=136=, 90-93. =And if Vespasian . . . groomes.= Cf. Suetonius, _Life of Vespasian_, Ch. 24. _Hic, quum super urgentem valetudinem creberrimo frigidæ aquæ usu etiam intestina vitiasset, nec eo minus muneribus imperatoriis ex consuetudine fungeretur, ut etiam legationes audiret cubans, alvo repente usque ad defectionem soluta, Imperatorem, ait, stantem mori oportere. Dumque consurgit, ac nititur, inter manus sublevantium exstinctus est._ =137=, 100-108. =And haste . . . dwellers.= An adaptation of Seneca, _Her. Oet._ 1518-1526: _O decus mundi, radiate Titan, Cujus ad primos Hecate vapores Lassa nocturnæ levat ora bigæ, Dic sub Aurora positis Sabæis, Dic sub Occasu positis Iberis, Quique ferventi quatiuntur axe, Quique sub plaustro patiuntur Ursæ; Dic ad æternos, properare Manes Herculem._ =137=, 110-111. =may . . . funerall:= may celebrate fittingly my unworthy end with such a funeral volley as it deserves. =138=, 135-40. =My sunne . . . bloud.= In these lines the _killing spectacle_, the _prodigie_, of l. 134, and its effect are described. Tamyra, the light of D'Ambois's life, with her reddened bosom and hands, is likened to a sun whose beams have turned to blood. So far the imagery is clear, but it is difficult to extract a satisfactory sense from what follows. What do _Pindus and Ossa_ symbolize, and what exactly does their _melting_ mean? This seems one of the few passages in the play which really deserve Dryden's stricture for "looseness of expression and gross hyperboles." =139=, 146. =struck.= The Qq, and all editors, read _stuck_, but the word seems inapplicable to a thunderbolt. The editor has conjectured _struck_, which, with a minimum of change, gives the sense required. =139=, 149 =Joine flames with Hercules.= Here the quartos of 1607 and 1608 contain the right reading. D'Ambois, who has met death in the spirit of Hercules (cf. ll. 100-108), is now to share his translation to the skies. For the description of Hercules as a star see Seneca, _Her. Oet._ 1564-1581. =142=, 211-14 =as . . . dies.= The reference is to the wax in the taper, which retains in its _savour_ the mark of its origin in the hive, till transient as life, it glances with the eye of a flame, and, so doing, expires. THE TEXT _The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois_ was printed in quarto in 1613 by T. S. for John Helme. No reprint appeared till 1873, when it was included in the edition of Chapman's Tragedies and Comedies published by J. Pearson. The text of the quarto was reproduced, with the original spelling and punctuation, but with a few errors. There have been two later editions in modernized spelling, and with slight emendations, by R. H. Shepherd in 1874, and W. L. Phelps in 1895.