The Spenser Archive Prototype

THEATRE: Not an uncommon title for a sixteenth-century book meant to provide a critical conspectus on a subject. Such books share with theatrical auditoria the function of offering an object of scrutiny rendered circumscribed and made available for serious reflection to a spectator whose situation allows him or her an objectifying, but not dispassionate vantage.

voluptuous: sensuous, sensual

worldlings: The term suggests not only creatures of this world, but those with allegiances to this world.

HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE: ‘Shame on he who think ill of this’. This is the motto of the Order of the Garter.

0.1-0.6In commendationem . . . Brabant: ‘Poem in commendation of the work set forth by the most noble and virtuous Lord, John van der Noot, patrician of Antwerp, by “M. Rabilae”, poet of Brabant.’ ‘M. Rabilae’ is probably an anagram of the name of Melchior van Baerle (Barlaeus), Antwerp author of a number of Latin poems on mythological subjects.

1.1-1.29

Haec . . . serenam: ‘Let Babylon read these things and learn to rear its earth-bound head as far as heaven: here is the sure path to life, which the noble example of van der Noot gives to men to read. Scorning his homeland, certain victories, and official rewards, aware that virtue has no foundation in blood, he has raised his mind to greater things and, by this work, lets the world know of his uncommon suffering and of his life's sad labors.

‘Let Babylon read these things; let it read and fill its ears with this work. And if anyone's mind is shrouded in dark mists and, forgetful of the right path, wanders across trackless rocks, here, the mists removed, he may find out the Supreme Good. The teachings of the ‘Wise’ disperse the truth and jumble it with empty falsehood. O senseless minds of men! Not that Church of the Gods but the alerted mind, lashing these Learned ones with a harsh rope, will lead the corrupted soul to better things.

‘O that the idols lay overthrown! May His honor, which moves all things, be restored. Yet sometimes a kinder fortune will drop from the stars and the piteous rulers of most high Olympus will behold our struggles, behold how the tyrants of all lands rage with furious mind. But whoever is inflamed to discover the star that points out the true path, read here these learned, late-night labors which learned van der Noot has wrought for you. Like the Ploughman who watches the clouds chased away by the sun and the fields renew their smiling, so will you see a tranquil light shine out, through the dense smoke, for you.’

GERARDVS GOOSSENIVS: Like van der Noot, the author of this commendatory poem was a member of the Dutch refugee community in England, having left the Netherlands in 1566. Shortly after the publication of A Theatre, van Goossens fell foul of the authorities of the Dutch Church owing to a dispute with one of the elders, John Engelram, after which he moved to Canterbury.

0.1-0.3DOCTOR . . . Zoilum: ‘Doctor Gerard Goosens, Physician, Scientist, and Poet, Governor of Brabant; an Octastich on Zoilus’. Zoilus was a literary scholar of the fourth century B.C.E., notorious for the harshness of his criticism of Homer.

Ocastichon: An octastich is an eight-line poem.

2.1Zoile . . . Goosseni: ‘Zoilus, why so pale? Why the perpetual long face, your brow furrowed and forehead always wrinkled? I see that you’re bothered by the publication of this book. But why, I wonder, should you find that troubling? Is it because it attacks the rites of the Papists and the worship of idols, and doesn’t lament despoiled Babylon? It doesn't mind some backbiting, Zoilus; it is content to have delighted the good and discomfited the wicked. ‘Goossens, steadfast.’

Fraunce: From the reign of Edward III through to that of George III, all English monarchs asserted formal claim to the throne of France.

my departure oute of Brabante: Van der Noot fled Antwerp (in the duchy of Brabant) in the spring of 1567 after a failed Calvinist attempt to take control of the city government. Margaret of Parma had put down the revolt, yet she exercised what would come to seem, in hindsight, a comparatively moderate approach to this and prior Calvinist insurgencies in Antwerp and its environs; when the Duke of Alva replaced her later in the spring, a number of Antwerp’s Protestants sought refuge in England and Germany. More of the Dutch exiles ended up in London than in any other individual European locale.

naturall: native

as well . . . Antechrist: Van der Noot’s special emphasis on visual hygiene does more than prepare for the carefully disciplined visionary poems to come. The Antwerp Calvinists had a resolute interest in the purification of visual culture, having engaged in an aggressive program of iconoclasm in the years before the crackdown that forced van der Noot to flee to England. The identification of the Roman church or the pope with the Antichrist has a number of pre-Reformation antecedents, and figures in the first of the twenty-five articles of the Lollards (1388).

Romyshe: Roman

meane space: meantime

nourice: nurse

other my: my other

withdrawe: distract

the rather: instead

gyue: devote

for as much: insofar

conueniencie: aptness

prince: Although van der Noot refers to Elizabeth as a ‘Princesse’ in the dedicatory half-title, the sex-neutral use of the term ‘prince’ was in wide use.

resembled: likened

blessed and happie: A pleonasm: ‘happie’ here means ‘fortunate’ or ‘blessed’.

lineally descended: The assertion is polemical: after all, in 1536, her father, Henry VIII, had declared Elizabeth illegitimate; he reversed himself by the Act of Succession of 1543, which Act Edward VI had attempted to overrule in the Device for the Succession of 1553. There were several claimants at the time of the publication of Theatre. Henry Hastings still had a few supporters, and more important, the pretensions of Elizabeth’s second cousin, Mary Queen of Scots, had been explicit since the death of her half-sister, Mary Tudor, when Henry II of France declared his son, Francis II, and Mary, his wife, king and queen of England. Even though Mary Queen of Scots had fled to England from Scotland in 1568 and was very much under Elizabeth’s thumb when Theatre was published, her claims to the English throne had the abiding support of England’s Catholics: the publication precedes the Northern Rebellion by only a few months. Van der Noot’s affirmations of Elizabeth’s sovereignty here have a nervous truculence; they contribute to the general defense against Catholic claims to authority in Theatre.

puissaunt: powerful

stile: full legal title

28Neither for that: Continuing a series initiated by ‘not so much for that’ above.

Phœnix . . . singular: Cf. Epigram 5 below. In his account of the mythical phoenix (Natural History 10.2), Pliny mentions that only one of its kind exists at any time.

Tullie: Marcus Tullius Cicero

giuen in your own person: I.e., rather than through an interpreter.

exquisite: highly accomplished

measures: This term for dance ‘steps’ reminds us that just as ancient and Early Modern musical theory emphasized the relation between mathematical proportion and ideal musical intervals, so did theoretical writing on dancing describe its gestures and steps as governed by regularities and proportions; see Elyot 1531 and Nevile 2004.

his nine sisters: the Muses

imagerie: Although the term can denote sculpture, van der Noot almost certainly means ‘embroidery’ here. Elizabeth was said to have been fond of embroidery and skilled at it from an early age. Two handsome embroidered bookbindings survive, customarily attributed to her.

cunnyng: artfulness

deuise: design

alonly: alone

of hir: out of her; as an exercise of her

enduing: endowing

argument: theme

fained Emblemes: invented images representing moral fables, pictorial allegories. For more on emblems see the Introduction.

glosing: specious praise

flatterie or glosing: The phrase is pleonastic. Glosing, cognate with glossing, has a special association with writing.

inconueniencie: unsuitableness

Asse tuning of a harp: The ancient proverb ‘The ass with the lyre’ could be used to evoke the incomprehension of the crude and ignorant, and the folly of offering higher things to the debased, as well as a range of simple incongruities. Because Erasmus discusses the provenance and the meanings of the proverb at some length in his Adages, it had special currency among humanists.

accompt: account

for these alonely: only for these

Lamuell . . . Prouerbes: Van der Noot here quotes Proverbs 31:30. Proverbs was frequently understood to consist of three books, since it collects sayings attributed first to Solomon, then to Agur son of Jakeh, and in the final chapter to Lemuel.

deceiuable: deceitful

peculiarly: particularly, preferentially

al . . . his: all of his other forenamed

lightened: enlightened

louablenesse: praiseworthiness

and that of good right: and I do so for good reason

happie: fortunate

Prince: Van der Noot here insists on the fact that the term could be used indifferently of a male or female ruler.

iewels: Not gemstones per se, but articles of adornment made of precious materials.

law and equitie: Van der Noot follows Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics, 5) in the conventional distinction between legal justice, administered in England on the authority of custom, maxim, and statute and equity, an extralegal power to bring legal justice, in specific cases, into line with the general principles from which it springs. Van der Noot’s readers would have associated equitable justice with particular (conciliar) courts, and above all the Chancery and the Court of Requests.

in six or seuen languages: Important as was vernacular translation of the Bible to those committed to church reform, concerned as they were with lay access to scripture, van der Noot’s emphasis here falls on a different matter of linguistic access. He praises ways in which the religious needs of its various ethnic communities were accommodated in cosmopolitan London.

The Sacraments . . . Supper: Baptism and the Eucharist are the only two rites recognized as sacraments by the leading theologians of the Reformation.

Christian discipline: The Protestant reformers were concerned not only with the correction of doctrine and the reform of church polity, but with a reform of discipline, that is, of the methods of doctrinal and moral correction in pastoral practice, especially at the parish level.

countrey and nation: While country denotes a group of people originating in a particular place, nation can refer both to an ethnic group and to a confessional sect.

entertainement: welcome

banishyng . . . Diuell: At 1 John 2:22 the distinguishing feature of the Antichrist is his denial of the divinity of Jesus. The identification of the Antichrist as a son or descendant of Satan derives from the convergence of two other interpretive traditions: that the Antichrist is to be identified with the ‘sonne of perdition’ of 2 Thess 2.3 and that this sonship, an infernal mirror-image of Christ’s divine sonship, is disclosed at Gen 3:15, where God refers to the abiding hostility of the descendants of the serpent to the descendants of Eve.

overthwartly . . . hair: perversely and completely contrariwise

Pharao . . . Iezabell: Jeroboam, first king of the breakaway Northern kingdom of Israel, is remembered in 1 Kings for his revival of idolatry (12:28). His successors, of whom Ahab (here ‘Achab’) is said to be the worst (1 Kings 16:30), are regularly condemned for committing the idolatry: ‘and it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he [i.e., Ahab] took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him.’ In their iconoclasm, then, the Reformers tax Catholics with committing the sins of Jeroboam; see Luther’s Table-Talk, CLXXV. The gloss to ‘Jezebel’ at this juncture in the Geneva Bible -- ‘By whose influence he fell into wicked and strange idolatry and cruel persecution’ -- is relevant, as are John Knox’s references to Mary Tudor as ‘that cursed Jesabell’ (Against the Monstruous Regiment of Women, 1558, D6) and his yoking together of Pharoah and Jezebel in his Faythfull admonition of 1554: ‘Remembre brethren, that Goddes vengeaunce plaged not Pharao the fyrst yeare of his tyranny. Neyther dyd the dogges devoure and consume bothe the fleshe and bones of wicked Jezabel when she first erected and set up her Idolatrie’ (F1v-F2).

Iosua . . . Dauid: A slightly heterogeneous list, although Joshua, Gideon, and David all figure in the Old Testament as great military leaders. An outlier not only in this respect, ‘Judah’ also disrupts the chronology of the list.

kingdome . . . worlde: In Works and Days, 109-120, Hesiod identifies the reign of Cronos with the Golden Age. In Roman culture, Cronos was conflated with Saturn, and the pleasures of the Cronian Golden Age with the indulgence and social leveling of Saturnalia; Ovid offers classic rendering of the Saturnian Golden Age in Met. I.89-112. In his fourth eclogue, Virgil hails the return of Saturn and Astraea, and with them the return of the Golden Age (Ecl. IV.6).

Astrea: According to Ovid (Met. I.149-50) this virgin goddess forsook the earth during the last of the Four Ages, when injustice and impiety asserted themselves. Camden reports that Virgil’s celebration of the return of Astraea in the fourth eclogue, ‘Iam redit virgo’, was applied to Elizabeth ‘in the beginning of her . . . reign’ (Remains, 1605, Z2-Z2v). For more on this mythologization of Elizabeth, see Yates 1947.

God of: God in exercise of

his Churche dispersed: his dispersed church

these our most miserable days: The clash between the description, a few lines earlier, of the English present as a Golden Age and, here, of the European present as miserable suggests the peculiar psychological situation of the asylum-seeker; it also evokes a paradox in the self-understanding of the Protestant, who sees himself as a member of both a persecuted minority and a triumphant imperial Church.

commodities: sources of sustenance and comfort

128-129if they . . . other: See Matt. 10:23.

dignities: positions of elevated status

preferments: positions conferring social and financial advantage

Frederike: Under the Elector, Frederick III, most of the Palatinate, which had been hospitable to a range of Protestant groups, became a strictly Calvinist enclave within the Holy Roman Empire, though his efforts to suppress Lutheran practices in the Upper Palatinate were only partly successful.

Iosias: Josiah, the king of Judah who ‘put down the idolatrous priests’ (2 Kings 23:5), is similarly instanced as a model ruler in the epistle prefatory to the 1570 edition of the Geneva Bible. The comparison of Frederick to Josiah may be especially pointed, since Josiah effected a major reformation not only in his own realm of Judah, but in the kingdom of Israel to the north as well. His fervent iconoclasm would have been an inspiration to the Antwerp reformers: at 2 Kings 23:4, Josiah burns the vessels used in the worship of Baal and carries the ashes to Bethel, the site where Jeroboam had erected his golden calves; at 23:5, he destroys the altar at Bethel.

harborough: harbor

French . . . Dutche: Edward VI granted charters for the founding in London of both Dutch and French churches in 1550.

dyuers: diverse

How . . . Iahel: Alluding both to the account of Deborah’s advice to Barak on how to defeat the army of Sisera (Judges 4:6-16) and to the story of Jael’s subsequent murder of Sisera (Judges 4:17-21).

he also . . . daughter: See 1 Samuel 19:11-16.

he deliuered . . . Iudith: As narrated in the apocryphal book of Judith, chapts. 8-16.

the children . . . Haman: See Esther.

renoumed: renowned

tofore: earlier

affection: disposition, affect

and that maugre . . . being: ‘and all this despite the provocations of your enemies, who, being, etc.’ The phrase ‘maugre the beard of’ was proverbial, but van der Noot may be playing with beard here, suggesting that Elizabeth is undeterred by the virility of the Catholic princes -- the Pope and Philip II of Spain -- who opposed her.

endite: compose

heartie: heartfelt

your Maiesties counsel: Van der Noot is probably referring quite specifically to Elizabeth’s Privy Council.

weal: well-being

estate: state

wold not be: desire not to be

by your grace: by means of your liberality

in store: laid up

in signification: as a sign

vouchsafe: be willing, deign

the matter: the substance of the argument

the same: i.e., the matter of the book

contentation: contentment

conscience: the term can have its modern, specifically moral sense, as well as the less specific senses of ‘consciousness’ and ‘inward thought’.

01: Spenser is translating Marot’s translation of Petrarch’s canzone 323, the so-called ‘Canzone of Visions’. The source canzone is constructed in twelve-line stanzas with a regular, if complex rhyme scheme, with a three-line tornata at the conclusion; Marot’s translation preserves the organization of the poem in twelve-line units, but changes the rhyme scheme. As to format, all editions of the Theatre follow the layout of illustrated manuscript editions of Marot’s translation from the 1560s, which display only one twelve-line unit per opening.

01: One of two of the epigrams that Spenser has translated in sonnet form, expanding Marot’s twelve lines to fourteen.

1.1-1.31.1-3: Spenser’s syntax in these opening lines supports the general theme of the vain and transitory character of the world. No visionary ‘I’ organizes the lines; the first person leaves only traces -- on my window and in the two objects (me) of hapned (indirect) and grieved (direct). Instead, Spenser gives us an absolute construction in the first line, the participle in which (being) can be attached only to an ‘I’ that appears nowhere in the sentence, and is followed by two impersonal constructions, [it] hapned and it grieveth. Indeed, these opening lines are remarkable for a dreamlike ellipsis of specific subjects: if the visionary ‘I’ does not securely manifest its presence, the things seen are not much more syntactically assertive, at least within this three-line introduction to the sequence. (Things appears at first to be the subject of hapned, but is, in fact, the object of to see.)

Hinde: a female deer

1.4-8: Van der Noot glosses this vision as an allegory for the death of Petrarch’s Laura, pursued by the dogs of destiny or appointed time (‘by the houndes white and black he understode the daye and nyght’; Commentary 382-3).

mought: might, could

the greatest God: the adjective can function as a superlative (‘the greatest of the Gods’) or as an absolute superlative; the phrase in the French source, souverain des Dieux (B1v), cannot be understood as absolute.

1.8-1.9With deadly force so . . . pinchte: So can modify either deadly force (i.e. ‘with such deadly force’) or pinchte in 9. Spenser’s sources -- mordean sì forte (Petrarch) and mordoint si fort (Marot) -- would authorize either construction.

vntimely dide: Possibly influenced by van der Noot’s interpretation of the sonnet as an allegory of the depredations of time, and certainly responding to his own formulation two lines earlier, in shorte time, I spied, Spenser has introduced this characterization of the death of the hind, which is not to be found in Petrarch’s original or Marot’s translation.

1.13-14: Spenser here introduces a temporal idea not present in his sources. Marot follows Petrarch closely, using a past tense to describe how the cruelty of death vanquished (vanquit, B1v) beauty and how destiny makes the speaker sigh (souspirer me feit); Spenser’s absolute construction (death vanquishing) and his Oft makes me waile suggests that the experience of the vision takes place in a grievous, perpetually renewed present.

Heben: ebony

2.1-6: Again van der Noot will construe the vulnerable thing at the center of the vision as a figure for Laura: the ebony of the ship as her black brows, its ivory, her skin; the ship’s gold sails and silk tackle are said to stand both for her clothing and for her precious virtues; see Commentary 385-9.

turmoyle: The verb is often used to describe the effect of storms on the sea. The slightly unusual transfer to the air evokes an abnormal turbulence.

riches: probably to be construed as ‘wealth, richesse’ rather than as ‘valuable things’: with metrical stress falling on the second syllable, it is closely allied to the abstract term richesse in Marot’s version.

3: Of the Epigrams, only the first and this third poem are sonnets. Making this formal shift, Spenser may simply be succumbing to the difficulty of rendering Marot’s douzaine in twelve English lines; he may also have adopted the sonnet form as an homage to Petrarch, widely felt to be the master of the form, for this particular poem takes up one of the central images of Petrarch’s Rime sparse, the laurel tree. In this poem and elsewhere in Petrarch’s collection, the image of the flourishing laurel effects a congruence between the apparently divergent objects of Petrarch’s longing, the beloved Laura and the fame that might accrue to poetic achievement, an achievement that might be recognized by the award of a laurel crown.

fresh and lusty: Since the phrasing here is closer to Petrarch’s ‘giovenetto e schietto’ than to Marot’s simple ‘jeune’ (E2v), one might conclude that Spenser had consulted Petrarch’s original. But the lines immediately following track Marot in a firm departure from his Petrarchan source.

3.3-6: The full stop after ‘melodie’ clarifies the syntax of a sentence left uncertain in Le Theatre. Marot’s translation had departed from the logic of the Petrarchan original in which the speaker’s sense of the paradisiacal nature of the tree derives from its freshness and lustiness; in Marot’s poem and Spenser’s translation, the speaker derives this sense of the tree’s paradisiacal nature from the plenitude of birds in its branches. (When Spenser revised the translation for VP, he worked to recover the fundamental logic of Petrarch’s lines.)

noble: Spenser departs from his sources here, as he will at line 12 below, where he describes the tree as royall. He may have been inspired to this diction by Roest’s translation of Van der Noot’s commentary on the previous poem, where Laura’s virtues are described as ‘noble and excellent’ (Commentary 390).

melodie: Van der Noot comments that the birds’ song represents Laura’s conversation and song (F4v).

sprites: spirits

shadow: The word manages to refer at once to the tree, its shadow, and the visionary experience at the moment of their combined passing-away.

welkin: sky

outbrast: burst forth

homely . . . ruder: The adjectives insist on a rusticity not emphasized in Petrarch or Marot. For a similar non-comparative use of ‘ruder’, see the ‘ruder clowne’ of FQ VI.x.7.4, and cf. the ‘viler clowne’ of Oct 97.

cloune: peasant

4.6-4.7That sweetely . . . fall.: Spenser’s subsequent poetry recurs frequently to this accord of song and the sound of falling water, which he came to treat as the sign of a poetry that, while rural, could also claim, perhaps by virtue of its harmony with the natural order, the right to speak of higher things. In April, Colin is said to have made his song in praise of Elisa, Queene of shepheardes while lying beside a spring and to have tuned it unto the Waters fall (35-6; and see also the lament in June, 155-6). The laments of The Teares of the Muses are similarly powred forth . . . Beside the silver Springs of Helicone (4-5) and there the Muses teach the trembling streames . . . to beare . . . A Bases part (25-8). Again, in FQ, the Nymphes and Faeries at the base of Mt. Acidale are found sitting by the banks of a gentle flud . . . And to the waters fall tuning their accents fit (VI.x.7.1 and 9). Noting the shift in this line, possibly inadvertent, from the pentameter norm of the rest of the Epigrams to an alexandrine, John Hollander remarks (1988, 173-6) on the important congruence of this ‘scene’ of acoustic concord with Spenser’s first use of that metrical extension which would be one of the distinguishing features of the Faerie Queene stanza. For more on this attunement, see Cheney, 1997, 72-3.

chiefe: As in Marot, no lesser delights are explicitly named, although Spenser’s line suggests that the pleasure of the sight may exceed the pleasure of the accorde of voice and waters. In Petrarch there is no competition between sight and sound, instead, they collaborate to produce a sweetness that by its very increase seems to trigger the onset of loss -- quando / più dolcezza prendea . . . / . . . aprir vidi uno speco (‘when / I took more sweetness . . . / . . . I saw a chasm open’).

Phœnix: In Epigrams 5.7, Martial compares the longevity and resilience of Rome to that of the phoenix. Petrarch emphasizes the self-destruction of the phoenix, suppressing its capacity for self-renewal. On the singularity of the Phoenix, see above, Epistle 29.

anone: immediately

wight: creature

Vntill: The speaker relinquishes the thought that the bird is some heauenly wight upon witnessing its arrival at the scenes of prior desolation described in the previous two Epigrams. This changing-of-mind is somewhat more explicit in Marot (don pensay . . . jusque à tant / Qu’il vint à; ‘wherefore I thought . . . until / it arrived at’) and Petrarch (prima pensai, fin ch’ . . . giunse; ‘at first I thought, until . . . it reached’).

we see: The characterization of the transitory things as transitory visibilia is Spenser’s own invention, and it throws emphasis on the importance of viewing to the sensation of loss. The detail is especially fitting since, in this poem, the phoenix is at once the object of the speaker’s gaze and, itself, a gazer, looking on the same broken tree and spring late devoured that the speaker earlier viewed. Whereas the speaker of the prior poems responds to the vision of loss with grief, the Phoenix responds with disdaine.

dide: In Spenser’s sources, the Phoenix disappears.

pitie and loue: The Phoenix’s death excites emotions not evinced by the prior visions.

At last: Perhaps suggesting that the appearance of a Lady in this sixth and final vision has been elicited by the new depth and generosity of the speaker’s response to the death of the Phoenix in the fifth vision, his pitie and love. In both poems, the speaker is said to respond with burning.

thinking: Whereas Marot’s songeant suggests some continuity between the vision of the Lady and the ruminative experience that makes the speaker burne and quake, Spenser’s thinking recurs to Petrarch’s phrasing -- che mai nol penso ch’i’non arda et treme (‘of which I never think without burning and trembling’) -- which marks a sharper rift between the vision and the emotional reflection on that vision. The phrasing here and the choice of proudely at line 4, which recovers the force of Petrarch’s superba (‘proud,’ which Marot has nearly lost in his contre amour rebelle, ‘rebel against Love’), suggest that Spenser has here consulted Marot’s Petrarchan source.

White seemed hir robes: Whereas in Petrarch, the weaving creates the effect of snow and gold combined, in Spenser’s version snow and gold seem to be the very constituents of the fabric. Spenser’s slight invention here is perhaps inspired by the dense verbal texture in the French version, for Marot describes the fabric as made with such art that gold and snow ensemble / sembloient meslez (‘seem commingled together’; B6v).

waste: waist

6.8: Recalling the death of Eurydice, stung by a snake on the occasion of her marriage (Virgil, Georgics, 4.457-9; Ovid, Met 3.10).

in earth: Although the Lady of this douzaine mounts up to joy, in sustains the idea of Eurydicean entombment, an idea reinforced by the phrasing of Marot’s envoy, which concludes with a longing for a conspicuously subterranean death (soubz la terre gesir).

anoy: vex

yelde . . . a sweete request: Spenser seems to be straining to secure a rhyme for rest; the phrase very imperfectly renders Marot’s donne ung doulx plaisir (‘gives a sweet pleasure’) and Petrarch’s àn fatto un dolce . . . desio (‘has produced a sweet desire’). The substantial revision of the envoy for Bellay may well stem from Spenser’s dissatisfaction with this particular line.

within the earth: See note to 6.11 above.

The sequence of sonnets translates Du Bellay’s Songe, itself heavily indebted to Petrarch’s ‘Canzone of Visions’.

1: Du Bellay’s sequence begins with the apparition of a spirit who propounds the general lesson of the visions that will follow, that since all things beneath heaven are transitory, those who hope for permanence must vest that hope in the divine. The spirit’s admonition occupies the entire octave of Du Bellay’s poem, whereas, in Spenser’s rendering, the apparition speaks of the world’s inconstancy and, in the final three lines, the original speaker formulates the compensatory principle of confidence in God. The summary prologue and the demonstration of the speaker’s wisdom give the sequence a somewhat greater spiritual security than is offered in the preceding sequence. That said, this second sequence is also more sepulchral than the prior one: Spenser’s speaker is addressed by a ghost (un Demon, for Du Bellay) and the ensuing poems are haunted by the pathetic or monstrous vestiges of antiquity.

1.1-5: Recalling the occasion of the appearance of Hector’s ghost in Aen 2.268-97; the ghost rouses the sleeping Aeneas, warning him to flee the burning city of Troy.

that great riuers: The Tiber’s.

my propre name: Du Bellay’s nom dont je me nomme (‘name by which I name myself’) makes even a stronger assertion of the intimacy of the name than does Spenser’s phrasing.

