2 pretty piece cunning or crafty woman, with sexual connotations on "piece". 3 sir-reverence, "with all due respect". 10 he It is possible that this "he" should be a "she". It makes little sense to imagine the reclamation of Leir here, but it makes perfect sense to imagine that Gonorill refers to Cordella, who has been disowned and will not be "reclaimed" by her father. 11 I was not much behind to do the like. I was planning to do something similar in short order. 15 Beshrew your fingers, In typical usage, "Beshrew your fingers" would mean, "Curse your actions (specifically the actions of your hands)", or it would indicate the laying of blame for actions. This sense of anger or rue is obvious in the OED's exemplary passage from Thomas Fuller's Holy State, "He hath just cause to beshrew his fingers" (3). In this specific case, however, the expression is used teasingly to mean something like, "Clever you, able to work that out". 18 And clip her wings for mounting up too high. To clip a birds wings prevents it from flying. This line echoes Gonorill's earlier allusion to Icarus (TLN 416), and it echoes the proverbial and poetic relationship between pride and punishment that Gonorill earlier invokes (TLN 325). 23 With nothing! Gonorill misunderstands Ragan and imagines that some men get married without penises. Compare with Cambria's previous confusion about spousal genitals (TLN 454). [[ Resource not found ]]Krist (Gonorill) relished the double entendre here developing the open sexuality central to his interepretation of the character. The moment was always met with laughter and mirrored the similar misunderstanding in the previous scene between Cornwall and Cambria. Read more about the performance of Scene 6 and access video of the SQM production. PC 26 stately worldly. Gonorill suggests that Cordella, proud of her high-birth, is constitutionally unable to live life as a parson's wife. 27 benefice on her back the wages of ecclesiastical workers. Gonorill suggests here that Cordella will spend the entirety of her future husband's wages on clothing. Compare with Cordella's discussion of ecclesiastical penury during the wooing scene (TLN 697). 31 I think long grow wearied. 34 to consummate to complete or to make real, with a sense of sexual consummation. 40 Our hand and seal Having sent letters, Leir's "hand" has made offers that were ratified by the wax seal used to close those letters. More than simply securing the letter, the seal -- bearing some sort of regal insignia --implies that Leir's crown will insure the integrity and validity of the offer. 43 pelican In early modern England, the pelican was said to feed its young by plucking feathers from its breast and allowing its fledglings to drink the blood. Because of its purported self-sacrificing behavior, the pelican was a popular image in emblem books of the period when depicting Christ or the Church. See, for instance, George Wither's emblematic image of the pelican, from A Collection of Emblemes, Ancient and Modern, in which the pelican serves as a "hieroglyphick" for Christ (http://emblem.libraries.psu.edu/withe154.htm). This vision of the self-sacrificing pelican was also appropriated by Queen Elizabeth I in the Pelican Portrait by Nicholas Hilliard (http://www.tudorhistory.org/elizabeth/gallery.html). The contrast in these lines between the eagle and the pelican appears to be novel, although it corresponds generally with the emblematic visions of these birds. On the eagle, see Alciato's emblem which associates the eagle with a powerful boldness (http://www.mun.ca/alciato/etext.html). 46-47 That kills her . . . of the sun. "According to folk beliefs, the eagle tests its young by forcing them to look steadily at the sun and kills the one that cannot do so without watering eyes" (Michie 208). 48 this two days the next two days. 49 arrived already. [[ Resource not found ]]This line always got a good laugh in the SQM performance thanks to the comically expeditious arrival of the two kings as if on cue. The SQM kings emphasized their desire for the queens by dashing onto the stage and staring adoringly at their respective brides. Read more about the performance of Scene 6 and access video of the SQM production. PC 53 Priam's Priam was the final king of Troy before the city fell to the Greeks in the Trojan war. In early modern England, Priam was variously and contradictorily figured in terms of his wisdom and his doddering. As we see often in Leir, the speaker alluding to a classical figure or text -- Leir, in this case -- fails to recognize the ambivalent connotations associated with the figure to whom he alludes. The stories of Troy's fall and the subsequent translatio imperii -- particularly as they were told in Virgil's Aeneid -- were hugely popular in early modern England among artists, writers, and historiographers. One might recognize this influence most conspicuously in Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida, or in the several translations of Virgil that were undertaken in the period. See also the story of Priam's slaughter as it is recounted in Hamlet by the Player King (F: 1492-1559). 