Notes for lines 0-1017 ed. Bernice W. Kliman
| 113 Of vnimprooued mettle, hot and full, | 1.1.96 |
|---|
1730 Bailey
Bailey
113 vnimprooued] Bailey (1730): to improve fr. Fr.: “to better, or make the best of; to promote or advance; to bring to greater Perfection; to make a considerable Progress in Arts and Sciences; also to grow more refined.”
Bailey
113 mettle] Bailey (1730): “[[in a Figurative Sense]] Fire, Briskness, Sprightliness, Vigour, as a Horse, or Youth of Mettle, &c.”
1747 warb
warb
113 vnimprooued] Warburton (ed. 1747): “Unimproved, for unrefined.”
1747- mtby4
mtby4
113 hot and full] Thirlby (1747-) conjectures “full, and hot” or “over-full”
1753 blair
blair = warb
113 vnimprooued]
1753 Edwards
Edwards: warb
113 vnimprooued] Edwards (1750 [3rd ed.], p.162) refers to Warburton’s “unimproved” as “unrefined” and adds: “Shakespear seems to use it for unproved. However that be, Mr. Warburton has fully convinced the world that refinement and improvement are two very different things.”
Nick gave me this one but I did not note that I checked it. I have yet to do Canons. I have 7th ed. Glossary 248.
1765 Heath
Heath ≈ warb
113 vnimprooued] Heath (1765, p.521): “That is, of uninstructed courage.”
1765 john1
john1 = warb +
113 vnimprooued mettle] Johnson (ed. 1765) “ ‘Full of unimproved mettle’ is full of spirit not regulated or guided by knowledge or experience.”
1774 gent2
gent2
113 vnimprooued mettle] Gentleman (ed. 1774): “Unimproved mettle—courage without conduct.”
gent1 does not have this note
1773 v1773
v1773 = john1
113 vnimprooued mettle]
1778 v1778
v1778 = v1773
113 vnimprooued mettle]
1785 v1785
v1785 = v1778
113 vnimprooued mettle]
1787 ann
ann = v1785
113 vnimprooued mettle]
1790 mal
mal = john1 minus warb
113 vnimprooued mettle]
1790- mTooke
mTooke:
113 vnimprooued mettle] Tooke (ms. notes in Malone, ed. 1790): “unblemished unreproved (unimpeached courage)”
1791- rann
rann
113 vnimprooued mettle] Rann (ed. 1791-) defines unimproved mettle as “inexperienced courage.”
1793 v1793
v1793 = mal
113 vnimprooued mettle]
1798 Tooke
Tooke: warb; Edwards; john; mal
113 vnimprooued mettle]
Tooke (1798, 1:165-6): <p.165>“To
improve (i.e. to censure, to impeach, to blame, to reprove) A word perpetually used by the authors about Shakespeare’s time, and especially in religious controversy. . . . </p. 165> <p.166>
“The expression in
Hamlet (Act
i. Sce.
i.)—‘Of
unimproved mettle hot and full’—ought not to have given Shakespeare’s commentators any trouble: for
unimproved means
unimpeached; though Warburton thinks it means ‘
unrefined’:
Edwards ‘
unproved;’ and Johnson (with the approbation of Malone) ‘
not regulated nor guided by knowledge or experience:’ and in his Dictionary he explains it to be ‘
not taught, not meliorated by instruction.’” </p. 166>
1803 v1803
v1803 = v1793
113 vnimprooued mettle]
1813 v1813
v1813 = v1803
113 vnimprooued mettle]
1816 Gifford
Gifford: v1813 without specific attribution +
113 vnimprooued]
Gifford (ed. Jonson, 1816, 1:88) says that
reprove in
Every Man in His Humour has the same sense as
improve, the word in the quarto text. “The commentators on Shakspeare do not understand this word. In
Hamlet, Horatio says of young Fortinbras, that he was ‘Of
unimproved mettle, hot and full,’ which is interpreted ‘full of spirit not regulated by knowledge.’ It means just the contrary.”
1819 cald1
cald1 = Johnson +
113 vnimprooued]
Caldecott (ed. 1819): <p. 7> “Unimpeached, unquestioned.