Temple: The idea that God dwells in a heavenly temple is a frequent biblical topos (see, e.g., Isa 6:1, Heb 8:1-6, and Rev 11:19). The heavens themselves are not directly compared to a temple in the canonical bible and no detailed speculation as to the architecture (and angelic personnel) of the heavenly temple was made until the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice (among the Dead Sea Scrolls) and the hekhalot literature of early Judaism.

nought . . . vanitie: Eccles 1:2 and 12:8.

Sith: Since

stay: to hold fixed

The second, third, and fourth sonnets focus on the destruction of monumental Roman culture. Van der Noot speaks of Rome as stuffed . . . wyth . . . all maner of riches, wherupon didde ensue all kinde of superfluitie and worldely pompousnesse (F5v-F6). His description suggests an abiding fascination with Roman sumptuousness: They adorned their Citie with all maner of sumptuous and costely buyldings, wyth all kindes of curious and cunning workes, as Theaters, Triumphall Arkes, Pyramedes, Columnes, Spires, and a greate number of graven Images, Statues, Medalles and Figures, made of divers and sundry kindes of stuffe, as Marble, Alablaster, Golde, Sylver, Copper, Pourphere, Emplaster, Brasse and other like mettall, some graven, and other some cast (F6).

cubites: A cubit is a measure of the distance from the elbow to the tip of the fingers. With the exception of the revised translation for Bellay, Spenser employs the term on only one other occasion, to measure the depth of the fountain in the Bower of Bliss (FQ II.xii.62); see comments on line 11 below.

frame: structure, building

Diamant: diamond

Dorike wise: Doric manner. Vitruvius associates the Doric order in architecture with masculine valour (De Architectura I.ii.5). The inscription SPQR, in the tympanum of the temple in the facing illustration, specifies this as a Roman building: this abbreviation for Senatus Populusque Romanus (‘The Roman Senate and the Roman People’) was inscribed on Roman public buildings from the time of the Republic forward.

Of bricke, ne yet: neither of brick nor

Christall: crystal

deepe vaute: A crypt. Whereas Spenser is translating ventre, a term inapplicable to lofty spaces, vault (Fr. voûte) can be used for any enclosed space surmounted with an arched ceiling, so Spenser is somewhat lightening his source.

parget: Ornamental work (usually in plaster) on walls.

sielyng: ceiling

golden plates: Cf. golden lamminae that cover the interior of the ‘house’ within the Holy of Holies (1 Kings 6:21), an ornamental feature not fully captured in the Geneva rendering.

Iaspis: Jasper. With the exception of the revised translation of this poem in Bellay, Spenser’s only other references to jasper and emerald are found in his descriptions of the Bower of Bliss: some of the grapes that hang over the second gate in the Bower appear like emeralds (FQ II.xii.54) and the fountain in the Bower is paved with jasper (FQ II.xii.62). Crystal (l. 6), jasper, and emerald are all part of the array of precious materials mentioned in the descriptions of heaven in Revelation 4 and 21. See Commentary 2540-6 and 2555-9.

sodein: sudden

earthquake: Cf. the destruction of the Temple alluded to in Matt 24:2 and the less specifically located earthquakes of 24:7.

sharped: Pointed. Spenser will use this again in an analogous architectural description in Rome 2.2, but the term is also used of Cupid’s arrow in Tottel’s Miscellany (1557).

3.3-4: Spenser may have had difficulty rendering Du Bellay here, or may have wished to elaborate the evocation of height in his source. The obelisk in Du Bellay’s poem is precisely as high as (justement mesuré, / Tant que) an archer -- keen-eyed, as a professional necessity -- can aim (prendre visee), whereas Spenser’s translation suggests both that the height of obelisk is somehow proportioned to its square base and that it is as high as an archer can see.

couched: In Du Bellay’s original, the ashes repose (reposoit) in the urn. Spenser has displaced the verb used of the lions, couchez, in line 9, and thereby has relinquished phrasing that suggests the heraldic character of the resting lions.

griefe: Cf. Du Bellay’s torment.

flushe: The reading ‘flushe’ in our copy text may be either an instance of foul case or of a misreading of manuscript copy, since ‘a’ and ‘u’ are easily confused in secretary hand, especially in Spenser’s.

chapters: capitals, the top portion of a column

frises: friezes

arke: arch

victorie: Triumphal arches are customarily ornamented with images of Victory personified, carved in relief in the roughly triangular spaces above the curved portion of the archway, as in the woodcut illustration facing the poem.

habite: clothing

chaire: chariot

auncient: ancient

his sire: Vulcan’s father. Son of Jove and Juno, Vulcan is blacksmith and armorer to the gods.

Sith: Since

Unrhymed like the other Sonets, the fifth of the Sonets offers especially good examples of Spenser’s effort to capture the character of rhyme in French, which is relatively unemphatic when compared to that of rhyme in English. The final syllables of lines 1, 3, and 4 are bound together by assonance, thus helping to mark the first quatrain as an independent unit. Spenser achieves an effect of mild closure by means of the internal rhyme of ‘disdain’ and ‘again’ in lines 13 and 14; he would later strengthen this effect in the revision for Complaints, where the two words are in terminal position, giving the Complaints version its final couplet.

Dodonian tree: An oak (and not the palms of van der Noot’s woodcut). Dodona was a city in northwest Greece, famous for its sacred oak and its oracle of Zeus. The reference initiates a pattern in the poem that represents the eminence of Rome as deriving from transplants of Eastern--Greek and Trojan--culture.

5.2seuen hilles: glossed, albeit somewhat carelessly, in van der Noot’s Commentary (418-19).

gladsome: pleasant

bedecked with his leaues: A garland of oak leaves was the traditional symbolic reward of those who had saved a Roman citizen in battle.

Italian streame: The Tiber. Spenser does not here translate Du Bellay’s Ausonien, though he will restore the term in Complaints. (‘Ausonia’ was an archaic name for central and southern Italy.)

many goodly signes: For Du Bellay’s maint beau tesmoignage. ‘Signes’ fails to capture the retrospective character of tesmoignage, which might be rendered ‘trace’, but which carries a strong juridical cast, as in ‘witness’, ‘testimony’, or ‘evidence’.

race: From Lat. radix, root; often used to describe plant and animal species as well as human lineages. The human and nonhuman meanings are often linked metaphorically, as in Shakespeare, WT 4.4.95. The vegetative sense is activated here by the fact that the Dodonian tree is a metaphor for the Trojan people, transplanted and flourishing as Romans.

erst: originally

Troian: As with Italian (l. 4), Spenser adopts a more familiar designator of place than that in his source. Du Bellay’s Dardanien identifies Troy with Dardanus, mythical founder of Troy and son of Zeus and Elektra.

villaines: The term, originally meaning a person of low birth, had already begun to take on its modern moral connotations. Du Bellay’s paisans has no such connotations.

heape: For Du Bellay’s somewhat more orderly troppe (‘troupe’).

wedge: A possible translation of Du Bellay’s cognee (cognée in Noot’s Le theatre), but an odd one, since the plain sense of congnee is ‘axe’. Spenser seems to be trying to capture the slow, persistent force of the wedge, possibly influenced by the connotations of gemir, accurately rendered as ‘grone’; indeed, the entire sonnet might be said to recall Virgil’s comparison of the final collapse of Troy to the groan and tumble of a mountain ash felled by rivalrous woodsmen (Aen 2.626-31).

since: thereafter

twinne . . . trees: Alluding either to the split between the Eastern and Western Churches or to the split within the western residue of the Roman Empire between the papacy and the Holy Roman Empire.

birde . . . Sunne: The eagle, as at FQ I.x.47.6; and see Isidore, Etymologies 12.7:10-11. The Eagle imperial, as van der Noot describes the bird of this sonnet (Commentary 420-21) seems to symbolize Rome in its ancient glory. Ps 103.5 attributes a capacity for self-renewal to the eagle, thus eliciting a potential link to the phoenix. (In the Natural History 10.2-3, Pliny the Elder turns to a discussion of the varieties of eagle immediately after his discussion of the phoenix, which he dismisses as a merely legendary creature.) The link to the phoenix is rendered more complex at the conclusion of the sonnet, when an owl rises from the ashes of the dead eagle.

th’example . . . damme: Whereas the ancient naturalists from Aristotle forward emphasize how ruthlessly eagles test their young, Spenser and Du Bellay shift attention to the fledgling and to the rigorous imitation by which she rises to heroic, if fatal, achievement.

tombling: Aside from its associations with tomb, Spenser’s rendering of Du Bellay’s rouant (‘coiling’) establishes a link between the eagle and the ship of Epigram 2, which crashes on hidden rocks when the sea is tombled up.

lompe: The strange translation of Du Bellay’s tourbillon is possibly traceable both to Spenser’s interest in an echoic relation to ‘tombling’ and to the traditional English rendering of Romans 9:21, where God’s providential creativity is likened to that of a potter who can ‘make of the same lompe one vessel to honour, and another unto dishonour’. In his effort to find a term for the whirlwind of fire, Spenser may have been influenced by the term for the whirling mass of clay on the potter’s wheel.

foule . . . light: The ominous and somewhat mysterious figure of the owl emerging from the eagle’s ashes seems to evoke either the Holy Roman Empire or the modern papacy.

as a worme: This literal translation (of Comme un vermet) appears to have the force preserved in the modern French idiom, nu comme un ver, naked as a worm; for the same idiom in Chaucer, see Rom. Rose, 454.

astonned: stunned, amazed

this nightly ghost: All versions of van der Noot’s Theatre omit the eighth sonnet of Songe, in which a monstrous seven-headed beast emerges from the foundations of an ancient ruin; after changing its shape a hundred times, the monster evaporates in the blast of a Scythian wind. In the ninth sonnet, Du Bellay again refers to the apparition as a monstre; that Spenser translates the term as ghost, and so captures the ghostly evanescence attributed to the monster in the omitted sonnet, suggests that he may have had recourse to a complete edition of Songe. For the omission of the eighth sonnet, see the Introduction.

7.2-8: This description of the spirit of the Tiber differs strikingly from Virgil’s far more benign description of the river god at Aeneid 8.26-30. Van der Noot refers to the central figure as the great Statue, though the image as described and as depicted in the woodcut matches neither the celebrated Roman statue of the Tiber unearthed near Santa Maria sopra Minerva in 1512-3 nor the statue of the Tigris from the Quirinal that Michelangelo had refashioned as an image of the Tiber in the 1560s (after the composition of Du Bellay’s Songe).

side: The word can mean both ‘at length’ and ‘low-hanging’; Spenser is rendering flottans, ‘flowing’.

Saturnelike: Aged, because Saturn, as the father of Jove, was traditionally associated with an especially ancient divine regime. Saturn is also associated with melancholy temperament.

a water: Following his French original, une eau, quite closely.

creekie: Replete with creeks. Spenser’s use of this word to translate Du Bellay’s sinueux, ‘sinuous’ is the first recorded in OED. This may be the first manifestation of Spenser’s distinctive interest in tributary flows.

shoare: The battle between Aeneas (the Troyan Duke) and Turnus, narrated in Aeneid 12, takes place in fields along the Tiber west of Rome, near Laurentum.

7.9-10: In Livy’s version of the late 4th-century legend, Romulus and Remus, having been cast into the Tiber on orders of the tyrant Amulius, are left floating in a trough; when the overflowing river ebbs they are rescued and nursed by a thirsty she-wolf (Ab Urbe Condita, 1:4). Van der Noot argues that from the breasts of the wolf the twin founders of Rome sucked all manner of crueltie and beastlynesse (Commentary 439). A statue of the Roman wolf nursing Romulus and Remus, famous in Spenser’s day and long thought to have been cast in the fifth century, was housed on the Capitoline Hill overlooking the Tiber.

bow: Bough; hence wreath, garland. Bow is an acceptable 16th-c spelling for bough; although bough usually indicates a more substantial limb than that which would be used for a garland, Spenser’s usage is comparable to Henryson’s ‘The bewis braid blomit abone my heid’ (The moral fabilis of Esope, 1570, F4v).

7.11-12: Wreaths of olive, palm, and laurel were awarded to Greek athletes and military commanders as tokens of victory, but the olive had special associations with peace, the palm with victory, and the laurel with artistic achievement. The fates of the three trees may together signify the transitory nature of achievement, yet insofar as the poem seems slightly to differentiate the fate of olive and palm from that of the laurel, the poem perhaps implies that a collapse of a regime of post-bellum peace leads to a withering of the arts.

tune: Translating Du Bellay’s accordoit. Cf. the rendering of Marot’s accordoient in Epigrams 4 as in accorde did tune.

Renting: rending

this . . . face: By thus rendering Du Bellay’s ceste face (‘this aspect’ or ‘this face’), Spenser lightly suggests that the lost visage is the nymph’s own, as if the removal of this whilome honored face were not an especially lamentable product of some larger historical decay but were, instead the effect of the nymph’s own grief. This quickened disfigurement is refracted and further heightened in lines 10-12, where the nymph imagines modern Rome as a hydra each of whose seven heads should be cut off.

whilome: formerly, once upon a time

praise: In the 16th-c, praise can mean ‘the activity of praising’, ‘the products of that activity’, and ‘praiseworthiness’; Spenser frequently uses the word in circumstances in which the latter sense is primary (cf. Am. 5.9 and FQ, II.v.26.2). But all three senses are relevant here: the Roman culture of praising, the store of Roman self-congratulation, and the achievements and virtues that were the objects of that praise have all disappeared. A similar, if not identical set of meanings attaches to the word that Spenser is translating here, los, which can mean both ‘the activity of praising’ and ‘fame, renown’; in Du Bellay’s poem, the latter sense seems to be primary.

hap: chance

bate: discord

8.10-12: The new Hydra recalls the seven-headed Beast from the Sea of Rev 13, yet whereas the Beast in Revelation is identifiable as the seven-hilled Rome (and is so identified in the glosses to the Geneva Bible of 1560), the new Hydra, presumably associated with the papacy or the Roman church, seems paradoxically a threat to the imperial Roman nymph herself. The paradox, that one figure of Rome should threaten another, is central to Du Bellay’s Roman poems.

mete: deserving

Hercules: To slaughter the hydra, said to grow multiple new heads with each decapitation, was the second of Hercules’ twelve labours.

Neroes and Caligulaes: The two first-century Roman emperors serve here as types of criminally violent monarchy. The glosses to Rev 13:3 of the 1560 Geneva Bible refer to Nero as the emperor ‘who moved the first persecution againste the churche’.

bring forth: In Spenser’s source, the new Hydra is said to sire the Neroes and Caligulaes on the nymph; Spenser has muted the insinuation of rape.

croked shore?: Recalling the creekie shoare (10) of the previous sonnet. The emended punctuation consolidates the unambiguously interrogative force of Du Bellay’s construction -- N’estoit-ce pas (‘was it not?’) -- which is slightly effaced by the mispunctuation in the French version of TVW, punctuation reproduced in the English edition.

9.1-9.2 flame . . . with triple point: Perhaps alluding to the triple structure of the papal tiara -- an allusion that would be enhanced by the reference to incense in 9.3 -- and meant to imply the grandiose aspirations of the Roman church.

9:3-4: Confusingly, the lines preserve Du Bellay’s word-order.

leames: flashes

golden shoure: The story of Jove’s impregnation, in the form of a shower of gold, of the imprisoned Danae was allegorized as an account of the corrupting power of gold at least as early as the first century C.E.; see Horace, Odes 3.16.

glystering: glittering

yelde: yield, give off

The tone and tactics of the opening of the poem and woodcut are conspicuously at odds. The illustration, which captures the rout of the poem’s final lines, is populous and busy, whereas the sonnet unfolds quietly, at a steady pace. The first quatrain simply describes the welling spring, the second the harmony that supplements the shining pleasantness of the spring. The mention of mermaids in 8 is the first hint of animation, and they obtrude only figuratively on the scene; line 9 introduces seates and benches, the first mark that the spring is meant to accommodate human or humanoid presence. Only at line 10 does the setting accommodate something of the woodcut’s crowd, and even then the hundred Nymphes are presented in orderly array -- side by side about.

10.3-4: The river Pactolus in Lydia was famously rich in electrum, a naturally occurring alloy of gold and silver. Ovid transmits an etiological myth: when Midas, on Bacchus’ instructions, washed himself in the Pactolus to rid himself of the curse of the golden touch, the riverbed turned hard and yellow (Met. 11.137-45).

10.5-6: The evaluative comparison of Art (i.e., the exercise or products of human education, design, or craft) and Nature (i.e. the wild, the given, the non-human, the unwilled) is traditional; the two principles are usually understood to be in competition. Spenser makes characteristically distinctive -- albeit not unique -- contributions to the tradition, both instanced here: he especially interests himself in (often competitive) collaborations between Nature and Art and he often imagines their encounter as especially productive of pleasure.

accordes: Harmony. Like ‘harmony’ or ‘concord’, accord can have both musical and socio-political senses.

Mermaids: Spenser is translating d’une Serene [sic, a misprint for Sirene]. The conflation of mermaid and siren is ancient and, because the terms could be used interchangeably, the use of mermaid here probably should not be taken as a suppression of the threat associated with the allure of the siren’s song; cf. FQ II.xii.17.9.

assembled: A direct translation of the French s’assembla the usual connotations of which, like those of its English cognate, entail no hint of disorder. Van der Noot here omits two poems from Du Bellay’s sequence.

11.1-2: Omitting two poems from Du Bellay’s sequence, van der Noot proceeds to the last of Du Bellay’s visions, set at dawn. The belief invoked here, that dreams at dawn are true, was sufficiently commonplace in antiquity that Artemidorus goes out of his way to debunk it in chapter 7 of Book 1 of his Oneirocritica, the first systematic treatise on dream interpretation.

Morpheus: Although sometimes treated as the god of sleep, Morpheus is usually taken as the god of dreams (especially when specified as the son of Somnus, god of sleep). Morpheus frequently deceives by assuming human shape (Ovid 11.633ff.).

Typhæus sister: Although Hesiod distinguishes Typhœus and Typhaon, making Typhœus the latter’s father, they were frequently conflated in antiquity -- as Typhoeus, Typhos, Typhaon, or Typhon: all are monstrous and belligerent. Hesiod’s Typhœus is one of the Giants who revolted against the Olympians (Theog 820-38). Neither Typhaon nor Typhœus had a famous sister, but the poem and the woodcut seem to identify the sister as a personification of Rome as both imperial conqueror (ll. 9-10) and warlike foe of heaven (l. 6).

In a confusion possibly related to the conflation of Typhœus and Typhaon the commentary on this poem refers to the central figure as ‘Typheus daughter’. For Spenser, the figure of Typhœus will continue to invite bizarre genealogical imaginings: in FQ III.vii he will describe how Typhœus raped his own mother Earth and so sired Argante and Ollyphant, twins whose incestuous relations begin in utero: The belligerent and lecherous Argante is both Typhœus’ sister and his daughter.

brauely: splendidly

morian: I.e., morion; a type of visorless brimmed helmet.

harde by: very close at hand

gronde: groaned

with . . . afrayde: frightened by

tho: then, thereupon

striken . . . thunder: fall, struck by a clap of thunder

start: In Spenser’s source, the shift in tense is less jarring: unlike the other poems in the sequence, Du Bellay’s final sonnet is cast in the present tense, whereas Spenser postpones the shift to the present until the moment of waking.

12.1-8: The octave of the twelfth sonnet is based on the first two-and-a-half verses of Revelation 13.

12.2-5: The beast combines attributes of the four creatures from the sea that appear to Daniel in Dan 7:2-7. In his discussion of the sonnet, van der Noot will follow the 1560 Geneva glosses to Rev 2, which associates the leopard, bear, and lion with the Macedonians, the Persians, and the Chaldeans; see below Commentary 673-9. Van der Noot variously describes the beast as signifying the congregation of the wicked and proude hypocrites and as meaning the odible, fals, & damnable errors & pestiferous inspirations of the divel (Commentary 594-5 and 602-3). (In his ensuing discussion, he takes pains to distinguish the beast of Rev 13, which he associates with the priestly hierarchy of the Roman Church, from the dragon of Rev 12, which he associates with Satan himself.)

the vile blaspheming name: See Commentary 650-58.

Dragon: Of the dragon of Rev 12 and 13, the Geneva glossator comments (at 13.2) ‘that is, the devil.’

12.8: ‘The infallible word of God (which be the Scriptures) hath given him this wound’ (Commentary 865-6). In Rev 13:3 one of the heads of the beast is said to have sustained an apparently mortal wound, but the wound is then said to have healed, a detail captured in the Dutch -- maer is weer om genesen (‘is healed once more’) -- but dropped in the French and English versions.

One cride: At Rev 13:4, a multitude of worshippers offers up this reverent question.

12.11-14: The last four lines of the sonnet are based loosely on Rev 13:11-14, which narrates the appearance of a second beast which sets up an idolatrous cult of the first. ‘All those that worshyp the Dragon, worship the beast also: for as those whiche honour Christ, honor hys father also, in lyke maner all those whiche adore Antechrist, that is to say, consent and holde of his traditions, masses, and ordinaunces, all those (I saye) worship the divel, of whom they have receyved all his wickednesses’ (Commentary 837-41).

from the sea: At Rev 13:11, a second beast arises, this time from the land. Although the woodcut plainly distinguishes the origins of the two beasts, Spenser departs from the biblical source here by faithfully translating his French original (de Mer, ‘from the sea’), which mistranslates its Dutch original (wt de eerde, ‘from the earth’).

setting . . . vp: 1) erecting, 2) exalting. The phrase operates with similar ambiguity in van der Noot’s commentary where he denounces the cultishness of the prelates and bishops of the Roman Church: they proceed further to the forbidding of mariage, meate, egges, butter: in lyke manner images, and crucifixes were sette vp, woorkyng thereby false miracles (Commentary 565-8).

hir: I.e., her, the first beast’s.

13.1-10: The first ten lines of the sonnet are based on Rev 17:3-6. ‘The beast signifieth the ancient Rome: the Woman that sitteth thereon, the newe Rome whiche is the Papistrie, whose crueltie & blood sheding is declared by skarlat’ (1560 Geneva gloss to Rev 17:3).

Orenge: Spenser has mistranslated migrainne, the term for a cloth dyed to a not-very-intense scarlet.

fell: cruel

13.12-14: Based on Rev 18:1-2.

14: The third of the apocalyptic sonnets is based on Rev 19:11-20. Van der Noot offers a sustained gloss on the poem at Commentary 1904-2341.

embrued: soaked, stained

puissant: powerful

14.8-9: The apparent padding -- as me thought and descending downe -- actually reproduces similar features in the French source.

slea: slay

15: Although Spenser would revise the translations from Du Bellay and Petrarch for Complaints, he never reworked the apocalyptic sonnets; yet he would adapt this rendering of John’s final vision in Revelation for Red Crosse’s vision at the Mount of Holy Contemplation, FQ I.x.55-7. As the New Jerusalem of these sonnets is meant to displace vainglorious Babylon and Rome in the esteem of men, so Red Crosse will recognize the milder error of his over-estimation of Cleopolis, the dwelling place of the Faerie Queene herself (FQ I.x.58).

15.1-7: Based on Rev 21:1-4.

new: At Commentary 2369-75 Van der Noot draws attention to the figurative force of the term even as he insists that the new Jerusalem is the Church.

garnisht: adorned

spouse: In a marginal gloss at Commentary 2375, as part of his discussion of the newness of the New Jerusalem, van der Noot draws attention to his source in Ephesians 5 for the analogy of the Church as a bride; he indicates that the newness of the Jerusalem-Church is like the figurative renewal of a betrothed woman as she is ‘trimmed for hir husbande, for she is purified and made newe againe.’

15.8-14: The last half of the sonnet derives its matter from several verses in Rev 21 and 22: the divine radiance from 21:11; the square city plan of the New Jerusalem, 21:16; its gates of pearl, 21:21; and the crystalline river of life, 22:1-2.

Square: ‘Whatsoever is foure square, abideth firme and unmoveable, and is not subject to rolling or unstablenesse’, Commentary 2447-8.

twelue gates: For the twelve foundations of the city as the twelve apostles, see Commentary 2509-13.

vnto the Churches good: Whereas in the biblical original, the leaves of the tree of life are said to heal the nations, Noot’s sonnets suggest that the fruit of the tree is instead meant to improve the state of the church.

Declaration: explanation

vnquiet: restless

mislike of: begrudge, disapprove of

estate: status, situation

calling: vocation

go about: undertake

enter into: take up

lyuings: vocations, positions in life

the fewest numbre of: very few

for all that: despite the fact that

inconueniences: misfortunes

wold be: wish to be

men of the countrey: Rustics, translating ‘Le Paisan ou laboreur’ (Le Theatre, D7).

trauaile: strive

yet: still

studieth: exerts himself in planning

carnall: worldly

careful: anxious

moyle: drudge

gapeth for: longs for

graunted of: granted by

than that of brute: We take ‘is’ in our copy text as a compositor’s misreading of ‘yt’ in MS copy.

proceede of: derive from

for this . . . vs: that is given to us for this purpose

vnquietnesse: discontent

Mammon: The god of material wealth or greed; cf. 198n.

christian libertie: The phrase has distinctive, technical force in the writings of Calvin’s Institutes III.xix (and less technical force in Luther), but van der Noot’s use of this important Reformation slogan to designate a freedom from worldly desires is incongruous with Calvin’s usage, which denotes that freedom from the Old Law expounded in Galatians.

Dog . . . speketh: Aesop’s fable of the dog (Perry 133) initiates van der Noot’s recurrent interest in the material effects of the absorption in simulacra.

Although van der Noot does not provide a formal partition or outline of the next few pages, he does suggest, at 330, that he has offered an account of the three principal temptations from which all and every kinde of evyll proceedeth: the love of riches (85-257), ambition (258-305), and lust (305-30). We here offer the beginning of the discussion of the temptation of riches, the longest of these three informal sections.

the rather: the more easily

couete after: long for

more a greate deale: a great deal more

thorough: through, by means of

in it is no suche default: in the right use of worldly goods there is no moral defect

onely I meane: I only mean

propre: legitimate

possessed of: possessed by

Gallio . . . vnto them: Van der Noot here paraphrases the concluding line of chapter 22 of De Vita Beata, which the younger Seneca dedicated to his older brother Gallio: ad postremum divitiae meae sunt, tu divitiarum es (‘in fine, I own my riches; yours own you’).

confidence: impudence

chasyng: chasing away, expulsion

thraldome: captivity

set by: esteem

When riches . . . them: Ps 62:10

103-106Consideryng . . . ydle: The sentence would be somewhat less difficult if it were less compressed. Van der Noot not only asserts the worthlessness of worldly things, but also opposes the intrinsic worthlessness of things--of them selves most miserable--and the vanity and idleness that we confer on things, insisting, as he does so, that things receive nothing else from us other than this vain and idle aspect.

