are used almost as markers whereby a juror returns a verdict (see also 1065).
IV.i This and the next two scenes are set at Thomas’ palace.
1065 See the note on 1052 above.
1090 For furor impotens cf. Seneca, Agamemnon 801.
1091 For mente placata cf. Seneca, Phoenissae 183.
1096 Rouen is the chief city of Anjou. This was Plantagenet territory, and so was affected by English political developments.
1097 Compare the similar idiom at Ps.-Seneca, Octavia 160, tunc sancta Pietas extulit trepidos gradus.
1100f. For horrida hyems cf. Ovid, Metamorphoses XV.212.
1101f. Cf. Seneca, Agamemnon 442, Ut aura plenos fortior tendit sinus.
1104 For omen avertat Deus cf. Seneca, Phaedra 624f.
1106ff. The concern is that an estrangement between the two kings might lead to civil war (which in fact did happen).
1111 Henry II’s consort, Eleanor of Aquitaine.
1126 Thomas was martyred on December 29, during the Feast of Christmas.
1172 Cf. Seneca, Medea 391, quo pondus animi verget?
1178 The ms. clearly has Pontimaci, but I have no idea what this could mean. One possible emendation is Primiani (the African St. Primianus was also martyred on December 29). Another might be pontimachi (“a day for a fight with the pontiff”).
1181 Cf. Seneca, Phaedra 934, celsi regna transieris poli.
1186 Cf. Statius, Silvae I.ii.26, cedant curae metusque.
1191 For fusus cruor cf. Seneca, Troades 1162.
1200 The playwright is thinking of the public penance done by Henry II in July 1174 (Becket was canonized in February 1173).
1213 The religious reformer John Wycliffe (1324 - 1384).
1221 Leaves such as those on which the Roman Sibyl wrote down her prophecies.
1226 At this point, waxing prophetic, the Angel shifts from normal iambic senarii into dactylic hexameters for the remainder of his speech.
It is perhaps interesting that Thomas More and John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester are linked here, since English College tragedies devoted to their martyrdoms, produced soon after Thomas Cantuariensis, are preserved by the same manuscript. Does this hint that the three plays were conceived as a kind of dramatic triptych?
1231ff. The playwright thought that under Henry VIII the English bishops (always excepting John Fisher) did not do enough to resist Protestantism. Under Elizabeth, however, no less than eleven bishops were deprived of office and left to die in confinement.
1232 For the phrase sanguinis imber cf. Statius, Thebais V.684.
1236 At a guess, the “presbyter” is the Archpriest (the head of the Catholic Church in England), or the Jesuit Superior in England. Or is Father Robert Persons (vide infra) meant, who lived covertly in England from 1579 to 1581?
1239f. St. Bruno, founder of the Carthusian Order. A number of Carthusians, including Priors John Houghton of London, Robert Lawrence of Beauvale, and Augustus Webster of Axholme, were martyred under Henry VIII.
1239f. A slighting allusion to Elizabeth and her Privy Council, or at least her supporters more generally.
1244 Robert Persons [1546 - 1610], Rector of the English College from 1579 until his death. Biography here.
1247 Edmund Campion [1540 - 1581, biography here]. Campion and the following individuals were all members of the Jesuit order.
1248 Robert Southwell ]1561 - 1595, biography here], Henry Walpole [1558 - 1595, biography here].
1249 Henry Garnet [1553 - 1606], Jesuit Superior in England. Biography here. Garnet was arrested and executed for his alleged complicity in the Gunpowder Plot. He is said to have been minime laesus because the English authorities did not put him to the torture. Shortly after his death, “Garnet’s straw” was discovered an ear of wheat which, in the eyes of the faithful, reproduced his likeness and served as a sign of his sanctity. Cf. Paul Durst, Intended Treason (London - New York, 1970) 277 - 279 with Plate 14.
1252 John Roberts (1575 - 1610, biography here). Both Roberts and Barworth were Benedictines, hence the reference to Monte Cassino.
1253 Mark Barkworth (d, 1601, biography here).
1255 A roster of martyrs from the English College at Rome: Ralph Sherwin [ 1550 - 1581, biography here], William Hart [1558 - 1583, biography here], George Haydock [1556 - 1583, biography here], and Richard Newport [d. 1612].
1256 He means Gregory XIII [regnavit 1572 - 1585], a vigorous supporter of the Jesuits.
1259 Jesuit seminaries existed at Seville, Rheims and Valladolid (“the valley of the pale olives”).
1272 For tumidm animum cf. Seneca, Agamemnon 127.
1274 For vaecors libido cf. Seneca, Troades 285.
1284 For iram extinguas cf. Ps. -Seneca, Octavia 265.
1285 For the logic compare the Baltimore Catechism:

If I see you in some place to which you were forbidden to go, and you, knowing that I saw you, positively deny that you were there, your guilt would be doubly great, for, besides the sin of disobedience committed by going to the forbidden place, you also resist the known truth, and endeavor to prove that 1, when I declare I saw you, am telling what is untrue.