“The modern editors adopt the modern sense of this word ‘untrained or undisciplined.’ The verb,
improve, does not occur in many of our early dictionary writers, as Baret and Minshieu; and on its introduction it was used in the sense of ‘reprove, impute, or disprove.’ Mr. Tooke says, ‘it was taken from the French, who used it, and still continue to use it, in the same meaning: and that it was perpetually so used by the authors about Shakespeare’s time, and especially in theological controversy.’ ‘For ye fondely
improve a conclusion which myghte stande and be true.’— Declar. agt. Joye by Gardiner, Bish. of Winchester. ‘Ther did they worshyp it in their scarlet gownes with appes in hand, and here they
improved it with scornes and with mockes, grennynge upon her lyke termagauntes in a playe.”— Bale’s Actes of Eng. Votaries. Divers. Divers of Purley, 4to. 1798, I, 165. And he says the word here means ‘unimpeached,’ from the verb to blame, censure, &c. But the use of the word was certainly not appropriated to any one science. ‘Whiche thynge as I do not
improve, so I denye it to be necessarye,’ —Paynel’s Hutten ‘Of the wood, guiacum, that heleth the French Pockees.’ 12mo. 1533, c.7: Anesse, corya-</p.7> <p.8> cides, &c. none of the phisitions, that have any judgement,
improvethe, but they affirme these to be good.’ Ib.c.11. ‘Some forbidde washinges and all maner bathes, I thynke bycause they mollifie the sinowes and lose them, and yet they do not
improve sweatynges.’ Ib.c.26, p. 78.b. In all these instances the original, rendered
improve, is
improbo. Ulrick. Huttenus de Guiaci Medicina, Mogunt. 4to. 1520. Sir Tho. More, in his letter to H. VIII Mar. 1534, says, ‘Not presuming to looke, that his Highnes should any thyng take that point for the more proved or
improved, for my poore minde im so great a mater,’ Johnson, in his dictionary, instancing from Whitgift, points out this as the French use of the word. We now use the word
reprove, from the Lat.
reprobo, (whence we also take the verb and noun,
reprobate) instead of
improve. Of the counpound int he text,
unimprove, no instance has occurred in the above sense; and Dr. Johnson (as the word has been in use for the last century at least, and with a satisfactory sense) has interpreted it and it may be rightly, ‘not regulated or guided by knowledge or experience.’
“In Jonson’s Every Man in, &c. III.2. where Bobadil says ‘Sir, believe me on my relation; for what I tell you the world shall not reprove,’ —it is said [presumably by Gifford, above], in a late edition of his works, that the quarto edition of 1603 in this place reads improve. Hence, as well as from this use of it by Sir. Tho. More, it may reasonably be inferred, that it was know in this sense to our author.” </p. 8>
1821 v1821
v1821 = v1813
113 vnimprooued mettle]
1826 sing1
sing1: cald1 without attribution; john
113 vnimprooued] Singer (ed. 1826): “The first quarto reads, ‘Of inapproved.’ ‘Of unimproved mettle hot and full’; i.e. of unimpeached or unquestioned courage. To improve anciently signified to impeach, to impugn. Thus Florio: ‘Improbare, to improve, to impugn.’ The French have still improvver, with the same meaning; from improbare, Lat. Numerous instances of improve in this sense may be found in the writings of Shakspeare’s time. And yet Johnson explains it, ‘full of spirit, not regulated or guided by knowledge or experience,’ and has been hitherto uncontradicted.”
Ed. note: Singer’s last assertion is not true. See cald1.
1832 cald2
cald2 ≈ cald1, variants in magenta
113 vnimprooued]
Caldecott (ed. 1820): <p. 7> “Unimpeached, unquestioned.
“The modern editors adopt the modern sense of this word ‘untrained or undisciplined.’ The verb,
improve, does not occur in many of our early dictionary writers, as Baret and Minshieu; and on its introduction it was used in the sense of ‘reprove, impute, or disprove.’
Mr. Tooke says, ‘it was taken from the French, who used it, and still continue to use it, in the same meaning: and that it was perpetually so used by the authors about Shakespeare’s time, and especially in theological controversy.’ ‘For ye fondely
improve a conclusion which myghte stande and be true.’—
Declar. agt. Joye by Gardiner, Bish. of Winchester. ‘Ther did they worshyp it in their scarlet gownes with appes in hand, and here they
improved it witg scornes and with mockes, grennynge upon her lyke termagauntes in a playe.”— Bale’s
Actes of Eng. Votaries. Divers. of Purley, 4to. 1798, I, 165. And he says the word here means ‘unimpeached,’ from the verb to blame, censure, &c. But the use of the word was certainly not appropriated to any one science. ‘Whiche thynge as I do not
improve, so I denye it to be necessarye,’ —Paynel’s Hutten ‘
Of the wood, guiacum, that
heleth the French Pockees.’ 12mo. 1533, c.7: Anesse, corya-</p.7> <p.8> cides, &c. none of the phisitions, that have any judgement,
improve the, but they affirme these to be good.’ Ib. c.11. ‘Some forbidde washinges and all maner bathes, I thynke bycause they mollifie the sinowes and lose them, and yet they do not
improve sweatynges.’