(as Plato sayth): The Laws 5.727E-728A.

109-111pouertie . . . couetousnesse: For the idea that the essence of poverty is not lack and that the only true poverty is covetousness, see Laws 5.736E.

wel: convincingly

vnsaciable: i.e., insatiable

contentation: contentment

He is . . . at all: Moral Epistles XX.10

Chrysostom: Homily on Matthew 41.5 (40.5 in the Greek numbering). The gloss in the copy text carelessly misrepresents the correct gloss in Le Théatre, from which most of the glosses for the English version are taken, hence our emendation. Chrysostom wrote no homilies on Mark.

inconueniences: improprieties

come to great estate: come into great wealth (or achieve eminent status)

endued: endowed

wil not be: wish not to be

them: referring to the divers and sundry kindes of wantonnesse and other inconveniences

of other: for others

faster: more tightly bound

lime twig: Lime, a sticky substance prepared from holly bark, was smeared on branches in order to catch small birds.

estimations: repute

happy: fortunate, blessed

erre: stray, wander

143-146Plato. . .goodes: Van der Noot’s marginal gloss again misleads, for Plato’s discussion of the way riches estrange men from virtue and so threaten the oligarchical state may be found in Book VIII of the Republic, not Book X. ( Plato’s account of the avarice of the oligarchical character may be found at VIII.553a-e; for Plato’s account of how greed dooms oligarchy to collapse into democracy, see Republic VIII.555b-d.) In fact, van der Noot seems to be referring, not to the Republic, but to the Laws: at 5.742e-743c, Plato argues that virtue is necessary to happiness and that great riches are inimical to great goodness.

occupieth: possesses

bee happie by: be made happy by

148withoute . . . Saluation: The gloss in Het Theatre refers the reader here to Augustine, De ordine, 1.1.

151-155Therefore sayth Christ . . . hir: Luke 10:41-42

quietnesse: peace of mind

laye vp oure treasure in Heauen: Matt 6:19-20

carefulnesse: anxiety

Tullie reherseth in hys Paradoxes: Referring perhaps to Cicero’s Stoic Paradoxes, 1.6. But Van der Noot may have jumbled his references, for he here seems to be quoting Juvenal’s 14th satire, to which he refers in the next sentence: ‘Tantis parta malis cura maiore metuque / servanturis’ (Sat 5.14.303-4). See the next note.

Iuuenal: Here, in fact, van der Noot quotes the conclusion of the last of Cicero’s six Stoic Paradoxes, Quod solus sapiens dives (‘only the wise man is rich’): ‘avari . . . non modo non copiosi ac divites, sed etiam inopes ac pauperes existimandi sunt’ (‘neither fulfilled nor rich, the greedy instead end up seeming wretched and beggarly’; Parad. Stoic. 52).

165-169When the rustical . . . dayntinesse: A version of the Aesopian fable ‘The Country Mouse and the City Mouse’ (Perry, 352) appears in Horace, Satires II.vi.

in bankettyng: feasting

more lyker: more like

gall: bile

dayntinesse: deliciousness

Math. 19. [marginal gloss]: Matt 19:24

178-187Ixion . . . Ixionides: After noticing Ixion’s attempts to seduce Juno, Jupiter created a simulacrum of Juno out of a cloud, with which Ixion mistakenly coupled and produced the race of centaurs. Jupiter bound him to a fiery wheel as punishment. While Pindar recounts the story in Pythian Odes II.20-49, and Ovid refers to it briefly Metamorphoses 12.494-526, Van der Noot here follows Plutarch’s interpretation of the story. Plutarch associates Ixion, in his passion for Juno, with vain lovers of glory, ‘for such men, consorting with glory, which we may call an image of virtue, produce nothing that is genuine and of true lineage, but much that is bastard and monstrous’ (Parallel Lives 10.1.1).

amorous of: enamored of, desired

noteth: indicates, denotes

Lib. Ethi. ca.13. and li. 10. cap. 8.: Another instance of careless transmission of the glosses taken from the French version, which in this case reads ‘7. liure. des Ethi. C. 13. & liure 10. Chap.8.’, i.e. Nicomachean Ethics, 7.13 and 10.8. In the former chapter Aristotle considers whether pleasure is mankind’s chief good, and treats in passing of the contribution of external goods to pleasure; in the latter chapter, on the contemplative life, Aristotle briefly considers the limited contribution of external goods to the life of contemplation.

would not . . .one: Does not stipulate that a man must be rich to be happy and blessed.

Sophistries of goodes: material enticements

Sophister: one adept in specious persuasion, a Sophist

silly: innocent

science: learning, craft

semblant: appearance, semblance

S. Augustine . . . saying: A transmissional error: the gloss in Het Theatre correctly refers to sermon ‘35’; the marginal gloss from Le Théatre reads ‘.5.’ and was so taken over into English. Van der Noot adduces Augustine’s commentary on “the Mammon of Iniquity” of Luke Pecunia est, quam nomine divitiarum appellat iniquitas. Si enim veras divitias quaeris, aliae sunt (‘Money is that which the wicked call riches, but the if you seek the true riches, they are different’, Sermones 113:4. [The canonical numbering system for Augustine’s sermons has changed, with 35 having become 113]). While several of Augustine’s observations on Luke 16:9 would have been accessible to van der Noot in Aquinas’ commentary on Luke 16 from the Catena Aurea, van der Noot seems to have taken the reference from a treatise on voluntary poverty by Pierre Crespet, who condemns the ‘inique qui estime les richesses estre digne du nom de bien’ (‘the wicked who judge riches worthy of the name “good”’; Le jardin de plaisir Vv7v).

rentes: sources of income

onely their: only during their

they: i.e., the worldly goods. The personification here prepares for Van der Noot’s discussion of Fortune.

201-205Fortune . . . she: As part of his project to expose the evils of worldly attachments, Van der Noot here portrays Fortune as an unreliable companion and renames her Plagaria,‘Misfortune’.

Plagaria: injury, misfortune

Plagarius: In classical Latin, a plagiarius is one who kidnaps the child or slave of another. Van der Noot seems to believe the common noun to have been eponymous in origin.

Some other become thorough riches: Some others through riches become . . .

the Dragon . . . Hesperide: The golden apples that Hercules was sent to fetch from the garden of the Hesperides were guarded by an immortal dragon; see Hesiod Theogony 333, Ovid Met 4.642, 9.190.

commoditie: profit, benefit

In his apologie. ca. 40: Apologeticus 40.7. The reference to ‘ca. 29’ in the copy text (which is also found in the Dutch and French versions) is mistaken. It bears observing that Tertullian is not discussing empty allurements when he refers to the ashen apples of Sodom and Gomorrah in the Apology; he is instead refuting the charge that natural and political disasters are punishments visited on Christians by the outraged gods of the nations. More pertinent to the context, in fact, are the observation on the apples of Sodom in Flavius Josephus, Wars of the Jews 4.8.4.

They are thornes . . . fructifie: The glosses direct the reader towards Matt 13:3-8 and 22, Mark 4:3-8 and 18-19, and Luke 8:5-8 and 14.

fructifie: produce fruit

Exod. 32. [marginal gloss]: Exodus 32:2-6

which being consumed . . . drinke: Exodus 32:20

meete: suitable

In . . . women: This gloss, indicating van der Noot’s source in De Cultu Feminarum 2:13:5-6, is displaced further down the page in the original English edition as in the Dutch and French versions; we have restored it to its proper position here. The emendation corrects the repetition of the earlier gloss, ‘In his apologie. ca. 29.’: this repetition in the Theatre reproduces a simple manifestation of eyeskip in Het Theatre (duly taken over into Le Théatre), in which the original gloss has been anchored next to two instances of Tertullian’s name.

his: its (proper)

Abac. 3. [marginal gloss]: Hab 3:15. Cf. also Hab 2:6, which describes the covetous man as one ‘that ladeth him self with thicke claye’.

It is dong . . . . etc.: Van der Noot's reference to St. Chrysostom’s Homily on 1 Cor 10 (Hom. 23:8), Het is mesch daer de schietwreuels in wuelen ende heur in wentelen, seyt S. Chrystostomus (‘It is the manure in which dungbeetles wallow and writhe, says St. Chrystostom’) is not truncated in Het Theatre (D4r), as it is here. It may be that Roest was stymied by the vocabulary of his source: copy for the English text here seems to have been left incomplete and the reference to Chrysostom is removed from the body of the text and replaced with the sketchy marginal gloss, ‘Chrysost.’.

223-227Crates . . . ouerwhelme me: Crates of Thebes, a Cynic philosopher, reportedly was persuaded by Diogenes to throw his money into the sea (Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 6.5.87; Jerome, ‘Letter to Julian’, Letters, 118.5).

auoide: be gone

least: lest

Martiall . . . Numa: Epigrams 11:5.3-4. Croesus was a king of Lydia renowned for his wealth; Numa was the famously virtuous second king of Rome, who ‘banished from his house all luxury and extravagance’ (Plutarch Parallel Lives 1.3.6).

I made . . . lost al: Zeno of Citium, Stoic philosopher, became Crates’ pupil after being shipwrecked in Athens, about which he reportedly said, ‘I made a prosperous voyage when I suffered shipwreck’ (Diogenes Laertius Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.1.2-4).

228he disputeth . . . himselfe: As printed, the gloss seems to be indicate the subject of Martial’s epigram, but Martial’s poem has nothing to say concerning the Stoic moral principle adduced in the gloss. Indeed Le Théatre does not specify the principle as Martial’s, but because the references to Crates, Martial, and Zeno crowd the text, whoever prepared the glosses for the English version unhelpfully offered the specifying ‘Mart.’ We therefore relocate this portion of the gloss: the radical self-sufficiency described in the gloss is the central theme of Diogenes Laertius’ ‘Life of Zeno’, the source for the anecdote concerning Zeno’s shipwreck. The gloss to Het Theatre directs the reader appropriately to ‘Laertius inden 7 boeck.’, that is to the Lives of the Eminent Philosophers 7.1.30 (and cf. the principle elaborated by Zeno’s pupil Cleanthes at 7.1.89).

Riches are copwebs . . .come to nothing: The emphasis on hurtful ephemera brings the commentary especially close to the rhetoric of the sonnets and epigrams with which the Theatre begins.

copwebs: cobwebs

dyuers: diverse

1. Tim 6. [marginal gloss]: 1 Tim 6:9-10

tentations: temptations

Prouerb. 23. [marginal gloss]: Proverbs 23:4-5

Math. 13. [marginal gloss]: Matt 13:22

noysome: noxious, injurious

dispraiseth: deprecates

The Foole . . . they were not: ‘The fool denigrates things that truly are, as if they did not exist, whereas those other things that do not exist at all, he desires, as if they indeed existed.’ Van der Noot quotes here from the widely disseminated ‘Legend of Barlaam and Josaphat’, a saint’s life attributed to John of Damascus (‘Damascene’). A slightly abridged version of the tale is included in the Legenda Aurea, but van der Noot seems to be citing from chapter 2 of a longer version, possibly one of the recent translations of Jacques de Billy, either the Latin version of 1577 or the French one of the following year; see the Histoire de Barlaam (1578), B3-B3v.

man . . . pursue: Roest introduces the error in agreement.

frantike: insane, delirious

which supposed: who imagined himself

Horace: Epistles 2.2.126-54

trim: excellent

delyuered: cured

phrenesie: frenzy

frustrate: deprived

Luke. 12. [marginal gloss]: Luke 12:20-1

Psalm. 38. [marginal gloss]: Het Theatre and Le théatre gloss the passage more heavily, although without making reference to Prov 28:11., which van der Noot is in fact quoting. The relevant passage from Psalms is 39:6 in the Masoretic numbering. (Here, as in most of the glosses referring to Psalms in the first half of his commentary, van der Noot employs the Vulgate numbering.) Le Theatre also directs the reader to Jer 17:11; a marginal gloss in Het Theatre also adduces ‘Eccle. 11’ a misrepresentation of Ecclesiasticus (or Sirach) 11:17-19.

riche in their own conceits: Prov 28:11

conceits: minds, thoughts

it: i.e., their true estate

common weales: commonwealths

258-267Plutarke . . . than the other: Plutarch, Parallel Lives ‘Life of Demosthenes’ 26.7.

publyke and pryuie: public and private

Sclaunders: slanders

Li. 8. de trinita. cap. 85.: The gloss in Het Theatre (translated in Le Théatre) is inaccurate, and the printing of the gloss in Le Théatre, difficult to read, has been incorrectly transmitted. The proper source is Augustine, De Trinitate, 8.7.11.

diuersitie: difference

diuersitie . . . estates: ‘extreme difference between the status of God and man’. Van der Noot is rendering Augustine’s intervallis locorum, distance between places.

a gayne perpetuall: an eternal gain, advance

Gyauntes: giants

272-274The Gyauntes . . .themselues.: The Giants of Greek myth, , sons of Gaia, the Earth, piled mountains upon each other and climbed them in an attempted assault on the gods of Mt.Olympus; see, for example, Odyssey 11.305-8).

275-276as Saincte Ambrose . . . Heauen: In his treatise on Noah and the ark, St. Ambrose distinguishes the giants of Genesis 6.4 from those described by pagan poets as sons of Earth, but then likens both sets of giants to men who fail to esteem their souls and, over-estimating their bodily power, seek to conquer heaven by concentrating on worldly efforts (terrenis operibus incubantes; Liber de Noe et Arca, 4.8).

Sainct Cyprian: see note below on 281 gl.

S. Austine: St. Augustine

Epist. 2. lib. Episto.: Although the gloss indicates a later letter, van der Noot seems to be referring to a passage from the first of Cyprian’s epistles, a letter to Donatus: Quos honores putas esse, quos fasces, quam affluentiam in divitiis, quam potentiam in castris, in magistratu purpurae speciem, in principatu licentiae potestatem, malorum blandientium virus occultum est et arridentis nequitiae facies quidem laeta, sed calamitatis abstrusae illecebrosa fallacia; instar quoddam veneni, ubi, in lethales succos dulcedine aspersa calliditate fallendi sapore medicato, poculum videtur esse quod sumitur; ubi epota res est, pernicies hausta grassatur. Quippe illum vides qui, amictu clariore conspicuus, fulgere sibi videtur in purpura. Quibus hoc sordibus emit ut fulgeat. (As for those things that you believe to be honors, that you regard as the signs of force, that you think of as the affluence in riches, that you consider to be military power, the glory of purple robes in magistracy, and the leader’s power of license --they have a virus of attractive ills, and an appearance of grinning wickedness, certainly happy, but it is the treacherous deceit of concealed disaster. Like some poison, in which the taste, having been salved with sweetness, cunningly tempering its deadly juice, seems to be a normal drink, but when it is swallowed, the destruction that you have drunk attacks you. Surely you see that man made conspicuous by his gorgeous robes, shining, as he thinks, in his purple; with what sordid things has he purchased this glamour? [ed.trans.]; Epistolae, 1.11).

Vpon the 106. psalme.: Augustine, Enarrationes in Psalmos, 106.7. Worldly honor is the last of the four temptations that Augustine distinguishes in middle verses of this psalm (107 in the Masoretic numbering).

Aristophanes the Poet: Greek comic dramatist (446-386 BCE). The title character of his Plutus is the god of Wealth; for the fearfulness of this god, see Plutus, 202-7.

For to get . . . forfaite: Cf. line 164 above. Van der Noot is returning to a paraphrase of Cicero, Paradox 6 here; see Stoic Paradoxes, 6.43-4 and 46-7.

make the goodes forfaite: confiscate their goods

Saty. 10.: Juvenal, Satire 4.10.12-14; Juvenal offers examples of the dangers that haunt wealth in the following lines.

293-297Seneca . . . rocks: Epistulae Morales, Epistle 8.3-4.

wracke: ruin, wreck

pilling and pollyng: plundering and stripping bare by robbery

myschieues: harms

of: because of

of: by

puissant: powerful

Treasurers: As the gloss indicates, the passage seems to refer, albeit somewhat enigmatically, to the prophetic account of the reign of Antiochus IV in Dan 11, who will have ‘power over the treasures of golde and of silver, and over all the precious thyngs of Egypt, and of the Lybians.’

Daniell. 11. [marginal gloss]: Dan 11:43, but see also the fourth king, Xerxes, of Dan 11:2, ‘farre richer then they all’.

Plato: A transmissional error: Van der Noot is citing Plautus’ Cistellaria 1.1.69-70; the error is introduced in Le Théatre, which reads ‘Plato’ (E6r).

310-315And these things . . . and other lyke: Van der Noot abridges a longer list of the troubles of love in Plautus, Mercator 1.1.18-31.

to wete: to wit

curiousnesse: strangeness

vncomlynesse: unseemliness, impropriety

316-318Vlisses . . . countrey: Od 12.36-110, 165-200.

cleane: entirely wickedness

plucketh: draws, pulls

Terence: Eunuchus 1.1.72-3).

waxeth wyse: proceeds with wise caution

330-331those three: Greed, lust, ambition.

as witnesseth . . . Epistles: 1 John 2:15-17.

For all . . . of the eyes: Both the French and Dutch sources as well as the verse from 1 John that they render (2.16) strongly support the emendation here. Either someone preparing a fair copy of Roest’s translation or the compositor who set it seems to have compressed his copy, reducing the first two of the three vices to a single one -- ‘the luste of the eyes’ -- in a straightforward instance of eye-skip. The compositor may have fumbled the line further, since his copy may have read ‘as the lust, etc.’ (which would translate ‘ascavoir la concupiscence, etc.’), yet because ‘is the lust’ corresponds to the syntax of the passage in the Vulgate, we have allowed the syntactically difficult ‘is’ to stand. It may be worth remarking that, at this juncture, both the French and English texts expand on the Dutch original by quoting more extensively from 1 John.

rehearse: recount

incorporated: For the incorporation of believers into the body of Christ, see Eph 5:30 and Rom 12:5; for the identity of the Church with that body, see Col 1:24.

crosses: misfortunes, impediments

commodities: useful things, goods

354-356turned . . . mire: Both proverbs are marshalled at 2 Pet 2:22.

the liuelier: more vividly

to the ende: so that

Omne . . . dulci: Ars Poetica, 343.

honestly: honourably, chastely

369.xxj. yeares: The 211th poem in Petrarch’s Rime sparse establishes the year of Petrarch’s enamourment as 1327; the 336th poem establishes the year of Laura’s death as 1348. Petrarch gives both dates again in an obituary he inscribes in his manuscript of Virgil.

ten yeares: In the 364th of the 366 poems of the Rime sparse, Petrarch recalls the twenty-one years during which he loved Laura prior to her death and marks the occasion of the poem as the tenth anniversary of her death.

Brabants speache: In effect, Dutch: in the middle of the 16th-c the central region of the Netherlands, the region straddling the Rhine, was more influential politically than the Frisian region to the north, and the dialect spoken in Brabant seemed on the verge of becoming a more widely accepted trans-regional standard. As is observed in the introduction above, the commentary here misrepresents the genesis of the translations of the poems: the poems were translated from Marot’s French version as printed the previous year, probably with occasional reference to the Italian original.

vnderstode: meant

vnderstode: The word is used similarly below at 394. The sense of the term as used here -- not an unfamiliar one in Spenser’s period -- suggests a semantic peculiarity central to visionary poetry. If we think of Petrarch as a passive witness to these visions, this understanding may be taken as his interpretation of that visionary experience (OED ‘understand’ 5a); if we think of Petrarch as the inventor of these visions, this understanding may be taken as the meaning he intends for us to derive from his description of those visions (OED ‘understand’ 5b). The dual sense of ‘understand’ thus anticipates the very similar dual sense of ‘read’ in Spenser’s mature poetry.

Holly: Neither Petrarch’s poem nor van der Noot’s commentary warrants the suggestion that a holly has bloomed from a laurel. Roest seems to be translating directly from the ‘heylige tacxkens’ of the Dutch commentary (D7v), for ‘holly’ seems to be an error based on the compositor’s misreading of ‘holy’ in his copy, although the precise wording of the original copy is difficult to determine. The Dutch commentary accurately renders Petrarch’s ‘rami santi’ and Marot’s ‘divins rameaux’ (l. 1), whereas the phrasing of the French commentary (‘belles branchettes’, E7v) does not.

are . . . one: share a single approach

notifying: While the spelling in the 1569 reading is not unprecedented, it is so rare that we regard it (like comparable contemporary instances of ‘y-[consonant]-i-i’) as a compositorial error.

stay hym selfe: rely

fansie: fantasy

passed ouer: spent

what with . . . what in: in consequence of . . . and in consequence of

hir departure (as it is sayde): I.e., her so-called ‘departure’.

so long a time: The Dutch commentary is equally vague, whereas the passage in Le Théatre stipulates that, having loved Laura for forty years, Petrarch mourned her for seven (E8r).

considering with him self: reconsidering, reflecting

to Godwarde: toward God

described of: described by

Arke triumphant: triumphal arch

Dodonian tree: An oak; see above n. to 5.1.

Vimiall . . . Vimiel: There is considerable transmissional muddle here. The English text does little to improve the erroneous reading in Het Theatre, which uses effectively the same name for the second and sixth hills (‘Vimialischen berch . . . Vimialis . . .’ D8r), both of which are distorted renderings of the Collis Viminalis. Both the French and English translations make imperfect corrections of the error: Le théatre offers Viminel and Viniel for the third and sixth hills in its list (E8r); Roest simply corrects the repetition, replacing Vimialis with Vimiel. The learned reader would expect to see the Aventine listed as the sixth hill.

the shee wolfe . . . Romains: This symbol (‘Armes’) was widely circulated on Roman coins from as early as the third century B.C.E. Cicero mentions that a statue of the she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus was damaged by a lightning strike in 65 B.C.E. (In Catilinem, 3.19).

wherout . . . flushing: out from which a bird abruptly flying upwards

hundreth: hundred

draue: drove

428-429Typheus daughter: The poem refers, in fact, to ‘Typhæus sister’, for which see the note at 11.4 above. Different authors attribute various daughters to Typhaon/Typhoeus: the Chimera, the Sphinx, the Harpies, and the Lernaean Hydra, none of whom have attributes that correspond securely to those of the central figure in Du Bellay’s poem.

430-438With all . . . Lupa: The sentence summarizes the two themes of the sequence: the transitory character of earthly achievements and satisfactions, and the specific humiliation of Rome, the rise of which was motivated by covetousness and a desire for authority consistent with the wolvishness of its founders’ upbringing.

and that: I.e. and that destruction.

had to: had for

following: deriving from

Lupa: The name is simply the Latin word for ‘she-wolf’, although it was also used to mean ‘prostitute’ or any unclean woman.

Oute . . . beastlynesse: In The Boke Named the Governour (1537, B7v) Sir Thomas Elyot remarks on the antiquity of the idea that character could be transmitted by breast-milk; in The Boke of Children (1546), Jean Goeurot adduces a number of classical authors from Plato to Pliny on this point, particularly citing Aeneid IV.365-7, where Virgil’s Dido attributes Aeneas’ cruelty ‘unto the gyver of the mylke’ (S1v-S2v).

cast . . . teeth: reproached them

cast . . . teeth: The famous anti-Roman remark of Mithridates VI is recorded in Justin’s Epitome of the Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus, XXXVIII.6.8.

bloud: An outlier in the series, the term is dropped in the French commentary. Its absence there contributes to complicating the heading to the Commentary (0.6), where Roest is said to have translated from the French.

Figures: images

Pourphere: porphyry

Emplaster: plaster of Paris

grauen: carved

other some: some others

priuie: secret

particular: narrowly self-interested

from time to time: from age to age

president: appointed governor, viceroy

466-467Nero . . . Maxence: The inclusion of Trajan (ruled 98-117) in this list may seem anomalous, since both Aquinas and Dante include him among the virtuous pagans, but van der Noot seems to be drawing on Augustine’s list of the ten persecutions of the early Church that stand as preliminary to the eleventh and final persecution under the aegis of the Antichrist (City of God, 18.52): Augustine lists Trajan’s persecution as the third of these ten. He gives Nero’s (54-68) and Domitian’s (81-96) as the first two, Aurelian’s (270-5) as the ninth and Diocletian’s (284-305) and Maximian’s (286-305) as the tenth. Van der Noot may have meant to include Maximian (Maximian Herculius) in this list and not his son, Maxentius -- Maxence (306-12). Maxentius had, in fact, practiced a policy of toleration towards Christians, although because of his rivalry with the Christian Constantine, he earned an undeserved post-antique reputation for hostility to Christians.

they: the Christians

theirs: The gods of the Romans.

enorme: egregious

473-476have been . . . are . . . rysen: The shift to the present tense captures the typological historical sense at the core of the Theatre: the punishment of ancient anti-Christian Rome is imagined as meted out in the present, so that the early persecutors merge with the pope and his bishops and the early Christian martyrs dissolve into modern Protestants.

Eastgothes . . . Westgothes: Ostrogoths and Visigoths

rased: razed

O worldly . . .passe: Eccles 1:2-3

Chaldes: People of the short-lived Neo-Babylonian Empire which took the Israelites captive; on their fall see Jer 50.1-3 and 51.24-35 and Is 43.14, 47.5, and 48.14.

Carthage: See Polybius, Histories, ‘Excidium Carthaginis’, 38.7-8, 20-22, on the fall of Carthage.

484-491So Rome . . . worde: In accordance with traditional typology, van der Noot identifies Rome’s fall with the future apocalyptic punishment he anticipates for the ungodly.

like estimation since: comparable prestige

in his floure: at its height, in its flower

492-493Romaine . . .Charlemayn: Romulus Augustus, the last Emperor of Rome, was deposed in 476, marking the fall of the Roman Empire. Frankish King Charlemagne was crowned Emperor of the Romans (Imperator Romanorum) in 800, beginning the Holy Roman Empire.

494-496Bishop of Rome . . . true pastoure: A conventional complaint against Papal authority. Cf. Luther’s A faithful admonition of a certeyne true pastor . . . Now translated into English (1554).

