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Line 1524 - Commentary Note (CN)

Commentary notes (CN):

1. SMALL CAPS Indicate editions. Notes for each commentator are divided into three parts:

In the 1st two lines of a record, when the name of the source text (the siglum) is printed in SMALL CAPS, the comment comes from an EDITION; when it is in normal font, it is derived from a book, article, ms. record or other source. We occasionally use small caps for ms. sources and for works related to editions. See bibliographies for complete information (in process).

2. How comments are related to predecessors' comments. In the second line of a record, a label "without attribution" indicates that a prior writer made the same or a similar point; such similarities do not usually indicate plagiarism because many writers do not, as a practice, indicate the sources of their glosses. We provide the designation ("standard") to indicate a gloss in common use. We use ≈ for "equivalent to" and = for "exactly alike."

3. Original comment. When the second line is blank after the writer's siglum, we are signaling that we have not seen that writer's gloss prior to that date. We welcome correction on this point.

4. Words from the play under discussion (lemmata). In the third line or lines of a record, the lemmata after the TLN (Through Line Number] are from Q2. When the difference between Q2 and the authors' lemma(ta) is significant, we include the writer's lemma(ta). When the gloss is for a whole line or lines, only the line number(s) appear. Through Line Numbers are numbers straight through a play and include stage directions. Most modern editions still use the system of starting line numbers afresh for every scene and do not assign line numbers to stage directions.

5. Bibliographic information. In the third line of the record, where we record the gloss, we provide concise bibliographic information, expanded in the bibliographies, several of which are in process.

6. References to other lines or other works. For a writer's reference to a passage elsewhere in Ham. we provide, in brackets, Through Line Numbers (TLN) from the Norton F1 (used by permission); we call these xref, i.e., cross references. We call references to Shakespearean plays other than Ham. “parallels” (//) and indicate Riverside act, scene and line number as well as TLN. We call references to non-Shakespearean works “analogues.”

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Notes for lines 1018-2022 ed. Eric Rasmussen

For explanation of sigla, such as jen, see the editions bib.

1524 A silence in the heauens, the racke stand still,	2.2.484

1726 Theon

Theon

1524 racke] Theobald (1726): “Tho’ all the Editions, that have fallen in my Way, write this Passage as the Editor does; I know no Sense, in which the Word Rack is ever used, that will serve the Purpose here. It must certainly be corrected, ‘A Silence in the Heav’n, the WRACK stand still,’ i. e. the Tempest; the Hurry, Confusion, and Outrage of the Elements: And so, in this admirable Passage of the Tempest, p. 60. ‘–––––––– Those our Actors, As I foretold you, were all Spirits, and Are melted into Air, into thin Air; And, like the baseless Fabrick of their Vision, The Cloud-capt Tow’rs, the gorgeous Palaces, The solemn Temples, the great Globe it self, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, And, like this insubstantial Pageant faded, Leave not a RACK behind!’ It must be corrected; ‘Leave not a WRACK behind!’ i. e. if I conceive the Poet’s Meaning rightly, not a Fragment, or minutest Particle, to shew that a Wrack has been.”

1743 mf3bl

mf3bl

1524 racke] mF3BL (1743, f. 7r): “i.e. the reek or scud.”

1766-70 mwar2

mwar2

1524 the racke stand still] Warner (1766-70): “Rack, i.e. the trace of a Cloud after it has been broken, and dispers’d by the Wind. vid. Tempest.”

1791- rann

rann

1524 racke] Rann (ed. 1791-): “—the figure depicted in a cloud.”

1826 sing1

sing1

1524 racke] Singer (ed. 1826): “The rack is the clouds, formed by vaporous exhalation.

Johnson has chosen this passage and one in Dryden of the same import to exemplify the word which he explains, ‘ the clouds as they are driven by the winds.’”

1856 hud1 (1851-6)

hud1

1524 racke] Hudson (ed. 1856): “For the meaning of rack see The Tempest, Act iv. sc. 1, note 16; also, 3 Henry VI., Act ii, sc. 1, note 4. H.”

1856b sing2

sing2=sing1

1856 Mitford

Mitford

1524 racke] Mitford (1856, p. 14), in a note on Beaumont & Fletcher, The Faithful Shepherdess: “A sea fog, which in cold evenings in spring, succeeding hot days, and accompanied with an east wind, rolls over the land, reaching some miles inland, is provincially called ‘a roke’—Suff. Gloss. MS.”

1869 Romdahl

Romdahl

1524 racke] Romdahl (1869, p. 28): “clouds. The following quotations and other similar passages make it very probable that Wedgwood may be right in supposing a close relation to the Icelandic reka (to drive); rek (drift, motion) 1). Thus it properly means, light clouds, driven on by the wind. The word is still in use in the northern counties. 2) ‘The winds in the upper region which move the clouds above, which we call the rack.’ Bacon. ‘Swifter than the sailing rack that gallops Upon the wings of angry winds.’ Beaum. And Fletcher. Compare 3. Henry VI. A. II. Sc. I, 27.”

1) See Wedgwood 3. p. 24. 2) Halliw. 2. p. 661.

1872 hud2

hud2

1524 racke] Hudson (ed. 1872): “Rack, from reek, is used by old writers to signify the highest and therefore lightest clouds. Thus, in Fletcher’s Women Pleased, iv.2” ‘Far swifter than the sailing rack that gallops upon the wings of angry winds.’ So that the heavens must be silent indeed, when ‘the rack stands still.’”

1872 cln1

cln1 ≈ romdahl

1524 the racke] "So Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum, cent. ii. 115: ’The winds in the upper region (which move the clouds above, which we call the rack, and are not perceived below) pass without noise.’ See Tempest, iv. 1. 156, and Anthony and Cleopatra, iv. 14.10."

1881 hud3

hud3 = hud2

1524 racke] Hudson (ed. 1881): “Rack, from reek, is used by old writers to signify the highest and therefore lightest clouds. So in Fletcher’s Women Pleased, iv.2” ‘Far swifter than the sailing rack that gallops upon the wings of angry winds.’ So that the heavens must be silent indeed, when ‘the rack stands still.’”

1899 ard1

ard1 ≈ cln1

1524 racke] Dowden (ed. 1899): “Dyce (Gloss.): ‘a mass of vapoury clouds.’ ‘The winds in the upper region, which move the clouds above (which we call the rack)’ (Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum, ii. 115).”

1934a cam3

cam3

1523-27 Wilson (ed. 1934): “This studied simile, so like Chapman in manner (cf. Bussy, 2. 1. 94. ff. ‘Then, as in Arden I have seen an oak’ etc.), is in diction pure Sh., e.g. the words ‘rack,’ ‘region,’ ‘hush’ (for wind or weather) are favourites of his; cf. Ado, 2.3.37-8 [(870-1)] ‘How still the evening is, | As hushed on purpose to grace harmony’; Temp. 4.1.207 [(1882)]; Oth.4.2.79. [(2775)]; John, 5.1.20. [(2187)]; Son. 102. 10.”