Ib.c.26, p. 78.b. In all these instances the original, rendered
improve, is
improbo. Ulrick. Huttenus
de Guiaci Medicina, Mogunt. 4to. 1520. Sir Tho. More, in his
letter to H. VIII Mar. 1534, says, ‘Not presuming to looke, that his Highnes should any thyng take that point for the more proved or
improved, for my poore minde im so great a mater,’ Johnson, in his dictionary, instancing from Whitgift, points out this as the French use of the word. We now use the word
reprove, from the Lat.
reprobo, (whence we also take the verb and noun,
reprobate) instead of
improve. Of the counpound int he text,
unimprove, no instance has occurred in the above sense; and Dr. Johnson (as the word has been in use for the last century at least, and with a satisfactory sense) has interpreted it and it may be rightly, ‘not regulated or guided by knowledge or experience.’
“In Jonson’s Every Man in, &c. III.2. where Bobadil says ‘Sir, believe me on my relation; for what I tell you the world shall not reprove,’ —it is said [presumably by Gifford, above], in a late edition of his works, that the quarto edition of 1603 in this place reads improve. Hence, as well as from this use of it by Sir. Tho. More, it may reasonably be inferred, that it was know in this sense to our author.”
1839 knt1
knt1: Johnson; Gifford
113 vnimprooued] Knight (ed. 1839): “Johnson says ‘unimproved mettle’ is ‘full of spirit, not regulated or guided by knowledge and experience.’ Gifford affirms that the word ‘unimproved,’ here means ‘just the contrary.’ Improve was originally used for reprove.”
1843 col1
col1
113 vnimprooued] Collier (ed. 1843): “The quarto, 1603, reads inapproved, i.e. unproved; which may have been the true reading, but all the other quartos and folios have ‘unimproved.’
1844 verp
verp ≈ sing1 without attribution
113 Of vnimprooued mettle]
Verplanck (ed. 1844): “Of unimpeached or unquestioned courage; as, in Florio’s Dictionary—
‘Improbare, to improve, to impugn.
’”
1854 del2
del2 ≈ cald without attribution
113 vnimprooued] Delius (ed. 1854): “ein Muth, ein Feuer, das sich nicht schulen, nicht in die Zucht nehmen lässt.” [never having been taught, not having accepted training.]
1856 hud1
hud1 = sing1 without attribution
113 vnimprooued] Hudson (ed. 1856): “That is, unimpeached or unquestioned courage. To improve anciently signified to impeach, to impugn. Thus Florio: ‘Improbare, to improove, to impugn.’ The French have still improuver, with the same meaning; from improbare, Lat. Numerous instances of improve in this sense may be found in the writings of Shakespeare’s time.”
Ed. note: Hudson note continues in 115.
1856 sing2
sing2
113 vnimprooued] Singer (ed. 1856) re inapproved: “Thus the first quarto. The folio has ‘Of unimproved mettle hot and full. The reading of the quarto seems preferable, as the idea excited by young Fortinbras is of one animated by courage at full heat, but at present untried, —the ardour of inexperience.”
not = sing1
-1857 mStau
mStau: Homer
113 vnimprooued] Staunton (ms. notes in Knight, ed. 1857): “unimproved, i.e., unreproved [?] implausible? See Chapman’s Homer or insatiable p. 145. or perhaps unexperienced. See Homer p. 285.
1858 col3
col3 = col1
113 vnimprooued]
1860 stau
stau: mstau
113 vnimprooued] Staunton (ed. 1860): “By unimproved, unreproved, we apprehend is meant insatiable, ungovernable, as in Chapman’s ‘Homer Iliads,’ Book the Eleventh,— ‘—the King still cride, Pursue, pursue, And all his unreproved hands, old blood and dust embrue.’”
See mstau for page no.
1864 glo
glo: standard
113 vnimprooued] Jephson (ed. 1864, Glossary): “p.p. unreproved.”
1865 hal
hal = sing1
113 vnimprooued]
1868 c&mc
c&mc ≈ sing2 without attribution
113 vnimprooued]
Clarke &
Clarke (ed. 1868): “Here used for ‘untested by trial;’ ‘unpractised,’ ‘inexperienced.’”