King Pepin: King of the Franks and father of Charlemagne, founded the first Carolingian empire, see line 494 above, ‘since Augustus until Charlemayn’; Van der Noot’s implication is that the Pope replaced the Emperors after the fall of Rome. Pepin defended papal interests, and was anointed by Pope Stephen II and given the title ‘Patrician of the Romans (patricius Romanorum).

501-533For the feruent . . . purpose: The commentary reflects Bale’s exegesis of the events following upon the opening of the third seal (Image, 106-7), although here, as elsewhere, van der Noot relies on de Coninck's translation of Bale’s; de Coninck, Bilde, I4r-I5v.

quietnesse: ease

mind to: interest in

Sigebertus. Geniblacen.: Sigebert of Gembloux, a medieval historian who favored limiting papal authority. Although the marginal glosses in the Theatre tend to derive from the Le Theatre, most of the glossing in the immediately ensuing pages are based on those in Het Theatre. The glossing is conspicuously light in these pages of the French version and, indeed, the text proper in the French is defective: there is no French equivalent for lines 513-41. Whoever prepared the glosses for English Theatre seems to have turned to Het Theatre for guidance in the glossing; in the present case, the glossing here is taken over from Het Theatre E2r.

Carolus Boiuillus: Charles de Bovelles, late 15th-early 16th C. canon and intellectual. Van der Noot’s source, Bale’s Image, draws on de Bovelles chronographic work, Aetatum mundi, for its spiritual periodization.

511-512confessors . . . Martirs: Bale opposes the lassitude of hearing confession with the spiritual vigor of martyrdom, and suggests that confession is simply another institutionalization of worldly greed, another sign of preferring ‘to take, than to give’ (506). (Cf Image 154.)

the roum of it: its place

where as: where

513-514(as . . . perish): Prov 29:18: ‘Where there is no vision’, glossed in GB ‘Where there are not faithful ministers of the worde of god’, ‘the people decay’.

515-516Sabellians . . . Eutichians: Van der Noot’s list of heretical groups, taken over from Bale’s Image (107), concentrates on sects that were heretical in their interpretation of the trinity or of the nature of Christ, the outlier being the Priscillians, an ascetic group with Manichaean affiliations.

Pelagians: This rehearses Augustine’s representation of Pelagianism. See Augustine Retractiones 2.68 and A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians I.6, ‘Grace is Not Given According to Merits’.

other like: others similarly, i.e., other heretical sects believed similarly

mutations: upheavals

522-527Liberius . . . Gregorie: Van der Noot reproduces Bale’s list of popes and antipopes whose authority was strenuously challenged; many of the Popes listed were opponents of the heretical sects mentioned above (Image, 107).

Hieronymus . . . Shedel.: The list of Church fathers and other authorities included in the margins of Het Theatre is taken over from De Coninck’s translation of Bale (Bilde, I5r-5v; Image, K6r). Bale has taken his information on crises in the history of the papacy from the De viris illustribus of Jerome (‘Hieronymus’), the Chronographia of Sigebert of Gembloux (‘Sigebertus. Geniblacensis.’),; the Speculum Historiale of Vincent of Beauvais (‘Vincentius’), the Vitae Pontificum of Bartlomeo Platina (‘Plantina’), the Supplementum Chronicarum of Jacobus Bergomensis (‘Bergensis’), the Nuremberg Chronicle Hartmann Schedel (‘Hermannus Shedell.’), and the Ursperger Chronicle, much of which was written by two successive abbots of the monastery at Ursperg. The ‘Anthonius’ to whom the margin refers is probably Antoninus of Florence, author of a universal history, the Chronicon, for Bale refers to his source as ‘Antoninus’, but the source could possibly be Antonio Sabellico, whose Enneades, also a universal history, was more widely consulted and is elsewhere cited in Bale.

522-523Liberius and Felicius: Pope Liberius was exiled by Emperor Constantius in 355 and replaced by Felicius. While most of the Roman clergy acknowledged Felicius as pope, the laity considered his consecration invalid.

524Damasius and Vrcisius: When Pope St. Damasus I was elected pope in 366, erstwhile adherents of Liberius rejected his election and consecrated Ursinus as their chosen pope.

524Boniface and Aulatius: After the death of Pope Zosimus, partisans of Eulalius (whose name is mistransmitted on Het Theatre E2v as ‘Aulatium’) occupied the Lateran basilica insisting on his consecration. Boniface was elected by a majority of the priests on the day before Eulalius’ consecration, and Boniface appealed to Emperor Honorius who recognized him as the rightful pope.

524-525Simache and Laurence: Symmachus was elected pope in the Constantinian basilica on the same day in 498 on which Laurentius was elected pope at the church of St. Mary’s. King Theodric recognized Symmachus’ election, yet there were later allegations that Symmachus obtained this ruling by bribery.

525Boniface and Dioscore: In 530 Pope Felix IV selected Boniface to succeed him, but Dioscorus was elected, only to die three weeks later at which time he was replaced by Pope Boniface II.

525Constantine and Philip: In 768, Pope Constantine II was forcibly deposed and Philip installed in his place for a single day until the election was declared invalid; he was replaced by Pope Stephen III.

526Eugenius and Sisine: From 824 to 827, Pope Eugene II required the support of the son of the Frankish emperor to maintain his position, in the face of plebeian support for Zinzinnus. (The reference to Zinzinnus as ‘Sisine’ originates with Bale, who may have confused him with Pope Sisinnius, who reigned in 708 for only 20 days.)

526Formosie and Stephen: In the infamous Cadaver Synod of 897, Pope Stephen VII exhumed the body of his predecessor, Formosus, and tried and convicted him of illegal accession to the papacy.

526Sergie and Christopher: Christopher, considered an antipope on the grounds of improper accession, was allegedly murdered while in prison (c. 904) at the order of Pope Sergius III.

527Benedict and Leo: At the insistence of Emperor Otto I Pope John XII was deposed in 963 and Leo VIII was elected. In the following year, when the election was challenged as invalid, John was reinstated and Leo deposed, but John died suddenly in 964, leading to the election of Pope Benedict V. Otto I then lay siege to Rome, compelled the acceptance of Leo VIII as pope, and Benedict was deposed.

Gregorie: Probably referring to one of the two antipopes: the Gregory who claimed the papacy, as Gregory VI, in 1012 or Maurice Bourdain who claimed the title of Gregory VIII in 1118.

sclandred: slandered

left behind: untried

533-536After this sorte . . . abolished: Cf. de Coninck, Bilde, I8v (translating Bale, Image, 110).

hairen cloath: sackcloth, coarse cloth [Heb. saq] made of goat’s hair, often used to make garments for mourning, submission, or ritual penance.

538-575For they dayly . . . haue sayde: de Coninck, Bilde, I8v (translating Bale, Image, 110-1).

Iohn . . . Patriarkes: Even before the accession of John Nesteutes to the office of Archbishop of Constantinople, as John IV, in 582, the Council of Constantinople (381) had declared that the Bishop of Constantinople should have primacy of honour after the Bishop of Rome and the Council of Chalcedon (451) had established Constantinople as a patriarchate. But it was only when John IV began styling himself Ecumenical Patriarch and, it was alleged, claimed that it was a title to be restricted to his own see, that he provoked protests from Pope Pelagius II and his successor, Gregory the Great. Calvin treats Gregory as the hero of this struggle, ascribing to him a general resistance to episcopal primacy (Institutes IV.vii.21).

Boniface the third: During his brief service as pope, Boniface reasserted papal primacy, claiming the title of Universal Bishop.

lieuetenant: The term is used here in its technical sense, i.e. place-holder, or vice-regent.

Mahomet . . . afterward: Chronology is crucial to the logic of this discussion of John, Boniface, and Mohammed: John IV served as Archbishop of Constantinople from 582 to 595, Boniface’s brief papacy took place in 606, and Mohammed experienced his first revelation in 610 and took up the public work of prophecy in 613.

548-550So that . . . dispearsed: Although van der Noot follows his source fairly closely in these pages, he here drops Bale's reference to the division of Christ's seamless garment (de Coninck, Bilde, K1r; Bale, Image, 110.

Talmuith: Talmud

Talmuith: The status of the Talmud within Judaism had been a central object of dispute in the pamphlet war that passed between Johann Reuchlin on the one hand and Johnannes Pfefferkorn and his Dominican supporters on the other during the years 1507 and 1521, but the claim that Jews regarded the Talmud as having greater authority than the Bible may be traced to the letters that Gregory IX issued in 1239 condemning the Talmud.

Sarazens their Alcorane: This distorts the Qur’anic principle of taḥrīf, the idea that the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament corrupt the revelation that the Qur’an embodies. This particular distortion was given its most influential articulation in the work of Ricoldo da Monte di Croce, whose major thirteenth-century treatise on the Qur’an Luther translated and who claimed that Moslems believed that the Gospel, in its uncorrupted original form, contained a prophecy of the coming of Muhammed.

Decretals: Papal decrees; the term denotes the papal letters that formulate decisions in canon law.

Decretals: The pseudo-Isidorean Decretals, part of a large Frankish collection of spurious documents, were woven into a larger collection of authentic canons, the so-called Hispana sometime in the middle of the ninth century. Nicholas of Cusa subjected these documents to critical scrutiny in the middle of the fifteenth century, and Erasmus and du Moulin elaborated Cusanus’ criticism in the century that followed.

553-554that false . . . Europe: Van der Noot drops Bale's reference to Prester John as one of the deceiving leaders who have set themselves up during the dispersal of the Church; de Coninck, Bilde, K1r (Bale, Image, 110).

traditions: see note to 558 below.

Whervnto: to which end

the rather: the sooner

brought in: introduced

traditions of men: While traditions can be used to designate authoritative convention passed down orally, it can also connote dubitable legends and rules, as it does here. The ensuing account of the ‘traditions of men’ is a condensed summary of those aspects of Catholic doctrine and worship to which the Reformers were most vehemently opposed, characterized as traditions of men (with the same disapproving connotations of the word, ‘traditions’, as are intended two sentences earlier) to distinguish them from those aspects of doctrine of worship that, the Reformers contended, could be securely founded on Scripture. Van der Noot continues to follow de Coninck's translation of Bale’s Image (Bilde, K1r-K1v; Image, 110), while slightly elaborating his list of the sensuous and spectacular apparatus of worship (the use of bells, incense, candles, instrumental music), the doctrine of purgatorie and the practices intended to intercede on behalf of those abiding there (masses for al soules, obsequies, indulgences), an array of related practices aimed to secure the intercession of saints (Pilgrimages, the veneration of relikes), and several practices of self-deprivation thought to substitute for faith itself and a dependence of divine grace (Lenten abstentions and, for the clergy, celibacy).

bells: The use of bells in Catholic worship was a frequent object of Reformation attack. Various uses of bells -- to announce imminent death, to call the faithful to worship, and to accompany the elevation of the host at Mass -- were subjected to criticism, but the practice of dedicating new bells by prayers, washing, and unction was considered especially egregious.

as: such as

diriges, obsequies: funeral or commemorative rites

diriges: The word can be used specifically to denote Matins for the Dead or, more generally, any chanting or reading of the Office of the Dead, whether for a funeral or for a memorial service. The word, which develops into the modern dirge, is the first word in the antiphon for the first nocturn of Matins.

obsequies: Sometimes used as a synonym for dirige, sometimes to refer more generally to the Offices of the Dead (comprising both the Placebo and the Dirige, i.e. Vespers and Matins for the Dead), and sometimes, most generally, to denote all burial rites and ritual commemoratives for the dead.

church holy days:

Like most of the criticism in this passage, the attack on the multitude of Catholic holidays might have come from any of the Reformers, but Calvinists like van der Noot were especially fervent in their sabbatarianism and in their strict abridgement in the number of holidays celebrated: many mid-century Calvinist churches celebrated only the Sabbath, Christmas, Easter, and Whitsunday, and there was a brief period in Geneva when even the celebration of Christmas was proscribed.

The item marks a departure from Bale, who refers at this juncture to ‘halowynge of churches’ instead of to the proliferation of holidays (Image, 110-1; Bilde, K1v). Bale’s Image continues to inspire the next few sentences, but van der Noot improvises by providing more piquantly specific enormities than Bale offers.

Rogation dayes: Though the Catholic Church formally recognized a Major Rogation on 25 April and three Minor Rogations, on the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before Ascension Day, the Sunday before Ascension Day also came to be known as Rogation Sunday. All Rogation days were associated with penance and fasting, but the Minor Rogations -- and, by association, Rogation Sunday -- were especially distinguished by outdoor processions and prayers for agricultural prosperity.

coales . . . broyled: These relics were among the treasures of Rome’s church of San Lorenzo in Panisperna.

Iosephs hosen: Since the ninth century relics said to be Jesus’ swaddling clothes were housed at Aachen; the legend that St. Joseph had fashioned these swaddling clothes from his stockings is of a later date.

S. Cornelis: Relics of St. Cornelius, patron saint of cattle, were widely distributed across northern Europe, and especially in the Low countries: an important collection of relics were housed at an abbey in Ninove, 40 miles SW of Antwerp. But van der Noot may have been thinking of another collection of relics near Aachen: St. Cornelius’ head was preserved at Kornelimünster a few miles SE of Aachen.

images: While the veneration of images is a central object of Protestant criticism, van der Noot’s iconoclastic engagements are hardly abstract. Van der Noot had fled to England because of the punitive repression that followed the sacking of Antwerp churches and defacing of their images in the summer of 1566.

foreseing: establishing

568foreseing . . . Maosin: Van der Noot refers here to the notoriously difficult verse, Daniel 11:38, ‘But in hys place’ -- that is, instead of ‘the God of his fathers’ (11:37) -- ‘shal he honour the God Mauzzim’, where ‘he’ is ‘the King’ of 11:36, usually understood as the Antichrist. Modern translations render ‘Mauzzim’ as ‘forces’ or ‘fortresses’, while Luther identifies ‘Mauzzim’ with the mass; the gloss to the Geneva version is closer to the spirit of van der Noot’s allusion, for it characterizes the Mauzzim as ‘the god of riches and power.’ On Maosin, see also 2222.

trumperie: ostentatious fraud

hie: high

575-589Of these . . . seduced by them.: Cf. Bale (Image, 111). de Coninck K2r-K2v

seuenth seale: An error. Both the Dutch and French sources are correct: van der Noot is describing the vision of the opening of the fourth seal.

Revel. 6. [marginal gloss]: Rev 6.7-8.

copper faces: An unusual locution, possibly comparable to brazen-faced. Het Theatre reads ‘opgheblasen tronien, cermousynen, ende ghecarbonckelde neusen’ (‘puffy faces, crimson and carbuncled noses’; E3v). While ‘copper’ may render ‘cermousynen’, the English formulation may be meant to indicate acne rosacea, sometimes referred to as ‘copper-nose’.

Rom. 6. . . . Math. 6. [marginal glosses]: Our emendation of the reference to Romans brings the gloss into accord with that in Le théatre: the relevant passage from Romans, on the extension of Christ’s offer of a spiritual life even to those dead in the body, is 8:10. The chapters from Luke and Matthew contain the two versions of the Sermon on the Mount, both concerned with the life conferred by Christ. But each of the Gospel chapters takes up different themes of concern to van der Noot: Luke 12:4-5 focuses on the eternal death to which van der Noot imagines his papists adversaries as condemned; several verses in Matt 6 concentrate on the empty devotional shows of hypocrisy.

Esay. 5., Prouerb. 5. [marginal glosses]: Isa 5:14, Prov 5:3-6.

seduced by them: Although the seductress of Prov 5:3-6 is less potent than the Whore of Rev, ‘her steppes take holde on hel.’ Still, the reference may be a misprint: the gloss in the French Theatre gives ‘Pro 2.’ (following the gloss in van der Noot, and in his source, de Coninck, Bilde, K2v), referring the reader to the comparable seductress at 2.16-19.

Daniel and Paule: It was customary among the Reformers to associate the fourth beast in Dan 7 with Rome (7:7, explicated at 7:19-23) and to understand the little horn of the beast (7:8, explicated at 7:24-6) not only as the Antichrist, the man of sin of 2 Thess 2:3-8, but also as the pope. Tertullian is the first to have argued that the lawlessness of the Antichrist (2 Thess 2:3) would be unleashed only when the Roman Empire fell (De Resurrectione Carnis, 24).

holy ghost by S. Iohn: Cf. Bale, Image, 36-7 (de Coninck, Bilde, ☨4r-☨4v). But the language here may also reflect the influence of the headnote to Rev in the Geneva Bible, which, like Bale’s Image, describes the book as the Holy Ghost’s own compendium of apocalyptic prophecies, emphasizes the theme of punishment of hypocrisy, and focuses on enargeia: ‘Herein therefore is lively set forth the Divinitie of Christ’ and ‘the livelie description of Antichrist is set forth’.

594-777I saw . . . and corporally: This long passage on Rev 13:1-2 is all but lifted from de Coninck's rendering of Bale (Bilde, Cc3v-Dd2; Image, 214-8).

Reuel. 13. [marginal gloss]: Rev 13:1-2.

congregation . . . hypocrites: Job 15:34; versions of this formulation make up a steady refrain in Bale’s Image.

Ceder . . . Libanus: Cf. de Coninck, Bilde, Cc3v; Bale, Image, 214. For the cedars of Lebanon as a figure for a punishable pride, see Isa 2:12-13 and Ps 37:35

Elmas: Acts 13:6-12.

Apoc. 6. [marginal gloss]: Rev 6:7-8

beast . . . horns: The defect in 1569 can be reconstructed by reference to Le théatre ‘Ceste beste auoit sept chefz & dix cornes, signifiant les abundantes, dommageables & pestilentieles erreurs, etc.’ (F4r)

Apoc. 9. [marginal gloss]: I.e., Rev 9:3 and 9:17. The gloss in the Geneva Bible to the locusts (van der Noot’s ‘Grashoppers’) that vex the earth in Rev 9 is pertinent: ‘Locustes are false teachers, heretikes, and worldlie suttil Prelates, with Monkes, Freres Cardinals Patriarkes, Archebishops, Bishops, Doctors Bachelors & masters which forsake Christ to mainteine false doctrine.’

odible: odious

606their heads . . . and their hornes: Rev 13:1

610-612but . . . congregation: We emend here, as economically as possible, by dropping the printed ‘from.’ Our copy text reads ‘but in this point differ the dragon and the beast, from the divell and his membres, Sathan and his carnal and beastly congregation’ which misrepresents both the Dutch and French versions of the passage, both of which unfold as a series of slightly irregular contrastive pairs: ‘den draeck ende de beeste: de duyuel ende sijn lidtmaten, Sathan van sijn vleeschelycke vergaderinghe’ (‘the dragon and the Beast, the devil and his members, Satan from his carnal assembly’ [emphases mine]; E4v ). The confusion in the English printed version seems to derive from Roest’s struggle with this variation. (It may be observed that the series in van der Noot’s source text, de Coninck’s translation of Bale, is far more regular, with all three pairings entailing distinctions ‘van’; Bilde, Cc4v.) We conjecture that Roest originally translated his copy literally as ‘Sathan from’ and then decided to eliminate the irregularity; in striking out the from and replacing it with a clarifying and, he left his copy messy and the confused compositor (or the scribe who prepared copy for the press) relocated the from instead of dropping it. It is worth noting that van der Noot equates the congregation of Satan (Rev 2:9 and 3:9) with the congregation of the hypocrites (Job 15:34) mentioned a few lines earlier.

their ten heads: In fact, the beast of Rev 13:1, to which the dragon of 12:3 defers, has only seven heads, although it wears a crown on each of its ten horns.

that which . . . haue they: Whereas the draconic Satan has only instigated the thyng, the bestial congregation has achieved it. Roest takes care in this passage not to specify the work of the Beast, referring to it as the thyng or, merely, it.

blowe . . . eares: whisper to them concerning, secretly propose

he is but able . . . inspiration: He can only incite the bestial congregation to imagine performing it.

found out: invented

purgatorie . . . seruice: Although van der Noot offers this as a list of erroneous doctrines that the bestial congregation enforces as dogma, he follows Bale in augmenting the list of erroneous beliefs (purgatorie, transubstantiation) with several corrupt practices.

auricular confession: Compulsory confession ‘into the ear of’ a priestly-confessor. Calvin offers a sustained critique of the practice in Institutes, III.iv.

transubstantiation: Mentioned neither in Bale nor in the French Theatre at this juncture.

father of all lies: See John 8:44.

written: In both the Dutch and French commentaries, van der Noot here departs from Bale, whose use of the phrase ‘unwritten veritie’ (Image, 215, faithfully reproduced as ‘ongheschreuen waerheyt’ in de Coninck, Bilde, Cc5r) stipulates the unauthorized character of these dogmatic impositions.

Hereout . . . like: from these and similar instances

ghostly: spiritual

more wickednesse: It is worth observing the culminative force here. Van der Noot has steadily distinguished Satan and his ministers, making Satan the figure of lesser wickedness: whereas Satan instigates, they achieve and violently maintain; whereas he plays, they seriously compel; what he invents, they institute as dogma. This will culminate in the assertion that follows, that Satan is impotent without his popish ministers.

Iudas . . . entred: Luke 22:3, John 13:27

635bishops and Scribes: Van der Noot’s formulation has polemical force: it adapts the gospel pairing, ‘chief Priests and Scribes’ from Matt 2:4 (and see also Luke 23:10 and the more frequent pairing of scribes and Pharisees, which is employed throughput the gospels and serves as the anaphoric matrix of Jesus’ address to the multitude in Matt 23). By referring to Jerusalem’s chief priests as bishops, van der Noot sharpens the typological relationship between the modern Roman clerics and the priestly enemies of Jesus himself and so prepares for the double assertion in the next sentence: first, that the Apostles, tru ministers and other witnesses of Christ were persecuted and are again persecuted at this present and, second, that, by persecuting the present witnesses of Christ, these popish prelates . . . fulfil the mesure of their fathers. De Coninck’s pairing ‘Bisschoppen ende gheleerden’ ( ‘bishops and the learned’, Bilde Cc5v) is more muted than Bale’s more sharply satiric typology, which transmutes priests and scribes into ‘Bysshoppes and lawers’ (sic, Image, 215).

Math. 23 [marginal gloss]: Matt 23:34

640-641And vpon . . . Christ: Rev 13:1

wher with: by means of which

suborne: adorn

suborne: For a similar usage, see Vewe.

estimation: reputation

patriarks: the highest-ranking of Catholic bishops

protonotaries: high-ranking Monsignors of the Catholic church

chief heads: The phrase designates no obviously specific clerical office. Roest is grappling with a transmissional lapse: de Coninck has adequately rendered Bale’s ‘Metropolytane’ (Image, 215) as ‘opperste hooft Bisschop des landts’ ; Het Theatre carelessly transmits this simply as the vague formulation, opperste hoofden (E5v).

officialls: bishops’ representatives to diocesan ecclesiastical courts

commissaries: papal appointees with special commissions

prebendaries: cathedral administrators

vicars: representatives

Bridegromes: I.e., bridegrooms of the Church. In Mark 2:19-20, Jesus is understood to have referred to himself as a bridegroom; in Eph 5:25, Paul likens Christ’s love for the Church to a man’s love for his spouse. Insofar as ordination was understood as conforming the priest to Christ, priests could also be understood as bridegrooms of the Church.

as Zacharie termeth them: Zech 10:17.

honest: chaste

tokens: signs

il fauored of fashion: ugly in shape

stoutnesse: stubbornness

a Lion . . . Chaldees: Dan 7:4. The apparatus of the Geneva Bible illustrates a long-standing interpretive confusion over the first of the four kingdoms to which the prophetic chapters 2 and 8 of Daniel refer: the Geneva headnote sensibly refers to the first kingdom as Daniel’s Babylon, but the gloss to 7:4 associates the Lion with the Assyrians and Chaldeans, despite the fact that the Assyrian empire predates Daniel and his prophecy.

kingdome of the Grecians: Referring to the Greek empire established by the eastern conquests of Alexander the Great.

Nahum. 2.3. . . . 1 Macha. 1. [marginal glosses]: The glosses in Le théatre are superior to those in the Het Theatre here, and the glosses in Theatre generally match those in the French version, although in a few instances those in the English text to misrepresent their copy. At this juncture both the English and French versions correct a reference to Esaias.1. in the Dutch text; van der Noot plainly means to allude to Isaiah 13:17-22. The English and French texts supply a reference to Nahum that is missing in the Dutch, although the gloss supplied, ‘Nahum.23.’ requires emendation, since Nahum has only three chapters. The French and English do not always improve on their Dutch source. The French mistransmits the Dutch gloss to the first chapter of 1 Maccabees as a reference to the second chapter of 1 Maccabees -- although 1 Macc 2 is relevant to the discussion at hand, the oppressions of Antiochus are most vividly narrated in the first chapter of 1 Macc. The English makes matters worse, offering a reference to the second chapter of 2 Maccabees, repeating the reference on both the recto and verso of G5. (The reading in the English version seems to reflect the French text, which reads ‘I. Macha.2.’, but the first ‘I’ is poorly inked in the copy we examined and might have been misread as a ‘2’, hence the English gloss ‘2. Macha. 2.’ We emend, restoring what we take to be the reading of Roest’s copy.) In general, the English glosses reproduce the French ones somewhat carelessly: references to chapter spans -- two and three in Esther (‘Hester 2.3.) and 3 through 6 in 2 Chronicles (‘2. Paral. 3.6.’) -- were misconstrued and set as references to Esther 23 and 2 Chron 36. However, the reference to the span in 2 Chron, which Le Théatre carries over from Het Theatre, is inaccurate: the English gloss, ‘2. Paralip. 36’ is indeed correct, since the relevant passage is in chapter 36 (verses 17-23). It may be observed, finally, that some errors or unhelpfulnesses persist from the Dutch to the French to the English. Habak 1 marvels over the conquests of the Chaldeans, but the curse on them is withheld until 2:8 and 2:15-17; the gloss, ‘Esay. 22’ may be a reference to the captivity of Shebna at Isa 22:17, but context strongly suggests that this, like the rest of Isa 22, concerns an Assyrian conquest, not one of Persians or Medes. (The Geneva glosses construe Isa 22 as a prophecy of Babylonian conquest -- again, not Persian or Medean.)

Paralipomenon: I.e., Chronicles.

684-686But this beast . . . to the Lion: Not in Bale.

