she entertains

Cf. the line in the epigram from John Marston's "entertainment." Princess Volupine is the Niobe which offers Sir Ferdinand a cabinet, which is the poem of literary Venice we've seen thus far. Ferdinand in response reacts like King Claudius in Hamlet. Niobe was often associated with fallen Rome, "The Niobe of Nations", and thus is a suitable warning for the falling Vienna.

reference topics

Bleistein and Shylock
Structural analysis
back to "Burbank"