60 undeserved undeserved because exceptional; a commonplace sentiment in the language of manners. 65 Leander was to Hero, Hero and Leander were famous doomed lovers of classical mythology. Living across the Hellespont from one another, Leander would swim nightly to be with Hero, whom he subsequently seduced. Leander eventually drowned during a storm while en route to visit Hero. While Gonorill accurately recognizes Hero's love for Leander, her allusion seems somewhat macabre or misplaced at this moment. Though Christopher Marlowe's Hero and Leander was popular when first published in 1598 and in the three subsequent editions that appeared prior to Leir's publication in 1605, his version of the story was published after the latest conjectured dates for the first performance of Leir. If not influenced by Marlowe, this allusion was perhaps influenced by Ovid's Heroides. Further suggesting Ovid's influence here, the next lines in the play refer to Aeneas and Dido, two other lovers whose disastrous romance was recounted in Heroides. Though Marlowe also wrote a dramatic version Dido, Queen of Carthage in 1592, it is unclear that the play was ever performed, despite the claims of its title page to have been performed by the Children of the Chapel. For Marlowe's Hero and Leander (including Chapman's completion of the poem) see http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/18781 ; for Ovid's Heroides "XVIII" to "XIX" see http://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/Heroides16-21.htm . 66 Aeneas to the Carthage queen, Aeneas, having escaped Troy at the moment of its destruction, finds refuge in Carthage and receives aid from Carthage's queen, Dido. Dido -- at the prompting of Venus and Cupid -- falls in love with Aeneas and commits suicide when he leaves Carthage to found Rome. As with Gonorill's earlier allusion to Hero and Leander, Gonorill's allusion to Dido and Aeneas seems somewhat macabre or misplaced at this moment. The locus classicus for this version of the story of Dido and Aeneas is Virgil's Aeneid II and IV: http://classics.mit.edu/Virgil/aeneid.2.ii.html and http://classics.mit.edu/Virgil/aeneid.4.iv.html. The story was popular in early modern England, and the first four books of the Aeneid, containing the story of Dido and Aeneas and the story of Troy's fall, were translated alone into English by Richard Stanyhurst in 1582. Considering the earlier allusion to Hero and Leander, it is likely that the writer has Ovid's Heroides in mind, because the stories of Hero and Leander and Dido and Aeneas are both re-told there by Ovid. For Ovid's account of Aeneas' "betrayal" of Dido, see his Heroides VII: http://members.terracom.net/~hunter/heroides/hero07.htm. 69 fancy desires or longing. 78 resteth, remains. 79 nuptial rites? wedding ceremonies. 81.1 they draw lots. [[ Resource not found ]] Why draw lots for a kingdom that has been equally divided? A redundant action in what the SQM company felt to be an unnecessary scene. Read more about Queen's Men Dramaturgy: Narrative Over-Determination and access video of the SQM production. PC 83 As erst as at one time, earlier, when he inherited his title. 86 sojourn a temporary stay. 87 beads. rosary beads. This reference to a decidedly Catholic religious accoutrement is unusual for being doubly anachronistic: Leir is set at a historical moment prior to the appearance of Christianity in England making the rosary seem "too early," and it was written after the kingdom had become officially Protestant making such a conspicuously Catholic artifact seem "too late". The rosary seems particularly out of place for Leir because he appears decidedly Protestant at other moments in the play, as when he subsequently falls asleep holding a prayerbook (TLN 1440). 99 an if if. 103 esteem regard. 103 mortal foe. an opponent who will be thought beaten only when he or she is dead. 109 heart blood vital energy. 110 strain forth expend.
The History of King Leir (Modern)
Scene 6
467.1[Scene 6] [Video Sc.6]
Enter Gonorill and Ragan
Gonorill
Sister, when did you see Cordella last,
470That pretty piece that thinks none good enough
To speak to her because, sir-reverence,
She hath a little beauty extraordinary?
Ragan
Since time my father warned her from his presence,
I never saw her that I can remember.
475God give her joy of her surpassing beauty;
I think her dowry will be small enough.
Gonorill
I have incensed my father so against her
As he will never be reclaimed again.
Ragan
I was not much behind to do the like.
480Gonorill
Faith, sister, what moves you to bear her such good will?