Popedom: This play on ‘kingdom’ is not original with Roest: he is rendering van der Noot’s Pausdom (E6v), but the word had been used by a number of English Reformers.

as much, and more: The Geneva gloss emphasizes that the beast symbolically combines the peoples ‘whom the Romaines overcame’; Bale (Image, 217; de Conninck Cc8r) and van der Noot emphasize the ways in which the Beast exceeds the corruption of its predecessors. See the note to ‘vii. times double’ below.

Sodometrie: sodomy

Sodometrie: While sodomy (or, here, ‘Sodometrie’, as in van der Noot’s original Dutch) is often used in early modern texts to comprise the full field of proscribed sexual practices (and thus substantially overlaps uncleannesse), it sometimes seems especially to evoke sexual activities between men, hence the frequent use of the term in denunciations of monks.

695-696Gods holy Temple: The Church; as the gloss indicates, Paul describes the Church in these terms at 1 Cor 3:16.

1. Corin. 3., Rom. 9. [marginal glosses]: 1 Cor 3:16, Rom 9:21-3.

vessels of his glory: Rom 9:21-3, part of Paul’s discussion of election.

Pharao . . . Caiphas: To the formulaic list of the notorious oppressors of the righteous, Pharaoh, Antiochus, and Caiaphas, a fourth, Herod, is sometimes added.

in the comparison of: i.e., compared to

securitie: In the sixteenth century, the term could be used to denote a culpable confidence or lack of compunction.

Hest. 3. 4. [marginal gloss]: Esther 3:13.

704-706The rigorous . . . Antioch): The relevant passages are Esther 3:13 and 1 Macc 1:41-51.

to the ordinaunces: in comparison to the ordinaunces

After this sort: accordingly

vij. times double: sevenfold

Psalm 9 . . . Rom. 3. [marginal glosses]: The gloss for Ps 9 (combined with Masoretic Ps 10 in the Vulgate) refers the reader to the leonine wicked (Ps 10:8-10) whose mouth is full of cursing (Ps 10:7). We retain the doubled gloss to Rom 3 regarding the first as a reference to the cursing mouth of the Lion in Rom 3:14. The second is a reference to the wounding feet of the Bear in Rom 3:15.

Rom. 1. [marginal gloss]: Rom 1:23 describes the bestiality of the ungodly.

couetousnesse: Translating begheerlyckheden, which Roest elsewhere translates as lust (Commentary 999) and concupiscience (3244). While van der Noot’s immediate source in de Conninck reads begherlyckheden (Bilde, CC8r), an adequate rendering of Bale’s ‘affeccyons’ (Image, 217), we may feel that a gap has opened between the original and final English renderings.

sheade: shed

obseruings: observances

2. Thess. 2. [marginal gloss]: This is the first of three consecutive glosses all of which refer the reader to 2 Thess 2: this passage draws on verses 10-11, but as van der Noot’s glosses imply, Bale’s commentary here, and for the next page, dwells on the identification of the Lawless One of 2 Thess 2:9-12 with the Antichrist-Beast of Rev 13 (Image, 217-18). Bale and van der Noot interest themselves especially in the dynamics of apocalyptic justice: to those who, refusing truth, secure authority by means of illusion, God responds by inflicting delusion, leaving the deceivers sunk in deception. Both Bale and Calvin regard the Antichrist as being made fully manifest in the papacy by the progressive workings of the mystery of iniquity of 2 Thess 2:7; see Firth, Apocalyptic Tradition, 53.

Therfore God . . . pleasure in vnrighteousnesse: 2 Thess 2:11-2

723-777The Dragon . . . corporally: Van der Noot’s interpretation of the gifts of the dragon to the beast (Rev 13:2) follows Bale’s. Image [p.217, sect. 8 -- 218, sect. 11]

perfect: fully trained

silly: innocent

stablysh: establish

to worke . . . doctrine: 2 Thess 2:9-10.

2. Thess. 2. [marginal gloss]: 2 Thess 2:9-10.

the rather: instead

On this maner: in this way

736-739He occupieth . . . stede: 2 Thess 2:4.

2. Thess. 2. [marginal gloss]: 2 Thess 2:4.

roume: domain

to search . . . consciences: Following Bale, van der Noot again takes issue with the Catholic sacrament of confession; cf. 510-11.

745-746the Pope . . . I mean: Not in Bale.

ignomie: ignominy

Math. 28. . . . 2 Thess. 2. [marginal gloss]: Matt 28:18, John John 1:14, John 3:34-35, 2 Thess 2:7.

tasted: experienced

aucthority: authority

amongs: amongst

Iob 1. 2. 3. [marginal gloss]: The gloss, for which there is no counterpart in Le Théatre, may transmit numbers meant as placeholders for a more precise citation. Chapter 1 of Job describes Job’s worldly blessings and their loss; chapter 2 describes his bodily afflictions and the arrival of his friends; chapter 3 describes his despair.

Botches: sores

Leuiathan: At Job 41:25, the biblical sea-monster Leviathan is described as ‘King over all the children of pride’ and is thereby associated with the Devil.

Psal. 73. ... 2. Thessa. 2. [marginal gloss]: Ps 74:13-23, Rev 9:3-4, 2 Thess 2:13-14.

necessitie: necessities

good: goods

shriuing: hearing confession

with the sword of his mouth: Van der Noot once again invokes 2 Thess 2, this time suggesting that the power of Gospel preaching (2 Thess 2:13-14) is figured in the sword in the mouth of the heroic Christ of Rev 1:16, who is in turn understood to have wounded the beast from the sea of Rev 13:1-3.

Iohn Hus: The Czech reformer Jan Hus, born in 1369 and martyred in 1415, is responsible for the diffusion of Wycliffite thought in Bohemia and Moravia. Like Wycliffe, Hus was an outspoken critic of the venality of the Roman Church, and was especially opposed to the sale of indulgences. He challenged papal authority and seems to have rejected the doctrine of transubstantiation.

1106-785For it is euident . . . made whole?: See Bale (Image, 219-22). The appropriation of Bale is freer in this next, long section. Van der Noot abridges de Coninck’s rendering of Bale’s Image at a few junctures at which Bale is especially prolix, sketchily updates Bale’s survey of the European anti-Catholic movement, and gives a slightly more penetrating account of those temporizers who reject the authority of the contemporary Roman church, but cling to earlier traditions of doctrine and practice that he judges to be without scriptural warrant. Here, as elsewhere, van der Noot mutes anti-semitic notes in Bale and -- perhaps because the first version of this commentary was prepared for a continental audience (or a displaced Dutch one) -- he removes many specific references to the struggles of English protestants.

set by: esteemed

fashion: pretense

narowely: strictly

deceiuable: deceitful

take their course to the fathers: have recourse to the teachings of the Church Fathers.

throughly: thoroughly

very Antechrist: truly the Antichrist

Other some wyll not bee: some others wish not to be

well halfe: at least half

809-816Other some . . . serue hym arighte.: Not in Bale.

after thys sorte: in this way

Chirurgians: surgeons

ioylye: lovely

Baals priests: Het Theatre reads ‘singhen met den Papen’ (‘singing with the popes’; F2r) for which neither Le théatre nor The Theatre offer a simple translation. Le théatre renders the phrase ‘chantent avec les Caphars’ (‘singing with the religious hypocrites’; G1r), while Roest adopts a reference to those priests humiliated by Elijah as punishment for misplaced devotion in 1 Kings 18-9. The Wycliffite habit of referring to a corrupt modern clergy as ‘priests of Baal’ had proved hardy: in his “Open Letter on Translating” of 1530, Luther also compares the Roman clergy with the Baal’s priests (Werke, 30-2, 645); see also, for example, The harvest is at hand (1548), John Champneys’s exposé of ‘the policy of popyshe Prestes’ and ‘comparison betwen them & the prestes of baal’ (B2).

Gaudeamus: ‘Let us rejoice’

grossenesse: extremity

Rom. 11. [marginal gloss]: Rom 11:8-10

becam then: The slight syntactic strain suggests that an emendation to ‘became they then’ might be in order.

consistories: ecclesiastical councils

straight: strait, strict

beggerly: destitute of value

wyll . . . be: would have it that Christ not be

alone: sole

alone and sufficient: The phrase insists on the soteriological principle that divine grace is the sole agent of salvation.

869-872Wherin . . . Iewes: The practice whereby actors in small theatrical troupes, in order to stage plays with a large number of characters, perform multiple roles here figures the dual presence of bread and body, wine and blood. The metaphor carries a critical connotation, insinuating the mere staginess of the Catholic mass.

1. Tim. 4. ... Heb. 13.[marginal glosses]: Van der Noot contrasts the monopoly over forgiveness exercised Roman church with the spiritual clemency alleged in 1 Tim 4:3-5, 2 Tim 4:3-4, and Heb 13:4. 1 Tim 4, is a particularly bright foil to his evocation of the strictures placed on Catholic clergy, and the strictures they place on the laity, as not only hypocritical and debauched, but also unnecessary.

879-880are vttered . . . be: Translating ‘ende noch daghelycx worden’ (‘and still daily are [uttered]’; Het Theatre, F2v).

greasing and shauyng: While van der Noot’s denunciations are strenuous, opposition to tonsure, to prohibitions on clerical beards, and to the use of chrism (consecrated fragrant olive oil, usually scented with balsam; see 1197) after baptism and in the anointing of bishops was unevenly distributed among early Protestant groups.

884-886excluding . . . title: van der Noot here rehearses that assault on exclusive priesthood most famously articulated in Luther’s Address to the Nobility of the German Nation (1520).

ex opere operato: ‘by virtue of the work having been performed.’ Protestant reformers alleged that the Catholic clergy misleadingly taught that the sacraments took effect merely by virtue of their performance; the reformers insisted that the efficacy of the sacraments was conditional, usually depending on the disposition of the believer. It bears remarking that serious sixteenth-century Catholics were divided on the matter.

Emperours . . . gouerners: We emend, guided by Het Theatre, which prints a series with four members, ‘Keysers, Coninghen, hoofden ende regierders’ (‘Emperors & Kings, Leaders & Governors’; G2v).

pollitike: political

Iob. 41. . . . 3. Reg. 17. [marginal gloss]: Job 41:25, Daniel and 12:7, 1 Kings 17:1-7

Helias: Elijah

and one halfe tyme: Roest faithfully translates Het Theatre, whereas Le théatre helpfully emends to ‘le temps, les temps, & demy temps’ (‘the time, times, and one half time’; G3r), which brings the commentary into proper accord with its sources in Daniel 7:25, 12:7, and Rev 12:14.

Apoc. 21. 13. [marginal gloss]: Rev 13:6 and 21:3.

thousande . . . Iohn: Rev 11:3 and 12:6

whereout: from whence

Coloss. 3. . . . I. Peter. I. [marginal glosses]: The glosses filling the margin from the bottom of H4v to the top of H5r collectively refer to a series of scriptural passages that address the difficult necessity of maintaining faith in spite of worldly trials: Col 3:2, John 14:16-19, Matt 24:13, Luke 9:62, Eph 6:12, 1 Cor 6:6-8, Acts 4:3-6 and 6:11-13, Ex 1:13-14, Esther 3:13, 1 Macc 1:11, Matt 20:12-16, Luke 2:25-35, 1 Pet 1:7.

912-918They trouble . . . Apostles did: The sentence is easy enough to disentangle once one accepts its parenthetical structure: As did the Pharisees in the time of Christ and his apostles, the worshippers of the Beast continuously trouble the true witnesses and godly preachers of Christ by [the particular means of] their wicked decrees and [generally] their worldly authority.

that stumbling stocke: Oddly, no gloss is provided to refer the reader to 1 Cor 1:23 and 1 Pet 2:8.

stocke: log

921-929They search . . . water: Much of the difficulty of the passage would be relieved were we to emend three instances of the singular ‘him’ (at 922, 927, and 928) and one of ‘he’ (927), adjusting them in accord with the plural ‘them’ of 918 and 925, so that these pronouns would refer securely to ‘the true witnesses, and godly preachers of Christ’ (914-5). Arguing against emendation of the pronouns is the fact that Het Theatre and Le théatre exhibit a similarly confusing mix of pronouns.

923-926 Roest’s translation slightly elaborates the Dutch original ‘voer dat sij hem in de gheuanckenisse ghesteken ende vast geesloten hebben: noch en sijn sij hier mede niet te vreden, voer dat syse in de teghen wordicheyt der blinder werelt, achteruolghende heur placcaten (om het werelts volck in heure dwalinghe te houden) ouerwonnen hebben: hoewel syse voer God niet ouerwonnen en hebben’ (‘until they have thrown in him prison and fast confined him, and neither are they satisfied with this, until, in the presence of the blind world, acting in accordance with their edict [by which they confirm the laiety in its errors], they vanquish them; although they are not vanquished before God’; F4v). Roest departs from his source in two ways, both of which emphasize the corrupt judicial procedure loosely evoked by the Dutch original. First, he adapts the doubled description of imprisonment in Het Theatre, combining them into the single ‘haue him fast in prison’ and replacing the second member of the pair with a reference to a future trial, ‘and forthcomming’ (that is, within easy reach of a court, in custody). Second, he inserts the phrase ‘(as they boast) to condemne’, which has no obvious source in the Dutch, in order to specify that the godly are ‘vanquished’ as part of a corrupt process of conviction. We adjust the punctuation of the clause concerning the polemical use of the ‘placcate’ to reflect that of the Dutch original and so to clarify the parenthetical syntax of the passage.

forthcomming: within easy reach of prosecution

placcate: Placard, edict

placcate: Placard or edict: the term was especially used to indicate anti-Protestant edicts. Charles V early ban on Luther’s writings, to which we now refer as the Edict of Worms, was commonly known in the 16th C as the Placard of Worms.

fortifie: confirm

otherwyse: neither vanquished nor condemned

at the least . . . shrift: See 624n. The Fourth Lateran Council (1215) stipulated that auricular confession before a priest, shrift or shriving, be performed at least once a year.

shrift: auricular confession

Math. 27. . . . Iohn. 19. [marginal glosses]: Van der Noot refers to the four gospel accounts of Christ’s crucifixion alongside thieves: Matt 27:37-38, Mark 15:25-27, Luke 23:33-38, and John 19:18-19. The metaphor in the Commentary connects Christ to the laity, who he says must either submit to the pressures of the clergy or be arraigned ‘at the Barre among Theeves’.

2. Tim. 3. [marginal gloss]: 2 Tim 3:1-4, which reflects on the spiritual collapse at the End of Days.

comfort: solace

Luke. 10. . . . 1. Corin. 10 [marginal glosses]: Luke 10:7, Rom 11:7, Phil 3:18-19, 1 Cor 6:15-17, John 15:4-5, Ps 27:5, and John 14:17-20. We emend the errant reference to ‘Psalm. 16.’; Het Theatre and Le théatre give the correct reading of ‘Psalm. 26’ (Masoretic 27). Rom 9:11, Eph 1:4-5, John 1:29, John 15:4-6, 1 Tim 2:5-6, 1 Cor 10:1-4.

be participant of: share

ordeined: readied, put in order

Genes. 4. We emend to correct the careless duplication of the marginal reference to Gen 3 from two lines earlier that Theatre inherits from Het Theatre; here the commentary plainly refers to the story of Cain and Abel at Gen 4:3-8.

Math. 23. . . . 2. Peter. 2. [marginal glosses]: Matt 23:35, Gen 3:15, Matt 14:6-12, supplementing the reference to John the Baptist, above; 2 Peter 2:4.

of the Lamb: by the Lamb

Iohn 1 [marginal gloss]: A puzzling reference: it may be worth observing that, at this juncture, van der Noot’s frequent source, de Coninck’s Bilde, offers a marginal reference to Jude 1 (Ee7r), presumably a reference to the enchained angels of verse 6.

giue place: defer, accede

certifie: assure, make certain

1 Corinth. 2. . . . 2. Thessa. 2. [marginal gloss]: 1 Cor 2:7-10, Rom 1:24, 2 Thess 2:11-12, 2 Tim 4:4, 2 Pet 2:1, Eph 6:17, 2 Thess 2:8.

wrytten to: written for

wil: wishes, wills

the rather: rather, instead

sense: state of mind

must: [the killer or killers] must

to consume their aduersaries: Bale asserts, at this juncture, ‘Neverthelesse to the christiane is persecucion necessarye’ (Image, 227; Bilde, Ee8r), and elaborates the principle of necessary martyrdom before turning to Rev 13:11.

imaginations: imaginings

thrusteth them in: pierces them

2. Peter. 1. [marginal gloss]: We emend, adopting the reference shared by both the Dutch and the French editions; the relevant passage is 2 Pet 1:10-11.

1. Corin. 13 [marginal gloss]: 1 Cor 13:12.

Gene. 14. [marginal gloss]: We retain the gloss, taking it to refer to the account of the brutal conquests of the kings allied with Chedorlaomer (Gen 14:1-11), although the gloss may very well represent a transmissional error for a reference to Gen 4:1-12, the account of the slaughter of Abel by Cain.

Gene. 9.17.21.57.28 [marginal gloss]: Gen 9:22, 17:23, 21:9, 28:5-10.

Iannes: We emend, following Het Theatre, which correctly represents the name in 2 Tim 3:8. At this juncture in the Commentary, as in several others, Roest’s translation shares a number of features with the French text, suggesting that both the English and French versions of the commentary derive from a common Dutch source that significantly differs from printer’s copy for Het Theatre.

Exod, 7 . . . 3.Reg.16. [marginal glosses]: Ex 7:11-12, 2 Tim 3:8-9, Num 22:20-22, Judg 21:22, Jer 20:1-4 (where Jeremiah is put in the stocks for his denunciation, in Jer 19:5, of Israelite worship of Baal), Matt 27:22-23, Acts 13:6-12, John 1:1-14, and 1 Kings 16.

Chanons: canons; resident clergy of a cathedral

wherout: from which

Psalm. 44. . . . Math. 15.[marginal gloss]: Ps 45:6, Rev 14:1, John 16:2, Col 2:20-23, 1 Cor 2:5-8, 2 Cor 6, John 14:6, John 6:63, 1 Cor 13:1. We emend since van der Noot here quotes from John 18:36. Rom 1:23, Heb 13:4, Matt 15:2-4.

haue . . . be: effectively counterfeit

vnderstanding: meaning

Wherout: from which

discearning: indicating

neither hath: nor has it

stockes: tree trunks without branches, stumps

chopped and chaunged: altered

workes of supererogation: The practice of performing good works in excess of those required by God, which excess was held to be allocable to the store of virtue of those in Purgatory and thereby efficacious in reducing their time there.

belly God byshops: bishops who make their bellies their God

the Myter . . . Testamente: This interpretation of form of the bishop’s miter seems to have originated with Innocent III; see Pat. Lat. 217:796.

Math. 7., 2. Thess. 2. [marginal glosses]: Matt 7:15, 2 Thess 2:9-12, 2.

hie mynded: translating ‘lichtuerdighe’ (‘rash’; F8r); Le théatre renders this ‘temeraires’ (G7r).

2. Tim. 3. . . . Philip. 3. [marginal glosses]: Tim 3:2-5. We corrected the reference to 2 Tim, guided by the glosses in both the Dutch and French versions. 1 Cor 6:9-10, Matt 3:7, 2, Cor 11:13, Ezek 34:2-9, Isa 56:10, Phil 3:19.

generation: offspring

routes: roots

Esay. 5., Iere 2. [marginal glosses]: Isa 5:20. We also emend the second reference to Isa: while 1569 retains the dubitable reference to Isa 6 in Het Theatre, Le théatre replaces it with the more pertinent reference to Isa 5. Jer 2:7-8.

chayre: throne

1080-1081Brabant . . . countrey: Bale’s focus is on England.

friendshyp . . . children: Not in Bale.

aduenture: risk

1. Reg. 8. [marginal gloss]: We emend, since the reference to ‘1 Reg.12.’ (i.e. 1 Samuel, or ‘1 Regum,’ according to naming conventions of the Vulgate) is unhelpful: the venality of Samuel’s sons is described in 1 Sam 8:1-3. The gloss imperfectly corrects the even less helpful gloss in Het Theatre, ‘Rom. 2.3.8’ (F8v); these chapters describe God’s coming judgement of those who transgress the Old Law or submit perversely to it (Rom 2), the doctrine of justification by faith (Rom 3), and, perhaps most relevant, the superiority of spirit to flesh (Rom 8).

Math. 15. [marginal gloss]: Matt 15:3-6.

1097-1099hys olde . . . embrace: An explanatory appositive, with ‘embrace’ grammatically parallel to ‘worshyp’: ‘they must worshyp the beast, . . . [i.e., they must] hys olde and abolyshed Religion . . . and hys woren Romyshe trashe . . . embrace.’

vernyshed: varnished

sette by: esteemed

greene bowes: newly budded or blossoming boughs

pike: pick

stewes: brothels

good: this colloquial use of good is an empty commendation, and can even be mildly depreciative, as here.

vittaylers: innkeepers

haunted: frequented

Ephe. 4. [marginal gloss]: Eph 4:17-9.

gibets: gallows

Psal. 79. [marginal gloss]: Since van der Noot tends to employ the Vulgate numbering for the Psalms in the glosses here in the early pages of the commentary, we take this to be a reference to Ps 80:6, which treats of the laughter of the enemies of Israel. Yet there are several glosses, largely concentrated in later parts of the Commentary, that seem to emply the Masoretic numbering, and Ps 79:2-3, with its image of the godly transformed into carrion, may be the intended reference.

diners: dinners

conuersation: The term can have its modern sense or a more encompassing sense of ‘behaviour’; cf. 1987, 2035, 2863, 2877, 3277, and esp. 2985.

intreated: treated

woode: frenzied, insane

1143-1145B. Cornelis the Hisper . . . Hollande: Cornelius Adriensen (1521-1581), a Franciscan monk and anti-Reformation preacher, earned the nickname ‘hisper’, or ‘flagellator’, by dint of his practice of whipping women associated with his order in Bruges, this as an adjunct to the disciplines of confession and penance. Adriensen’s activities are described in Emanuel van Meteren’s history of the Low Countries, Historia Belgica, first published in 1597.

cloutes: cloths

1150-1179And it was permitted . . . ordinaunces: Cf. Bale (Image, Bilde, Gg3r). Van der Noot skips a long section in Bale devoted to the suppression of scriptural reading and the censorship of reformed commentary in England (Image, 218-27; Bilde, Ff1r-Gg1r). He also skips Bale’s gloss on Rev 13:13-14 (Image, 227-38; Bilde, GG1v-2r) and instead turns directly to Bale’s gloss on Rev 13:15, the first few sentences of which he abridges here.

straightly: straitly

stand to: stand by

1189-1190greased . . . baptism): At ordination priests were anointed with chrism (for which, see 884n.) on the palm of their hands. Since chrism is used as part of baptism, as a secondary anointing that follows baptism by water (which itself follows a first anointing with consecrated, but unscented olive oil, ‘oil of the catechumens’), the use of chrism in ordination was sometimes represented as a second baptism.

1192-1199Moreouer . . . christian: Van der Noot moves from an attack on ordination, with its ‘greasing’, to a broader assault on the sacramental force of confirmation. Chrism was used not only for a second anointing at baptism and at the ordination of priests, but also at adult confirmation and at the ordination of bishops. Like bishops, adult confirmands were anointed on the forehead. Van der Noot’s device here is to mobilize what he seems to regard as settled anti-episcopal sentiment to undermine confirmation itself, the protestant opposition to which was less firm.

graffed: fixed, grafted

pledge: guarantee

shrifts: acts of confession to a priest

buried . . . coat: Alluding to the privilege accorded to Third Order or Secular Franciscans, to be buried in Franciscan burial habit. In England the Franciscans were often referred to as ‘the Grey Friars.’

Pater nosters and Aue Maries: The Pater noster is the ‘Lord’s prayer’ (‘Our Father’); the Ave Maria is a special prayer to the Virgin mary (‘Hail Mary’).

1211-1213to obserue, . . . and to haue no regarde to the Pope: The emendation brings the clause closer to the sense of the Dutch original: ‘onderhouden wilt . . . sonder sijn toevlucht te nemen tot den Paus’ (‘to maintain, . . . without recourse to the Pope’; Het Theatre, G3v).

to haue no regarde to: to hold in no esteem

Caracterem indelebilem: We emend on the authority of Het Theatre, G3v. The Roman church taught that the three sacraments in which chrism was used conferred an indelible spiritual mark by which the anointed Christian shared in Christ’s priesthood.

occupie: take possession of

peuish: foolish, spiteful

Math. 21. . . Iohn. 26. [marginal glosses]: Matt 21:12, Mark 11:5, Luke 19:45, John 2:14-16. We emend the glosses concerning Luke and John in accordance with the apt readings in Le théatre.

serch of: search for, inquiry into

to the entent that: so

1230-1231But al those . . . gospel: The syntax of Het Theatre differs at this juncture: ‘ende alle die eenen grouwel van het Pausdom hebben, ende den Heere navolghen ende aenhanghen’ (‘and all who have a loathing for the Papacy, and follow and cleave unto the Lord’; G4r). The English and French texts seem to derive from a different version of the passage, perhaps carelessly revised: both are missing the coordinating conjunction (‘ende den Heere’), both include a reference to the Gospel, and both employ a parenthetical that, as printed in the English version, disrupts the English sentence. We relieve the syntactic difficulty represented by the printed English text by adopting the participial construction witnessed in the French version: ‘Mais tous ceux, qui (ayans horreur de la Papauté) ensuiuent & embrassent Iesu Christ & son sainct Euangile’ (‘But all those who (having a horror of the Papacy) follow and embrace Jesus Christ and his holy Gospel’; H3v)

incontinent: immediately

1242-1253Therefore . . . and rule: Van der Noot seems here to be drawing on ‘De nomine bestiae’ (‘On the Name of the Beast’), chapter 38 of a compilation of scholia on Revelation (e.p. 1535) by Arethas (‘Aretes’), the early 10th-c Archbishop of Caesarea.

cast ouer: reckon

hold for: esteem as

1251three Kings: Alluding to Dan 7:24.

Theatre, Het Theatre, and Le théatre all print ζ as the final digit, although it has the value of 7; ϛ is the Greek numeral for 6.

1255-1257Latinos . . . Irene: In his Contra Haereses (5.30), Irenaeus notes that the numerical value of ΛΑΤΕΙΝΟΣ (‘Lateinos’; Latin speaker) is 666.

Latinists: Latin speakers

of a truthe: in truth

behalf: respect

falsly . . . translation: It is unclear why van der Noot objects to attributing the Vulgate translation to Jerome.

