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IN GALLUM. XXIV. - Christopher Marlowe, The Works of Christopher Marlowe, vol. 3 (Poems) [1598]

Edition used:

The Works of Christopher Marlowe, ed. A.H. Bullen (London: John C. Nimmo, 1885). Vol. 3.

Part of: The Works of Christopher Marlowe, 3 vols.

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IN GALLUM. XXIV.

  • Gallus hath been this summer-time in Friesland,
  • And now, return'd, he speaks such warlike words,
  • As, if I could their English understand,
  • I fear me they would cut my throat like swords;
  • He talks of counter-scarfs,1 and casamates,2
  • Of parapets, curtains, and palisadoes;3
  • Of flankers, ravelins, gabions he prates,
  • And of false-brays,4 and sallies, and scaladoes.5
  • But, to requite such gulling terms as these,
  • With words to my profession I reply;

    10

  • I tell of fourching, vouchers, and counterpleas,
  • Of withernams, essoins, and champarty.
  • So, neither of us understanding either,
  • We part as wise as when we came together.

[1]Counter-scarps.

[2]Old eds. “Casomates.”

[3]Old eds. “Of parapets, of curteneys, and pallizadois.”—MS. “Of parapelets, curtens and passadoes.”—Cunningham prints, “Of curtains, parapets,” &c.

[4]“A term in fortification, exactly from the French fausse-braie, which means, say the dictionaries, a counter-breast-work, or, in fact, a mound thrown up to mask some part of the works.

  • ‘And made those strange approaches by false-brays,
  • Redwts, half-moons, horn-works, and such close ways.’

B. Jons. Underwoods.”—Nares

[5]Dyce points out that this passage is imitated in Fitzgeoffrey's note from Black-Fryers, Sig. E. 7, ed. 1620.