1299f. Very suitably, in this Senecan rhetorical trope listing a series of adunata or impossibilities, this and the next line refer to the dramatic situations in two Senecan tragedies, Thyestes and Phoenissae.
1301 For Tartari specus cf. Seneca, Agamemnon 2.
1308 For pietas ficta cf. Statius, Silvae V.iii.244.
1309 For simulata verba cf. Seneca, Troades 568.
1392 For invisum caput cf. Seneca, Thyestes 188.
IV.iv A street outside Thomas’ palace.
1408 See the note on 680.
1432ff. Meter: hendecasyllables with interspersed Adonics (the beginning is in regular Sapphic stanzas). Evidently the parts for the chorus were not identified in the copyist’s exemplar, so he added the numbers but used a question mark to indicate that they were added by his conjecture.
1444 They mean Peter’s Roman Church, not Peter personally.
1446 An echo of Vergil’s famous line (Eclogues i.66), et penitus toto diuisos orbe Britannos.
1456 An echo of Seneca, Oedipus 122f., Phoebus et flamma propiore nudos / inficit Indos.
1464ff. The meter returns to iambic senarii.
V.i The scene is outside Canterbury Cathedral.
1470 For tetigimus limen cf. Lucretius III.1065, Ovid, Heroides xxi.163, and Tristia I.iii.55.
1475 For terribilis vultus cf. Ovid, Metamorphoses VIII.266.
1476 For auris trepida cf. Ps.-Seneca, Hercules Oetaeus 1944.
1478 For curis levamen cf. Seneca, Medea 548. For cito pede cf. Ovid, Ars Amatoria III.65.
1484ff. A common wish for tragic eyewitness describing horrors they have seen. Cf. Seneca, Thyestes 623ff.:

Quis me per auras turbo praecipitem uehet
atraque nube involuet, ut tantum nefas
eripiat oculis?

1489 It seems strange that the maker of the wings is specified to be a senex and one cannot help wondering if the playwright wrote something like Quis artifex volucres pinnas fabricet?
1500ff. Since Thomas’ murder is traditionally reported to have occurred before a side-chapel under the main altar of Canterbury Cathedral (and nothing in the following description of the event suggests otherwise), I do not see why the author saw fit to mention this private chapel in the episcopal palace, it only serves to confuse the reader. (Possibly it is included out of a vague “Senecan” feeling that dire crimes should occur in secret, remote places, as at Thyestes 650, imitated by William Alabaster in his ghastly revenge tragedy Roxana (ca. 1595), cf. 976ff. If this surmise is correct, except for providing a moment of atmospherics, this is one of those literary signs that points nowhere).
1505 Cf. the command to the Nuntius at Seneca, Troades 1067, ede et enarra omnia (si vives, like testor, seems to exemplify the author’s way of translating English idioms into Latin).
1510 Cf. Seneca, Hercules Furens 1160, gnati cruenta caede confecti iacent.
1530 A imitation of a standard Roman poetic description of nightfall. Cf. Seneca, Agamemnon 460ff.:

Iam lassa Titan colla relevabat iugo,
in astra iam lux prona, iam praeceps dies;
exigua nubes sordido crescens globo
nitidum cadentis inquinat Phoebi iubar;

1567 For horrendo nefas cf. Seneca, Thyestes 89.
1594f. Cf. Seneca, Medea 397f., Si quaeris odio, misera, quem statuas modum, / imitare amorem.
1605 For mens aegra cf. Seneca, Agamemnon 418.
1623f. For a similar threat cf. Seneca, Thyestes 188f.:

quisquis invisum caput
tegit ac tuetur, clade funesta occidat.

1631ff. The Citizen is too tactful to mention Henry II by name and so he speaks by indirection, but young Henry’s response shows that he understands.
1637 Here date = mitte.
V.ii The scene is the killers’ secret hiding-place mentioned at 1570f.
1651 Cf. Seneca, Medea 962f., ingens anguis excusso sonat / tortus flagello.
1657 For the wish cf. Seneca, Phaedra 1238, Dehisce tellus, recipe me dirum chaos, and also Hercules Furens 1223ff.:

si quod exilium patet
ulterius Erebo, Cerbero ignotum et mihi,
hoc me abde, Tellus; Tartari ad finem ultimum
mansurus ibo.

1673 Cf. Seneca Hercules Furens 1148, nescioquod animus grande praesagit malum (also Phoenissae 279f. and Ps. - Seneca, Hercules Oetaeus 1148).
1700 In mythology the giant Enceladus was buried under Mt. Etna for having offended Zeus.
1721 For devota capita cf. Seneca. Thyestes 712.
1735 See the note on 1126 .
1738 Cf. virtus repulsae nescia at Horace, Odes III.ii.17.
1772 Here anteambulo is used metaphorically. Our author got the word from Martial II.xviii.5, where it is used literally, Sum comes ipse tuus tumidique anteambulo regis.
1774 Cf. Ps. -Seneca, Hercules Oetaeus 1429, longus dolorem forsitan vincet sopor.
1775 Suggested by Martial XII.xxxvi.7, ut verum loquar, optimus malorum es.
1786 Cf. Seneca’s description of Tantalus at Agamemnon 20, aquas fugaces ore decepto appetit.
1811 For effundere vires cf. Ovid, Metamorphoses I.278 and Lucan VII.244.
1820 For clangor tubae cf. Aeneid VIII.526 and Lucan X.401.
1823 For sudor frigidus cf. Seneca, Troades 487. For palpitat cor cf. Ps.-Seneca, Hercules Oetaeus 708.
1825 Cf. Seneca, Oedipus 224, torpor insedit per artus.
1833 For veteris irae cf. Seneca, Medea 394, 902, Oedipus 3535, Phaedra 355, and Thyestes 808.
1838 Cf. Seneca, Agamemnon 289f., mala / consilia dictas.