1272-1280This number . . . agaynst him: Cf. Bale (Image, 238-9; Bilde, Hh2v-3v). Bale’s numerology (technically, isopsephy) draws on a variety of ancient sources; he may be drawing on a late thirteenth-century pseudo-Aquinan commentary on Revelation, In beati Joannis Apocalysim expositio. Because of what seems to have been a mistransmission in Bilde (Hh3r) of ‘Arnume’ in Bale’s Image, all versions of the Theatre commentary print ‘Aruine’, as we do here and at 1292.

sonne: sun

Nemroth: i.e. Nimrod, Gen 10:8.

1280-1298Some expositors . . . father the pope: Cf. Bale (Image, 239; Bilde, Hh3v-4v).

Lux: Another transmissional error in Bilde, where Bale’s ‘Dic Lux’ (‘Say “Light”’) is rendered ‘Die Lux’ has obscured the numerology.

1282-1283as they . . . the lyghte: Roest seems to struggle with his source here. The sense of the Dutch is straightforward (and is rendered clearly in the French of Le théatre): dat sij hun seluen het licht . . . noemen (‘that they call themselves “the light”).

Aruine: A transmissional error; see 1272-80n.

1300-1312I saw >(sayth . . . or whatsoeuer: Cf. Bale (Image, 286; Bilde, Qq5v).

Reuel. 17 [marginal gloss]: Rev 17:3.

Reuel. 2.14 [marginal gloss]: Our emendation recovers the references in Het Theatre, ‘Apo. 2, 14.’ (G5v), mistransmitted in the English version. The intended references supplement the chief account of the Whore of Babylon at Rev 17, Rev 2:20-1, on Jezebell, and Rev 14:8, on the fall of Babylon, who makes all nations drink the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

2. Thess. 2.: [marginal gloss]: 2 Thess 2:1-12.

1314-1319 Here van der Noot breaks in on Bale to reflect on his own service as an alderman in Antwerp.

that this: that neither this

1324-1329to the knowledge . . . sight of God: Both Het Theatre and Le théatre are clearer at this juncture, albeit less expansive. Thus the Dutch reads ‘ende my ghebrocht heeft onder syne heylighe Ghemeynte, die hem ende sijn eere wt goeder herten soecken, hoe wel sij vander werelt veracht ende verdreuen worden’ (and wrought me among his holy Congregation, who seek him and his glory with good hearts, however much they are despised and hounded through the world; G6r).

whole: entirely

1329-1372This beaste is whole . . . doings are.: Cf. Bale (Image, Bilde, Qq5v-Qq7r). As part of his general program of updating Bale and muting the local English concerns of the Image, Van der Noot excises Bale’s obscene account of Tunstall’s panting service to the Whore of Babylon.

She: still referring to ‘This beast’ (1329): Roest has carried the grammatical gender of ‘beeste’ over from the Dutch.

Iack an Apes: ostentatious, impudent. Used depreciatively for someone who puts on airs (and often written as a single word, Jackanapes), the name is used adjectively here.

1340-1341mattins . . . Placebo: Most reformed churches removed the Ave Maria from a range of daily prayer services, not only from mattins. Lutherans replaced the Marian Salve regina with a Christocentric Salve Rex. Funeral vespers, performed on the eve of burial, were often referred to as Placebo, the prayer with which this service commenced (just as funeral mattins were known as Dirige, with which word that service began.

purple: Both the Dutch and French versions indicate that the woman is clothed in purple and rose-red. Roest.

coapes: copes

corporal: cloth on which consecrated elements are placed during mass, also used to cover the remnants of those elements after the conclusion of the mass. The singular form, acceptable in this context, appears only in state 3 of the forme, which has preferable readings for all other variants, but it may be observed that both Het Theatre and Le théatre give the plural forms at this juncture: corporalen (G6v) and caporaux (H6r).

staues: Depending on his jurisdiction, the bishop’s staff of office supports either a crook or a cross.

crimosin: crimson

1350-1351and aboue . . . holinesse: Counterfeit piety and show of holiness are a final trumpery.

pampred vp: The modern sense of pampering obtains here. The primary sense in the sixteenth century involves lavish feasting, but both Het Theatre and Le théatre focus on elaborate ornament.

The difficult phrase, they looke for nothyng lesse may best be rendered ‘there is nothing for which they are less inclined.’ The Dutch and French versions of the passage more clearly reflect Bale’s original assertion that the wicked clergy are more interested in imitating the splendid outward appearance of statues of the apostles than in imitating the example of their life or ‘conuersation’ (Het Theatre, G6v; Le théatre, H6r-H6v). On the more encompassing sense of ‘conuersation’ see 1135n.

2. Tim. 4. . . . 2. Cor. 3. [marginal glosses]: 2 Tim 4:3-4, 2 Thess 2:9, and 2 Tim 3:1-9. We emend the the first of these glosses in accordance with the readings in Het Theatre and Le théatre. Col 2:4-18, Heb 10:1-11, Rom 2:8-9 and 21-3, 2 Cor 3:6-11.

1371-1372the bare letter, and onely name: i.e., the letter without the spirit, Scripture in name only.

1373-1399And in hir forhead . . . horrible impietie: Cf. Bale (Image, 288-9; Bilde, Qq8v-Rr2r).

naughty: wicked

the towne of the Chaldees: Babylon

Reuel. 17. . . . Rom. 2. [marginal gloss]: Rev 17:5-6, Ps 86:14-5, John 4:21-4, Rom 2:19-24.

of murther: by [the] murder

called of: called by

1401-1437It is no meruaile . . . confidence in it: Cf. Bale (Image, Bilde, Qq3r).

1407-1408sitteth . . . waters: Rev 17:15.

fetches: tricks

plackets: placards, decrees

without: outside, in neglect of

prescript: prescribed

nusled: Nurtured, accustomed. Most frequently used to describe programs of training designed to corrupt the young or credulous, the word was frequently employed in religious polemics to describe the sinister practices of other religions or sects.

fonde: foolish

1434-1435stockes . . . it: The phrase stocks and stones, proverbial for ‘idols’, was a formula so well-established that Roest uses it here as if it were singular. For a comparable failure of agreement, cf. 1588-9.

for it foloweth: The phrase gestures towards the defeat of the Whore and the Beast in the narration that ensues.

1438-1516The .x. horns . . . abhomination of that Antechrist: Cf. Bale (Image, 298-300; Bilde, Ss7v-Tt2r).

Esay. 45. . . . Reuel. 17. [marginal glosses]: Isa 45:16, Bar 6:3-5, Jer 2:27, Rev 17:12 (we emend the reference to Rev, following the reading in Le théatre).

light: unchaste

frameth . . . to: undertakes to provide for

mislike: dislike

vnlawfull: improper, disorderly

meaning: seeking to protect

health: We emend here with Le theatre as our authority. Roest is translating ‘salut’.

fainednesse: deceitfulness

by the meanes: by means

passe vpon: concern themselves with

vsages: customary behavior

obeisaunce: obedience

not Princes only . . . but Kings: The phrasing suggests a desire to emphasize the relevance of Noot’s prophecy to the specificities of the English context. The French source is clearer, and offers a different structure of inclusiveness: ‘Ce seront point seullement les Magistratz et Seigneurs seculiers, comme Rois et Gouverneurs des Pays, mais encore les Metropolitains . . .’ (‘It will not only be Magistrates and secular Lords, such as Kings and Governors of countries, but also Metropolitains . . .’; I1).

Metropolitanes: officers of the Church who preside over an entire ecclesiastical province

Of which, many ensamples: ‘Of which, many examples [of secular and ecclesiastical magistrates who have turned against the Whore]’

albeit . . . withal: ‘notwithstanding that they were the horns of the Beast, by means of which it defends the Whore’

naked: The nakedness of the Whore signifies both that her impostures have been exposed and that she has been repudiated and forsaken.

cleare trumpe: brilliant trumpet

that: so that

ready: referring to the trumpe.

1477-1479John Wicliffe, . . . Regius: The list of Reformation champions adapts Bale’s (Image, 299; Bilde, Ss8v), adding Wycliff, Hus, Beza, Viret, Peter Martyr, Alasco, and Regius and dropping Reuchlin, Erasmus, Pomeran, Grineus, and a variety of English reformers. Besides such familiar figures as Luther, Calvin, Melanchthon, and Zwingli, the list reaches back to Wycliffe, the fourteenth-century founder of the English Lollard movement who completed a translation of the New Testament shortly before his death, and to the Czech reformer, Jan Hus, a follower of Wycliffe who shard the English reformer’s anti-papal ecclesiology and his hostility to indulgences. The rest of the figures are all contemporaries or followers of Luther: Johannes Oecolampadius, an early champion of Luther and, as an assistant to Zwingli, a major force in the Swiss Reformation; Martin Bucer and Wolfgang Capito, the Zwinglian theologians who collaborated on the so-called Strasbourg or Tetrapolitan Confession; Theodore Beza, most important, perhaps, as Calvin’s successor as leader of the Genevan church, but also interesting to van der Noot, presumably, as Marot’s collaborator in the production of a French verse translation of the psalter; Pierre Viret, Beza’s early patron and one of the most popular reformed preachers in southern France and French-speaking Switzerland; the Italian theologian, Pietro Martire Vermigli, who at one time, like Bucer, Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford, and who ended his career in Zurich, having had a profound influence on Calvinist Eucharistic theology; Heinrich Bullinger, author of the Second Helvetic Confession, Zwingli’s successor in Zürich, and a figure of considerable influence in England; Johannes Alasco (Jan Łaski), sometime superintendent of the Strangers’ Church in London, who ended a career of striving to reconcile the breach between Calvinist and Lutheran communities as superintendent all the Reformed Churches of Little Poland; the Swabian controversialist and author of the Württemberg Confession, Johannes Brenz, whose contributions in matters of church polity and educational practice were as important to the development of Lutheranism as were his efforts in eucharistic theology; and Urban Rieger, a gifted Lutheran systematic theologian, whose career divides between positions in Augsburg and in Braunschweig.

Masses for all soules: Masses for those in purgatory, usually celebrated on 2 November. Luther began his attacks on masses for the dead as early as 1520, when he published his letter To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation; he preached a sermon to the same effect on All Soul’s Day of 1522 (Luthers Werke, 10-3:409-10).

cry out vpon: inveigh against

temporal: secular

confound: confute, defeat

iudgement: interpretation

all to burne hir: burn her up

Decretalles, Canons: Although canons can refer generally to all the laws of the church, ecclesiastical law is sometimes described as made up of canons, ecclesiastical laws promulgated by the early Councils of the Church, and decretals, papal letters communicating pontifical legal decisions.

paternitie: The right to be addressed (and respected) as ‘father.’

1503-1509This kind . . . foretold: These sentences muddy the sense transmitted in Le théatre: “Ce mangement de chair, et ceste maniere de bruler non seulement sont declarés par epreuves ou evenemens exterieurs (comme de nostre temps il est advenu en plusieurs lieux à beaucoup de Moines, Prétres, qui estant levés pour l’Eglise Romaine, ont defailly et esté tués: et encore seront, non plus ne moins, que les sacrificateurs de Baal furent occis par Elie, aupres de la riviere Ryson [sic]) mais encore spirituellement par un mystere, de ce qu’a esté predit” (Iii; ‘This consumption of the flesh, and this manner of burning are not only demonstrated by external proofs and events [as, in our time, has befallen many monks and priests in several places who, having bestirred themselves on behalf of the Roman Church, were overthrown and killed, and as will equally befall others, exactly as the priests of Baal were slain by Elijah, by the river Rison], but are also manifest spiritually, by means of a mystery concerning that which has been foretold.’). The basic opposition between the external evidences of divine consumption visited upon the defenders of the Roman Church and the more mysterious spiritual forms of that consumption is difficult to trace in the English version.

proues: proofs

Kison: We emend here, although the errant reading in 1569, ‘Rison,’ originates in Het Theatre (‘Ryſon’; H2v), van der Noot having misapprehended the first letter of ‘Kyson’ in de Coninck, Bilde (Tt1v) and having also filed to recognize the reference to the brook of 1 Kings 18:40.

For the Foules, . . . hir flesh.: Rev 19:17-18; not in Bale.

giuen . . . to accomplishe: provided . . . for the achievement of

1516-1595After all these manifold . . . bonde of peace: Cf. Bale (Image, 300-1; Bilde, Tt4v-7v).

Reuel. 18.: Rev 18:1

in the .vj. Chapter: This angel is first mentioned at Rev 5:2. although ‘the Angell which had the seale of the living God’ is thus designated only at Rev 7:2. Rev 6 narrates the opening of the first six seals; the seventh seal is opened at the beginning of Rev 8.

Reue. 10. . . . Esay. 9. 10.[marginal glosses]: Rev 10:1 and John 1:6, 3:34, Acts 13:2, Mark 3:14-15, Acts 8:5 and 9-10, Rom 12:3 and 8, John 6:26-71, Isa 11:2, 9:2, and 10:17.

enuironed: surrounded, enveloped

published: proclaimed

to: on behalf of, in the interest of

light of: shining with

hie minded: haughty

Iohn. 16. [marginal gloss]: John 16:11, It may be noted that both Dutch and French versions provide a reference to John 12, and John 12:31 is certainly apt.

1539-1540the destruction . . . an end: Referring to the destruction of Jerusalem, including the Second Temple, in 70 CE.

seruice: religious obligation

Luke. 19. [marginal gloss]: Luke 19:44.

to be come: Roest’s rendering is less clear than the phrasing in Het Theatre and Le théatre: van der Noot assures the believers that they may be as confident of ‘iudgement to come’ as of the earlier destruction of the Temple.

place: The term refers to the textual locus in Revelation, alleged here to anticipate the recent destruction of the material temples of the Catholic Church.

haling: tearing apart

make your accompts: expect

1552a dwelling place: Here and in the following sentences, ‘dwelling’ has a hint of obscenity; see, esp. 1562. ‘hir dwelleth the adulterous Bishops, etc.’

Esay. 22. [marginal gloss]: Isa 22:1-14.

seuen for one: The seven heads of the beast are here construed as signifying a present multiplication of the Whore’s prior evil.

Actes. 8. . . . Gene. 18.19. [marginal glosses]: Acts 8:18-19, Gal 5:19-21, Eph 5:3-5, Gen 18 and 19.

sauegard: Although the figurative sense seems to be, roughly, a sanctuary, the term is usually reserved for abstract forms of protection or for legal instruments to protect the vulnerable.

Esay. 34. [marginal gloss]: Isa 34:11-15.

gasing: In early usage, the emphasis often falls on idle, emptily curious looking: cf. Ecclus. 9:7 ‘Go not about gazing in the streates of the citie’.

folish: foolish

stewes: brothels

ioyne and declare: append an exposé of

1575that great . . . ruffian: Referring to the pope. Ruffian was often used with the specific sense of ‘pimp’.

corners: out-of-the-way places

riggish and lecherous prelates.: Here both the Dutch and French versions insert an adapted version of a sonnet decrying contemporary Roman debauchery. The sonnet appears later in an adapted form in George Thomson’s La chasse de la beste romaine (1611, A6), addressed to Du Bellay.

riggish: promiscuous

kinreds: families, races

seely: innocent

narowly searched: meticulously sought

it: Another instance in which Roest uses ‘it’ to refer to plural referents.

Psalm. 13. . . . Eze. 17. [marginal glosses]: Ps 14:3, Jer 3:9, Ezek 16:16-21, Hosea 2, Rev 18:3, Isa 54:10, Ezek 17:19.

1601-1833and shed very . . . any more: See Bale (Image, 309-17; Bilde, Tt7v-Xx2r). Van der Noot imitates Bale freely here, sometimes expanding and sometimes condensing.

Luke. 16., Rom. 4. [marginal glosses]: Luke 16:31, Rom 14:12. We emend the reference to Romans in accordance with the gloss in Het Theatre.

factors: commercial agents

1607-1610Oile . . . butter. etc.: A compendium of practices and material objects to which, the reformers claimed, Catholics wrongfully attribute an instrumental spiritual efficacy. For oil and cream, see 884n and The use of blessed salt as an adjunct to baptism, as a sacramental, that is, as an incitement to piety, and as an instrumental for sanctifying a room or threshold was notorious, since, even for Catholics, it seemed to occupy a grey area of the magical, the not-quite sacred. ‘Waxe’ may refer to the large Paschal candle lit during the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday or to another sacramental, like blessed salt or the blessed ‘palms’ often distributed to the faithful on Palm Sunday: the waxen sacramental is the Agnus Dei, a wax disk (sometimes fabricated of wax mixed with chrism) on which is impressed the image of a lamb, the Lamb of God; the papal arms are often impressed on the reverse of these disks, which are blessed by the pope. Holy ‘Ashes’ are another sacramental, strewn on the head or marked on the forehead of believers on Ash Wednesday, are traditionally produced by burning the ‘Palmes’ used in the Palm Sunday processions of the previous year.

All which: That is, marriage or the eating of flesh, eggs, butter, etc.

Ringing of Belles: See 560n.

Warrennes: game preserves

maidens: Young female attendants. From the broad range of possible meanings for the term, context suggests that it here indicates female members of a household who are neither daughters to the ‘honest’ householder nor recognized as servants.

first . . . tenths: We emend here, for Roest seems to have garbled the phrase, ‘first fruits and tenths’ (or the less common, but correct alternative, ‘first fruits and the tenths’). Until the early C, the ordaining bishop collected a tax on English clerical benefices consisting of the first year’s revenue and a tenth of the revenue in all subsequent years. In 1305, Clement V laid papal claim to these first fruits and tenths and in 1534, Henry VIII arrogated the tax to the English crown.

Collects: A collect is a short prayer, often a single sentence, addressed by the congregation to a specific person of the Trinity and petitioning for a single, if general benefit.

liuings: benefices

Couents: convents

passe: surpass

But they haue their rewarde . . . gnashing of teeth.: Not in Bale.

Math. 6. . . . Esay.52.[marginal gloss]: Matt 6:1-5, 1 Esd 2:5, Gen 19:12-13, Isa 52:1-2.

hir: the Whore

Caldee: Chaldea

Lothe: Lot

Nicolaites, and Balaamites: The Nicolaites (or Nicolaitans) were an early Christian sect that seems to have practiced clerical marriage; they are mentioned in Rev 2:6 and 15. Some ancient writers attribute antinomian moral behavior, especially sexual license to the Nicolaites. At Rev 2:14, the Balaamites are accused of fornication and of consuming food sacrificed to idols.

loden: laden

the same: the church

Bertrandus Herebaldus: An almost comical instance of unfaithful transmission: a corruption of ‘Bertrandus, Herebaldus’ in de Coninck, Bilde (Vv2), itself a corruption of ‘Bertramus, Herebaldus’ in Bale’s Image (311). A treatise on the Eucharist arguing against the doctrine of transubstantiation was printed in 1531 and attributed to Bertramus, although the treatise is actually the work of a ninth-century theologian by the name of Ratramnus. Similar errors of transmission appear elsewhere in this list.

1686-1690Many godly . . . churche: The passage, which derives from Bale’s Image, presents a summary account of the Reformation that features the sponsorship of ecclesiastical reform by secular rulers, acting through councils of the clergy. The phrase, ‘generall Counsels’ affiliates the modern German reformation councils with the ecumenical (meaning ‘universal’) councils of the fourth through ninth centuries, the first seven of which were convened by the then Roman emperors.

letted them of: hindered them in

Apoc. 18. . . . . 1. Corin. 4. [marginal gloss]: Rev 18:5, Gen 19:12-13, Matt 5:39-41 and 10:17-18, John 16:2, 1 Cor 4:10-19.

narowly: closely

Crie vpon: Cry out against

the double: twofold

for . . . euerlasting: In punishment for temporal (i.e. finite, historical) evils, everlasting ones.

euen . . . euerlastingnesse: Even as there is no comparison between a short time and, on the one hand, no time or, on the other, eternity.

crauings: humble petitions

Whiche . . . dignities: That is, the ‘holy kynde of priesthode’ (1738) and the ‘royall maiestie and highnesse’ (1740-1).

1743-1744pleasaunt Euphrates: The phrase derives from Bale’s Image [Chapt 18] and may serve awkwardly to link (and contrast) the Babylonian whoredom and the pleasures of Eden, through which the Euphrates flows, the largest of the four rivers of Paradise.

wherewithall: by means of which

Esay. 47. . . . Math. 16. [marginal glosses]: Isa 47:7, Matt 11:27, 28:18, and 16:19, this latter the passage in which Jesus confers the keys of the kingdom on Simon Peter, an endowment on which claims to papal authority were often based.

Nero . . . Maxence: See the slightly longer list of imperial persecutors of the early Christians at 466-7.

faggot: A bundle of sticks used for fuel. Fire and faggot was the proverbial weapon against religious dissidence.

Deut. 8. [marginal gloss]: Deut 8:19-20.

After thys sorte: In this fashion

stick: stand opposed

once: at one particular future time

Gen. 19. . . . Deut. 10. [marginal glosses]: Gen 19:1-28, Ex 9:23-26, Ps 11:6, Col 3:3, Matt 24:51, Mark 9:46, Matt 25:41, Ps 50:3, Rom 3:4, Dan 5, Lev 10:1-2, Deut 10:17. We emend the reference to Deut to conform the reading in Theatre to that in Het Theatre and Le théatre. It may be observed that the two glosses referring to Psalms seem to employ the Masoretic numbering preferred by many of the reformers and not, as in most of the earlier glosses in Theatre, the Vulgate numbering; this may indicate that, at this juncture, van der Noot was guided by some catena or other reference work that differs from his usual source or sources.

theyr worme . . . die: Mark 9:48, citing Isa 66-24.

1786-1791Neither . . . hearde: Drawing heavily on iconographic tradition, Bale here asserts the spiritual inconsequence of the intercessory culture of the Roman church.

1796-1816against God and hys saincts . . . on this maner: Although van der Noot continues to follow Bale here, he condenses and rearranges quite freely in this section.

frame: dispose

of: for

Reuel. 18. [marginal glosses]: Rev 18:9-10.

rude: simple, inelegant

principall . . . dayes: The Principal Feasts of the liturgical calendar

prick song: formally composed (‘written’) music

sword of his mouth: Van der Noot here turns to Rev 19:15.

2. Thess. 2. [marginal glosses]: 2 Thess 2:8 refers to the oral potency of Jesus. For the power of the divine mouth cf. Isa 11:14.

ashes: On ashes as a sacramental, see 1607-10n. In many congregations, holy ashes are given to the faithful to carry home with them on Ash Wednesday.

Mahometistes: Mohammedans, Muslims

nothing set by: held in no esteem

Scala cœli: At the church of Scala Coeli outside of Rome, St. Bernard is said to have had a vision while celebrating a requiem of ascending by ladder from Purgatory to Heaven; on this legend was founded an indulgence for masses held at the church. In 1476 masses at St. Mary Undercroft, Westminster, was similarly indulgenced, as was the Scala Coeli chapel in Westminster Abbey, in 1500 or shortly thereafter. In the course of the next two decades the practice spread to several more chapels across England.

Annuaries: Annuary sometimes designates a mass commemorating the anniversary of a death and sometimes a mass said daily in the year following a death.

1839-1841All whiche . . . trifles.: Het Theatre condenses its source clumsily, whereas the copy for Le théatre and Theatre hews more closely to De Coninck’s translation of Bale’s Image. Still, Roest’s rendering is clumsy compared to that of Le théatre, which itself blunts Bale’s far clearer original (and De Coninck): ‘Far diverse are these in their markets from the usage of other occupiers in the world, for whereas they sell their wares but once and look no more for them again, these sell them every day and yet retain them still. And whereas they[i.e., ‘the other occupiers in the world’] sell the very wares indeed, these sell no more but the sight, the sound, and the shadow’ (Image, 323).

1842-1867And euery Shippe maister . . . she is fallen: Cf. Bale (Image, 324-5; Bilde, Yy3v-Yy5r).

1844-1846all Bishops . . . people: The awkward chain of transmission for a difficult passage in Image has obscured Bale’s comparison of church officials as sailors who navigate the unsteady ‘wavering [i.e. wavelike] multitude’ (Image, 324-5).

Ordinaries: Ordinary designates a form of ecclesiastical jurisdiction often used, as here, as a category of ecclesiastical office. Distinguished from delegated jurisdiction which is conferred by a superior church authority, ordinary jurisdiction ‘comes with’ particular ecclesiastical offices.

Massing: occupied with saying mass

attendance giuen vpon: attended upon, assiduously served

vnderstanding: intellect

Gen. 4. . . . Math. 26. [marginal glosses]: Gen 4:10-3, Gen 27, Ex 8-12, Matt 26:47-50.

1868-1893The apples . . . dangerous wayes.: Cf. Bale (Image, 321-2; Bilde, Xx8r-Yy1r).

haue to do: have anything to do

where as: whereas

men plesers: sycophants

Math. 6. . . . 2. Tim. 4 [marginal glosses]: Matt 6:1-16, Gal 1:6-10, 1 Tim 4:1-7, 2 Tim 4:3-4.

Canonists: specialists in canon law

Sorbonists: scholars at the Sorbonne

1. Tim. 3., 1. Tim. 5. [marginal glosses]: 1 Tim 3:2-5, 1 Tim 5:17-20.

1893-1903These grosse . . . one houre.: Picking up detail of the merchants’ corpulence from Image (Image, Cc4v Bilde, Yy1v), van der Noot proceeds to conclude this section by appropriating the conclusion of the lament of the shipmen at Image, 325; Bilde, Yy4r-4v.

The .14. vision: Van der Noot is counting from the first of DuBellay’s sonnets.

.14.: fourteenth

heauinesse: sorrow

remember of: remember

1904-2013I Saw the heauens open . . . euerlasting fire: Cf. Bale (Image, 337-41; Bilde, AA6r-BB3r). Unusually, the marginal gloss at specifies chapter and verse, whereas elsewhere in the Theatre glosses, the period is used to separate references to distinct chapters.

Esay. 66. . . . Math. 11.12. [marginal glosses]: Isa 66:1, Wisd of Sol 1:7-11, Matt 11:25 and 13:11. We emend the references to Wisd of Sol and Matt, following the reading in Het Theatre.