Ragan
In truth, I think the same that moveth you:
Because she doth surpass us both in beauty.
Gonorill
Beshrew your fingers, how right you can guess.
I tell you true, it cuts me to the heart.
485Ragan
But we will keep her low enough, I warrant,
And clip her wings for mounting up too high.
Gonorill
Whoever hath her shall have a rich marriage of her.
Ragan
She were right fit to make a parson's wife,
For they, men say, do love fair women well,
490And many times do marry them with nothing.
Gonorill
With nothing! Marry, God forbid! Why, are there any such?
Ragan
I mean, no money.
Gonorill
I cry you mercy, I mistook you much.
And she is far too stately for the church:
495She'll lay her husband's benefice on her back
Even in one gown, if she may have her will.
Ragan
In faith, poor soul, I pity her a little.
Would she were less fair or more fortunate.
Well, I think long until I see my Morgan,
500The gallant Prince of Cambria, here arrive.
Gonorill
And so do I until the Cornwall king
Present himself to consummate my joys.
Peace, here cometh my father.
Enter Leir, Perillus, and others
505Leir
Cease, good my lords, and sue not to reverse
Our censure which is now irrevocable.
We have dispatchèd letters of contract
Unto the kings of Cambria and of Cornwall:
Our hand and seal will justify no less.
510Then do not so dishonor me, my lords,
As to make shipwreck of our kingly word.
I am as kind as is the pelican
That kills itself to save her young ones' lives,
And yet as jealous as the princely eagle
515That kills her young ones if they do but dazzle
Upon the radiant splendor of the sun.
Within this two days I expect their coming.
Enter Kings of Cornwall and Cambria
But in good time they are arrived already.
This haste of yours, my lords, doth testify
520The fervent love you bear unto my daughters,
And think yourselves as welcome to King Leir
As ever Priam's children were to him.
Cornwall
My gracious lord, and father too, I hope,
Pardon for that I made no greater haste,
525But were my horse as swift as was my will,
I long ere this had seen your majesty.
Cambria
No other 'scuse of absence can I frame
Than what my brother hath informed your grace;
For our undeserved welcome, we do vow
530Perpetually to rest at your command.
Cornwall
But you, sweet love, illustrious Gonorill,
The regent and the sovereign of my soul,
Is Cornwall welcome to your excellency?
Gonorill
As welcome as Leander was to Hero,
535Or brave Aeneas to the Carthage queen,
So and more welcome is your grace to me.
Cambria
Oh, may my fortune prove no worse than his
Since heavens do know my fancy is as much.
Dear Ragan, say if welcome unto thee;
540All welcomes else will little comfort me.
Ragan
As gold is welcome to the covetous eye,
As sleep is welcome to the traveler,
As is fresh water to sea-beaten men,
Or moistened showers unto the parchèd ground,
545Or anything more welcomer than this,
So and more welcome lovely Morgan is.
Leir
What resteth, then, but that we consummate
The celebration of these nuptial rites?
My kingdom I do equally divide.
550Princes, draw lots, and take your chance as falls.
Then they draw lots.
These I resign as freely unto you
As erst by true succession they were mine.
And here I do freely dispossess myself
555And make you two my true adopted heirs.
Myself will sojourn with my son of Cornwall
And take me to my prayers and my beads.
I know my daughter Ragan will be sorry
Because I do not spend my days with her.
560Would I were able to be with both at once:
They are the kindest girls in Christendom.
Perillus
I have been silent all this while, my lord,
To see if any worthier than myself
Would once have spoke in poor Cordella's cause,
565But love or fear ties silence to their tongues.
Oh, hear me speak for her my gracious lord,
Whose deeds have not deserved this ruthless doom,
As thus to disinherit her of all.
Leir
Urge this no more an if thou love thy life!
570I say she is no daughter that doth scorn
To tell her father how she loveth him.
Whoever speaketh hereof to me again,
I will esteem him for my mortal foe.
Come, let us in to celebrate with joy
575The happy nuptials of these lovely pairs.
Exeunt omnes; Perillus remains.
Perillus
Ah, who so blind as they that will not see
The near approach of their own misery?
Poor lady, I extremely pity her,
580And, whilst I live, each drop of my heart blood
Will I strain forth to do her any good.
Exit.

The History of King Leir (Modern)