1870 rug1
rug1
113 Moberly (ed. 1870): “The whole line is a genitive of quality, ‘a youth of full, hot, and undisciplined courage.’”
1872 cln1
cln1 ≈ Johnson without attribution; sing2 without attribution; cald discussion without attribution; Nares; stau
113 vnimprooued] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “probably means here ‘untutored,’ not chastened by the lessons of experience [john’s idea]. This sense seems to accord best with the context, ‘young,’ ‘hot,’ ‘full.’ Nares takes it to mean ‘unimpeached’; Staunton thinks that is equivalent to ‘unreproved,’ ‘unchecked,’ ‘ungovernable.’ The quarto of 1603 has ‘inapproved’.”
cln1
113 mettle] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “See our note on Macbeth, i. 7. 73.”
cln1 Mac. 1.7.73 (555)
113 mettle] Clark & Wright (1872, Mac. n. 1.7. 73): “This is the same word as ‘metal,’ and in the old editions they are spelt indifferently in either sense. In modern times the former spelling is reserved to the word in the metaphorical meaning, and the latter when it is used in its natural sense, but the two are sometimes so near together that it is difficult to distinguish between them.”
1872 hud2
hud2 ≈ hud1 (minus Florio) +
113 vnimprooued] Hudson (ed. 1872): “Numerous instances of improve in this sense may be found in the writings of Shakespeare’s time.”
113 vnimprooued]
Schmidt (1875): “not yet used for advantage, not turned to account, unemployed, unactive: [cites 113]. cf
Improve.”
1877 v1877
v1877: john, Gifford, Nares (via cln1 without attribution), sing1, sing2, stau, dyce, cln1.
113 vnimprooued]
Furness (ed. 1877): “
Dyce follows Gifford, and
Clarendon inclines to the definition of [
sing2],
untutored.”
1878 rlf1
rlf1= (via v1877
no doubt)
john; cln1;
rug; Schmidt (
minus 1st def.); Nares,
dyce2; Steevens Q1
113 vnimprooued]
1880 meik
meik ≈ rug for undisciplined without attribution; = cln1 for untutored without attribution
113 vnimprooued]
1881 hud3
hud3
113 vnimprooued] Hudson (ed. 1881) “is commonly explained unimpeaached, unquestioned; and so it appears, the word was sometimes used. But it may here mean rude, uncultured; since Fortinbras, as ‘like well to like,’ may well be supposed of a somewhat lawless spirit.”
hud3 ≈ Johnson
+ in magenta underlined
113 mettle] Hudson (ed. 1881): “in Shakespeare, is spirit, temper, disposition.”
1883 macd
macd standard
113 vnimprooued] MacDonald (ed. 1883): “not proved or tried. Improvement, as we use the word, isthe result of proof or trial: upon-proof-ment.”
1885 mull
mull ≈ rug; macd without attribution
113 vnimprooued] Mull (ed. 1885): “not proved, or undisciplined.”
1890 irv2
irv2: standard
113 vnimprooued] Marshall (ed. 1890): “untutored.”
irv2: cln1 +
113 vnimprooued] Marshall (ed. 1890): “Q.1 has inapproved, a very probable reading.”
1899 ard1
ard1 = cln1; = Nares; s&a from stau and cald without attribution; and further gloss ≈ sing2 without attribution
113 vnimprooued] Dowden (ed. 1899): “ . . . may possibly mean unrebuked or unimpeached.”
1903 rlf3
113 vnimprooued]
1905 rltr
rltr: standard
113 mettle] Chambers (ed. 1905): “spirit.”
1909 subb
subb : standard + in magenta underlined but part may be from an earlier ed. of dtn
113 Subbarau (ed. 1909): “Impelled by a rash and fiery spirit not checked and chastened by experience. The figure is from metal, expanding with heat and not condensed and tempered by cooling.”
1912 dtn3
dtn3: paraphrase contra john
113 Deighton (ed. 1912): “of fiery and full-blooded courage that has not yet been disciplined in action. . . . not ‘Full of unimproved mettle,’ but ‘(a man) of unimproved mettle which is hot and full.’”
dtn3 contra Dyce (Gifford) + in magenta underlined
113 vnimprooued]
Deighton (ed. 1912): “Dyce, following Gifford, gives ‘uncensured,’ ‘unimpeached,’ as the meaning of
unimproved, and no doubt ‘improve’ was formerly used as = reprove;
but Horatio is clearly disparaging Fortinbras, and while allowing him plenty of mettle, speaks of it as intemperate and untried. Cp. [H8 1.1.132 (203)], ‘anger is like a full, hot horse, who being allowed his way, Self-mettle tires him.’”
dtn3 ≈ cln1 without attribution
113 mettle] Deighton (ed. 1912): “only another spelling of metal, the former being used in a figurative, the latter in a literal sense.”