1. Corin. 1. [marginal gloss]: 1 Cor 1:5. We emend to accord the gloss with that in Het Theatre.

Math. 16. . . . Psalm. 51. [marginal glosses]: Matt 16:16, Acts 9:20, Ps 145:17, Ps 51:14; here, as at 1778 and 1784, van der Noot employs Masoretic references to Psalms.

a right . . . a trouth: rightly . . . truthfully

Rom. 9. . . . Iohn. 16. [marginal glosses]: Rom 9:1, John 14:6, and 16:13.

indued: imbued

in his owne persone: Van der Noot insists on Christ’s personal heroism. The phrasing also glances at the fact that the Son fought, as man, without the assistance of the other persons of the Trinity. Cf. below.

Psal. 23. . . . Aba. 3. [marginal gloss]: Ps 24:8, John 16:33, 1 Cor 15:25-28 and 57, John 12:16, Hab 3:8 and 15.

sendeth: conveys, communicates

vnderstanded: understood, meant

Traditionally there are seven gifts of the Holy Ghost -- wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord -- distinguished in the prophecy of Isa 11:2-3. 1 Cor 12:8-10 provides a different list, of ten such gifts.

Zach. 3., 1. Cor. 10. [marginal glosses]: Zech 3:9 and 1 Cor 10:4. (Our emendation recovers the chapter reference in Het theatre.)

lighten: illumine

Psal. 119. . . . Eccle. 49. [marginal gloss]: Ps 119:105, Ezra Ecclus 49:12.

set: Syntactic context and the example of the rendering in Le théatre (‘establi’; K5v) suggest this emendation of the nonsensical reading in 1569.

1. Peter. 1. . . . Iames.1. [marginal glosses]: 2 Pet 1:4 and 2 Tim 4:7-8, Rev 2:10, James 1:12,. Following Het Theatre, we emend to make reference to Peter’s second epistle, although 1 Pet 5:4 is also relevant to van der Noot’s conspectus of the crowns of the spirit.

Sabaoth: Hosts (Heb.)

Math. 16. . . . Colloss. 1. [marginal gloss]: Matt 16:16-17, Matt 16:20, 1 Cor 12:3, Isa 63:1-3, Isa 53:5, and Matt 8:17, 1 Pet 2:24, John 1:1-2, Eph 3:9-11, Ps 33:6, Heb 1:1-2, 10, Col 1:15-18. Once again, van der Noot gives a reference to Psalms using the Masoretic numbering.

rayed: smeared (as with fæces), defiled

stripes: whip-marks

guid: guide

Iohn. 1. . . . Rom. 6. [marginal gloss]: John 1:14, Col 3:5, Gal 5:16-7, Rom 6:18.

1992-1993suche . . . vision.: See 2 Kings 6:12-17.

2. Cor. 10. [marginal gloss]: 2 Cor 10:3-4.

after the flesh: in a fleshly manner, carnally

mighty . . . to: sufficiently mighty to

holds: strongholds

sauor: i.e. savour

sauor: We emend on the warrant of the Dutch (‘reuck’; Het Theatre, I6v) and French versions (‘odeur’; Le théatre, K6v); Le théatre provides the full scriptural reference, 2. Cor 2:16, as a marginal gloss.

cut of: cut off

Iohn. 15., 1. Corin. 5. [marginal glosses]: John 15:2, 1 Cor 5-6 (on the need to avoid companying with the wicked).

Math. 24., Psal. 2. 45. [marginal glosses]: We might emend here, adopting the reference of the gloss in Het Theatre, since the division of the sheep and goats is prophesied in Matt 25:31-2, but Matthew’s account of the last judgment begins in chapter 24 with a set of relevant discriminations: between false and true Christs, false and true prophets, the two laborers in the field and two women at the mill, the faithful and evil servant. Neither do we adopt the reference to Psalm 1 in Het Theatre, for Ps 2:9 evokes God’s punitive sceptre. Ps adresses God’s wrath against the raging kingdoms.

Mat. 25. [marginal gloss]: Matt 25:41.

comfortable: consoling

2016-2021For he it is . . . things are set.: Cf. Bale (Image, 341; Bilde, BB4r).

Esay. 63. [marginal gloss]: Isa 63:3.

2021-2101And I saw an Angell . . . slayne at Basan.: Cf. Bale (Image, 342-4; Bilde, BB5v-8v).

cleare: lustrous, shining

Mal. 4. . . . Philip. 3. [marginal glosses]: Mal 4:2, Rev 22:16, Heb 10:22, 1 Cor 10:4, Rom 8:35, Isa 55:1-5, Prov 1:20, James 1:21, Isa 51:6-9, Phil 3:20-21.

conuersation: behaviour, manner of being

Gen. 11.12. . . . Colloss.3. [marginal glosses]: Gen 11:31 and and 10, Ex 19:3,1 Kings 18:41-45, Dan 6:2-23, Acts 9:8-25, Rev 1:9, Eph 4:3, and Col 3:14-15.

Phil. 4. . . . Esay. 64. [marginal gloss]: Phil 4:7, 1 Cor 2:9, Isa 64:4.

Rom. 13. . . . 1. Peter. 5. [marginal glosses]: These three chapters share a concern with the mutual responsibilities of superiors and subordinates, with special emphasis in 1 Pet 5, on superiors and subordinates within the church. Peter warns the church elders against improper motives (1 Pet 5:2); in the early verses of Rom 13, Paul urges the submission of subordinates, but is more threatening in Eph 6, alluding to the struggles against vicious worldly superiors and spiritual princes (Ephes 6:12).

stomacks: One of the seats of passion (cf. ‘hearts’, 2059), the stomach is especially associated with pride.

loftie stomacks: ambitions

Regard: esteem

checke: oppose, strike

Grashoppers: Cf. 600.

Math. 24. . . . Psal. 67 [marginal glosses]: Matt 24:28, Luke 17:37, Ps 2:10, 1 Cor 7:2, Rom 13:1-2, 7, 1 Pet 2:13-18, Eph 5:22-25, Col 3:20-4.1, Ezek 39:18, Ps 68:23.

vnaduisedly: incautiously

commens: common people

friendable: amiable

Weathers: wethers, rams

catchpols: tax-collectors, petty officers

peculiare: Can mean both ‘special’ and belonging to someone (in this case, to Christ).

2109-2113They seeke . . . against Christ: Not in Bale.

2101-2126And I saw the Beast . . . leude Prelats: Cf. Bale (Image, Bilde, CC1r-2r).

2117-2118For . . . offence: Besides the marginal reference to Luke for Christ as the sign of contradiction, Het Theatre and Le théatre provide a reference to 1 Pet 2[:7] Christ as the stone of offence.

Ma. 27. . . . Actes. 24. [marginal glosses]: Matt 27:1-26, John 18, Acts 24. We emend, correcting the chapter reference to Acts.

leude: base, ignorant

2126-2197The conspectus of contemporary persecutions departs from Bale’s Image.

2130-2132after he . . . the riuer: Wycliff died in 1384; in 1428 at the order of of the Council of Constance, his bones were disinterred and burnt, the ashes cast into the River Swift.

Constance, <had not the wickedness of the prelates>: Roest’s translation is defective here, omitting specification of a condition for Sigismund’s violation of his promise. Versions of this condition are provided in both Het Theatre (‘hadden hem die boose Prelaten daer niet toe ghedronghen’ [‘had not those angry prelates driven him to it’]; K2r) and Le théatre (‘si la mauvaitie des Prelas ne l’eut contraint à ce faire’ [‘had he not been forced to it by the wickedness of the prelates’]; L1r). We base our conjectural emendation on the French text, to which Theatre usually coheres more closely.

2140-2145The minor adjustment in punctuation is meant to clarify the (most likely) logic of Roest’s substantial elaboration of van der Noot’s survey of contemporary northern Europe: the efforts to defeat the Gospel in Germany are ‘manifest’; ‘we have seene and see’ the efforts to deface the Gospel here in England; and they (the godly) ‘dayly at this instant feele’ the cruel tyranny that they (the prelates) ‘shewe in France’.

such: That is, hidden.

astonied: astonished

haunted: visited

spiritual baudes and ruffians: Unspecific in reference, but meant to suggest the clerical equivalent of pimps and ruffians.

wist: knew

inuocated: invoked

securitie: complacent overconfidence

springing: vigorous

2181-2182Which . . . vp: ‘Thereafter, implementing the resolutions of their counsel, they restored themselves.’ The clause, with its difficult absolute construction, has no correlative in either Het Theatre or Le théatre.

2185-2187priuileages . . . innocents: For a comparable political history of the counter-reformation in the Low Countries, see A Defence and True Declaration of the Thinges Lately Done in the Lowe Countrey (1571), also printed by Day, and now attributed to Marnix van St. Aldegonde. A crucial theme in Marnix’s proto-republican account is the campaign against the authority of the Dutch Estates General, engineered by the Dominicans, but effected by the Spanish crown: ‘it was so prouided, and by the promises and couenantes of the princes them|selues confirmed with their othes it was so ordeined, that the princes should not decree or do anythyng to the preiudice of the peoples libertie or of the authoritie of their lawes without the will and assent the estates of the whole contrey’ (Defence, A7r-v).

othe: oath

declared at large of: recounted at length by

Psalm. 2. . . . Psalm. 59.a [marginal glosses]: Acts 2:35, Ps 2:1-4, Prov 1:26, Ps 37:12-13, and Ps 59:8. It may be worth noting that, at this juncture, the glosses in Het Theatre supplement biblical chapter references with literal subdivisions of biblical chapters (Act. 2. c., Pro 1.c.,Psal. 37.b., and -- as Theatre also reflects -- Psal. 59. a.), which suggests that van der Noot may have, in this particular instance, consulted a distinct source that compiled biblical references to laughter.

laugheth them to scorne: scoffs at them

2194-2195Let . . . many: ‘No matter how grievously they rage, no matter how many they murder and slay.’

Reue. 14. [marginal gloss]: Rev 14:13.

2197-2210the Lambe is strong . . . of those virgins: These lines draw variously from Bale (Image, 244, 245-6; Bilde, Hh6v-7r and Ii3v).

inexpugnable: impregnable

.44000.: We emend in accordance with Rev 7:4 and Het Theatre, K3r, although the error in 1569 is also evidenced in Le théatre and no doubt lies in the Dutch MS that stands behind both the English and French translations.

Psalm. 2. . . . Ephe. 4. [marginal glosses]: Ps 2:5-6, Matt 3:7-9, John 8:33-40, Rom 4:9-13, 2 Cor 1:22, Eph 1:11-13, Rom 9:11, Rev 14:1-4, and Eph 4.14. The anomalous reference to 2 Cor 2, which originates in Het Theatre, may mistransmit a reference to Rev 22:4, where it is said of the redeemed that ‘his Name shalbe in their forheades.’

predestinated: predestined

2210-2270for they iudge . . . vnchast chastitie: Van der Noot departs from his dependence on Bale here. Bale concentrates on the spiritual virginity of ideal marriage, whereas van der Noot’s address to marriage is somewhat less mystical. Even as he sustains a vigorous attack on the corrupt sexuality of the Roman clergy, he propounds a defense of right marriage as a moral and devotional practice.

Asmodeus, Beelsebub: The demon Asmodeus is especially associated with lust. Beelzebub less frequently has such particular associations, but is usually represented as a demon of great, but non-specific power: associated with Ba’al in the Hebrew Bible, Beelzebub is sometimes understood to be the supreme Devil, like Satan.

2 Thess. 2. [marginal gloss]: 2 Thess 2:4.

Maosim: See Dan 11:37-8 and 568n above.

Reuel. 13 [marginal gloss]: We emend the irrelevant reference to Rev 15, originating in Het Theatre and reproduced in our copy text; the prophecies of Thess 2 and Dan 11 are brought together at Rev 13:7-16.

graffed: grafted, implanted

prescript: prescribed

2241-2242Note the inversion of normal word order: neither Antichrist nor his greasy entourage has this kindness or love.

heart: affection

none: no wife

the rather: all the more

passing: caring

after theyr owne minde: according to their own taste

here hence: as a result

vse: are accustomed

queanes: prostitutes

2270-2276For what I pray you . . . S. Paule testifieth: Cf. Bale (Image, 246-7; Bilde, Ii4).

Heb. 13., Rom. 2.3. [marginal glosses]: These glosses have no equivalent in Het Theatre. Heb 13:4 pertains to the text at hand (as does nothing in Heb 3). The reference to Romans must be emended (since Rom contans no chapter 23); references to the reflections on circumcision at Rom 2:23-9 and 3:28-31 were clearly intended.

2. Cor. 12. [marginal gloss]: The gloss, which originates in Het Theatre, is unhelpful, since 2 Cor 12 has nothing to say of marriage or virginity; it may misrepresent a reference to 2 Cor 11:2.

The Lambe whyche . . . strong mounte Syon: Van der Noot recurs to Bale Image, 244 (Bilde, Hh6v-7r).

2279-2287the Dragon and . . . of the diuel: Cf. Bale (Image, 210-11; Bilde, Cc2r-2v).

chair: Perhaps carrying the secondary sense of ‘throne’. Het Theatre employs ‘stoel’ at this juncture (K5r), which likewise carries the primary sense of ‘chair’ and a secondary sense of ‘throne’.

2291-2308For it followeth . . . and false Prophetes: Cf. Bale (Image, 346; Bilde, CC2v-3v), deleting the discussion of Caiaphas.

hir: We emend, following Het Theatre (K5r) and Le théatre (L4v). It may be observed that the Dutch text employs an odd plural earlier in the sentence: ‘dese beeste met al heur valscheyt niet en sullen moghen staende blijuen’ (‘this beast with all its falsehood will be unable to remain standing’ -- a plural construction, suggesting the fragility of both the Beast and her falsehood). The translation in Le théatre employs a singular construction; Roest’s English, ‘can neuer abyde long,’ is unspecific as to number, but the troubling plural may resurface in the ‘them’ that concludes the sentence in our copy text.

Iannes: We make the same emendation as at 1008; once again both Le théatre and Theatre depart from the text of Het Theatre and 2 Tim.

Exod. 8., 2. Tim. 3. [marginal glosses]: Ex 8:7-18, 2 Tim 3:8.

workes of supererogations: see 1049n

2309-2326And the remnant . . . bloud of the wicked: Cf. Bale (Image, Bilde, CC4v-5v).

hym: The gender of Roest’s pronoun accords with that of the text of Het Theatre (K5v); whereas, in Dutch, both zwaard (‘sword’) and woord (‘word’) are neuter. The unstated referent, that ‘hath within hym spirite and life’, is Christ.

Rom. 8. [marginal gloss]: Rom 8:19-22.

2320-2321whether . . . damned: However awkwardly, the commentary captures an important detail in Bale’s Image: some of the ‘remnant . . . slayne with the sworde . . . which commeth out of his mouth’ (2310-1) will be redeemed in the course of that slaughter, since ‘this sworde is . . . his mightie and true word’ (2312). Among the kings and mighty men that make up the slaughtered remnant are some who will convert (2057-8, 2061-2) and the same is said of others, whether high or low, rich or poor (2066-8). Van der Noot’s departures from Bale (2126-97 and 2210-70) concentrate on the damnable behavior of the unregenerate clergy and Roest complements this emphasis on unregeneracy by all but obscuring the fact that some of the deluded laiety may yet be redeemed.

Psalm. 58. . . . Psalm.37. [marginal gloss]: Ps 58:10-11, Ps 36:12, Ps 37:20.

2330-2336Agayne . . . perish.: Cf. Bale (Image, [Bk 18, sect 4.5]; Bilde, Vv8r).

in theyr floures: flourishing

consume away: waste away, dissipate

Psalm. 1. [marginal gloss]: Ps 1:4.

2342-2356 I sawe (sayth S. Iohn) . . . perfection.: Rev. 21:1; cf. Bale (Image, 371-2; Bilde, GG4v-5r).

Reuel. 21. [marginal gloss]: Rev 21:1.

2. Peter. 2. [marginal glosses]: 2 Pet 2:5. Although the core of Peter’s account of the purgation of the world may be found in 2 Pet his account of this cleansing begins with the recollection of Noah’s flood at 2 Pet 2:5.

.Sap. 3., Psal. 50. [marginal glosses]: Wisd of Sol 3:1-6, Ps 51:2-10.

Adapted from chapt. 65 of the commentary on Revelation compiled by Arethas (‘Aretes’).

of: from

Rom. 8. [marginal gloss]: Rom 8:16-7.

veritie: actuality

complection: constitution

2356-2440And there was no more sea . . . farre from them: Cf. Bale (Image, 372-6, lightly abridged; Bilde, GG6r-HH2v).

1. Cor. 13. [marginal gloss]: 1 Cor 13:12.

trimmed: adorned, prepared

Ephe. 5. . . . Math. 19. [marginal glosses]: Eph 5:26-7, Rev 21:2 and 9, Tit 3:5, and Matt 19:10-12 and 28-9. We emend the irrelevant reference to Rev 12, although it appears twice within a few lines in Het Theatre (K6v); it may be worth noting that Het Theatre offers no reference to Titus at this juncture.

perfect: perfectly

for so much as: insofar as

laide off: removed from herself

put away: renounce, repel

Colloss.3.[marginal glosses]: Col 3:9. We emend to ‘Colloss. in accordance with the glosses in Het Theatre and Le theatre.

Ephes. 5. [marginal glosses]: Eph 5:11.

Ierusalem: Bale associates the concord of shared faith with the etymology of Jerusalem, ‘city of peace’ (Image 377-8), but de Coninck loses the etymological detail (Bilde, JJ7v).

Ephes. 2. [marginal gloss]: Eph 2:19.

Rom. 8. [marginal glosses]: Rom 8:17. We emend the reference to Rom, conforming it to the readings in both the French and Dutch versions.

Reuel. 21. . . . Psal. 45. [marginal glosses]: Rev 21:2, Matt 16:17, Gal 4:26, and Tit 3:4-5, Eph 5:23-7, 1 Pet 3:21, 1 John 1:7, Gal 5:22, Eph 5:26-7., and perhaps 28-9, Ps 45:9.

wel fauoredly: handsomely

vesture: garment

commoditie: benefit

1. Corin. 6. . . . Ezech. 37. [marginal glosses]: 1 Cor 6:19, John 14:23, Ezek 37:26-7.

Reue. 21., Ezech. 43. [marginal glosses]: Rev 21:3 and Ezech 43:7. We emend here, replacing the irrelevant reference to Isaiah. It may be observed that, in Het Theatre, the gloss equivalent to that at in Theatre refers to two chapters in Ezechial --‘Eze. 43.37’ (K7v)--while the gloss to the passage equivalent to that at 2418-9 in Theatre refers to ‘Esa 25.8.’ (K8r). The reference in Het Theatre to the passage in Isaiah is plainly displaced, since it concerns the citation equivalent to that in Theatre at 2424 below.

nether: neither

shrinke: cause [them] to withdraw

Esay. 25. [marginal gloss]: The gloss, referring to Isa 25:8, is slightly confusing, since it refers to the promise that God will wipe away the tears of those once subject to death, a passage quoted both at Rev 7:17 and at 2424 above. Here at 2427 van der Noot quotes a different passage from Isaiah, the promise to create and rejoice in Jerusalem (65:18-9).

drink dronke: drink to the point of intoxication

Math. 5. . . . Reuel. 20. [marginal gloss]: Matt 5:10-2, Cor 4:8-9, and 17, Isa 25:8, Revel 7:14-16, and Rev 20:4.

2440-2456The building of the frame . . . accepted of God.: Cf. Bale (Image, 385; Bilde, KK5v-6v).

ashamed: put to shame

Psal. 125. . . . Esay 28 [marginal glosses]: Ps 125:1, Prov 10:25, Matt 20:1-16, Matt 16:18, Isa 28:16.

boule or speare: bowl or sphere

figure: metaphor

preferment: superior status

2460-2463Cf. Bale Image [chapt. 21.[4].10]

Reuel. 21. [marginal gloss]: Rev 21:12-7.

2467-2475 This holy Ierusalem . . . moste finest golde.: Cf. Bale (Image, 385; Bilde, JJ7v-8r).

Heb. 12. . . . Psal. 119 [marginal gloss]: Heb 12:22, James 1:17, Ps 119:105, Phil 3:8, Ps 119:127 (and cf. Ps 19:10).

2475-2481This Citie hath . . . shall be saved.: Cf. Bale (Image, 385; Bilde, JJ8v-KK1r).

Iohn. 14., Iohn. 10. [marginal glosses]: John 14:6, John 10:7-9\12.

And on euery gate . . . kingdom of Christ.: Cf. Bale (Image, Bilde, MM1r-1v).

2486-2498And at these gates . . . of the promise.: Cf. Bale (Image, Bilde, KK1r-1v).

Psal. 33. [marginal gloss]: Ps 34:7 (33:7 in the Vulgate numbering).

Esay. 62. ... Iohn. 10.[marginal gloss]: Isa 62:6, Matt 16:18, John 10:29.

draw . . . out of: detach from

Iohn. 4., Reue. 21. [marginal glosses]: Although 2495-8 are based on Gal 3:16-8 and 29, the reference to John 4:22 addresses the persistence of the names of the tribes of Israel at the gates of the New Jerusalem. We emend the gloss for Rev, to bring it into conformity with those in Het Theatre and Le théatre; van der Noot is quoting Rev 21:14.

2498-2539The walles of the Citie . . . principallest.: Cf. Bale (Image, 387-8; Bilde, KK2v-4r).

1. Cor. 3. . . . Gen. 11.12. [marginal glosses]: 1 Cor 3:9-11, 1 Pet 1:20, Gen 11:4-8 and 12:1-2 (Het Theatre also includes includes a reference to Gen 3, presumably 3:15, the divine promise that Eve’s seed shall break the head of the servant).

for so much that: in as much as

although . . . after him: No matter how long before or after him they lived

Reg. 19. . . . 1. Cor. 10. [marginal glosses]: 1 Sam 19:6-7, Ex 2:24-5, 1 Kings 17:4, 9, et passim, Luke 1:68-75, and 1 Cor 10:1-4.

vnder the cloud: Under the cloud of divine protection, as were the Israelites during the exodus; and cf. 1 Cor. 10:1 and 2514-6 below.

1. Corin. 3. [marginal gloss]: 1 Cor 3:11. We emend to accord this gloss with those in Het Theatre and Le théatre.

agreeable: pleasing

Math. 10. ... Math. 6. [marginal glosses]: Matt 10:2-4, Acts 1:26, Josh 4:20-4, 1 Kings 18:31-2, Matt 16:15-18, John 1:29, Matt 6:33.

2. Peter. 3. [marginal glosses]: 2 Pet 3:2. In Het Theatre the reference to 2 Peter is placed opposite the sentence concerning the identity of Prophetic and Apostolic doctrine and although this theme is not taken up in 2 Pet 2, as per the printed glosses in the Dutch, French, and English version, it is addressed at 2 Pet 3:2, hence our emendation.

Heere: That is, by virtue of the typological coherence of the twelve tribes, the two sets of stones, and the twelve apostles.

Ephe. 2. . . . Actes. 9:13 | 15.21. [marginal gloss]: Eph 2:19-20, 2 Cor 11:5 and 23; Acts 9:27-9, 13:46-50, 15:22-3 and 32, and 21:10-11.

onely: alone

they: those

perfecte: complete

perfecte . . . number: While van der Noot has somewhat abridged the various excurses on number in Bale’s Image, Bale’s account of the properties of the number twelve is no more elaborate than that offered here.

2540-2553The buildings of the wall . . . pretious stones: Cf. Bale (Image, 393; Bilde, LL3r-4r).

Iohn. 5.8. [marginal gloss]: John 5:24, 8:51. We emend the obvious mistransmission, conforming the reference to those of Het Theatre and Le théatre; the reference offered in our copy text is irrelevant to van der Noot’s commentary.

Ephes. 5. . . . 1. Pet. 1. [marginal glosses]: Eph 5:27, Prov and 1 Pet 1:7 and 19.

notifieth, noteth: indicates

2555-2559The first foundation . . . chyldren of God.: Cf. Bale (Image, 394-6; Bilde, LL4v-8v).

Gen. 5. [marginal gloss]: Gen 5:22-4; we correct the mistaken reference, also present in the Dutch and French versions.

whitishe: In addition to its modern sense, white could be used in the sixteenth-century to indicate silveriness or, as here, transparency.

throughe: by virtue of

vertuous: endowed with useful properties

3. Reg.18. [marginal gloss]: A gloss again requires emendation, for the account of Elijah’s sojourn in the wilderness is to be found in 1 Kings 19:4-9 (‘3 Regum 19’ according to the naming conventions of the Vulgate); his most bitter reproofs are recounted in 1 Kings 21 and 2 Kings 1 (4 Reg 1); and he is rapt up into heaven in 2 Kings 2:11. Although both Het Theatre and Le théatre refer to ‘4 Reg’, we emend on the assumption that van der Noot intends a reference to Elijah’s humiliation of the priests of Baal (1 Kings 18), to which he has already adverted at 830-1 and 1508.

Math. 3. . . . Mark. 1.[marginal glosses]: Matt 3:1-4, Luke 1:80, Matt 3:2 and 7-11, Mark 1:3-6.

straightly: straitly

2574-2575Chalcedonie . . . thing: John’s Greek term is a hapax legomenon. Since antiquity, the Latin chalcedonius has been associated with several different minerals. Pliny uses the term for a type of jasper (Nat. Hist. 37.37). In his early 12th-century lapidary, Marbodus of Rennes alleges that, when heated, chalcedon will attract straw or dust; Marbodus seems to be taking a version of this detail from Pliny’s description of carchedonia, which he says will attract ‘paleas et chartarum fila’ (‘chaff and strands of papyrus’; Hist. Nat. 37.35); Pliny uses the term chalcedon for a type of jasper (Hist. Nat. 37.39, and does not attribute any attractive properties to this chalcedon. For dust as a synonym for chaff, see the pseudo-Chaucerian ‘Ploughman’s Tale’: ‘They haue the corne / and we the dust’.

Jerem. 2.3. . . . Ac. 9.16.17 [marginal glosses]: Jer 2:9-10, Zech 13:2-3, and Acts 9:20, 16:31-2, and 17:2 and 17. The glosses lead a reader through an abridged history of prophecy, from the career of Jeremiah, through the apostasy of the prophets in Zechariah, to resolute prophetic career of Paul. Since there is no 31st chapter of Zechariah, we emend in accordance with the gloss printed in Het Theatre.

Sardonix: Stratified sard (a type of cornelian) and onyx.

Math. 5. . . . Luke. 7. [marginal glosses]: Matt 5:5, and Luke 7:36-50. The references in Theatre to ‘Philip.’ are anomalous, the epistle to the Philippians containing only 4 chapters. In lieu of the references to Phil, Het Theatre and Le théatre offer references to ‘Psal. 50.’ , presumably to the sinner’s plea that he be washed whiter than snow (Ps 51:7).

Cant. 1. [marginal gloss]: Song of Sol 1:4.

Sardius: a type of cornelian

2. Corin. 4. [marginal gloss]: The gloss as printed is as misleading as those in the Dutch and French versions, which refer the reader to 1 Cor 4 and 6 (or 1 Cor 4:6); we emend the gloss, recognizing that van der Noot here quotes from 2 Cor 4:16.

2589-2590therefore . . . weary: We are not thereby deterred or in any way wearied.

2592-2594the similitude . . . Adam: The similitude is anchored in the Hebrew etymology of Adam, whose name derives from a word for earth or red clay.

Luke. 16. . . . 1. Re. 15.16.[marginal gloss]: Luke 16:1-8, Luke 1:38 and 48, Gen 18:27, Ex 4:29-31, Isa 2:2 and 34:1-2, Acts 14:1 and 21-7, Acts 7:59-60, 1 Sam 15:35-16.1.

therewithall: therewith

Topace: topaz

2623-2625Despite challenge from Dionysius of Alexandria in the third century and despite Luther’s insistence that the book was non-apostolic, the traditional belief that John the Evangelist was the author not only of the Johanine gospel and epistles, but was also the same John who wrote the book of Revelation on Patmos persisted among many of the reformers.

Chrisophrasius: The name (and other variants of chrysoprase) was assigned to various stones of green-gold appearance, sometimes to varieties of what is now referred to as beryl and on other occasions to what is now referred to as chalcedon.

Math. 25., Eze. 10.11.[marginal gloss]: Matt 25:14-29, Ezek 10-11.

Iacinct: As the commentary makes clear, jacinth once denoted a blue-coloured stone, although it now refers to a red-orange variety of zircon.

noddies: simpletons

Iaco. 1., Iohn. 3. [marginal glosses]: James 1:5, John 3:3-12 and 27-31.

small: minor

Ametist: amethyst

purpure: purple

2. Mach. 7. . . . Iohn. 15. [marginal glosses]: 2 Macc 7:1-2, Acts 12:2, Rev 2:13, and John 15:13. We have emended the latter of these glosses in accordance with those in the Dutch and French versions.

Iames the greater: the apostle James

On this maner: Thus, In this manner

dumbe: The metaphor is built, specifically, on the meaning ‘mute’, since dumb had not yet acquired the modern sense of ‘stupid’.

Exod. 28. [marginal gloss]: Ex 28:15-21.

stomacher: breastplate

Kyng of Tyrus: Ezek 28:13.

2669-2676Plinie . . . Austen): There is little reason to suppose that van der Noot has consulted the authorities on ancient gems listed here, the list having been taken over from his scholarly source, de Coninck’s translation of Bale’s Image. For lore concerning the precious stones fond on the garments of the High Priest, Bale directs his reader to see Pliny Nat. Hist., 37 (in which the relevant chapters are 20, 24, 31, 337, 40, and 42) and Bartholomaeus Anglicus, De Proprietatibus Rerum 16 (chapts. 21, 29, 53-4, 72, 75, and 96-7). Jerome comments on Is 54.11-2 in his Commentaries on the Prophet Isaiah (Commentariorum in Isaiam Prophetam Libri Doudeviginti, Liber Decimus Quintus). For commentary on the precious stones of Rev 21.19-20, Bale refers his reader to Beda, Explanation Apocalypsis (21); to the commentary In Apocalypsim Libri Septem of Haymo, a mid-ninth-century author long identified as Haimo de Halberstadt, although the commentary should probably be attributed to his contemporary, Haimo de Auxerre; to Henricus de Cossey, Commentarii in Apocalipsin divi Ioannis (54); and to Johannes Elinus In Apocalypsim Ioannis commentarium edidit. Like many other works attributed to John Baconthorpe, his commentary on Rev does not survive; John Tilney’s commentary is also no longer extant.

2675-2676according . . . Austen: In Homily 19 of Caesarius of Arles In B. Ioannis Apocalypsim Expositio, long attributed to Augustine (‘Austen’), the gems of Rev 21:19--21 are said to represent the gifts and graces that the Holy Ghost conferred on the apostles (1 Cor 12:1--11), see Migne, 33, col. 2451.

onely: Sole, isolated. Following Bale, van der Noot invites us to marvel that God, operating alone, should so relish multiplicity.

2684-2742And the Angell . . . neuer shall perishe: Cf. Bale (Image, Bilde, NN2r-5r). Van der Noot abridges and simplifies Bale slightly in this section.

springyng: gushing

Iohn. 6. . . . Gen. 2. [marginal gloss]: John 6:68, Ezek 36:25-6, Ps 51:10, John 6:22-5. Matt 21:9; it may be observed that the reference to Matt 21, relevant here since, in this chapter, Jesus is twice hailed as the son of David, may simply mistransmit the gloss in Het Theatre, which refers the reader to Matt 1, the first verses of which trace the lineal descent from Abraham to Jesus. Rom 1:3, Luke 1:32-33, and Gen 2:9-10.

vnspeakable: indescribable, ineffable

3. Esdr. 3 [marginal gloss]: 1 Esdr 3:12. Because medieval and subsequent versions of the Latin Vulgate contain two Old Testament books designated as 1 and 2 Esdras--now known as Ezra and Nehemiah--the apocryphal books now known as 1 and 2 Esdras, were referred to as 3 and 4 Esdras, hence the reference in the gloss to ‘3. Esdr.’

2742-2751This worde then . . . heauenly Ierusalem.: Based loosely on Bale (Image, 403-4; Bilde, NN7v).

Zach. 2. . . . 1. Cor. 2.[marginal glosses]: Zech 2:8, Ps 17:8. We emend the reference to the Psalms in accordance with the glosses in Het Theatre and Le théatre. 1 Cor 2:9.

it.: The referent is ‘covetousnesse, concupiscience,’ or ‘ambition’. We might have emended the four instances of ‘it’ to ‘them’ to capture the force of ‘and’ (2759); this would have brought the Theatre into syntactic conformity with the version in Le théatre (M6v). Because the relevant pronoun in Dutch is ambiguous as to number, the version in Het Theatre -- ‘de ghene diese lief hebben, nauolgen, begheiren oft soecken’ (L7v; emphasis mine) -- may indicate the source of difficulty in the MS copy from which Roest was working. But cf. 2934, where again a singular ‘it’ appears where we might expect ‘them.’

a few yeres hitherwards: the last few years

This genealogy of Antichrist is modeled antithetically on the genealogy of Jesus in Matt 1. The irony of this allegorical genealogy is that it proceeds from Ignorance, the grandchild of the Devil, to fruitless Disputation; Disputation has no child, although it is the means to the desolate revelation of the Antichrist, a revelation quite unlike the ‘greate Consolation’ (2722) of John’s vision of Christ’s new Jerusalem.

desolatour: one who makes desolate

Ephe. 6. . . . 1. Timo. 6. [marginal glosses]: Eph 6:12, Acts 17:23, 1 Tim 4:1, Isa 10:12-15, Isa 58:3, Rom 10:3-4, Rom 1:21-4, Gen 3:7-8, Matt 17:26-7, Dan 12:11, 2 Thess 3:6-12, Matt 15:8-9, Matt 17:26-7, and 1 Tim 6:10.

Merites: Desert; in this case, the right to receive a spiritual benefit. The reformers insisted that there was nothing a person could do unilaterally to merit salvation.

Satisfaction: the compensatory component of penance

2785Fundation of Pentions: An endowment for the guaranteed payment of a clerical benefice.

Reuel. 9. . . . 2. Tim. 3. [marginal glosses]: Rev 9:20-1, 1 Cor 15:57, Deut 32:15 (and cf. Deut 18:1-2 and 8), Luke 16:1-12, Job 12. Isa 28:7-8, and 2 Tim 3:3. It is worth noting that the reference to the conclusion of Revelation 9 implicitly associates impenitence with Purgatory.

2792Domination . . . Pompe.: The translation here departs from the text of Het Theatre, which reads ‘Wtnementheyt heeft voortghebracht Gewelt. / Gewelt heeft voortghebracht Grooten pracht.’ (‘Overweening has begot Violence / Violence has begot Great Pomp’; L8v). Theatre preserves the gloss, ‘Ezech. 34.’, from Het Theatre, squeezing it in between the glosses to lines 2792 and 2793. The condensation of the English version matches that of the French, which reads ‘Domination a engendré Pompe’ (‘Domination has begot Pomp’).

Math. 23. . . . Actes. 7. [marginal glosses]: Matt 23:4-7 and 12, Ezek 34:2-3 (for which see the preceding comment), Ezek 16:24-5, John 5:30-1, Acts 8:18-20, 2 Thess 2:3-4, Matt 7:22-3, 1 Tim 4:1-2 and Jer 17:23, Matt 24:9 and 21-4, and Acts 7:57-60.

transmigration: Exilic captivity; the term was especially used to refer to the Babylonian Captivity of the Jews and thence, by typological extension, to comparable abuses of whole peoples or Churches.

Psalm. 32.. . . 1. Tim. 1. [marginal glosses]: Ps 33:8-12, Ps 51:16-7, Rev 15:4 and 8, Isa 1:13-4, Rev 13:14, Mic 7:2-6, 1 Tim 1:3-7. We restore the order and number of the two references to the Psalms, guided by the glosses in Het Theatre; similarly guided, we also emend the second reference to Rev, the reference to Rev 1 being irrelevant to the millenial proliferation of confusion.

Dispensation: relaxation of an (ecclesiastical) law

matter . . . veritie: Matters on which to dispute, subject matter concerning which the truth may be sought out.

pardition: perdition

Math. 24., Esdr. 15. [marginal glosses]: Matt 24:12, 2 Esd 15:6 and 19.

confesse: avow allegiance to

Iohn. 14. . . . Iohn. 15. [marginal glosses]: At this juncture, spanning Q3v-4r, the glossing is variously disturbed, and we have emended and relocated several glosses to remedy the disturbance. The disorder begins with the reference to John 14 which treats of keeping the commandments of Christ as love of Christ, and of the Father’s reciprocation of love offered to the Son; the gloss has no equivalent in Het Theatre or Le théatre,and is only loosely relevant to themes taken upon these pages. (More pertinent, would be a gloss indicating that 2864-7 simply quotes Matt 7:21.) Nor is it the only tenuously relevant gloss on these pages that is not witnessed in either the Dutch or French versions: a reference to John 17 following which follows those to John 12, Luke 6, and Matt 5, seems generally impertinent and we take it to be an error somehow related to the disappearance of a reference to John 13:16, quoted directly after a quotation of John 12:25-6 and glossed in Het Theatre and Le théatre. (Confident of the link between the anomalous reference to John 17 and the disappearance of the gloss to John 13, we restore the latter, and delete the former.) It may be observed that the English Theatre is not alone in offering perplexing glosses at this juncture, since both Het Theatre and Le théatre offer references to Gen 16. The absence of this reference in Theatre may evidence editorial shrewdness or carelessness; the missing gloss is replaced by a reference to John 15, the second of two in sequence -- which latter detail would argue for carelessness were it not that the two references may be understood as referring distinctly to verses 10 and 12.

Iohn. 14. [marginal gloss]: John 14:21.

2864-2867For not . . . of my father.: Matt 7:21.

Mark. 8. . . . Math. 5. [marginal glosses]: Mark 8:35, Luke 9:24, John 12:25-26, John 13:16, Luke 6:40, Matt 5:19, John 15:10, John 15:12, Luke 6:28, Matt 5:44-8.

Rom. 6. [marginal glosses]: Van der Noot here commences a long paraphrase of Romans 6; these lines (corresponding to Q4v) are bolstered with three marginal glosses for that chapter. Of particular relevance are Rom 6:6-7, 11-13, and 20-22.

2891-2892we were not vnder righteousnesse: This clause, which complicates the sentence, has no equivalent in either Het Theatre or Le théatre, and may well be the trace of a draft that was meant to have been cancelled. The French and Dutch versions offer a more lucid and balanced opposition between the fruit and ends of sin and those of righteousness.

Rom. 13. [marginal gloss]: Rom 13:11.

Rom. 13. [marginal gloss]: Rom 13:12-14.

2898-2902let vs cast away . . . Christ: As Van der Noot absorbs the language of Rom 13:12-14 in Het Theatre and Le théatre, he does not relinquish the cohortative use of the first-person plural. Roest’s disruptive shift to the second person at 2902 (‘put ye on the Lord Iesus Christ’) may be traced to Paul’s, but that of 2899 (‘take vnto thee the armour of light’) is not warranted by the language of Romans.

Coloss. 3. . . . Rom. 6. [marginal glosses]: Col 3:5-8, Eph 5:8-12, Luke 21:34, and James 3:14-6. We correct the sequence of glosses here, swapping the position of the references to Eph and Luke. Gal 5:19-21, 1 Cor 3:13, Gal 5:21-23, 1 Cor 6:9-10, Eph 5:3-5, Rev 22:15, Eph 5:15, Rom 6:4, Eph 2:15. These last two glosses have no counterpart in Het Theatre or Le théatre. Eph 4:22-3, Rom 6:6.

chambering: fornication

workers: practitioners

long suffering: forbearance

deceiuable: deceitful

after: in imitation of

Ephe. 4., Ephe. 4. [marginal gloss]: Eph 4:24 and Eph 4:25. These two glosses have no counterpart in the Dutch or French versions. The additional glosses indicate that, at this point, Van der Noot’s commentary has effectively dissolved into a sustained quotation of the latter third of Eph 4.

Colloss. 3. . . . 2. Thes. 3. [marginal glosses]: Col 3:8 and 13, 1 Pet 2:1, Zech 8:16, Ps 4:2, James 4:11, Eph 4:26-8, and 2 Thess 3:10-11. Both Het Theatre and Le théatre insert a reference to Matt 5 (presumably 5:23-4) after the reference to Zech 8, but the verses on sacrifice on Matt have dubitable pertinence.

Math. 12. . . . 1. Cor. 11. [marginal glosses]: Matt 12:34-7, Eph 4:29-32, 1 Cor 11:16-7.

2930-2946Be ye . . . reproue them rather: The quotation from Eph continues, picking up from the beginning of Eph 5.

it: cf. 2758-9

Coloss. 3. . . . 2.Thess. 2. [marginal glosses]: Col 3:8-14, Matt 6:14-15, Ecclus 28:2, Eph 5:1-11 and 15-16, John 13:15 and 15:9, Matt 5:43-8, Gal 2:20, Tit 2:14, Ex 23:18, 1 Cor 6:9-10, Gal 5:19-21, Col 2:4, and 2 Thess 2:13. These last two glosses are displaced a few lines earlier than the text they properly supplement.

2936but . . . thanks: Expressions of gratitude are to be the chief manifestation of reformed communication.

Math. 24. . . . 1. Cor. 5. [marginal glosses]: Matt 24:4, Jer 20:6, Mark 13:5, Luke 21:6-8, 2 Thess 2:3, Gal 5:16 and 22, Matt 18:16-20 1 Cor 5:9.

rather: take: The quotation from Eph 5 skips here from verse 11 to 15.

Eccle. 17. . . . 1. Thess. 5. [marginal glosses]: Ecclus 17:14, Col 4:5, Rom 12:2-3, Eph 5:18-21, Col 3:16-7, and 1 Thess 5:11.

plentuously: plenteously, abundantly

synging with grace: All but one of the copies collated for this edition offer this reading, although the minority reading conforms to the phrasing of Col 3:16 in the Geneva Bible.

Psalm. 98. . . . Exod. 20.[marginal gloss]: Ps 98:1-6, Eph 5:22-7, Col 3:17, 1 Pet 3:1, 1 Pet 3:7, Gal 2:20, Eph 5:28-31, Eph 6:1-4, Col 3:20-1, Exod 20:12.

with promisse: The fifth Commaundement is the first promulgated with an accompanying promise: ‘that thy daies maie be prolonged vpon the land’ (Exod 20:12).

2975bodily . . . the flesh: A pleonasm: ‘bodily maisters’ anticipates and glosses the slightly mysterious biblical phrase ‘maisters according to the flesh’ (Eph 6:5 and Col 3:22).

Ephes. 6. . . . Peter. 2. [marginal glosses]: Eph 6:5-9, Col 3:22-3, Matt 15:4-6, Tit 2:9-10, 1 Pet 2:18, Ecclus 33:31, Col 3:24, 1 Tim 4:12, Rom 13:1, 1 Pet 2:13-14.

indifferent: without distinction

shew . . . ensample: make of yourself an example

irreprehensible: irreproachable

to speake . . . with the truthe: justly to speak

readie to: The phrase can mean either ‘prepared to perform’ or ‘eager to perform’.

Rom. 12. . . . 2. Thess. 3 [marginal glosses]: Rom 12:9-18, Eph 4:2, 1 Pet 2:9-10, Prov 2:22, Phil 2:2-4. We emend the reference to Phil in accordance with the readings in Het Theatre and Le théatre. 1 Cor 13:2-8, Luke 17:3-4, Phil 2:21, 1 Pet 2:21-4, Gal 6:7-9, 2 Thess 3:13. (We emend to correct the mistaken reference to 1 Thess 3.)

affectioned: warmly disposed

vnto the necessitie: in response to the neediness

giuing . . . to: giving yourself over to

other: others

to send . . . house: ‘First to chastise [those who dwell in] his own house’

Math. 6. [marginal gloss]: Matt 6:14-15. The reference to Matthew is slightly perplexing, since it is only loosely pertinent to themes more directly broached at Heb 12:6-7.

2. Tim. 3. [marginal glosses]: 2 Tim 3:12. The original reference to 1 Tim in Theatre clearly requires emendation.

3026-3037It must be of necessitie . . . are vnperfect: Cf. Bale (Image, 405-6; Bilde, Ee8v).

to exercise: for exercising

James. 1. . . . Wysdom. 3. [marginal glosses]: James 1:2-4, Gen 12:10, Job 1 and 2, Acts 5:41, Prov 17:3, and Wisd of Sol 3:6.

proued heere: ‘Tested here,’ with ‘here’ having the two senses of ‘in this world’ (for which cf. 3036) and ‘in the matter of his love and fervor’.

Iames. 1. . . . 1. Iohn. 5. [marginal glosses]: James 1:12, Heb 12:16, Prov 3:12, and 1 John 5:4.

receiueth: Perhaps with the sense of ‘adopts’: cf. Le théatre, N5v, which employs ‘adopte’ for its rendering. And see cf. Rom 8:15, where those led by the spirit are adopted as sons of God. (Rom 8:18 is the obvious source for 3040-1: although the a marginal reference to Rom. 8 is missing from Theatre, it appears in Het Theatre and Le théatre.)

The things: Chastenings and scourgings (3032-3).

Iohn. 7. . . . Psal. 91 [marginal glosses]: John 7:9, James 5:10-1, 2 Cor 13:5, Wisd of Sol 3:5-6, 1 Pet 1:6-7, 2 Cor 5:1-7, Exod 16, Deut 8:2-3 and 15-7, and Ecclus 2:10, Ps 103:8, Ps 91:2-4.

ouerrunne: review

contempned: disdained, treated with contempt

vntempered: unstable

haue muche rather: much prefer

3059-3071Whereas the substance of the text of Le théatre and that of Theatre often closely resemble each other and together depart from that of Het Theatre, at this juncture the French and Dutch versions cohere closely with each other, while the text of the Theatre differs substantially. The English text witnesses four passages for which the Dutch and French versions have no equivalent: ‘than to haue . . . They know’ (3059-62); ‘we all are . . . Bisides that’ (3064); ‘be they neuer . . . spirite of God’ (3066-9), and ‘neither are . . . to come’ (3070-1). It is difficult to assess the genetic relation between the various versions: while the third passage neatly bridges parts of a sentence that seem imperfectly related in the Dutch and French versions, the first two inclusions seem to expand, somewhat awkwardly, on a more focused and complete version of the argument. (The awkwardness of the second inclusion would be mitigated, were ‘here’ inserted into the clause, ‘we all are subiected to many infirmities’ [3064].)

Esay. 26. . . . Esay. 26. [marginal glosses]: Isa 26:2-5, 1 Cor 2:14, Isa 26:10.

3071-3086Woe be . . . miseries: This section is a lightly adapted translation of the second chapter of the apocryphal book of Ecclesiasticus, otherwise known as Sirach. Woe be . . . searche them out? (3071-76) simply renders Ecclus 2:13-15; Let vs loue . . . remaine faithful works backward through 2:8-10; and let vs walke . . . merciful adapts 2:16-21, and Let vs then . . . miseries is based on At this point, as the marginal reference indicates, van der Noot turns to adapting Rom 5.

3082-3083in the hands of the Lorde . . . in the hands of men: We emend to restore the internal logic of the sentence and its fidelity to its chief scriptural source. Although the copy text here is consistent with the spirit of Heb 10:31 (‘It is a feareful thing to fall into the hands of the liuing God’), and with the Dutch and French versions of the passage, a preference for the hands of men over the hands of the Lord is inconsistent with the rest of the sentence, which emphasizes God’s mercy, and with the conclusion of Ecclesus 2, on which this portion of van der Noot’s commentary is based. In Luther’s version, the chapter concludes ‘Wir wollen lieber in die Hende des HERRN fallen / weder in die Hende der Menschen / Denn seine Barmherzigkeit ist ja so gros / als Er selber ist’ (‘We would rather fall in the hands of the Lord than in the hands of men, for his mercy is as great as He himself is’) and Liesveldt’s Dutch version of 1535, a likely sourtce for van der Noot’ hews close to it: ‘Beter ist ons te vallen inden handen des HEREN / dan inden handen der menscen / want hoe wel hy hooch en groot is / nochtans hi is zeer barmhertich’ (‘It is better to fall into the hands of the Lord than in the hands of men, for although he is high and great, yet is he very merciful’). It may be observed, however, that the Geneva translation, like the Vulgate, is framed as a monitory condition -- ‘[If we do not repent] we shal fall in to the hands of the Lord, and not into the hands of men’ -- which, since it frames the judgment of the Lord as a threat might argue for van der Noot’s text as printed, yet even in the Geneva version, the chapter ends with emphasis on divine clemency: ‘yet as his greatness is, so is his mercie’.

Rom.5. . . . Galath. 1. [marginal glosses]: Rom. 5:3-5, James 1:2-4, Isa 57:13-16. Eph 6:13-6; we emend, there being no eighth chapter of Ephesians. Eph 6:17-18, Ps 132:3-9, 1 Cor 1:18, and Wisd of Sol 5:17-20, which reworks the armorial figure of Eph 6. 1 Pet 5:8, 1 Pet 5:9, John 6:63, Matt 4:1-11, 2 Cor 11:14. Because van der Noot is simply quoting chapter 11 of 2 Cor, we emend the reading in our copy text. Gal 1:8.

assaultes: attacks by spiritual adversaries

necessities: enemies

watche: be vigilant

Take ye heede . . . to: Be careful not to

proued: tested

bringeth: invents

particularities . . . vnto: particular qualities especially associated with

be ye sure: you may be confident

Psal. 103 . . . Psalm. 90.. [marginal glosses]: Ps 103:15-7, Isa 40:6-7, Isa 40:23-4 and 8. We emend the reference to Peter, since van der Noot is quoting 1 Pet 1:24-5; the gloss to Ps 90 refers to verses 5-6 and 10.

floure: flower

where ouer: over which

Esay. 4. [marginal gloss]: The gloss is unhelpful: van der Noot here quotes Ecclus 14:17, which is itself adapted from Isa 51:6

the which: who

studie: studies

receue: accept

3161-3187Cecilius Metellus . . . Riches: This collection of exempla is adapted from the opening pages of Chapt. 1 of Antonio de Guevara’s Menosprecio de corte (‘Contempt for the Court’, 1539) accessible to van der Noot in French in several French translations (as Mespris de la cour, the first of which was published in 1542.

charge: office

spend: Roest’s verb is tepid compared to those of Het Theatre (N1r) and Le théatre (N8v), which refer to Cecilius Metellus’ desire to eat in peace what he had conquered in battle.

reade . . . Philosophie: lecture on Philosophy

Samnites: people of Samnium, an ancient location in south-central Italy

Crates: See 223-7.

Varales: Bareales

aduertised: informed

bicause they: so that their neighbors

moued: posed

3182-3183the mount of Atlas: This third answer conflates two different ones in Guevara’s Menosprecio, Mount Olympus and the giant Atlas (Mespris, 1542, A5v).

they: the heathens

A wittie man . . . wisely: cf Prov 13:20

Psalm. 37. [marginal gloss]: Ps 37:1-3.

bellygods: Gluttons; those who care only for indulging their appetites

are of no continuaunce: will not remain

consume: dissipate

ylfauored: ugly, offensive

3230-3231Nero . . . Phocus: Van der Noot has already included Nero, Dioclesian, and Maxentius (Maxence) in his list of persecutors of the early Church at 466-7; Maximian Herculius would also have figured suitably in that list, since Augustine makes him responsible, along with his co-emperor Diocletian, for the last of the ten great pre-Apocalyptic persecutions of the Church (see 466-7n). The perplexing inclusion of the Christian emperor Jovian (ruled 363-4) in this list is somewhat clarified by the way he is invoked in Het Theater: ‘noch eenen anderen Maximius die Iouianus toeghenompt was’ (‘yet another Maximian, who was known as Jovian’; N3r). Galerius Maximianus, this ‘other Maximian’ (rules 305-11) was another persecutor of the Christians. Constantius (353-61) is listed here for his support of Arianism and his opposition to Athanasius, while Phocas, ruler of the eastern Empire from was indeed notorious for his cruelty. But Licinius (308-24) does not quite belong on this list, for he urged the toleration of Christians; his reputation for opposition to Christianity is the result of a propaganda campaign mounted against him by his brother, Constantine I, who eventually secured his execution.

Math. 11. . . . 1. Iohn. 5. [marginal glosses]: Matt 11:30, Jer 6:16, and 1 John 5:3.

purpose: plan

neyther yet: and also not

regenerate of: spiritually reborn by means of

vppon the little foote: in small measure

3271-3272vnprofitable seruantes: Those who merely do their duty; see Luke 17:10.

your owne: your selves

Introduction

Textual Changes

Apparatus