1917 yal1
yal1
113 hot and full] Crawford (ed. 1917): exceedingly ardent.
1929 adam
adam: standard on positive side
113 vnumprooued nettle] Adams (ed. 1929): “unreproved courage.”
1929 trav
trav: standard negative sense + Q1, which is ≈ to the positive gloss for umimproved.
113 vnimprooued]
Travers (ed. 1929) takes the negative meaning: “not truned to (better) use (cp.
to improve an opportunity) by self- (or other discipline.” He defines Q1
inapproved as “apparently m eant not put to the proof, not yet (in Elizabethan phrase) mettle
of proof.”
1931 crg1
crg1: standard on negative side
113 vnimprooued] Craig (ed. 1931): “not turned to account.”
crg1
113 hot and full] Craig (ed. 1931): “full of fight.”
1934 rid1
rid1g: standard
113 vnimprooued] Ridley (ed. 1934): “unproved(?)”
1939 kit2
kit2 ≈ Bailey without attribution
113 vnimprooued] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “unused. To improve anything often means to ‘utilize it,’ ‘put it to profitable use.’ Cf. ‘unimproved land,’ ‘unimproved real estate.’”
kit2 ≈ Bailey without attribution
113 mettle] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “high spirit, valour.”
1947 cln2
cln2 = cln1 +
in magenta underlined
113 vnimprooued] Rylands (ed. 1947): “unimprovéd: untutored, inexpert.”
1957 fol1
fol1 ≈ Heath without attribution
113 vnimpooued] Wright & LaMar (ed. 1957, rpt. 1963): “not otherwise profitably occupied.”
1957 pel1
pel1 = kit2 gloss without attribution
113 vnimprooued] Farnham (ed. 1957): “unused.”
1970 MED
MED
113 vnimprooued] Like the OED, MED “improven v. Also impreven. [From preven, proven; also cp. OF improuver to disapprove.] (a) To disprove, . . . refute; (b) to disapprove of, . . . reject."
[I quote w/o its accent marks The quotations are 15thc.]
1970 pel2
pel2 = pel1 = kit2 without attribution
113 vnimprooued] Farnham (ed. 1970): “unused”
1974 evns1
evns1: standard
113 vnimpooued] Kermode (ed. 1974): “untried (?) or not directed to any useful end (?).
Both definitions were available, the 1st from sing1 and the 2nd from kit (unused); what is unusual is the offering of two possibilities.
1980 pen2
pen2: standard
113 vnimprooued mettle] Spencer (ed. 1980): “vigour of mind and body uncultivated and unchastened by experience.”
1982 ard2
ard2: JC //; Skeat; ver; Nares
113 vnimprooued] Jenkins (ed. 1982) reviews the various ideas about the word, choosing “unrestrained” as his gloss.
1985 cam4
cam4: JC from ard2 without attribution
113 vnimprooued mettle] Edwards (ed. 1985): “undisciplined spirit (?).” He relies for guidance on its use in JC 2. 1. 159 (792), where improve means “put to good use.”
1987 oxf4
oxf4: //JC 2.1.158-60; MM 1.1.49
113 vnimprooued] Hibbard (ed. 1987) points out that this word is used only here by Sh. He glosses it “untried, untested. [. . . ]. Though admiting that there are other glosses, he likes untried because it creates a pun with mettle/ metal.
1990 OED
OED
113 vnimprooued] “ppl. a.2 Obs. - 1 [UN-1 + IMPROVE v.1] Unreproved, uncensured. 1602 SHAKS. Ham. I. i. 96 Young Fortinbras Of vnimproued Mettle, hot and full.”
1992 fol2
fol2 ≈ ard2 without attribution
113 vnimprooued] Mowat & Werstine (ed. 1992): “uncontrolled.”
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2: OED, Q1
113 vnimprooued mettle] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “untried or perhaps undisciplined spirit; ’untried’ allows for a pun on ’metal’ (see [1964]n.), and the assumption may be that Fortinbras is eager to prove his mettle. Shakespeare does not use unimproved elsewhere and OED lists this as a unique usage; Q1’s ’inapproved’ gives the easier meaning ’unproven’.”
113